We got a card from some Army friends this week. The
husband is retiring from active duty at the end of June and his wife will
become the primary worker in the family. But she isn’t taking just any job. She
will become the head pharmacist on one of the Mercy Ships, currently anchored
off the coast of Senegal. They are leaving for Africa in August, and for the
next two years, Gwen and Brad and two of their four children will live as
missionaries to the patients and communities that this medical ship serves, along
with the other medical personnel on board. For them, it’s not just a change in
status. They understand that this is a total change of reference and identity. Sometimes
our faith journeys take us to strange new worlds, indeed.
During this season of Eastertide, we have been
following the story of the early church from the book of Acts. We have seen the
disciples struggle and grow as they encounter the risen Jesus. We have met
Paul, converted from persecuting Christiana as he becomes a teacher and leader.
We have seen the struggles to blend the Jewish and Gentile Christian
communities, trying to understand how to integrate their past to their identities
into one.
Today’s lesson from Acts is a powerful portrait of
how Paul is compelled to spread the good news to new people in a new land. Paul’s
mission makes its way northwestward, through Asia Minor and onto the continent
of Europe. He had tried to go east, further into Asia, toward Ephesus in
modern-day Turkey, a cultural and trade center. But several times he was
stopped by unforeseen circumstances, which he interpreted as roadblocks from
God to sending him to this new mission field.
Paul’s call to Macedonia comes in the form of a
vision, which is Luke’s reminder of the extraordinary nature of God’s call. With
this dramatic event, the mission to Europe begins. The gospel is moving out of
familiar territory where the Pauline gospel is well established into uncharted
waters. It is as if the events of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection were a
big rock, thrown into a pond, with Jesus’ influence and love rippling out to
reach all the world.
We often think of Paul as a hater of women, or at
least unappreciative. People have used some of Paul’s words as a proof text that
women were not equal to men in the eyes of God or the Church. But this story reminds
us that the issues of faith are not always black and white. Paul didn’t speak
in generalities – he spoke to specific communities with unique problems and
challenges. Called to “do his own thing,” Paul’s journey from Turkey to
Philippi in modern-day Greece opens the Christian community in ways no one had imagined.
If nothing else, Lydia’s conversion reminds us that God will call whom God will
call, and all of us, man, woman, youth, and child, are opening to the
changing power of God’s grace.
Lydia was a woman of means, probably a merchant and
leader in the community. She encountered Paul and his companions, not in the
synagogue, but at a place of prayer by the river. The authenticity of her
response is indicated by the eagerness with which she responded to Paul’s
sharing of the gospel – the Evangelion, which gives us the very churchy
word, “evangelism.” Not only was her life changed, but her whole household was converted.
Her immediate response was to offer hospitality to Paul and his party. When
they hesitated to accept, she asked them to take the offer at face value, judging
her by nothing but the realness of her faith. Spoiler alert, when Paul and
Silas are released from prison at the end of Chapter 16, they go back to
Lydia’s house and find that faith in the Christian life has already grown in
the town and that a house church has been established with Lydia as the
driving force.
There are so many aspects of this passage that
appeal to me. It reflects the radical nature of the gospel. The message of
faith is available to all who will listen and let it change their lives. Before,
Paul has been sharing the story of the Messiah within the traditional Judaic
framework. Whenever he arrived in a town, he went to the synagogue, because he
knew that there would be people there who shared a common foundation with him
and with Christ… their belief in the God of the Jews. And he talked to the men,
because they were the leaders in that society, and help him gain access to others
in their community.
But when Paul got outside the region of Asia, he
encountered a different way of life. Here, the place of prayer was not in a
synagogue but by the river. And the people, mainly women, were probably not
gathered informal worship but sat together sharing stories of life and faith.
Maybe it was a shock to encounter a situation so different… maybe not. But Paul
and company never debated on whether or not to share the good news. They didn't
flinch or hold a conversation about how to handle the situation -- they just
sat down and started talking. Lydia was not just a Gentile woman who became the
first European convert to Christianity, but in our European-centric
congregation, she could be considered our mother in the faith.
For many years, this passage has been lifted up to
affirm the ministry and leadership of women in the church. Lydia’s ministry
within the community at Philippi gained a good reputation and supported Paul in
his further missionary travels. They took care of people in their community. They
witnessed the love of God. They used the gifts that God gave them to do the
work of Christ. And they set a pattern for leadership that can be followed even
today. But Lydia isn’t just a role model for women. She understands the essence
of what it means to put faith into action and she spreads that to those around
her and gives Paul incentive to keep spreading the word further west and north.
