June 1, 2025

Indianola Presbyterian Church, Columbus

“Singing Behind Bars "

by Rev. Trip Porch

June 1, 2025                                                                                                                                                                Based on Acts 16:16–34

There are some stories in scripture that are so layered, so vivid, so full of action and characters, that it feels almost impossible to preach them in just one sermon. Today’s passage is one of those stories. In Acts 16, Paul and Silas are dragged into a whirlwind: a woman possessed by a spirit of divination, an unjust arrest, imprisonment, an earthquake, a near suicide, and a late-night baptism.

But underneath all the action is a single word that pulses like a heartbeat through the story: freedom.

Freedom for the enslaved girl—though incomplete.
Freedom for Paul and Silas—though not asked for.
Freedom for the jailer—though he didn’t know he needed it.

It’s a story of captivity and release, bondage and redemption—not just physically, but spiritually, socially, and politically. And it has something to say to a world where too many people are still behind bars.

Let’s start with the first character: the unnamed enslaved woman. She’s doubly captive—first by the spirit that torments her, and second by the men who own her and profit from her pain. When Paul casts out the spirit, she is liberated spiritually. But notice: no one sets her free from her slavery.

That silence is deafening. She disappears from the story after verse 18.

It reminds us that not all forms of captivity are addressed in one stroke. Even in our own time, liberation work is messy and incomplete. Some get noticed, others don’t. Some captives are set free; others are left behind. And the systems that profit off captivity—whether it’s slavery, mass incarceration, or for-profit detention centers—don’t go down quietly. They retaliate.

That’s exactly what happens to Paul and Silas. Their act of justice costs them their freedom.

So Paul and Silas are thrown in prison, shackled in the innermost cell. And here’s where the story takes a turn that defies explanation. They do not cry. They do not rage. They do not plot escape.

They sing.

They sing hymns to God, and the other prisoners listen.

This, to me, is the heart of the passage. Singing behind bars. Praising God while chained to the floor. That is not denial. That is not passivity. That is resistance. It’s spiritual defiance.

W.E.B. Du Bois once wrote about the spirituals sung by enslaved people in this country.
He said, “Through all the sorrow of the Sorrow Songs there breathes a hope
—a faith in the ultimate justice of things.” That is what we are witnessing here.

When Paul and Silas sing in prison, they are joining a long tradition of the oppressed who refuse to let the powers of this world steal their praise. Their song becomes a signal to every prisoner listening: You are not forgotten. You are still human. There is still hope.

In a nation that incarcerates more people than any other in the world—a nation where Black and Brown bodies are disproportionately locked up—this passage is a call to pay attention to the prisons of our time. It’s a call to sing, yes—but also a call to act.

Then the ground shakes. The chains fall off. The doors swing wide.

But Paul and Silas don’t run.

They stay.

That’s another surprise twist. Who would stay after an earthquake opened the door?

They stay for the sake of the jailer. The man tasked with keeping them locked away. The man who, when he sees the open doors, draws his sword—ready to take his own life out of shame and fear.

Paul shouts out: “Do not harm yourself! We are all here.”

That moment right there—that’s where captivity and redemption meet. That’s where the captor becomes the one who needs saving. And Paul—who once hunted down Christians—now becomes a vessel of mercy for someone else.

“What must I do to be saved?” the jailer asks.

And in the middle of the night, the jailer washes their wounds, and Paul and Silas baptize him and his whole household.

This is the freedom of the gospel. Not just freedom from chains. But freedom for transformation. Freedom for healing. Freedom that turns enemies into siblings and prison cells into places of rebirth.

Friends, this story asks us to imagine a freedom that is bigger than prison walls. A freedom that sings out even in the dark. A freedom that reaches not just the oppressed, but even encompasses the oppressors—transforming them too.

It reminds me of a story I heard once from a podcast about a man named Tokyo Sexwale. He was a South African freedom fighter who was part of the movement to end apartheid. In the podcast he shares his story about how he was captured for his resistance efforts and imprisoned on Robben Island—in a cell right next to Nelson Mandela. For years, they endured torture and brutal treatment together in the prison.

But eventually, something began to shift. The prison commander granted Mandela a small privilege: the ability to play music over the loudspeakers for the entire prison. 

Of all the artists around the world he could have chosen (South African or otherwise), Mandela chose to play Dolly Parton for the prison. Who was apparently not only his favorite but the favorite of everyone else there.. Her voice carried through the dark corridors of Robben Island, reaching the ears of prisoners and guards alike singing a song of the heart.

And Mandela’s favorite song to play? it was Jolene.

According to Tokyo, everyone loved it. He said “No human being cannot be affected by Jolene” The prisoners listened to the driving rhythm of Dolly’s guitar riff at the beginning and felt the deep longing ache of Dolly’s lyrics and it struck a chord with them because they had lost so much—freedom, family, control over their lives. 

But apparently The guards felt it too, sensing the winds of change, fearing the loss of power, the collapse of the world they had always known. Both groups—captors and captives—united in the same haunting melody.

“We are all human beings,” Tokyo said. “The jailed and the jailer. We all come from one country, and none of us wants to experience the loss the Dolly sings about in Jolene”

I think this is a message all of us need to hear. But especially in this country while our government expands contracts with mega-prisons in El Salvador and beyond…
While solitary confinement and cash bail still separate families…
While people sit in cells for decades, sometimes innocent, sometimes forgotten…
While oppressors still seek to separate, and the oppressed are otherized, de-humanized, disappeared, imprisoned, deported.

