Jude 2

sermon wrote:As act two begins we find the missionaries chained away in the bowels of the prison. Some commentators suggest that this is a formulaic insertion into the text, something the story editors added to the show to beef it up for a ratings sweep. Though earthquakes are common in this part of the world, the probability that an earthquake occurred at this precise point in the story and liberated all the prisoners, who did NOT escape, is somewhat suspect. It does make for a great climax, however: Paul and Silas, so secure in their faith that they were singing songs in the night, the night of their own torture and imprisonment, has been an inspiration and a source of hope for many who have found themselves or felt themselves in imprisoned in many different ways.

Hear again the words of Nelson Mandela as he pays tribute to all the singers of those wonderful South African freedom songs, like Siyahamba, today’s opening song. “Imagine how our hearts beat as your voices wafted across the great distances that separated us and penetrated through the prison walls…to reach us in our cells. Every day we heard your voices ring: Let my people go. As we heard that vibrating and invigorating cry of human concern, we knew that we would be free….We drew strength and sustenance from the knowledge we were part of a greater humanity than our jailers could claim” (Nelson Mandela, quoted in “Singing our Freedom,” Seasons of the Spirit, Congregational Life, Lent Easter 2007, p. 130.) Songs in the night – songs of hope, songs of freedom, songs of faith - are lifted up within and without whatever walls, real or imagined, may be thrown up to hold God’s children down; such songs will not go unheard. In our little drama, the peace now really had been disturbed. I suppose one could argue that God was angry and caused the earth to shake in order to liberate God’s servants, though I am not at all certain God works this way, but God is a God of liberation.