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| Harry Houdini |
What chains bind us in our lives?
How are we set free from them?
In this weeks lectionary lesson from Acts 16: 16-34, we look at the narrative of Paul's night in prison where he is set free from the chains that bind. This narrative is an interesting association of characters and setting.
Paul and his fellow sojourners are first confronted by the female oracle or fortune teller. They then come in conflict with the economic and political values of the city square or forum once they have performed their "Christain duty" as they see it.
Punished and imprisoned for their duty, Paul and his fellows find themselves bound in chains.
But the quaking earth removes the shackles. The miracle is that both they and the prison guard find a hospitality of peace as households joined together in compassion and grace.
Acts 16:16-34
16:16 One 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.
16:17 While 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."
16:18 She 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.
16:19 But 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.
16:20 When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, "These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews
16:21 and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe."
16:22 The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods.
16:23 After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely.
16:24 Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
16:25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
16:26 Suddenly 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.
16:27 When 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.
16:28 But Paul shouted in a loud voice, "Do not harm yourself, for we are all here."
16:29 The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.
16:30 Then he brought them outside and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
16:31 They answered, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household."
16:32 They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.
16:33 At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay.
16:34 He 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.
What chains bind us in our lives?
How are we set free from them?
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