She kept following them. This young girl, who for years was tormented by an evil Spirit kept following them. She knew who they were. She even called out on more than one occasion, ”These men are working for God, not just any god but the Most High God. They are laying out a road of salvation.” So, she kept following them and sharing the news with anyone who would listen. She knew what people thought of her, there goes the demon girl, the one who has the “spirit of the python.” Those people said they would help her…but they didn’t. They sent her out each day to make money by telling fortunes and displaying her powers. She knew they didn’t care about her…they only cared about all the money. What about these men, the ones people were talking about…could they help her?
      After a few days Paul grew tired of her rants, actually he was quite annoyed at her. So he called the spirit to come out of her in the name of Jesus Christ. This didn’t sit too well with her owners. They were mad, their hopes of money and riches faded as quickly, as did the spirit from the girl’s body. They wanted Paul and Silas to pay for the damage they had caused. So they went to find them and drug them into the city marketplace for all to see.
      “These men are disturbing the peace. They are Jews and they are subverting our Roman law and order.” The city officials had more important things on their minds than Jews or any religious zealot who caused a commotion. The crowd was getting angry, there wasn’t time for any kind of trial, so the city officials took their clothing and ordered Paul and Silas to be beaten with rods. The officials hoped a beating would keep them quiet for a while. Just in case the officials took them to the innermost cell of the jail and fasten their feet in stocks, so there was no way of escape.
      Paul and Silas, there in the dark and damp cell began to sing. At first they could hear voices around them, as they prayed and sung hymns to God. But then things got quiet, and the only thing to be heard were their voices lifting praise to their Lord. They wondered if the other prisoners were listening or just sleeping.
      The quiet didn’t last for long. An earthquake so violent shook the foundations of the jail and loosened the chains that were tight around their ankles. Did God hear their prayers or was it just a random act of nature? So they started to sing again, but were quickly interrupted by the jailer running in with his sword. It was dark and he couldn’t see Paul and Silas much less the other prisoners, and they watched as he took out his sword.
      “Don’t do it! We are all still here” Paul called out. Once everyone was outside, the jailer fell down before Paul and Silas, trembling and barely able to speak, “What must I do to be saved, to really live?” There in dark of night Paul and Silas shared with him the good news about Jesus and told him to believe and he would be saved.
      Then the jailer took Paul and Silas to his home. He first washed their wounds which were plentiful and then he and everyone gathered at his home were baptized. The jailer was now a believer in God.
      This story reveals many things. It reveals the levels and magnitude about dynamics of powers at play between good and evil, between religion and culture, between those who have power, or so they think, and those who have no power, so they think. For in this story those at first that seem to have no power: a young slave girl bound by an evil spirit or Paul and Silas bound by physical chains in the end- gain power. Those who seem to have power: rich owners who exploit children, chief officials of Rome who think power is given through violence and torture are left bound by their lack of freedom and power. This is a story of the power of Jesus Christ…a story in which the last shall be first and first shall be last…a story in which those who once persecuted others for belief, now serve to call people to faith.
      As the church we are called to be different and act differently because Christ is the center of our being, and our understanding of power, of who is in and who is out, of who wins and who loses, about whose is welcome at the table and who is not… is different from the world around us. As the church, we are called to do something. We are called to disrupt the status quo; we are called to challenge power that oppresses.
      This year I have had the honor and blessing along with other teachers and mentors to walk along side of our confirmation class. Confirmation is a time to claim what you believe and profess faith in Jesus Christ. We believe that it is connected to baptism and now the confirmands choose to become members of the church. Confirmation is a time to examine faith. This examination process is not an easy task. It is especially important to understand that at the prime time developmentally when you as teenagers are questioning everything from the authority of your parents to the authority religion plays in your life, we ask you to profess faith, in faith you can’t see, in a faith you can’t feel at times, and a faith full of questions.
      I believe this process is harder for teenagers in mainline churches where it is OK to ask the hard questions and where everyone will not have the same answer. Confirmation might be an easier process in a church where everyone agrees on the right answer and the essential tenets are set in stone. But in a church that seeks to understand the working of the Spirit together, in a church that encourages dialogue not only between Christians who have differing opinions but between people of different faiths and beliefs…trying to put into words what you believe can seem impossible..especially when you can’t find many who speak the language.
      Claiming what one believes is a challenge today in our post modern and some say, post Christian world. Gone are days when a language of faith was clearly passed from one generation to another. Young people today have a variety of disciplines to help them make meaning of life as they know it. For example, courses in evolutionary biology interpret life and nature in radically different ways than ethics, psychology or religion. In many ways young people as well others must navigate as many voices in the conversation as there is traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike.
      One scholar writes that the church must engage in “two way traffic” allowing Christian belief and other disciplines to travel the same road.¹ What does the traffic pattern look like? “Are there head-on collisions between the disciplines? Or are they diverted so they don’t meet each other?” It is not a simple as choosing to enter the conversation or not, but the language you speak while in the conversation is crucial. For the church it is about somehow figuring out how to let our Christian Identity define who we are and influence our whole life and not just one part of it.
      God might call us at times to disrupt the patterns of traffic. When we are talking in the abstract, about engaging in a discussion about genetics and Christian ethics or faith formation and developmental psychology we are safe within the traffic of ideas. Out in real world, separated from the security of the classroom, there are traffic patterns that might need to be disturbed.
      Centurion Ministries here in Princeton seeks to be such a positive disruption. Centurion Ministries, led by Jim McCloskey, seeks to work for the freedom of the wrongly convicted. This morning at 12:15 in the Assembly Room you can hear and experience the story of Walter Lomax, a man wrongly convicted who spent 39 years behind bars before a Baltimore judge freed him by suspending his life sentence. I have not met Mr. Lomax, but I hope to later this morning. After reading more about his story, I discovered Mr. Lomax educated himself in prison and wrote volumes of material while there…I assume as other prisoners were watching and listening. Instead of being bound by the bars of injustice Walter Lomax grew in faith, wrote poetry and now gives motivational talks and works with young people to help them with their dreams.
      This is my hope and my prayer for you, the 2007 confirmation class as well as for each of us… that faith may be such a disruption in our lives. I hope that your faith helps you challenge the status quo whether in halls of justice or the halls of your high school. I hope that your faith prompts you to do something in name of Jesus Christ, whether that be serving on a mission trip or sharing the good news of the gospel to someone who so desperately wants to hear it. I think there is a myth in the mainline church that some how Confirmation marks an end, that once a young person is confirmed they don’t have to attend Sunday school much less church, Why?…they are already a member. Confirmation is actually the exact opposite! Confirmation is a beginning. As members of the church you may now be elected to serve as elders or deacons in the church. You may vote in church matters. You should now be responsible for making faith a priority in your life. We know there are many voices out there in the world, many that we need to listen to and learn from engaging in dialogue that helps us grow and learn. There are also many forces out there which need to be challenged and many people who need our care. The good news is that we do not go this journey alone. When you are standing up here in a few minutes looks around and see your traveling companions on this journey. We are the church and called to be such a positive disruption in the world today.

¹ James Gustafson, An Examined Faith (Fortress, 2003)

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