TEXT: Acts 16:16-34

Acts 16:16-3416 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.17 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."18 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.19 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.20 When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, "These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews 21 and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe."22 The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods.23 After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely.24 Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. 25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.26 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.27 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.28 But Paul shouted in a loud voice, "Do not harm yourself, for we are all here."29 The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.30 Then he brought them outside and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"31 They answered, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household."32 They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.33 At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay.34 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.

"THE GOSPEL IS A CULTURAL THREAT!"

TEXT: Acts 16:16-34

"One thing that I like about living in New York," he said, "is the freedom. Here there is freedom to live the lifestyle I choose--to eat where I want and to dress as I like, and to discover who I really am. Freedom!"

Then he closed the door behind us. He locked the latch, turned the dead bolt, inserted the chain, and switched on the electronic alarm, saying, "Don't dare open that door without switching off the alarm or all hell will break loose and the cops may shoot you dead."

If there is one aspect of life which all of us gathered here this morning can affirm as desirable, it is freedom. As citizens of this country, and as worshippers in this facility, we may disagree on taxes, on national defense, on welfare reform, on American policy in Eastern Europe or Central America or Africa, or on who makes the best pizza, but we all agree that freedom is not only good but desirable. Freedom of choice. Freedom of religion. Freedom to realize one's God-given potential. Freedom. On this Memorial Day week-end, Americans traditionally recognize those who gave of themselves--even to the point of self-sacrifice--so that others might enjoy freedom from political, social or religious tyranny.

But freedom is not an easy concept to grasp or maintain. The NRA makes political ammunition out of the "right to bear arms." The Pro-choice advocates proclaim that a person has the freedom to choose what occurs with her body should she become pregnant. The Pro-lifers argue that the pregnant individual who chooses to abort is robbing that life of the freedom to be born and to realize its human potential. The Palestinian Hamas send human bombs into crowded Israeli markets to kill civilians in the name of freedom for their national lands while Israeli attack helicopters and planes rocket police barracks and civilian homes in retaliation to protect settlements in Palestinian territories. US arms merchants supply weapons or finances to both sides in the name of profit-whoops, make that stability.

Freedom seems so situational that the words from the old Joplin song (Janice that is) "Me and Bobby Magee" seem on target. "Freedom's just another word for nothing else to lose." Over the portico to the administration building where I attended college were carved the noble Latin words Verias vos liberabit -- "the truth shall make you free." Not something the founder or some former president had made up--no it is in the Bible. Yet, at college, I'm afraid I was busier in my quest for freedom from Mother and Dad and community restraints than I was in pursuing that illusive concept of truth.

Freedom--the blessed treasure of academia. At Wake Forest the landmark case was the freedom to teach evolutionary theory in a Baptist bastion. Freedom to think, teach and publish.

For me this day, it is freedom of the pulpit. Next Sunday we celebrate Religious Liberty day. The freedom to speak as one feels led by God--to speak free of the restraints of civil authority.

Freedom? Surrounded by our burglar alarms, our medicine cabinets, our fears--heart attack, impotency, insanity, insolvency, terrorism, acceptance--this is freedom?

As Americans we have built a society that has given its citizens an unprecedented measure of freedom, and yet our government , and perhaps even we ourselves, are afraid of what the abuse of those freedoms produce. We are given maximum space to pursue aggressively what we want to pursue, as long as we don't bump into someone else while they are getting theirs. We live in a culture which is little more than a vast supermarket of desire fulfillment for self-interested individuals. I have freedom of choice, but what do I choose? We are free, but we are terribly lonely, terribly driven. The early morning to late evening job, the monthly rent payments, the over-programmed kids and personal lives, the dog-eat-dog contest to get ahead in business or school or on the stage--this has become our freedom.

After all, we all know, don't we, that there is freedom, and then there is freedom. Perhaps our problem is that we have lost sight of what real freedom is.

The writer Luke tells us wonderful stories in the gospel bearing his name and in the book of Acts. He tells the story and then let's us make up our own minds about freedom. Today's lesson from Acts which was read earlier tells some stories about people who were in bondage and others who were free. Could you tell who was which?

One day as Paul and Silas were on their way to the synagogue, they were accosted one time too many for Paul's taste by a slave girl. Because this girl could tell people's fortunes, her owners made lots of money by hiring her out to read fortunes and to provide entertainment for business associates. Luke says that she was possessed by a demon but we would probably try to be more politically correct and say she was mentally unbalanced. She had been following Paul and Silas around, shouting at them and those around them, saying things about them like, "These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation." Sounds like free advertising to me seeing as how she was regarded as someone who gave accurate fortunes.

Yet, it was a case of one slave calling another a slave, and of one god who enslaved a girl for economic gain mocking the God of freedom. Here is a picture of enslavement. If you have suffered through the torment of mental illness, if someone whom you love is in the grip of terrible depression, you could tell us something about bondage. It is as if something has you, something that you can't shake, some dark force that you are powerless before.

