Sunday Stretch: Vol. 128, Easter 7

Start off your week with a grounded take on Bible, prayer, the world, and your life ...

Hi Readers,

The season of Lent is six weeks long, and I always forget that the official Easter season in the church is actually often longer, such that we are now in Week 7 of Easter! I think it’s important to say here that, just as often as we neglect the season of spiritual solemnity, repentance, asceticism, and reflection that is Lent - we also often neglect dwelling in the joy, promise, and celebration of resurrection that is Easter!

So here we are. Another week of Easter. Another week to remember God’s grace-filled promises. The texts this week are filled with truth, hardship, grace, and joy. Let’s get to them!

Bible Stories

Acts 16:16-34

Acts 16:16 One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl 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^a a 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.

Acts 16:19 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 are disturbing our city; they are Jews ²¹ and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as 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.

Acts 16:25 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^a 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 on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” ³² They spoke the word of the Lord^a 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.

When I read this text, I always remember one of the very first sermons I ever preached. It was during seminary, prior to internship, at a small mission plant congregation in the Minneapolis suburbs. It’s funny the way that memory works. Sadly, I don’t remember a lot about the actual worship service that day. I do remember the incredible amount of sermon prep I did leading up to the service, and I do remember the words of wisdom shared with me from the pastor who’d invited me to preach (prophetically, he suggested I’d do much better once I learned not to be tied to a written manuscript).

Learning to preach took a little while for me. I came to seminary already with lots of experience as a journalist and occasional public speaker in the realm of sports, mostly. I knew I could write. But preaching a good sermon is very different than writing a good article.

Immediately when I read this Acts text I was called and convicted by Paul’s words from verse 28: “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”

As longtime Sunday Stretch readers know well, I’m often struck by different parts of passages each time I read them. But this one always sticks for me on those words. They’re words that speak deeply into pits of despair, depression, hopelessness. A reminder, I believe, for the Church and for all of us who (in the words of the Road to Emmaus) have come to believe in the promise of the Gospel. Even amidst all the sin and trauma and failings of the Church and religion, we are still here. We are still trying to learn and love, and do justice, and be merciful: to one another and to ourselves. Thank God for the reminder of our shared holy presence.

Questions to Ponder

Verse 18 says Paul was “annoyed.” What do you think he was annoyed about? How do you think he viewed the enslaved girl who was being exploited and abused by her masters?

Who do the masters represent in this story? Do things like this still happen today? In what way?

The miracle of this story is one that Jesus promised was at the very heart of his ministry: those who were imprisoned were set free. How does this contrast with prominent cultural messaging about “criminals” and “prisoners?”

Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21

Rev. 22:12 “See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work. ¹³ I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

Rev. 22:14 Blessed are those who wash their robes,^a so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates.