And she prevailed upon us

Acts 16: 9-15, NT page 136 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. 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. 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. Sermon There’s a story about my grandmother as a young girl that I’m sure is true. She would ride home on the school bus with all her friends, but, rather than get off the bus in front of her neighborhood, she would get off the bus two stops early, not wanting her school friends to know the kind of neighborhood she really lived in. She’d walk the difference, sacrificing convenience for the sake of her image, sacrificing the state of her feet for the state of her pride, but I don’t know who she thought she was fooling, because her brother didn’t get off with her but stayed on the bus until it let him out right in front of their house. I say that I’m sure this story is true, because even though I have no official record of her walking from the neighborhood she wanted people to think she lived in to the neighborhood she actually lived in, she spent the rest of her life just as concerned with appearances as she was then. She always dressed in stylish outfits, even just to go to the grocery store. She always wore heels, even to the beach, and her house was always meticulously clean. I stayed with my grandfather in that house while she lay in the hospital bed. Though we didn’t know it then, or though we knew it but weren’t saying it then, my grandmother was dying, and my grandfather was wrapping his head around the idea of moving out of their home and into some sort of assisted living community. He could not stand the thought of moving. Even though he knew that if she did get out of the hospital she would need a lot of medical help, he still wanted her to be able to come home from the hospital to her own house. He wanted her to be able to come home to the house they had built together, the house that she had spent who knows how much money and who knows how many hours decorating over the years. But more than anything else, considering her childhood school bus ride shortened for the sake of pride, I know now that he wanted her to come home to a house that she was proud to live in. Sure there is more to life than a house, but a house is special. A house means something, and to invite someone into your house means something. This new convert to Christianity, Lydia, says to Paul and his companions: “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.” It’s an invitation and it’s a big invitation. She doesn’t say how long they should stay, and this invitation means, not just staying the night, but come and stay at my home: let me feed you, let me wash your clothes for I know you’ve been traveling and who knows how long it’s been since you laid down your head to rest in a real bed? But this invitation is also more than an invitation to her home, for accepting this invitation has consequences. To go into a home at the invitation of a woman in the ancient world, one would wonder what her husband would say. A woman didn’t often go speaking for her husband in the ancient world, and a woman who did was shocking enough, but what’s more is that there is no mention of any husband. In fact our scripture lesson refers to the baptism of Lydia and her household as though she stood at the head. And quite a household it was we can be sure. Our scripture lesson tells us that she was a dealer in purple cloth, purple being the color of royalty for the purple dye was so expensive, extracted from the remains of a small sea creature, that only the wealthiest could afford to buy it. Now the Gospel originated with some fishermen and a carpenter – could it just go and find a home with a woman who rubbed elbows with emperors? Besides that, what would people say? Paul is always image conscious. He had an idea, not just of his own comfort level, but how his message would be perceived should word get out that he and his fellow travelers stayed the night at an unwed woman’s home. But should he refuse the invitation – there are consequences then as well. This is a big invitation, a personal invitation. Just as she received the Gospel that Paul brought to her, out of gratitude perhaps, she wants Paul to receive a gift of hospitality that she not be only a recipient but a contributor. You know that feeling – you receive a gift, maybe a casserole, maybe nothing more than a cup of coffee, and you are so filled with gratitude you want to offer a gift in return. I once gave Van Turner nothing more than a cup of coffee. By the time our meeting was over he wasn’t done with it so I told him to take the cup with him and I was happy to give it to him, but having a wife who says that a dish never be returned empty, Van returned the cup with a tray of cinnamon rolls on top of it. Lydia had received an incredible gift, so much more than a cup of coffee. Paul brought to her the Gospel as only he could preach it – this radical idea that because Christ is the one who saves us all, no one is better than another for we are all in need of the Grace that our Lord provides. Therefore, Paul said to the church in Galatia as read in our first scripture lesson and we may safely assume he said it to Lydia as well, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female.” Bold words those are, and for those who hunger to hear them they are the greatest of gifts. Lydia could not help but want to give Paul something in return for bringing those words to her, and if the words were true, why would he say no? If there is no difference culturally between Jews and Greeks, why would Paul shy away from staying in a Macedonian home? If there is no difference economically between slaves and free than why would he be embarrassed by her wealth? And if there is no gender barrier, no inequality of the sexes, than why would