Paul had had enough, and in the name of Christ, he cured her. Thank God, she was free! But no, she was not free because she was a slave, someone who is not a person but a piece of property. Some of us, back in our roots and family trees, had great-grandparents who were bought and sold that way--slaves. Some of us had great-grandparents who did the buying and selling. Can there be any more vivid picture of human bondage?

Luke wrote, "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." Let's hear it for free enterprise and the business community. Luke had recorded that a similar thing had happened to Jesus when he healed a deranged man by casting the demons into a herd of pigs. For his act of compassion Jesus was roughly escorted out of town by the local Pork Dealers Association.

Later, Paul would hold a big revival in Ephesus in which many were converted and stopped buying silver idols. It was wonderful--except the members of the Local # 111 of the Silver Workers Union didn't like it at all and had them arrested, again. I tell you, a careful reading of the New Testament will soon convince you that when you stand for the freedom produced by the gospel in persons lives, you soon find yourself standing on the toes of influential people who don't like your idea of freedom.

Here was a young woman, chained her whole life to the hell of mental illness and the profit motives of others, and she is suddenly free. There ought to have been rejoicing. But no, her owners were not free to do that. It is fine to give a big donation to the Mental Health Association drive, but this is another matter. Religion had somehow gotten mixed up with economics in this case--and true Christianity always does--and so her owners did what vested ones always have done and continue to do when their interests are threatened. Sure, we don't come right out and say that God is interfering with our business--folks would think us a little psycho if we did that. No, we just hire public relations firms to make our ill gotten gains appear to be socially acceptable.

And the girl's owners said, "Judge, we're not against a little religion, as long as its kept in the right place. But these outsiders are disturbing our city. They advocate customs which it is not lawful for us Romans to accept or practice."

We don't come right out and say that our financial self-interest is threatened; we say our nation is threatened. "These preachers are un-American." "Besides they are "Jews," and we all know what they are like, now, don't we." "Materialistic money grabbers, right?"

And if we are afraid that nationalism and anti-Semitism is not enough, we throw in an appeal to old-time religion--I mean customs. Then the crowd--democracy in action--falls into line behind the business leaders. They attack and beat Paul and Silas, then haul them off to jail where they are thrown into the back cell with their legs locked in stocks. The liberators have become the imprisoned. A wonderful young woman has been set free, but two of Jesus' people get jailed for it.

You do know where the one who came preaching "you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free" ended up don't you?

So Paul and Silas end up in prison. But they didn't throw in the towel in despair. That's not the way the story goes. "About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them." Wait a minute. These guys who had lost their liberty are having some kind of Christian rally right there in jail!

The earth moves, the prison shakes, the doors fly open and everyone's chains fall off. The jailer, thrown out of bed by the disturbance is horrified. While he was one of the "free ones," he was chained by the knowledge that he was personally accountable with his life for the lack of freedom of the prisoners. Knowing what that means for jailers who allow prisoners to escape, he drew his sword and prepared to do the honorable thing for one in his position. I have heard it said that iron bars do not a prison make. Just having a key to someone else's cell doesn't make you free.

Paul shouted, "Don't do it! We're all here, just singing and praying."

The jailer said, "But you were bound in chains; now you were free to run?"

Paul replied, "No, we prisoners are free to stay and you, our jailer, are the one in bondage, chained to your sword, but now you too can be free."

And the jailer asked, "What do I have to do to be saved? What do I have to do to be free?"

To which Paul replied, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household." And he took them to his house and was baptized.

What is freedom? By the end of our story, everyone who at first appeared to be free--the girl's owners, the judges, the jailer--are shown to be slaves. And everyone who first appeared to be enslaved--the girl, Paul and Silas--are free.

Jesus tends to do things like that to and for people.

Maybe you moved to New York for freedom--maybe not. Maybe you are like the prodigal of the parable. Maybe you are like the slave girl. Maybe like the business men or the judge or the jailer. Regardless the question is still the same. Who pulls your strings? Who or what robs you of the freedom which Christ provides?

We love our freedom. The ad proclaims, "You've come a long way baby to get where you are today." And perhaps we think we have--be we female or male. But where has it gotten us? We've come a long way to get where we have gotten to today, but are we free--really free?

There is freedom and then there is freedom.

A few years earlier, Jesus had said, ""If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."

Those who heard him, bristled, held their noses up and answered, "What is this 'will make you free' business? We are descendants of Abraham, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How is it you say, 'You will be made free'?"

They lied, just as we are prone to do. The ones who spoke so pridefully of their freedom spoke with the heel of others on their necks. In truth, they were not free. Their boasts were but the rattling of their chains.

And Jesus said, "If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." The slave girl had been right. Paul did belong to the most High God and in that sense maybe he was a slave. The NY does say that we who believe upon Jesus for our salvation are God's servants/ bond-slave/ slaves. There is the irony--it is also true that such persons are the most free.

So perhaps there is some truth to the Joplin song. Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose, if you have lost it to God who was in Christ setting free all those who would give themselves to him. That is salvation. That is freedom!