"You Cannot Imprison the Word of the Lord"

Grace Episcopal Church, Madison NJ
May 16, 2010

Year C: The Seventh Sunday of Easter
Acts 16:16-34
Psalm 97
John 17:20-26

“You Cannot Imprison the Word of the Lord”

So, I have a deep theological question: what happened to the first half of May? Here in church, it seems like we just had our big Easter celebrations, but the Easter season is already drawing to a close. Today is the seventh Sunday of Easter – and next Sunday we’ll be celebrating the great feast of Pentecost and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Lauren has mentioned in her sermons that around here we try our best to hold on to the joy and excitement of Easter – but, let’s be honest, it’s pretty easy to slip into business as usual and live like everybody else. After all, today is the seventh Sunday of Easter, the Easter lilies are long gone and maybe even our alleluias wilting. The Lord is risen indeed…Alleluia.

For the first few Sundays of Easter we heard stories from the Gospel of John – vivid and memorable stories of Jesus’ resurrection appearances to his disciples.

But for the past couple of Sundays, we’ve continued to hear excerpts from the Gospel of John, but no more resurrection stories. Although it’s still the Easter season, the gospel has taken us back to before Easter. Last week we heard part of what’s called the “final discourse,” what the Gospel of John records as Jesus’ final teaching at the Last Supper. And today, we heard what John records as Jesus’ final prayer before his arrest and all that follows.

The Gospel of John was the last of the four gospels to be written, sometime around the end of the First Century.

Inspired by God, this gospel is a product of several generations of Christian reflection on who Jesus is and reflection on the meaning of his life, death and resurrection. This gospel is also the product of several generations of Christians trying to figure out how to survive in a world hostile to the Christian message. And it’s also the product of several generations of Christians trying to live together – and often having a lot of trouble getting along with one another.

The first disciples followed Jesus because they recognized that God was present in Jesus in a new and unique way. They realized that in the Messiah they saw what God was really like. They knew that when they heard Jesus they were hearing the word of the Lord.

But, after several generations of reflection and experience the author of the Gospel of John recognizes an even greater and deeper truth. When we hear Jesus not only do we hear the word of the Lord, but in some mysterious way Jesus is the Word of the Lord.

The author of the gospel makes a bold claim: in some mysterious way, God the Father and Jesus the Son are one. There is an unbreakable bond between God the Father and Jesus the Son. And in the Gospel of John, Jesus’ final prayer is that his followers – you and I – may be one also - one with each other and also one with Jesus. Listen to Jesus’ prayer to God the Father again,

“The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me…”

“I in them and you in me.” The author of the Gospel of John understands that Jesus’ prayer, hope and promise for us is unity – an unbreakable bond – with God the Father, Jesus the Son, and with one another.

This is why we say that the bond which God establishes with us in baptism is indissoluble – it can never be dissolved or broken.

In Jesus we hear the word of the Lord. In Jesus we see the Word of the Lord come to live among us. And in the unbreakable bond we now have with God, the Word of the Lord lives in our hearts.

It’s mid-May, it’s the seventh Sunday of Easter, and, yes, maybe our alleluias are starting to wilt, but the truth of our unbreakable bond with God, the truth that the Word of the Lord is alive in our hearts, should make us shout “alleluia!” with joy, hope and confidence.

Maybe no one understood the bond of love between God and us better than St. Paul, who in his letter to the Romans wrote that he was convinced that nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Of course, as Paul and so many others have found out, over and over the forces of the world will try to separate us from the love of God. Over and over the world tries to break the bond between God and us. Over and over the world tries to imprison the Word of the Lord.

We heard about one of those attempts in today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles.

We pick up right where we left off last Sunday. You may remember that Paul and his companions arrived in the city of Philippi in Macedonia in southeastern Europe. There they encountered Lydia who was baptized and who immediately offered hospitality to Paul and the others.

Now, Paul and his fellow disciple Silas are still in the Roman colony of Philippi and they encounter a gentile slave girl who has a kind of spiritual power that is a money-maker for her owners. I imagine her situation as like being enslaved and forced to work forever as a fortune-teller on the boardwalk at the Shore. She recognizes who Paul and his companions are. She follows them around, crying out, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.” We’re told that Paul was “very much annoyed” by this.

