Acts 16.16-34, John 17.20-26
I decided to wear black today in mourning over the cancellation of the television series Law and Order. For undisclosed reasons, NBC decided that it was time to pull the plug after only 20 seasons and 456 episodes. When I first heard the news on Friday, I thought I misheard but later I received confirmation from the Law and Order facebook fan club. I have always been a fan of
murder mysteries, thrillers, and courtroom dramas. The twist and turns of detective stories often capture my attention and a talented suspense writer or director is almost always successful in reeling me into a plot. One such movie based on a television series that I have always enjoyed; I actually have it on VHS, which does me no good anymore, is The Fugitive. The movie, starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones, was a blockbuster in the early 90’s based on the 1960’s television series.
The plot of The Fugitive may be familiar to you. The opening scenes are of the murder of Dr. Richard Kimball’s wife at their Chicago home. The audience knows that Dr. Kimball is innocent from these opening scenes because an anonymous one-armed man kills her and then fights Dr. Kimball before getting away. The authorities didn’t believe Dr. Kimball’s story and several key pieces of evidence point to his guilt. He was convicted and sentenced to death by lethal injection. In transit to the penitentiary, another prisoner, most likely guilty, attacks the guard and the bus careens off the road and down a steep embankment. Dr. Kimball rescues the injured guard, cares for his wounds, and jumps from the bus seconds before a train hits it. The scenes in the movie are slightly more exciting then that last sentence conveys. Dr. Kimball flees the situation relatively unscathed. The ensuing drama, and the majority of the movie, is the search for Kimball led by Tommy Lee Jones’ US Marshall Samuel Gerard.
Kimball experiences a series of close calls because instead of seeking low profile escape routes, he maneuvers around Chicago hospitals and other well known venues seeking to prove his innocence by finding the “one-armed” man who he wrestled at the murder scene. Along the way, Kimball cares for people in need and discovers the sinister plot of his supposed colleague and friend. His pursuit for justice and his acts of kindness and charity in helping others ultimately convinces Gerard that Kimball may actually be innocent.
This is, of course, a fictional action and adventure story that is written to grab our attention and carry our imaginations. But we cheer for Kimball as he seeks justice in the face of unforgiving and unrelenting power because even if we have not been wrongly convicted in a court of law, most of us have experienced unfounded accusations and have been figuratively imprisoned for truly unwarranted reasons. And if given the chance and the opportunity we would do almost anything to prove that innocence to others and if our bonds of captivity were miraculously broken, we would flee to freedom.
Today’s lesson from the Acts of the Apostles tells of another unjust imprisonment with an unforeseen response. The story begins with Paul and Silas preaching and teaching in Philippi to new converts of a very early Christian community. Yes, these are the same people that Paul would later write while in another prison cell calling the Philippians to remember the essentials of their beliefs. As they were making their way around the community, a slave girl, possessed by an evil spirit, followed them around crying out that Paul and Silas were “slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.”
I don’t think Paul and Silas would have disagreed with her statement but they were annoyed that she kept stalking them. So Paul turned and said, “ I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And whatever possessed her left her body and she became well. The slave girl’s owner was angry because a crazy girl was a profitable asset, perfect for exploitation. The owner complained to the authorities and Paul and Silas were publicly humiliated, flogged and thrown into the innermost jail cell where they were confined in stocks. This was quite a punishment for making a girl well.
Paul and Silas are not reported to have questioned their guilt. Paul was a Roman citizen but he did not claim his rights. They seemed to accept the unjust sentence. While prisoners, Paul and Silas prayed and sang. The other prisoners listened to them and came to believe. Then there was an earthquake. We know about earthquakes because of the destruction that they can cause even in today’s modern world. This earthquake was advantageous to Paul and Silas. It broke the locks and unfastened the chains. It was like the bus accident in The Fugitive that gave Richard Kimball his great escape. This was a prime opportunity for the innocent Paul and Silas to slip from captivity and continue their ministry but instead of fleeing to freedom, Paul and Silas remained in their cell and convinced the other prisoners to do the same. When the jailer arrived and saw the prison doors open and expecting that his prisoners had escaped, he reached for his sword to take his life because that was the result of failure, in his world. It was easier to accept death than face the consequences for allowing his charges to escape. Paul and Silas stopped him saying, “Don’t worry, we all are still here.”
The guard came to know that Paul and Silas, these two early Christian missionaries, could give him something. He asked, “What do I need for salvation?” and Paul and Silas responded, “Believe on the Lord Jesus.” And from that day forward, the guard knew that God’s grace was with him and his family. Instead of living to be perfect, he could live without fear.
We often live like that guard once did. We are often confused by our responsibilities in faith. We come to believe that we must sacrifice ourselves to prove God. We believe that if we do this, and that, and these other things, that we will prove ourselves to God and we will therefore be worthy of God’s grace. We beat ourselves up when we fail and we attempt to fill our résumé with all our good deeds. We defend our record and rush toward freedom. We, like Dr. Richard Kimball, risk everything to prove that we are worthy of God.
But in Jesus’ prayer that we overhear in the 17th chapter of John’s gospel, we hear what Jesus hopes for his disciples, as well as “those who believe in me through their word.” That is all of us. Jesus’ hope is that people who believe through him would realize the common purpose of all people. Jesus hopes that people will see through his example that God, Jesus and all people are one. A hope that in working together, in serving others, in being slaves of God, in passing up individual freedom, one can realize that we are in God and God is in us. That God forgives, is compassionate, and loves all of us equally.
In hearing about the unjust imprisonment of Paul and Silas and Jesus’ prayer on behalf of the future church, we come to realize that when things aren’t right, when things are stacked against us, when we aren’t free, when we have given up on God, God is still with us. We find that God’s grace is not based on the résumés we build or the number of services we attend. God’s love is always and everywhere. We serve, worship and pray not to earn God’s grace but to respond to all that God gives to us.
We will never grasp the wholeness of God but then God gives us an opportunity to become whole. Don’t wait for the perfect time and place, don’t expect a miracle to open up an opportunity for ministry. Remember to respond to God on the margins, in the nooks and crannies, in the secret recesses of existence because that is where we will spend most of our lives.
Know that God’s Holy Spirit gives strength in even these most trying times. Trust, serve, believe. Amen.
The Rev. Dr. Kurt Gerhard - kurt@stpatrickschurchdc.org
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