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Sermon May 22, 2022
The Rev. Canon Robert Schiesler
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen’s
Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year C
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Easter/CEaster6_RCL.html
Audio: /documents/Eucharist__May_22__2022
Video: https://youtu.be/IEsaNKYqBoc
EASTER 6C, Nativity & St Stephens, May 22, 2022
Several years ago, Mary and I went to the county pound to choose a new cat to join us at home. We passed several cages and then, she appeared, first the name, second the disposition. Her name was Mary Beth and her gentleness was evident. Mary immediately said that this was the one but with one change: her name. Two Mary Beth in the same household might be confusing at supper time. So, we thought of a biblical name and up popped LYDIA and so Mary Beth now answers readily to LYDIA, named after the same Lydia that we hear about in the Acts of the Apostles.
We know little about Lydia but she is a fascinating person....living independently in a world managed by men; a woman of means to afford purple dye, a color for the wealthy and noble; a business woman and a person of devout faith....and a woman who is gentile and curious and bold enough to question Paul, responding to the prompting of the Spirit in her heart. Here is an iconic figure who combines the contemplative Mary and the active Martha, ready to sit at the foot of the master teacher. She has come to the riverside, a secluded place where she might expect to meet other women, doing their wash or resting from the mid day sun. What she did not know was this serendipitous meeting with the missionary Paul and his companions. There at the riverside, with flowing water for baptism, Lydia found the God who was finding her. Actually, this almost did not happen with the controversy brewing in Jerusalem at this very time with Paul and Peter fighting over preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles or reserving such to converting Jews. Fortunately, however, this meeting did take place and did so with a convergence of human faithfulness that would not be contained and divine guidance, lighting the curiosity and hope of Lydia and the determination and clarity of Paul. Paul and Lydia did their parts but the Spirit who guides all things and works in and through all possibilities, for good and for what would be otherwise impossible. It is the Spirit who brings Lydia to Paul so she can hear the Gospel. She hears those words as truth, as gospel, as the answer to her restlessness. It is the Spirit of the Lord Christ who prepares her heart to hear, receive and accept. "The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what Paul was saying." Here is the center of this vignette as a moment of intersection of human curiosity in the best sense of that word and the divine initiative occurs. The longing heart of a faithful woman is opened by the gracious impulse of a faith-giving God in an action that is at once, like the incarnation, both fully human and fully divine.
Lydia is baptized and leads her entire household into the river waters as well. She opens her home as an act of hospitality to Paul and his companions, insisting on their staying with her as they continue their missionary work in the region. She even offers Paul the opportunity to test her in her conviction as she says, "If you have judged me faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home." Conversion and hospitality go hand in hand and Paul could not refuse with that statement. It is amazing how decisive Lydia is in her offer of hospitality and how discerning she is in perceiving the need to both believe and act.
In the diocese of Washington, the clergy had a nickname for one of the congregations as the "navel gazing" church. This was a group of people who reveled in looking inward, forever studying themselves with committees and paperwork. Self studies were plentiful on the shelf but new people in the pews not so much. Nearby was another church whom one might think would also be looking at new vision with a terrible church fire that destroyed a good portion of the church proper. Yet, retaining the space that they had, creating a community garden within the fire scorched walls that remained and adapting worship and fellowship to a new configuration, there was growth. That congregation had built a history of reaching out, offering hospitality, a radical hospitality that went far beyond dollars, to honor their guests as fellow travelers on the faith journey. They proclaimed the Gospel by word and act and would not be deterred from that pathway.
I would suggest that Lydia is a fine role model for all of us, not the cuddly cat, Lydia, but that strong woman of spirituality, leadership and hospitality. She offers us a model of being vocal about our faith, not holding back in worship but enthusiastically saying to all....it's not about me alone but it is about us, gathered by the Spirit for prayer, praise and fellowship. It is about us ready to welcome and offer hospitality, perhaps to that Democrat or Republican with whom we don't always agree, to that person of limited means or challenged in other ways; or to even that cranky one who seems always so down yet in his heart, is ready to receive, perhaps awkwardly but ready.
The Russian novelist Feodor Dostoevsky wrote: "He who desires to see the face of God should not seek him in the empty firmament of his mind but in human love." Paul did not harangue Lydia nor spar with her on doctrinal matters. He spoke of the love of Christ, known in messianic, sacrificial terms and invited Lydia to a conversion of the heart, walking in a new love of God. And so she did and responded to Baptism with hospitality and a not to be shaken conviction. As those baptized in the Lord Christ, we too must respond with a stewardship of resources, physical in this place, spiritual in our worship, hospitable with every new guest, unshakable in faith with readiness for ministry among God's people.
