7th Sunday of Easter [Acts 16:16-34] (12 May 2013)

This sermon was preached at Trinity Lutheran Church, Tailem Bend (9 am) and St. John's Lutheran Church, Karoonda (11 am).  

This is a sermon that should, rightly, be saying a lot of things. This Sunday is, wait for it, the first Sunday after the Ascension (the Church celebrates the Ascension always on the 40^th day of Easter, because 40 days after Jesus rose from the dead he ascended into heaven, which we confess in the Creed). This Sunday is, wait for it, the 7^th Sunday of Easter. Next Sunday it's not Easter anymore, it's Pentecost. And this Sunday is, yes, a happy and joyous Mother's Day. So a sermon on a day like today, you'd think it should say a lot of things, but it will only say one thing. Just like Paul, for all the things he said in today's reading from the book of Acts, really only said one thing.

Paul says a few things in today's reading: to the demon-possessed girl, to the jailer, to the jailer's family; he even sings hymns. But in the end, they all have something in common, and in the end, he says the same thing to them all.

It starts with a slave girl. It was very common wherever there was the religion of Greek mythology to have oracles, serving at pagan temples or elsewhere. Today we would call them fortune-tellers, and you don't go to a temple to find them. But we hear that this slave girl was possessed of a “spirit of divination”. And just like the demons always recognized Jesus, as we hear in the Gospels, so this demon recognizes what Paul is doing as a servant of the Lord. But for Paul, this run-in with the demonic is basically just annoying. Paul isn't terrified, for demons bother the Church, just as false teachers bother the Church, all sorts of things bother the Church. He's dealt with all those, and now he's dealing with this demon and this girl. So he says, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” He says this to the demon, but to the girl it's as if he says, “I have good news. This demon who has been bothering me and oppressing you, he recognizes what I'm doing, but this good news of Jesus isn't something to be preached by demons. Right now, he's not your lord anymore, he's gone, in the name of Jesus.”

This has some consequences. First, for the girl. But the girl was a slave, and her fortune-telling brought in money for her owners. They got angry. They drag Paul and Silas to the rulers of the city. They make up some things – the Jewish religion was legal, and Christians weren't recognized as separate from the Jewish religion at this point, so in their greed and anger they call what Paul and Silas were proclaiming to be “illegal” for Romans for those reasons. Paul and Silas can't defend their case, they're just beaten and thrown into jail. And it does seem odd that the rulers put them in jail with instruction to keep them securely locked up. But the jailer puts them in the inner jail, and in stocks. Stocks keep you from moving your legs. You kind of need to move your legs every once in a while, just to keep the blood flowing. So it's not like the jailer is being gentle. It seems like he's going out of his way not to be.

But all of this, for Paul and Silas, it's not life and death stuff. That's why the first thing that comes out of their mouth after their arrest – prayer and singing hymns! And in the middle of the night! And that's important, because the jailer would expect them to be yelling out curses at him and everyone else. But they don't. In fact, they open their mouths in prayer and praise of Christ. All the prisoners are listening when something that out of the ordinary happens. Funny how we fly off the handle at small things, as if they were catastrophes. We're like children that way. And little do we realize that demons, suffering, beatings, and imprisonment – they're small things!

And the jailer gets some bad news. And it starts like this. There is an earthquake that not only opens the doors of the jail, but also the stocks that hold people's feet. When the jailer realizes this, he takes out his sword. That's because he was responsible for all his prisoners, with his life. If they escaped, he'd be put to death. So he was going to save them the trouble. But then there is this loud voice, the same one that had been singing hymns: “Don't do this bad thing. We're all here!” None of the prisoners had left. We don't know why that was, but the prisoners had two surprises that night, first the hymn singing and then the earthquake, so it's not hard to imagine they put the two together and stayed put in amazement.

Now the jailer has a real problem, and it's no less than sin and hell. The man who called out to him is the same man he locked up so cruelly. He shouldn't have done that. For this jailer, all of a sudden it's all right before his eyes: his guilt. Before, it didn't bother him. Now it does. But he'd listened to those strange prayers and hymns. That's why he goes in and brings out Paul and Silas. Why does he go in to them? Why doesn't he just have a sigh of relief and go have a cup of tea? It's the accumulation of all that led up to Paul's words.

Once again, Paul opens his mouth, and good news comes out. This man has asked the very most serious question: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And Paul gives the very sweetest answer. It's not a list, it's not anything for him to “do”. “Believe in the Lord, and you will be saved, you and your household.” In other words, “You must believe, that is, you do not need to do anything yourself.” Is it so simple? It is when you have a burden which you would give anything to be rid of – the guilt of deserving God's righteous punishment. He wouldn't want to get rid of such a burden? And to hear that it is free, that this Jesus Christ takes it all away? Nothing is sweeter.

Paul speaks what Jesus does. Each time – to the demon, in prayer and hymns which the prisoners hear, to the jailer, to the jailer's household. Paul knows he's not out there doing his own thing. Jesus is very involved, both as the one who sent Paul and as the one who brings the Gospel through Paul. Paul doesn't speak a Jesus who is so ascended that he has nothing to do with his Church. He speaks of the ascended Jesus who is with his Church, works salvation for the whole Church.

Paul speaks what Jesus does. And when he does that, people get baptized. That's not a mistake – it's the goal of preaching Jesus and it's the very work of Jesus in bringing salvation. So Paul speaks the Word of God to the jailer's whole house. Why? Because Jesus has some good news for you, and that baptism is the good news. It washes away sins and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare. Faith lives in this baptism every day in repentance, knowing the burden of sin can only be removed by Christ.

Jesus has some good news. It's a matter of life and death that his word shows us the depth of our sin, and brings the forgiveness of all our sins. It's a matter of life and death when he baptizes, absolves, and hosts at the Lord's Supper. So when things are bad for the Church, we can sing hymns. It's not a matter of life and death. Life and death is being put to death with Christ in holy baptism and therefore being joined to his resurrection from the dead. The crosses and trials of the Church, of Christians living in this world, are so small in comparison with the cross of Christ by which you are purchased as God's own.

Jesus has some good news. He saves miserable sinners. What did all the people Paul talked to have in common? Trouble. And not just any trouble. The trouble was the burden of sin, death, and the devil. And the thing is, when he knows it, the jailer can't run to Paul and Silas fast enough. And they can't speak Jesus to him fast enough. Our own pride would keep us from seeing our need; that needs to be broken. And Jesus saves the broken. Jesus himself was broken on the cross – not his limbs but his life. He died there to bring you life here. Paul preached that, and Christ brought about the Church. Faithful pastors preached that here, and Christ brought about the Church here.

Paul preached that to a household and at a household. And it had an effect on that household: the whole household was baptized, and the whole household rejoiced. Christ created, and still creates, all these links through baptism. He links himself to you by the Holy Spirit. He links members of the household to each other in the faith. He links the household to the congregation, in the faith. We're very bad at talking about these links, but Christ is very good at making them.

Jesus has some good news – and we give thanks today for Lutheran mothers who confess it. Mothers know that children make a catastrophe out of everything. But not everything is life and death, but we give thanks for Lutheran mothers who know what is life and death - their own sin and Christ's own salvation for them! And that has been passed on in so many places and ways.

Conclusion: Paul said the same thing. He spoke Good News. He spoke what Jesus does for miserable sinners. He rejoiced in that salvation, in that cross, even when he himself was suffering. One very happy family rejoiced in that salvation, right after their baptisms. One very blessed church gets to rejoice in that salvation today. Amen.