Sermon by Michelle - May 8

There. I've said it.

Theologians can try to pretty up the sentiment, by saying things like "our actions reveal a certain human frailty," or, "In this respect, we fall short of the glory of God." But, the fact remains: sometimes, people can act like a jerks.

To see that, you need only read today's lesson from Acts, from the perspective of the slave girl.

Here is a girl who has no status - she is a girl, and she is a slave. The writer of Acts - generally considered to be more sympathetic to women - doesn't even record her name. She's not Dorcas the slave girl. She's just an unimportant person, pushed around by society, but who loves God.

She is, in short, the kind of person whom Jesus would love.

So, let's look at what happened from her point of view:

It's kind of a hard thing to do, really. She had no power, and therefore no voice in this story. We don't know how she feels. In all of the reading I did on this passage, only one scholar suggested that maybe an evil spirit had possessed her - that was the source of the divination. This scholar points out that many of the evil spirits that Jesus encountered knew his name, and his power. But, we don't have any sense that she was tormented the way most of those people were, leaving most people - including me - perplexed by this encounter. I wonder if something else is going on. If perhaps she was a faithful follower of God, captured and enslaved by the Roman people. If maybe her "divination" might in fact be the gift of prophecy, from God. If maybe she thought she was doing God's work, following Paul around, and advertising the source of his mighty deeds. She prophesied as others before her had prophesied. And she makes people uncomfortable in the process, as all prophets do. Nonetheleast of whom is Paul - who has been keeping a low profile, and does not appear to have been making a lot of scenes in public squares. Perhaps he knew that doing so in a Roman colony might land him in prison. Which, ironically, is exactly what happens after he orders the spirit out of the girl.

We don't know how the girl felt about that. Paul did not ask her beforehand whether she wanted to be healed. There's not even any sense that Paul asked her - politely - to stop following him. Of course, if it really was an unclean spirit - well generally Jesus does not have genteel conversations with demons, either. But, nobody inquires about her wellbeing after this incident. She disappears from the story. Unlike the men with unclean spirits whom Jesus healed, there is no sense that she expressed gratitude, or returned to home or other employment. Some commentators have optimistically suggested that - since she could no longer make money for her masters - she was set free after her encounter with Paul. In other words, they try to make Paul less of a jerk. But, I've just come back from a few days in Louisiana, which has provided me with lots of powerful reminders that things usually do not go well for slaves who have ceased to be profitable. It's just as possible that she was forced to continue in her trade, under threat of harm. We cannot know.

So, here is one way of reading this story, possibly from her perspective - Paul is confronted by a prophet. She follows him around, speaking the absolute truth. And, it's possible that she might have been performing a valuable service for the kingdom of God - drawing attention to Paul and Silas and the other disciples, bringing crowds to see them and to hear their stories.

And, how does Paul respond? He gets annoyed, and silences her.

What a jerk.

What's odd about this case, though, people sprang to the defense of the silenced girl. Well, sort of. They hauled Paul off to the authorities for what he did. But only because they owned the girl, and they perceived they were losing money by what Paul had done. So they brought Paul up on allegations of disturbing the public order. Of course, that's not why they were mad at him. But, their real complaint wasn't covered by the law - few legal systems have provisions for exorcism. Paul commanded a spirit to come out of the girl, a spirit which her unnamed owners had found profitable. They were determined to make him suffer for it. They don't really care about the girl, herself. They just care about their lost earnings. Which makes them jerks, too.

People sometimes think that the Bible is full of heroes and people to pattern our lives after. But, after reading about incidents like this, I'm not so sure about that. I think the Bible is rather full of uncomfortable truths about human nature. Truths like: sometimes, people can be jerks. Sometimes, people have incredible gifts from God, and they are ignored, or belittled, or used for something other than the glory of God. Sometimes, prophets speak the truth, and it hurts. And sometimes, those with power will silence them. The people in the Bible were surrounded by a society that said that certain people - men, Roman citizens, wealthy people - should be listened to while others - women, people of other ethnic groups, the poor and the enslaved - could and should be ignored. And the Bible tells us it has been happening for centuries, millennia, even.

