7th SUNDAY OF EASTER – SUNDAY AFTER ASCENSION
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Readings: Acts 16: 16-34 and John 17: 20-end
Throughout Eastertide, the first reading at the Eucharist has been taken from the Acts of the Apostles, and has featured one of the accounts of the apostles’ activity in the early days of the Church. Apart from the account of the Day of Pentecost, which, of course, we shall hear next Sunday, today’s passage is the most dramatic.
Paul and his companions are in Philippi, having been drawn to that city after the vision Paul had received urging him to ‘come over to Macedonia and help us.’ Paul is accompanied by Silas, but it also seems that Luke, who wrote Acts, was with them, for the passage starts off in the first person plural. “One day,” he writes, “as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave-girl.” The girl had a spirit of divination, and her owners had made a great deal of money through her fortune-telling.
The spirit, with a small ‘s’, that possessed the girl recognised Paul and Silas as men of God. It seems she was following them round rather like a stalker, but she did regard them as authentic. This was bad news for her owners, particularly when Paul called the Spirit out of the girl. Their source of making money was suddenly gone.
So Paul and Silas are brought before the authorities, to answer the charge that they were disturbing the city and advocating practices unlawful for the Romans to adopt. They particularly point them out as being Jews. Not for the first time, nor, of course, the last, the Jews are singled out as trouble-makers. But Jews had lived happily among the residents of Philippi for years. The real reason for the dislike of Paul and Silas was that they were advocating allegiance to Jesus Christ, and not to Caesar. They believed in an alternative king, and displayed a different set of values.
We see Christian behaviour at its best being shown as the story enfolds. Paul and Silas are thrown into prison after a severe flogging. In their weakness, being bound with chains, the power of God is displayed. They sing hymns to God at the dead of night. Then there is an earthquake. Quite how serious the earthquake is, we’re not told. Somehow, though the buildings are shaken and the prisoners’ fetters unfastened, none of the inmates is injured.
Paul and Silas could have escaped. They could have boasted “See how our God has freed us.” But instead, they remain there, having in mind the kind of trouble the jailer might have been landed in. He was ready to kill himself, thinking that a preferable end to what might be in store for him if his superiors found him guilty of letting prisoners escape.
Somehow, the jailer understands the power of God, which both gave Paul and Silas the opportunity to escape, but was also shown in a more loving way by the care that the disciples showed him. The result was that the jailer believed, and asked what he must do to be saved. Then he and all his household were baptised.
Throughout the ages, opposing forces have failed to see that Christianity is a force for good. Worldly authorities have nothing to fear if they, too, are on the side of goodness and truth. The main reason Christianity is opposed is because earthly rulers are bent on control and power and coercion.
In today’s gospel, Jesus is talking to the disciples in what has become known as the ‘high priestly prayer.’ This is part of the farewell discourse before his passion. Jesus is praying for the unity of the Church after his departure from the world. The unity of the Church is important because the behaviour of Christians should reflect the unity of love seen in the Godhead.
Elsewhere in John’s gospel, the suggestion is made that the love between Jesus and his Father is evidenced by their wanting the same thing, in working toward the same ends, in having the same purpose. And that purpose is the salvation of the world, and its effects are to be seen in the love which human beings have for one another. Jesus’ prayer in today’s passage is that ‘they’ – that is the members of the Church – may be completely one as he and the Father are one. When the wider world sees the unity of the Church, they will, he says ‘believe that you have sent me.’ Here is a great vision of love.
One commentator says, “This vision of love creates a unity which will reveal to the world the disturbing message that there is another way of being human. Disunity may be the ultimate worldliness, since it means that we are defined by something than the love of God in Jesus Christ.”
In Philippi Paul and Silas were branded as trouble-makers because they came with a new message, and because they were Jews. An old prejudice was used to bolster the fear that something new might upset the status quo. Change can threaten, because it is easy to hang on to the comfortable and familiar. It’s far more difficult and costly to look to new possibilities for the sake of God’s kingdom, particularly if we have to work with others who may have a different viewpoint to see those possibilities become a reality.
But humans have great propensity for good. One of the messages of the Ascension is that Jesus raised humanity to a heavenly level, just as he had brought God to earth in the incarnation. His going back to his Father was the signal for the Holy Spirit to come and enliven the Church by an eternal and ever-dwelling presence.
If we don’t believe in the power of that indwelling Spirit, we might as well pack up and go home. Jesus once said that one of the greatest sins, which couldn’t be forgiven, was sin against the Holy Spirit. What is sin against the Holy Spirit? Probably it is to disbelieve the power of the Spirit, by calling white black, or by thinking that good can never overcome evil.
Remember that Jesus prayed for the unity of his followers, unity that stems from the love of God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Paul and Silas showed a different way of living and loving when they met with opposition. We too should exemplify that way of love, by our actions, words and attitudes.
Will people see that Spirit in us, and be so impressed that they ask what they must do to be saved?