Et Vous Païen, Et Vous

Last week, I preached that we are none of us alone. Each of us are connected to one another as a Christian community. I preached that the Christian community is not just for the Christian but the “un” as well. The care for both the Christian and the “un” in the Christian community is essential to being a Christian community. It is the understanding that if we have been created in God's image than the one who has yet decided to follow Jesus, is also created in God's image, thus we are tasked to care for them as well. It is the commandment Jesus gave of serving one another, serving your neighbor by loving them as you love yourself, loving your enemies and praying for those who persecute you. It is caring for all of humanity because humanity belongs to God, therefore we are tasked to care for your neighbor, for all of humanity. In our scripture story this morning shows us the importance of caring for our neighbor.

Paul and Silas are on their way to a place of prayer in Philippi when they run into some trouble. One day they meet a slave girl who had a spirit of divination, and she made her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and his companions around shouting, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim the way of salvation.” She kept doing this for many days until Paul becomes very annoyed with her and said to the spirit, “I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And at that moment, the spirit came out.

Sadly, when her owners saw that their hopes of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. Before the magistrates, they said, “These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe.” The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered to be beaten with rods. After they had given them a severe beating, they throw them in jail; ordering the jailer to keep them securely in the innermost cell.

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there is a violent earthquake that shakes the foundations of the prison; and immediately all the doors were open and everyone's chains were unfastened. When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he assumed that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted in a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself! We're all here!”

The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. Bringing them outside, he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They answered, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay. 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. (Acts 16:16-34).

After being beaten and thrown in jail, Paul and Silas are given an opportunity to escape. An earthquake violently shakes the foundations of the prison and the doors are open and the chains are broken. They could easily walk out, after all, it is highly justifiable to believe God sent the earthquake (though it is not in the text). Instead they stay put. All of them. All the prisoners and by staying put, they save the jailer's life. The jailer draws out his sword to take his life because if the prisoners had escaped, his life was forfeited. In what we see as a moment of compassion by Paul, he cries out to him not to take his life for they are all still there. It is a moment in which the Christian reaches out to the “un” and bears the “un's” burdens. Paul does not allow the stranger, the “un” to take his life. Paul knows the laws and customs and he bears the jailer's burdens by staying.

Remember, the Christian community is called to a life of three services: Attentive listening, active helpfulness, and bearing with others (Bear one another's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” Gal. 6:2). Thus Paul demonstrates to us the importance of the Christian community bearing their neighbor. Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes, “Thus the law of Christ is a law of forbearance. Forbearance means enduring and suffering. The other person is a burden to the Christian, in fact for the Christian most of all. The other person never becomes a burden at all for the pagans. They simply stay clear of every burden the other person may create for them” (Bonhoeffer, Life Together, pg 100).

Paul and Silas' decision to stay and bear the jail is an example we are bound to follow. If forbearance is the law of Christ, as Christ forbear humanity and suffered the cross, than we too must bear the burdens of others so that they may become a part of the Christian community. The jailer finds new freedom and life in Christ because Paul and Silas stayed. By choosing not to escape, Paul and Silas are able to welcome into the Christian community the jailer and his entire household. In return, the jailer bears the burdens of Paul and Silas. He takes them in, washes their wounds, and then brings them to his home and feeds them.

As Paul shows us what it means to bear the burden of the other, the jailer shows what it means to become a part of the community. The jailer does not simply walk away rejoicing, he brings his prisoners home, he washes their wounds, and he feeds them. He too bears their burdens because they are his burdens as well. Paul and Silas are no longer just prisoners, they are his community, his brethren. Notice how he cares for them but does not set them free. He bears their burdens but does not grant them their freedom, nor do they ask or demand that he frees them. Christian community is about bearing with one another and helping in ways that are not hurting.

If Paul had demanded the jailer to release them, the jailer's life would have been forfeited and justice would not be served. Instead it would have been cheap, selfish justice, and Christians in the Christian community do not place their selfish needs above another. The weak and the strong live with one another in constant community because they need one another. The removal of the weak is the death of the community. Thus, when it comes to the sinner, we cannot remove one from the community because where then will they find redemption or salvation? And if we remove one sinner should not remove ourselves because our sin in always greater than our neighbor's? Why then do you seek to remove the speck of sawdust from your neighbor's eye and ignore the blank in your own?