Of course, people will say, you don't have to read the Bible for that. There are lots of books that remind us of the various ways in which people can be jerks. I remember in high school, reading Henrik Ibsen's play An Enemy of the People, which explored the conflict created by an environmental profit - a hundred and thirty years ago - and a town which depended on keeping his allegations quiet. Or, we can look to our own history - Martin Luther King, memorialized as a street name in almost every large town I visited in Louisiana last week - shot for his efforts to create a more just society. And, today, as we recognize Mother's Day - how many of us remember that one of the original inspirations of Mother's Day was a proclamation by Julia Ward Howe in 1872, asking the mothers of the world to unite against the carnage of war, and seek amicable international dispute resolution. Needless to say, the mothers that sponsored that effort - for over forty years - lamented the commercialization of what has now become "Mother's Day." Mothers are wonderful, but those who like to profit off sentimentality - those people can be real jerks.

So, yes, there are countless places to read about the less attractive aspects of human nature - in the Bible and elsewhere.

But that is not all that the Bible teaches.

The Bible reminds us that we are called to something better. The Bible gives us hope, in the face of this despair. Because the Bible reminds us that God is at work in the world.

Today's Gospel reading, from John, is part of what is commonly as the Farewell Discourse. It consists of everything Jesus said on his last night - starting with the washing of the disciples' feet at the Last Supper, a final foreshadowing of what will happen to him in the next few days, reminders of who he is and who God is; and lots of reassurances that Jesus will not leave them without consolation after his death. The excerpt we have today is what is known as the Unity Prayer - Jesus's last prayer, before he leaves the disciples, walks away from the table, and goes to the garden where he is arrested. It is, therefore, his final words to his disciples, his final speech, his final prayer.

And what do those words show us? That Jesus, God made man, is not naive. That though Jesus is perfect, he understands all too well that the world is not. And so in his final prayer, he prays for all believers. Not just the disciples gathered around the table that night, but for all of us who have followed them, right down to those of us, worshiping in this church today.

He prays two things: he prays that all who believe might share in God's glory, and that all might share in God's love.

So what? you say.

This is Jesus. Who has spent the better part of the last three years with the disciples. He knows that they can be impulsive, like Peter; or petty and vain, like James and John. He knows that they can be dense - well, that's pretty much all of them. And he knows that they can be corrupt, exit Judas, that evening. In short, in his time with them, he has seen humanity's imperfections up close and personal.

And yet, he does not hold it against them, or tell them they are undeserving. He reminds them that he is one with God in God's glory, and that all who share with him share that glory. In other words, no matter if you are rich or poor, male or female, no matter what your citizenship - you share in God's glory. Through Jesus's eyes, nobody deserves to be silenced or ignored.

Secondly, Jesus prays we can share in God's love. It's not enough that God loves each person, regardless of what society says or does. Jesus prays that we can share in that love - both sharing in receiving that love, but also share in giving it.

As I told the story of the slave girl, did it seem oddly familiar to you? Did you recall a time when you had been shut down, cut off, ignored? When your wishes or your very existence were denied? Then hear me as I tell you this: Jesus prayed that you might receive his glory, that you might feel God's love. That you might know that you are beloved, and gifted, no matter what others may say.

Or did the story spark other memories for you? Times when somebody seemed annoying to you, or nervy? Times when someone spoke their mind, and you wanted to put them in their place? Or when your opinion of someone's words were colored by a dollar figure, whether an income or an economic impact? Then hear me as I tell you this: Jesus prayer that you might share in his love. A love that sees all people as beloved, and does not count the cost. But Jesus also knows that it is hard to live that way.

Yes, Paul was a jerk at times. But Paul was also a beloved disciple - the last disciple - who strove to show forth God's love. And so, God loved him, despite his shortcomings. God gave Paul the power to work for the kingdom.

Some would argue that the world needs Jesus's love, and Jesus's prayer for unity, today as much as ever. Because, let's face it, without God, we can all act like jerks sometimes. But with God, all things are possible. Jesus reminds us that we are not in this alone - that God is with us as we try to do right in a world that offers lots of ways to do wrong. So let us remember the words of Jesus's prayer - remember that we share in the glory of God, as we work to share God's love with everyone.

Amen.