“Heroes and Heroines of the Faith: Lydia”

“Heroes and Heroines of the Faith: Lydia” Acts 16:9-15,40 8/13/17

“It takes more grace than pen can tell to play the second fiddle well.”

So goes the refrain in a well-known poem. It’s about the challenges of

doing important work that often doesn’t get noticed. The heroine of this

morning’s scripture lesson in Acts 16 is important because of her work

“playing second fiddle well” so to speak. Her name was Lydia, and she

lived in Philippi, Greece- but we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, established the first church in

Jerusalem and commissioned it to spread outward, to “Jerusalem, Judea,

Samaria, and to the whole world” to use the words of Acts 1:8. However,

its mission activity was pretty much confined to the Middle East in the first

15 chapters of Acts. Then, in Acts 16, Paul received a vision. Here’s what

he saw,

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.”

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. (Acts 16:9,10)

Paul’s vision called him and his companions to come to Macedonia,

in present-day Greece. The gospel was coming to Europe for the first time!

So, Paul and his new missionary partner, Silas, along with Luke, the author

of Acts, set sail.

We set sail from Troas and took a straight course to

Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis,

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. (Acts 16:11,12) Paul often traveled by

ship around the Mediterranean, and does so here. He arrived at Philippi, a

city that was a Roman colony in Paul’s time. That meant many Roman

military veterans lived there, and the city reflected Roman culture, customs,

and even language. It was kind of a “little Rome” even though it was

located in Greece. It was also a thriving center of commerce. Here’s how

Paul began his ministry in Philippi.

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.

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.

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. (Acts 16:13-15)

Paul always began his ministry in a new city by visiting the local

synagogue and proclaiming Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah. But not in

Philippi. Apparently, there was no synagogue there, meaning that there

were fewer than ten Jewish men in the city, as that’s the number required

to constitute a synagogue! Instead, Paul finds some women praying by the

river. One of them was Lydia, a Gentile who worshiped the one true God,

instead of the hundreds of Greek and Roman pagan deities. You may

recall that Cornelius, the Roman centurion from last week’s sermon, was

also a Gentile who worshiped God.

Lydia was a business woman from Thyatira, a city renowned for its

purple cloth, a very expensive cloth well-known around the empire. She

was evidently a widow or single woman, as no husband is mentioned.

Ordinarily, women could only conduct business under the name of their

husband, but because Philippi was a Roman colony, she was permitted to

conduct business there on her own. She had enough wealth to have her

own home and servants. And, just as God was at work in bringing Paul to

Philippi, God was also at work in Lydia, opening her heart to the message

Paul was bringing. She believed the good news of Jesus and became his

follower, as evidenced by her baptism.

She then invites Paul and his companions to stay in her home while

they are in Philippi. They did, and her home became the center of the

church there. We know this, because after Paul and Silas ran into

persecution and imprisonment in Philippi, they returned to…Lydia’s house!

After leaving the prison they went to Lydia’s home; and when they had

seen and encouraged the brothers and sisters there, they departed. (Acts

16:40)

And that’s about all we know about Lydia, the first Christian convert in

Europe and a leader in the church at Philippi, to which Paul wrote his

beloved letter, Philippians. Her story demonstrates two important character

traits. The first is hospitality, a gift and mindset to which all Christians are

called. It is the act of helping someone or a group of people to feel

welcome and cared for. Some people have special gifts in this area, but all

of us can learn to become hospitable people.

When Bonnie and I were young in ministry in the Washington, D.C.

suburbs, we did a lot of hosting people in our home- meetings, parties, and

other gatherings. Bonnie said something to a friend in the church about

feeling a little intimidated by these hosting responsibilities, especially in

such an affluent community. So this friend, who as a military wife had done

of a lot of hosting herself, came over and coached Bonnie through all the

particulars about how to host home events. Her specific advice about

serving drinks, and appetizers, and meals was invaluable. But the essence

of being a good host is anticipating the needs of your guests and providing

for their comfort- physically, emotionally, and socially- while they are in your

home.

Lydia must have had that gift, and it served the church very well!

Hospitality is also something that a whole church, or community or country

extends to others. When we first moved Gettysburg over eight years ago,

a member of our church, Ken Hickey came by our house, bringing fresh

peaches and some advice. The peaches were delicious and the advice

was great! He said, “You’ll need to be patient with us, Dave. We’re a little

slow to warm up to new people, but if you’re patient with us, we will.” I

think he was right about that! But sometimes we need to overcome our

natural reserve and reach out to new people in our community and in our

church. That’s part of being hospitable, something God calls all of us to do.

The other thing Lydia’s story reminded me of is the importance of

support gifts and ministries- you know, those behind-the-scenes tasks that

are essential for any group to function. Without many people doing those

kind of ministries here at GPC, we wouldn’t be able to gather for worship

each week. Think about it. Someone makes sure the lighting and air

conditioning is on and working each week. Someone unlocks the building

and locks it back up when we’re done, and then cleans it during the week.

Someone takes care of ordering and placing flowers in the sanctuary.

Someone else makes or orders, and displays our banners. We have

volunteers who have overseen the development of our sound system and

video streaming system. Someone makes sure the sound levels are set

correctly each week. Someone oversees the maintenance of our hearing

assistance devices. Someone makes the slides we show and someone

else runs the laptop to show them. Someone prints the bulletins and

someone else stuffs the inserts into them and someone else hands them

out. Someone prepares the communion elements when we celebrate the

Lord’s Supper. Someone welcomes people to worship and someone

provides cookies and coffee and tea in the Fellowship Hall each week.

Musicians practice unseen during the week to support the worship of God’s

people on Sunday. A group of people set our annual budget; you support it

with your generous giving; ushers collect it; volunteers count it, and the

treasurer keeps track of our funds and pays our bills. Several people work

in the nursery each week, lead children’s church, and teach Sunday

School. And members of the Worship Committee oversee the whole thing.

We could not worship here without many people serving in these

essential support ministries. That’s the kind of work that Lydia did!

In a few minutes, you’ll hear about our Mexico mission trip. Lydia’s

story also reminded me of the support work necessary for such a mission.

Before we left, people here designed and ordered group T-shirts for us,

prepared Vacation Bible School and recreation materials, put together a

medical kit, worked out our itinerary and transportation, prepared a budget,

prepared music, recruited prayer partners, arranged transportation to and

from the airport, and sent us notes of encouragement. Meanwhile, Accion

Ministries, our ministry partner in Mexico, selected a village and project for

us, and arranged lodging and transportation for us. And people in the

village prepared for our arrival in many ways.

While we were in Mexico, many of you prayed for us. And people on

our mission team did lots of support work too, like planning and preparing

our food, setting up hand and dishwashing stations, keeping plenty of clean

drinking water on hand, organizing our reading glasses and so on. I hope

the point is clear. Support ministries are vital in any church or mission of

Jesus Christ. I thank all of you who provide those ministries here at GPC,

or who assisted us in preparing for our mission in Tixmehuac, Mexico.

We’d like to tell you a little more about our mission in the Yucatan a

couple weeks ago. We’ll begin with a video prepared by Brittany Stone,

that gives a nice feel for the whole experience. You’ll see us in Merida, the

capital of Yucatan state, and then in the village of Tixmehauc, a town of

about 4,000 people where we spent most of our time. We worked with

Mexican Presbyterians there, putting two concrete roofs on church

buildings, leading a Vacation Bible School and recreation for children,

running a popular ministry with reading glasses, as well as fellowshipping

and worshiping with our Mexican brothers and sisters in Christ. Let’s

watch. After the video, Kelcee Keller will talk for a few minutes about her

own experience on the trip.