Everyone’s Chains Were Unshackled

May 29, 2022 • Seventh Sunday of Easter
Readings: Acts 16:16-34 8:26-39 (NRSV)
Rev. Alexis Lillie preaching

[You can view the full worship video recording at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhRQw-qSRlo

Have you ever had those moments, maybe you’ve heard this saying, where you were “saying the internal part out loud”? Where something just slips out before you've really had a chance to consider what you're saying? These moments can often cause pain because we are saying things we might not otherwise if we gave ourselves more of a chance to think. And, the reality is, these are sometimes the truths we feel, deep down, rising to the surface.

I wonder if the girl in our story ever felt like she was saying the "internal part" out loud. She was being used by her owners to make them money, because of what was within her, what we're told is a spirit of "divination." We’ll look more at this word in a minute, but in short, it can be understood as the ability to see or perceive things in a way that, apparently, felt insightful enough that people would pay money to speak with her.

There are a lot of layers at work here, and we're going to pick them apart, as much as possible by incorporating the perspective of the slave girl. The story is so often read or told from Paul's perspective, from the assumption that Paul is in the right. Therefore, the way he treats the girl must equal freedom for her (in so far as she is even addressed). Commentaries or sermons or interpretations on this story often focus on the second half of passage: how upstanding and honest Paul was for staying in jail; how that then leads to a conversion story, freedom for Paul, and a spiritual freedom for the jailer and his family.

But issues of freedom start showing up much earlier - I think we notice that if we give voice to the slave girl's story. I see this whole passage as multiple movements toward freedom, happening in multiple places with regard to the girl, Paul, and the jailer. 

There's the first layer that gives rise to issues of freedom: The layer where girl is a slave. Perhaps ironically, this "spirit" that Paul casts out, has likely enabled her to live a life better than most slave girls. I am not at all trying to glamorize or justify the ownership of one person by another, but some feminist theologians point out how the fact that she possessed this spirit was a double-edged sword. She is being used and exploited because of it - making her owners money and likely never seeing that money.

And, theologians hypothesize that also because of this, she was probably better taken care of than most slaves. So, what happens to her after this so-called casting out? When she isn't useful to her owners in the same way? Is she further exploited? Is she enfolded into the Christian community?

This leads us to the second layer inviting us to think about freedom. The layer where we're told the girl has a "spirit". Unlike all other exorcism stories, this spirit is not called "evil." Paul doesn't dialogue with the spirit, and there aren't witnesses to see the spirit "leave." In fact, "divination" in the scriptures is a bit complicated. In early Christ communities, it came to have negative undertones. But in the Hebrew scriptures, it's more nuanced. In some places, it's condemned, but in other stories, it's featured rather neutrally, as a way that people sought divine wisdom to make decisions.

Who's to say this isn't the Holy Spirit? She is, after all, following Paul around and telling the truth! He calls it a curse because, for some reason, it's not what he wants to hear. As we know from history, the victor writes the story, and wrote this to create an image or follow a mythology about Paul. Perhaps the author calls this a spirit of Divination because that has a negative connotation with the early Christ communities, and thus seeks to provide some justification for Paul's behavior. Which, as I stated at the beginning, this justification has continued: for many centuries people have found ways to interpret Paul's behavior here in a positive light.

But who's to say his behavior was justified? Who's to say the spirit wasn't a blessing? Who's to say it wasn't a blessing and a curse. Again, a type of double-edged sword.

Perhaps this spirit is a gift, but she is now enslaved to it. Her blessing has been exploited and, it seems, used against her. So much of this, near as I can tell, she didn't choose! She didn't choose to be a slave. Didn't choose to have this spirit – which under more life-giving circumstances could have been a blessing but instead – he is used by her owners because of the spirit, which she ostensibly doesn't choose.

And, add one more to the list, she didn't choose to have the spirit removed from her.  All because, evidently, she told the truth about Paul, and he got annoyed! Why not recognize this woman's gift of prophecy? Why not set her free from her exploitation without silencing her spirit? Why not listen to her and learn from her?

