No Small Parts - Lydia
February 14, 2021 Sunday Evening Study

When we lived in Arizona, I was a motorcycle rider. I began riding mostly out of necessity - we had a hefty commute and could not afford two vehicles, so I bought a bike and rode to and from work everyday. As it happens, Arizona is the sort of place where you can do that about 350 days per year. And lucky for me, I fell in love with riding. I miss it every day now - but while I was riding, I made the most of it. Even though it was my primary transportation, I never gave up the opportunity to ride recreationally as well.

I wanted to start doing some group rides. I was not interested in the hard core biker culture - the motorcycle clubs and such - I just wanted to go see some cool places with some cool people. Turns out that most people who ride motorcycles have a camaraderie - something you have to be a rider to understand. We all waved to each other when we passed on the road, pointed out cops and other road hazards whenever possible - almost like a community, largely made up of folks who had never actually met.

I found a group online through the website meetup.com which was designed for this sort of thing, and I took a few rides north of Phoenix - mostly in the Superstition mountains and areas like that. I got to know a few of the people, and by this time I had upgraded my bike and had all the horsepower required to keep me from lagging behind the groups like this. I enjoyed it immensely, and went on scheduled rides whenever I could.

There was a ride scheduled in the spring that I wanted to attend - it was a long ride - several hours. I had not been on one for more than an hour and a half or so, so I was really looking forward to it for quite some time. As the day approached, I began to come down with the flu, and I was unable to go on this ride, even though I never ever get sick. I was so angry - I get the flu maybe once every 3 or 4 years, and of course it happened on the day of my highly anticipated ride.

27 riders went on the ride. In the first hour as they were heading out of the area of Saguaro lake, the group all stopped at a stop light on a main road. A man driving an end-dump 20 yard truck fell asleep at the wheel as he approached the same intersection from behind and mowed down almost the entire group - killing 13 riders and severely injuring 10. Every bike was destroyed. This was considered to be the biggest motorcycle tragedy in the history of the state of AZ - and I was angry for having missed it.

Please open your Bibles to Acts chapter 16. We have spent many months focusing on characters throughout the Bible and looking at their influence and importance in the grand scheme of the gospel. Something that I want to focus on this week - besides the character herself, is this idea of God’s leadership to divine appointments. We see this all throughout Jesus’ ministry - most obviously with the woman at the well, but we’ve seen it in this series as well with the Ethiopian eunuch and other characters where the gospel was brought to them outside of the plans of the disciples themselves. Today, we see this occur with a woman named Lydia of Thyatira. Read Acts 16:6-15.

We see right off the bat that the progression of Paul’s ministry is not within his own control. This first section we read - actually a different part of the narrative of Lydia, shows us very clearly that God is directing their little party along a specified path. It says in the first verse that the Holy Spirit has been keeping them from preaching the Gospel in Asia - the most prominent city of which to Paul’s ministry was Ephesus. We know that Paul does spend a large amount of time there on his third mission, but for now is being prevented from going there, despite his own plans. It does not tell us how the Spirit prevented him, only that he was stopped from going there and that God had other plans for him.

We are treated to some vague geographical wanderings from one region to another, with ancient and archaic names being used for different areas. What is clear is that given their inability to travel into Asia, they begin heading toward the prominent cities of the East which would later become major landmarks within the church - cities like Byzantium and Nicaea where the populations are dense and ripe for ministry. Yet the Spirit again turns them away, directing them toward a more wild backwoods country. 

They arrive in Troas, the first major city they have been allowed to enter - a major port city in the area of the ancient city of Troy which served as a gateway for sea access to Macedonia. This city would have been a great candidate for their mission work - Paul and SIlas and Timothy. Yet two things happen here - one, they meet up with Luke, our author, and the narrative changes from third person to first person plural - all of the “theys” become “wes.” Secondly, Paul has a vision - something that by now is not altogether unfamiliar to him, of a man begging them to come to the region of Macedonia. Their response is immediate - although they have found a desirable place in which to minister, they pack up again and head toward Macedonia.

