jesus heals clean and unclean: 2nd after pentecost

The holy gospel according to Luke (7:1-17)

After Jesus had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people,

       he entered Capernaum.

²A centurion there had a slave whom he valued highly,

       and who was ill and close to death.

³When the centurion heard about Jesus,

       he sent some Jewish elders to him,

              asking him to come and heal his slave.

       ⁴When they came to Jesus,

              they appealed to him earnestly, saying,

                     “The centurion is worthy of having you do this for him,

                            ⁵for he loves our people,

                            and it is he who built our synagogue for us.”

⁶And Jesus went with them,

       but when he was not far from the house,

              the centurion sent friends to say to him,

                     “Lord, do not trouble yourself,

                            for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof;

                                   ⁷therefore I did not presume to come to you.

                     But only speak the word,

                            and let my servant be healed.

                     ⁸For I also am a person set under authority,

                            with soldiers under me;

                                   and I say to one, ‘Go,’

                                          and he goes,

                                   and to another, ‘Come,’

                                          and he comes,

                                   and to my slave, ‘Do this,’

                                          and the slave does it.”

       ⁹When Jesus heard this he was amazed at the centurion,

              and turning to the crowd that followed him, he said,

                     “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.”

                            ¹⁰When those who had been sent returned to the house,

                                   they found the slave in good health.

¹¹Soon afterwards Jesus went to a town called Nain,

       and his disciples and a large crowd went with him.

¹²As Jesus approached the gate of the town,

       a man who had died was being carried out.

              He was his mother’s only son,

                     and she was a widow;

                            and with her was a large crowd from the town.

              ¹³When the Lord saw her,

                     he had compassion for her and said to her,

                            “Do not weep.”

              ¹⁴Then Jesus came forward and touched the bier,

                     and the bearers stood still. And he said,

                            “Young man, I say to you, rise!”

                                   ¹⁵The dead man sat up and began to speak,

                                   and Jesus gave him to his mother.

                                          ¹⁶Fear seized all of them;

                                          and they glorified God, saying,

                                                 “A great prophet has risen among us!”

                                                 and “God has looked favorably on the chosen people!”

              ¹⁷This word about him spread throughout Judea

                     and all the surrounding country.

The gospel of the lord.

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Clean or unclean?  It seems to be the game Jesus is playing in today’s gospel reading.  For Jews like Jesus, much of life and many of the rules around religion and faith center on what is ritually clean and what isn’t, with the goal of avoiding anything unclean because even the slightest contact would also make you unclean. 

So, in today’s gospel reading, Jesus is faced with the battle between clean and unclean.  First a visit to the centurion—a gentile—unclean.  But he doesn’t even go in—clean.  Then on to Nain.              A             funeral             procession.              A bier, carrying a dead man—unclean.  But then the man rises and speaks, clearly alive and not dead—clean.  Which will it be for Jesus?  Clean or unclean?  Is that even what his healing is really about?  Do those categories even matter to him?  Or just to the rest of us?

As we enter into Capernaum with Jesus, a centurion, one of Rome’s military enforcers, sends a request to Jesus.  This centurion, we learn, is different from the rest.  Instead of enforcing the pax romana, a Roman peace by threat of or actual violence, like many other Roman centurions, this one is pacifying and supporting the local Jewish community.  He has built a synagogue for them.  He knows that his job of keeping the community under control will be much easier if they are happy with him than it will be if he is the violent enforcer.

And it works.  The Jewish elders know their alternatives and appreciate him, so they come to Jesus with the request for healing.  Like many faithful people even today, they do their best to impress upon Jesus precisely why this centurion, even though he is a gentile and therefore unclean, is particularly deserving of healing.  He’s one of the good ones!  He’s hard working and built the synagogue!  He’s not lazy or a “free loader.”  He’s not violent!  Really, he deserves it!  He’s earned it!

Jesus doesn’t even bat an eye: someone needs healing?  He’s coming, even if this centurion is a gentile who will make him unclean, after all earlier in Luke, Simeon, who blesses the baby Jesus in the Temple, proclaims God’s work through Jesus as “a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”

Jesus’ mission in Luke has never been just for his own people.  It’s always been bigger than that and this centurion, gentile and outsider though he is, remains a part of God’s plan through Jesus.  Even if the centurion’s practices don’t align with Jewish teachings.  Even if he is not circumcised.  Even if he is a Roman soldier, Jesus will be there—unclean.

