What Must We Do to be Saved, America?
Preached on Sunday, May 29th, 2022
for Wollaston Congregational Church, United Church of Christ
Scripture: Acts 16:16-34
In this morning’s reading from the book of Acts a number of the characters are enslaved or imprisoned. During the course of the story a number of people are made free. Or, to use the same terminology as the author of Acts, they are saved. The key question, asked by the jailer of the apostles Paul and Silas, is “what must I do to be saved?” This morning, we are going to ask that same question, “What must we” we the congregation, we the neighborhood, we the city, we the nation, “What must we do to be saved?”
Paul and Silas are on a missionary journey, they have traveled many miles from their home base, Jerusalem. They have come to the Roman colony of Philippi in Macedonia, in what is now northern Greece.
One day as they are going about the city the missionaries meet a teenaged girl who is apparently possessed by a spirit. This spirit enables the girl to divine the future. She is enslaved by “owners” who make money off her supernatural abilities.
She certainly has some kind is insight, perceiving that the missionaries are “’slaves’ of the Most High God, who proclaim the way of salvation.” But she won’t shut up. She follows them, yelling at the top of her voice. And she keeps it up for days and days. This poor girl must be exhausted by the spirit that is driving her. And she is at the mercy of her enslavers, who profit from her misfortune.
Paul is driven to distraction by the girl’s incessant ranting, and so he orders the spirit to leave her in the name of Jesus Christ. Lo and behold, she is healed. Paul doesn’t heal her out of compassion for her condition. He simply does it because he is annoyed!
Perhaps the people who enslave the girl are keeping tabs on her. They witness the healing and they are angry. Now they have lost their revenue stream. The girl is no longer possessed by the spirit who at least gives her the appearance of being able to tell the future. In the Roman culture the loss of income of the slave owners trumps the desire to heal a child.
And so the slave owners complain to the city magistrates, that Paul and Silas are disturbing the peace. They say that these Jews are advocating customs that are unlawful for Romans. A whole crowd of Philippians join the racially-motivated attack, and so the magistrates strip Paul and Silas of their clothes and order them to be beaten. Then they are thrown into prison.
These apostles of Christ are tricky when it comes to prisons. They have been known to escape. The jailer is given strict instructions to keep their location secret.
Paul and Silas are put in the innermost cell, their hands and feet are bound in the stocks. Being imprisoned is the opposite of being free. Still, Paul and Silas are not disheartened because they are truly saved. They trust in the ultimate power of God in Jesus Christ and they act on the Spirit of Christ. They are not afraid of the principalities and powers of the Empire.
While the jailer and other prisoners are sleeping the apostles sing and pray. These are not the passive thoughts and prayers of law makers. Paul and Silas are willing to act at the direction of the Holy Spirit who follows through on their prayers.
At around midnight there is a great earthquake which breaks open the prison doors and releases the chains of the prisoners. They are free to go. And yet they stay, they have more saving to do this night.
The jailer is woken by the tremor and sees that the prison doors are open. He is about to fall on his sword, he has failed in his duty to guard his charges. But the apostles have not run away. Paul shouts to stop the jailer from harming himself. They are all still there. And so, the jailer calls for lights so he can see them. There is a great power at work. He falls down trembling in front of them asking “What must I do to be saved?”
The jailer is so moved by God’s action in this moment that he also seeks salvation. Perhaps he wants to be freed from the oppression of guarding prisoners who have been abused by the Roman system of governance. Perhaps he wants to be saved from the consequences of the prison doors flying open, releasing the prisoners. Either way, he takes Paul and Silas to his home, feeds them and treats their wounds. He makes his own attempts to heal and restore.
The story ends well for the apostles. They take their leave of Philippi, perhaps shaking the dust from their feet. As their sandaled feet walk to the dusty road out of town maybe Paul turns to Silas and says “our work here is done.”
In these days, we Americans might well ask the same question as the jailer: What must we do to be saved?
