Paul and the Slave Girl: What about me?

The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others.   ~Albert Schweitzer

Sharing the sermon I preached on Sunday, May 8, 2016 which was the 7th Sunday of Easter.   Our resurrection practice for the week is Compassion and we viewed our last Resurrection video from The Work of The People, "This is not the end," which featured Dwight Peterson, PHD, a terminally ill theologian.

Theologian on hospice, Dwight Peterson says, “It’s a painful world … but no matter how painful it is, God is always with me.”  He says, “Christianity doesn’t ignore the pain of the world, it goes through it and provides hope beyond it.  This world is not the end.”    

God loved the world so much,

that whoever believes in Jesus will have eternal life!

“This world is not the end.”  This is Good News, isn’t it? 

In his book Velvet Elvis, Rob Bell says, “If the gospel isn't good news for everybody, then it isn't good news for anybody.”  He goes on to say that, “It is when the church gives itself away in radical acts of service and compassion, expecting nothing in return, that the way of Jesus is most vividly put on display.”  

For me, the intersection of Dwight Peterson’s story and these radical acts of “compassion” that Rob Bell talks about and then moving into our scripture passage from Acts this morning … the commonality I find to connect the three of these is “pain.”

How many of us have not felt the searing pain of loss in our lives … loss of persons we love, loss of homes to natural disaster such and flooding or fire, loss of jobs and livelihood, loss of marriage due to divorce … etc.    During our healing process, questions emerge.  Why God Why?  Looking for reasons that we are suffering … we blame ourselves, we blame God, we blame others, it’s natural and normal and as Dwight Peterson says, “Part of being a Christian is giving our whole selves to God.”  In our pain we can experience the comfort of God for God is the one who comforts us in all our troubles so that we may be able to comfort those experiencing any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.2 Corinthians 1:4

Through our pain and our suffering, seeds of compassion are planted which take root in our soul and invite us to reach out in radical acts of hospitality and welcoming the unseen … the stranger, even the stranger within.   Our pain and suffering enable us over time to suffer “with” others as they suffer, which is the theological meaning of compassion.  It’s not feeling sorry for them, it’s not offering platitudes and empty promises.   It is the ability to see them, to really “see” them, to see their humanity, to see their suffering, and to be moved by it and to enter into it, this is the resurrection practice of compassion that results in radical acts of service to others … 

And with that I want to walk into a small portion of the scripture passage this morning … just 3 verses.  I’m reading from NET, the New English Translation:

^{Now as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave girl met us who had a spirit that enabled her to foretell the future by supernatural means. She brought her owners a great profit by fortune-telling.   She followed behind Paul and us and kept crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.”  She continued to do this for many days. But Paul became greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” And it came out of her at once.}

Let’s look at the Arc of Story within which this passage rests … Here is a link to read Acts 16 on Biblegateway.  After you take the link, you can choose your version if you prefer a different take.  Here is a synopsis:

• Paul meets Lydia.  She and her household were saved and baptized
• Encounter with Slave girl, Paul calls spirit out of her
• Owners were angry, deceitfully had Paul and Silas stripped, beaten and arrested 
• As the jailer slept they sang hymns/jailer slept through an earthquake that set them free … 
• When he awoke and saw the cell doors open he knew he would be killed if they were gone so he was about to kill himself 
• Paul said, “don’t kill yourself, we are here.”  
• They went to his house, his whole family was saved and baptized.

Within this large arc in which Lydia and her household were saved and baptized at the beginning and the Jailer and his household were saved and baptized at the end, you have the small but powerful and painful story of a young slave-girl who wasn’t saved and wasn’t baptized.  Paul, who so carefully shared the good news with Lydia and the Jailer and their families, didn’t “see” this young slave girl.  He didn’t even speak to her; he spoke to the spirit within her in what felt like an off-handed afterthought based upon his annoyance, much like we would swat a fly.   

Her owners objectified her and treated her as a commodity, as less than a human being but did Paul treat her any better?    Paul was not moved to compassion for this suffering young girl.  

We may be tempted to conclude that as a result of the exorcism Paul performed, the slave girl is free.  But free for what?  