The point here about all of the places they went and did not go is not really to show the extent of the traveling or even to plot out exactly where the Gospel was preached - the central point is the divine leading of this group of evangelists. They were called to leave their comfort zone and head to Macedonia - the first mission and witness of Christ to occur on European soil.

After a few different places, they end up in a city that we recognize - Philippi. While in Philippi this first time, there are several things which occur - a few of which we will study separately. Tonight we will look at this small character Lydia. After the disciples arrived, they awaited the first sabbath and did what they normally do - looked for the prominent place of worship in the city. According to historical records, there was not a Jewish synagogue at Philippi during this time, which indicated that first, any God-fearing Gentiles like Lydia were likely to be women, and secondly because it would be largely women and outside of the established practice of religion in the city, any meetings would occur outside the city walls so as to protect their meetings from the cult-fearing Romans. Judaism would not have been totally foreign to them, but it was an Eastern faith - not as widely accepted in the West at this time. They learn of a place by the river outside of the city and they find a group of women there.

As this would have been the closest thing to a synagogue in Philippi, Paul assumed his natural posture that he would have to speak in the synagogue and addressed the women. Among the women gathered there, one stood out. Her name was Lydia, named after the ancient territory in which her native city of Thyatira was located. She is described as a dealer in goods dyed purple, a likely occupation since Thyatira was indeed a center of the purple dye trade. Lydia’s business is not an incidental detail. It marks her as a person of means. Purple goods were expensive and often associated with royalty; thus the business was a lucrative one. Lydia’s invitation to the four missionaries to stay in her home in itself indicates that she had considerable substance, such as guest rooms and servants to accommodate them adequately.

This is all of the narrative we are given about Lydia and her household, so what sets her apart from any of the thousands of others who were saved during Paul’s missions? First off, we have the issue of divine appointment - we know from all of the preceding verses that the disciples were led to this point. Secondly, Lydia is considered the first ever European convert. This holds significance in the later history of the church when the Church is governed largely in the West - the first European convert was a woman - and a woman of significant means and influence.

We learn through Paul’s continuing missions that although he himself worked as a tentmaker to survive as he traveled, he also received support from some of the more prominent churches along the way. In both Philemon and 2 Corinthians Paul makes special mention of the generosity of the Philippian church in financing his ministry efforts, with Lydia believed historically to be the principal contributor. And Pauls association here becomes a major part of his ministry - Women like Lydia were particularly prominent in Paul’s missionary efforts in this portion of Acts—the women of Thessalonica (17:4) and of Berea (17:12), Damaris in Athens (17:34), and Priscilla in Corinth (18:2). Priscilla and Lydia took an active role in the ministry of their churches helping to define how churches would grow and function for centuries to come.

Lydia’s name describes where she is from - the region of Lydia in Asia Minor. She is also known by other names - “The Woman of Purple” or “Purpuraria” - seems almost as if she was defined entirely by her background and trade. Lydia’s evident social power exemplified by her control of a household and ownership of a house (which she offered to St. Paul and his companions) indicates that she was most likely a free woman and possibly a widow.

Many denominations recognize Lydia as a saint, including Catholic, Epicopal, Lutheran, and others. However, devotion to St. Lydia is greater in the Orthodox Church than in the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church, and this is evident by the myriad of icons depicting this woman. The Orthodox Churches have given her the title of “Equal to the Apostles,” which signifies her importance and level of holiness. There is a church located in Philippi, which many consider to be built in St. Lydia’s honor. A modern baptistry is located on the traditional site in Krynides where Lydia was baptized by St. Paul near Philippi as well.

Divine leading is something that happens to all of us, and can be easy to miss. Often it will cause us distress because of what great ride we might miss, but always comes according to God’s will and His plan. Let’s pray.