Paul and Silas

Acts 16:16–34 NRSV

One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave-girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.” She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour. But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, “These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe.” The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely. Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was an earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened. When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he supposed that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted in a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them outside and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They answered, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay. He brought them up into the house and set food before them; and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God.

My wife, Stacy, asked me a few days back about what I was preaching on this weekend. She does this occassionaly, especially when we’ve had a busy week and she’s not sure I’ve spent much time prepping. She keeps me honest.

I replied, “Paul and Silas.”

“Mmm, ok.”

I follow up: “Actually what do you think of when you think of Paul and Silas?”

Lots of different directions this answer could go…so I was genuinely curious.

She thinks for a moment, then, “Aren’t they in a song?”

I thought, “Huh, yes, I guess they are.”

My mind had been on the later part in the passage where Paul and Silas are singing hymns and praying and the earthquakes and they’re set free. I mean, that part is dramatic and powerful. I was thinking about what songs we might sing in jail, thinking about songs of freedom, songs of solidarity, songs of liberation.

But also, what about the simple children’s song? “Children, Go where I send thee!”

Children go, where I send thee, how shall I send thee? I’m gonna send you one by one, one for the little bitty baby, who was born, was born, was born in Bethlehem.

And then, verse two,

Children go, where I send thee, how shall I send thee? I’m gonna send you two by two, two for Paul and Silas One of the little bitty baby, who was born, was born, was born in Bethlehem.

There you have it. Paul and Silas, right there with the little bitty baby Jesus.

I decided, for the sake of research and insight, that I should do a close reading of this simple song, perhaps to unearth some gem or deep theological truth.

Going on, three Hebrew children, four gospel writers — ok, let’s unpack those.

I first thought of the Hebrew children as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You know, the Hebrew patriarchs. But no, not according to my sources (YouTube) — the traditional reading of the 3 children is that they are Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendego. Remember those guys? Book of Daniel, fiery furnace. They get thrown in because they wouldn’t bow the the Babylonian king or gods.

Four for the Gospel writers…pretty straight forward, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Five for the Gospel preachers: Now, it starts to get a little less clear at this point. Gospel preachers….well, since we’re in the book of Acts, could it be Peter, Stephen, Lydia, Barnabas, and Timothy? Maybe??

But it starts to break down…or, more accurately, the rhyming scheme seems to take over… Six that coulnd’t get fixed. Seven that came down from heaven. Eight who stood at the gate. Nine that were… so fine. Ten for the Ten Commandments — ok, that one’s a little bit more tuned to meaning, but come on, it doesn’t really rhyme well, does it? Eleven for the ones that came down from heaven…wait a second…that was the ones from 7, so what, do we have 18 who came down from heaven…I’m confused. Finally, it rounds out nicely with Twelve for the Twelve Apostles.

And there you have it. A close reading of “Go where I send thee,” one of the simple ways we know about Paul and Silas, sure.

I mean, that’s all good. We’re teaching children the names of some important folks from the mission of God. Is that all that this is for?

No, gratefully, there’s another simple, yet profound layer to the text. All of these people, named and unnamed, have something in common.

What is it?

It’s in the song.

They all have, in common, this reality: God sent them. These children of God are instructed…Go where I send thee.

This is the first big teaching that we have from our text. Paul and Silas have been sent by God to share the good news of Jesus Christ with the Gentile (non-Jewish) world. Go out to the streets, the plains, the cities, the margins and tell of the good news.

Let’s pull this right into the here and now for a moment: We, too, are sent by God. God has sent you to be an ambassador of God’s love, into your daily life, your work, your family, your community. We believe that God sends us — to bear the word of the Good News to a hurting world.

Do you believe this? God has sent you. Or perhaps, in this context of us gathering together right now, do you believe that God has brought you here? I do. We collectively do.

We believe that God sends us out among the world to love and share the good news. Paul and Silas are following this calling.

In our story for today, they’ve come to a place of prayer, in an unnamed town, but general understood to be in Asia Minor, near or in the vicinity of Philippi, where there is a church plant.

They visit the place of prayer…or we should more acccurately say, they are sent to this place of prayer, and they encounter a slave girl who is being used for her gifts in divination. A clairvoiant, a young woman with a gift of sight. From the reading, it sounds like she’s being used for profit by some men. We don’t get a whole lot more, but in our modern context, we’d say this woman was probably being trafficked, held against her will, perhaps drugged, and perhaps used in other ways for profit.

Why would God send Paul and Silas to her?

Here’s the second big point we find in this text: God sends us, AND, God sends us to set captives free! This whole passage is truly about being set free — and it is God’s people who do that work, through Christ’s power, to liberate and set others free.

Now, of course, the traffickers don’t like that Paul and Silas have opened this woman’s eyes. She announces, to an annoying point apparently, that these men are the truth-tellers, the salvation bringers, the Jesus followers.

The woman is set free!

And Paul and Silas are arrested because they just took a big financial cut away from the men who had been using the divining woman.

God sets captives free. God sets slaves free. God sets the broken hearted free. God sets the prisoner free. Amen.

But, if God has sent Paul and Silas for this purpose, why aren’t they protected from arrest, from jail?

This leads us to a third, crucial teaching from our text. Being the sent ones, the ones who set captives free, well…it has consequences.

