Woven Together

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

May 8, 2016

Woven Together

Acts 16:9-15

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.”

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.

We set sail from Troas

and took a straight course to Samothrace,

the following day to Neapolis,

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.

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.

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.

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.

*************************************

It really was a scandalous thing to do:

Paul and his colleagues talking with women –

a group of women,

out in the open,

talking with them on the Sabbath.

Paul would later write to the Corinthians:

“As in all the churches of the saints,

women should be silent in the churches.

For they are not permitted to speak,

but should be subordinate,

as the law also says.

If there is anything they desire to know,

let them ask their husbands at home.

For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.”

(1 Corinthians 14:34ff)

That was the way of the world

two thousand years ago,

back in Jesus’ day,

back in Paul’s day.

Paul wrote those words not because he was a sexist,

a misogynist,

as he is sometimes portrayed.

Paul was just a product of his times,

a product of a culture in which women

were most definitely second-class citizens.

Paul lived in a patriarchal society:

men in charge.

So it should come as no surprise

that Paul wrote in his letter

to his young protégé Timothy:

“Let a woman learn in silence with full submission.

I permit no woman to teach

or to have authority over a man;

she is to keep silent.”

(1 Timothy 2:11-12)

And yet, even though Paul lived

in that kind of world,

with those social structures,

there he was, on the Sabbath,

talking with women,

women who were not even Jewish—

Gentile women;

not shooing them away

but talking with them,

teaching them

letting them ask questions,

and, just as important,

treating the women with respect,

dignity, civility,

courtesy.

And so, when Lydia asked to be baptized,

we can picture it, can’t we:

Paul walking her down the bank

and into the river

and there baptizing her,

immersing her in the cool waters,

then helping her up, out of the water,

Lydia washed clean of sin,

born anew,

born afresh in the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

And then, when Lydia invited

Paul and his colleagues

to be her guests at her home,

they happily accepted her kind offer of hospitality.

She “prevailed upon them” we are told,

which suggests that Paul and his colleagues

looked upon Lydia and her friends

as equals –

not a group to be dismissed

or to be told

“be quiet; it is shameful for you to speak

in our presence on the Sabbath.”

In this little vignette we have the very foundation

of the church of Jesus Christ in Philippi.

What began with a vision calling Paul to the area,

led to a group of women by the river on the Sabbath,

and from there,

the beginning of the Christian community;

a faith community Paul would later warmly praise,

writing to them:

“I thank my God ever time I remember you,

constantly praying with joy

in every one of my prayers for all of you,

because of your sharing in the gospel

from the first day until now.”

(Philippians 1:3ff)

Paul wrote words about women

that to our ears sound harsh,

yet Paul shows us in his ministry

that he understood the life the gospel calls us to,

a life that calls us look beyond gender, race,

culture, language;

a life that calls us

to look at every person as neighbor,

a life that calls us

to look at every person as a child of God.

The patriarchal culture that Paul was part of

reflected society,

but the gospel of Jesus Christ transcends society,

transcends culture;

In fact it is often countercultural,

which is one of the reasons we often struggle so.

Paul understood this.

So, when Paul wrote his lengthy,

deeply theological letter

to the Christians in Rome,

we should not be at all surprised

that he entrusted the letter

to a woman to deliver it,

a businesswoman named Phoebe,

of whom Paul wrote:

“I commend to you our sister Phoebe,

a deacon of the church

so that you may welcome her in the Lord

as is fitting for the saints,

and help her in whatever she requires from you,

for she has been a benefactor of many

and of myself as well.”

(Romans 16:1-2)

Paul refers to Phoebe as a deacon,

an officer of the church,

a leader in the church.

The Greek is quite clear –

the word is deacon.

But it is fascinating to see how some translations

of the Bible try to modify her role,

minimizing it by calling her

a “servant in the church”,

which is not the same as being an officer.

Other translations call her a deaconess,

as though there was a special category

of deacon for women,

which in Paul’s day there was not.

As the Anglican bishop and

biblical scholar N.T. Wright has observed,

“[Phoebe] was in a position of leadership,

and Paul respected her as such,

and expected the Roman church to do so as well.”

Paul wrote as well of Prisca,

also known as Priscilla,

another woman Paul wasn’t hesitant to recognize

as one who not only worked with him

“in Christ Jesus”,

but who even “risked her neck for his life.”

(Romans 16:3)

Still, Paul was a product of his times,

and his writings show that he got too caught up

in the second creation story,

with Adam first, and then Eve,

bone of Adam’s bone,

flesh of Adam’s flesh.

(Genesis 2:23)

Paul seems to have overlooked

the first creation story;

which says so matter of factly,

“So God created humankind in his image,

in the image of God he created them;

male and female he created them.

(Genesis 1:27)

The past few months we have seen and heard

an alarming, troubling rise

in both words and actions

that are sexist, misogynist,

racist, bigoted, hate-filled.

                                   

Too often these words and acts

have been sloughed off,

even laughed off,

with comments like,

“we’re just telling it like it is”

or “we won’t be bound by political correctness.”

But such talk, grounded in sexism,

racism, bigotry,

misogyny is more than just adolescent,

more than just ignorant;

For us, as followers of Jesus Christ,

such talk reflects utter and complete faithlessness.

We say in our Brief Statement of Faith,

that God “makes everyone equally in God’s image

male and female,

of every race and people,

to live as one community.”

(A Brief Statement of Faith, 10.3)

Do those words capture our theological convictions?

Our beliefs?

Or are they just empty words we say?

Aren’t they what the Bible teaches us?

How the gospel of Jesus Christ calls us to live?

As followers of Jesus Christ

we are a community woven together by grace,

by love,

by the words of the gospel,

all of us part of God’s communal tapestry.

Sexism, racism,

bigotry, hateful language –

they are stains on the fabric.

Stains you and I are called to remove

before they weaken the fabric.

A few months back, I asked you to think

how different history would have been

had the Wise Men from the East

been turned away at the eastern border of Judea

as foreigners,

not welcome in Bethlehem

or any other part of the country.

Or how different history would have been

had Joseph and Mary been

refused entrance into Egypt,

where they sought refuge from

Herod’s murderous soldiers

intent on killing their newborn son.

                 

On a beautiful morning two thousand years ago,

the sun bright, the sky a vibrant cobalt,

a successful businesswoman named Lydia

went down to the bank of a river in Philippi

with her friends,

and as they sat and talked,

a group of men approached them,

men the women could see as they drew nearer,

were obviously neither Greek nor Roman,

but strangers, foreigners,

swarthy, different.

The men who walked down by the riverbank

that bright day,

were Jews looking for a place to pray,

a place to observe the Sabbath.

Expecting that they might find a few Jewish men

to observe the Sabbath with,

to pray with,

they found only women,

Gentile women.

But the men, the women,

strangers though they were,

from different cultures and different countries,

talked, listened,

learned….together.

                                   

Together they shared the gospel.

Together on the riverbank they shared grace,

Together on the riverbank they shared hospitality.

There on that riverbank

they wove God’s tapestry of community;

There on that riverbank

they wove the tapestry of love

given us by God in Jesus Christ.

                                                              

AMEN