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Trinity Episcopal Church Hattiesburg, Mississippi Fifth Sunday After Easter (Easter 6) May 13, 2007 Go To Trinity's Home Page

Acts 16:9-15
Psalm 67
Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5
John 14:23-29
Collect of the Day
From the Revised Common Lectionary as Adapted for Use by the Episcopal Church
and Authorized by the 75 th General Convention of the ECUSA

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. (Acts 16:9-15)

From Bags to Riches
The Rev. Dr. Bill Stroop

     One time when I was a young boy, probably no older than 7 or 8, I saw a small black dot moving on the sloped ceiling of my up stairs bedroom in the tiny house where I grew up in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Being near sighted, I squinted as hard as I could to squeeze the object into focus. As I tried to focus, I became aware that the small dot was growing more distinct, but not because of my focusing power. Rather the object – a furry spider of some sort – had dropped from the ceiling and was lowering itself on its web right at my face. I slithered out from beneath the beast – which by the power of my imagination had grown to be about the size of a dinner plate – and promptly introduced it to St. Peter by several blows of my pillow.

     As a youngster, I was required to pick three baskets of raspberries each day during the summer months. I hated this chore. The back corner of our yard was a patch of twisted, and intertwined raspberry vines infested with spiders. One time when I was picking those blasted berries, I put my hand through the middle of a garden spider’s web. The spider ended up on my forearm, and as I watched, she sank her black fangs into my flesh. Of course I responded by smashing her with my other hand, spilling the berries I had picked, and driving her fangs and poison sacks further into my arm.

     My parents house began to settle one year, and my father asked (if that is the right word) me to crawl under the house and shore it up with concrete blocks and shims. The problem was that the crawl space was infested with black widow spiders. As I laid on my back, a spider – usually a harmless one – would walk in front of the flashlight and project a greatly enlarged shadow a few feet away that would fuel my arachnophobia. Thwop! Down would come the hammer that made no distinction between so called “good spiders” and venomous ones.

     I don’t know if I was born with a profound fear of spiders or not, but I do know there is very little in this world that I am afraid of as much as spiders. Being penniless and living under a bridge doesn’t scare me. But being under that bridge with spiders is absolutely terrifying.

     What scares you? Are you afraid of priests? That’s hierophobia.[1] How about crossing bridges? That’s gephyrophobia. According to the American Psychiatric Association there are three major classes of phobias: anxiety about being in places from which escape might be difficult (agoraphobias), anxiety elicited by exposure to certain types of social or performance situations (social phobias), and specific phobias, like my arachnophobia.

     An article appeared in the Washington Times last summer reporting that ninety percent of nearly two thousand women surveyed felt financially insecure.[2] Forty-six percent of women are troubled by a tremendous fear of becoming a bag lady, an anxiety that becomes more commonplace as income rises. Among those with yearly incomes of more than $100,000, 48% of women fear becoming destitute.

     Bag Lady Syndrome became a hot item this past year; Health.com, Msn Money, Dr. Helen’s Blog, Motto Magazine, among others have information about this on line. According to Msn Money, Women with bag-lady syndrome tend to fall into two camps: the deer in the headlights or the ostrich … They either freeze unable to make a decision at all, or they just put their head in the sand and hope everything just works out.” [3] According to Olivia Mellan, the author of The Advisor’s Guide to Money Psychology and a Washington, D.C., therapist who specializes in money psychology, Shirley MacLaine Lily Tomlin, Katie Couric, and Gloria Steinem all admit to having a bag lady in their anxiety closet. [3]

     Women have complicated fears about money and security. Judith Briles, a Denver financial adviser and author of 23 books on money management says that women “fear failure or making mistakes. They fear they are expendable.” But, she also says that “their fear of being poor, however, has topped the list for two decades.”[2] While men crave the power or status that money may bring, women like the security it can provide. According to the Times article, w omen are twice as likely as men to set aside a secret stash of money. Roughly the same number of women counseled their daughters to do the same. Two-thirds said the best thing about having money is the feeling of security it brought them, rather than buying power or status.

     Fear, it seems, is a powerful driving force in our lives.

     When Paul and his companion Silas were in the port city of Troas in the district of Macedonia, Paul had a vision that convinced him to take the gospel message to the Macedonians. Paul and Silas then went from Troas to Somothrace to Neopolis to the Roman colony of Philippi. Seeking a place to pray on the Sabbath, they went outside the city gate and sat down with a group of women who had gathered there. Lydia was among them. She was from Thyatira, a city well-known for its textiles. She was a dealer of purple cloth which is a significant detail, because purple dye was very expensive. To be dressed in purple signified wealth, influence, and power. Lydia was no bag lady. She has a close connection to the rich and famous; she was a woman of means. There was very little chance that she would end up broke and destitute, living under a spider-infested bridge.