Then the centurion gets to thinking and decides to send some friends, likely knowing enough about Judaism to know that if Jesus comes to his home, he will be considered ritually unclean.  And maybe the centurion is having second thoughts about having this Jesus character come to his house to begin with.  Can the centurion handle it?  What else might Jesus do or ask if he comes in?

The centurion’s desperation and desire for healing for this “slave whom he valued highly” is clear, and yet there is a part of him that, despite Jesus’ willingness to show up and join him, may never quite feel worthy enough.

As a military man, he is under the commands of his country.  His job is keeping order, enforcing Roman rule, by any means necessary.  It is not his to question the orders he’s given, just to follow them.  And yet, he is the one who is forced to live with those actions.  He is the one left to wonder about the place of justice and love and mercy. 

Like many of our own veterans who return home from war and often wrestle alone with the orders they carried out overseas, this centurion is the one left to wonder if there is another, more peaceful way.  He is the one to try this new way of keeping the peace.

This work for another way of peace is evident as he engages with the Jewish community of Capernaum, supporting their religious expression, keeping the peace through appeasement rather than force. In wrestling with the things he’s had to do in his service in the Roman military, he has chosen a new way forward.  He did what he did in his past because he had to, or at least that’s how it seemed at the time, but can he ever make up for it?  Are his gods keeping track?  Will they forgive him?  Will he forgive himself?  Can he ever make things right?  Will he ever be good enough?

Does anyone else know about his past?  Or what about the complexity of his current life situation?  Is he living well enough?  Is he doing enough good?  Is he enforcing enough rules?  Is he enforcing too many? 

Something is going on in the centurion, to make him feel isolated, unworthy, unclean.  Despite the Jewish elders’ assurances that he is worthy, he still doesn’t feel good enough.  After all, could anyone really understand all that makes up his past?  Could anyone really know him and still think he’s worthy of Jesus’ attention?

And so the centurion stops Jesus on his way and insists he is not worthy, insists that Jesus doesn’t need to risk becoming unclean.  Jesus’ power and healing is possible without the centurion risking Jesus’ arrival to declare him not good enough.  Yet Jesus knows.  Jesus knows the world and the complexities of military service.  Jesus knows that rarely is anything a clear good or bad and Jesus knows this centurion.  So, without even entering his “unclean” home, Jesus brings healing—clean.

Having brought healing of the highly valued slave, and, perhaps healing of a deeper kind for a centurion who, despite his power and prestige, never felt worthy, Jesus and the crew head along their way to Nain where a widow is burying her only son.  Her only hope for economic stability in that society is being carried right out of town.

Approaching the gate, the edge of town, the two crowds converge: Jesus “and his disciples and a large crowd” coming in and the widow “and with her was a large crowd from the town” going out. 

As they encounter each other, Jesus, we learn, “had compassion for her.”  Not just any compassion, however.  The Greek word is deeper than the English translation lets on.  Jesus doesn’t simply have compassion, he is moved at a gut level—this deep, gut-wrenching compassion.  Jesus is hurting as this woman is hurting, hurting for her and with her. 

In the depths of hurt at losing her only son, the despair of not only the loss of a child, but also the loss of any chance at economic stability, Jesus almost cannot help himself. He interrupts the funeral procession, his crowd of followers clashing with hers, Jesus reaches out, and touches the bier! 

The whole scene freezes as a collective gasp runs through both crowds, and almost as a whisper, the escaping realization:

unclean!

Into the stunned silence, Jesus commands, “Young man, I say to you, rise!”  And “The dead man sat up and began to speak”—clean.

This woman is restored to life just as her son is.  This woman, whose worth disappeared with her son’s life, whose power existed through the men she was related to, the men who were dead and gone.  This woman, who couldn’t feel worthy of anything, is claimed by Jesus.  Jesus sees her in the depths of their souls.  Jesus comes to her, joining her in her grief, pain, and despair, and Jesus does not leave her there.  Jesus calls her worthy.

