Vox Populi Aut Vox Serpentis?

Sermon preached at St Peter and St Paul’s Church, Swanscombe on 20th May 2007, the Sunday after Ascension, based on Acts xvi.16-34.

Can you hear her voice?

There, at the back,
the slave girl in the grubby tunic,
can you hear what she’s saying?

Amid the toil and bustle of Philippi,
all the noises of the street,
all the crowd pressing and milling,
can you hear what she is calling out to you?

This is the girl
who is following St Paul and St Silas
as they preach the wonderful news
about the love of God for human beings.

Listen as she adds her voice to those of the apostles:

"These men are the servants
of the Most High God,
who proclaim to us
the way of salvation."

[PAUSE]
This girl is a marvel.

This girl is gifted with a voice of foretelling.

She can speak with the voice of the future,
and she is responsible
for the well-being
of many of the citizens of Philippi
because of what she says.

Last year, Hermas
the wine-seller
sought her advice over the grape harvest.

She told him it would be a bad year for grapes,
so he prepared himself. In fact not only did he survive the year,
but he also made a tidy profit.

That is why Hermas is richer now,
and happier,
all because of this girl and what she has to say.

He is not the only citizen of Philippi
to have benefited in this way.

So now, what is the slave-girl telling us?

"These men are the servants
of the Most High God,
who proclaim to us
the way of salvation."

St. Paul looks at her in that odd way.
Clearl he is angry.

A prayer to Christ,
a word from him,
and the spirit is cast out.


What’s so wrong with what she’s saying?

[PAUSE]

"These men are the servants
of the Most High God,
who proclaim to us
the way of salvation."

Isn’t this true?

Why is it that St Paul gets his dander up and casts the spirit out?

Surely the spirit was on the side of God – it was telling the truth wasn’t it?

Perhaps St Paul is jealous
that she is stealing his thunder.


After all, he is just a sexist who doesn’t allow women to teach.

What has he got to fear
from a little slave-girl
who has special powers and is using them
to agree with what he’s saying?

Can’t St Paul hear what this girl is saying?

Can't we?

[PAUSE]

No!

It’s not the girl who’s speaking.

Listen carefully.

We cannot hear the girl at all!

We have not once heard her voice.

It is not the girl who’s talking,
it’s this spirit of divination,
a spirit that sees the future.

A spirit that has a name.

In Greek,
the spirit of divination is called Python.

In the Greek speaking world,
Pythonian spirits speak through people
using them like ventriloquists’ dummies.

For us less familiar with the beliefs of the Greeks, t
he word Python has only one meaning
– a large snake or serpent.

What images does that conjure up in your mind?

[PAUSE]

The girl is not speaking
through her own volition,
through her own belief.

She is being controlled by this spirit,
and this is what disturbs Paul.

God has created us to be free to worship Him.

For our lives to be controlled by others,
our choices made by someone else,
our mouths to speak someone else's words
is contrary to the will of God.

St Paul has a choice.

Does he believe the spirit,
or does he cast it out?

And what is Python saying?
"These men are the servants
of the Most High God,
who proclaim to us the way of salvation."

Can’t St Paul use this?

[PAUSE]

What Python says is perfectly true,
but that’s spirits all over.

If you want a false message to be believed
then you have to wrap it up tightly in what is true.

All spirits are aware of God.

Any spirit can speak of God,
whether they are good or evil.

An evil spirit will use the truth
to win people over
before slowly poisoning them
by twisting the truth very carefully.

These men are the servants
of the Most High God,
who proclaim to us the way of salvation."

It sounds okay,
but listen to the wider context.

The girl is not speaking with her voice.
Why should a good spirit prevent
someone speaking from their own will?

The girl earns a fortune for her masters.

The word of God is freely given to anyone who will listen.

The salvation that God gives
comes to us through Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Why then would a good spirit fail
to mention Him
but rather speak only of Paul and Silas
in the hope of making them seem more important
than the message they have to share.

The spirit has sought only
to tempt Paul and Silas with self-importance
to corrupt the message that Paul and Silas bear.

The spirit is removed.

The girl is free.

[PAUSE]

Last Thursday
we saw Our Lord ascend into Heaven,
leaving us without a physical presence
of God on the Earth.

How then do we continue
to live without Him telling us the truth?

How do we hear the voice of God
if there are Pythons snaking around us,
hissing half-truths into our ears,
telling us things which sound okay,
but are not?

There are even voices speaking
in the churches which sound okay,
but are not,
really not!

How do we cut through
the voice of the snake
to hear the voice of love?

[PAUSE]

The only way is to get to know the voice of Love.

The more time we spend listening to God
will we recognise His voice in our lives.

The more we pray,
the more we study,
the more we walk in the Faith,
the more we come together in Church
seeking Our Lord Jesus Christ in truth,
the more easily will we the Holy Voice of God.

So whose voice are you hearing now?