We Worship An "Out" God; Sermon on Acts 16:1-15

Rev. George Miller
July 14, 2019
Acts 16:1-15

Good morning Emmanuel UCC! Are you ready to play a game?

It’s called the Game of Opposites.

For example the opposite of “Silver Guys” is…."Golden Girls.”

So let’s start. The opposite of night is…..

The opposite of enemy is…
The opposite of man is…

The opposite of white collar is…
The opposite of last is…

Finally, the opposite of in is….

Today’s scripture is a beautiful story about opposites and historic 1sts.

Picture it- Europe in the 40’s. Not the 1940’s, but the 40 40’s.

The time- Saturday, the Sabbath, when folk rest after a long week of work.

The place- beside a river outside the gates of the mighty city.

The people- an assortment of wildly diverse folk:

-Women who are sitting by the river.

-Timothy- the son of a mixed marriage.

-Paul- a former thug who used to go by the name of Saul.

-Lydia- an immigrant woman who sells clothe to the rich and famous.

How they come together and what they accomplish is a testimony to how God works, the Spirit moves,

and how just good it is when Christ is used as an olive branch and not as a weapon.

Last week we witnessed Saul breathing hot hate against the Christians, but after an encounter with Christ, he’s welcomed by Ananias as a Brother, has a new mission and a new name-Paul.

Paul has channeled all the angry energy he once used for hunting down Christians into his new mission- proclaiming The Good News.

He has gone here; he has gone there. He’s been on land; he’s been on boat. He’s been adored; he’s been despised.

He’s had great successes; he’s had major flops.

Paul and his companion Timothy were all set to go to Asia when for some reason, God said “No.” Instead a vision sends them to Macedonia, in Europe.

Here, in the subtlest of stories, and the quietest of moments, amidst the gentle bubbling of the river, a revolution takes place.

In a world in which everyone longs to be “in”, they choose to be “out.”

Pay close attention to the words of today’s scripture, and you’ll see.

Paul and Timothy are in the city after traveling hundreds of miles. But on the day of Sabbath they choose to leave the city and go outside of its walls.

That’s like being on vacation in Orlando and choosing to visit Apopka.

Or being in the 7th grade lunchroom and leaving the table of jocks and cheerleaders to sit with the math wizards and theatre nerds.

Once outside of the city, Paul and Timothy see a bunch of women sitting by the river, and they do the most unheard of thing- they sit down.

Back in the day Pharisees were told that talking with women was an act of evil and could lead them to hell.

Yet here Paul is, taking the stance of a teacher and sitting with the women and talking with them as peers.

Not just any women; for among them is at least one strong, independent, foreign woman named Lydia.

See, Lydia was not from Macedonia; she was from a place called Thyatira. She was not married; she was most likely widowed, single, or “other.”

She was not helpless; she had her own business and her own household to run.

She dealt with purple clothe- an expensive product that only the royal, the rich, or their escorts could afford.

And the process of making purple dye was not pretty, for it involved among other things crushed seashells, animal urine, and hard work, which often left people’s hands permanently stained.

So here are the heroes and sheroes of our story:

Timothy who is from a mixed marriage.

Paul who used to be Saul; the Angry Pharisee.

And Lydia- an immigrant woman.

All literally sitting on the outskirts of society, beside the river, talking about Jesus Christ, building relationships, sharing stories.

Each sitting on equal, level, ground…

…and something beautiful happens.

The Lord opens Lydia’s heart; she listens eagerly with enthusiasm…

…and Lydia and her entire household become baptized…

…and get this…

…this immigrant outsider becomes not only the first Christian convert in all of Europe…but her home also becomes the 1st European church.

If that is not a testimony to what God can do, what is?

If this story is a not a display of how the Holy Spirit exceeds all preconceived conditions; what is?

If this story doesn’t show that in Christ there is no east and west, there is no slave or free, there is no Jew of Gentile, there is no male or female, there is no in or out; what does?

Today’s reading is a glorious telling of how the Holy Spirit moves and shapes and informs and works on its own time, in its own place, with people we could never imagine coming into our lives.

Today’s story takes the very notion of opposites and turns it inside out, upside down and says “LOOK! Look what Christ can really do!”

Today’s story also does something else. It teaches us a valuable lesson-

Sometimes the biggest changes take place with the smallest of steps.

Sometimes revolutions don’t involve big bangs but tiny movements.

Yes- there are some revolutions that require boxes of tea tossed into the sea, or trash cans tossed through windows, or hundreds of people gathering at Homestead.

And yet…sometimes the biggest revolutions take place when ordinary folk of different backgrounds sit beside one another, when stories are shared, and actions of hospitality are extended.

Sometimes the most revolutionary thing we can do is to be unapologetically ourselves…and to allow others to be unapologetically them.

Sometimes the most revolutionary thing is not pandering to the A-listers, or the in-crowd, or those in-status,

but it is going to where the outsiders are, the ones who have stained hands, the ones society has said “no” too.

Isn’t that what God did when the Hebrew slaves were set free?

Isn’t that what the magi did when Mary had no place to rest her child?

Isn’t that what Ananias did when he greeted Saul as Brother?

So often we think the answer lies inside the gates where everyone else is; with the popular people who seem to be doing everything right.

But the Good News of Jesus Christ says something different.

Sometimes the answer lies with the very ones we would normally overlook and miss.

The ones we would naturally keep away may be the very ones who hold the key to a new beginning.

The last can be first. The lost can be found. The stained can become clean.

The old can become new; the outsider can become the biggest in.

In Christ there truly are no limits, there are no boundaries, there are no periods or final words.

In Christ there are constantly new beginnings, new chapters, and new friends to discover.

For that, we can say “Amen.”