Jesus encounters both of these people, surrounded by their different communities and yet one alone in her grief and the other in his insecurity—one with no power in society and the other with great power and authority.  Feelings of inadequacy and despair abound and yet Jesus engages them both, bringing comfort, healing, and wholeness.

Jesus’ salvation comes, not in the far-off future, but right now.  From the mighty and powerful centurion, who has all the earthly authority he could want and still feels inadequate, to the lowly widow, whose power is only as much as her male offspring, being carried to his burial.  Jesus interrupts their tragic trajectories, bringing healing and wholeness right now.

Jesus’ body, whole and yet about to be broken apart, breaks into feelings of inadequacy and powerlessness, Jesus enters into our regrets and heartbreak.  Jesus interrupts all our wishes of how we could live or who we could have been             with the love and power that only the Holy Spirit can bring.  In the midst of clean and unclean, Jesus brings a new way, a new chance, a deeper knowing. 

As crowds come together, as the pain, alienation, and insecurity bubble to the surface, Jesus says to each one here:

“You, beloved child of God,

       I know your pain. 

       I know your heartache. 

       I know your regret and your sorrow. 

              I know the ways you think you are not good enough

                     or have messed up beyond hope. 

              I know the messages you hear every day. 

       I know you. 

              You are loved by God. 

                     Today. 

                            Just as you are.”

Jesus declares,

       “Child of God,

              I say to you, rise!“

Thanks be to God

The Holy Spirit comes to us: Pentecost!

The first reading is Genesis 11:1-9.

A reading from Acts (2:1-21)

When the day of Pentecost arrived,

       The apostles all met in one room.

       Suddenly they heard what sounded like a violent, rushing wind from heaven;

              the noise filled the entire house in which they were sitting.

       Something appeared to them that seemed like tongues of fire;

              these separated and came to rest on the head of each one.

       They were all filled with the Holy Spirit

              and began to speak in other languages as she enabled them.

Now there were devout people living in Jerusalem

       from every nation under heaven

       and at this sound they all assembled.

              But they were bewildered to hear their native languages being spoken.

                     They were amazed and astonished:

                            “Surely all of these people speaking are Galileans!

                            How does it happen that each of us hears these words

                                   in our native tongue?

                            We are Parthians, Medes and Elamites,

                                   people from Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia,

                                   Pontus and Asia,

                                   Phyrgia and Pamphlyia,

                                   Egypt and the parts of Lybia around Cyrene,

                            as well as visitors from Rome –

                                   both Jewish-born and converts to Judaism –

                                   Cretans and Arabs, too;

                            we hear them preaching,

                                   each in our own language,

                                          about the marvels of God!”

All were amazed and disturbed.

       They asked each other,

              “What does this mean?”

       But others said mockingly,

              “They have drunk too much new wine.”

Then Peter stood up with the Eleven and addressed the crowd:

       “People of Judea, and all you who live in Jerusalem!

              Listen to what I have to say!

                     These people are not drunk as you think –

                            it’s only nine o’clock in the morning!

                     No, it’s what Joel the prophet spoke of –

‘In the days to come –

       it is our God who speaks –

              I will pour out my Spirit on all of humankind.

                     Your children will prophesy,

                     your young people will see visions,

                     and your elders will dream dreams.

              Even on the most insignificant of my people,

                     upon all of them,

                            I will pour out my Spirit in those days

                            and they will prophesy.

              And I will display wonders in the heavens above

              and signs on the earth below:

                     blood, fire and billowing smoke.

              The sun will be turned into darkness

              and the moon will become blood

                     before the coming of the great and sublime day of our God. 

              Pero todos los que invoquen el nombre del Señor, alcanzarán la salvación.

              Alors tout le monde que les appels sur le nom du Seigneur seront épargnés.

              A vtedy každý, kto bude vzývať meno Pánovo, bude zachránený.

              And all who call upon the name of our God will be saved.’”

Word of God, word of life.

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Happy Pentecost!!  Pentecost is one of my favorite days of the whole entire year!  I love Pentecost because on it we celebrate the work of the Holy Spirit and she’s my favorite.

Pentecost gathers our story of faith, bringing the various parts of the story together and capturing what it means to be the church together—the body of Christ in the world.