This week, and in weeks past, we have seen great evil in our nation. An 18 year-old gunman from Conklin NY legally obtained an AR15 style rifle and traveled 200 miles from his home to a supermarket frequented by African Americans in Buffalo NY. He shot and killed 10 people motivated by his connection with the white supremacist movement. And, again, in Uvalde, Texas, another boy legally obtained a military style assault rifle on his 18th birthday. He shot his grandmother in the face and then drove to Robb Elementary School where he shot and killed nineteen 4th grade students and their two teachers. He left seventeen others injured. While the police response is still being investigated, it is important to note that the weapon he used was designed to kill people quickly and in large numbers. It has no other purpose. [1]
In response to these horrific acts our law makers offer thoughts and prayers and do nothing else.
Again, we might well ask that same question as the jailer: What must we do to be saved?
Let’s look back on the story for a moment.
Our scripture passage began with the sickness of a girl, who is possessed by a spirit, and she is enslaved by slave owners. It is in the slave owners’ interest to maintain the status quo. They do not want the girl to be freed. They want her to remain possessed, and they want to continue to possess her. If the girl is made whole, they lose the means and the opportunity to exploit her.
When the Bible speaks of someone possessed by a spirit, we modern day disciples tend to hear “mental illness.” But we must be careful with the term mental illness, especially when it comes to gun violence.
The Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence solutions webpage says:
“It is critical to understand that mental illness is not the cause of gun violence. The United States has similar rates of mental illness to other countries but much higher rates of gun violence.” [2] [3]
One in five Americans have a mental illness and one in twenty-five have a serious mental illness. It is quite likely that many of us here this morning have been mentally unwell at one time or another. We may have anxiety or depression, addictions, eating or personality disorders, or post-traumatic stress disorder, to name a few possibilities. Mental illness is not something to be ashamed of. But if we suffer from mental illness, or suspect that we suffer from it, it is important to seek diagnosis and treatment.
It's also important to remember that frustration, anger and even rage are not necessarily the products of mental illness. It’s important to remember that mental illness may or may not be a motivator in gun violence. Without the means and opportunity - access to weapons and ammunition – many crimes could be prevented.
Frustration, anger and rage are not only emotions felt by the perpetrators of violence. It is natural that we would feel any of these emotions about the recent events in our nation, along with profound grief. I would be more concerned about a congregant who was feeling nothing, than a parishioner who was experiencing overwhelming rage this Sunday.
It seems that in America the freedom to sell and to carry military-grade weapons, even to young men of 18, whose brains are still developing, trumps the lives of children. Changing this chilling status quo by removing the means and opportunity from the perpetrators is not in the gun lobby’s interest.
We don’t know what caused the young woman in our story to rant, shout and follow the apostles for days. But I think that I might be driven to such madness if I ever lost a child - or a nephew or niece, or a grandchild or great grandchild, or a little sibling - to gun violence. I would follow the law makers who block the passing of even the most basic gun safety and red flag laws. I would shout out: “These men are slaves of the gun lobby.” And I would not stop, for days and days.
If we all did the same, and we gathered and followed our law makers for days and days, shouting at the top of our voices, perhaps, out of sheer annoyance at our ranting, they would turn around and do something about the problem.
But, God have mercy, I have not been driven to ranting for the children who are not my child, or a nephew or niece, or a grandchild or great-grandchild, or a little sibling. I have not been driven to ranting for the elders of the African American communities, and the Asian churches, and the elders of the synagogues who have been targeted by white supremacist and anti-Semitic shooters.
And this makes me a slave of the gun lobby and the white supremacist movement too.
And all I can say today, is Lord Jesus “what must I do to be saved?”
What must we all do to be saved?
[1] https://www.npr.org/2022/05/26/1101274322/uvalde-ar-15-style-rifle-history-shooter-mass-shooting
[2] https://efsgv.org/learn/learn-more-about-gun-violence/mental-illness-and-gun-violence/
[3] “The firearm homicide rate in the U.S. is nearly 25 times higher than other high-income countries and the firearm suicide rate is nearly 10 times that of other high-income countries. Overall rates of gun deaths are 11.4 times higher in the U.S. as compared to other high-income countries.”, Ibid.