May 8 (Mother’s Day) – “Light Vision” Psalm 97, *Acts 16.16-34

In the sermon series I have preached from the book of Acts – two weeks ago - we preached about Peter’s vision – a sort of day-dream that directed him to eat non-kosher foods, symbolizing God’s will for Peter to accept and welcome all of God’s children, not just his Jewish brothers and sisters. The next week we looked at a vision apostle Paul had during the night, where a man asked him to come to Macedonia and Paul went, believing God was directing him to preach and teach in Macedonia.

In this morning’s scripture, we find Paul in prison where a lamp light enabled him to glimpse a vision of the spectacular work of God.

Last week we left Paul down by the river side praying and preaching with [slide # 1  riverside] Lydia and her friends[ slide # 2 Lydia]. They knew about Jehovah God, but Jesus’ death and resurrection were new ideas for them. Paul was there to give them the good news of a savior.

While he was in Macedonia, he encountered a few ungodly people and situations as we all will from time to time. He was in the city of Philippi of Macedonia, where God had sent him through a night vision, and he came upon an ungodly spirit. Verse 16 says there was a slave-girl being used to make money for her masters. Even today, there are young girls captured to make money. This girl – somebody’s daughter – was making them a lot of money as a fortune teller. Verse 16 calls it a spirit of divination. The spirit of divination is a deceptive spirit that pretends to have what can only come from God.

Only God gives us truth naturally and supernaturally. God speaks to us through dreams, visions, prophets; God works to get a message through to us using our senses, our friends, our families, our situations, even our problems. When someone claims to get supernatural truth using their own ideas, the scriptures calls it the spirit of divination as in a divining rod that detects precious gold. The scriptures call it witchcraft when we gather for séances, Ouija boards, talking to the deceased, examining animal livers, using voodoo dolls, psychedelic drugs, hypnotic trances and such.

The bible warns us that such activity can stir up a storm of evil that might be distressing and destructive. If we are not content with the answers God gives us through prayer, worship, and fellowship with Godly people, then we need to talk to God about that. If our discontentment leads us to consult a psychic, or someone or something other than the God of the universe, we could be better of showering ourselves with chicken grease and walking into a pen of pit bulls.  [slide #3 pitbulls]

We well know that all that glitters is not gold. Scriptures tell us that Satan masquerades as an angel of light. There are lights shining in this world that call us down an evil path, like the world’s red light districts, bar lights, shadows of street corner lights where evil deeds are consummated. Mostly though, as one wise person said, “Nothing good is on the streets after midnight.” Oh, how we need God’s light to point us in the direction of a healthy life. God mothers and fathers us so we will grow up, and not be forever like toddlers who turns their attention to whatever is bright and colorful at the moment, [slide # 4 toddler] or a kitten that is totally distracted by any old ball of yarn that moves. [slide # 5 kitten and yarn]

Paul had words [slide # 6 arguing] with this fortune-teller’s greedy entourage – whose mothers were probably outraged at their indecent behavior. And Paul helped the girl – somebody’s daughter - to release her spirit of divination and witchcraft. The devil lost his hold on her and the ability to make money in that way disappeared.

Paul and Silas wound up in jail for healing the girl and messing up their business. He knew he was risking jail time when he confronted the evil. Paul reminds us of the story of Adam LaRoche [slide # 7 Adam LaRoche] White Sox first baseman who retired a few weeks ago when his 14 year old son  was not allowed to come to work with him. Adam also put his life on the line by going undercover to help authorities find young girls captured and enslaved for profit. One wrong move and he could have been pushed off a building or worse.

One wonders who God might be sending to rescue the sex slaves on route 30 or that bar we hear about in Spring City. One wonders how much money they make every day and every night, or what the girls and their mothers are praying for. One wonders.

The Apostle Paul knew he was putting his life on the line when he confronted these evil people, but he also knew good would come out of it. That’s why they were singing and praying as they sat in jail according to verse 25 [slide # 8 singing and praying…]

Suddenly they felt an earthquake. Earthquakes have always been common in that area near Greece where Paul was on his mission. There are lively volcanoes and fault lines that cause tremors. Wednesday the internet reported no earthquakes in the area that day, but two had occurred in the past 7 days, 7 in the past month, 175 earthquakes in the past year.

The earthquake hit the jail where Paul and Silas had been dragged. It was strong enough to break their chains. Has God ever used an earthquake to break a chain that was holding you down? The earthquake was strong enough to tear the doors off the hinges and wake up the prison guard who knew that if the prisoners escaped, he would be killed by order of the Roman Emperor, and his execution was sure to be cruel and sadistic.

This guard was like Maria Toorpakai from Pakistan – author of A Different Kind of Daughter - who pretended she was a boy in order to compete as a weightlifter. Later she became an internationally known squash player. [slide # 9 Maria Toorpakai] The Taliban believes women are supposed to stay isolated at home, obedient to men or be killed. Maria knew she was risking her life to be an athlete even as a girl, so she thought about carrying cyanide pills to kill herself rather than be tortured. Her father gave her a gun to kill or be killed.

The Roman guard took out his sword and was getting ready to kill himself because he thought the prisoners would escape and he would be tortured. But Paul, who had been up through midnight praying and singing hymns, was full of the Holy Spirit and cared for the life of this Roman prison guard when Paul himself was suffering innocently in this rotten hole with murderers, thieves, rapists and traitors. He was somebody’s son. Paul cried out to the guard, ‘We are all here; Do yourself no harm.’

This prison guard put his sword away, and called for a light so he could see who it was who was bringing this good news in the dark. After he saw the light, he turned his life over to God and he and his family were baptized and they began to minister to Paul who had ministered to him.

On this Mother’s Day, we know that some mother’s child always finds us and shines enough light so that we can see our way to the truth and the life that God has for us.

That mother may be like all the mothers of Bethel  who have shone their lights generation after generation. [slide # 10 mother/child hands] There are mothers like Harriet Tubman who guided 300 children of God to freedom and became active in women’s rights in the Methodist church, or Dr. Leslie Ray Matthews, [slide # 11 Dr. Leslie Ray Matthews] trauma surgeon from Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, who gives his Godly 92 year old mother credit for nurturing his near miraculous work in the ICU, [slide # 12 – healing love] and my own mother, daughter of the segregated south, who led protests to close an unsafe school, whose family tree blossomed with preachers and teachers of which she became one; we graduated from college in the same year.

We need mothers whose lights are shining and when we have them, we are forever grateful. [slide # 13 Blessed Mother’s Day] Amen.