Singing Hymns in Prison—Lectionary Reflection for Easter 7C (Acts 16:16-34)
Acts 16:16-34 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
16 One day as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a female slave who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. 17 While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” 18 She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.
19 But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. 20 When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, “These men, these Jews, are disturbing our city 21 and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us, being Romans, to adopt or observe.” 22 The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods. 23 After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely. 24 Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was an earthquake so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened. 27 When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he supposed that the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted in a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” 29 The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 Then he brought them outside and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 They answered, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay. 34 He brought them up into the house and set food before them, and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God.
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Eastertide
is coming to an end. Throughout this season, according to the Revised Common
Lectionary, the first reading from scripture comes from the Book of Acts.
Eastertide focuses our attention on the resurrection of Jesus, since it is
foundational to the Christian faith, since it is the resurrection of Jesus that
provides the church’s message. Yes, Jesus was crucified and buried, as the
Creed puts it, but on the third day he rose from the dead. Eastertide concludes
with the celebration of Christ’s ascension, bringing to a close his earthly
journey, such that churches could easily celebrate Ascension Sunday. Whichever
text one chooses, whether this reading from Acts 16 or perhaps the reading from
Acts
1:1-11, which describes Christ’s ascension, we would be amiss if we didn’t take
note of the commission Jesus gave to his followers prior to his departure but
before the Day of Pentecost: “But you
will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my
witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth”
(Acts
1:8). It is this commission that undergirds the ministry of Paul and his
team, as described here in Acts 16.
Our
reading places Paul and his team in Philippi. They had traveled to this Macedonian
city after Paul received a vision of the “man from Macedonia,” who asked them
to come over from Asia Minor (Anatolia) and preach the gospel. They embraced
the request and found themselves in Philippi, the leading city in the region.
Though named for Philip of Macedon, Alexander the Great’s father, it was at
that time a Roman colony. While there, Paul encountered a Jewish woman named
Lydia, who embraced Paul’s message, and was baptized with her household, and welcomed
Paul and his team to stay with her (Acts
16:9-15). This story of Paul’s
arrival in Philippi, which was the reading for the prior week, sets the scene
for what happens in our reading.
If we
use Acts 1:8 as the guiding text for reading the Book of Acts, the good news
has spread from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria, and now is moving outward toward
the ends of the earth. Paul has achieved his first conversion on European soil
with the baptism of Lydia and her household. Now, Paul and the team are heading
to the place where the city’s Jews gathered for prayer. (Note that the narrator
uses “we” here, which has led to the belief that Luke is letting the reader
know that he is part of Paul’s entourage.) Since the Jewish community in
Phillipi was small, they couldn’t create a true synagogue. Instead, they
gathered down by the river, with Lydia serving as one of the leaders. As they
made their way to the place of prayer, a slave girl who had the spirit of divination
followed Paul and his companions, shouting after them, announcing that they
were “slaves of the Most High.” She did this every day, which ultimately
annoyed Paul enough that he ordered the spirit of divination to depart from
her. That is what happened. While this annoyance had ended, it led to trouble.
Not only was this woman possessed by this spirit of divination, which revealed
Paul’s status as a slave of the Most High, but she was the property of owners
who exploited her for their profit. They weren’t happy with what Paul did. So, the
owners dragged Paul and his ministry partner, Silas, before the authorities and
accused them of being Jews who were disturbing the peace by “advocating customs
that are not lawful for us as Romans.” In other words, they were troublemakers
who needed to be stopped. A crowd joined in, attacking Paul and Silas. The
authorities responded by stripping them of their clothing, beating them with
rods, and throwing them in jail. They ordered the jailer to make sure they were
securely imprisoned. Thus, they were placed in the innermost part of the jail,
with their feet shackled.
It is
clear that the authorities believed Paul and Silas posed a serious threat to
the public good. As for Paul and Silas, despite the arrest and beating, they
were undeterred. Thus, around midnight, Paul and Silas were singing hymns to
God and praying. In other words, they were sharing in a service of worship in
prison. Everyone who was imprisoned with them was listening to these apparent
joyous sounds of praise to God. At that moment, an earthquake hit, violently
shaking the foundations of the prison and opening the doors, while also freeing
them from their shackles. As we ponder what happened in the prison, as Paul and
Silas worshiped God, Willie James Jennings connects worship, prayer, and
singing to freedom and the concerns of those who have experienced torture and
imprisonment.
Praying and singing join us to tortured and chained bodies, both past and present, and to the real pressure placed on disciples’ bodies as they look toward God. Praying and singing are acts of joining that weave our voices and words with the desperate of this world who cry out to God day and night. Each time we gather in the name of Jesus and lift our voices, this point of reference should shape our reverence and drive us to see and learn and know and change the situations of those who suffer, especially in that holy name. Each time we pray and sing, we are also joined to the shouts of joy and praise to a God who saves and delivers and invites us to take hold of divine power by faith. [Acts: Belief, p. 164].
Worship is not self-centered. Rather, as Jennings notes, it should
connect us to those who suffer. Paul and Silas’ prison experience connected
them to Jesus’ experiences as he approached death. While they would be set
free, it was in the midst of suffering that they worshipped God and found
liberation.
So,
with the doors open and the stocks broken, they were free to go, but for some
reason, they chose not to leave. When the jailer was awakened by the quake, he
saw that the doors of the jail were open. Assuming the prisoners in his charge
had escaped, he decided to kill himself. Better to take his own life than
submit to worse punishment from his superiors. Fortunately for him, Paul
shouted at him, letting him know that they were all still in their cells. The jailer
responded by calling for lights and rushed in, falling at the feet of Paul and
Silas. When he brought them outside the prison, he asked them what he needed to
do to be saved.
Paul
responded to the jailer’s question by telling him to “believe in the Lord
Jesus.” If they did this, then he and his household would be saved. With that,
they shared the good news with the man and his household. The man responded by washing
the wounds of Paul and Silas, after which the man and his entire household were
baptized. After that, the man took them to his house, where he fed them. As for
this Gentile family, they rejoiced that they had become believers in God.
There
is more to the story because the next morning, the magistrate sent word to have
Paul and Silas released. However, Paul wasn’t finished with the authorities,
who failed to give them due process. The authorities assumed Paul and Silas were
nothing more than foreign troublemakers. They never bothered to ask whether
Paul was a citizen of Rome. Citizens were guaranteed due process. In other
words, uncondemned citizens were not to be imprisoned and beaten. But the
authorities didn’t bother to ask. So, the authorities in this case were quite embarrassed
(as they should be) and apologized. They also asked Paul and Silas to leave the
city, which they did after they went once more to the house of Lydia, where
they encouraged their Christian siblings before heading off to the next town.
We have
not yet reached the Day of Pentecost, but we do see here what happened as the
followers of Jesus embraced the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit and
fulfilled their calling, as Jesus revealed to them before his ascension. Our ministries
in the world are grounded in our worship of the living God. So, we sing:
My life flows
on in endless song, above earth’s lamentation.
I hear the
clear, though far off hymn that hails a new creation.
No storm can shake my inmost
calm while to that rock I’m clinging
Since love is Lord of heav’n and
earth, how can I keep from singing?
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