❔What If the Miracle Wasn’t Good News for HER❔ That’s the haunting question for me when I read about the “healing” of the slave girl’s spirit of divination in the lectionary passage Acts 16:16-34. ✨Free Preaching Prompt on the Acts 16 passage for you lectionary preachers out there. ✨ She’s one of the women in Scripture with a prophetic gift though in her case it is said she is possessed by a spirit. Many translations simply call it a “spirit of divination,” but translated literally she is possessed by a Pythian spirit. This is an unusual detail because elsewhere in the Bible people are possessed by demons and by unclean spirits but her possession is specific and not labeled demonic or unclean. “Pythian spirit” recalls the priestesses at Delphi who were known as the Pythia. That the text goes to the trouble to name the Pythian spirit that possesses her adds a layer of credibility to her abilities. She’s not a charlatan. Some commentators claim there is some deceptive intent in her proclamation as a way to justifying Paul’s actions, but I disagree. If she were saying something misleading, wouldn’t he have refuted her and not bothered to wait several days? Paul hardly strikes me as the type to back down from a confrontation. And if she was just a liar, well, an exorcism wouldn’t have had much effect on her, would it? I believe the details of this story point to the slave girl being a true oracle, prophet, seer. Which begs the question, “Did she want to be healed? Did she need to be healed? Who was this ‘miracle’ really for?” How does her presence (and sudden disappearance) from the story shape the way you will preach this text? What do you think happens to her next? Share your thoughts in the comments 👇 Credit to Rev. Dr. Katy Valentine (@revdrkaty) and her work, “Reading the Slave-Girl of Acts 16:16-18 in Light of Enslavement and Disability” for her brilliant scholarship. #lectionary #preachingprompt #sermonprep #neverthelessshepreached #acts16 #pythia #paulandsilas #divination #disabilityjustice #narrativeprosthesis (fb)

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