     Given what the Times reported about women and money, we might expect Lydia to be cautious. Although a worshiper of God, her wealth was something that she might have guarded. Bag Lady Syndrome might have caused her to clutch her possessions very tightly, and to have exercised restraint. These were strangers, after all. Who knows what they might want to extract from her?

     But that’s not what she did. Lydia responded to the words of Paul and Silas with faith, generosity, and respect. Her heart was opened and she asked that she and the members of her household be baptized. She invited Paul and Silas to stay with her and enjoy her hospitality. In time, Lydia’s house became a large center of early Christian worship and outreach in Philippi, and Paul develops a close and loving relationship with the church members there.

     We do not know if Lydia had children of her own, but she certainly did nurture the Philippian church. The people of that church became her spiritual children, and they founded, according to Paul, the most giving and loving of all the churches he knew about. When Paul later wrote to the Philippians he said, “Indeed you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving except you only” (Philip 4:15). No church shared with him as much, or gave him as much as the Philippian church. They were the generous ones. They were the hospitable ones. They were the faithful ones. And it all started with Lydia, the woman who chose faith and love over fear.

     What made the difference? I doubt the message to Lydia and the other women that day was more profoundly evangelistic than what he wrote to the Thessalonian, Galatian, Corinthian and Roman churches. What made the difference was how the Philippians responded. And I believe that Lydia, a woman of deep faith and astounding generosity inspired the outcome.

     Lydia did not have bag lady syndrome. She chose faith over fear, and her example and leadership provided the early Christians of Philippi with a model worth emulating. In a way, Paul and Peter did the same thing when they realized that the message of Jesus was not just for the Jews. In opening up the early church to all people, they knew that their traditional understanding would change as a result. But they did not fear such things. They had faith that as the word spread the kingdom of God would draw ever closer. And that gave them hope to continue their work.

     Vicki McGaw is the director of Christian education at a church in Cleveland.[2] She learned that a parishioner’s husband needed a kidney transplant. Vicki sensed what she had to do. She was tested and found out that she was more compatible than any family member. She underwent the five hour surgery, and was back on the job in five days. The following Sunday, her pastor told the congregation about her ultimate act of generosity. Vicki’s story completely transformed that church. Parishioners know God was involved, and they want to get involved too.

     Every institution, company, university, civic organization, or club has its own unique focus, purpose, or ministry. Christian churches all have their own unique perspectives depending on denominational affiliation and historical traditions. And even within a denomination, one church is different from another. One may be known for its music programs, another for its youth activities, another for its feeding programs for the disadvantaged, and another for its support of health care for the poor.

     Who are we at Trinity? If Paul wrote a letter to us, what would he say? Are we inviting? Hospitable? Generous? And if generous, to whom is that charity directed? Or would he say something else?

     If we follow the examples of Lydia and Vicki, we will find ourselves moving from lives ruled by fear to lives shaped by faith. The particular path each of us follows will be different. It might mean opening our home, our church, or our wallets. But fundamentally, it means opening our hearts and taking a risk. It means practicing hospitality and generosity instead of ordinary concern. It is from that deeply spiritual place, that we can truly become disciples of Jesus Christ and transform Trinity into a vital church for the future.

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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.

Psalm 67 Deus misereatur

1 May God be merciful to us and bless us, *
show us the light of his countenance and come to us.

2 Let your ways be known upon earth, *
your saving health among all nations.

3 Let the peoples praise you, O God; *
let all the peoples praise you.

4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, *
for you judge the peoples with equity
and guide all the nations upon earth.

5 Let the peoples praise you, O God; *
let all the peoples praise you.

6 The earth has brought forth her increase; *
may God, our own God, give us his blessing.

7 May God give us his blessing, *
and may all the ends of the earth stand in awe of him.

Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5

In the spirit the angel carried me away to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. Its gates will never be shut by day-- and there will be no night there. People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

John 14:23-29

Jesus said to Judas (not Iscariot), “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me. “I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe.”

Collect of the Day

O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

[1] A list of phobias can be found on line at http://www.phobialist.com/reverse.html#B-.
[2] JenniferHarper. “ Nearly half of women fear life as a bag lady”. The Washington Times. August 23, 2006. Accessed 10 May 2007 at http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20060823-122252-7667r.htm. Additional material for this sermon including the story of Vicki McGaw was adapted from Timothy F. Merrill (Exec. Ed.). “The Bag Lady Nightmare.” Homiletics19(3):16-20, 2007.
[3] Accessed 10 May 2007 at http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Retirementandwills/Playingcatchup/P140989.asp.

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Copyright © 2007, William G. Stroop - All Rights Reserved.
10 May 2007

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