Mark 4: 35-41
First conversation with Lydia
Speaker 1
We have the great honour of having a woman as our guest today who is an expert in the ministry of the church. She and her whole house were a welcoming and important place for one of the first Christian churches.
We invited Lydia and she came to us.
Lydia - we extend a special welcome to you. It is wonderful that we can celebrate this service with you.
We ask you to encourage us with your experiences in the service a little later.
Lydia:
It is also a great honour for me to be with you. It's a wonder to see you here - such a colourful, large and cheerful congregation. We could never have imagined this two thousand years ago. We were sometimes so sad and feared that we were the first and last Christians - but it seems that our faith has borne fruit.
Thank you for allowing me to be with you on this day.
Speaker 1
Since we are all so overwhelmed with joy - let us sing a hymn to our Lord Jesus Christ, the cornerstone, the foundation, the centre of our congregations.
Statements from the Co-workers
1. ‘Just don't ask me - it's too much for me!’
2. ‘I really enjoyed taking part again!’
3 ‘Oh dear, am I even suitable for this?’
4. ‘I can't do it at all - most of all: others can do it much better!
5 ‘Why don't they ever ask me personally?’
6. ‘I could do it, but nobody asks me!’
7 ‘Oops, now I've said “yes” again!’
8. ‘Good that I said yes. I've learnt so much!’
9. ‘Even if it's actually too much for me, the community work is so good for me!’
10. ‘It does me so good that I can work in the team. I'm happy when my work means something to others.’
11 ‘Nah, that's really not my thing!’
12. ‘Always “me”. I really do enough already. Now it's someone else's turn.’
13. ‘I feel accepted here in the community - I'm happy to participate. As much as I can!’
14. ‘This community is my family. There's no ‘No’!
15 ‘Whenever I join and help out here, I feel God's closeness in a very special way.’
16. ‘I'm so grateful for my life - that's why I'm involved!’
Introduction Lydia
Speaker 1
We have welcomed Lydia. But we haven't properly introduced her to you yet. We'll do that now.
Lydia comes from the city of Thyatira. That's in Asia Minor. From there she came to Philippi in northern Greece. We are not told why she changed location. Perhaps she will tell us later.
A change of location for women at this time was often not voluntary. It was not unusual for women to be sold as slaves from one place to another. At the time when Lydia is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, she is a free woman, apparently not even married. And she is a purple cloth dealer. She is not a purple fisherwoman, nor does she belong to the purple dyers. She no longer has anything to do with the risky catching of snails or the unpleasant-smelling dyeing of the fabrics. Whether she did this before and worked her way up, perhaps she talks to us about it. She buys and sells purple products in a city where you can afford such luxury. She has a house and heads a household. And she is pious.
But what does pious mean in these times, in the Roman Empire? Lydia is a ‘God-fearer’, she is close to the Jewish faith, but she is not Jewish.
This is how I present Lydia to you: as a now independent, self-confident, clever woman. She has her own ideas about God and the world. And she is a woman who is open-minded. She asks around and she listens. She is open to what is to come.
Second conversation with Lydia
Lydia: I very clearly remember that day: Paul and Timothy came to the river. They were probably expecting men praying there. They wanted to talk to them.
And then they only met us: a few women. I don't know why the men weren't at the river that day and whether Paul and Timothy were disappointed about it. In any case, they did something that was unusual for that time: they started talking to us.
L3: And what was that like for you? What was so special about what they were telling you?
Lydia: Their words hit me right in the heart. It was already hinted at in my introduction: I came here from Thyatira a long time ago. No, not voluntarily. I was a slave. I don't want to tell you that again. It was too dreadful and too terrible. The beginning here was very hard. But I made it: in a man's world. I have become free. I have my own household and my own business. I am free and independent.
L3: I still don't understand what that has to do with Paul.
Lydia: Wait, wait. I'm coming to that. Apart from being free and independent, I'm also one of those who want to understand God. I fear God. In other words, I have great respect for God: his omnipotence has always been somewhat overwhelming for me and frightening: how can I stand up to such a God?
And that brings me to St Paul: Paul said a sentence that made me sit up and take notice: ‘People who trust in Jesus Christ see themselves as brothers and sisters. There are no slaves and free men in the Christian community. There are no masters and servants. There is no privilege of men over women
‘This sentence struck me. ‘How is that supposed to work?’ I asked myself.
L3: And did you ask Paul and Timothy the same question?
Lydia: Of course. That's what I wanted to know. And I wanted to know if it was just talk or if they were serious. Paul thought about it for a long time. Then he said to me: ‘Lydia, I can understand that it sounds too good to be true! But it is true’. Then he told me about women who had travelled with Jesus, like the other disciples: Susanna and Mary and Johanna, the wife of one of Herod's stewards and so on.
Paul hinted that it was not easily accepted in the congregations and led to arguments as well. Not only because women were participating, but also slaves. However, he remained firmly convinced that in a Christian congregation there are different tasks, including ministries, but no one is above the others.
Everyone is invited to join in, to contribute, to follow Jesus and to work in the church in his power and in his spirit.
L3: This has been the case for 2000 years. Although many powerful men in particular have repeatedly tried to change it. They have silenced women. They have elected bishops who have acted like kings and dukes. But it is a miracle: the sentence that made you, Lydia, cease like that is still a centrepiece of our church here in Pretoria: Everyone is involved here: we try to take everyone seriously with their ideas and beliefs. We are a large, diverse group of disciples.
Lydia: That's great to hear: I'm very happy that I'm experiencing and seeing this today. I am amazed and happy. Yes, back then I took Paul by his word: if that's true, Paul: then baptise me and then come
and live in my house. Show that you are not ashamed of me, but acknowledge me: me, the woman who was a slave and is struggling through life as a businesswoman.
L3: How brave you have been. That in turn moves me and I enjoy listening to you. I believe that talking to you encourages many of us. I resolve to continue to bring this to the congregation: The courage to take the side of those who some people don't want in the church. Also, the courage to question thevalues in the world and to be together in the congregation in a different way than is possible in the world. And to express the joy that so much has changed for the better over the course of history, especially in recent years in congregations like ours. Oh, Lydia: thank you so much for your story.
Devotion
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen
Dear Congregation,
We are a congregation with a long tradition: no, today I am not primarily referring to our language and origin.
I mean above all: the tradition of following Jesus.
This unites those who come from missionary families with those who have discovered traces of God in their lives in other ways.
Most of us have the kind of experiences that Lydia talks about: something made us listen. Something made us listen more closely. Most of us have either grown steadily into faith or have had a vocational experience.
It is not so important when and where the seed of faith sprouted in us, but it is important to reflect on it: this seed was sown.
From Paul and Timothy, from Lydia and her whole household, from other people over the millennia.
What has held the most diverse people together: Their trust in Jesus Christ.
The church is founded on this.
In our Johannesgemeinde and in our NELCSA, we have people with great faith in God who know that their hope is founded in Jesus.
It is a blessing that this faith also includes action. This has also continued: as with Lydia, she put her life at the service of the community. She also continued to run her business.
She was blessed and became a blessing.
This is co-working in the church. It is not ploughing and raking with a guilty conscience. It is not sacrificing and wrecking. It is nothing more and nothing less than passing on a blessing.
And that is why it is a wonderful custom to bless all co-workers at the beginning of a new year! It is a reminder that God loved us first and that His love becomes effective in the world through us.
We are being blessed and are then the Blessed.
That is why we ask God: Bless us, put your peace upon us. Hold your hands over us in blessing: touch us with your strength.
