Acts 16:16-34
Seventh Sunday of Easter
June 1, 2025
When your personhood and sense of truth are counter to the prevailing opinions of your time and place, it can be tempting to hide the fullness of yourself. Perhaps you hope you can maintain safety by flying under the radar, not calling attention to yourself. And if someone follows behind you, loudly pointing you out, it might bring about stress, trouble, or annoyance.
The NSRV tells us that Paul was “very much annoyed” (v. 18) by the girl who follows behind him in Acts 16, publicly naming him as the slave of the Most High and preacher of salvation. The word used in verse 18, διαπονηθεὶς, can be translated as “distressed” or “deeply troubled,” indicating that Paul didn’t respond in petty annoyance, but in frustrated concern. She didn’t wear on his patience. She threatened to call him out for who and what he truly was before he was ready to make it known.
And Paul’s worry seems to be justified because when he does live into his full God-given identity and frees the girl from the spirit of divination that held her captive, the public response is not good. He had the power to save this girl and this town from the demons that held them captive. But those who sought to benefit from the girl’s captivity did not delight in her release. In fact, they were angry. Choosing greed over human dignity, they only saw what Paul had cost them. Turning Paul and Silas over to the authorities, they complained that their teaching went against the customs of the empire, and they must be silenced. The people respond quickly, seeking to protect the ways of the world against those who would preach God’s way and upset the status quo.
As Christians, we are called to live as citizens of the kindom of heaven amid the kingdoms of this world. Often, our responsibility to act as disciples of a loving God puts us in direct contrast with a culture that worships power, wealth, and greed. Championing the poor, the captive, the lonely and the marginalized in our society might be what Christ preaches, but it earns us no points with the powers that be here and now. Instead, it may put us in peril. When we choose to love loudly, when we seek to free the downtrodden from their captivity, when we lift up those that society despises, we meet resistance.
Does this justify us ignoring the plight of another to make ourselves comfortable? Does this mean we should deny who we are if who we are is messy and annoying to the world around us? In the face of resistance, Paul and Silas say no. When the empire shows them a terrifying display of force, they do not hide. This time, they respond in faithful resistance. Praying to God and singing their faith, they shout into the darkness of that inner cell of the hope they have in God. Knowing they were in the company of others similarly held captive, they sang of God’s salvation for their neighbors as well.
When we turn on the news and hear of human rights stripped away, of wars raging in too many places to count, of people being used as political pawns, of people starving and unhoused in the wealthiest country in the world, it is disheartening. Yet we cannot lose hope. We sing and we pray and we actively love our neighbors because it is who we are and because we trust in God’s liberating grace. We sing into the darkness wherever we are.
In an act of liberation, God rocked the foundations of the prison, and the captives were freed. All the customs of the world would indicate that they should run, yet Paul and Silas remain. They chose to remain with the one who is still tangled up in the chains of this world. Calling out to the jailer, they save his life. Face to face with the one who held them captive, they offer love and forgiveness, and in that love, the jailer is freed to live in the way of the kindom of God.
When who you are and what you know to be the truth are counter to the prevailing opinions of your time and place, it can be tempting to hide the fullness of yourself. But God calls us to resist the powers of this world that harm, divide, and silence others. God calls us to acts of faithful resistance, loudly singing of hope and love in the face of evil, bravely sitting vigil with those held captive by the ways of the empire, and gracefully claiming our citizenship in the kindom of God in the midst of the world.
Questions for reflection on Acts 16:16-34:
- Have you felt yourself shrink away from living into your faith because of the attention it would draw? Have you ever been called out because of who you are? How do you decide when to act boldly and when to be cautious?
- We pray that God’s kindom would come, and God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Imagine how that world would be different. How would you know it was the kindom of God? How would we relate to each other differently? Have you encountered places like that, however small, already?
- What darkness today needs our song of hope? Who are the oppressed in our society and how can we act with faithful resistance against the powers that oppress them?
View the corresponding Order of Worship for the Seventh Sunday of Easter
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