Sermon: Paul in Philippi

 

              I had an idea of what today’s sermon was going to be
—a straightforward retelling of the story in Acts,
emphasizing the aspects of the ancient world that needed to be unpacked.

              But the modern world intervened. I’ve had multiple people
—members and non-members alike,
look at the events of the recent weeks
—the revelations about massive sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention
and the recent horrifying mass shootings
and ask me, “Pastor is this the end?
Pastor is our wickedness too much for God?
Pastor is God going to destroy us for all this?”

              So, we’re going to look at this story in Acts,
as a way to unpack, not the ancient world of Paul’s day,
but our present moment.

Let us pray

              We have this woman—an Oracle,
respected for her connection to a Spiritual-something, that allows her to look at entrails of animals, or enter into a trance state, and tell truths.
One such truth is her repetitive description of Paul and his companions, “These men are slaves of the most High God, proclaiming salvation.”

              This eventually gets a rise out of Paul,
who casts out the spirit, and in so doing,
strips the mask off of her existence
—despite all the respect and nice words people might say about the Oracle,
she is ultimately a slave to men who are using her, in this case, for money.
Once she was no longer useful
—she disappears in Acts, never to be seen again.

 

              I wish I could describe this abuse as a relic of the past
—using Spirituality and Religion to hide the use and abuse of people
to gratify personal desires and get away with it…

But we were reminded afresh this week that such wickedness still continues.
The independent report about abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention found that that church body had engaged in a systematic cover-up of sexual abuse for at least the last 20 years.
According to this report (I could only get through 20 pages of the 200 page document, it was just too much):

-The higher ups claimed to have no way to know who was an abuser, while keeping a secret list of more than 700 men.

-The Convention’s President—Rev. Hunt—now stands accused of sexually assaulting his assisting minister’s wife.

-Their publishing house was used to purposefully smear people who spoke out against the abuse and silence survivors.

-Their “Caring Conference” for victims of sexual abuse was used to pump survivors for information to be used against them…

-The person in charge of investigating accusations, saw it as his duty to “break down” rape victims, so they wouldn’t sue the church, but instead the women would just disappear, hopefully never to be seen again.

              Now, I wish this was just something wrong with the Southern Baptists
—but we know it’s not.
Right around 20 years ago a similar report exposed the Roman Catholic Church as an Abuse Mill. 
For that matter, this congregation itself has had at least one Pastor removed for sexual misconduct…

              You know, people sometimes ask me why people my age and younger avoid the Church…
let’s be real, this is one of the reasons.

For millennials, since our teenage years if not earlier,
our eyes have been open to the reality that the beautiful high ideals expressed by religious institutions and spiritual organizations,
sometimes contain hidden agendas and far worse…
How could we not be skeptical?

 

              The response to this unmasking is swift and violent.
First comes the accusation, hiding the profit motive by ginning up prejudice
—these outsiders, these Jews, these non-Romans
—these people other than ourselves
—the Evil Others
—are trying to change who we are,
replace us
—they are an irritant, a pollutant
—that must be punished.

              Paul and his people are: seized / dragged / stripped / beaten / flogged / imprisoned…

              Then, after the Earthquake, the violence continues with the Jailer’s fate for failing
—he is likely a slave, similar to the Oracle
—seen as a device, not a human
—in the ancient world slaves were often tied to prisoners as a primitive “lojack” device.

              He was a device that failed…
and in the ancient world when a device… a person… fails, it is destroyed
—the most honorable answer to failure in Roman Honor/Shame culture,
the only answer
—was suicide…
for him there is no way out.

 

              Again, I wish such normalized violence, casual violence, foundational violence
—was the foundation only of the ancient Roman world…
—but, you can’t tell that to parents hiding tears as they drive their children to school,
well aware of the shooting in Uvalde,
or to Black folk in Buffalo and people of color around the country,
wondering if their next experience of bigotry will be one of deed, not word.

Or even the shooters in these instances, and so many others like them
—what hopeless and evil messages had they internalized
that made violence and death seem to be the only answer,
the glory of Guns their only out?

             

              It’s a lot, isn’t it?
I see why some folk feel like it is the end of the world,
or at least that our wickedness has overflowed its normal boundaries.

              But you know what? These early Christians we read about today
meet the Powers and Principalities,
profit and prejudice,
with proclamation and prayer.

              It is an earthquake
—the message of the Gospel and the prayers that interlace all of their actions
—an earthquake that flips everything on its head.
Nothing looks the same in light of the good news
and aligning their will to the will of God.

              This woman who shouts that Paul is a slave…
her own captivity is revealed, the men who used her…
their intentions are unmasked,
the only Spirit they care about is their own greed and desires.
If nothing else, now she can see the world as it is.

              This jailer is saved by his captives…
Paul tells him a better story
than the one about the glories of death,
that his society tells him.

              Instead of Jailer and Prisoner, they become siblings.
The Jailer is washed in Baptism, and then washes Paul’s wounds,
wounds the Jailer himself may have inflicted.

Then a shared meal.
You are no longer an object!
 You have a future and a place at the table.
 You are a member of God’s family. Let’s eat!

Small, meaningful acts like these are the hallmark of the Kingdom of God.

 

“Pastor is this the end? Pastor is our wickedness too much for God? Pastor is God going to destroy us for all this?”

Hold onto hope; God’s good future is still being written. The resurrecting, redeeming power we find in Christ continues to call life out death, goodness out of evil. A+A