Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
Conversion of the Jailer
Studies for "The Conversion of the Jailer before Saint Paul and Silas" by Nicholas Plattemontagnue (1631 - 1706). Image gifted to Wikimedia Commons by the Museum of Metropolitan Art in New York City.
The epistle readings for the week of July 31 in the Daily Lectionary of The Book of Common Prayer have taken us through Acts 16. It is filled with many relevant insights. Today, I focus on the fact that Paul and Silas got into trouble when the owners of the slave girl "realized that their hope for making money was gone" after Paul delivered her from the spirit that possessed her (v. 19 CEB).
We are typically tolerant of religion until it calls our economic values into question. Talk to any pastor and they will tell you that there are times in the church when preaching the Gospel without upsetting the "big givers" is difficult. Leaders at other Christian institutions are especially careful not to offend major donors. And these donors, in whatever context, know they have a lot of power, particularly if they threaten to stop giving and leave if things don't go as they like.
But as the action of Paul revealed, the Gospel is about healing people, not pleasing the "big givers." The Gospel is not applied in relation to the question, "What will people think about me if I do this?", but rather in relation to the question, "What will God think of me if I don't?"
Paul and Silas paid a price for their faithfulness. The local moguls found them guilty of "causing an uproar in our city"--the Gospel is not supposed to do that, you know! It is supposed to do nothing other than confirm the status quo, blessing and prospering "business as usual." We see this mindset in spades today in both the church and society. Paul and Silas were in the cross-hairs of such thinking. They had to go.
But their conviction was not an ending, it was the beginning of an unexpected turn of events that resulted in the conversion of the jailer and his entire family. We never know how our faithfulness will set other things in motion. But we know that when some people are done with us, it does not mean that God is.
I know this to be true from firsthand experience.
The Rev. Dr. J. Steven Harper is a spiritual director, retired seminary professor, speaker and author of several books on spiritual formation. This post is reprinted with the author's permission from his Facebook page.