The week has been full of the kind of events that are in the Scripture passage for the morning – the release to Australia of the Guantanamo Bay prisoner, the death of Jerry Falwell, and the riveting testimony that the President personally tried to get the Attorney General to sign illegal papers while in intensive care.
Adding this all to the pressures of daily life may have made you feel that life is too much. If you feel that the world is out of
control or maybe your personal world is out 
of control, then you will be fascinated by the
words of Paul and Luke that you will hear today. They introduce the role of spirits and the psychic world in every day life, particularly at moments of stress and conflict. This is not a topic that modern mechanistic science likes to
address, even while it admits the reality of sensing the presence of others, more powerful in some people than others.
So we are going to look at family moments and also national events and ask where the Holy Spirit is in all that is going on. For Paul and Silas, the role of the supernatural completely changed the outcome of their lives. I think you have the same opportunity for new freedom in Christ Jesus.
One of my favorite authors is Andrew Greeley, with the famous Bishop Blackie. Bishop Blackie solves mysteries for the Cardinal of Chicago, but manages to add a lot of theology while he takes care of crime. In the Bishop and the West Wing, there is a poltergeist in the White House and Bishop Blackie travels to Washington to figure out who is doing it. He has the ability to feel the psychic or emotional presence of others and command those feelings from others to behave or leave. I had not really thought more about Bishop Blackie until I read this passage again and I realized that he and Paul are doing exactly the same thing.
We do not teach much in school about the spiritual dimension and even in church we only think about our own spirit and the spirit of God. We know we each have a spirit, but we assume that it is so far inside us that no one else would ever detect its presence.
I actually believe that our spirits are much more visible to each other and we are sending and receiving messages all the time in this non verbal communication. And what I’m offering you is totally in agreement with this scripture and accepted more and more in psychological study.
I came to this understanding more through the work of Ruth Cole, our personnel consultant, who I have mentioned from time to time. She has a profile which actually measures how well we understand and accept the messages that we send emotionally and how well we understand and accept the messages of others.
There are three reasons that we block these messages from others and from ourselves. First, some of us have more of a spiritual gift for it than others. Paul in the first letter to the Corinthians, lists distinguishing of spirits as a spiritual gift. And it is frequently the more quiet people among us who may have that gift. If you are always talking, then you are not quiet enough to be listening for anyone else broadcasting. And one of the reasons we don’t get the insights that some quiet people are getting is that quiet people normally wait to be asked for their information.
The second reason that we block messages is that the spiritual channel is mostly filled with messages of hate and death. The consequence of sin in this world is that unless we are converted and changed, our tendency is to hate others whenever they get in our way. The guy who got into line ahead of you, the woman who grabbed the last cupcake at the Pot Luck dinner, the parent who told you that you can’t have another candy bar, the adult child who tells the parents that they won’t be home for Christmas – all of these are tempting moments to hate. And we do not like the picture of ourselves as hateful people. So we pretend that we don’t really have that feeling.
And similarly we are shocked that anyone would ever hate us. After all, we are good people and always fair, usually bending over backwards and really down right lovable. We must be mistaken that our child, our neighbor, our co worker, or a stranger has a message of hate on the channel.
Even people who are victims of hate – minorities of all kinds, try to minimize the hate that is out there and do not seriously look much at their own hate. I am talking about gay people, but much more than gay people. I know of two racial slurs in the last week in Jackson Heights. Our community has a lot of community building left to do.
And any discussion of the spiritual world other than the Holy Spirit and our personal spirit makes us afraid of the unknown. But one of the points of today’s passage is that we will not deal successfully with some life situations because we try to ignore one of the major factors – the spiritual and emotional world.
What sets off the spirit world? Change. Much of the world is bound in chains. Millions of women are in exploited and often religious based systems. If we had taken the same money that we spent in Iraq and dedicated that amount to the education and empowerment of women around the world. Can you imagine the freedom of spirit if women in Saudi Arabia were allowed to drive?
Chain of ignorance, chains of poor health, chains of emotional need, chains of orphans, chains of poverty, chains of addiction, chains of lust, chains of crime and greed, chains of racism and hate crimes against gay people. God’s intention has always been clear. God intends to set us free. It is not an option. It is not a secret plan. But it requires change. And those changes are threatening to those in power and those with the most wealth and influence.
It is not a sin to be rich or have power. It is a sin not to see these things as gifts which God has given you to pass on to more than your children.
At a time of death, our prayers are with the family of Rev. Falwell. When we get to that crossing, our past lives mean very little. It is only a question as to whether God will embrace us. Nothing else matters to us or our families.
But I looked on the internet to see what he had really said over the years in his messages and so many of them were messages opposed to change. He wanted little change in South Africa and called Bishop Desmond Tutu a phony. He called the Civil Rights movement the Civil Wrongs Movement. He produced a video to claim that President Clinton was operating a cocaine smuggling ring. And he blamed 9 11 on liberals, femininists, and homosexuals. He claimed in 1977 that "gay folks would just as soon kill you as look at you."
We are in a great struggle in the religious world in our country. I am sure that some people found spiritual help through Jerry Falwell. But I also think that he did not recognize the power of the spiritual world on his own life and the wrong kinds of messages got a hold of his life.
Satan loves it when he helps us choose what is sin. The truth is that if Satan can get half of Christians worked up about fake sin, it takes away the energy of the whole church from the real enemy that needs to be converted. People remain in chains while we all debate what the gospel is really about.
Paul and Silas are preaching and this slave girl follows them around with a mischievous spirit. Just like Bishop Blackie. Paul initially lets it happen, thinking perhaps that she brings free advertising. Finally, its clear that she is interfering with the message of salvation and liberation that he came to announce.
When Paul accepts that an unhealthy spiritual message is on the channel, he rebukes her and it all stops. He also interferes economically with a man who owns her. Suddenly that man loses a chance to exploit her for his own power and wealth.
Friends, if you are offering true gospel help, it will have a liberating effect on people and scare the daylights out of those who liked the system the way it was.
The government is forbidden in this nation from negotiating prices for seniors for medicine because the drug companies want the extra money. We are not even true to our own capitalist ethic. It is because change and liberation of seniors and their health needs will provide less to the top.
The message goes on to a glorious end. Many people believe in God including the jailor. That is glorious promise of this passage. If we accept spiritual realities, and trust God to bring about the change and protect us, God will watch the whole process with great care and interest. After all, Paul was doing the work that God is completely dedicated to since the Fall. Why should we expect that God’s attention would be elsewhere?
And this is also a story about families. The jailor’s whole house was baptized that night. I know that they went on to find liberation and more happiness in life. So while this is a story about structural change for justice, its also a story about a family who needed help.
If you have disordered relationships in your life – in your home, with your brother or sister, with your boss or the people who work with you – its time to be an agent of the gospel. Start with acknowledging your own ability to put hate into the emotional and spirit channel. Then accept the messages from others that you find there. If someone hates you, don’t’ get distracted. Ask God for some good thing you can do to interrupt the cycle. And lastly, trust God to bring about liberating changes. They are scary at first, but you will soon grow into a new level of faith in God and happiness in life. Good triumphs over evil. The Bible tells us so. Amen.
