Sermon Text: Acts 16:9-15 NRSV 9During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." 10Then 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.
11We set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis, 12and 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. 13On 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. 14A 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. 15When 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: "Open Doors"
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
When we last left Paul, had regained his sight after a receiving a blinding vision of Jesus Christ while traveling on the road to Damascus. After experiencing God’s Amazing Grace himself, he sets out to share that good news with the known world. Other disciples join him at different points along his journey: Barnabas, Silas, Timothy. Paul and his companions travel through the regions of Phrygia and Galatia. They continue traveling until they come opposite Mysia and JUST as are about to go into Bithynia….
GOD SAYS STOP!
The text of says the “Spirit of Jesus” did not allow them to go. After the fact… after some theological reflection… the author of Acts saw God at work in the circumstances… But in real time, in the thick of things, in the heat of the moment, the realities of this world interfered with their “best laid” plans—something screwed up their itinerary. Life shut the door.
So they change direction…
make new plans…
pass by Mysia…
and set off for Troas…
I imagine as they walked to Troas, their steps were a little slower. I imagine their conversation a little less joyful. I imagine their spirits felt a little less… spirited.
We know the feeling… We may comfort ourselves or others by saying, “When God shuts a door….,” but oftentimes it feels like life SLAMS the door, and our fingers get shut in it!
Life shuts a door… and we don’t get called back for a second job interview… or when the company we’ve served for 20 years closes the store and we find ourselves without work.
Life shuts a door… and we hear those dreaded words “I think we should just be friends,” from the boy or girl we like much more than a friend.
Life shuts a door… and we open the letter that informs us that we didn’t get in to our first choice college.
And sometimes we get so focused on that one shut door that we forget there are other doors…
While staying in Troas, on one of those nights when sleep seems elusive, Paul has a vision. And in his vision, Paul sees a man of Macedonia, standing… pleading… saying… “Come on over to Macedonia. Help us.”
A plea… an invitation… an open door. From his vision, Paul was convinced that God had opened another door. Paul and his companions were convinced that God had called them to proclaim the good news to the people of Macedonia. So immediately, they set sail from Troas to the island of Samothrace and the following day reached the port city of Neapolis. And finally, they reached their destination of Philippi. From our perspective, at least, Paul and his companions were spreading the gospel from the Asian continent to the European continent. God opened up a new part of the world, ready to receive the good news. God opens doors.
On Saturday, Paul and his companions went outside the city gate by the river, where they assumed there was a place of prayer. Paul’s practice was to proclaim the gospel to the Jewish people in a town first, and then to the Gentiles. And they sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there.
Now one of the women listening was named Lydia. She was a worshiper of God, which may mean she worshiped the God of Israel, but she was not a full convert. For example, she may not have followed the Jewish dietary laws. In fact, her business as a dealer of purple cloth may have prevented her from becoming a convert. You see, ancient times, purple dye was made from a secretion from a certain type of snail, which may have been considered unclean to the Jews. Because the process of making purple dye was so time consuming, the royalty of the day paid royally for purple cloth. It’s likely Lydia was a prominent business woman in Philippi—a woman of means.
Lydia listened eagerly to what Paul was saying and the Lord opened the door to her heart. In response to the gospel message, Lydia and her household—children, servants, perhaps—were baptized. And I imagine after the celebration, Lydia said something like this:
“Hey, y’all, where are ya stayin’ tonaight?”
“Why, we’ve been camping in the hills nearby, sleeping under the stars,” Paul replies.
“Well you must come to my home tonight. I’ll put together a nice Greek salad, and I will make an eggplant dish. It’s served with roasted banana peppers, stewed tomatoes that I stew in olive ole with onyuns. Listen, it’s out of this world!”
“We would hate to be an inconvenience to you.”
“Oh my goodness, don’t be silly. I insist.”
“We hate to be a bother…. Are you sure?”
“Let me tell y’all something—If you think I have been faithful to the Lord, if you believe my conversion is for real, Come and stay at my home!”
Well, Lydia won that discussion. In the ancient world, it would have been poor etiquette to refuse hospitality, and for Paul to refuse Lydia’s offer would have been an insult to her faith. Lydia opens the door to her home to Paul and his friends. She offers true hospitality, a place to stay, a warm meal. She opens the door, not only to Paul, and to his friends, but to the Christian community that begins growing in Philippi. Some scholars think the church at Philippi, the church to whom Paul would later write our New Testament book of Philippians, met in Lydia’s home.
For us, on this Mothers Day, when we remember women who made a house a home, when we remember Moms who made chicken soup when we were sick or baked cupcakes for school parties, when we remember the mothers who worked long hours, or took a second job, to provide a roof over our head, Lydia serves as a model of hospitality.
As Christians, we may be shy about sharing our faith, we may never travel around the world spreading the gospel, we may never plant churches like Paul, but we can do little things to offer hospitality like Lydia did—like making sure the coffee is ready for the people who come to the 8:00 service, or inviting a visitor to breakfast after worship. We can provide a baby changing station in the women’s—and men’s—restroom for parents with young children. When we come to church, some of us can take the parking spaces farthest from the entrance, so guests can have the best parking spaces.
We can open a door… to those who are unemployed.
We can open a door… to people who are lonely or afraid, people whose hearts are troubled, people who are in need of peace.
We can open a door those people whose steps are a little slower. We can open a door to the people whose lives are less than joyful. We can open a door to the souls whose spirits need lifted. When life shuts a door, we can open one.
We can open a door, because God first opened a door for us. And as the story of Acts unfolds, the door is opened wider and wider—to Jews, to those on the fringes of Jewish society, to those like Lydia who worshipped the God of Israel, and in time to the Gentiles. And God opens the door to us—God invites us into his house. The invitation is open, regardless of who we are, where we come from, or what we’ve done. God makes us his own, makes us part of his family, adopting us through Baptism into the death and life of his Son. God spreads a banquet before us—a meal even better than eggplant and Greek salad—God feeds us the holy meal of his Son’s Body and Blood.
God opens the door.
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