Easter 6: 25 May
Readings: Acts 16.9-15; Rev. 21.10, 22-22.5; John 14.23-29
Theme: The Resurrection and Women
The theme for our sixth Sunday of Easter is the resurrection and women, and particularly, Lydia of Thyatira whom we meet in our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles. It is noteworthy that the first person to meet the risen Christ is Mary Magdalene who comes to the tomb, early on the first day of the week, to look after the body of Jesus. When Jesus appears to her, she thinks that he is the gardener and it only when he says her name, ‘Mary’, that she recognizes him. As soon as he is recognized by Mary, he gives her the commission to announce to the disciples that he is risen and will be ascending to God. This is why we can rightly call Mary Magdalen the ‘apostle to the apostles’, she is the one who announces the good news of the risen Christ to those who will be sent out to the ends of the earth to proclaim it.
It is good for us to reflect on this passage about Lydia and her household as, if there is one theme that has come to dominate our societies today, other than war and peace, it is surely questions of gender and sex, male and female relations. So, understanding how the Scriptures speak of these matters is important and should provide the pattern that we use to weave our own understandings of these issues.
Despite the fact that the image of classical Greek culture has often been exaggerated in terms of seeing women as kept in seclusion, it is certainly true to say that in the classical world, the domain of women was primarily in the home. The chief reason for this was to ensure that there could be no question as to the legitimacy of children, as legitimate heirs played a central part of the social structure of inheritance and so on in classical culture. Yet, it is interesting to note, because our first reading is set in Philippi in Macedonia, that Macedonian women had a much greater degree of freedom in public affairs than in other parts of the classical Greek world, particularly due to the influence that the Macedonian princesses had had on the Hellenistic age.
Our reading from Acts, today, is particularly interesting in our consideration of the theme of the resurrection and women because we have this wonderful incident of the encounter with Paul and his travelling companions, Silas and Timothy, of the business woman, Lydia. We are told by the text that she is a ‘worshipper of God’. This probably means that she is on the fringes of Judaism but not yet a Jew. As if to emphasize this marginal relation to Judaism, we are also told earlier in the text that Paul and his companions go outside the gate of the city near the river where there was a place of prayer in which women had gathered. As you have probably seen from visiting historic sites, the walls of the city are broken by gates which separate the inner citadel from the outside world. This is a first indication that the message of the resurrection of Jesus is expanding out of Palestine and into the Jewish diaspora, to the places on the margins of Judaism in the Roman Empire to preach the message of Jesus. Women in this context are a focus for the message of the resurrection because something universal has been set in motion by the resurrection. Jesus, the one who was crucified and is now risen, is for all, male and female, Jew and Greek. There are to be no distinctions based on gender, sex or power, class and status. All are called to be disciples of the risen Lord Jesus without the stratifications of the Roman social order. This is a first thing to note in our consideration of the resurrection and women. The resurrection is a message of universal inclusion without distinction between male and female.
The second thing to note about this text is that Lydia is actually a woman of some influence and authority. We are told that she is a dealer of purple cloth. She is from Thyatira, in Asian Minor, a Romanized settlement with trade links with Macedonia just across the Aegean Sea. Thyatira was in the province of Lydia and was famous as a centre of the red or purple dye trade and so her name indicates her place of origin. She is what we would today call a businesswoman, involved in the dye trade which was a main commercial activity of the region. The text tells us that she was listening to the word being preached by Paul when the Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to him about the message of Jesus. Her response is to be asked to be baptized by Paul. In other words, she wants to enter into full communion with the Lord, and not only her, but as she is a woman of influence and authority, she leads the way for her whole household to be baptized. As a woman of authority, she recognizes when an authoritative word is spoken, and in the message preached by Paul, she encounters the truth that she had clearly been seeking.
The third thing to note in this text is that after she and her household had been baptized, she opens up her household to Paul, Silas and Timothy. She provides hospitality to them and to the message of the Gospel. Just as the word of God has found a home in her heart, so too the messengers of the word of God are to find a place of welcome in her household. As a women of means, she no doubt supported Paul and the apostles with the resources that they needed to spread the Gospel in their region and beyond. And, as Philippi is in what we would today call Europe, Lydia is often known as the first ‘European Christian convert’, and she represents a theme that we have seen flowing through the weeks of our study of the resurrection; namely, that the resurrection is the spreading out to the ends of the earth of the message of the Gospel. All are called to hear this message in their own language and culture and, as we hear in our Gospel passage for today, this word is to find a home in the hearts of all who like Lydia hear its message.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.