Quietly, Resolutely, Faithfully

Rev. Whitworth Ferguson III
Manassas Presbyterian Church
Manassas, Virginia
May 13, 2007

Quietly, Resolutely, Faithfully
Acts 16:9-15
Luke 8:1-3

Have you ever looked at map and traced Paul’s journeys?
He was always on the move, traveling all over
the eastern part of the Mediterranean,
and into what we now call Europe.

Chapter 16 of the Acts of the Apostles
finds him in Syria, the country north of Israel.
It was in the Syrian city of Antioch
that we find the first reference
to followers of Jesus Christ as Christians,
about twenty years after the crucifixion
and resurrection.
Paul moved north from there,
following the coast west into Cilicia, in Asia,
and then inland,
moving northwest
through the cities of Derbe, then Lystra,
where his protégé Timothy joined him.
From there, they continued on with Silas,
Luke writing of Paul’s travels as though
they were as simple as any of us
traveling to Baltimore.
But Paul traveled on foot, of course,
through country that was rugged
and often dangerous.

In our lesson we find Paul in the city of Troas,
a port city on the western edge of what was then called Asia,
and is now modern Turkey.
Paul’s journeys were not to end at the water;
the sea was no barrier to the gospel.
The Spirit called Paul to keep moving,
this time across the Aegean Sea to Macedonia,
once the heart of Alexander the Great’s Greek empire,
but then, like so much of the world
a region under Roman control.

Paul, Timothy, and Silas set sail.
They didn’t have far to travel, about 150 miles.
We could drive that in a few hours.
But they were in a small boat sailing across
the turbulent Aegean.
They docked in Neapolis, a port city, and
from there they went to Philippi
which was inland just a short distance.

They’d come to preach the gospel,
to share the good news of Jesus Christ.
The Roman government had not yet begun
its violent persecution of followers of Christ,
but Paul and his colleagues knew their task was filled with risk.
The Spirit, though, gave them the courage they needed
to press on in a strange land, a strange culture,
far from home.

The language spoken in Philippi may have been Greek,
but the culture was Roman:
the people worshiped Jupiter, Juno, Vulcan, Hermes,
Mercury, and Neptune: all the Roman gods.
There was no Jewish community, no synagogue,
no Temple, no place where those who worshiped
the Lord God, the God of Israel, could gather.

Paul learned that a small group of believers
gathered by the river on the city’s western edge
to keep the Commandment,
so on the Sabbath he and his colleagues went there
and found a group gathered for prayer.
It was there that Paul met Lydia,
who Luke tells us, was a “dealer in purple cloth”.

We know very little about Lydia.
She apparently was a successful businesswoman,
probably a widow, who sold cloth dyed
from coloring that came from the murex fish.
The color was a rich, rare, and royal purple,
favored by kings and the wealthy of every nation.
Lydia had come to Philippi from Thyatira,
a city on the other side of the Aegean,
200 miles to the southeast, in the region
that Paul had just come from.

Now Paul has a reputation as a sexist and chauvinist,
a reputation that I don’t think he deserves.
Just look at what he did here:
he found a company of women gathered in prayer.
He didn’t turn away from them;
he didn’t dismiss them as second-class citizens.
No, he sat with them,
talked with them,
worshiped with them,
prayed with them, and
shared the good news of the gospel with them.

In the process, Paul fanned the flame of faith
God had lit in Lydia’s heart.
She responded by asking Paul to baptize her
and her entire household,
and then she invited Paul and his group to stay with her
while they worked in Philippi,
sharing the gospel.

Lydia became the very foundation of the church in Philippi,
the rock in that city upon which
the church of Jesus Christ was built,
or as John Calvin put it,
“a noble church from that one small graft”
known as Lydia.
(Calvin, Commentary, 102)
In time, the gospel, the Word of the Lord,
the good news of Jesus Christ
radiated out from her home
and drew a growing number of
new believers, new followers,
new disciples.

Some 10 years later,
the church in Philippi was growing and thriving
even in the face of increasing persecution
by the Roman government.
Paul was so delighted and so pleased with
the community of faith that had formed in Philippi
that he wrote them a letter which we now know
as his letter to the Philippians,
a letter filled with praise for their efforts,
along with encouragement and love.

