Paul and Silas and Holy Disruption - July 30

Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 72; PM Psalm 119:73-96; 2 Samuel 3:22-39; Acts 16:16-24; Mark 6:47-56

Several years ago, one of the publishing groups out of the Episcopal Church offered a Bible study on the book of Acts. They were encouraging the whole church to read Acts during the season of Easter. For me, it reawakened the profound story of Acts, easily my favorite of all the writings in the New Testament. It tells the story of the growth of the Church and how the disciples lived and shared their faith after the death and resurrection of Jesus. Acts gives us context for the Epistles.

Today’s story from Acts is fascinating. Paul and Silas encounter a young woman who is trapped, not only spiritually, but socially and economically. She’s a slave, exploited for her ability to tell fortunes. When Paul casts out the spirit, we might expect celebration. Instead, it’s the beginning of a riot, because her liberation costs her owners their profit. Paul and Silas are seized and dragged into the marketplace and accused of “disturbing our city.”  It’s a pretty unsettling story.

That moment says something profound: sometimes acts of compassion threaten people in power. Not because they are cruel, but because they expose the systems that are. Her healing reveals the injustice beneath the surface, and those who benefit from that injustice respond not with repentance, but with retaliation. They drag Paul and Silas into the marketplace, stir up the crowd, and have them beaten and thrown into prison.

It’s tempting to think of faith as something private, something that lives quietly in our hearts. That is true indeed. But Acts reminds us that faith also has the power to disrupt. Our compassion for each other can question entire systems. It can liberate the oppressed. And that can be unsettling to those who benefit from the way things are.

The good news is that God is in that disruption. As the church grew in those early days, God’s resurrection and healing love was indeed Good News because people found hope and healing in the love and compassion show each other, even when the world resisted. Maybe the same is true today too. 

John+

Questions for Self-Reflection:  Where have you seen compassion expose something you didn’t realize was unjust?