SERMON Lydia

Easter 6(C): Acts 16:9-15; Psalm 67; Revelation 21:10, 22--22:5; John 14:23-29

Today is Mother's Day. Not just any Mother's Day. But Mother's Day on May 9, eleven years to the day I first visited Wicker Park Lutheran Church and instantly fell in church love with Wicker Park Lutheran Church. A very special anniversary.

Now as something of a liturgical purist, I have always maintained -- at least theoretically -- that secular holidays have no place in the church calendar. That, at best, they should maybe be acknowledged but essentially ignored.

But the actual anniversary of my first encounter with Wicker Park Lutheran Church is hard to ignore. And it is even harder to ignore when one of the appointed texts for May 9, 2010 is about a woman who has a similar encounter.

The woman, of course, is Lydia.

Now when most of us -- well, at least some of us -- think of Lydia, we think of "Lydia the Tattooed Lady" -- made famous in a wonderful, somewhat risque song about her tattoos -- tattoos that cover the breadth and width of land and sea and include famous figures, historical events, and "[Lydia's] social security numba." Hers was a song first sung by Groucho Marx in the movie At the Circus and was beloved of Jim Henson who had Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy (as "Lidia") sing it on the second Muppet Show ever televised. (So beloved was the song that it was sung at Jim Henson's funeral).

Lydia the Tattooed Lady is not a mother -- although at the very end of the song we learn that

She once swept an Admiral clear off his feet.

The ships on her hips made his heart skip a beat.

And now the old boy's in command of the fleet,

For he went and married Lydia.

In the words of the song, "You can learn a lot from Lydia."

Lydia the Tattooed Lady is not the Lydia that we meet this morning. But the Lydia we meet this morning is, if anything, more intriguing.

The Lydia this morning is Paul's first European convert. And what a convert she is!

Paul has had a vision that he should bring the gospel to Macedonia (present day Greece). He has heeded the vision and traveled to Neapolis, the port city for Philippi. He and a companion (the Luke who now starts writing "we" in the narrative) have traveled from Neapolis to Philippi, a major city in Macedonia and a Roman Colony. They have settled in. It is the sabbath, and he and Luke decide to look for a place of prayer -- probably a synagogue (Hellenistic Jewish writers used the Greek word for synagogue) -- near the river. Instead, they find group of women gathered by the riverside and strike up a casual conversation with them. One of those women is Lydia.

Now about this Lydia. Luke describes her as devout, "a worshiper of God." She may be Jewish, but chances are she is one of the many gentile God-fearers who were attracted to Judaism in the first century Roman world. Whether a Jew or a Gentile, she is a merchant who deals in purple-dyed goods. She is also wealthy. The purple dye that she sells was made from a certain mollusk and was extremely expensive. One of its uses was for the stripes in the togas of Roman senators (imagine having that government contract!). Lydia is not just wealthy but very wealthy.

(One hypothesis on why Luke consistently features wealthy women like Lydia in his gospel and in Acts is because he wishes to appeal to and entice status-conscious Hellenistic readers.)

Whatever Luke's motives in highlighting her conversion, it is a true conversion. She listens eagerly to Paul. Not only is she baptized, but her entire household is baptized as well. But her conversion doesn't end with her baptism. She says to Paul and Luke, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home." She prevails, and Lydia's home will became the first house church in Philippi.

Was this Lydia a mother? Probably not a biological mother, but certainly a spiritual mother to her household and the community that found its church home in her house.

We can learn a lot from Lydia.

But as much as we can learn from this Lydia, and as interesting and compelling as her story is, it is not all about Lydia. The real mover and actor in this story is not Lydia. Nor is it even Paul or Luke. The real actor is the one predicted and described by Jesus in this morning's gospel. The real actor is the Holy Spirit.

Remember what Jesus in John says this morning? "But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you." In a little book called, Energy for Life: Reflections on the Theme, "Come Holy Spirit - Renew the Whole Creation," Krsiter Stendahl writes:

One really feels the truth of Jesus' words of farewell in the Gospel of John: "I tell you the truth: It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you .... I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth .... "

As Luke tells us, the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, came at Pentecost. And from its very beginning, from Pentecost onward, the church looked forward. In the words of Krister Stendahl, "It lived powerfully in the now of the Holy Spirit."

Paul lived powerfully in the now of the Holy Spirit. And because he did, he goes to Europe on his second missionary trip instead of Asia (which had been his original plan). Because he does, he encounters Lydia. As promised, the Holy Spirit is speaking through Paul, and opening the heart of Lydia. What is happening is what Luther says in this explanation to the Third Article of the Apostles' Creed:

"I cannot by my own understanding or effort [he writes] believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him. But the Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me with [its] gifts, and sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way, the Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth . . . . "

To be called by the Holy Spirit is to be filled by the Spirit. This is not an abstract, other worldly reality. It is physical. It happens, as it happened for Lydia, through real words, real water, real bread, real wine, real people. For us, as for her, the community called by the Spirit is (even as it was eleven years ago) diverse and inclusive and one in Christ and, throughout those eleven years, has embraced (so to speak) scores of tattooed ladies -- although none quite as spectacularly tattooed as the Lydia of song.

Being called by the Spirit happens here, and it happens now. And it is more than just feeling and emotion (although it is that, too). More than anything else, it is about doing. As it was for Lydia in offering her home as a house church, it is about faith made real in action. And about God's grace that makes that possible.

And what, by God's grace and Spirit, this congregation has done in the last eleven years is really quite amazing -- everything from art installations and exhibits to raising red worms, from a real (and very fine) choir and playable organ to babies, Little Lambs, and Sunday School, from AA groups and Music Together sessions to The Night Ministry buses and Habitat for Humanity houses to sustainable gardening and green practices -- not to mention from water buckets and falling plaster, imploding windows and teetering towers to snug roofs, restored windows, and rebuilt towers. And so much more -- including, as of this past week, the amazing bathroom in the church office!

The constant that makes all this happen is God's Spirit. It really is. It is the glue that holds everything together. It is the Spirit that motivated Paul. It is the Spirit that spoke to Lydia and led her and household to baptism and to become a church. It is both mystery and reality.

This morning, as we acknowledge Mother's Day and celebrate the Spirit, we pray as we sing,

O Spirit of life, O Spirit of God,

make us to love your sacred word;

the holy flame of love impart,

that charity may warm each heart;

O Spirit of life, O Spirit of God. Amen

May 9, 2010

Ruth VanDemark, pastor

Wicker Park Lutheran Church