In our third layer, as we're peeling back this story, we get to Paul. Paul is headed to prison, and I like to think that perhaps he did learn from her, or at least because of her. He comes to have parallel experiences: he is flogged and beaten because of the way he treated this slave girl. Not from a sense of justice on her behalf, but because of financial and economic concerns on behalf of the wealthy and powerful, her owners.

Maybe, as this happens, he is able to shift perspective ... what my therapist would call "reverse roles" ... which is the first step toward empathy. Being able to imagine yourself in someone else's situation. He has an experience that is out of his control, that is happening to him, and I think we can see his compassion develop. We see this in the way he behaves in jail.

Ironically while behind bars, he and Silas seem to have a sense of freedom. Yes, in how they are handling this moment - by singing and praying and having others listen to them. And also ... they are literally freed when the earthquake hits and their chains are unfastened! In that moment, though, his attitude is not to escape, but to extend compassion to the jailer as he says, “do not harm yourself, we are all here.”

Perhaps, through his parallel experience to that of the suffering imposed on the slave girl, he has gained some wisdom. And he is, by extension, seeking to atone for the harm he has already caused.

This brings us to the fourth layer, the layer of jailer and family. If Paul's beating is a parallel to the un-chosen injustices perpetrated on the slave girl, then the jailer is the parallel to the slave owners. He's in that position of power. And through his own role reversal, he accesses the empathy and compassion he needs and is freed to extend grace to his prisoners. Through that open-heartedness, he finds spiritual freedom, for himself and his whole household!

Going one step further, he washes the wounds of the imprisoned, of those who had suffered injustice. Seeing him as a parallel, as an extension of those in power, I'm hoping this is an extension of what has happened to the slave girl. I’m hoping someone washed her wounds, too.

So, our layers of freedom lead to a hopeful unshackling of everyone: Paul, the jailer, the slave girl, and even eventually her owners.

There's one more layer -- our layer. Walking in freedom is complicated because first, you have to identify the shackles. They’re not always obvious, and they're not always within our control. Paul is shackled in the way he sees, and treats, this slave girl: by annoyance, by his knee-jerk reaction, by saying that inside part out loud. The girl is shackled by this series of choices and events perpetrated on her.

We can easily be in either of these positions – or even both of them at once! We can be shackled in ways that affect how we treat others, and feel a sense of imprisonment by things that are done to us without our consent.

As a community, we want to move out of, and help others move out of, whatever is keeping them imprisoned.

Our purpose as a church is not to survive, or grow, or add more programming, or whatever - these can be important components. But our purpose is that all may be unshackled. However that looks for people.

I wrote this week about my inability to feel much as we receive headline after headline, news after news of mass shootings ... and nothing is done about it.

I can't help but think of all the shackling that is happening here! I can't begin to imagine the bondage of pain those experiencing loss are feeling, at this tragedy being perpetrated on them. For some reason, leaders and lawmakers are shackled by an inability to do anything meaningful. Those who commit these crimes have layers of chains holding them, catching them, compelling them. And us –  as individuals, a community, a country – maybe you're feeling similar to me: shackled by a numbness at this point. Or by the painful ways this resonates with your own experiences. Or by an anger at inaction.

If the purpose of the church is that all may be unshackled, where do we begin? One thought, we can begin by truly seeing people. By seeing them in their struggle, in their suffering, in their desires, and their gifts.

This is grassroots work, because - we've been talking about layers - it gets down to a deeper layer. Down to giving people space to explore their own spirits within, which as we've seen in our story, can be complicated.

We must commit to understanding what freedom really means for each other, at our current point in time. We have to work with people wherever they're at, without imposing our assumptions about their circumstances, or our beliefs about where they should be, or our annoyances.

But if the purpose of the church is so all may be unshackled, this work is imperative. To be sure, it is not easy. It involves a lot of care and creativity, and patience. Sometimes earthquakes and hymns will do it, and sometimes not so much. It will engage our imagination. It will require a lot of us.

But the main objective is, at the end, we're all unshackled.

Copyright © 2022 by Alexis Lillie
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