Acts 16:16-18
For whatever reason over the past couple weeks, I can’t seem to get themes of Preparation out of my head. Perhaps it’s because of the slowly dissipating stack of boxes of books as Emily and I get settled into our new apartment. Perhaps it’s because of the endless preparation and anticipation of our own Advent of our baby in June (we just installed our car-seat last Thursday). Or the eighth grader’s confirmation yesterday; the preparation to renew their baptismal covenant has taken all year. With all of these indicators and stimuli, these changes and transitions, I suppose I can’t help but think about preparation.
The more I have thought about preparation, the more I’ve noticed its pervasive presence in our Christian faith. When you think about it, very little of our sacred time is spent actually celebrating the great Feasts and Fasts of our faith in and of themselves. During the summer after Pentecost, the theme of Jesus’ preaching is reformation of our hearts, minds, and world to look more like the image of God’s garden. Advent is a season preparing for Christ’s birth at Christmas, Lent is a season of preparation in anticipation of the sobering reality of Holy week, but also in the glorious majesty of Easter. And right now, in-between the feasts of Jesus’ Ascension into Heaven at God’s right hand and before the anticipated descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost; we are, yet again, in preparation mode.
So my question for you this morning is this: for what are you preparing? My hope and my prayer is that you and I, we as a community of faith, are preparing this world to be the Kingdom of God.
The Gospel of John, the Gospel read during all of Eastertide, makes it very clear this goal is entirely possible, that the Kingdom of God is near, so near that we can bring this anticipated reality into fruition if we set our hearts and minds to it. Of course you’re saying to yourself, very easy to say preacher from your pulpit; but what about in the reality of the world outside the walls of this building? To that I say, you’re right; the reality is that the anticipated Kingdom of God sounds so wonderful but what do we do to actually obtain it? How do we turn an abstract idea in to tangible reality? We say weekly, even daily in our prayers “thy Kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven,” but how do we get there?
I do not believe that the implementation of God’s good Kingdom is easy. I would even venture to say at times it is “annoying”—those are Luke’s words in Acts, not mine. Certainly Paul and Silas experienced the vagaries and annoyances as seen in today’s reading. Paul and Silas are walking along their evangelical way when they are confronted by a young woman possessed by demons who is being used as a tool of prophecy and exploited by her owners in Philippi. What is interesting is the source of Paul’s annoyance.
Biblical scholar Paul Trebilco looked at this same passage from Acts. He observed that the source of Paul’s annoyance was not that she was following them around, but that the slave-girl called them ‘slaves of the most high god’. What was annoying to Paul is that the phrase in that order ‘The Most High God’ in original language was a reference not to the God of Israel, but to the pagan God of Greece, Zeus. * Lest their actions and her possession and exploitation be consensual to the role of Zeus, Paul lays hands upon her and heals her in the name of Jesus Christ, our most high God. Paul showed the slave and her owners that Christians are neither slaves to Jesus, nor are they tools to be exploited for Jesus’ Way.
To the crowd assembled in Philippi, Paul and Silas showed the residents of that Greek city a glimpse of the Kingdom of God. Paul and Silas showed the Philippians that his Most High God, Jesus Christ, demanded not slaves to be his subjects but to be his brothers and sisters. And most important, Paul showed the people of Philippi that the Most High God of Jesus Christ would never let God’s children be exploited for human gain.
Here’s there hard part, folks; the people of Philippi were none too pleased with these preparations. Paul and Silas not only were beaten, attacked, and threatened with death, but they were also imprisoned. Preparation of the Kingdom is likely to ruffle many feathers. Preparation for God to break into our lives threatens to break apart calcified and conventional ways by which we are expected to act. Preparation of God’s Kingdom demands risks and faithful leaps of grace and mercy.
We, like Paul and Silas, are living in a world where exploitation of human beings still occurs; not by the will of God, but at the hands of humans. But Christ’s teachings point to the dignity of all humanity, which is demonstrated by Paul’s healing of the slave girl. Human servitude exists everywhere in our world today; not just in ancient Greece, even here in Cook County. Be on guard, prepare this world for the Kingdom of God; and make it known that this is the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace and the lover of all souls, lest others be confused. Prepare this kingdom of justice and mercy.
Always be mindful that for many this Kingdom we have made and are making is still a hell for many. And when you get annoyed, look around, because God is with us in all the many signs and graces around us to help us along the way.
Trebilco, Paul R., "Paul and Silas - 'Servants of the Most High God' (Acts 16:16-18)," Journal for the Study of the New Testament, 1989.