As well, this week Stacy and I were discussing an article that appeared, I believe, in the Atlantic, about the rise of shoplifting as a form of “protest” against the evils of large corporations. Basically, there is currently a statistical rise in shoplifting and many see this as a way they can “stick it to the man.” But the reality the journalist proposed is that while this might feel good, making a microagression against the unseen evils of captialism and wealth, it actually is a weak, and ultimately futile act. Why? Because the risk of arrest and punishment is relatively low. And, it’s a private act, not seen and therefore no true statement of criticism of the wealthy or resistance movement can form, because it’s not done out loud.

Just because you key the car of someone you don’t like, doesn’t mean it’s gonna change that situation.

So, our third teaching is that when we go to where God sends us, we might find ourselves in trouble. We might get arrested or fined or whathaveyou, because when we are sent to set captives free and proclaim the Lord’s jubilee of restitution and freedom, the powers that be don’t like it. And they rear their heads.

Makes me think of, in contrast, the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego once more. Their resistance to worshipping Babylon’s gods was public and costly. They knew the penalty would likely be death by fiery furnace. There would be consequences and they were ready to receive them.

So it is that Paul and Silas receive their comeuppance. They’re thrown into jail for distrupting the economic standing of the powerful men of the town. Oops. Well, that’s actually a pretty common response when you poke the bear, prod the evil one.

God sends us. God uses us to liberate others. And there are consequences for those actions, especially by worldly standards.

I’m not sure how many of you know the name Shane Claiborne, but Shane is a Christian activist, writer, and speaker. I’ve met him a couple of times, he’s a super tall dude with a nice southern drawl and long hippy dreadlocks. He focuses on economic justice in the area of Philadelphia, where for years he’s fostered Christian community and led in faithful resistance movements to combat inequality.

Shane and his friends seem, like their forebears of liberation and civil rights before them, that bearing witness to God’s way of freedom is costly. Civil disobedience, done in public, like praying to end the war in Iran on the floor of the DC rotunda, or gathering at the steps of the Supreme Court to stand in silence and solidarity. These are actions that publically declare the injustices of the world and are willing to take the consquences for such protest.

Children, go where I send thee.

Paul and Silas followed this charge: They went.

As an aside, you notice who’s not in the lists in the song? Jonah. Just last week the Jonah and the whale story came up in the daily Scripture readings. You know who didn’t go where God sent him? Jonah. At least not right away. He fled. God said Go and Jonah said no (as one of my child’s bible’s reads).

God sends us to set captives free. And there are consequences. We’d rather avoid those consequences. We might much rather flee in the other direction.

But…God is faithful to us, to the end.

Let’s finish Paul and Silas’ story — remember, they’re arrested and imprisoned. They have to live with the consquences for their actions.

I believe there is a profound truth at the end of this story that we must hear and take into ourselves.

God sends us. To liberate others. We might get in trouble. And, in our troubles, joy and peace are found.

It’s dark, late at night. You’re in prison in a foreign town. You know you broke the law. Many of us would feel despondent, hopeless, in a moment like this.

But something different happens in us when we follow God’s leading. Sure the walls are thick. Perhaps tomorrow we’ll be sentenced to death.

But in the darkness, in the solitude, in the prison cell — the Joy of God rises.

Because you know what happens: Paul and Silas start singing. Hymns, psalms, prayers rise!

“Aren’t Paul and Silas from a song?”

Children, go where I send thee.

If you or I were imprisoned for sharing God’s love, might I suggest this as a prison song.

Or what else might you sing? Black civil rights leaders would sing hymns and spirituals. Would we pray, would we lift our hearts in joy?

God sends us. To liberate others. There are consquences. And God’s joy is faithful, through it all. And that joy rises in those who know that calling, that love, for themselves. Like Paul and Silas.

I’ll close with a simple example: I recently saw, on Instagram, I think, that Shane Claiborne and a number of other activists were arrested for a public protest in DC. And he posted a video from the police van, as they are all being transported, with hands cuffed behind their backs. It’s a group of about 6-8 adults, young and old. And you know what they’re doing in the van as they ride off to be booked? They’re singing. Songs of freedom, songs of hope, songs of liberation.

Friends, we will face resistance if we live this liberating Gospel out. If we go where God sends us, we might get into a little trouble. But the amazing, life-changing truth of God’s story is that God is faithful, with us through it all.

I’m not guaranteeing an earthquake if you get arrested and start to sing. But, what Paul and Silas show us is that God’s faithful joy is with them, unto the end.

I love their interaction with the prison guard, who is absoluetly beside himself at these events. He’s considering taking his own life, for fear of the consequences he’ll receive because of this jailbreak.

And, because God is faithful, Paul and Silas use this opportunity to offer the love and grace they know, offer it to this distraught prison guard. They do this from the deep assurance that God is in control and will save them.

Wow, this is powerful stuff.

God sends us. So where is God sending you in this stage of life?

To liberate others. How are you uniquely gifted to help others be set free? Is it through your presence, your training, your prayers?

And there will be consequences. Evil will resist this way of liberation and life. Are we ready to bear these blows, knowing that Christ is with us?

And where is joy bubbling up in you? When you know you’re doing what God has sent you to do, what spring of joy and song and life do you find? What are your freedom songs? What do you sing in the face of resistance? Who will we be?

Children, God is sending you and me to love this world and share the Good News. May we go, confidently, where God sends us, all for the glory of God’s good news of freedom.

Amen.