Adam J. Copeland

FPC Hallock

May 16, 2010

Hope for Resolution

Acts 16:16-34

This morning we held the last session of our four-week Presbyterian 101 class. Over the last few weeks, twenty or so of us have gathered on Sunday mornings to explore Presbyterian history, theology, polity, and worship. One of the reasons we held the class was because I — and many of you — sensed that it was a good time for us to consider again what it means to be Presbyterian. For some, our Presbyterian identity goes back many generations. For others, being Presbyterian is less historic — maybe it arose out of family compromise, or convenience, or for any number of reasons.

There’s at least two ways to approach a course like Presbyterian 101. You can teach things by saying, “All those other denominations are wrong. Here’s the right answer, the Presbyterian one.” Or you can say: “Here’s what some Presbyterians think, or have thought. So…what do you think today? Without being judgmental: how is God speaking to you at this moment?”

I bet it’s no surprise that I took that second approach. Our history and traditions are important and essential to our identity, but God is always doing new things with us out of those traditions. That phrase of the Reformation stays true: we are Reformed and always reforming according to the Word of God.

But if we were to think Presbyterians are somehow special in God’s eyes, today’s scripture readings remind us of our place. In fact, they even call into question denominations at all. As David Forney puts it: “God’s intention is that we may be one, as the triune God is one.” One — not many denominations, splitting over this and that. One in harmony with each other — not agreeing on all, but seeing the Spirit of God in each other. One, proclaiming Christ’s reign over all the world.

The great Hindu peace activist, Mohatma Ghandi said once, “I like your Christ, it’s your Christians I don’t like. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Sometimes, when we look around, we know exactly what Ghandi was getting at.

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Jesus had better hopes. In John 17 he said that those who believe in him are one with Jesus and the Father. Jesus addressed God saying, “The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one as we are one.” God’s goal, God’s best hopes for us are that we be one as the persons of the Trinity are one, living always in relationship.

The church has been working at God’s goal since the beginning. In Acts 16, we pick up with Paul and Silas still in Philippi, still dealing with issues of who’s in and who’s out of the church. Paul’s whole ministry, in fact, might be summed up by his phrase: we are one in Christ Jesus.

As God, through Paul, heals the possessed slave girl and ministers despite an earthquake at the jail, God is moving toward healing, wholeness: unity in Christ [again, with thanks to David Forney].

Last Sunday, we read the story of Paul meeting the women praying at the river outside the city gate. This week, Paul meets another women, but she’s in a very different state. Lydia, the seller of purple cloth, was the head of her household and ran a lucrative business selling rare purple cloth. But the girl in today’s reading isn’t given a name, and she, well, she’s a slave. The slave girl makes a great deal of money for her owners, because she has the “spirit of divination.” Or we might say today, she “can see spirits” — which doesn’t go over too well with Paul. In fact, Paul gets so annoyed with the spirit which possesses this girl, that he orders the spirit in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And it does. And Paul and Silas are instantly in some in hot water with the slave girl’s owners.

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But, before we take the story farther, let’s pause for a moment and consider the slave girl. Her situation leaves us with many unanswered questions. Presumably, she was treated well before she was freed of the spirit. And after it left her, who knows what her life became. She probably would not have been freed from slavery. Was she better off after Paul came through town? Did she ever long for the days when she was exploited, but at least drew some attention in town? We’ll never know. The writer doesn’t say.

But the movement of the whole passage is from lives disconnected from God, to lives of wholeness. She had been unable to control herself before, but now she could be at peace with her body and with her God.

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Have you ever had a burden lifted off of you that made you whole again? Or made a change in your life that made you feel God’s presence more clearly? Or maybe somebody else, with God’s help, lifted a burden from your shoulders that you couldn’t tackle yourself.

One summer a few years ago, I was a seminary intern at a church in Decatur, Georgia. Each week, the interns were given a list of folk in the congregation to visit, usually older folk, often widows, and we’d visit with them, have a prayer, share some time together.

One day I was about to head to another visit when the Associate Pastor caught me and said, “Oh, Adam. Are you seeing Mrs. Jones today?” I looked down at my list and found out I was. “Ok. Good,” he said, “and by the way. If she asks you to exorcise her demons, just say, ‘In the name of Jesus, come out.’ Have a good visit. I’ll be interested to hear how it goes.” Well, a bit confused and with plenty of apprehension, off I went.

Mrs. Jones lived in a group home not far away. She was well cared for, and happy. We visited for a while, and before too long, she did tell me about the demons that visited her each night–how they tormented her and told her she didn’t love Jesus. But she insisted that she did love Jesus, very much. And at the end of the visit, she asked me to pray for the demons to release her. I did. And I meant every word.

After that prayer, as I left, Mrs. Jones seemed at peace, comfortable again. A weight had been lifted from her shoulders. I didn’t see any demons leave her — I didn’t even really believe in demons — but I did see an old woman closer to God after prayer than before. I saw a woman at one with her Lord, made whole by prayer and the work of the Spirit.

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Today’s story continues, after Paul exorcized the demons, he and Silas were beaten and thrown in jail. That night, an earthquake struck and it was so powerful that it freed the chains of the prisoners. The guard, when he woke up and saw his ruined jail immediately figured the prisoners had escaped so he took up his sword to kill himself.

But, Paul and Silas hadn’t escaped. Sensing there was more to be done in that place, they had stayed put after the earthquake. Paul told the jailer, and dumbstruck, he asked, “What must I do to be saved?” They said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus” and explained the gospel. The jailer took them to his house, bound their wounds, and he and his entire family were baptized without delay.

The earthquake made an opportunity for Paul and Silas to be free, but they were already free in another sense. And they decided that their earthly freedom was not worth the life of the jailer. The jailer learned about another freedom, the freedom of the gospel. Paul and Silas saw in the jailer, not as a Roman to be exploited, but a child of God with whom they were one in the Spirit.

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Not too long ago, another man sat in prison, also for his beliefs. He believed the people of his country should not be separated by the color of their skin. He believed the few percent of the population that was white had no business undemocratically ruling his country with over 90% people of color. And so, Nelson Mandela, protested. In large part, out of his conviction in God, he called for freedom, for overthrowing the government by peaceful means.

Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years. He performed hard labor on a rock quarry. When he was finally released, he urged South Africans not to revolt, but to work for peace and reconciliation.

A few years later, Mandela was elected president. Knowing forgiveness was the only way South Africa would move forward, Mandela invited one of his former prison guards to his inauguration.

The last white president of South Africa, Charles De Clerk and the newly elected black president, Nelson Mandela, sat together, the prison guard nearby.

A anthem entitled, “Hope for Resolution” was composed for the occasion. In it, an African (Zulu) song used in the anti-apartheid movement is mixed, carefully, with the old European hymn “Of the Father’s Love Begotten.”

Talk about being one in Christ: a white children’s choir singing an ancient hymn composed in Latin, and a white adult choir joins in the old hymn. While an African choir sing in Xhosa, “Hush nation, do not cry, Our God will protect us. Freedom is coming, Our God will keep us safe.” Eventually, all the choirs sing all the words, in Xhosa and in English. Christ has set them free, and they are one in the Spirit. Thanks be to God, by whose power we are all made one.