From the beginnings when God creates the whole cosmos, the Spirit brooding over the waters, until today.  God continues to create as the universe expands and we all continue to live and grow.  Again and again God creates humanity in our full diversity, in the image of God.  God promises to love us, even as, throughout the ages, we have done our best to take God’s place.

As we read today in Genesis, humanity has a penchant for trying to take over for God.  As they gather in the area that will become known as Babel, the group of humans attempt to build a city and a tower to heaven, where God was understood to reside.  The humans, bless their hearts, justify their actions, saying, “and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”  They want to be in control of it all.  They don’t want to risk God’s intervention, wrecking their plans for power and prestige.

Ironically it is precisely this desire for control and power that leads to God scattering them and confusing their languages—a blessing for those of us who enjoy learning new languages J

So we are scattered.  And we develop different languages, cultures, and customs.  We find different ways to praise our God and to live our lives.  Our different languages are informed by our cultures, the many words for snow or sand, depending on where we live, words for wintertime coziness and experiences unique to various cultures.  And in turn our different languages inform our cultures as we continue to come up with new words and definitions, new ways of speaking to and about others, even God.

And throughout it all, God continues to come to us, sending prophets and leaders, calling us back to God’s ways of love, bringing us out of captivity into freedom, and celebrating those new chances at life with us.

And ultimately God comes to us by taking on our very flesh.  God chooses to come to us, born to a poor homeless couple, spending the first part of life undocumented, living as a refugee in Egypt, and returning to Palestine to live under Roman rule and occupation.  In the midst of it all, God in Jesus continues to love us, seeking the lost, oppressed, and outcast.  He goes to “those people” the rest of us would rather avoid.

For all of the love and compassion Jesus shows, the response from the powers of this world, humanity’s own response, is to choose death over the life God freely offers us in Jesus.  We choose the violence of the cross and Jesus takes on the cross, dying to destroy death and then rising, bringing to life the ultimate covenant of love, bringing new hope and everlasting life to begin anew every day.

And then even as Jesus ascends to heaven, God’s love is so great that God promises us the Holy Spirit.  Our Advocate will come to be with us.  The Holy Spirit is promised and she delivers!

At Pentecost, the beginning of the first harvests, the apostles gather in Jerusalem and the Holy Spirit comes CRASHING in!  The roar of a violent wind in everyone’s ears, flames like fire appearing before everyone’s eyes.  If this is not a recipe for full sensory overload, then I don’t know what is.

The Holy Spirit comes with the chaos that reigned when she moved over the waters at the beginning of creating.  As the room fills with chaos and confusion from heaven, the gathered apostles add to the confusion, confessing faith and proclaiming the love of God.  Heaven breaks into the earthly gathering of followers of Christ.

At Pentecost, God’s presence in the Holy Spirit is experienced with chaos and uncertainty.  People are bewildered, amazed and astonished, amazed and disturbed, snarky, and prophetic.  Out of this chaos, in many songs and languages is sung the love of God made manifest through the Holy Spirit. 

And even as it all settles back down, the Holy Spirit remains.

Jesus has ascended and yet the Holy Spirit remains to breathe among us, to move as we move and grow as we grow.  And so the Holy Spirit continues to move even into today, calling us with the prophets to lives of justice and peace.   

Four years ago, the Holy Spirit moved among us, calling these two congregations into one worshiping community.  The Holy Spirit calls us and claims us as one community of faith.  This month we also mark the 60^th anniversary of women’s ordination in the Presbyterian Church.   

As we have prayed on street corners and with folded pieces of paper, the Holy Spirit has continued to breathe among us, calling us into deeper relationships, boldly guiding us into the future, even remaining with us in our uncertainty.

The Holy Spirit moves with us in our discomfort.  When we don’t understand.  Cuando alguien habla un idioma diferente.  When we disagree and even when we are afraid.  One of the key ways that I discern that the Holy Spirit might be at work is if I’m nervous, afraid, or a little anxious, especially if mixed in with those feelings there’s an inexplicable hint of excitement or pull toward something. 

That’s how the Holy Spirit works, coming in with chaos and confusion, calling us and moving with us into new life and new ways of being the church together for the sake of the whole world.

