The remarkable Macedonian city of Philippi (pronounced phil-LEE-pee, but usually anglicized to FILL-a-pie) was a beautiful seacoast community. In 42 BCE, it was the location of the final battle between the Roman team of Marc Antony and Octavius versus Cassius and Brutus (of 'et tu, Brute?' fame). The latter combatants were fighting to keep the Roman world democratic (or at least oligarchic) but they lost the battle to their opponents who favoured dictatorship, and so republican government died. A reminder that democracy can slip away.
Later in history, Philippi became a wealthy, well-educated, sophisticated, and prosperous community. There were four basilicas and a Roman theatre there. The one-percenters made their money in gold mining or the marine business, but there were also wannabees in the city, as we shall see in a minute.
Philippi was the site of Saint Paul's first visit to Europe where he made his first European convert, a wealthy woman named Lydia, Now Paul and Silas are out preaching, and they gain a groupie. An enslaved woman begins to follow them around. Now she had a "spirit of divination," no one knows exactly what that meant. I think it indicates that she ran a good con doing fortune telling, and she had made her masters wealthy. But now, in the presence of the apostolic duo, she knows the real thing when she sees it, and she begins loudly to proclaim that Paul and Silas are speaking. Perhaps Paul didn't like her stealing his thunder; but, in any event, he cures her "gift," so that she no longer will perform.
This woman has been doubly oppressed as a slave and a sideshow act, and when oppressed folks refuse to be silent, they annoy power people. Paul wasn't the only one annoyed, Her owners, deprived of her moneymaking talent, are furious They call the law and have Paul and Silas harangued, arrested, beaten, thrown into prison with their feet in stocks, sequestered in the innermost space of the prison. There are always consequences when a person is liberated. There are racial and economic injustices in our society and round the world. We don't want to hear the proclamation that God can liberate them, change things through us. So we block the signal with busyness and materialism. We may not lose our freedom and be beaten as the apostles were, but there will be consequences for being God's change agents, we can be sure of that. But we must move out of our comfort zones and get into the fray.
As our tale unfolds further, the other prisoners are liberated, and even the jailor himself accepts the message of Jesus and becomes a convert. He and everyone in his family are baptised, and then they rejoice because the jailer has become a believer in God. The God-life is available to all, the call to liberation applies to all. The task is ours.
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