Seventh Sunday of Easter -Year C
Acts 16: 16 – 34; Psalm 97; Revelation 22: 12 – 22; John 17: 20 – 26
I hear the reading from the Acts of the Apostles and I find myself asking a couple of “Why?” questions.
1. Why didn’t Paul reveal himself as a Roman Citizen when he was arrested? That would have stopped the beating that the magistrate ordered. Being a citizen of Rome meant you couldn’t be tortured or whipped without a proper trial – so why did he and Silas keep quiet here, especially because if the reading continued another few verses we’d have heard Paul revealing himself as a Roman citizen and refusing to leave the jail until the magistrate himself comes to apologise and walk him out through the gates.
Of course, if they had claimed this privilege it would have immediately set them apart from the Jews and gentiles they were bringing to faith. They would be the ones holding the upper hand, the oppressor’s whip hand, the ones backed by all the power and authority of the Roman Empire.
After all their whole purpose for being there, their ‘Why’ for crossing over to Macedonia and so to Philippi, was to help the people by bringing them the good news of Jesus. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, they might have said, we are all invited to be God’s new creation, restored to wholeness - set free from half-lived lives of people held captive by prejudice, fear and darkness – set free to live into the fullness of their created being.
All it takes is to know Jesus and the way he lived his life of love with the outcasts and marginalised, emptying himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness (Philippians 2:7).
Could Paul and Silas have done that if they themselves lived different, privileged lives? Like Jesus, they needed to be incarnate, to be with the people that the Holy Spirit had lead them to. They needed to face the challenges the people faced, talking their talk, walking their walk.
It’s the basis of all caring relationships – being able to be in the place where the other is, but with one special difference – living by a higher / different truth.
Think of Nelson Mandela held captive in prison for 27 years. He writes: “As I walked out the door towards the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.”
What strength, what confidence in the knowledge of his own worth – to be able to say who I am is not determined by the way others have treated me, but by the way I act, the choices I make in my day to day life.
He has said: I choose to live my life challenging the forces that enslave others. And so apartheid as an official Government policy disappeared.
Paul, Silas, Jesus, the saints – they all challenged practices that privileged one group of people over another. The power of God called forth from them actions that defied the powers of the world.
Particularly the way they have practiced the love and forgiveness that Christ demonstrated towards their oppressors, to those who harmed them.
It is this love alone that can change the world.
When Jesus prayed for his followers, as we heard him do in the Gospel reading, he prayed that they be one – that the unity between God and Jesus would be the same unity growing between Jesus and those who come to whole and fulfilled lives through him.
We know Jesus brought us to ‘oneness’ with him by coming to live with us – by showing us how to live as God’s people, by trusting God’s presence with him.
It is how we are called to be. Indeed it is his commandment as I have loved you, so you are to love others.
The second why question is this:
2. Why didn’t Paul and Silas cut and run when they had the chance after the earthquake released them? It seems like a miracle, an act of God, doesn’t it. Of course it’s lucky they didn’t – they’d have missed the opportunity to ‘save’ the jailer and his family – both literally from the magistrate’s punishment and spiritually because the jailer came to faith in God revealed in Jesus.
I guess the answer has to be for the same reason that Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem, knowing the authorities were plotting to kill him.
This is a different kind of freedom isn’t it, freedom to give life away, to live in faith with open hands
Paul and Silas could only live prayerfully, guided by the Holy Spirit, trusting the presence of God with them. They stay, God uses them – they tell the jailer about Jesus and salvation and the jailer is transformed – he is baptised and he shows them hospitality, caring for them, washing their wounds.
These two questions lead me to a third Why question.
3. Why am I, why are you, why are we so vital, so important, so loved, that Jesus would die on the cross, that Paul and Silas would be flogged, that they would stay risking further imprisonment and punishment instead of looking after themselves and running away? And the answer is God. It seems that the whole God Head – Father, Son and Holy Spirit have the one passionate desire that we be God’s new creation.
That’s why the peace Jesus brings to his disciples after his resurrection is so important – it removes all the barriers that hold us trapped in the pits of the dark truths we know about ourselves. Jesus actions after the resurrection, the confidence he places in us at his Ascension assures us that each of us are a beloved child of God. We can allow ourselves to be drawn into Jesus and so into union with God. And this is just what Jesus desires. The evocative image in Revelation is of the passionate longing a bride and a groom have for each other. This is the desire God has for us.
WHY questions – Why side with the outsider? Why set aside our own priorities for the sake of the needs of others? So, why do I, why do we, find ourselves testing the water temperature – splashing in the shallows rather than taking a deep breath and diving, head first – striking out for the deep.
Listen, the beloved calls, come.
The Venerable Valerie Hoare.