Anyway, the Word of the Lord was alive in Paul and so just like Jesus he was able to cast out the spirit. We’re not told how the girl felt about this but naturally her owners were angry about losing a revenue source. They brought Paul and Silas before the authorities and accused them of illegally trying to convert Romans – gentiles – to their faith.

Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown into jail.

In Leonard Bernstein’s Mass there’s a piece called “The Word of the Lord.” Here’s just part of the text:

“You can lock up your bold men and women. Go and lock up your bold men and women. And hold them in tow. You can stifle all adventure for a century or so. Smother hope before it’s risen. Watch it wizen like a gourd. But you cannot imprison the Word of the Lord.”

“No, you cannot imprison the Word of the Lord.”

Actually, I’d revise that a little. “No, you cannot imprison the Word of the Lord, unless we allow it.

For me, the most amazing part of the story of Paul and Silas in Philippi is how they behave in prison. They’ve been hauled before the court, attacked by the crowd, beaten with rods, given a severe flogging and now they’re jailed with their feet in the stocks. And what do they do?

The author of Acts tells us, “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.”

Knowing that in Jesus they had an unbreakable bond with God, knowing that nothing could separate them from the love of God, Paul and Silas pray and sing.
“You can lock up your bold men and women. But you cannot imprison the Word of the Lord.”

The author of Acts goes on to tell us about the miraculous earthquake and how the amazed jailer put his faith in Jesus and how just like Lydia, he immediately offered hospitality to Paul and the others.

It’s a great story, but, the core of the story is the faith of Paul and Silas. They offer a great example of faith as trust. The Word of the Lord was alive in their hearts. Despite a very bleak and painful situation, Paul and Silas place their trust in the unbreakable bond they share with God – a bond infinitely stronger than their prison chains. The world takes its best shot, but the world couldn’t imprison the Word of the Lord - because Paul and Silas wouldn’t allow it.

No, the forces of the world cannot imprison the Word of the Lord, unless we allow it. You cannot imprison the Word of the Lord unless we – we, who have an unbreakable bond with God – allow it.

So, what about us?

Well, for sure the world still takes its best shot at imprisoning the Word of the Lord. In some parts of the world, Christians are discriminated against or tortured or even killed for their faith. Around the world there are an estimated 120 million so-called crypto-Christians – people who are forced to live out their faith in secret.

Around here we don’t risk our lives when we practice our faith. But, here in green, beautiful, comfortable Morris County, the world’s attempts to imprison the Word of the Lord are more subtle, maybe more dangerous, and if we allow it, maybe more effective.

The Word of the Lord is alive in our hearts and alive among us, but if when we leave this place we live out there pretty much like everyone else, then we allow the world to imprison the Word of the Lord.

If we believe the Golden Rule is “The one with the gold, rules” then we allow the world to imprison the Word of the Lord. If in our real lives we put more faith in money and our stuff than in God then we allow the world to imprison the Word of the Lord.

If we turn away the person in need; if we mock the one who is different; if like the owners of the slave girl in Philippi we use people for our own profit, then we allow the world to imprison the Word of the Lord.

If we demonize our opponents and hate our enemies, then we allow the world to imprison the Word of Lord.

If out there in the world we live pretty much like everyone else, then we allow the world to imprison the Word of the Lord.

I know that sounds like a heavy responsibility and challenge. Yet, the Good News that Paul and John and so many others have understood is that it’s not all on us – in fact, just the opposite.

As the author of the Gospel of John understood, in Jesus the Word of the Lord has come and lived among us. In our baptism, God makes an unbreakable bond with us – a bond infinitely stronger than the world’s best shot. The Word of the Lord is alive within all of us. And each time we pray, each time we receive the Body and Blood of Christ, each time we serve another, the bond of love between God and us and the bond of love among all of us, grows stronger and stronger.

The story of Paul and Silas shows us that the bond between God and us is so strong that, unless we allow it, the world cannot imprison the Word of the Lord.
So, since it’s already mid-May and the seventh Sunday of Easter we’d better freshen up those alleluias.

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

Amen.