One of the most eloquent prayers found in the Bible
is in the first chapter of the letter:
“And this is my prayer: that your love may overflow more
and more with knowledge and full insight
to help you to determine what is best,
so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless,
having produced the harvest of righteousness
that comes through Jesus Christ
for the glory and praise of God.” (Phil. 1:9-11)

This heartfelt, even lyrical response to what
Paul saw happening in Philippi had its roots
in that meeting on the riverbank on that Sabbath morning,
Paul the itinerant evangelist,
and Lydia, child of God,
chosen by God,
guided by God to be the local church’s foundation.

In a few easily skimmed verses in the middle of
the Acts of the Apostles,
we find the creation of the church
in the midst of a Roman colony
in the heart of countryside that had been Greek for centuries
and it was at the hands of a woman!

We tend to overlook the role women played
in the creation of the church.
But it is no exaggeration to say that without their efforts,
there would have been no church.
Throughout Christ’s ministry, and subsequently,
throughout Paul’s there were women working
quietly, resolutely, and faithfully
in the background
to assure that Christ’s gospel would be heard.

In the eighth chapter of the gospel according to Luke,
we find another paragraph that is easy to overlook.
We tend to treat the verses simply as a link
between two more important sections.
But we should not skim over the sentences
in our rush to get to the next lesson.
Listen again to what Luke wrote:
“Soon afterward [Jesus] went on through cities and villages,
proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God.
The twelve were with him,
as well as some women...Mary Magdalene,
Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza,
and Susanna,
and many others,
who provided for them out of their resources.”
Luke 8:1-3

These and other women were not just followers,
they were disciples,
not part of the twelve,
they lived, of course, in a patriarchal,
paternalistic time,
but disciples as surely as each of us is today.
Believing, following, working, spreading the gospel.

There are so many women in the Bible
who quietly, resolutely, and faithfully lived their lives:
Ruth and Naomi,
Deborah,
Hannah,
Abigail,
Esther,
Elizabeth
are just a few of the names we read about;
but how much do we really know about them?
How many other names do we just skip over
as incidental to the larger story?

The Bible was written in patriarchal times:
but yet the Bible is not a man’s book,
written by a man, about men, for men.
It is a book written for every child of God
written for women as well as men,
about women as well as men,
and probably pieces of it
written by women, as well as men.

Read Paul’s letters carefully and you’ll find many references
to women who were instrumental in building the church:
Phoebe, the deacon,
about whom Paul wrote,
“I commend [her to you] so that you may welcome her
as is fitting for the saints…”; (Romans 16:1)
He wrote of how Prisca literally risked her neck for him.
(Romanas 16:3)
Euodia and Syntche worked with Paul
sharing the gospel. (Phil. 4:3)
Nympha established a church in Laodicia
near Colossae.
And the list goes on.

The church is here today because of the work
that God began so long ago in Christ.
It is work that Paul and Peter
and Timothy and Silas and
all built on as they traveled throughout the known world.
But it is also work carried out much less visibly,
but no less importantly by Mary Magdalene,
Mary and Martha the sisters of Lazarus,
Susanna, Lydia, Priscilla, Phoebe, Dorcas,
and so many others over the centuries,
including the women who have been part of this church
over its 140-year history.
So many women whose names have been lost to history,
or even if we have them,
names that don’t have
the familiar ring of John Calvin or Martin Luther,
but who were just as instrumental in the
foundation of our church.

Read the account of a woman named Egeria
who in the fourth century, traveled to Jerusalem
to join the church.
Read the deeply spiritual writings of
Hildegard of Bingham,
Julian of Norwich,
or Teresa of Avila.
Read from contemporary writers,
such as Barbara Brown Taylor,
Marva Dawn,
Anne Lamott,
Annie Dillard, or
Kathleen Norris.

Women called by God since the beginning of time,
saints who are now seated at Christ’s table
in the heavenly kingdom,
and saints who work among us today.
Daughters of our Lord and God,
sisters of our Lord and Savior.
No ordinary women,
for every one filled with Spirit
and called by God to follow our Lord Jesus Christ
in exactly the same way every man has been called.

Paul got it right when he wrote,
“There is no longer Jew or Greek,
there is no longer slave or free,
there is no longer male and female;
for all of [us] are one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:27)

A lesson he well may have learned from
a woman named Lydia,
a woman whose name is only vaguely known to us now,
a woman who, like so many who followed her,
lived her life quietly, resolutely, faithfully.
“Surely, all generations shall call her
[and those who came after her] blessed.”
Amen