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Welcome to Hillsboro United Methodist Church! If you are searching for deeper meaning in your life that includes lasting relationships, spiritual growth and service to the world you have come to the right place. We offer a safe place in which to ponder important life questions within an atmosphere of support. Our hearts, our minds and our doors are open. We hope that as you visit with us that you will find a place to call home.
Sermon - May 9th, 2010
A Dealer in Purple Cloth
Rev. Gwen Drake
Psalm 67, Acts 16:9-15
Prayer of Preparation: We give thanks, O God of sacred stories, for the witness of your word today. Through Scripture you challenge our assumptions, increase our awareness, nurture our imaginations, and touch our feelings. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our creator and redeemer. Amen.
The lesson from Acts this week is about Lydia–a cosmopolitan woman of means–a “worshiper of God.” Her spiritual disciplines pre-date Paul’s visit to Philippi; however, she is moved by his riverside sermon and later “she and her household were baptized.”
Was she a mother? We don’t know. Does it matter? Not really. Lydia, a dealer of purple cloth, the first official European convert, a mother of the faith. We know so little about Lydia; yet what we do know speaks volumes about the difference she made. She insisted that Paul and his companions come and stay at her home. Her invitation and material support made Paul’s ministry to the local Gentiles possible.
There was nothing vague about Lydia, like a host of other worker-women in the Bible. Her response was one of radical hospitality and extravagant generosity. We can learn from Lydia!
First, let’s learn from each other. I want you to turn to a person in the pew next to you, and share an experience you have had with radical hospitality. Maybe you were the recipient, maybe you were the one giving it. Think about Lydia. Think about the story Scott told. Share with each other a time when you were surprised by radical hospitality. You have a couple of minutes—starting now!
Now, that was radical! I just gave you permission to talk to each other during the sermon. It might have felt uncomfortable, strange, different—that’s okay. For some of you, I’m sure I cut off the conversation. Some of you are probably thinking… what is this preacher going to do next? You just experienced radical hospitality. I invited you to share my precious sermon time in conversation with each other! Radical hospitality!
Now, if it felt more like radical chaos to you for those couple of minutes, then I rejoice in that as well because in the first few verses of today’s lesson from Acts, Paul was surely experiencing some chaos! Now, my perception of Paul is this little man who was spiritually on fire, on the move, boldly witnessing wherever he landed. Today’s lesson had a couple dead ends in it for Paul. They were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak in Asia. What was that about? They attempted to go to Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. Paul and his companions looked like they were on the verge of traveling in circles. And I’m left wondering what is going on? Then Paul had a vision. A man from Macedonia was pleading with him to come and help them. Then all you lovers of literature must have noticed in the middle of today’s lesson, the story that began in third person changed to first person. “When he [Paul] had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia…” Verses 10 through 18, someone was telling the story who is never identified. Interesting, huh? Scholars love this kind of stuff.
What I notice is that Paul received a brand new direction out of the chaos and dead-ends he was experiencing. It was the very beginning of his mission into Europe. Chaos—then vision, then brand new mission. How exciting for Paul that must have been. And scary! And did you notice that Paul wasn’t sitting on his hands waiting for this vision. He was trying things. Let’s go there, Paul would say. No way, not that direction, try another one. How about this one? Another road block. Try another one.
Maybe what we need to do when we are stuck is to get up and start doing something. Especially when it comes to our desire to be clear about what God wants us to do. Maybe God will open a door while we are on the way somewhere. Maybe God has already given us directions. Maybe God is obvious and we are the ones who need to get up and go in the midst of our personal chaos. It’s a very simple yet profound point. God works through us when we do something. Miracles unfold when we go ahead and take the risk. St. Augustine said, “Without God, we cannot. Without us, God will not.” That was relevant hundreds of years ago and is relevant today.
Did you know that Rosa Parks, the woman who sat at the front of the bus, was a Methodist? She was a seamstress, she was quiet-spoken, small in stature, and she rode the bus to work everyday. One very momentous day, the only thing she did, was sit in the front of the bus instead of the back where she was suppose to sit. Now, everyone knows her name. City streets are named after her.
John and Charles Wesley and their practical theology brought a movement out of the church walls into the fields and the streets of England. Our church’s history is one of radical hospitality through our actions.
You see, here is what I know, God has already shown us the way, through many examples found in the Scriptures and beyond. God has not stopped showing us the way to radical hospitality. Maybe it is some of us who have forgotten the way. Or, maybe we have just settled for less, settled for playing it safe and small, for whatever reason—security? Fear of failure? Fear of looking stupid?
Well, let me tell you, this is not what God has in mind for us—to play it small or safe. God is about big. God is about enormous. God is about radical. And we are all in it—or not. What is it for you? Are you a spectator? Are you sitting on the sidelines, in the bleachers, and watching life go by? Have you already done everything you can? Or, are you in it 100%? Because God has already called you to make a difference. Is your life making a difference right where you live and work and play? Only you can answer that. And God already knows the answer.
Lydia was already practicing her faith when Paul came along. Yes, she was a dealer of the most expensive cloth there was—purple. The color purple is bold and noble, the color of royalty because it was so expensive. The color purple is inspiring. You know the poem… “When I am an old woman I shall wear purple with a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me. And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves and satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter. I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tired and gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells and run my stick along the public railings and make up for the sobriety of my youth. I shall go out in my slippers in the rain and pick the flowers in other people’s gardens and learn to spit.” Did you know that the name of that poem by Jenny Joseph is “Warning?” I didn’t, or I had forgotten. And then the poem says at the end, “But maybe I ought to practice a little now? So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised when suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.”
Lydia is calling us to practice our bold, radical, passionate lives now, to be dealers of the purple cloth called hospitality, treating everyone we meet like royalty because they are. We are all children of God—that makes us sons and daughters of royal descent. We all wear purple already!
God has already acted and is acting in the world. We are the ones who need to get up and move. There is much to do and God has given us the ability to do it. God has called us to do it. We are the ones who need to take that first step. The step of radical hospitality!
Amen!