Singing in the Darkness: Acts 16:16-34 - Seventh Sunday of Easter

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

Dungeon by Simon Evans.  Creative commons image on flickr

94-year-old Henry didn’t have much of what we’d call “quality of life.”

For ten years, Henry resided in a nursing home, spending most of his days slumped over in a wheelchair.  Dementia and frequent seizures had rendered him almost completely unresponsive and unaware of what was happening around him.  He did not even recognize his own daughter.

One day, Henry’s daughter puts a pair of headphones on him, connected to an iPod loaded with all his favorite songs. 

Immediately, his eyes open.  He sits up in his chair, and begins singing along.  He’s even moving with the beat. 

Later, his daughter takes the headphones off—and he begins talking—enthusiastically—naming his favorite musician; naming his favorite song and singing the words by heart; carrying on a full conversation.

It is as though his spirit leaped to life within his ravaged body.

This is no isolated incident…  Music has the power to trigger memory along with powerful emotions, in persons suffering the most severe stages of Alzheimer’s and dementia.

We see the same thing happening in our first reading for today from Acts, with Paul and Silas chained and tortured in prison.

A little backstory first:

Paul and Silas are in the ancient city of Philippi, located in the Eastern region of modern-day Greece.

For days, they encounter a slave-girl with a spirit of divination, who brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling.  Anytime she saw Paul and Silas, she would cry out that they were slaves of the Most-High God, proclaiming the way of salvation. 

Paul quickly becomes annoyed at the sight and sound of her enslavement.  So he commands the spirit to come out, and it does. 

Naturally, Paul has destroyed her owners’ freedom to pursue unlimited profit through her enslavement.  So they seize Paul and Silas and drag them before the magistrates.  They accuse them of sabotaging the local economy and the Roman culture.  These are high crimes against the Empire—the same of which Jesus is accused. 

The magistrates order them stripped, beaten, and flogged.  They are then locked in the innermost cell of the prison, with their feet chained in stocks.

And what do they do there, all chained and tortured?  Paul and Silas sing hymns.

They sing hymns—because there is nothing else they can do.  They’re bound, bloodied, and beaten within an inch of their lives.  They are helpless and powerless; prisoners of evil.

Most of us never have and never will face such cruel persecution for our faith in Jesus Christ.  But that’s not to say that you can’t be held captive by something bigger and more powerful than you… There’s circumstances you cannot change; mistakes you cannot take back; evils that you cannot fend off.  You’re trapped.  There’s no way out.  There’s nothing you can do. It will get so bad that prayer will feel pointless.  It’ll become easier to believe that Satan is in control, rather than God.

This was Paul and Silas—until God put the song in their hearts.

Jesus was all they had, and Jesus was all they needed.  In this place of death, they were alive.  In this place of bondage, they were free.  Their joy came not of circumstance, but because they were bound to Jesus in his death and resurrection.  What’s more is that the Holy Spirit uses their song to infect the fellow prisoners—along with the jailer and his family—with new life. 

Faith is like music: you can have it in your heart and in your mind just like you can have it in a songbook or on a CD—but it’s not really anything if you keep it inside of you.  What good is a musical instrument if you don’t play it?

Faith is daring to sing at the face of death & evil; daring to love in the face of hate; daring to share in the face of one’s own poverty.  Faith is saying “no” to the power, privileges, and possessions the world says you need to “be alive.”  Faith is saying “yes” to Jesus.  It is choosing to die with Jesus rather than living out him.  Boldly, you are living, breathing, and doing—trusting that Jesus rules the world, even while evil rules the day. 

In Christ, you are free and alive even in the clutches of death and defeat.  You can even be like Paul, who before had been the most vicious enemy of Jesus and his people; now, free from the past and alive in the light.  No matter what the circumstance; what the odds—every single act of faith, hope, and love puts death and the devil on the run. 

God’s love and life-giving purposes will not be defeated.  The forces of death and evil, on the other hand will.  You can chain up the apostles, you can put Jesus on the cross.  But God wins.

So sing out your faith and feel the life God breathes into you.  Be free.  Be at peace.