Title: Happy Places
Text: Acts 16:16-34
Thesis: Happy Christians make for happy places.
Introduction
It was on one of those old school, whirlwind, whistle-stop political campaigns. A well known politician was riding that train as it passed through a major eastern city. He suddenly produced a $5 bill and said, “I’m going to throw this $5 out the window and make somebody happy.”
One of his staff suggested, “Why don’t you throw five $1s out the window and make five people happy?”
A member of the media seated across the aisle said, “Why don’t you just jump out the window yourself and make everybody happy?”
In one of Charles Schultz’s early Peanuts comic strips, Lucy is waxing philosophical. “Why do you think we’re put on earth, Charlie Brown?” she asks.
After pondering for a moment, Charlie replies, “To make others happy.”
Lucy seemed to think that was a pretty good answer and then a scowl darkens her brow. “I don’t think I’m making anyone very happy,” she admits. “Of course, nobody’s making me very happy either.”
In the final panel Lucy is screaming out in big, capital letters: “SOMEBODY’S NOT DOING HIS JOB!”
We are not unlike Lucy in sometimes thinking others exist for the sole purpose of making us happy.
If your happiness is based on the actions of others you will be unhappy most of the time.
I. People can be exasperating
This went on day after day until Paul got so exasperated that he turned and said to the demon within her, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And instantly it left her. Acts 16:16-18
Maurine Corrigan wrote, “It's not that I don't like people. It's just that when I'm in the company of others - even my nearest and dearest - there always comes a moment when I'd rather be reading a book.” (Maureen Corrigan, Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading: Finding and Losing Myself in Books)
I referred to Charles Schulz earlier. He once famously said, “I love mankind, it's people I can't stand.”
In the story today Paul and Silas are on their second missionary journey (Paul’s first missionary journey begins in Acts 13; the second in Acts 16; and the third in Acts 19). Paul’s journeys typically followed coastal cities and trade routes… extending from present day Israel, Syria, Turkey, maybe Bulgaria, Greece and Italy and then back by sea including the Island of Crete.
They were guests in the home of Lydia, a business woman from the city of Thyatira. For days a woman followed them around wherever they went shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, and they have come to tell you how to be saved.” Acts 16:17
Imagine pulling into the Shell station to buy gas and having a woman standing there under the canopy shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, and they have come to tell you how to be saved.” The same thing at King Soopers grocery. The same thing at George’s Café. The same thing at Wal Mart.
This was not exactly the endorsement Paul wanted in that the woman was perceived to be possessed by a spirit or a demon that gave her powers as a fortune-teller. She was a slave-girl and her owners made a lot of money charging people for having their fortunes told. Her endorsement of Paul and Silas was not to affirm them but to serve as a distraction for them and those to whom they spoke.
Finally Paul had had enough. The bible says that this went on day after day until Paul got so exasperated he turned to her and exorcised the demon from her in Acts 16:18. This was in fact a good thing for the woman but her owners were not pleased. We are all aware of the old adage, “No good deed goes unpunished.” Her master’s hopes of wealth were now shattered, so they grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them before the authorities at the marketplace. Acts 16:19-21
Wouldn’t it be nice if whenever someone exasperated us we could simply perform an exorcism so we would always be surrounded by people who knew how to behave? I’m not sure what we are supposed to do with this part of the story in terms of a practical application. Do we tell them to shut up or do we get them committed or do we avoid them or get restraining orders to keep them away? But at the very least this piece of the story serves to remind us that people exasperate us and sometimes literally hinder the work God has for us.
Just as people can be exasperating at times… there are times we wonder where God is and why God is not intervening in our unfortunate circumstances.
II. Sometimes life is marked by unexpected circumstances and God does not always intervene
A mob quickly formed against Paul and Silas, and the city officials ordered them stripped and beaten with wooden rods. They were severely beaten and then thrown into prison… the inner dungeon with their feet clamped in stocks. Acts 16:22-24
In this piece of the story there is something of a public outcry. A mob forms. People are not happy and what had begun as a pretty nice day suddenly turned into a disastrous day for Paul and Silas. You could say they were having one of those “Alexander and his terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days.”
They were beaten with wooden rods and locked up in the deepest, darkest, dankest part of the local jail where they were locked in stocks.
My parents were firm believers in the old “spare the rod and spoil the child” system of punishment. I was spanked a lot. On one occasion by mother swatted me with a yard stick which immediately shattered leaving her with a stub of a stick… pretty funny to me but not to her.
The bible says Paul and Silas were stripped and beaten with wooden rods.
In Singapore they still use caning as a form of legal corporal punishment. The cane is made of rattan. It is 4 feet long and ½ inch in diameter. The cane is soaked in water before a caning so the cane will be flexible and not shatter during the beating. The one being caned is bent over with his hands and feet secured, pads are placed to cover his kidney area, lower back and spine and then he is beaten on his, as Forrest Gump would say, “buttocks.” Ten whacks is about all anyone can take… it is an unbearable and excruciating pain.
Paul and Silas were beaten and then placed in stocks in the dungeon of the jail.
What an amazing turn of events. One day they are welcomed into a community, invited to stay in a nice comfortable home, are enjoying their work in sharing the Good News of new life in Christ in the community… and the next moment they are beaten and jailed.
