Advent Devotions

Acts 16:16-34

Today’s author is Prince of Peace’s Intentional Interim, Pr. Steve Sylvester.

Because of Masterworks yesterday, we did not get to the assigned Scripture readding, Acts 16:16-34.  That’s too bad, because it pairs up well with last week’s reading from Acts 9.  In the latter reading, God’s continuing creative work is advanced by pairing erstwhile enemies who must depend upon and help each other.  The same thing happens in the story of Paul and Silas in chapter 16 when they are released from prison.

Setting the stage, Paul and his co-worker in the gospel Silas are thrown into prison for the economic crime of exorcising from a slave girl a spirit that predicts things and brings a good income to her owners.  Then as now, nothing will get you in trouble faster and more thoroughly than messing with someone’s income, even if the “hard-earned” part is on the back of the suffering of another person.  So, our heroes are arrested, whipped and placed in stocks in the deepest and darkest recesses of a prison, which is the kind of place where people typically remain and rot. 

But God didn’t call Paul in chapter 9 only to have him starve and wither away as an inmate in chapter 16.  The goal, then, is to break Paul out and send him on his merry missionary way.  I think we are to infer that the earthquake that shook the foundations of the prison, opened its doors and unfastened the chains of the prisoners was sent by God.  And you can almost hear the voice of God yelling, “Run, Paul!  Run!”  But Paul does not run.  Knowing that his superiors would kill the guard for letting his prisoners escape, Paul stays where he is and encourages the other prisoners to do the same.

I like to think that Paul is improvising here.  God has enabled a prison break that will allow Paul to hit the road and continue his ministry as the Apostle to the Gentiles.  Paul’s response is to say, “But there’s a Gentile right here, this guard!  I will minister to him!”  And in the same way that before we heard God encourage Paul to run, we now can hear God saying, “Paul, you understand.”

Reading the story through, it’s tempting to assume that Paul believed the conclusion would be what we read.  I don’t see it that way.  In the same way that Ananias in chapter 9 trusted God by placing himself in the presence of Saul, the chief persecutor of Christians, I believe Paul, here in chapter 16, trusted God by just doing the right thing that was right in front of him.

For those who sometimes overthink, and I am one of those, this is a wonderful story.  How do we get to where we need to be in a week, a year?  What is that third or fourth ripple from what we do going to look like and who will it impact?  Those are good questions, faithful and necessary questions, but the best thing almost always is simply to trust in God and do that right thing that is right in front of us.