The story of the Apostle Paul
exorcising the slave girl sets the stage for his and Silas’ arrest in the city
of Philippi. Growing frustrated with the
slave girl’s constant harping of Paul and Silas’ ministry by pointing out that
the two of them were offering “the way to be saved”, Paul turns
and demands that the spirit filling the woman remove itself from her
immediately . . . of which, it does.
With the spirit went the slave girl’s ability to predict the
future. This did not make her owners, of
whom were quite wealthy thanks to her fortune-telling gift, happy as they
suddenly lost their “cash cow”. Angry
with Paul and Silas at ruining their business, they had the two of them
arrested . . . all of which sets up the rest of the story.
The rest of the story is that Paul and
Silas are dragged before the magistrates, beaten, and thrown in jail. Later that night—around midnight—the two of
them are singing and praying in their jail cell when an earthquake
happens. The earthquake shakes the cell
doors open and unbounding the chains . . . definitely a heavenly opportunity
for Paul, Silas, and the rest of the prisoners to walk out to their
freedom. But, they were not the only
ones touched by the earthquake. The
jailer, who had been sleeping, was woken up . . . surveying what had happened,
he realized what an opportunity this was for the prisoners and he expected the
worse . . . that the prisoners had all escaped.
Thinking the worse the jailer was about ready to kill himself, but Paul
spoke up and let him know that everyone was still there in their cells.
Discovering Paul’s words were true,
the jailer falls down before the two evangelists and asks what he must do to be
saved. The scene turns out to be a
regular jailhouse conversion . . . the jailer follows the evangelists’
instructions, believes in Jesus, and is converted. But, the story does not end there as the
jailer takes Paul and Silas to his house, shows them hospitality, and in return
have all the members of his household baptized and saved.
Pretty dramatic story . . . with a
great ending . . . but, one has to wonder . . . whatever happened to the slave
girl in the story? Whatever became of
the character in the story that got the whole ball rolling in the first place? What became of the slave girl?
We don’t know.
Nowhere in the scriptures are we told
what happened to the slave girl who is freed of her controlling spirit. Because she is no longer useful to her
masters, do they sell her off or do they set her free? Do they continue to keep her enslaved and
repurpose her? Is she killed? We don’t know because there is nothing
written. We want to assume the best, but
we wonder about the worse for this slave girl.
What we do know is that she is the “impetus”—the spark—that gets the
story moving towards the saving of the jailer and his household.
The word “impetus” means “a moving
force; impulse; stimulus.” As I said,
the spark that gets a fire going. The
slave girl is the impetus that gets this story going as she is so irritating to
Paul that he exorcizes the spirit from her.
Like dominoes falling in a row, this leads to the arrest of Paul and
Silas, the two of them being thrown into jail, the earthquake, and the
salvation story of the jailer and his household. But, there is also another “impetus”—another
spark—to this story!
The earthquake!
The slave girl got Paul and Silas to
jail, but it is the earthquake that get the ball rolling for the jailer. Until that earthquake, the jailer was not
even concerned with Paul and Silas . . . shoot, he was sleeping. But, boy did things start moving once the
rumbling and shaking was all said and done.
The jailer recognized the potential problems . . . all the prisoners
could escape . . . and, thinking he was too late, he decided it would be better
to take his own life than to face up to the magistrates who would certainly be
unhappy.
Luckily Paul’s words of reassurance
saved the jailer’s life. I imagine that
the jailer put two and two together to realize that the earthquake was some
sort of a miracle . . . and, that among all the prisoners, Paul and Silas were
pretty special. This sparks the interest
in the salvation message the evangelists have been sharing . . . it sparks the
conversion of the jailer and then his family.
It brings the jailer and his household into the fold of those who
believe . . . who are a part of the “Way” . . . the way of Jesus.
Within each of our lives there has
been some sort of impetus or spark that brought us to our faith. For about six months now, on Saturday
mornings, the Billings Gazette has been publishing stories of people’s
conversions to their faith. Stories
about how they came into a relationship with Jesus. For example, yesterday’s story was written
and shared by a Mennonite pastor who talked about how his impetus towards
following Jesus came from a conversation he had with a friend at the age of 13. It came about with an innocent question that
his friend asked, “Have you ever thought about where you are going after you
die?” From that question his friend
introduced him to Jesus.
Another story on that page shared how
one of the Methodist ministers in Billings found an impetus in her family’s
history of mental illness to spark a ministry of reaching out to those who
suffer from this debilitating handicap.
Last week, at our annual meeting of
the Christian Church in Montana, those in attendance heard story after story
about how their faith and their call to mission . . . their call to ministry .
. . was all started with a spark or impetus in their own lives. One speaker shared how her son’s suicide
sparked a ministry of suicide prevention. Another shared how a prejudiced attack upon
the homes of residents in the community because of their race and religion
sparked not only him, but a whole community, to rise up to create a ministry of
justice and equality. Another shared
how, through a single phone call from a leader of white supremacy group—wanting
to get out of that group, sparked a ministry to fight racism and hate through
the art project born out of the use of group’s own writings. And, there were many other stories shared by
those who were sparked to move with the Spirit towards ministries helping
others.
Within all of our lives we have
experienced something that has made us move in certain directions . . . even in
directions when it comes to our faith.
And, I imagine, if you are like me, sometimes you have allowed that
impetus to start a fire . . . and, sometimes, you have ignored it and hoped
that it would go away. But, we have all
experienced it within our lives and within our journey of faith . . . of
walking with Jesus. The truth of the
matter is . . . if it is of God’s will, that spark—that impetus—is not going to
go away. It is going to keep showing up
. . . and showing up . . . until we stop and explore it.
That is what we must do . . . we must
explore those little and big moments in our lives when the spark flashes in our
lives. We must explore it with our whole
being . . . body, mind, and soul. We
must pray about it . . . discern about it . . . and, we must fan the spark to
create the fire. We must do it because
we never know where that impetus will lead . . . we never know whose life it
will touch.
Paul never expected the turn of events
when he spoke out to silence the spirit infecting the slave girl. He never had any clue that he would be thrown
in prison . . . that a miracle would occur in an earthquake . . . or that a
whole household would come into relationship with Jesus.
The jailer never expected that his
whole life and direction would change with an earthquake.
None of them ever expected any of the
things that changed their lives in this story . . . from a little spark to a
raging fire.
So, it makes me think . . . optimist
that I am . . . that things worked out for that slave girl. That, having been freed of the spirit that
controlled her life, she discovered her freedom . . . that she embraced the God
who had freed her . . . and, that she, too, had given herself over to Jesus and
his ways. I think that that exorcism was
the spark that changed her life . . . but, we will never know for certain. We can only hope.
The saying is that it only takes a
spark to get a fire going . . . within our lives, within our congregation, and
beyond. May our thoughts and prayers on
this passage truly be an impetus upon our lives and faith . . . may we start a
fire. Amen.
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