Ministry opportunities come to us in all shapes and
sizes. And often we do not recognize them for what they are… divine calls from
God. We are so busy, so distracted, by the worries of our world that we do not
see the people that God is calling us to walk beside. If we think to ask how
someone is doing, we are more than likely thinking of how troubled our own
lives are… seriously when you are telling me the struggles that you are going
through, I am having to work so hard to not say, “Well, you think you’ve got it
hard… here’s what I’m dealing with…”
Too
often I am not present enough in my day to ask myself these questions:
· What am I meant to learn from this?
· How do you want me to change and grow from this conversation?
· What do you want me to take with me and what do you want me to leave behind?
· Where will this encounter with you lead me next?
These questions matter because they make an
assumption that most of us forget… that God is traveling with us along the
course of our days. Too often, our own inner monologue is drowning out the
voice of God asking us to think less about our own need to be center stage and
more on hearing and responding to the needs and pain of others.
What will it take for us to hear God telling us to
be open to a new plan and new challenges, ones that we didn’t expect or even
want for ourselves? Are we willing to hear a call and just go – and are we
ready to receive the gifts that come with unexpected encounters and their
mysterious way of helping us take new and grace-filled paths?[i]
In our gospel lesson, Jesus gives us the promise of
the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, which is an exciting part of the work
that the Holy Spirit does. We are able to see the Spirit as Comforter because
it’s often our first experience. But to know the Spirit as Advocate, that’s a
much more unsettling, but also fulfilling, way to experience God.
The truth is that God still speaks. God calls whom God will call, and in that call, we are to use our spiritual gifts alongside our natural talents and skills. We are the ones who do God’s work in the world. We are the ones who are equipped. Our job is to listen and to respond… to hear the still, small voice of God. And to know that we not just can make a difference, but must be willing to believe that God would choose us to do something worthwhile and significant for God’s kingdom.[ii]
Imagine their surprise when two Air Force Academy
cadets discovered that the janitor cleaning up after them for the last two
years was actually a Medal of Honor recipient from World War 2. When they asked
him if he was the soldier they read about, he replied simply, “Yep, that’s me.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” they asked. He replied
after some thought, “That was one day in my life and it happened a long time
ago.” At a loss for words, they sped off to class but shared the news with
everyone in their flight.
After that, things were never the same.
No longer was he “the janitor.” Students greeted Bill Crawford by name in the
halls and regularly stopped to talk to him. Not only did those encounters change the
students, but they also made a difference to Mr. Crawford, who seemed to walk a
little taller, offering encouragement throughout the year.[iii] When they found out that
he had never formally had his medal presented to him because he was in a German
POW camp, they lobbied hard, and at The Air Force Academy graduation in 1984,
President Ronald Reagan officially presented him the Medal of Honor in front of
the graduating class who befriended him. And when he died in 2000 at the age of
81, he was buried in the Academy cemetery, the only non-USAF person afforded that
honor.[iv] There are many lessons of
leadership to be learned from the story, but it is also a great portrait of
what it means to be a person of faith. Mr. Crawford’s heroic actions saved
lives in 1943, but his personal integrity continued to make a difference in the
lives of Air Force Cadets over 40 years later.
Think of a still pond on a cloudy day. And gradually
it begins to gently rain. See the ripples on the water? They reach out and keep
spreading until they meet up with another ring, and then they head back to
where they started. The history of the church is filled with the stories of
people of all descriptions who have lived out their faith in the best way they
could. Sometimes we feel like the only drop in the pond. Other times, the rain
is coming so fast we cannot see where our rings end and where others begin. Like the Sower in Jesus’ parable, our actions today and
tomorrow will be reflected in others in ways we may never know. Lydia’s
faith was made strong by listening to Paul tell the story. The town of Phillipi
grew strong in faith by seeing the witness of her call. Paul’s letter to the
church at Philippi has been preserved as a witness and teaching tool for us,
and the story has been preserved in Acts so that we can hear it and grow in our
own faith and belief.
What are the ripples of faith that have reached you?
Have they changed you enough to help you be a ripple maker? No matter
where we are in our journeys, let us be reminded that if we are willing to see
them, God’s ripples of love and grace are evidence that we are called to be
witnessed and channels of the transforming power of God.
Peace, Deb
(c) Deb Luther Teagan, May 2022
Here are some pictures from Lydia's Chapel near Philippi in Greece
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| Paul's journey to Philippi |
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| Lydia's Chapel |
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| Outdoor Chapel by the river |
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| Chapel interior dome |
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| Paul and Lydia stained glass windows |
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| Mosiac of Paul's Dream |
[iii] “Leadership and the Janitor,” James Moschgat, USO On Patrol, Fall 2010.
[iv] www.taraross.com/post/tdih-bill-crawford-moh
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