Sixth Sunday of Easter

The Church continues to celebrate Easter! Christ is risen!

“Despite appearances, it is an Easter world.”                                                        - Rev. Dr. William Sloane Coffin

We continue to ask how Easter makes a difference as  we continue this week an Easter Season series from the Book of Acts. We are exploring various “Easter People” – people such as Paul, Tabitha, Peter, and Lydia – and in our contemporary world.

Lydia - Acts 16:9-15

Our Easter person this week is Lydia from Acts 16. Her story is contained within a larger one of Paul's travels.

⁹ 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.”  ¹⁰ 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.

¹¹ We therefore set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis,  ¹² 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.  ¹³ 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.  ¹⁴ 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.  ¹⁵ 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.

Lydia receives quick attention in the story - two verses. But she becomes a follower of Jesus and is baptized into the early movement. And we immediately offers hospitality to her fellow Jesus-followers.

Eric Barreto adds the following important commentary:

"In a group of women listening to Paul and his companions, Lydia is highlighted in three ways. She is a worshipper of God, a native of Thyatira, as well as a purveyor of purple cloth. The first designation identifies her as one of a number of individuals in Luke-Acts with a faithful proclivity towards the God of Israel (cf. Acts 13:43; 17:17; 18:7 among others). These are individuals who have inclined themselves to this God though they are not identified as Jews and thus are on the margins of the faith. Second, the naming of her hometown is an unexpected twist; despite the fact that a Macedonian man beckons the help of Paul, it is a foreign woman who first has God open her heart to faith! Finally, her profession is perhaps an indication of her unusual social class and powerful status. Thus, the narrative ends with a note of generous hospitality. For Lydia a natural result of her and her household’s receiving of the good news is to welcome these erstwhile strangers into her home."

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