‘I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one………….so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."

Jesus’ experience of God’s love is such that he fervently prays that we will experience that same love – that we may all be as one in the body of Christ.

God calls us from our many different life paths to walk together the path of love. The story we read from the Book of Acts clearly illustrates this. It is a story of how the lives of a slave girl, a Roman jailer, and two Christians all intersect and are influenced by God’s love. It is a story that tells us quite clearly that there is a cost to being a Christian, to becoming one in God’s love. But it is also a story that reminds us that those who believe in God will be vindicated and set free – free from whatever holds us back from this new life in Christ.

Let us enter the story now and see where it will lead us this day.

Paul and Silas are in Philippi, a great city in the area of Macedonia. They have traveled there because Paul had a vision telling him to go to Macedonia. On the Sabbath they meet a woman named Lydia. She is a wealthy merchant, a seller of the valued purple cloth. She and her household are converted and baptized by Paul.

Things are going well for Silas and Paul. But then, on their way to prayer one day, they meet a slave girl. Our story unfolds with this encounter.

This is how Silas might have told it:

"As we were going to the place of prayer, we encountered a female slave who could predict the future and was making a lot of money for her owners through fortune telling.

For days she hounded Paul and us, crying, "These men are servants of the Most High God!" Paul was finally so annoyed that he turned and said to the spirit, "I charge you to come out of her in the name of Jesus Christ."

And the spirit departed.

When her owners saw that they had lost their source of income, they seized us and dragged us to the court in the market place, accusing us before the magistrates:

"These men are Jews who are disturbing our city. They advocate customs not sanctioned by Rome". The crowds supported the accusations, so the magistrates had us stripped and gave the order for us to be scourged. After many painful lashes, we were thrown in prison, and the jailer was told to watch us very closely. He moved us into the inner prison and secured our feet in wooden stocks.

But we would not be silenced by the tyranny of Rome and its persecution of the righteous. We sat there in the dark, our feel held tightly in the stocks, but our hearts and our voices free. We prayed aloud and we sang hymns of praise. It seemed to bring comfort to our fellow prisoners, locked up in the darkness of their own cells. And so we sang and prayer and then, about midnight, there was a violent and mysterious earthquake.

The doors of the cells suddenly swung open and the chains fell from the hands and feet of those imprisoned with us. We knew that it was no ordinary earthquake. The opening of the doors was possible, but only God could unfasten the locks of the chains that bound us.

Our jailer, who had managed to sleep through our singing and our praying suddenly awoke. When he saw the open door, he panicked. HE knew that if prisoners were to escape, he would pay dearly – with his life. Better, he must have thought, to take my own life than to endure the punishment and death that would surely be his when the discovery was made. And so, he drew his sword intent on ending his life before it was taken from him.

But Paul stopped him, calling out through the darkness that we were all still in their cells. No one had escaped.
Not believing us, the jailer called for lighted torches that he might see for himself. And what he saw was that Paul spoke truth to him. We were all there.

In fear, trembling and great relief, this jailer fell to his knees before us, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

Was he asking how he would explain to his superiors the events of that night or had he been listening all along to our prayers and was asking a deeper question, about his own personal salvation?

Paul, of course, assumed the latter, and responded, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household."

He began to speak to him of Jesus and his great love and sacrifice for all.

Our jailer became in that moment no longer a jailer of men but a follower of Christ.

I remembered then how Paul, who had been Saul, the great persecutor of Christians, became a great disciple and preacher, my friend and teacher. In watching what happened to the jailer, I felt closer to what must have happened to Paul.

We were immediately cared for – our wounds were washed and bandaged. We were taken to the man’s house to meet his family and share a meal with them.

That night, a night that began with prayers and singing in the darkness of our prison cell, ended in the light and joy of fellowship and Christian caring in that man’s home. We celebrated not just our rescue from the darkness but his as well. We became one in Christ – Paul and I, the jailer and his family".

This is a story of freedom – freedom and new life for the jailer – through Christ.

Paul and Silas were also set free. Having suffered for the sake of their faith, they were freed by God, released from their chains to continue their mission of preaching the gospel and converting the people.

But there is another person in the story who was freed. We do not know exactly what happened to her after her encounter with Paul, but it is certain that her life WAS irrevocably changed.

A female slave with the ability to predict the future, she earns vast sums for her masters in Philippi. Her skill is attributed to spirit possession. We do not know her name, her age, or her race. We do know that she was owned by men who became furious when she could no longer satisfy their greed.

Sorcery or fortune telling was widely practiced in Macedonia and usually involved foretelling the future through the interpretation of various omen or signs. In Jewish culture, soothsaying was considered a sin as serious as idolatry and demons were evil spirits that took possession of people against their will.

Hers is a curious story. Her exorcism seems to have happened because of Paul’s frustration. What actually happened is uncertain. She may have been delivered of an evil spirit, or the spell binding her to a way of life may simple have been broken. What is clear is that she changed.

But then what?

Did her owners free her from slavery then because she was no longer useful to them? Or did they find some menial task for her and keep her in their possession?

Did she resent Paul and what he had done? Did she reject his preaching because of her anger and resentment?

Did she, perhaps, follow him – not to berate him but with curiosity, wanting to learn more about what he taught?

We simply don’t know – and will never know – about the rest of her life.

And so we have this story about faithfulness, about suffering, and about becoming one in Christ. And we know that that oneness is what we aspire to.

But we also know that it comes with a cost. We may be rejected by others. We may be harassed. We may suffer. Paul and Silas were imprisoned because they lived out their faith.

But all these things are as nothing when we experience God’s love and God’s grace. Like the jailer our lives are changed and joy replaces fear. We are set free.

May we ever share the joy and the freedom we know as Christians that others too may know it.

And may our prayer always be "that all may be one in God’s love."

Amen