PRESTIDIVINATION
Acts 16:16-34; John 17:20-26
Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling.
Prestidigitation is sleight of hand—magic tricks accomplished with objects such as coins or cards, disappearing from one place and surprisingly reappearing somewhere else. I learned one just for this sermon. (Demonstration) Now, a magician is never supposed to reveal the secret, but I am no magician, so I am going to show you how it’s done. (Next Demonstration)
Not really "magic" now, is it? The coin didn’t truly disappear from my hand and jump into my pocket. The magician sets a scene to look like one thing happened while something else was going on—that’s the sleight, the trick.
Fortune tellers perform prestidigitation, too; they magically get money out of your pocket into theirs and they make mucho bucks doing it. Ever since the invention of money, "fortune-telling [has been] a commodity within the marketplace."1
1 Feingold, Ken (1995), "OU: Interactivity as Divination as Vending Machine", Leonardo, Third Annual New York Digital Salon 28 (5): 399–402, doi:10.2307/1576224, JSTOR 1576224
In Acts 16 we see that two astute businessmen had made quite a lot of money from this commodity in the marketplace; they must have been dancing in the streets every day, believing there was no end in sight to their earning power—unless something unfortunate happened to their slave girl, like illness or death.…they did not plan for "prestidivination."
Don’t go searching for "prestidivination" in the dictionary; you won’t find it. I made it up. It’s a play on prestidigitation, and it does not stand for sleight of divine—as if God, Jesus or heaven would play tricks on us.
Prestidivination gains its meaning from two divine/Godly actions being accomplished at the same time—one event that we can see, and one that we likely miss because it’s happening over here…or behind the curtain…seemingly apart from and/or completely unrelated to the first.
When Paul finally grew annoyed enough that he wanted that slave girl to "be quiet already," he cast out the spirit that enslaved her. She was free. Not only did Paul cast out the demon (and restore quiet), but Paul’s faith in Christ also set the slave girl free from her enslavers.
Another example of prestidivination in this passage is the saving of the jailer’s life. When Paul shouted from inside the prison, "We are all here," many salvation begins to tumble all over the place--the jailer’s life was saved because he did not fall on his own sword, and he no longer feared
his enslavers—the Roman magistrates; yet he was also saved for everlasting life with when he received his baptism in Jesus Christ.
If Paul hadn’t been so irritated by the slave girl’s predictions; if the slave girl’s owners hadn’t been so angry when their hope of making money was gone; if the mob hadn’t gone wild on behalf of the slave owners; if the magistrates hadn’t bought the lies the slave owners told and been so afraid of the mob that they threw Paul and Silas in jail….
…If Paul and Silas hadn’t such confidence in the love of Jesus Christ, so that they could sing praises to God from the deepest bowel of the prison; if Luke hadn’t written this account of the early church exploding across Europe in the book of Acts . . . IF…IF…IF! So many ifs!
Christ doesn’t need "If-fers." Christ needs followers, believers, carriers of the faith. Christ needs us to "go viral" with the good news that God is with us. Christians might live in the "IF" of what might be, but we are called to follow in the Way—the Way of Jesus Christ. This faith we have been offered is a faith that happens over here and over there, in the sight of God and to the sleight of none…a faith that can sing praises to God at midnight….a faith that can say to our demons, our addictions, our diseases, our temptations, and our failings, "In the name of Jesus Christ, I order you to come out of me!!"
What holds you captive? Is it stress over money? Is it fear about the future? Try singing praises to God. What imprisons you today? Is it an unhealthy relationship? Is it an unfulfilling career? Strengthen your relationship with Jesus Christ first, and relationships with the important people in our lives and the contributions we make to society will be strengthened and fulfilling as well. Become one with Christ, one with his community. Oneness is the way to heaven.
We can learn about oneness through the actions of the jailer. No—I don’t mean deciding to fall on your sword! I mean, call for the light—the light who is Jesus Christ. Don’t you know that we have a Savior who does something for us that no other god in the universe—past, present or future—does for his followers: Our Christ prays for us!
Christ’s prayer is that we may all be one, a community in unified in God’s love—Jesus prayed, "As you Father are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us … that they may become completely one, so that the world may know…that you have loved them as you have loved me..." This unity, this love, is shaped like the cross of Christ. You see, glory cannot be separated from crucifixion—this is the ultimate prestidivination. Amen.
May 12, 2013
First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
