Easter 6C + U Turn! + 5.5.13

M. Campbell-Langdell+

All Santos

5.5.13 (Easter 6C)

(Acts 16: 9-15, Ps. 67, Rev. 21:10; 21:22-22-25, Jn. 14:23-29)

U-turn!  That’s what the readings this week seem to be about.  What is Jesus responding to in the gospel, but a question from Judas (not Iscariot, we are told), basically asking why the gospel is just being revealed to this small group of disciples and not everyone—is there something special about us that we get to hear the good news?  And Jesus basically says, U-turn!  That’s not the point.  The point is LOVE.  This isn’t about in-groups or out-groups, but you do get the feeling that Jesus knows a little secret—that to make a big impression on a small group builds leaders that feel empowered to spread the gospel, rather than a big crowd that can remain anonymous.

Paul seems to know a bit about this secret—because he is called into another U-turn in the book of Acts reading we have for today.  They are on this missionary journey, headed out from Lystra and Derbe, sort of familiar stomping grounds and they are going to head north to Bithynia, when the Spirit says U-turn!  The gospel isn’t just for the local crowd but also for the people of Europe.  

The Spirit says this in the form of sending them a man in a dream from Macedonia saying “Help!” and pretty soon, as the Spirit is wont to do, it has them headed not north, but west across the sea to Philippi, an important trading port in Macedonia, which is now Greece.[1]

Now no-one in Europe has heard the gospel.  Remember, all folks of European descent—we were all barbarians once!  Some of us still are. J  We were pagans and druids and such.  So Paul is a little cautious.  Just like Jesus, he doesn’t preach to a big crowd, but he finds a prayer spot, apparently sort of an informal gathering because it includes those like Lydia, people who are God-fearers but who haven’t made the full commitment yet, in this case to Judaism.[2]  And Paul just sits down with them and chats awhile about the good news.  About Jesus.

Now, zoom out a bit on the picture with me. Let’s take the wide lens.  The early followers of Jesus have just had quite a debate in Acts 15 and realized that the gospel is not just for the Jews—this Jesus movement isn’t just a reform of the Jewish faith.[3]  No, this message of Jesus of Nazareth is for everyone.  And Paul is still trying to figure that out.  He has Timothy circumcised because he is aware that the evangelists still need to be accessible to the many Jewish folks they were spreading the message to.[4]  

But the Spirit is saying, hold on, reach out to the Chosen people, yes, but the spirit knows no boundaries and will blow to the peoples of Europe, and west and east until this has spread around the world (even as we pray for the containment of this fire, let the Spirit spread!) 

So a central question that these texts are dealing with is this – is the gospel limited?  We have heard in Psalm 67 that this message is for all the peoples, for all the ends of the earth.  Revelation speaks of a tree for the healing of the nations.  Lydia represented another nation—and not just that—as a tradeswoman she represented a group that interacted with many nations—who could touch and share the gospel’s healing word across the Roman Empire with traders from Rome as well as sailors from Ephesus, in what is now Turkey, and even here, these funny fellows talking about Jesus from Jerusalem.

The gospel is truly for all nations, and how wonderful that we see that in this gracious woman, not an obviously religious type—probably thinking about her profits from selling that gorgeous purple cloth to the elite of Philippi even as she says her prayers.

She is an ordinary woman like you or I, who may have known humble beginnings, she reminds me of my grandma, who owned boutiques in Pasadena after being raised on a humble Indiana farm.  Some surmise that Lydia could have been a freed slave, and who now interacts with the upper echelon of Philippian society[5] – this Lydia embodies how our industry can also be holy, and how the gospel can spread to heal all the nations.  She also embodies just what Paul tells us a Christian should be—someone who can be all things to all people, spreading the good news as each can hear it.  I wonder how much of how the gospel spread to Europe is because of the U-turn Lydia took in being baptized?

And take a look at the heavenly city of Jerusalem as depicted in today’s Revelation reading, and it might make you take a U-turn in your thinking about heaven.  Notice—heavenly Jerusalem isn’t closed—the gates are open!  There are people from all nations.  But there are boundaries.   Those who would harm, the elements that damage—are not allowed in.  One assumes perhaps this is because we are not about keeping people out but about what actions and behavior are best for the health and healing of all. In this Jerusalem, as in Christian community, there are boundaries for the health of all, but the real boundaries are inside our hearts.  Can we love as Jesus taught?  See the scare of the fires and not let our hearts be troubled but seek to love our neighbors? 

I attended the Mayor’s Prayer Luncheon this week and the keynote speaker told this story from his friends who are missionaries in Guatemala.  He said that these folks had been in a church for some while when they made a breakthrough to preaching not just to the Ladino, or mixed race Spanish and Indian, people in the area, but they began to reach the indigenous Maya peoples and to bring them into the church.  Soon a contingent of the Ladino church leadership came to the pastors and said, “These Indians, they just don’t feel comfortable with us.  They need to have their own church.”  Notice—they said “They don’t feel comfortable with us”—really, it was the reverse—and the pastors could tell this wasn’t about the gospel, this was about racism.  So they said, “Well, we think the gospel is for all, so if you are asking them to go have a new church, you are asking us to go also.”  So the leaders went off, deliberated, and came back and asked them to go.  So that was sad, but the really neat part is what happened next.  The pastors felt the need for a U-turn, felt the re-directing of the Spirit, and they went to the indigenous people and said, “Where should we plant a church?”  And they began to travel around and, because they are Methodist, the people said, “You should be our pastors.  We will have your church.” But they said, “No, we are not to be your pastors.  Tell us what kind of church you need and God will send a leader.” 

And so they have helped start Baptist, Roman Catholic and many other churches, not just Methodist missions, because they are about spreading the gospel, period.  The barriers are in our hearts, and those are the ones we need to be aware of.

So who is it today that we might make a U-turn to go see, to go share the love of Christ with?  Last Friday I and other local Episcopalians learned about how to reach out to our Mixteco/indigenous brothers and sisters a bit better at the MICOP conference.  I pray for the first responders responding to the fires and those who fear for their homes.  And may we, spreading the Good News as the Spirit leads us, also remember the example of Lydia, and offer such good hospitality that folks feel obliged to make a U-turn and stop by for a while.

Amen.

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[1] Paul W. Walaskay, “Exegetical Perspective: Acts 16:9-15,” FOTW Year C, Vol. 2, 477.

[2] Barbara E. Reid, Footnotes for Acts 16:4, New Interpreter’s Study Bible (2003), 1987.

[3] Ronald Cole-Turner, “Theological Perspective: Acts 16:9-15,” FOTW Year C, Vol. 2, 474-5.

[4] Walaskay, 475.

[5] Ibid Reid.