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In touch

Up-to-the-minute jumping-off points for sermons, linking the reading to the latest news and global issues

Acting for freedom (Acts 16:16-34)

Context

Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke out this week about the need for the current government to address the number of children living in poverty.

The parade in Liverpool celebrating their victory in the Premier League was ended by tragedy with police releasing details of the driver soon after the incident.

The conflict in Gaza continues with more concerns over the risk of famine and accusations of genocide.

 

Sermon ideas

• There are currently 4.5 million children living in poverty and that number is currently growing each year. This has impacts on their health, education and therefore their prospects for the future. Like the slave girl in today’s readings, they will be restricted and limited in what they can do and the choices they can make. Gordon Brown is using his position and name to highlight the issue and to call for change. Christians throughout the country have the opportunity to advocate and campaign for those who are captive to poverty, homelessness, addiction or abuse by writing to their MP, attending demonstrations or signing petitions to increase pressure on government. Our God brings freedom for captives - are we involving ourselves in that work?
• The victory parade for Liverpool’s Premier League win was ended by a driver following an ambulance into the streets lined with people and then driving into a crowd, severely injuring several people. Police quickly released details of the driver they had arrested and were questioning. This was a direct result of the Southport knife attack where social media posts immediately following laid the blame at Muslim asylum seekers and began a wave of violence towards refugees and the places where they were living. In these days of social media and instant news, we are often bombarded with messages and articles looking to stir up our emotions and to move us against certain groups whether it’s those with disabilities, refugees, football supporters or the government. A local minister told me he often gets WhatsApp messages demanding he pray for Christians being persecuted in a particular state of India or Indonesia and, when he investigates, he finds that the location and situation has been fabricated or is based on events from a decade previously. With information having such power, we have a responsibility to think hard about the media we consume, and what we pass on to others.
• Whatever your views on the conflict in the Holy Land, it is clear that innocent people are now at risk of starvation. The language people are using to describe the situation there, and the approach taken by the Israeli government, is becoming stronger and stronger. People living in Gaza are imprisoned by the need to stay somewhere safe and the difficulty in obtaining food for living. As Christians we can find ourselves focussing on the big picture issues of who the land belongs to but, more and more, we are seeing people trapped by forces beyond their control and we need to reflect on how we speak and act for peace.
• In our church, Acts 16:16-34 was preached on by a wheelchair user whose illness also took her voice away. She communicates through a text-to-speech device that turns her typed words into audible speech. As someone who is unable to leave her flat more than once or twice a week due to her particular disability, her injunction that we need to praise God in the middle of our difficulties as Paul & Silas praised God in prison, carried far more weight than if the minister had preached a similar message.

 

Questions for discussion

• What actions do people take to draw attention to injustice and suffering in the world?
• Have you ever taken any of these actions? What was the cause?
• Do you ever feel restricted or trapped like Paul & Silas? What helps you to praise God when things are going badly?
• How do we encourage others when they are in a difficult or impossible situation?

 

Steve Taylor shares the job of joint-vicar of St Paul’s CofE Church, Harrow with his wife, Ali. They share their home with their youngest child, two cats, three chickens and numerous fish.

 

Check-in

Connecting faith with everyday, real-life issues for young people

Freeing Captives – Acts 16:16-34

The book of Acts can read like a whirlwind of activity for the early Church: God is clearly at work and miracles are happening every other verse. Today’s passage is no exception.

That whirlwind sensation can seem true of our world today, especially with so many of us so immersed within the world of social media and the 24:7 news cycle. As a result, we are aware of so many situations in the world, both locally and internationally, where captives need to be physically freed. In addition, many of us are trapped in the world of consumerism, whether we realize it or not.

We can fall into the traps of presuming that either captives can be freed almost overnight, and get disheartened when that doesn’t happen; or that the issues are so large and so big that there’s nothing that we can do about it, and end up freezing or doing nothing about it.

As we look at today’s story, we read that in the dead of night in prison when, lets face it, most of us would be worried sick struggling to sleep, Paul and Silas were singing songs to God and praying. They were full of confidence that no matter what happened, God was at work.

When the pressure is on, what’s inside us tends to come out first – and for Paul and Silas, it was Prayer and Praise.

This week, when things don’t go our way and we’re feeling trapped, what’s our reaction going to be? Let’s be a group of people whose initial reaction is to try and Praise and Pray to God; even if at first we don’t feel like it...and then let's be people who see God at work in response. We may not experience a physical earthquake resulting in the literal prison doors opening but, when we Praise and Pray, it’s amazing what happens.

Jonathan Buckley, Youth Development Worker at YMCA White Rose and Redevelopment Manager at St Paul’s, Parson Cross, Sheffield.

 

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