We live in a time when American citizenship and patriotism are too often wedded to Christian discipleship, or at least confused with discipleship. So, when I read theologian, Willie James Jennings, commentary on today’s reading from Acts, I found it very helpful. He writes:
The church has always been tempted to confuse citizenship with discipleship. The citizen who is a disciple can no longer be a citizen in the abstract, no longer a citizen in theory but only in the concrete practice of a disciple. The disciple is a citizen who has had their citizenship tightly bound to the body of Jesus and ordered by the Spirit of God toward one purpose – to expose the concealed architecture of oppression and violence and to set the captives free. A citizen may do other things to promote the well-being of the republic. Yet the disciple must never forget the site from which they are obligated to think citizenship: the prison and the places of the oppressed.
Throughout history, disciples of Jesus have worked to expose oppression and violence while concretely attempting to set the captives free through subversive actions and activities like advocacy, walking with the oppressed, working for justice and peace, prayer, worship and, yes, the singing of hymns. You see, 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. We see this subversive action as we read about the history of slaves in this country who sang spirituals while seeking freedom. We saw this during the Civil Rights Movement as people sang, and still sing, songs like We Shall Overcome. 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 from injustice. Actions and activities like advocacy, walking with the oppressed, working for justice and peace, prayer, worship and, yes, the singing of hymns are subversive actions, uniting us with the oppressed. They are concrete practices of discipleship as we work to bring about change within the established order by exposing the concealed architecture of oppression and violence. These actions nourish and compel us to work for justice. They enable God to work through us as God continues to set people free. And, quite honestly, these actions will almost always bring forth some form of repercussion because they disturb the status quo of orders and systems that are in place.
Much like the prophets who came before him, Jesus’ entire ministry was one that subverted the established order – not only the civil order of the day, but also the religious order as he set people free from oppression. Quite frankly, sharing and living the good news of Jesus has always been a subversive form of living because Jesus brings change. The gospel good news always turns our reality and thinking inside out and upside down. And, today we find Paul and Silas living into this aspect of a life of faith as we hear more about their adventures while spreading the good news of Jesus.
As Paul and Silas wander the streets of Philippi, they begin engaging people with the gospel and engaging the culture in significant ways. Last week we heard about their first encounter with Lydia who owned a thriving business in expensive purple cloth. Today we find Paul and Silas having an encounter with another business, one that is fueled by a woman’s brokenness and captivity. They encounter a slave girl who is possessed by a spirit not of God, but a spirit that could tell people’s fortunes. This girl’s supposed “gift” meant she was owned and used as a commodity, providing her owners with a small, profitable business. Finding herself drawn to Paul and Silas, she names who they are and what they are doing. Much like a broken record, she repeatedly shouts her message saying, “These men are slaves of the Most-High God, and they are telling you the way to be saved.” Well, Paul finally has enough and becomes annoyed. In frustration he turns around and performs an exorcism right there and then. And, as he releases this girl, freeing her from oppression, economics and religious convictions collide. The owners of the slave girl and this “Psychics-R-Us” business become furious because their lucrative income stream is now cut off. The economic system they had in place depended on her not being well. So, when she becomes well, the system goes into panic mode. Her owners gather the civic leaders to make sure they all understand the economic impact the actions of Paul and Silas are having on their lives. They complain to the authorities that Paul and Silas are political subversives, undermining Roman order.
The authorities agree that they are subversives. They then have Paul, who happened to be a Roman citizen as well as a Jew, and Silas arrested and beaten with rods for setting someone free, someone who had been captive to evil. They are shackled and thrown into prison. And what do they do? Of course, they have a hymn sing! This scene of their worshiping God is startling and surreal. Yet there is an organic connection between Jesus praying in the garden before his torture and Paul and Silas praying in the prison after their torture. This is prayer revealed at the site of suffering and rejection. This is prayer connected to the very body of Jesus. Shackled and imprisoned, Paul and Silas are living their faith and subversively praying and singing hymns. And, guess what? That is the character of those who are truly free. Paul and Silas are so centered in God and God’s dream for this world they are able to sing regardless of their circumstances. Their singing continues into the deepest darkness of midnight when, all of a sudden, the earth beneath them quakes so powerfully that their shackles fall off.
Paul and Silas truly experience the shaking of the very foundations on which they are sitting. And, as the earth quakes, the jailer awakes. He awakes to find the doors of the prison wide open. Terrified of what would happen to him when his superiors discover he has lost the prisoners; the jailer decides to kill himself. Paul stops him just in time, calling out to the jailer with words that stop him short saying, “Do not harm yourself; we are all here.” The jailer then asks one of Scripture’s most profound questions, “What must I do to be saved?”
Now, this jailer’s question is key to this whole narrative. Theologian Ronald Cole-Turner suggests, “Whenever the jailer’s question is asked, the obvious counter-question is, ‘Saved from what?’ Sword in hand, the jailer was probably thinking about how to be saved from the wrath of the authorities. However, his question has come to mean much more, depending on who is asking it… ‘What must I do to be saved from my particular bondage, the oppression of my addiction, my emptiness, or my boredom?’” What must we as a people do to be saved from the bondage and oppression of economic systems, the seduction of authoritarian power and the espoused hatred, bigotry, xenophobia and racism that spew forth in our present culture? How much of our economic system, our political system, our judicial system, our local governmental systems, and even our family systems are dependent upon so many of us not being well? The reality is that any system that operates without compassion and commitment for the good of all is not only broken, it puts people in bondage.
Paul’s answer to the jailer is deceptively simple as he takes the action to yet another level. His answer, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,” is an invitation to the jailer and each one of us to tune in to the level of God’s action in this world. As we tune in to God’s redeeming action and God’s storyline, we are grasped and taken into the gospel story of transformation and redemption. And, quite frankly, this tuning into God is also a subversive act, because to tune into Christ as the one with dominion in our life is to subvert whatever earthly powers claim the same dominion over our lives. To tune into Christ means letting the Spirit orient us toward one purpose – exposing the powers that oppress us and others, becoming free in Christ and living to set others free. To be a Christian is to be subversive. “The disciple of Jesus is a citizen who has had their citizenship tightly bound to the body of Jesus and ordered by the Spirit of God toward one purpose – to expose the concealed architecture of oppression and violence and to set the captives free.”
During the days of the Civil Rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool.” So, centered in God, in God’s dream for this world and, living in the reality of the living Christ, we subversively tune into God’s story of grace and redeeming love. And, like Paul and Silas, we subversively sing regardless of the circumstances, living into the discipleship to which we are called.