Subject to the absolute power of their owners, slaves were dispensable in a slave society and female slaves doubly so.   While we will never know what happened to this slave girl, I think it is safe to say that when her angry owners were finished with Paul and Silas, they returned to her.   

Why would they not?  She was their property and she was now useless for making money the way she was before.  I can only wonder at how she made money for them after she was stripped of the spirit that inhabited her.   

When I read these few verses and enter into the narrative, I can her the young slave girl crying out in her pain, “What about me?”

As I sit with her in the silence of my thoughts, I wonder, “Who are the nameless ones we don’t ‘see’ in our midst?”

When I first began listening to clients at the West Houston Assistance Ministry as their Tuesday Chaplain, I once spent an afternoon listening to a young woman.  She told a very confusing story that I didn’t understand.  We cried together and we prayed together but I felt our time was very unresolved.   Knowing today some of the things I didn’t know them, I believe she was a victim of human trafficking.  Did you know that Houston is a major hub for human trafficking, which is modern day slavery?   

Dwight Peterson says, “It’s a painful world … but no matter how painful it is, God is always with us.  Christianity doesn’t ignore the pain of the world, it goes through it and provides hope beyond it.”  How can we “be” hope?

Can we open up our hearts large enough to practice radical compassion, to follow the way of Jesus and “be” hope for our neighbors, expecting nothing in return?

Called to BE a Living Sacrifice

Paul was originally Saul of Tarsus, a man relentlessly bent on destroying the fledgling Christian community before he was touched by God and came to know Jesus Christ through the Spirit.  After his transformation he became an "apostle," ἀπόστολος, apóstolos, a Greek word which means messenger, or one who is "sent" with a message. 

Paul grew to be a man who worked constantly and tirelessly to lead people to see Jesus Christ, to welcome him into their hearts and lives, and to understand what he meant for the world beyond Judaism.  His letter to the Romans is his most theologically complete because he is not writing to a community that he knows intimately like the Corinthians or the Galatians.  Because he has not lived with them and taught them the precepts of Christianity himself, he more firmly connects the dots for us in his belief system.  The letter to the Romans contains many lovely phrases which appeal to me and invite me to ponder about the way I live my life. 

In this week's reading I find something truly evocative about the phrase and the call to BE a "living sacrifice."  At the time, sacrifice for the Jewish people had more physical meaning than it does for us today.  In Jewish history, perhaps as recent as 70 AD when the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, animal sacrifice was literal.  Many persons see the crucifixion of Christ on the cross as the final "sacrifice."  Paul epitomized this sacrificial sense of living for God, embodied it by living for others to the fullest, and calls us to offer ourselves and the gifts we've been given in our own sacrificial ministry to the people of the world.

I invite you to spend a few moments considering the word “sacrifice” in the context of your world.  As you continue on, read and pray and listen and celebrate God’s Presence through the Word.  Breathe and settle into a place of openness within yourself with a simple breath prayer.  Use this one or create your own (six to eight syllables is good for beginning breath prayer but I’ve used more as I've breathing more deeply, you really have to learn to move with your own breathing patterns:)

Breathing in ... God of Refining Fire

Breathing out ... Transform me into a pleasing sacrifice

and when you are ready to move deeper into the text ... Pray: God of Transformation, change my heart as I read and pray your holy Word.  Inspire me to change my habits and my life as my awareness of your loving presence deepens.  Amen. 

Read Romans 12:1-8 (NET) slowly.   Immerse yourself in these holy words as you engage in Lectio Divina, which means sacred reading.  Allow yourself to be drawn deeply into God’s presence as you read and pray and listen.  Let the words wash over you and take you where God is leading you ...

Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice – alive, holy, and pleasing to God – which is your reasonable service. Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God – what is good and well-pleasing and perfect.  For by the grace given to me I say to every one of you not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, but to think with sober discernment, as God has distributed to each of you a measure of faith. For just as in one body we have many members, and not all the members serve the same function, so we who are many are one body in Christ, and individually we are members who belong to one another. And we have different gifts according to the grace given to us. If the gift is prophecy, that individual must use it in proportion to his faith. If it is service, he must serve; if it is teaching, he must teach; if it is exhortation, he must exhort; if it is contributing, he must do so with sincerity; if it is leadership, he must do so with diligence; if it is showing mercy, he must do so with cheerfulness.

