May 8, 2016 Sermon: "The Hard Thing"

Stephen Baldwin

NT: Acts 16.16-40

The Hard Thing

            A husband and wife are driving down the road on vacation.  “Careful!” the wife says, “You almost hit the sign!  Speaking of which, the speed limit is 35. Slow down!  Is that a Target over there?  Turn around.  Not there, it says no left turns!  That’s a curb you’re about to hit…”

            The husband stops the car and says, “What’s is going on today?”  His wife replies, “I wanted you to know how it feels when you bust in the kitchen right before dinner and play chef. 

            Whether you’re driving or cooking, it’s dangerous to be doing too many things at once.  When your attention is drawn in a dozen different directions, you’re likely to miss a thing or two along the way. 

            The same is true of today’s passage from Acts.  So much is happening at one time that I think we need to take it slowly, verse by verse.  Let’s begin.

            Verse 16.  The “we” here is a group of early Christian leaders: Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke, who is thought to be narrating the story.  They’re fresh off the Greyhound after traveling to town on a missionary journey.  Philippi was a Roman territory, so they’re still in Roman lands.  They meet a young slave girl who is someone’s slave.  She apparently had an above-average connection to the Big Guy Upstairs and, like all the most famous televangelists, they turned that into quite the cash cow.  She told people their fortunes and they paid her owner in Roman coin. 

            Verse 17.  When she saw Paul and his rag-tag group of missionaries, she immediately knew they were different and latched onto them like kids on an ice cream truck.  She screamed out for everyone to hear, “God sends them here to save you!”  Keep in mind these locals trust the woman, so when she speaks people will listen. 

            Verse 18.  But poor ol’ Paul, even though she sees their true and decent intent, doesn’t know how to have a good time and gets annoyed with her.  He commands the spirit who gives her such a good connection to leave, and it does. 

            Verse 19.  Paul may be feeling better, but the women’s employers are not.  They’ve just lost a huge chunk of change.  Out of revenge, they drag Paul and Silas to the judges.  (Luke and Timothy must have been out playing golf.) 

            Verses 20-21.  Isn’t it funny how people change their stories?  The slave-owners don’t say why they really brought Paul and Silas to the judge.  They really came because Paul and Silas interrupted their business.  They got in their pocketbook.  But instead of just saying that, which might make them sound…greedy, they make up some story about them disturbing the Roman peace.  They say, “These foreign men have come into our country and disrespected our way of life!”  Now that will preach in any society, won’t it!  There’s a powerful sermon in their greed masked as hate, but that’s not the sermon today.  We need to keep on marching, for the story is far from over. 

            Verses 22-23.  Everybody went along with the story, so it must have been more acceptable to be a racist than a millionaire.  Paul and Silas were beaten mercilessly.  Do you know what a flogging is?  I could tell you, but you don’t want to know.  It’s brutal.  And violent.  A lot like lynching.  And they should’ve gone to a hospital, but instead they’re taken to jail, locked up, and ordered under supervision. 

            Verses 24-25.  For all they’ve been through, Paul & Silas show remarkable resilience.  In spite of their pain, they push through by praising God, singing hymns and saying prayers.  There’s another great sermon in that moment.  No matter what you’re going through, perhaps especially when times are toughest, praise God.  Count your blessings, name them one by one!  That’s a great sermon, but that’s not this one.  The story is about to take a dramatic turn.

            Verse 26.  God enters the scene, and God is clearly not happy with what has happened in this Philippian town.  After the earthquake, Paul and Silas are no longer shackled or caged.  But they don’t go anywhere.  Why not run?  Perhaps they couldn’t after their beating.  Or perhaps they had more work to do.

            Verse 27.  The poor man is ready to commit suicide.  He sees the open doors and assumes that means the prisoners, which he had been personally assigned to oversee, escaped.  If he follows through with this, it will only make a bad situation worse. 

            Verses 28-29.  Paul and Silas hadn’t left after all, and they selflessly stopped the man.  It would’ve been in their best interest to let their jailer kill himself, but they would do no such thing.  This man was a child of God, and our God has no interest in bloodthirsty revenge.  There’s a great sermon there.  The man who had just been their jailer now was their disciple.  But the story’s not through yet.

            Verses 30.  Why would he bring them outside?  The door’s already open.  The shackles are already off.  I think it’s because they couldn’t walk on their own.  They’d been beaten mercilessly by the same man who now aided them.  The same man who now wants to know how he can be saved? 

            Verses 31-34.  In the middle of the night, the jailer takes his own prisoners to his own house filled with his own family.  They tend their wounds, and the disciples invite them into the Christian life.  And they were all baptized.  Together.  At night.  After an earthquake.  In spite of legal recourse.  And then they ate. 

            Verses 35-36.  Well, that deescalated quickly, didn’t it?  This is all going to end quietly after all that fuss. Or is it? 

            Verse 37.  Paul studied the law.  He knew they’d been beaten and imprisoned without legal cause.  He wasn’t satisfied with simply being freed after being wronged; he wanted those responsible to have to publicly admit their wrong by escorting the missionaries out of town. 

            Verses 38-40.   So they did as Paul requested.  They escorted him and Silas out of town. 

            What are we to make of this story of slaves and earthquakes and violence and salvation?  As I’ve said, there are many sermons in this story, but what speaks to me most on this Mother’s Day, is what connects it all.  Each character in the story, at one point or another, does the hard thing.  The right thing.  Even if it costs them something. 

            The servant girl who tells the truth.  Paul and Silas who save the jailer.  The jailer’s family who cares for the prisoners.  The authorities who admit their mistake.  Everyone in the story faces at least one impossible situation, decides to do the hard thing, and faces the consequences even at their own expense. 

            That sticks out to me today especially, because that is what mothers do.  That is what grandmothers and aunts and church ladies do.  They do the right thing, even if it’s the hard thing.  May we be inspired by their example this day and always.  Amen.