For me developing sermons is an act of discernment. Originally I started to write a touching letter from Lydia as a mother and a Christian. Then I looked at the passage from Revelation and I began to write about mothers versus the myth of redemptive violence. Finally as I looked at Lydia more closely an unvarnished sermon about evangelism popped out. For Grace Church to grow in this city all of us need to get some basic training on evangelism. Let’s see if we can get mothers, evangelism and the Good News in ten minutes.

In our passage from the Book of Acts, Paul receives another vision from God. He is completely ready to go east into the region of Asia Minor and the vision changes everything. God directs him to go west into the European continent instead. Arriving at the Roman colony of Philippi Paul meets a group of women and slaves reading from the Torah and praying at the river outside the city gates.

First Lesson: Our faith is spread by going where they are. They won’t just come to us. We must go to them first. Paul traveled over 40,000 miles on his missions. How far will we go?

Paul is filled with the Spirit and breaks social customs the same way Jesus did. The first thing he does after finding a group at prayer is to come to them, sit down and talk to the women who were of course perfect strangers to him. In the first century Roman Empire the idea of a man initiating a conversation with an unknown woman was unheard of. It was a breathtakingly bold move by Paul.

Second lesson: Our faith is spread most effectively by bold moves. Sometimes you just have to jar people out of complacency. You have to break a few rules. We have to act first.

Here we find the woman named Lydia who buys and sells purple cloth with the wealthiest people in the region. Because it was so difficult to make purple dye, purple cloth was as expensive as gold. Only the very wealthy could own it or wear it. Wearing purple was a sign you had made it into the highest levels of society. Lydia was the merchant who traded in this luxury good. She had some excellent social connections.

Lydia is there with her entire entourage: her household, her slaves, her children. They are all there for Friday evening Sabbath by the river. Paul sits down to talk with them. He doesn’t tell them their faith is all wrong or they will go somewhere bad when they die. He simply takes their existing Hebrew scriptures and uses that to show how Jesus is the messiah and the fulfillment of their existing faith.

This is more like Jesus opening the hearts and minds of those on the road to Emmaus than modern day evangelizing. The more I look at how the Good News is conveyed to Lydia and her group in such a bold yet seamless way makes me wonder in fact if Paul and Jesus weren’t really Episcopalians. Episcopalians don’t beat people over the head with their sinfulness. We invite them to come over for a glass of wine.

Third lesson: To bring someone to Christian faith you build on their existing faith. I wonder if we knew more about what other denominations really believed and if we really understood what those who don’t attend any church truly believe if we could build on that to bring them to Christ. I wonder.

Finally this brief story tells us that “the Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul.” The final lesson here is very simple: We must do as much as we can to bring people to the Christ that is present here at Grace Church. And then we must leave the rest up to God.

With her strong social and business connections Lydia must have served as a powerful witness to Jesus Christ in Macedonia. I find it more than ironic that the first convert to Christianity on the European continent is a woman yet the Christian religion that emerged there does not allow women to serve as priests.

Throughout history we find that men tend to engage in struggles over worldly powers of wealth, political power and physical power while women and mothers leave their marks on history and families through their quiet, persistent and strong witness of their own spiritual convictions. The sharing of faith and spiritual convictions is one of the gifts many mothers give to their children. We celebrate motherhood today and give thanks for the gifts our mothers have given us.

Perhaps Lydia was the first European Episcopalian too. After she and her household had been baptized she prevailed upon Paul and his company to stay with her. I am sure they had a glass of wine together. And the world has been different ever since.