Read the passage again slowly and Reflect ...
How does your word or phrase from this passage illuminate your life or the life of your community right now?  How is God inviting you to change or grow or pray or act?

Read the passage again slowly and Respond ...
What do you say to God about your life and how you feel you are being called in this moment?   How do you pray when you consider what God is saying to you?

Rest ...
Come to a place of silence within yourself and just "BE" with God.  Try for 10 minutes or beyond.

When you are ready to move on,  Pray:  O God, I don't really know what it means to be a living sacrifice but I want to know and to BE that for you. Call me, lead me, guide me, love me until my whole BEing is pleasing and acceptable to you, for you are always my strength and forever my redeemer.   Amen.

If music is a pathway to God for you, take this link to youtube, watch the video and listen to Refiner’s Fire, a song by Brian Doekson, sung by Hillsong.  

God's Growing Servants

Last week Jesus told us that we are salt of the earth and light of the world.  These were 2 image-rich ways he talked about discipleship.  This week Paul tells us that we are growing plants.  And we have to start somewhere!  He begins by telling the Corinthians what they aren’t – mature Christians.  In essence he calls them babies in the faith.  This is not something that we enjoy hearing.  How do we know we are babies, in need of “milk” and not “solid food?”   We can check our attitude.  Are we prone to “jealousy and quarreling?”  Are we more interested in following our worship leaders than we are in following God?  If so, we may suffer from immaturity.    Paul does love mixing his metaphors … feeding babies to nurturing a garden … planting seeds, watering, and growing plants.  And how does our garden grow?  God.  Paul says, “Only God gives the growth.”  

One of the best ways to draw closer to God the Master Gardener is to pray with nature.  When I pray with nature, I take a contemplative walk with all of my senses.  Why not open the door and step out into the world.  Is there a park nearby or a lovely garden, a pond or a fountain?   As you walk, notice, simply notice and wonder as you wander :)  Notice the beauty of your surroundings as you walk.   Notice those things that mar the beauty as well.   Can you hear the breeze moving through the trees?  Can you hear the secrets that trees tell?   

The Wesley Center, Woodworth, LA

When you go back the way you came and arrive back at your starting point, you may be intensely drawn to the biblical text.  However, you may want to spend some time simply remembering how you noticed the presence of God on your walk and that is quite natural.  Spend time in rest and wonder … 

When you are ready to enter and pray with the biblical text through "Lectio Divina," begin by praying for illumination of the text ... God of Nature and Beauty, I am ready to grow.  Speak to my heart as I read and pray with your Word.  I want to be your servant, whole and complete.  Amen.   

Step 1:  Read 1 Corinthians 3:1-9 slowly and reverently ...What word or phrase calls for your attention in your reading?  Spend a few moments pondering how God, through the words of Paul to the Corinthian church may be inviting you through your word or phrase ... 

And so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.  I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready, for you are still of the flesh. For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations?  For when one says, "I belong to Paul," and another, "I belong to Apollos," are you not merely human?  What then is Apollos? What is Paul?  Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each.  I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.  So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.  The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each.  For we are God's servants, working together; you are God's field, God's building.

Step 2:  Read the passage again and Reflect ...
How does your word or phrase from this passage illuminate your life or the life of your community right now?  How is God inviting you to change or grow or pray or act?

Step 3:  Read the passage again and Respond ...
What do you say to God about your life and how you feel you are being called to grow into a mature Christian person?   How do you pray when you consider what God is saying to you?

Step 4:  Rest ...
Come to a place of silence within yourself and just "be" with God.  Try for 10 minutes or beyond. When you are ready to move on,  pray:

God, Master Gardener of my Spiritual Life, the seeds have been firmly planted.  Pour you living water upon the garden of my soul and help me grow strong and reliant on prayer and your Presence.  Amen.  

There is a beautiful song called Hymn of Promise.  It is often played at funerals so many people have that sense of it ... I just find it hopeful and encouraging.  If music is a pathway for you, take a few moments to listen and view the lovely nature scenes that have been chosen.  Know ... that who we really are at our most whole, who God created us to be, fully grown and mature is "unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see."