THE SEVENTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

THE SEVENTH SUNDAY OF EASTER,

May 29, 2022

Let’s Meet Some Early Followers of the Way

Part Four: Paul and Silas “Freedom?” (Acts 16:16-34)

When you hear that word, “freedom” what feelings are evoked? The feeling you had as a child, on the last day of school, as you ran out the door, chanting: “no more school, no more books, no more teachers’ dirty looks.” The summer ahead appeared endless. The world was your oyster. The feeling you had on the day your cast was finally removed – no more hobbling around or trying to perform normally easy tasks with one hand. The day the doctor pronounced you fully recovered – your rehabilitation was complete; your treatment, behind you. No more weeks filled with medical appointments. Free, at last.

When you hear that word, “freedom”, what images come into your mind? Photos of freedom riders in the early 1960’s. These black and white student activists from the Congress of Racial Equality rode interstate buses in the United States to challenge illegal segregation both on board and in bus terminals. They faced threats and actual violence from angry members of the Ku Klux Klan. Scenes from the movie “Braveheart” of the thirteenth century Scottish rebel, William Wallace, shouting “freedom” even as his English executioners slowly, agonizingly put him to death. Or from the movie, “Cry Freedom” of the anti-apartheid activist, Steve Biko, resisting the efforts of government authorities to silence him, and of Donald Woods, the white journalist, who was forced to flee South Africa after attempting to investigate the death of his friend, Biko, in custody. Images from the recent Freedom Convoy – Canadian flags flying, signs waving, calling for an end to all vaccine mandates and covid restrictions, and the ousting of Trudeau.

Clearly, there are different understandings of freedom. Freedom as the right to do exactly what we want, when we want, regardless of the impact of our words and actions on anyone else. Freedom from foreign domination and/or from restrictions imposed by those in power on the basis of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation. Freedom to enjoy the fullness of life God would have for all God’s children.

The characters we meet in today’s story in Acts give us an opportunity to reflect on freedom and what it might mean for us today. First, we meet a slave girl – we are given no name, and no description to identify her age or race. This person is doubly enslaved: she is someone’s property with no freedom to determine where she lives or what she does; she also has a spirit of divination which compels her to trail after Paul and his companions, crying: “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” This happens not just on one occasion, but day after day.

We may find it difficult to put ourselves in her shoes: we are not slaves; we are not inclined to constantly shadow someone. But at times are we caught in a behaviour which is not life-giving? When I had a bad day at school – I was again chosen last for the baseball team; the mean girls made fun of my shoes; I blew my word in the spelling bee – I would come home and tell my Mom. She would listen patiently, and make sympathetic noises at all the right places. As I started to go over my troubles yet again, she would stop me: “That is enough. Time to change the topic.” In the moment, this could feel jarring. I wasn’t always ready to give up my whining. Looking back, however, I am thankful for her intervention and her words and voice that stay with me. It is easy to get so caught up in a cycle of belly aching that we fail to notice the good things in life. All we can do is complain about everything from the weather to politics to our family.

Like complaining, criticizing can be contagious. I have noticed this when I am hanging out with other ministers. If I say something critical, for example, about the worship service at the Regional annual meeting – why didn’t they choose more familiar hymns; what were they thinking when they selected that speaker – others will chime in with their own negative comments. Soon we are all spiraling down a deep hole, as much captives as the slave girl with her spirit of divination.

Paul becomes so annoyed by the slave girl’s behaviour that he decides to set her free from this spirit. She is no longer compelled to follow them through the streets, but she is still a slave, still subject to her masters. Listening to this story with our twenty-first century ears, we may notice: (A) Paul acts without asking this girl what she wants; he treats her as an object rather than a human being with a will of her own. (B) He doesn’t lift a finger to secure her release from slavery. He leaves her with owners who have lost the financial benefit of her soothsaying, and may take their anger out on her. Paul has set her free, but only partially. It is tempting to be hard on Paul until we recall that in his day, slavery was an accepted institution, just like, at one time, racial segregation on American buses, apartheid in South Africa and Indian Residential Schools in Canada. This was just the way things were. That might give us pause: what institutions and ways of behaving are we currently accepting that future generations will view as taking away an individual’s or group’s freedom?

Let’s shift our attention to Paul and his companions. While the slave girl describes them as “servants of the Most High God”, they appear to be free as they wander through the streets of Philippi. That is, until the slave girls’ owners take action. They are astute enough not to complain about their loss of income, but to suggest these foreigners are introducing Romans to strange and unlawful practices. This may be the first century, but the argument has a contemporary ring. Remember the bill passed by our Parliament in 2014: “Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices”, which implied that practices like early and forced marriage, polygamy and violence in the name of so-called honour are part of certain cultures and these cultures are barbaric?

The magistrates react to the complaint. Paul and Silas are stripped of their clothing and beaten – a punishment designed both to wound physically and humiliate emotionally. They are imprisoned in the most secure cell with their feet in stocks. Their bodies are securely bound. They have no hope of escape. Weeping and wailing, yelling and protesting might be the expected response. And yet, they are praying and singing. Are you familiar with the hymn, “My Life Flows On”? Listen to verse two: “What though my joys and comforts die? My Saviour still is living. What though the shadows gather round? A new song Christ is giving. No storm can shake my inmost calm, while to that Rock I’m clinging: since Love commands both heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing?” The Quakers who inspired this hymn knew persecution and hardship because of their faith. They were imprisoned, but their spirits remained free.

Paul and Silas have no freedom of physical movement, but their spirits soar. Miraculously, the prison doors are opened and their fetters unfastened. Note: everyone’s chains are broken; liberation is a communal act. As the American civil rights leader, Fannie Lou Homer declared: “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.” With the prison doors wide open, it would be natural for everyone to rush out, but they stay. Why becomes clear as we meet the third player in this drama, the jailer. On the surface, he unlike the slave girl and the imprisoned Paul and Silas appears to be free. He is not owned by anyone. His feet are not shackled. But look how he reacts when he thinks he has lost all his prisoners. He immediately moves to take his own life. Clearly, his boss is not the forgiving type. Individuals can seem to be free while being held captive. Perhaps, by demanding employers and in today’s digital age, by the expectation of 24/7 availability. Or by a family member requiring constant care or a spouse / partner who is controlling. Or in this time of soaring inflation, by the need hold down several jobs and the struggle to make ends meet. Or by a hidden addiction.

The jailer may look free, but he is not. In fear, he turns to Paul and Silas: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” He hears the good news of God’s love and is baptized. His life is turned upside down. He who was intent on keeping Paul and Silas tightly locked up now takes them to his own house to wash their wounds, and offer them a meal. He is set free from his compulsion to follow the orders of the magistrates. He is set free from any assumption that good Romans like himself should have nothing to do with Jews. He is set free to become like Paul and Silas, a servant of the Most High God.

In this world God loves, that word freedom is much bandied about. Could it be that true freedom lies not so much in doing whatever we want or in throwing off oppressive rule as in loving God, and serving our neighbour.