Acts 16:9-15

Acts 16:9-15 (NRSV)

⁹ During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” ¹⁰ When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.

¹¹ We set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis, ¹² and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city for some days. ¹³ 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. ¹⁴ A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. ¹⁵ When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.” And she prevailed upon us.

Year C

Sixth Sunday After Easter

May 1, 2016

Cross~Wind

Title: Easter People and Sailing with the Spirit  

Introduction

I want to discuss life as a sailboat. It will take me a little while to get there.

James Mill (1773-1836), a stern and well-known Scottish thinker, observed his son's early brilliance and determined that the boy should be educated exhaustively in literature and the arts, science, history and philosophy. [Remember, they did not have television and video games.] He read ancient works in their original Greek and Latin. I did not mention religion because James thought its music, ritual, liturgy and devotional life a waste of time. His son, John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) flourished in his academic studies in his teen years. He thought he had a goal to reform the world. He wrote his Autobiography toward the end of his life. In Chapter 5, he says that when he was around 20 years old, he experienced a malady of the mind and melancholy sweeping over him. I could not resist sharing this description of his life.  

But the time came when I awakened from this (his contentment with his life thus far) as from a dream. It was in the autumn of 1826. I was in a dull state of nerves, such as everybody is occasionally liable to; unsusceptible to enjoyment or pleasurable excitement; one of those moods when what is pleasure at other times, becomes insipid or indifferent; the state, I should think, in which converts to Methodism usually are, when smitten by their first "conviction of sin." In this frame of mind it occurred to me to put the question directly to myself: "Suppose that all your objects in life were realized; that all the changes in institutions and opinions which you are looking forward to, could be completely effected at this very instant: would this be a great joy and happiness to you?" And an irrepressible self-consciousness distinctly answered, "No!" At this my heart sank within me: the whole foundation on which my life was constructed fell down. All my happiness was to have been found in the continual pursuit of this end. The end had ceased to charm, and how could there ever again be any interest in the means? I seemed to have nothing left to live for. 

He was right. Methodism, along with most religion, will say that finite things in which we hope will not bring satisfaction. He goes on to say that he hoped “the cloud would pass away” on its own. This experience went on for months. He seemed unable to shake the feeling even for a moment. The cloud became thicker and thicker. Here is how he put it. 

I was thus, as I said to myself, left stranded at the commencement of my voyage, with a well-equipped ship and a rudder, but no sail; without any real desire for the ends which I had been so carefully fitted out to work for: no delight in virtue, or the general good, but also just as little in anything else. 

John Stuart Mill needed a sail for the ship of his life. However, would that make life easy?

In 1980, Christopher Cross sang a song with the title “Sailing.” The song makes sailing have a dream-like quality. It makes sailing sound easy. 

Well it's not far down to paradise, at least it is not for me

 If the wind is right you can sail away and find tranquility

 Oh the canvas can do miracles, just you wait and see, believe me 

It's not far to never, never land, reason to pretend

 And if the wind is right you can find the joy of innocence again

 Oh the canvas can do miracles, just you wait and see, believe me 

Sailing, takes me away

 To where I've always heard it

 Just a dream and the wind to carry me

 Soon I will be free 

True, a good sailor can make sailing seem effortless. In one of my churches, however, a physician loved to sail. It was a passion. He went to the ocean for his vacation and threw himself and his family into sailing. They loved sailing. The pictures of him in the sailboat made it clear that he was in his element. At the same time, the family talked of how much work it was. Sailing in a way that properly catches the wind is not an easy job. Properly done, though, the ship seems to move magically across the water, propelled by an invisible and unquenchable power.

If the wind stops blowing, sailors call it “becalmed.” When you make good time sailing, you enjoy “Godspeed.”’

It seemed like the philosopher John Stuart Mill wanted a “Godspeed” life for which all his education had not given him. He needed something else in his life.  

Application

            What has attracted me in this passage is the sensitivity Paul has to allowing the Spirit direct his life.[1] Reading his second missionary journey in full, you would know that receiving such direction is not easy. He was not sure where the Spirit would lead. In fact, he seems uncharacteristically unsure of himself. Two things I notice here.

            First, we need to get up and do something.

            Perhaps to hear the voice of God as clearly and as fully as Paul heard it, we have to be heading in some direction so that God can correct our movements. God will not give us more light than we need for each step.[2]

The chair of the board of IBM said that the best way to mess up a problem is to do nothing. At least, get up and do something. Turn the wheel and see which way it goes. Then you can make more decisions and fix it. If you do nothing, nothing will get better. Maybe God is waiting for us to head out for Bithynia so that God can call us to Macedonia.[3]

God has given everyone a gift for use in the body of Christ. For some, that gift may be as clear as a bell. For others, it may take some time and testing. If you act with good faith, God will show you.

