A Sermon from Falmouth Congregational Church…

A sermon offered by The Rev. Ian F. “Jack” Steeves in the public worship service of the Falmouth Congregational Church United Church of Christ in Falmouth, Maine on Sixth Sunday of Easter, May 9, 2010.  The Scripture readings were Acts 16:9-15 and John 14:23-29. 

“On the Sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there” (Acts 16:13).

“A Gathering at the River”

The Apostle Paul’s work was at a turning point. Several years earlier, he had made a good start. After his Damascene conversion to Christianity, he had set out on his first mission – covering the miles from town to town, making converts and new church starts. He had done well and faithfully. By the year 52 CE, he could claim a network of Greek speaking congregations and was about to launch a new mission. He had assembled a crack team of men but everything started to fall apart. A big argument led to the loss of close friends and co-workers (Acts 15:36-39). He and his smaller group (Silas, Timothy and perhaps Luke) tried to take to the road to Bithynia (in modern day, northern Turkey) but Jesus’ Spirit prevented him (16:7). Paul’s sense of direction and God’s differed. He was intent on going north and God wanted him to go west.

One night, Paul has a vision. In the Acts of the Apostles, remember, ‘visions’ are important: it means that God is involved in what is about to happen. Paul’s vision is of a man pleading with Paul to cross over to Macedonia. Paul figures, it must be a message from God. He knows that God lots of times take you in directions you were not planning on, and so they go west to Europe. After a short sea journey, the mission team arrives in Philippi. It is interesting that even though a “man” of Macedonia pleaded for help, at the very heart of today’s story is a woman. On their first Sabbath in town, down by the river, they run into a group of women at prayer. Paul is moved to preach. The women listen, one woman appears more moved than the others. She requests baptism and then offers her home and hospitality to Paul and his companions.

Who is Lydia? Well, to put it too simply: Lydia is the woman who saved the Christian church. Lydia met Paul at a crucial junction in his ministry. If it was not for Lydia, we may have never heard of the Apostle from Tarsus. Not for the first time or the last time, the young Christian movement was saved from disaster by a woman.

Christian history tells us that the Church has had a long, conflicted relationship with women, especially strong, determined and gifted women. Women played a significant role among the first followers of Jesus of Nazareth. It was women who remained and watched at the cross (while the men went into hiding). It was women who got up before first light on Easter morning and came to the Garden (while the men stayed behind closed doors). A careful reading of the chapters of the Acts of the Apostles informs us that women held key positions of leadership in the first years of the church.

The beauty of this story is how it illustrates what Paul later writes in his letter to the Galatians, when he quotes a very early baptismal formula, still used today: “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). This is who we are today.

True, the church was quick to forget. By the late second century, as the church became more of an institution and less a grassroots movement, an “old boys” network began to develop; the women were sent back to the kitchen and the nursery. The church edited Christ’s call, the church forgot Christ’s relationship with women, and the church forgot its foremothers, including Lydia and her sisters.

Lydia’s story, sparse as it is, reminds us that the calling of God is never limited to some select group. Just look at Lydia! Lydia’s story is one of those biblical instances where and when it would be most informative if we had a bit more information about “the Lydian woman,” the prayer meeting at the river, and the other women participants. She is called a Gentile and her name, as we have it, may be more a designation of her place of birth (probably in western Turkey). Who or what were they worshiping down by the river. The text suggests that they were worshiping the God of Israel. Had they been excluded from the local synagogue? We don’t know. We can surmise that Lydia and the others were open to hearing Paul’s message. She became Paul’s first convert in Europe. It was in her home that the first church in Philippi gathered (Acts 16:40).

Paul has made the acquaintance of an unconventional woman in her time and place. She is a Gentile, a non-Jew. She owns her own business; she deals in purple dyes and cloth, a luxury item in her day. She is a head of household and at her baptism those who live with her are baptized too. Lydia is wealthy, well-connected and highly independent. Her house is soon the location for the congregation in Philippi. It will always be one of Paul’s favorites. Elsewhere we read that the congregation at Philippi was among the few, consistent financial supporters of Paul’s missionary efforts (Philippians 4:15-20).

Lydia’s support encourages a new day in Paul’s ministry and enables Christianity to gain a foothold in Europe. She is the one who broke ground for the Church’s future. Not enough information is available but she has a place in what was an oppressive and sexist society. If you read further into the Acts, chapter 16, you will find that her home was the place of refuge to which Paul and Silas went after their release from prison (16:40). What began at Philippi soon spread throughout Greece, laying the ground work for the Church in the West.

In the United Church of Christ, we have a very human tendency to be a little smug and self-righteous. We boast that we were the first Christian denomination to ordain a woman. What we rarely admit is that Antoinette Brown was refused entry into the clergy clusters in New York State and certainly was never welcomed to their pulpits. She was ordained by her local congregation and not beyond that.

Many pulpits in our churches are still not open to women or affirming of their ministries, lay and ordained. There are places in the wider church that have not changed much. I wonder if they would have been members in Lydia’s prayer group down by the river.

Lydia of that time remains Lydia in our time: One who welcomes everyone with an open, radical hospitality that excludes no one.

On this Mother’s Day, it would be right to remember and honor Lydia and her sisters, our foremothers of so long ago. Earlier this morning, we sang and asked ourselves, “Shall we gather at the river,” and answered, “Yes, we’ll gather at the river.” Let us stop by the river this morning where women still pray, standing as spiritual witnesses of hope for a better world and a better us.