My Next Great Adventure: "At the Intersction of Evangelism and Stewardship" (sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
Sunday July 30, 2023
Scripture: Acts 16:6-15 (And yes, I did apologize to the scripture reader at each church for all of the place names in this week’s reading!)

I’ve got two different study bibles on my desk – one doesn’t include any titles for the stories, but the other one does, and it titles the story that we just heard, “The Conversion of Lydia.” (I think that’s also the title given to it in the pew bibles.) But when I read this story, I wonder if Lydia is the only person who is being converted – I wonder if there is another conversion going on in this story.

Paul has already had his big conversion moment – if you were to flip back to before chapter 9 in the book of Acts, you would find him, named Saul at the time, as the primary persecutor of the early church. But then in chapter 9, he has a dramatic conversion experience where he is thrown to the ground by a blinding light and he hears the voice of Jesus calling to him. And in a few short verses, he goes from being the chief persecutor of the church to the chief evangelist, traveling around sharing the story and the good news of Jesus.

And so here we are, at the beginning of today’s story, and Paul has a vision where a man appears, begging him to come to Macedonia to bring them the good news about Jesus. And Paul and his followers immediately set sail for Macedonia, landing in the city of Philippi.

I can imagine Paul, arriving in this new city, beginning to search for this man who appeared to him in a vision, but we don’t have any record of him finding him. Instead, Paul stumbles on a group of women gathered by the river to pray. This wasn’t what he was expecting, but he was open to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, and he joins their gathering, and speaks to them about Jesus. I see this as another conversion moment for Paul – recognizing that women can be leaders in this new movement.

And then we come to Lydia’s conversion. The Holy Spirit opens her heart as well, and she hears Paul’s message, and then she and her whole household are baptized there in the river. But then she goes one step further, and she opens her home to these travellers.

We don’t hear much more about Lydia. She is a dealer in purple cloth, and since purple was the colour worn by royalty, this meant that she was likely moving in some pretty high-class circles. Her house was big enough to host the visitors, becoming their home base for their time in Philippi, and essentially becoming the very first church in that city.

I love this story. I love how Paul doesn’t question the prompting of the Holy Spirit, but just goes. I love how he doesn’t question the unexpected presence of this group of women ready and willing to hear about Jesus… I mean, he could have passed them by, determined to find the man who had appeared in his vision, but he was willing to stop and engage in conversation with them.

I love this story. I love how Lydia doesn’t hesitate, but opens her home to these visitors, and to anyone else wanting to hear about Jesus. I love how she doesn’t resist the nudging of the Holy Spirit, but opens her arms with generosity to share what she has.

Because both Lydia and Paul listened to the Holy Spirit, and then, more importantly, allowed themselves to be led by the Holy Spirit, the message of Jesus – the message of loving God with our whole hearts and loving our neighbours as ourselves – this message found a new foothold in a new place.

When I e-mailed Bertis earlier this week to touch base about today’s service, I said that I think that this story sits at the intersection of evangelism and stewardship.

It is a story about evangelism because it is a story about the message of Jesus spreading in the world. Now, contrary to popular belief, evangelism isn’t a dirty word! At the root of the word, it simply means good news, coming to us from Greek, euangelion, literally meaning a good message or good news. So it’s not a word to be scared of! Paul is bringing good news to the people of Philippi – good news about a God whose very essence is love; good news about a God who loves creation so much that they chose to become part of creation in the person of Jesus; good news about a way of living that is grounded in love.

And as well as being a story about evangelism, it’s also a story about stewardship. Again – not a word to be scared of! Being a steward is all about caring for things that don’t belong to us on behalf of someone else. Our church stewards care for the things that the church has, on behalf of the whole church as well as on behalf of God.

And in today’s story, we read about Paul using the gifts that God gave to him – the gift of preaching, the gift of teaching, the gift of explaining, the gift of being able to relate to people from different backgrounds. He is using all of these gifts that God gave to him on God’s behalf, so that God’s message might spread.

And Lydia too – she is using the resources that God has given to her. She is a wealthy woman, well-connected in society, and with a house large enough to host visitors. And she uses these resources to found a church, so that God’s message might spread in her community. She being a good steward of what she has been given.

I love this story. I love this story… but it scares me just a little bit. Because when I think of what this story might be saying to me, might be saying to the church, there are some serious implications for us. There are implications for evangelism – like Paul and like Lydia, all of us are called to share Jesus’s message with other people. And there are implications for stewardship – like Lydia and like Paul, we are called to share freely the gifts that we have been given, recognizing that we didn’t earn them, but that it is only by God’s grace that they have been loaned to us to care for on God’s behalf.

What if Paul hadn’t taken the opportunity to share his message with Lydia and the other women? Would the church have gained a foothold in Philippi? And what if Lydia had worried about saving her money for a rainy day rather than offering what she had to Paul so that a church could be founded? Would the church have been able to grow in that corner of the world without a home base?

And so like this story, I think that we too are called to live our life as the church at the intersection of evangelism and stewardship. And I don’t think that this necessarily has to be a scary thing! Evangelism can be as simple as inviting someone to join you here on a Sunday morning. Stewardship can be as simple as figuring out which part of the work of the church your skills are the best match for, and offering to share them, whether that be through joining a committee or singing in the choir or organizing a fundraiser or leading a bible study.

The life of the church depends on all of us sharing our different resources and gifts so that the church can continue to church, as well as extending the invitation to others to come and see what we’re all about.

I do love this story of Lydia and Paul. And maybe – just maybe – it isn’t as scary as I used to think that it was.