Lydia of Thyatira
This week we read from the book of Acts the portion which recounts the story of Lydia’s baptism and work as a leader in the early church.
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 therefore 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 16:9-25
It is yet another example of how God uses the most surprising people to spread the Good News. In this case a strong, independent business woman in a time when that was almost unheard of! Even more, she was a foreigner, rich and a Gentile! She was radical, unconventional and counter-cultural. One would think “Strike three – you’re out!” But God had other plans and Lydia went on to become the first European convert to Christianity, (a radical, unconventional, counter-cultural movement) and the leader of the early church in Thyatira – which is now called Akisar, Turkey.
So often we look around the church and notice the leaders of the past and present who seem to be missing. Perhaps it is a temporary, unavoidable absence or maybe it’s an intentional absence that continues for a long time. Maybe they’ve quietly quit. Either way, we sometimes tend to fixate on those who aren’t here, rather than the ones who are. But isn’t our goal to find the ones who need or want to follow Jesus and build with them? Maybe we too need to pay more attention to all the Lydias (ourselves included) who are willing to open our hearts and home to Christ, and who want to live a radical Christian existence.