6-1-25                    Acts 16:16;  John 17:20

[Jesus prayed:] 20 “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24 Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
  25 “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

Open our eyes Lord, to see what is real and take up the challenge to deal with it. The grace of the Lord be with you.

It all begins with prayer. Jesus prayed for his apostles and for all those who would come to faith because of their witness. His prayer is that the love of God would become known and experienced in and through their lives and thereby be spread. The aim is to change the world, a very daunting assignment. Instead of promoting the world’s value of being the greatest, of advancing the ideal through competition, and utilizing power for the sake of control over others, Jesus asks that the world comes to know him as the ambassador of love. So He prayed: So that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. That continues to be the model for us to imitate. We are to begin with prayer, to seek the support and guidance of our Lord to show that love that has been given to us. We are to set aside the world’s directive and desires, to resist the temptation to appear greater than and instead serve one another. We are to put away our rivalries and cooperate with one another. We are to allow freedom to be exercised so creativity results.

We are given examples in our reading from Acts of how the early church took up this task. It was not a straightforward process yet with consistent efforts, piece by piece, meeting each challenge as they come the results appear. Again, the account begins with prayer as Paul and Silas go to that place where people would gather for prayer. No doubt they say their own prayers there and then pray for those who have come together in their need. But as they visit with the people, they are followed around by a slave-girl. When one considers the concept of freedom, she has none. Owned by others, and controlled by a spirit of divination, she has been used to make others rich. It does not sound like Paul responded to her out of kindness, nor even gave much consideration to her plight. It appears she did royally irritate him by following them around and calling them slaves, equating their own role with her situation. It was then that he calls on the name of Christ to free her from that spirit. Once she has been loosed from her bonds, Paul and Silas find themselves in trouble.

Suddenly the legal authorities get involved, as they are accused of “disturbing the city, with unlawful customs.” The owners of the slave-girl were furious because she no longer was a valuable commodity for them, since she no longer could tell accurate fortunes and they stir up a riot with the crowd. It was easy to get people excited and angered about those who seemed different and the magistrates went along. Paul and Silas are beaten, publicly humiliated and imprisoned.  Yet, even as they are chained in an innermost cell, they fell free to continue with their witness of Jesus. They go again to the solace of prayer and praising God through song. They probably sang their own version of ‘Amazing Grace.’ We are told the other prisoners were listening to this Jail House rock as Paul and Silas got into their worship. You can see from their example that true freedom becomes shown in how one responds to difficult circumstances and crises.

It is then a new challenge arises, an earthquake shakes the area. The extreme disruption of the ground causes the prison doors to open and even the shackles on the prisoners fall off. As the jailer awakens to this catastrophe, he assumes that all his prisoners have fled to freedom. Who wouldn’t? As he is about to end his life with his sword, Paul calls out to let him know that all the prisoners are accounted for and they all remain within. Evidently that Jailer had not been sleeping all the time, for he heard enough of what the men had been sharing to know that they served a God who was certainly generous with grace, if His followers were willing to care about the jailer who kept them locked away. Paul offers a new kind of freedom for this man, an empathy that extends even to one who was part of a system that took away their freedom.

The jailer’s coming to faith and baptism demonstrates that freedom can lead to a new joy in life and a desire to share that freedom with others. His whole household is added to the community of believers that day. The very one who had kept Paul and Silas chained up then offers care for their wounds and shares food with them.  You can imagine that this story caused others to be curious and subsequently to feel that freedom that faith brings. This church, that is established in Philippi, grows and later Paul writes to them in a letter we still have, words of encouragement to live out their newfound freedom gifted to them in Christ. 

In this life of ours there are many attacks on our freedom. There are those who want to impose their ideas, their standards, their expectations on you, not because those would be good for you but because it provides an advantage for them.  Rather like the slave-girl’s owner notion about their freedom. The jailer caught the spirit of freedom when he was able to tend the injury done to Paul and Silas and welcome them into his home. 

Barbara Kingsolver is a best-selling author. She determined that the devastating effects of the opioid crisis in Appalachia, needed more exposure and understanding. Her research took her to Lee County, Virginia, near to the area where she grew up. She spent hours with people listening to their stories of drug abuse and how it has affected their lives and families. Her book Demon Copperhead has been very successful. But that was not her only concern. She decided to use the royalties from that book to establish a Recovery Residence for women in Lee Country. The center will house 8 to 12 women recovering from drug addiction, giving them a place to live for up to two years, as well as counseling and other support and training. It seems in that community, everyone knows someone touched by the opioid epidemic. (Connections, May 2025)   You probably know some as well.

Barbara Kingsolver used her freedom to bring a witness of freedom to others. It is a work of love, the kind that comes from Christ. We are to use our talents, our efforts, in whatever way that comes to hand, to include others, bringing them into community so they can be set free. As Jesus prayed so long ago:  “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one.”  We unite with one another to support our freedom as children of God, to pass that freedom along to others and welcome them into our community of faith. It is ours because we are loved by our God and Lord.