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LINKS TO THE SERMONS |
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| Trouble Makers Rev. Ben Vinluan Acts 16: 16-34
“Then he brought them up into his house, and set food before them; and he rejoiced with all his household that he had believed in God.” (16:34). Introduction When I arrived here in America in 1967, the nation was in the midst of the civil rights upheaval. A man by the name of Martin Luther King, Jr. was going around leading people to boycott buses. They called him a trouble maker. Things went from bad to worse and somebody killed him while trying to help trash workers in Memphis. I was at the divinity school at Vanderbilt. The following day people took to the streets to demonstrate in support of Martin Luther King, Jr. Black people. White people. Brown people, red and yellow people. Yet the man was a trouble maker. Are you a trouble maker? No, you hope not? Actually, I hope you would be! You see, a trouble maker is one who, because of their faith make themselves a means by which others find hope. Trouble makers are those who see God’s promised presence in the world and to all of us, enough to be willing to risk themselves for those around them Paul was a trouble maker. He went to the big city of Philippi, because of a vision from God for him to go to Macedonia, where Philippi was an important city. Jews or Christians were a minority. The only place for worship is in a prayer chapel by the river in the suburbs. An upscale dry goods merchant named Lydia gets converted, and her house becomes a bed and breakfast for Paul and Silas. So far so good. Then trouble begins. Paul and Silas go back to the prayer chapel at another time. There a nameless slave girl, who was also a fortune teller started following Paul and Silas around. They couldn’t shake her off. Not only that, she kept crying out, “These men are slaves of the Most High God who proclaim to you a way of salvation!” This episode is almost comical because Paul and Silas didn’t need her help: they were getting annoyed. So Paul confronted the spirit in her saying, “I charge you in the name of Jesus Christ, come out of her.” She became well immediately. That also meant she could no longer tell people’s fortune by the spirit of divination. And her managers got mad. There’s no more money to be made out of her. So they hauled Paul and Silas to the police. Next they took them to court with the police report, to which they added the charge that they are Jews teaching or advocating customs that are incompatible with Roman customs. They did not really have a case. But their social status, and their ability to manipulate public opinion carried the day. Paul and Silas were subjected to humiliation and beating, then they were thrown in jail. They were held practically incommunicado. They jailer put their feet in stocks as he was instructed to do.. Paul and Silas’ faith was irrepressible: Incommunicado and in the innermost cell, they start praying and singing at midnight. I like that picture. Can you imagine being in prison – no tv, no radio, nothing. No wonder all the other prisoners were all ears when Paul and Silas start praying and singing. Remember that these guys were trouble makers in the market place, in the rest of the city. In prison, they were the only game in town. Then all of a sudden, earthquake! All the prisoners were free from their shackles, resulting from the violence of the earthquake that made the jail useless. You know the rest of the story: Fear on the part of the jailer, Paul’s pronouncement of God’s promise, the jailer’s act of claiming God’s salvation. “…the jailer rejoiced with all his household that he had believed in God…”. We can thank God for trouble makers, can we not? The world is replete with so called trouble makers. There is a characteristic that set them apart from the rest of us. They receive a transforming and renewing experience: Moses’ experience of the burning bush, Constantine’s vision of the sign of the cross, Augustine’s vision in the garden, transforming him from a libertine to that of One of the greatest saints the world has ever known. There’s an episode in the gospels where Jesus declares that unless our righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees, we will not enter the kingdom of God… That’s it! Jesus called us to be trouble makers, because he expects us mold our expectations on the standards of heaven and not of the world. Fortunately, that is not an impossible expectation! As people of the resurrection, that is our heritage – to be trouble makers. We’ve seen the example of the lives of these trouble makers across centuries, and through out the world. They are start with a transforming experience: Moses’ experience of the burning bush, Isaiah’s vision of God in the temple, even Constantine’s vision of the sign of the cross, Augustine’s vision in the garden at Tagaste, all made them move from being ordinary people to ones whose uncommon faith made them agents of change and life. Our heritage as a church is one in which we find an abundance of compassion in a world that is awash in violence. England was on the brink of chaos and social dislocation when the Methodist movement was born. It saved England from social and political ruin. It, the Methodist movement, has since become a source of hope for all across the world giving the gift of light one person at a time. The United Methodist Church, because of John Wesley, has become a source of hope for all across the globe. It is a church of trouble makers for good and the glory of God. Today is United Methodist heritage Sunday. John Wesley at Aldersgate, was the image of failure. When he arose from prayer at that prayer meeting he was a renewed, transformed. Suddenly he understood the meaning of being a trouble maker for God! I think that’s it! It’s not enough that we maintain our place. It’s not enough that we try to be comfortable, and help other people to be comfortably satisfied with things as they are. Our calling is to push the limits of the familiar, so that life not stay the same day in and day out. Our calling is to move on to perfection, in the same way that our Lord Jesus said “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect.” In recent months, there have been a spate of killings of pastors and lay people in the church in the Philippines. These pastors and lay people are trouble makers for God. They stood up to the inequalities in society, the injustice that is rampant. The courage of their faith in standing up for what is right is shaking the foundations of the principalities and powers, endangering their own lives and their loved ones. Several months ago I was asked to draft a resolution in support of solidarity with all the brave trouble makers of God in the Philippines. In doing that, I discovered that even as simple an act as writing a resolution in support of those who are at the cutting edge of struggle to be trouble makers for God is a reaffirmation of my own calling to be an agent of change in the world.. For in living faithfully, we become trouble makers for God! Prayer: O God we pray that we understand each day that even in the simple act of living faithfully before you enables us to become trouble makers for God. Amen. As always you can get a DVD of this sermon. Contact the church office.
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