The Word Does the Work
Exploiters, Expoloited and Employees Just Doing Their Job
* I have the habit of taking a manuscript or notes with me to preach. In many instances, the sermon preached is different, sometimes quite different, than the manuscript or notes. This is one of those occasions. I offer both.
John 17:20-26; Acts 16:16-34
We are nearing the end of our series for Eastertide, the Season of Easter, Jesus Changes Everything. We aim to notice how the Word, the Living Word of God, does the work so that we may recognize it as the work of God when our words become the Word of God by the Spirit of God. And, the Word that does the Work is Jesus.
Pastoral Prayer: Holy Father, the Apostle Paul didn’t fool around. When it was not clear that Jesus changes everything, the Apostle Paul repeated what Jesus did by the power of Your Spirit. An exploited girl and a blue-collar employee were changed by an event that ruptured the economy of a few. Remind us in these events that the words You give us become Your Word that continues to change everything. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, Our Rock and Our Redeemer. And all God’s people say, Amen.
If you haven’t spun an LP album backwards on a turntable, you haven’t lived. And if you have never listened to Christian Comedian Mike Warnke, then you have been saved from years of recovery.
After barnstorming the country with tales that stirred the imagination and a comedic routine that masked his grifting goal, Warnke enjoyed luxury vehicles and the high life of the rich and famous. On the truly dark side, he was a liar, a serial adulterer, a grifter, and was accused of and covered up accusations of sexual harassment of employees. All of this was exposed in an investigation in the early 1990s, before the Internet. So, it went mostly unnoticed.
Mike Cosper recently completed a long-form podcast titled "The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea." Throughout the series, produced for Christianity Today, Cosper chronicles the origins of the Satanic Panic that haunted conservative churches and youth groups in the 70s, 80s, and 90s.
The first sentence in the series description reads:
They say the Devil’s in the details, but when conspiracies captivate our imaginations, we often overlook the real devils walking among us.
We read the story of the slave girl and immediately think the devil in the story is the spirit, the Force, that gave the young girl her knack for telling the future. However, the real devils in the story in Acts 16 for today are the girl’s owners who exploited her for their financial gain.
Yes, there is a Force at work in the world that creates all manner of noise to distract us from the Word that Works When the Apostle Paul commands the spirit of divination, or fortunetelling, the pneuma python, to leave the girl, we discover that the girl was one in a centuries-old line of people, prophets, that trace to the Oracle at Delphi. The Greco-Roman mythology includes the tale of Apollo slaying Python, and taking over the Oracle. In short, Apollo now controlled future telling via the Pythian priestess and those in the guild. The use of pneuma python in the Scriptures would have caught the attention of those hearing and reading Luke’s work.
That means that those hearing and reading Luke’s work may have made the connection that the conflict that arose in Acts 16 was much deeper, even sinister, than at first thought. Those enslaving the girl knew how to turn a profit off of her condition. She was doubly enslaved - enslaved by the pneuma python and her owners.
The slave girl took to following the missionaries around and she shouted,
These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.
Philippi may have offered a variety of religious options. Being included among the smorgasbord was not the aim of the missionaries. While the young girl was correct that the missionaries were servants of the Most High God, that did not mean she was referring to the Most High God, but rather that she knew there was something different about these people. One commenter may have a point that this generated undue publicity for a group interested in conversations with the religiously curious. At first, it may not have bothered them, but at some point, it grieved the Apostle Paul.
Paul responded,
I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And it came out that very hour.
There are parallels with Jesus' ministry. In his Gospel, Luke includes a confrontation in the synagogue in Capernaum. While teaching, a man with the spirit of an unclean demon cried out,
Let us alone! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. But Jesus rebuked him saying, “Be silent, come out of him!”
The Apostles are seen doing what Jesus did. That is, the words given them by the Spirit do the work of the Word, of Jesus.
When Jesus prayed in John 17, he prayed,
I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe through their word, that they may all be one.
Here in Acts, the missionaries have been giving the Word of God. When we refer to the Word of God, we do not mean the Bible. We mean they are giving Jesus to those gathering at the place of prayer.
And the words of the missionaries become the Word of God from God, and it changes everything.
Notice, the pneuma python left the girl at Paul’s command. And, in a play on words, the money left her owners. They were not happy about the slave girl’s liberation, and viewing her as their asset meant she was of less value than before.
Pledging allegiance to Jesus has an economic impact. If we were only teaching this passage, not specifically looking for the Good News, we would make a case for the times where the Good News impacted the economy not by our boycotts but in our giving the Good News of the liberation of God from the Force and forces that enslave - notably the Powers of Sin and Death.
Rather than organize to take over the city council of Philippi, the missionaries undertook to give the Good News of the deliverance of God. And as such, they found themselves imprisoned. Today, we make a mockery of the persecution suffered by the missionaries when we don’t get our way in the public square. Even more, we diminish the suffering of Jesus when we equate the lack of privileges with what we find in the Scriptures. Christian leaders want masculinity? I give you those who sing while naked and in bonds for proclaiming Jesus. I give you those who trusted the One who promised to be with them, whatever life brings. I give you those when the opportunity to declare we will all die, instead they tell the jailer, No!
The Good News transcends our comforts in the face of the consequences of giving the Good News of Jesus.
Finding all the prisoners who remained in the jail, not taking the occasion to leave after the earthquake, the jailer wondered what he must do.
The missionaries give him Jesus.
He binds up their wounds.
He takes them into his own house.
And what we found true with Lydia we find with the blue-collar jailer.
Having been received into the open arms of the Father, they both show hospitality to the ones who bring the Word that Does the Work.