Eastertide
May 24, 2022
Scripture Reading: Acts 16:16-34
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 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. 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. But Paul shouted in a loud voice, ‘Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.’ The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them outside and said, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ They answered, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.’ They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay. 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. –Acts 16:25-34
Our country, the whole world actually, has been caught in the throes of a pandemic, while dealing or failing to deal with the forces of unusually destructive fires, drought, hurricanes, floods, ice storms, and tornados. During all these challenges, our leadership seems primarily concerned with assuring that the rich get richer. Leaders invest their time in stirring up our prejudices and practicing divide and conquer politics. They care more about controlling people’s personal lives than addressing the systemic problems that plague the world, like poverty, climate change, and terrorism. The leadership in a true democracy should be a mirror image of we the people. We need to ask ourselves if indeed our leaders are a mirror image of us, and whether we are the ones who need to change.
Paul and Silas were imprisoned for trying to show people a better way. They did that in response to a deadly earthquake by demonstrating that better way. In doing so they changed the lives of their jailers. We are called to that same ministry of sharing the ways of Jesus not just in words but also in deeds and selecting leaders that share our vision of Jesus’s better way of feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, welcoming strangers, and restoring prisoners to wholeness. Jesus says the nations will be judged on their response to these things not by how many billionaires it creates.
Prayer: Lord, search us for anything that prevents us from serving you more nearly and create in us clean hearts to guide right decisions and actions. Amen.
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.