Down By the River to Pray: Sermon for 6 Easter

Today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles has actually been broken up into two sections with separate headings- the first being “Paul’s Vision of the Man of Macedonia”  and the second being “The Conversion of Lydia.” Sometimes I think that the Translation Committees have done a good job of coming up with these headings, and sometimes I don’t.  In the case of today’s reading, I think they missed it.  I wouldn’t refer to the second half of the story as being “The Conversion of Lydia” because I think that conversion happens to everyone in the story...not just Lydia.

But before we get to Paul’s vision and Lydia’s hospitality and everyone’s conversion, I want us to remember that at the time he had this particular vision, Paul was suffering from a painful split as well as a stalemate in his recent missionary activity. He and his friend Barnabas had been missionary partners since they were commissioned together in Antioch, when the Holy Spirit herself said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” After that, over the course of 2-3 years, Paul and Barnabas traveled together as missionaries to 11 cities, covering approximately 1,200 - 1,400 miles.  But when they returned to their home base in Antioch to celebrate their recent success and to begin planning for the future, they had a falling out over whether or not a fellow by the name of John Mark would accompany them on their next missionary journey. The falling out ended in an irreconcilable split, with Barnabas taking John Mark with him and heading one way, and Paul taking Silas and heading another way.  Paul and Silas later added Timothy, and the three of them were doing pretty well until they hit some bumps in the road.  Apparently, the Holy Spirit did not allow them speak the word in the region of Asia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them into Bithynia, even though they tried.  So Paul’s reports being sent back home weren’t as good as they had been before. At this point, I wonder if Paul was curious as to how well Barnabas’ mission was doing. Maybe he wondered if Barnabas had been right after all? Maybe he wondered if the Holy Spirit wasn’t allowing Paul to do his thing because they were too busy helping Barnabas and John Mark with their mission. When we struggle, it is easy to doubt. Well, Paul did what I often do when I get stressed about things - he went to sleep.

During his sleep, Paul had a dream - or a vision - of a man of Macedonia pleading for him to come over and help them. Now this is where Paul and I differ. Paul got up and immediately went to Macedonia, “being convinced that God had called them to proclaim the good news.” I most likely would have convinced myself that it was just a dream, and gone back to sleep.

Now this part of the story is where for the first time in a while, Paul, Silas, and Timothy encounter hospitality, and it is then that conversion takes place. They were now in Philippi of Macedonia and it was the sabbath day, so Paul, Silas, and Timothy - who still observed customary Jewish law - were looking for a synagogue in which they could worship and pray. Well, instead of finding a synagogue, they stumbled upon a group of women praying by the river. As it turns out, Lydia and the other women were “worshippers of God” - which means that they were Gentiles who worshipped the God of Israel. But in order to have an official synagogue, there had be a quorum of at least ten Jewish men. Lydia and the other women with her were neither Jewish nor were they men, so they went down by the river to pray. So who was this Lydia that we encounter down by the river? Lydia was an entrepreneur - a dealer of purple cloth - which means that she enjoyed a relatively high social and economic status. She either never married or was once married and now was a widow, but either way she was economically independent and the head of her household, which was an unusually privileged status for women back in those days. And as the story unfolds, the most remarkable thing about Lydia is that she ends up being the first Christian on the European continent. That’s right - the first European Christian was a woman...a successful business woman who was the head of her household!  

Anyhow, Lydia and her friends were going through their sabbath ritual of prayer when Paul, Silas, and Timothy stumbled upon them. Now this was quite a collision. As we all know, Paul - a Pharisee and strict adherent to the Jewish law - wasn’t the biggest fan of women being in charge of anything. My guess is that they might have been a little suspicious of these three ragged-looking sojourners who entered uninvited into their sacred space. Maybe Lydia and her friends tried to look so preoccupied with their prayers that hopefully the men would keep walking rather than disturb them. Or maybe they thought about referring them to the prayer group upriver a little ways. And my guess is that Paul, Silas, and Timothy were also surprised to see these Macedonian women worshipping the God of Israel, and not only that, but imagine the shock and horror for them to see a woman leading the service! 

We have to remember that Paul was still suffering from the wounds of his broken relationship with Barnabas - his close friend, fellow missionary, and brother in Christ. All over an irreconcilable disagreement over whether John Mark was cut out for ministry or not. He was also suffering from the disappointment of the recent lack of success in his own missionary activity. He, Silas, and Timothy had been turned away in Asia and Bithynia, and who knows how much success Barnabas and John Mark were having. Maybe Paul felt humbled through his wounds, and as a result, he decided to respond to his recent vision with an open, listening heart. So the Paul who stumbled upon Lydia and her friends at their prayer meeting might very well have been a Paul who had been transformed by his wounds.

And Lydia - what I mentioned earlier is all that we really know about Lydia, except for one more brief mention at the end of this chapter in Acts. What we do know, is that “the Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul.” So here was this potentially disastrous collision of cultures, and in the midst of this collision, the Lord was furiously at work, opening Lydia’s heart to Paul, and Paul’s heart to Lydia. Lydia invited Paul to sit down and speak with the women who were gathered there. And the women obviously stayed and listened. And what happens next? Lydia and her entire household are baptized! Talk about conversion! My favorite part about this section of the story is that Luke doesn’t give credit to Paul’s magnificent preaching or teaching or speaking for Lydia and her household’s conversion to Christ. Instead, Luke gives credit to the Lord, who opened Lydia’s heart to listen eagerly. Of course it certainly can - and does - happen a lot: terrific preaching, teaching, or speaking can lead to conversion. But not always. I would venture to say that if we truly allow the Lord to open our hearts, conversion will always happen. Yes... I did it. I said always.  But how could I bet against a heart opened by the Lord?

Now let us be reminded that Paul and his friends and Lydia and her friends weren’t passive in this arrangement. They didn’t sit back and passively wait for the Lord to begin opening hearts so that conversion would take place. Remember this all started with Paul immediately responding to the vision he had by going over to Macedonia. And Lydia and the other women would never have had their lives changed by the Gospel message if they had all slept in that morning, or gone to Starbucks for a latte and the Sunday paper. Paul, Lydia, and all of their friends were actively living out their faiths when they stumbled upon each other. And the Lord opened their hearts,  - their wounded hearts were transformed, so that rather than obeying the most learned human behavior of fear and distrust in the midst of encountering strangers, they opened their hearts and space to one another. Lydia invited Paul, Silas, and Timothy in to her space, and listened with an eager, open heart. In spite of being well out of his comfort zone, Paul taught with an open, eager heart. My guess is that this group of women was not who Paul had in mind when he set out to form his first church in Europe. But the Lord works in mysterious and miraculous ways if we are open to it.  In Paul and Lydia’s case, the result was nothing short of miraculous. When each of them woke up that Sabbath morning, my guess is that neither of them knew that they would be chosen by God to begin the largest religious movement the world had ever seen. On that Sabbath morning, the church in Europe was born. And we today are direct descendants of the church that was born at a women’s prayer meeting down by the river in Philippi of Macedonia. My prayer for all of us is that we can respond to God’s calling for us with hospitable, open, and eager hearts. In so doing, we may be surprised at the miracles that can happen when we open our hearts to God.