Thursday, 12th Week of Ordinary Time

Acts 16:16-24
Morning Prayer

There actually three kinds of “forces” that Paul and his companions find themselves confronting today. First of course is that force called “divination,” the ability to discern the work of spiritual forces in this world. Our fortune teller can do that, which is why she calls Paul and his friends “servants of the Most High God;” except that what she means is that they are servants of Zeus or some other Greek God. Little wonder that Paul gets annoyed.

After she is freed from that spirit, comes the next “force” – Profit – the desire to gain power and security by surrounding oneself with all the comforts, pleasures, and protection that one can pay for. The former fortune-teller’s handlers have seen all that put at risk by Paul. And in their insecurity and anger, they strike back.

Finally, there is the force of the “polis,” the city-state of Philippi, to which all the people belonged to and looked to for security in numbers. The Philippians were also very conscious of being part of an empire, the greatest yet known to humanity. Politics is also a force in our world, the desire to find comfort and protection for oneself in the safety of greater numbers – of people and soldiers. And if the price of such protection is the loss of one’s freedom and independence; that is a price people have been willing to pay in a hostile world for centuries.

“Forces” don’t have to be personal demons in order to control us. Whenever fear, greed, lust, envy, anger, dominate our minds, those attitudes become forces that lead to destructive actions, and distract us from the unmerited grace of God that is the only comfort and power in this world which we can trust.