I wonder how many of us have the life today that is precisely what we planned years ago. Most likely, we started out in one direction, and discovered that we needed to go another direction. [I think I just described Paul in our passage.] As for me, I started out with a declared major in history, but God moved me toward ministry. I started seeking ministry in the Wesleyan Church, and then felt led to the United Methodist Church.

            Second, maybe we need to expect God to do something.

            Here is the other side of the story. Many churches and individuals have given up expecting God to do anything, while they expect to do everything.[4]

These disciples expected God to do something.  They preached the Word and then they expected God to act. They could not tell what God would do.  God is always unpredictable. God has several ways to gain access to a city, break open a community, and begin to spread the gospel and to plant a church. However, right here you find one of the ways the Lord frequently uses: God has prepared men and women, people whose hearts are ready to respond to the gospel.

 Next week is Mother’s Day. I would like to lift up Lydia as an example for all of us to follow.

Lydia is a successful woman of business. It is clear that she is a financially secure resident of the city of Philippi. She owns a business and a home. She is a “dealer in purple cloth” (16:14), having come from the well-known textile city of Thyatira. Purple clothing is the mark of wealth and royalty in the Roman world. While Paul saw a Macedonian man, Paul actually meets a Macedonian woman, whose heart God had already prepared. The Lord opened her heart to receive the message eagerly. Lydia asks for baptism for herself and her household, and then insists, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home” (v. 15). Lydia prevails upon Paul and Silas, and they follow her home. In time, Lydia’s house becomes a center of Christian worship and outreach in Philippi, and Paul develops a close and loving bond with the church members there.[5]

            Later, when he writes his letter to the Philippians, Paul expresses his gratitude in the following way.

 “You Philippians indeed know that in the early days of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you alone” (Philippians 4:15).  

They were the generous ones. They were the hospitable ones. They were the faithful ones. It all started with Lydia.

 

            Part of the point is that we will not find such persons unless we keep moving, under the guidance of the Spirit.[6]  

Conclusion

As a congregation, I think we are moving. We have some wonderful new staff that blesses us with their presence and witness. We see some new things starting to percolate as we seek to bless this community. I have found this congregation quite willing to experiment with new directions the Lord might take us. I would challenge us, though, to expect God to act. The need is there, in our community. Even now, the Lord is preparing the hearts of people to receive the grace and love that this church offers. 

As we have learned, as effortless as sailing looks, it is not easy. The openness of Paul to the Spirit directing his life in prayer, and even in sleep, is not easy.  

Are you willing to change course, even re-chart the direction of your life, if the Spirit suddenly blows you in a new, unexpected direction?

Godspeed. 

Going  deeper

Acts 16:6-10 is part of the ninth segment, Acts 15:36 to 18:17, in which Luke reports the second missionary journey of Paul. In 15:36-41, Paul and Barnabas part company. In 16:1-5, Paul goes to Lycaonia. Timothy converts and receives circumcision. Given the battles Paul fought over circumcision, what do you think of this incident? In 16:6-10, Paul has a vision of a Macedonian man. In 16:11-40, they are in Philippi, witness, heal, and the authorities arrest them. In 17:1-9, they go on to Thessalonica. In 17:10-15, they go on to Beroera. In 17:16-34, they go to Athens and Paul delivers a speech to the Gentiles there. How does this sermon differ from what we have read so far? In 18:1-17, they arrive in Corinth and Paul the authorities arrest Paul.

We find in 16:6-10 that Paul, Silas, and Timothy traveled through Phrygia and the Galatian country.  We learn from Galatians that Paul became very ill at this point.  The author of the 'we' passages, which tradition says is Luke the physician, joins the team.  They went on through Mysia and down to Troas. It was there they made a new beginning in their mission by deciding to go into Macedonia (Europe).  As Ludemann put it, this portion of the passage appears like the fragment of an itinerary.

            These verses seem designed to show how "the Apostles, guided in surprising ways by signs from above and contrary to their own plans, conducted no mission at that time in Asia Minor, but were driven on to Troas and beyond into Europe itself."[7] The Holy Spirit forbids them to speak the word in Asia and the Spirit of Jesus does not allow them to go to Bithynia. Luke's language is somewhat obscure and the route which he indicates somewhat uncertain, but his intention clearly is to explain why it was that the missionaries instead of taking, as might have been expected, the great road through the Lycus and Meander valley past Colossae and Laodicea to Ephesus, by-passed these centers and embarked upon a mission to Europe. The sequence of events seems to have been this: (a) Paul had planned to speak the word in Asia, but the Holy Spirit forbade him to do so. (b) He therefore went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia until he came opposite Mysia. (c) His revised plan had then been to go into Bithynia, but again the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. (d) Accordingly, once more changing their plans, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. The more familiar Troy was ten miles to the north.  