Thanks be to God.

the holy spirit breaks in: easter 7c

A reading from Acts (16:15-40).

¹⁵When Lydia and her household were baptized,

       she urged us, saying,

              “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord,

                     come and stay at my home.”

                            And she prevailed upon us.

¹⁶One day, as we were going to the place of prayer,

       we met a slave girl

              who had a spirit of divination

              and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling.

       ¹⁷While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out,

              “These men are slaves of the Most High God,

                     who proclaim to you a way of salvation.”

       ¹⁸She kept doing this for many days.

       But Paul, very much annoyed,

              turned and said to the spirit,

                     “I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.”

                     And it came out that very hour.

       ¹⁹But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone,

              they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace

                     before the authorities.

              ²⁰When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said,

                     “These men are disturbing our city;

                            they are Jewish

                            ²¹and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us

                                   as Romans to adopt or observe.”

              ²²The crowd joined in attacking them,

                     and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing

                     and ordered them to be beaten with rods.

                     ²³After they had given them a severe flogging,

                            they threw them into prison

                            and ordered the jailer to keep them securely.

                                   ²⁴Following these instructions,

                                          he put them in the innermost cell

                                          and fastened their feet in the stocks.

²⁵About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God,

       and the prisoners were listening to them.

       ²⁶Suddenly there was an earthquake,

              so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken;

              and immediately all the doors were opened

              and everyone’s chains were unfastened.

       ²⁷When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open,

              he drew his sword and was about to kill himself,

                     since he supposed that the prisoners had escaped.

              ²⁸But Paul shouted in a loud voice,

                     “Do not harm yourself,

                            for we are all here.”

              ²⁹The jailer called for lights,

                     and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.

                     ³⁰Then he brought them outside and said,

                            “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

                     ³¹They answered,

                            “Believe on the Lord Jesus,

                                   and you will be saved,

                                          you and your household.”

                     ³²Paul and Silas spoke the word of the Lord to him

                            and to all who were in his house.

                     ³³At the same hour of the night he took them

                            and washed their wounds;

                                   then he and his entire family were baptized without delay.

                            ³⁴He brought them up into the house

                                   and set food before them;

                                   and he and his entire household rejoiced

                                          that he had become a believer in God.

³⁵When morning came,

       the magistrates sent the police, saying,

              “Let those men go.”

       ³⁶And the jailer reported the message to Paul, saying,

              “The magistrates sent word to let you go;

                     therefore come out now and go in peace.”

       ³⁷But Paul replied,

              “They have beaten us in public,

                     uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens,

              and have thrown us into prison;

              and now are they going to discharge us in secret?

                     Certainly not!

                            Let them come and take us out themselves.”

       ³⁸The police reported these words to the magistrates,

              and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens;

                     ³⁹so they came and apologized to them.

                     And they took them out and asked them to leave the city.

                     ⁴⁰After leaving the prison they went to Lydia’s home;

                            and when they had seen

                            and encouraged the brothers and sisters there,

                                   they departed.

Word of God, word of life.

I also allude to Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21.

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In today’s reading from Acts, we pick up where last week’s reading left off.  Lydia, the first convert to Christianity in Europe, has responded out of her newfound faith, with: hospitality.  She welcomes Paul, Silas, and the others into her home.  With this offer of hospitality, the group sticks around and as they continue to pray in the area, a girl who is a slave sees them.

This girl, who, as a slave, has not known freedom and agency is both blessed and cursed by a spirit of divination.  Because of this spirit, she makes money for those who own her and is therefore deemed useful.  This, at least, means she is likely to have enough food and shelter to survive—to scrape by.  It is probably not enough to really live off of, to save, to enjoy, to really care for herself, but it is also more than nothing.  After all, her owners need her alive in order to make money off of her.

Then, as she proclaims the truth of Paul and Silas’ mission, day after day, Paul gets annoyed.  Perhaps Paul is annoyed because he thinks her reputation in fortune-telling will discredit the actual truth of what she is saying about them, which will then discredit them and their mission.  Or maybe the annoyance comes because as she names their situation as “slaves of the Most High God,” she is forcing Paul to consider her and her plight as a child slave to people who only want her for the fortune-telling profit she can make them.  She is forcing Paul to really see her.