Paul, a man, worry about staying with Lydia, a woman, not less than but equal to? He resisted we know, because of this tremendous line at the end of our scripture lesson, “And she prevailed upon us.” That is one of my favorite phrases in Scripture, one because it says so much in those five words, but also because I know so clearly what it means. I would often arrive at my grandmother’s house after lunch, maybe 1:30 or so. I’d walk in the door, she’d give me a hug, and without exception she’d ask me if I was hungry. What is particular, maybe not just to my grandmother but grandmothers in general, is that my answer to the question didn’t matter. “Joseph, are you hungry?” “No mam, I just ate thirty minutes ago.” “Well surely you’re hungry, you’ve been driving all morning, let me just put out some crackers and dip, doesn’t that sound good?” And she prevailed upon me. She’d do the exact same thing to my sister. “Elizabeth, I went to Sam’s Club and got a big box of those poppy seed muffins that you like so much.” “Nanny,” (we called her Nanny), “I really appreciate you getting those muffins for me, but to be honest, I don’t really like them all that much.” My grandmother wouldn’t pause or apologize, she’d just say something like, “But I thought you loved those. Didn’t you love those? Well just try one. Let me just heat one up in the microwave and put a little butter on it. I am just so sure that you love those muffins.” And here’s the real testament to my grandmother’s power – my sister would start to wonder, “Do I like those? I was so sure that I didn’t, but maybe she’s right.” You see – she prevailed upon her. My mother inherited this trait, and often I wish that she hadn’t. I might trust myself more if she hadn’t, but when my grandmother first went into the hospital I wasn’t ready to fly over to Charleston to see her. Cecelia had just been born. I had work to do, plane tickets aren’t cheap, and no one knew for sure how sick she really was, but the more we talked the less these things mattered and it wasn’t too long before I was on a plane to Charleston because my mother prevailed upon me, and it is only because she prevailed upon me that I was there, just days before my grandmother died. Of course I loved my grandmother and she knew I loved her. Of course Paul meant what he preached to Lydia and she knew that he meant it. But sometimes something else is necessary too. In a sermon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said that there are plenty of Christians in this world ready and willing to pay lip service to the Gospel, but it’s not lip service that the world needs – what the world needs are people like you who are ready to pay life-service. Doing so is not easy, and it is far simpler to preach about the walls that the Gospel tears down in our society than it is to actually tear those walls down. Paul preached his sermon a million times about the divisions in our society rendered nothing by the power of the Gospel – but it is one thing to preach that message and it is another thing for Paul to go live it out – to go and stay at Lydia’s house. So big a thing that he couldn’t do it on his own. He tried to get out of it – to politely decline. But thanks be to God, “she prevailed upon him,” and thanks be to God that the same sort of thing has happened to me. About three years ago I was sitting in my office at Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church just outside Atlanta when my cell phone rang. It was a number I didn’t recognize but I picked it up anyway and said, “This is Joe Evans.” The man on the other end said, “This is James Fleming, and I want to talk to you about coming up to Columbia, Tennessee.” “I’m sorry Mr. Fleming, but I’ve been contacted by a church in Columbia, South Carolina, I’ve been interviewing with them for about 10 months, and I think there’s a good chance they’ll be calling me soon to offer me a position there and if they do I plan on saying yes. I’m honored by your call, but there just isn’t any time.” Then James said something I’m sure I’ll never forget, “Listen Joe, if you are who they say you are I’m willing to make this thing go as fast as it needs to go.” Never in my life did I imagine that this church could do in two weeks what that other church had done in 10 months, but James had my attention, he prevailed upon me, and every day I walk into this church I thank God that he did. Of course I should have been more open to God’s call. Of course I should not have been reluctant for I know that the Spirit moves in mysterious and often inconvenient ways, but sometimes to do what is right you need someone to push you – you need to be prevailed upon, and do not be surprised if God works though people who are pushier than you think they should be. But not only does God work through people who are more pushy than maybe you think they should be – God may well need you to be more pushy than you are. There’s a great joke: “What do you get when you cross a Mormon and a Presbyterian? Someone who knocks on your door but doesn’t know what to say.” How often do you whisper an invitation to church, and politely allow a refusal from someone you know needs to be here? How often do you begin to talk about your faith, but give up because you get self-conscious? How often do you feel the need to speak out in truth but you fear being labeled as pushy, obnoxious, or unwilling to take no for an answer? Remember than Lydia – for when she prevailed upon Paul her house became the first household in all of Europe to convert to Christianity. At the foundation of every Cathedral in Greece, every Pope in Rome, and every preacher who preaches in English stands this woman who was the very first European convert. She prevailed upon Paul and look what happened – now go, and for the sake of the Gospel, go and be as pushy as is required. Amen.