It seems Paul was always in some kind of jam. In II Corinthians 11:16-33 he defended his Apostleship and his reputation by pointing out that he had been often imprisoned and whipped times without number. He spoke of having faced death time and time again. Five times Jewish leaders had administered 39 lashes beatings. Three times he was beaten with rods. He was stoned on one occasion. Three times he was shipwrecked and had spent a night and a day adrift at sea. He had faced dangers of rivers and robbers, spent sleepless nights, gone hungry and shivered in the cold without adequate clothing. And so on…
When I was a little boy I remember vividly the stories and pictures and slides of missionaries. Missionaries literally moved into the neighborhood wherever they were called. In those days being a missionary meant living on the ragged edge in a strange culture and without many if any of the niceties we enjoyed here in the states. Never did I ever hear any of those people complain about their circumstances.
James wrote: “When troubles come, consider it an opportunity for joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.” James 1:2-3
There seemed to be an inner understanding that when you are doing what God wants you to do things may just be hard and they seemed to accept hardship and challenging circumstances as part of the deal.
We might do well to understand that people are exasperating, the circumstances of life and ministry are challenging and God does not always intervene because if God always intervened we would never grow in character. And the fact of the matter is that God’s work and will is often accomplished in difficult circumstances.
For our purposes today I think God wants us to know that anyplace can be a happy place.
III. Anyplace can be a happy place… even your prison
Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening… Acts 16:25
Sometimes we try to create happy places as if happiness is in a place. Interestingly enough those kinds of places often put a damper on too much happiness, as if the business of being a Christian in the real world is a grim business.
I just began reading a biography of Ernest Hemingway by Jeffrey Meyer. I was fascinated to read of his Christian upbringing in the suburban Chicago city of Oak Park. It was a bastion of a Christian community. The Congregationalist pastor described Oak Park as “where the saloon stops and church steeples begin.” It was not a worldly community and people who lived there, lived there because it was free of the big city vices of Chicago. You could say it was a little Christian utopia.
Hemingway was raised in a very stern Christian home. They observed daily prayers, bible reading and sang a hymn or two. They were faithful church attenders and Ernest sang in the choir. In a letter to his mother Hemingway wrote, “Don’t worry or cry that I am not being a good Christian. I am just as much as ever. I pray every night and I believe just as hard as you. So cheer up. The fact that I am a cheerful Christian ought not bother you.” (Hemingway – A Biography, Jeffrey Meyer, PP 4-5)
I suspect cheerfulness ought to be the mark of every Christian… even and especially if you live in an Oak Park.
Paul’s and Silas’ life, work for God and faith did not give them exemptions from a good beating or “Get Out of Jail Free” card. They were beaten, imprisoned in the deepest, darkest, dankest part of the jail and locked in stocks… and at midnight they are praying and singing hymns to God, as the other prisoners listened.
Maya Angelou once said, “I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way (s)he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.”
Too often our external circumstances dictate our inner responses.
Your life is like a cup. When something hits you that is external, whatever is in your cup slops out. If what is in the cup is anger, impatience, resentment, bitterness or whatever… that is what will slop out. But if your cup is filled with the fruit of the Spirit you will spill out love, joy, peace, patience… what will slop out will be expressions of the grace of God.
Jesus said, “Anything you eat passes through your stomach and goes into the sewer. But the words you speak come from the heart – that’s what defiles you. For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, immorality, lying and slander. These are what defile you…” Matthew 15:16-20
That is why the Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 4:8-9, “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. And keep putting into practice what you have learned…”
For Paul and Silas, their external reality was a dungeon. Dark. Dank. Depressing. But their internal reality was joy in the presence and purpose of God.
Paul and Silas were in the presence of God. Those who sing in prison cannot be imprisoned. God is not only present but at work in our prisons. Our prisons are likely much different than the one Paul and Silas were in… but anyplace can be a happy place if you joyfully live in the presence of God.
Conclusion:
Wladyslaw Szpilman (Vwa diswaf Spilman) was a Polish musician, actually a world class concert pianist, who survived the horrors of World War II in the famous Jewish District known as the Warsaw Ghetto. He managed to live underground and undetected by the Nazis. He eventually found himself hiding in a vacant apartment next door to the head of police and across the street from a German hospital. Those who had hidden him urged him to be as quiet as possible. However, in the corner of the room was a beautiful grand piano. He had not played a piano for months. He went to the piano and lifted the lid covering the keyboard. He sat down at the piano and the room is filled with the sound of a symphony orchestra… the piano enters on cue and Spilman is lost in the beauty of the music.
The camera cuts to a shot of Szpilman’s hands, revealing that his fingers are not touching the keyboard, the music is all in his head and his heart.
There is more to the story. The other prisoners witnessed the difference the presence and peace of Christ brings to our lives. The jailer and his entire family come to faith and were baptized… all reminding us that we are being listened to and observed… people are watching to see how we will react when our cup gets bumped and we have a rainy day, lose our luggage, or try to untangle a gnarly mess of Christmas tree lights.”
But, at least in part, the point of the story today is this: Even in our deepest, darkest and dankest prisons, the heart can hear rapturous melodies of the sustaining grace of God and the joy of a happy heart will transform an unhappy place into a happy place.