Whatever Paul’s reason may be remains a mystery to us.  All we know is that he reaches the limit, and “very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.” 

The spirit of divination, the blessing and curse for this child, is gone.  She is left alone with herself for perhaps the first time in her whole young life.  She is left to figure out anew who she is and what her place will now be in the world.  She is no longer the moneymaker for her owners that she once was.  What does the future hold for her without the security of that spirit?  Will she face freedom or an even more dire situation than before?  As a child, does she even know how to care for herself?

For the owners’ part, they get mad—and quickly.  They had been making money off of this girl and we learn that “when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities.”  The little girl was useless to them, so they went after Paul and Silas, dragging them before the authorities.

The charges they bring, however, don’t even mention the girl who will no longer make them money, whose future is uncertain.  As frequently happens, economic and cultural accusations get mixed up and swapped.  An economic complaint becomes a cultural one.  The owners decide that Paul and Silas’ jewishness is to blame. 

Their difference is threatening the status quo.  Their culture is too different, their religion too dangerous, and they will harm the established Roman culture.  These owners face a new economic challenge without the easy money of slave labor, and instead of questioning the economic system that lets some make money at the expense and poverty of others, they blame cultural differences. 

As the story continues, the girl, whose identity as a fortune-teller is lost, is herself now lost, leaving us with questions and wonderings about her own future and fortune.

The focus zeros in on Paul and Silas, who are Jewish and therefore “less than” the Romans, making it an easy decision to beat them and throw them into jail.  If they are not considered full citizens, they are also not considered full humans, and so abuse is deemed ok.

The story so far is unsurprising.  Cultural and economic abuse and exploitation are not new to us today.  Violence against unarmed men and child slavery are still realities throughout this country and the world.  Yet this story is not over.   

As Paul and Silas sit shackled in jail, they praise God.  In her reflections, our early mother in the faith whom we commemorate today, Julian of Norwich shared that no matter how dire the situation, “all shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.”  In this spirit of confidence and trust in God, “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.”

Then an earthquake literally rocks the foundation as chains and locks are broken open.  The captives are set free!            …            And yet, they remain.

The jailer, whose terror runs deeper than the earthquake, to failure at his job and the prospect of economic devastation, loses himself to despair.  In the midst of the utter despair, the jailer draws his sword to kill himself and the grace of God breaks in, as Paul shouts out, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”  All hope is not yet gone.  Paul and Silas and the other prisoners could have easily escaped to freedom, but out of compassion for even this one who is keeping them bound (and maybe out of a little shock), they remain.

It is in this profoundly countercultural move of love and care for the one who is oppressing them                        that the jailer comes to new faith, asking “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”  Because for Paul and Silas, as followers of Jesus, their liberation is not complete without the liberation that has been holding even this jailer in bondage.  

 The jailer, who is enforcing the rules and directives given to him, serves to keep the people “in line,” especially those Jewish outsiders, stirring up trouble, disrespecting the Roman customs and culture.  The jailer serves the occupying Romans, caught up in the system of oppression, whether or not he even realizes it.

And that is where God breaks in.

Beginning with Lydia and sharing their faith in words and in actions, Paul and Silas and the growing community of believers in Macedonia know            that to follow Christ is to love others. 

It is to risk remaining captive for the sake of the one who would take his own life. 

It is to choose love over self-preservation, safety, or security. 

It is to challenge economic systems that rely on the enslavement and exploitation of adults and children. 

It is to speak out and even use their own power, as they did in the end, as full citizens, to challenge and change the unjust culture and practices. 

And, as Lydia and the jailer demonstrate,

      it is to open their home in hospitality, providing shelter and food for those in need, protecting the vulnerable, even at the risk of their own place in society.

And it is in those moments where the Holy Spirit works so powerfully, proclaiming Paul and Silas as “slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation” and staying the jailer’s sword with the command “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”

That is how the Holy Spirit comes—in the midst of even crisis and despair            with words of hope and assurance.  Promising God’s love from “the first [to] the last, the beginning [to] the end.” 

Because God is living and Christ is risen!   Christ is risen, indeed!  Alleluia!