The Spirit of God is still shaking the ground.

God is still breaking chains.
God is still stirring songs in the throats of prisoners.
God is still sending earthquakes of justice.

But above all, God is bringing a freedom that is for everybody… Oppressed and oppressor alike.

So here is the challenge for us:
Will we listen to those imprisoned behind bars?
What songs of freedom and hope are they singing? Can we join in their song?
Will we amplify their voices and bear witness to their hope?
And if we are imprisoned…
Will we stay, like Paul and Silas, not just to get free—but to make sure everyone gets free?

May we be a church that sings until the walls fall down.
May we be a people who stay until all are safe.
May we believe that even in the deepest cell, at midnight, God is there.
And may we choose to sing out in songs of praise.

Amen.

WE GATHER IN AWE AND PRAISE

PRELUDE                                                                “How Can I Keep From Singing?”                                arr. Lily Topolski                              

INTROIT                                         “This Is the Day”                                                       Pablo Sosa 

WELCOME                                                                    Rev. Trip Porch

One: This is the day that the Lord has made

All: Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

*CALL TO WORSHIP

One: When the ground trembles and the prison doors fly open—

All: God is at work, breaking the chains of injustice.

One: When songs rise up from the heart of suffering—

All: God is with us, teaching us how to hope.

One: When enemies become siblings and captors become guests—

All: God is near, transforming us all.

One: Come in praise, let us worship the God who gives freedom.

*HYMN 661                                   “His Eye is on the Sparrow” SPARROW

*PRAYER OF CONFESSION                                                                Dirk White

Liberating God, we confess that we have grown used to the walls that divide us. We have ignored the cries of those imprisoned by injustice, poverty, addiction, and fear. We have forgotten those whom society locks away and those whom we ourselves have shut out. Forgive us. Free us from our complacency. Shake the ground beneath us until we are moved to act in love, sing in hope, and work for the freedom of all Your children. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

*ASSURANCE OF PARDON                                                          Rev. Trip Porch 

*RESPONSE OF PARDON 659            “Know That God Is Good”                    MUNGU NI MWEMA

*PASSING OF THE PEACE                                                                  

One:   The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all,

All:      And also with you.

WE LISTEN FOR GOD’S WORD

ANTHEM                        “Christ Has Broken Down the Wall”                             Mark A. Miller

CHILDREN’S MESSAGE                                                                 Rev Trip Porch

PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION                                                                  

SCRIPTURE  Acts 16:16-34 CEB

 One day, when we were on the way to the place for prayer, we met a slave woman. She had a spirit that enabled her to predict the future. She made a lot of money for her owners through fortune-telling. She began following Paul and us, shouting, “These people are servants of the Most High God! They are proclaiming a way of salvation to you!”  She did this for many days.

This annoyed Paul so much that he finally turned and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to leave her!” It left her at that very moment.

Her owners realized that their hope for making money was gone. They grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them before the officials in the city center. When her owners approached the legal authorities, they said, “These people are causing an uproar in our city. They are Jews who promote customs that we Romans can’t accept or practice.”  The crowd joined in the attacks against Paul and Silas, so the authorities ordered that they be stripped of their clothes and beaten with a rod.  When Paul and Silas had been severely beaten, the authorities threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to secure them with great care.  When he received these instructions, he threw them into the innermost cell and secured their feet in stocks.

 Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. All at once there was such a violent earthquake that it shook the prison’s foundations. The doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.   When the jailer awoke and saw the open doors of the prison, he thought the prisoners had escaped, so he drew his sword and was about to kill himself.  But Paul shouted loudly, “Don’t harm yourself! We’re all here!”

 The jailer called for some lights, rushed in, and fell trembling before Paul and Silas.  He led them outside and asked, “Honorable masters, what must I do to be rescued?”

 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your entire household.” They spoke the Lord’s word to him and everyone else in his house.  Right then, in the middle of the night, the jailer welcomed them and washed their wounds. He and everyone in his household were immediately baptized.  He brought them into his home and gave them a meal. He was overjoyed because he and everyone in his household had come to believe in God.  

SERMON                                                                                  Rev. Trip Porch

WE RESPSOND TO GOD’S WORD

*HYMN 764                        “For the Troubles and the Sufferings”            PELA DORES DESTE MUNDO

TIME OF OFFERING   online giving is available at  www. indianolapres.org/give

OFFERTORY                              “Microlude No. 13"                           Daniel E. Gawthrop                              

COMMUNION

INVITATION TO THE TABLE

GREAT PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING

  SHARING OF BREAD AND CUP      103                        “Come Now O Prince of Peace”                                 O-SO-SO

PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION

God of liberation, we give you thanks that you have met us at this table, that you have fed us with mercy, and filled us with hope. May this meal strengthen us to proclaim your justice, to live in your freedom, and to sing your song— even in the darkest places. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen. 

NEW MEMBER WELCOME

*HYMN 821                                         “How Can I Keep from Singing?”        HOW CAN I KEEP FROM SINGING 

TIME OF COMMUNITY SHARING

CHARGE & BENEDICTION                                                                                                                                                                      

POSTLUDE                                   "His Eye is On the Sparrow"                         arr. Katheryn Carpenter    

Acknowledgments: Unless otherwise indicated, all texts and music are printed and broadcast under OneLicense.net license #A-702452