Love Prevails (A Sermon for Mother's Day)

(Scriptures: Acts 16:6-15, Psalm 67, Revelations 21:10, 22 – 22:5, John 14:23-29)

We’re getting closer to Memorial Day, the unofficial beginning of the summer vacation and travel season. Does anyone have their summer vacation plans made yet? People approach vacations in various ways – some make elaborate plans, carefully making their train or airline or hotel reservations months in advance in order to take advantage of discounts, carefully researching hotels in advance to compare the amenities each offers, putting together a travel itinerary so that not a moment of precious vacation time is wasted. Others take a more random approach, deciding on the spur of the moment where to drive or ride or fly, and sort of making up their vacation as they go. But no matter how carefully planned, travel plans can go awry. During my first trip with a group from the Pennsylvania Southeast Conference, UCC, to Cuba, in March, 2008, the travel agency who had handled our reservations forgot that we in the United States set our clocks ahead for daylight savings time a week before Cubans do – so we ended up missing our intended flight back to the States. Yikes! And can you imagine what it would be like to have flown to Europe just before the recent volcano eruption, only to learn that you wouldn’t be flying home anytime soon, not until the volcano stopped belching clouds of ash into the air.

In our reading from Acts, we meet Paul and his new traveling companion Silas at a critical point in their missionary travels, when their travel plans seemed to be going awry. It’s a time when Paul had lots of reasons to second-guess himself – he and his former missionary companion, Barnabas, had just had a huge fight and parted ways, Barnabas having traveled with John Mark, whom Paul distrusted, to Cyprus. So Paul and his new partner in mission, Silas, set out from Syria – only to find themselves forbidden by the Holy Spirit to travel east to preach in Asia. So they headed roughly northwest into Phrygia and Galatia, located in modern-day Turkey. Then they tried to go north into Bithynia, but we’re told that the Spirit of Jesus forbade them to go there too. I think at this point I’d rather be stuck in an airport waiting for a volcano to stop erupting. I’d imagine at this point Paul was thinking maybe this Silas is a jinx, bad luck, and maybe parting ways with Barnabas hadn’t been such a great idea. So Paul and Silas’s travel itinerary has come unraveled, and they’re stuck awaiting developments.

And at this point God shows them the next step: Paul has a vision of a man from Macedonia pleading, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” Macedonia was in modern-day Greece, a considerable distance west from Galatia, but Paul and Silas obey the vision and set out. Note the grammar carefully: It would seem that Luke, the author of Acts, went with them also – note that the narrative moves from saying “They attempted to go into Bithynia” to “We” – presumably including Luke – “We immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia.” So what follows is presented as an eyewitness account.

Paul, Silas, and Luke set sail from Troas and went through several cities to arrive in Philippi, which we’re told is a leading city in Macedonia and a Roman colony. If the name Philippi sounds familiar, it should – it’s the setting of the church to which Paul later wrote his joyful letter to the Philippians. The church at Philippi was one of Paul’s success stories, and today we read how that success story began, how the church was founded. After spending several days in Philippi, learning the lay of the land, they went outside the city gate to a place by the river where women prayed. Note the location - outside the city gate. Rome wasn’t going to stop these women – likely Gentile converts to Judaism - from praying to the God of Israel, but they weren’t going to make it easy for them, either – this women’s prayer circle was barely tolerated, barely allowed its little bit of breathing space out of the way, down by the river, outside the city gate.

We quickly meet one of these women, whose name is Lydia. We’re told that she was a dealer in purple cloth. In those days, because of the expense of producing purple dye, only the wealthy could afford to wear purple, so likely Lydia would have been a woman of some wealth and resources, used to dealing with men of even greater wealth. We’re told that the Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what Paul said – so much so that she was baptized. We perhaps get the picture that this woman of wealth and resources was not only a woman of faith, but was also a woman of strong character and will, for she had not only herself, but her entire household, baptized. And we’re told that she prevailed upon Paul and Silas and Luke to stay at her home. Having said “yes” to God, from Paul and his group she wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. It would seem her home because a gathering place for the new believers in Philippi; we’re later told that after Paul and Silas had been arrested for setting an enslaved fortune teller free from a spirit of divination, when he was later freed and his jailer baptized, along with his family, Paul and Silas returned to the home of Lydia to encourage the new believers before setting out for Thessalonica.

In considering this passage, one thought that came to mind: It is striking that, out of a situation in which all the options that came quickly to Paul’s and Silas’ minds were blocked – by the Spirit of Jesus, no less – came a vision from God to take the Gospel in a new direction. And I think we’ve all been in some version of Paul’s and Silas’ situation – we have a decision to make, perhaps a decision about the direction in which our future will go – perhaps a career decision, a decision about where to live, a decision about a relationship, or perhaps we have a sense that God is calling us in some new direction. We look at the obvious options, but somehow things don’t pan out. We feel stuck. We wonder where God is in all this…is God out on a lunch break, or did God maybe take the afternoon off? It’s during these times when we need to hold on tight to our faith, to be patient and await God’s guidance. There’s a saying – don’t give up hope 5 minutes before the miracle happens. For we worship an awesome God who specializes in making a way out of no way. We may not have dreams about some dude from Macedonia asking for our help, but if we are patient and attentive, guidance will come. What may look like a breakdown in our plans may turn out to be God’s way to break through our expectations to lead us in a new direction.

And, of course, there’s another thought – love prevails. God’s love prevailed in sending Paul and Silas to Philippi. And in response, Lydia’s love prevailed – prevailed upon her household to be baptized, prevailed upon Paul and Silas to stay at her house, prevailed in allowing her house to become a headquarters for the gathering church of Philippi.

Some of us have been blessed with mothers – you didn’t think I forgot it’s Mother’s Day, did you – whose love was like Lydia’s, a powerful love that prevailed, that wouldn’t take “no” for an answer, that insisted on loving us, sometimes whether we wanted it or not. For those of us who grew up with that kind of love and emotional support from mom, we can give thanks to God for this early blessing in our life. And some of us haven’t had that kind of mother love in our lives – mom was absent, out to lunch, physically or emotionally, or mom had…shall we say….anger management issues (the kind that send their kids to the emergency room), or addiction issues, or our relationship with mom was in other ways…shall we say, complicated. Mother’s Day seems like a holiday for others, not for us. Perhaps we can find some consolation in being the ones whom God has raised up to break the cycle of abuse or neglect, to provide prevailing love for the children and family with which God has blessed us.

Jesus told his disciples, "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.” May God make our home with us, with our families, and may God’s prevailing love always be found here at Emanuel Church.
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Come to Emanuel Church and experience God's prevailing love, every Sunday at 10 a.m. We're on Fillmore Street (off Thompson). www.emanuelphila.org