Acts 16:9-15 (NRSV)

⁹ During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” ¹⁰ When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them. [Paul's circuitous search for the future direction of his mission comes to a halt when he receives a decisive message. Although some have tried to find a specific identity for this "man of Macedonia," it is far more likely that Paul perceived he was a Macedonian due to his dress and accent. After receiving two "no" messages from extraordinary sources, Paul now receives an imploring "yes" message: "Come over to Macedonia and help us." Of course, the people of Macedonia did not literally call for help from Paul. They were not searching for him, or for Christ. Instead, what Paul sees in this dream is their need of the good news, whether they know it or not. The same is true for the world. Barth, in a discussion of the community of Jesus Christ as the society under obligation to the world and therefore jointly responsible for what becomes of the world, stresses that the world does not know of its need for this community of Jesus Christ. Thus, the people of the world need, lack, seek, and expect to find the one thing that that God has called the Christian community to do. He will contrast what our experience tells us, that most people do not give obvious evidence of this need in their lives, with the objective reality that the community of Jesus Christ has what they need.[8] It is fitting that this final plea comes to Paul in a dream. In Hellenistic literature, some of the most life-altering insights of the "great" came to them while in a dreaming state. For Paul and the future Gentile mission of the church, the call toward Macedonia is momentous. Paul's turn toward the West into Macedonia marks the first step in the church's missionary movement into Europe itself, setting up the first signs of the dichotomy between the Christian West and the largely unmissionized East that would remain until this century.]

¹¹ We set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis, ¹² and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city for some days. [In Acts 16:11-15, the missionary team arrives at Philippi. Philippians 4:15 refers to the significance of the help the Philippians offered in the early days of the ministry of Paul in Europe. Once they make the destination decision, these travelers make good time. By taking a sea route as opposed to making an overland journey, they travel up to a hundred miles a day. The scant two days this particular sailing takes (vv.11-12) reveals their unusually favorable winds. Their destination of Philippi was the largest city in its district of Macedonia. It enjoyed the status of being a Roman colony, allowing its citizens to seek Roman citizenship as well. A large number of retired Roman military men populated Philippi, however, a fact that tended to keep native Macedonian inhabitants second-class citizens of the Empire.]¹³ On the Sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer [a synagogue although the fact that there is apparently no established synagogue suggests there may not have been the requisite number of Jewish men (10) available to establish a minyan for a permanent place of prayer. The riverside seems to have been a customary place for a Jewish place of prayer (proseuch): Philo and Josephus commonly use the word and we find it in inscriptions as a synonym for "synagogue."]; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there. [Paul adopted his usual approach by way of the synagogue, accordingly sat down— the usual posture of the teacher— and spoke to the women who had come together. The last words give an accurate touch of local color, for social convention seems to have allowed women singular freedom in Macedonia. Luke has identified several critical moments through preaching. Peter preaches immediately after the Holy Spirit came upon the gathering in the upper room in Acts 2. Philip shares with the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8, an event that was significant for the Hellenistic community within the church in terms of its mission. Peter shares with Cornelius in Acts 10 and 11, a significant moment in the Jewish part of the church, as they begin to see the need to reach out to Gentiles. Now, Paul shares with these women as he begins his European mission. The text does not make it entirely clear why Paul's group encounters this group of women gathered by the river. Several scholars suggest the river location indicates the Jewish observance of the rituals of cleansing and purification before prayer and meals. They explain Lydia's presence because she is a "worshiper of God" -- or a Gentile "God-fearer" -- who worshipped with Jews but was not an official convert. The literary links with Cornelius are clear. God having “opened her heart” to accept Paul’s message, both “she and her household were baptized” and extended hospitality to him (v. 15) just as previously was the case with Cornelius and his household in response to Peter’s preaching (10:48). These parallels with Cornelius as the first Gentile convert in Acts reinforce the popular characterization of Lydia as the first European convert to Christianity.] ¹⁴ A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. ¹⁵ When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.” And she prevailed upon us. [We see here the conversion of a woman, Lydia, as the first fruit of this new missionary journey. Her relationship with Paul serves to frame Acts’ full account of his ministry in Philippi, which both begins and ends with her home as its base of operation (see vv. 15 and 40). Lydia's conversion experience sets a classic example for future converts. Despite the fact that she is a "worshiper of God," and despite the fact that she is a well-established "dealer in purple cloth" (a luxurious, upper-class commodity), Lydia herself is active only as a listener. It is the Lord who "opened her heart." This change of heart is what enables Lydia to receive Paul's words "eagerly" and seek baptism.  Letting another work through her and determine her actions is evidently not a characteristic path for Lydia. For after her baptism, she becomes an active, determining participant in this missionary moment. Lydia is already recognized a Christian through her baptism.  When Paul baptized her, her household, i.e., family and slaves alike, would compulsorily follow her into the new faith. This sense of family solidarity, admirable in many ways, must have led to some quite superficial "conversions." Presumably, Lydia was a well-to-do woman. They could not turn down her offer.  Although the text does not specify Lydia's marital status, it is likely that she was a widow who now ran her own household. Thus, she determines that "her household" will join her in embracing this newfound faith. Likewise, this successful merchant knows how to take charge and get what she wants. Although in his travels Paul usually refuses local hospitality, preferring to pay his own way, he is unable to refuse Lydia's cannily worded invitation: "If you have judged me to be faithful ... come and stay at my home." The first person narrator explains Lydia's persistent persuasiveness by declaring "... she prevailed upon us" (v.15).]