The weak must not judge the strong and the strong must not despise the weak. The weak must guard against pride, the strong against indifference. Neither must seek their own rights. If the strong persons fall, the weak ones must keep their hearts from gloating over the misfortune. If the weak fall, the strong must help them up in a friendly manner. The one needs as much patience as the other. As the writer of Ecclesiastes writes, “Woe to the one who is alone and falls and does not have another to help!” (Bonhoeffer pg 102).

Bonhoeffer writes, “Not despising sinners, but being privileged to bear with them, means not having to give them up for lost, being able to accept them and able to preserve community with them through forgiveness. As Christ bore with us and accepted us as sinners, we in his community may bear with sinners and accept them into the community of Jesus Christ through the forgiveness of sins. We may suffer the sins of one another; we do not need to judge. That is grace for Christians. For what sin ever occurs in the community that does not lead Christians to examine themselves and condemn themselves for their own lack of faithfulness in prayer and in intercession, for their lack of service to one another in mutual admonition and comforting, indeed, for their own personal sin and lack of spiritual discipline by which they have harmed themselves, the community, and one another?” (Bonhoeffer pg 102).

The jailer is as guilty of imprisoning Paul and Silas as the men who threw them into prison. But it is through the act of forgiveness and service of bearing with one another, that the jailer and his house join the family of Christ by listening the words of the gospel. Paul and Silas display for us the meaning of Christian community, as does the jailer, by bearing one another's burdens and not exiling the other. It is hard to remain in community, especially a community made up of sinners but if Jesus does not exile Peter for his denial, then we too must find a way to forgive one another, as Christ forgave us, and remain in this Christian community together. We must reach out, seeking to bring others in, so that they too may find a community that will bear with them their burdens.

I would for us, for a moment, to look back at the forgotten in this story. At the very beginning, the reason Paul and Silas are thrown in jail is because of a woman. This woman is filled with a spirit, and out of annoyance Paul commands the spirit to leave her. Normally, this is something to be praised. We should be happy for her but we forget that she is a slave and her only value to her masters has now been removed. What happens to her?

Sadly, we do not know. Paul is taken away and so our story follows, leaving behind a girl who most likely was sent to work in the mines or suffered a fate worse than death. She serves as reminder to us of those we have sought to free but never allowed to walk with us. She is every door to door salvation experience or child at VBS, who came, proclaimed faith in Christ, and are never heard from again. Why? Because we got what we wanted. We got our numbers for our Associational newsletters. We got our numbers for our senior adults. Yes, a life may have been saved but a life was lost as well because they never found that place where they are lifted up, where others help bear their burdens.

When I was youth minister, I would often be asked what type of youth minster I was. I was never quite sure how to answer that one beyond saying, “The best in the world.” What they were getting at was an expectation that said this, “We want a youth pastor who can say, “Come to me all you, adults, who are heavy burdened and I will give you rest. Your ridiculous attempts at ministry are washed away and forgotten. I release you from all your guilt and responsibility. I, the savior to adolescents, am all that is needed. Go now in peace and worry not for your children, for they are safe in my tan and well-defined arms.” (Mark Yaconeli, Contemplative Youth Ministry, pg 142).

They wanted someone who would excuse them from being present. They wanted someone who didn't expect them to be a part of nurturing and shaping the lives of these young students. But how can expect our youth and children to grow in Christ if adults are not willing to give up their time to help? We cannot complain about the morality of young people, when we are the ones responsible for not offering them a place in our own community. We cannot complain about everything going to hell when we've offered the world no other alternative. The Christian community, the church must understand that importance of serving one another through attentive listening, active helpfulness, and bearing one another. We cannot expect the Christian community to stay together if we seek only perfect people to remain. If that is our expectation, our understanding of community then we are going to grow old, alone.

This is why our baptism is such a vital part of faith. It is not a life saving measure but an event that binds us together. We serve one another because we have baptized into a new life and our new life is a life that is lived together. Through our baptism, we die to the ways of the world and are raised to the way of Christ. The Christ who ate at the table of tax collectors, prostitutes, and, yes, the pharisees. Through our baptism we have joined a family that we can never be rid of, because we are bound together in Christ. And it is our baptism that holds us to this truth, “We are none of us alone.” May the tie that binds, bless us, et vous païen, et vous. Amen.