Scripture text: Acts 16:9-15
The book of Acts is rich and bountiful resource for the Church today. At the two congregations I serve (Canadochly as parish pastor and SJNF as youth pastor), I did a preaching series this past Lent on Acts, looking at the parallels between the Church in its infancy and the Church of the 21st century. Surprising number of lessons we can take away from that.
But then, that’s the book of Acts in general and today’s first lesson is no exception. It reads, much like most of the later part of Acts like an adventure story. Paul receives a vision that compels him to head across the sea to Macedonia. Luke, the narrator of the story, is excited by this, because this is the part of Paul’s story where he is directly involved, so he slips seamlessly into a first person narrative. (i.e. “This is what we did...”) The benefit of that for us is that it draws us into the story as well; we become a part of the adventure and are metaphorically along for the ride.
Paul, Luke, and their companions arrive in the city of Philippi, named for the famous father of Alexander the Great, the ancient and revered king of Macedonia who once nearly conquered the whole known world. It is a typical Greek city of the time, full of life, full of hustle and bustle. It is a pagan city, a crossroads for the world, a place where people of all languages, cultures, and religions intermingle and mix. Now in the Greek world not all religions are equal in the eyes of the people. The Greek and Roman pantheon of deities has first place in the people’s mind: Zeus, Hermes, Apollo, and the like. Their shrines are no doubt scattered about the city. All the rest, the Zoroastrians, the mystery cultists, and the Christians and Jews, are given a place by the river outside of town.
It is to this place that our heroes go, expecting to make contact with the diaspora Jews who live in the city or perhaps sympathetic or curious pagans who might consider learning a bit more about this Jesus character. They hit the jackpot by finding one of the most unique and unusual characters in the New Testament: a woman named Lydia.
Luke is fairly thorough in describing this woman. Her name Lydia implies her place of origin, the region in modern day Turkey also called Lydia. This is reinforced by the city of her birth: Thyatira which is located in that region. Nothing unusual so far, except that she is rather far from home. That’s unusual in those days. People did not typically travel far from home, particularly women.
Luke adds that she is a “dealer in purple cloth,” which explains a great deal.
Purple dye was extremely expensive in ancient times, which is why it was associated so strongly with royalty. Kings and queens were the only ones, it was said, who could afford it. If this woman makes her living selling cloth so dyed, she must be wealthy indeed.
But wait a minute. This is a woman in the 1st century who runs her own business and has become extravagantly wealthy doing it. That’s a rarity in this day and age with only 15% of Fortune 500 companies run by women. In the first century, it was utterly unheard of.
And then there’s her faith. Luke describes her as “a worshiper of God.” That’s code for a non-pagan Gentile who is curious about Judaism, also known as a proselyte. She is not a Jew by birth, but is drawn to the God of Abraham for some reason.
Lydia is a very unique individual. She’s breaking all sorts of rules and taboos. She’s a woman in business. One who’s rejected the pagan beliefs of her own people to convert to the foreign faith of these Jewish people. She is rich beyond measure.
In short, she’s weird. She doesn’t fit in anywhere. An oddball. An outcast. A renegade.
This whole adventure started because Paul received a vision from God, a vision of a man calling him to come to Macedonia, to begin his European mission. Why do you suppose God did that?
Now that’s a question, isn’t it? Could it be perhaps that God wanted Paul to meet this woman? Could it be that God wanted his apostle to discover her? There are a lot of reasons for this. Hey, let’s be honest. The church back then wasn’t exactly rich. Like today, they needed money and a wealthy benefactor would go a long way to help that. She could subsidize Paul’s missionary journeys. She could be a real big help.
That’s all true, but I suspect there’s another lesson here. Let’s continue being honest. The church doesn’t do weird very well. Church people like things normal and ordinary. Weird turns us off. Weird makes us suspicious. We’d rather weird stayed away.
I served a church in West Virginia for 11 years before moving here to York county. My predecessor in WV told this story about a time after he had started his new church here in PA. The two churches were about 3 hours apart so some of the folks in WV decided to go visit him. Now the three that decided to go were a school teacher, a police officer, and the local funeral director. All fine upstanding folk in town, but they were all three motorcycle enthusiasts.
One Sunday morning, these three got up early, hopped on their bikes, and rode up to PA to visit Pastor Paul. They walked in dressed like bikers, helmets, leathers, chaps, you name it. The ushers panicked and rushed over to the Pastor. “Pastor, Pastor, what are we going to do? We’ve got some Hell’s Angels in worship today!”
A school teacher, a cop, and an undertaker. About as ordinary as you get, but because they were dressed for motorcycle riding, they had become weird. And this church in Western PA couldn’t handle it.
Can we?
The truth is God loves weird. He loves the oddballs and the outcasts.
Look at Jesus. He calls a tax collector to be a disciple. He calls a woman during an era of patriarchy to be the first to proclaim “Christ is risen.” He calls a monstrous persecutor of the Church to be its greatest apostle. God does amazing things with the weirdest people, Lydia among them.
We are told, time and again, that God sees people in different ways than we do. He saw Paul’s potential, Mary’s heart, and the opportunities Lydia offered. Each had their part to play in God’s plan and it didn’t matter that they were weird or strange. What does that say to us?
Could it be that guy with tattoos is going to be the best thing to happen to our church? Could it be that gay couple becomes the most loyal and devoted members? Or that Arab fellow? Or that Spanish speaking immigrant? Maybe so. Who knows? God does, but we have to open to what he wants to show us. Embrace the weird and it just might surprise you. Just like it did Paul and Luke on their trip to Philippi. Amen.
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