"Freedom Stories"

Acts 16:25-34

Sermon by Rev. Caela Simmons Wood

First Congregational UCC, Manhattan, KS 

May 15, 2022

The scripture lesson from Acts today is part of a larger story that’s filled to the brim with plot. If you take out your Bible and look just before where we started today, you’ll get the backstory on why Paul and Silas are in prison. 

They’re in Philippi and a girl who is enslaved because she is possessed with a spirit of prophecy is following them around town, shouting out that Paul and Silas are “slaves of the most high.” After several days of this, Paul gets annoyed and casts the spirit out of her. We’re not told what this means for her future - what will her enslavers do with her now that her money-making skill is gone? Will she be freed or further exploited in even more heinous ways? We don’t know. 

We do get introduced to an angry crowd and magistrates who make no secret of their disgust for Paul and Silas – calling them outside agitators and sneering at their religion. It seems their main crime is their identity as Jews. Without any kind of trial, they are beaten severely, locked in jail, and shackled. 

Once the scene moves to the jail, we are introduced to more characters. 

 

There are other prisoners – we don’t learn much about them; there is the jailer who becomes suicidal upon learning that the prison has been broken open by the earthquake; and finally, you have the jailer’s family members who are all baptized alongside him at the end of the story.

 

I mean, really – how many sermons could we find in this one story? It is absolutely rich with characters, images, plot, and plenty of ideas about what it means to be a follower of Christ.

 

One of the things that comes up over and over again is the issue of what is means to be free and what it means to be enslaved.

 

The story opens with an enslaved girl who calls Paul and Silas slaves. After freeing her from her possession by a spirit, Paul and Silas become captives themselves – shut up in prison they are Jews.

 

And it’s not just the obvious places that this theme trickles through the story, either. We also see that even the jailer – the one who holds the keys  – is not free himself. He is bound up by his fear that he will be killed if his prisoners escape. Even the jailer asks for freedom in the end, asking Paul and Silas, “what must I do to be saved?”

 

It seems that everyone in this story is seeking freedom. Freedom from demons and captors, freedom from anti-Semitism, freedom from a brick and mortar jal, freedom from expectations, freedom from fear and oppression.

 

Paul and Silas may have been the only ones praying and singing hymns to God at midnight, but it’s easy to imagine any character in this story longingly singing freedom songs. 

 

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And in this story, there is one character that breaks in time and time again, working towards greater freedom.

 

The author of Acts makes it clear to us that God is the source of freedom for everyone in this story. God breaks into their world in weird and wonderful ways to keep urging humans towards liberation.

 

It turns out that the enslaved girl had it right all along, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.” God desires salvation – freedom from captivity – for all - those who are in jail and those who put people in jail.

Stories like this one remind us that our God is always drawing us towards liberation for all people - the people who look like us and the ones who don’t, the people who make all the big decisions in our society and those on the margins, the people we like and the people we can’t stand. 

This story is, of course, not a one-off. The overarching theme of our entire Bible is freedom. Jewish Biblical scholar Amy Robertson highlights the similarities between this story and the Exodus: (1) 

In both stories freedom and enslavement loom large.  In the Exodus story, the people aren’t set free so they can simply do whatever they want. They are set free so they can become servants of God. We hear echoes of that in the enslaved girl’s proclamation that Paul and Silas are “slaves of the most high God.” No longer enslaved to empire or exploitative systems that see humans as cogs in a money-making machine, but servants to a God of love and justice for all. 

In both stories, of course, people are enslaved because of their identities. The Israelites are in bondage because of their religious and ethnic identity just like Paul and Silas.

In both stories we see the importance of worship. The Israelites sing songs and play tambourines and dance at the edge of the Red Sea. Paul and Silas pray and sing hymns to God in the jail.

In both stories, freedom comes through miraculous acts of nature. The Red Sea parts for the Israelites. And in Philippi it’s an earthquake that throws open the prison doors and breaks open the prisoners’ chains. 

And, of course, both stories end with rejoicing and freedom. The Israelites sing and dance with joy after crossing the Red Sea. And Paul and Silas receive the care of the jailer, sharing their witness for Christ with him, and baptizing him and his entire family. 

In both stories, God is able to work through imperfect humans. Who can forget Moses saying, “Who, me? You want me to be the one to lead your people to freedom?” It’s not always smooth sailing for Moses. He doesn’t get it all right. 

And Paul is….well, Paul. He sets this whole thing in motion with a rash decision made out of frustration. He doesn’t seem to have any kind of noble goal when he casts out the spirit from the enslaved girl. Instead, he’s just annoyed that she’s been following them around for days on end. 

I wonder and worry about the girl. The ramifications of Paul’s impulsivity impact her deeply. What happened to her?  Was she pressed into a different, perhaps more dangerous, kind of slavery? We’re not told. The very human, imperfect authors didn’t think to follow her story. But we trust that God did. And that God continued to be present with her, knew her name, and continued to seek her freedom and well-being. 

Where are the places where people are crying out for freedom today? It might be obvious - people behind literal bars. Or more subtle - people trapped by unjust laws and bigotry. There are people who are stuck in the shackles of an economic system that oppresses and harms. People who are trapped by violence. People struggling with health issues of all kinds, including mental health and addiction. 

There are people all over the world seeking freedom, of course. But also people in our community. And people in our congregation. So many of us are held in the grips of one thing or another and you can’t necessarily see all of that just by looking at a person, right? 

To those who are stuck, trapped, locked up, locked down, unfree - hear these words of good news: our God is a God of liberation. Our God is always seeking freedom for all people. Not just in big, sweeping stories like Exodus and Acts, but in quiet moments that may be private, undocumented. 

Thanks be to our God of liberation. 

May we be on the lookout for the forces that are moving towards freedom in our midst. 

May we be a part of creating a world where all can seek liberation. 

May we rejoice, in gratitude, as we received the freedom God offers us all.

Come with tambourines and hymns at midnight, God. 

Come with gushing waters and shake our foundations.  

Come and build a world of peace and justice for all. 

And make our hands useful as your servants. 

Amen. 

NOTES:

[1] This week’s Bible Worm podcast.