It
doesn’t take a bloodhound to follow the money in today’s lesson from the Acts
of the Apostles. Paul and Silas are making their way through Philippi, when a
slave girl with powers of divination sees them and announces to everyone within
ear-shot that these two men are “slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to
you a way of salvation.”
For some
reason, this really annoys Paul, even though this is exactly why they came to Philippi in the first place! Maybe Paul does not believe in advertising, or
maybe her words disrupted whatever his plans were. Whatever! Paul stops and
performs an exorcism that silences the girl and frees her from demonic
possession.
As great as it was for the woman to be healed, her
owners were nonetheless very unhappy. Remember—follow the money! The slave woman’s abilities
were a lucrative source of income which is now, thanks to Paul's exorcism, gone! So, they have Paul and
Silas locked up.
Follow
the money… and you’ll discover where people’s hearts are all the time. Here a woman
is restored to wholeness, healed from her demon, and freed from slavery, and
all anyone cares about is the money!
I pause
here to note that you never seem to hear the religious charlatans throughout
the ages, who love to take people’s money under revival tents or on television
screens talking about this passage. But I digress.
When Paul
and Silas are thrown into jail, they pray and sing hymns all through the night, when
all of a sudden an earthquake hits and causes the prison doors to pop open! The
jailer assumes that the prisoners must have all fled and is about to take his
own life, when Paul stops him from harming himself, saying, “Look! We are all
still here!”
What
frees Paul and Silas, and what will lead others to faith, is not the money but
an earthquake. It is not the idea of sudden riches that changes hearts, but the
awareness that God is present to us even at the moments that shakes us down to
our very souls.
The
sudden terror of the earthquake, and the guard’s fear of being blamed for even
a failed jail break, gives way to the recognition that these Christians are
truly care for him. He is astounded by Silas’ and Paul’s compassion for him, their
jailer. Before you know it, the jailer and his family are baptized and are added
to the ever growing church described in the Book of Acts.
In John’s
gospel today, Jesus is praying. It is Maundy Thursday, the night before his crucifixion.
He knows he has been betrayed. He knows he faces execution at the hands of the
Roman Empire. Oddly enough, Jesus never follows the money, even as one of his
followers is bribed to betray him. No, instead of worrying about himself and
what lies ahead Jesus prays for his disciples. And he prays not only for his immediate
group of followers and friends, but he prays for all of us. Jesus prays, “… on
behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be
one. … So that they may be one, as we are one.”
Jesus is taking
the long view. He is looking far, far ahead as he prays for you and for me, and
for every Christian in every place and in every time.
Jesus’
prayer for us meets up with the prayer that makes up the final words of Holy
Scripture: “Come, Lord Jesus!” In the Book of Revelation, the Spirit and the
bride say, “Come.” But the prayer is also invitation. Let everyone who hears
say, “Come.” And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who would take
the water of life as a gift from God come. The prayer is not only that Jesus
will return to us, it is also a prayer—and an invitation—that we will come to
him! Come, Lord Jesus!
I don't know about you, but I am very grateful for Jesus' prayer for us, especially these past few week which have rough indeed!
I think that we are
living through one of those pivotal moments when we wonder if it is possible to
hear the voice of God. Between successive mass shootings, in a grocery store, in
a church, and in a school, and the apparent helplessness of our leaders to come
to useful solutions, not to mention the Monday-morning quarterbacking by people
who weren’t there, or who playing to their constituencies, it is clear that
today, we are a people who are feeling very thirsty, very hurting, and very
lost.
And you know what is
really troubling to me? That there are good people of good faith who won’t even
come together to talk to each other constructively about how to address this
because they fear the people with the money. We are left looking on as our
corporate wheels spin as we bury our dead.
You know what we learn
when we follow the money? That we are as a culture spiritually thirsty.
Never has Jesus’
invitation in the Gospel of John more important—and more needed!
As Jesus’ people, we
hold the pitcher of living water. Can we invite the thirsty to come? Are we
willing to let “anyone who wishes” to take the gift of the water of life? Can
we find ways to listen and dialogue and problem solve together without falling
into our silos of blame, shame, and fear?
I worry that too often
the Church mimics the world’s division and pain instead of ministering to it. The
truth is that the world is in too much pain to keep doing this. We can no
longer continue to hold people – faithful, seeking people – at arm’s length
from the waters of life! Now is the time to open the floodgates of God’s
unconditional love and mercy!
The time is now to cry
out with one voice, as John the Divine does in Revelation when he implores Jesus
to come! Revelation shows us a picture of the world where God is in charge and
all people everywhere who are gathered before Christ are loved, known, valued,
and cherished, and where our petty differences fall away before the throne of
the Lamb.
The
invitation on this Last Sunday of Easter is to allow ourselves to be shaken
open by the Holy Spirit, just as the earthquake opened the doors of the prison
in Philippi, and loosed the chains on all those in the prison. More than that,
we are called to be the earthquake that opens people’s hearts and loosens their
shackles holding them in fear that turns into anger and rage. The world is in
desperate pain and too many hurting people are deeply thirsty for hope, direction, presence, and love.
In
Christ, through our faith and baptism in the Spirit’s power, we are unbound,
our shackles have dropped away, we are shaken loose so that we might be a word
of hope and comfort to those who are those people who make the waters of life, the
waters of God’s unconditional love and mercy, truly and honestly available to
all persons.
The first words of the Bible are “In the beginning God…” and the last words in the Bible are “Come, Lord Jesus!” We are created to be God’s people in God’s world, and we are sent into a hurting world to proclaim, baptize, and teach the love of Christ, hearing and meet the deep longing of all the people God has given us. And the best part is that the prayer we prayer has already been answered. The promise of the Ascension is that Jesus is with us, even through all the troubles and uncertainties we experience. He is always with us … even to the end of the age... ready to quench our deepest thirst!
As we pray, so we affirm: Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!
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Here is a link to the bulletin for the Seventh Sunday of Easter at St. John's Episcopal Church, Clearwater
Here is a link to the Scripture readings for 7 Easter C.
Here is a link to a video of the sermon.
Here is a link to a video of the liturgy.
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