Community Church Sermons
Year C
May 9, 2010
The Sixth Sunday of Easter
Mother’s Day and Women’s Day
To Lydia, Wherever She May Be
Revelation 21:22-22:5
Acts 16:9-15
Rev. Martin C. Singley, III
When our daughter Bethany was about 9 years old, she played minor league baseball in our local Little League system. And Bethany was a terrific baseball player – even though she was just…a girl. When her team was behind in the late innings and Bethany came to bat, she would hit the game-winning homerun. When the pitcher on her team got into trouble, she would come in as the reliever and put out the fire. She was easily the best player on the field.
All the dads were circled up one day at the ball park while the game was going on. They were picking the “All-Star” team. Can you imagine that? 9-year old ALL-STARS? Each of the dads, of course, had a boy on the team and they were in quite a negotiating session trying to get their son named an All-Star. Bethany’s name, of course, never came up.
While all that was going on, a batter on the opposing team came to the plate with the winning run on first base. On the second pitch, he hit a screaming line drive up the middle. Bethany, who was playing second-base, sprinted to her right. Somewhere about 10-feet behind the second-base bag, she dove for the ball, laying herself out, stretching as far as she could, and – backhanded - snagged that line drive in her glove. She came crashing to the ground, but held onto the ball, and without missing a beat, pivoted around on her fanny and threw a bullet to first base, catching the runner before he got back to the bag, for a double-play. End of inning.
By then, the circle of dads had finished its business and each one was going over to their son to tell him the good news that he had made the All-Star team.
Meanwhile, Bethany just dusted herself off and went on with the game of baseball.
This story is a parable, you know. It is a parable about the Church. It is a parable about Christianity. It is a parable about the Bible.
While men occupy high positions, and men create laws that give themselves preferential treatment, and men write stories about the heroic exploits of other men…
…women simply go on, catching screaming line drives, hitting home runs, and advancing the faith and Church of Jesus Christ.
I suspect that, if the Lord ever selected an All-Star team, most of the players would be women.
Women like Lydia.
You may never have heard of Lydia. That’s probably because she shows up in the book of Acts only as a minor character in a “much more important” story about St. Paul! Here’s how it goes:
Paul has a vision. In it, a man from Macedonia says, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” So off Paul goes to Macedonia. He gets to the city of Philippi, and tries to figure out what to do next. He knows that in many towns people who are interested in finding out about God go out to the riverside to pray, and sure enough, Paul finds some people…down by the riverside.
Women. There is a group of women praying down by the riverside.
Well, Paul sits down with the women and tells them what he knows about Jesus. One of them, named Lydia, is very interested in this Jesus person. And she is an interesting person herself! She is a business woman – a dealer in purple goods. Now you probably know that purple goods were VERY expensive goods because purple dye was hard to come by. Purple is the color of wealth and royalty. And Lydia owned the franchise!
The story continues. As she hears about the Lord, Lydia finds what she has been looking for! In the person of Jesus Christ, she meets the God she has been seeking all her life – the God who affirms her as a woman, and makes her the equal of every other person, and calls her and other women to greatness! Lydia asks to be baptized, and she IS baptized down by the riverside. And she has her whole household baptized, too! And then Lydia invites Paul and his companions to stay at her house, and that house becomes the original location of what you and I know as the church of Philippi. Sometime later, Paul will write a letter to the Philippians in which he celebrates the two characteristics of that church – love and joy. The church that Lydia built is one of the most wonderful examples of what a Christian church can and should be. And of all the church people Paul mentions in the Philippian letter, most are women.
Today, on Mother’s Day, we celebrate all women – young, old, married, single, widowed, divorced, mothers, daughters, sisters – ALL! And as we celebrate women this morning, I want to ask, “Are there any Lydias in the crowd today?”
Are YOU a Lydia?
It is so very important in the Christian Church today to reclaim the importance of women. Rhonda Blevins was telling me some ago that where her seminary once offered the Master of Divinity degree for women pursuing pastoral ministry, they don’t allow women in the program anymore. Instead, they offer something called “Christian Women Studies” that teaches women how to wear make-up, keep a nice house, and be submissive to their husbands.
I’m glad Rhonda got out in time, aren’t you?
It is a tremendous loss to the Christian Church when women are held back and allowed only to fulfill secondary roles. And it is an affront to the Cross where Jesus died for all. And it is a denial of reality because our faith has always summoned women and men both to take the lead in advancing the cause of the Gospel.
The very first apostle was a woman. We don’t hear that very much in the Western Church. But in the Eastern Church, Mary Magdalene is considered to be “the apostle to the apostles” because she was the first person entrusted with the news of Christ’s resurrection and sent to preach it to the disciples who – by the way - were hiding out in Jerusalem.
The foremost teacher in the early Church was a woman named Priscilla who – against all literary and cultural tradition of that day – is almost always mentioned before her husband, Aquila.
And for those who want to drag out something like Paul’s admonition that women should not speak in church, let me ask you this: Why do you think Paul had to say that? Could it be that women were indeed speaking out and it was causing some of the good ol’ boys to have a hissy fit?
The truth is that the Gospel of Jesus Christ sets people free to become all that God created them to be! In Christ, there are no longer distinctions between Gentiles and Jews, free people and slaves, rich and poor, male and female – but we are all ONE in the Lord.
So it is part of our mission as a church to affirm the freedom that is found in Christ and to break down the barriers that keep women and others from their God-given place in the leadership of the Church.
God needs women to stand up and find their voice for the Gospel.
So today, on a day we set aside to honor mothers and all women, I want to appeal to the Lydias here today.
Stand up and speak your faith! Nurture your family in faith, and lead them to Christ! And bring your God-given gifts to places of leadership in the Church.
I learned this, of course, not through my seminary professors who were all men, but through my mother. She would not let a day go by when she was not reminding us to pray about the circumstances we were facing in life. She often asked, “What do you think the Lord would want you to do?” She brought a God-consciousness into our family that stood up against my father’s secular business orientation. Sure, he was tired from working all week and didn’t want to go to church, but we were going to church as a family and she let my dad know he didn’t have a choice if he wanted to stay married. When the yearly pledge card came around, she would review what my dad had written and then say, “That’s not even close to a tithe! Why are you cheating God of what belongs to Him in the first place?” My mother was the spiritual leader in our home, and one by one, we all came to the Lord. Even my dad. And one night, many years later, my dad shared at a retreat at another church about how my mother had led him to Christ, and how blessed he was, and how rich and meaningful his life had become, and how good God is. And when he finished giving his testimony, something gave way in his heart, and he fell to the floor, and went home to the Lord to whom he had been introduced by…a woman.
Don’t tell me girls can’t play baseball.
Don’t tell me women can’t lead.
Because, you see, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
So to all the Lydias out there – wherever they may be found – may God bless you, and set you free, and keep you strong.
Amen.