I have come across an unusual study of this passage that I share at this time. The text does not specify that any of Lydia's group gathered for prayer or any other religious purpose. As non-Jews, unrestricted by Sabbath ordinances, they may simply have been at the river doing their laundry.  They may have been involved in Bacchic rites in worship of the Dionysiac cult. Indeed, scholars have noted numerous parallels between not only Paul’s encounter with Lydia but also even his later imprisonment and deliverance through an earthquake with a scene from Euripides’ Bacchae about Dionysius who sails to Europe to spread his religious practices from its centers in Asia Minor. It is possible, then, that Luke has shaped the way in which he recounts Paul’s Philippian ministry by that well-known play. What might Luke have gained by structuring Paul’s ministry in Philippi along lines drawn from Euripides’ Bacchae? The answer to that may lie as much in the contrasts as in the parallels. Whereas many in Greco-Roman society had a negative view of the Bacchanalia generally and the mantic participation of women in it particularly, Luke is able to show women both delivered from such ecstatic control (more explicitly in the following account of the divining slave-girl, vv. 16-18) and assuming important leadership roles as heads of house churches. Dionysius may have brought a religion of excess to Europe, but because of Lydia, Paul is able to counter such Bacchanaliac excess with the message of the gospel.

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[1] He is not asking God to bless what he has already done. He wants to be where God wants him to be.

[2] We need to knock on the door. The answer may be no or yes, but we need to approach the door and knock.
                It would make sense that if we are standing still, we need no light.

Maybe we need to get up and start doing what we think is God's will now and trust that God will tell us what to do while we are on the way. Maybe God never gives us more directions and more information than we need, and until we have started moving in one direction, there is no need for God to correct us and tell us to change direction.

[3] Our schools need loving, caring tutors. Volunteer to tutor for God, and perhaps God will interrupt your plan and say, "I want you in the hospital as a nurse."

Go to God in prayer and say, "God, in response to your call to discipleship, I am going to serve you by caring for those with cancer."

Then God's word may come because you are up and moving, "Well, take a right turn and go help those with AIDS."

Karen Rodberg wanted a family. She wanted to be married, have children and serve God as a loving parent. She was trying to make that happen, but it was not happening. One Sunday when Child S.H.A.R.E. made a Minute for Mission in her church, God said, "Maybe it is time to think about becoming a foster-care parent." Karen became the adoptive mother of Monica who is an 8-year-old, sports-minded youngster and a total delight.

[4] Someone has observed that many churches today are operating in such a way that, if the Holy Spirit were suddenly removed from their program, nobody would notice that anything had happened.

[5] — to be dressed in purple is to boast of influence and power. Financially, Lydia has an investment in the way things are. She has a lot to lose.

                She has good reason to show restraint. Paul and Silas have presented to her a new teaching about Jesus. She could have distrusted it. Distrust of strangers would be good reason to wait before making a decision. If she were afraid, she could cling to her possessions tightly. Yet, she does not take any of these fear-based actions. Instead, she responds with faith, generosity and hospitality.

[6] Here is the point about Lydia. We will not find such people in our lives if we are unwilling to keep moving, open to the leadership of the Spirit.

Some Christians travel light, some travel heavy; some take off frequently, others stick close to home. Whatever kind of soul traveler you are, never undertake any journey in life without prayer. It is prayer that enables God to be present with us, to direct our path, to help us navigate the rough roads, and rest easy on the smooth ways. To take off on any path without first listening for God's directions is to travel into dangerous territory indeed. 

 

[7] (Weiss, History of Primitive Christianity, I, 279-80)

[8] Barth, Church Dogmatics IV.3 [72.2] 777-8.