Rich and poor Maybe the first anti-Christian polemic was written by a Greek philosopher named Celsus. He wrote in the 2nd century a work called ``The True Discourse.'' It no longer exists but we know about it because Christian apologist Origen argued with it more than a half century later.
A primary critique Celsus leveled against the young, burgeoning, but persecuted Christian movement was that it attracted the feeble-minded and that it excluded the educated and wealthy. In describing Christians he writes: We see…in private houses workers in wool and leather, and fullers, and persons of the most uninstructed and rustic character, not venturing to utter a word in the presence of their elders and wiser masters; but when they get hold of the children privately, and certain women as ignorant as themselves, they pour forth wonderful statements to the effect that they ought not to give heed to their father and to their teachers, but should (instead) obey them; that the formerare foolish and stupid, and neither know nor can perform anything that is really good…. (www.bluffton.edu/~humanities/1/celsus.htm) In another place Celsus writes that the Christian faith appeals only to the foolish,….slaves, women, and little children. (Willimon quoting in Acts, p. 138)
It is very common for us to point out the humble origins of Christianity. Jesus was born in a back-lot manger, he had simple parents, he called ordinary fishermen to be his disciples, etc.
And of course there is the strong emphasis on the poor in Jesus' teachings. Why it's easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. We are familiar with scriptures injunctions against materialism, against thinking that possessions matter for much. The Beatitudes begin with ``Blessed are the poor in spirit…''
But there is clear evidence that the early church was not just composed of the down-and-out and bereft. The early Jesus movement, people attracted to the Way, came from different walks of life. And the little story we heard earlier, from Acts 16, is one example of the Christian movement attracting a person of means. This was Lydia, a purveyor of fabric, a dealer in purple clothe. Evidently she was a traveling merchant, a Gentile woman from Asia (in the area of present day Turkey) who found herself in Europe (present day Greece) who sold luxurious purple-dyed clothe for a living.
Luke tells us she's a woman, she's wealthy, she's traveling far from home, and she worships God. She's visiting with other women near Philippi, right on the banks of a river, when Paul shows up. He joins the conversation. Something stirs within Lydia, perhaps building on her already strong inclination to worship God, and she opens up her heart more fully to Paul's words. Luke tells us that her household joined her in embracing Paul's message. Next thing you know she welcomes Paul and Silas to her home. It's a big enough place and it launches the first church in Europe, the church at Philippi.
If the church in its earliest expressions was able to straddle economic differences and attendant social strata it was doing something remarkable. Most Protestant churches I'm aware of seem to appeal to like minded people, people of a similar economic and social ilk. To overcome those differences and live as one in the church to this very day is difficult. It's a huge challenge that we continue to face today.
Lydia opens her home This little story of Paul's encounter with Lydia on the riverbank near Philippi contains other little jewels. The whole story began back in verse 9 when Paul is in Troas, at the northwest corner of modern Turkey. There he has a vision, seeing a man pleading with him to set sail across the Aegean Sea to now Greece. Luke tells this in the third person but then, in verse 9, shifts his voice to the first person causing the reader to wonder if Luke himself wasn't on board the ship with Paul.
Luke tells us that Lydia was already a believer in God. She was a person with a heart inclined towards religious matters. Paul's words find a special place in her heart, and her heart opens up. And in the aftermath she immediately throws open the doors to her home. ``Come and stay at my home,'' she says.
This generous expression of hospitality comes as a result of her newly opened heart.
This is a conversion story The Lydia story is fundamentally a conversion story. This story of a wealthy woman from Thyatira (back in Asia, now Turkey) who encounters Paul--the ardent Christian apostle but once, before his own transformation, a passionate Jewish persecutor of Christiansacross the Aegean Sea (placing them in Europe), is at core about the change this woman makes. It looks to me to be a change that took place at glacial speed, for Lydia was already a ``worshiper of God.'' But after meeting Paul she becomes a follower of Jesus, a fellow bearer of the gospel message.
But even what I just said (follower of Jesus, bearer of the gospel message) is not explicitly found in Luke 16. Maybe we should think of this conversion using the logic of a ``tipping point.'' Some of you have probably read Malcolm Gladwell's book by that title, The Tipping Point. He wonders about how new ideas come to be accepted. They start small, and little by little, the idea gains a footing until, without anyone noticing, it becomes the majority point of view.
Think about how we sing ``606,'' Praise GodfromWhom all Blessings Flow. Mary Oyer introduced the song at a Mennonite Church Assembly in Turner, Oregon in 1969. Mary had seen the song in Harmonia Sacra (1876) and it was put in the 1969 Mennonite Hymnal. But to Mary, at the time, it seemed nothing special. But, of course, it caught on to where in great swaths of the Mennonite world it became known as ``the Mennonite national anthem,'' was known to be sung at Mennonite soccer games, and ``606'' could be found on Mennonite t-shirts.
For Lydia the moment, the ``tipping point,'' was barely discernible, but somehow a transformation was taking place. I like the way Luke records it, her heart opened. She had always been open, receptive, interested, but now it was clearer than ever before, her heart was open.
Many people have problems with any talk of conversion. The very word conjures up such negative associations that people want to run from the word as fast as they can. It does this for me too. I will probably never shake my experience with a missionary evangelist in Africa, near Lake Chad, who forced a crowd of hungry people, waiting for a food distribution, to wait out his long-winded sermon, and then got in a fight with an overbearing young man during the food distribution. We had to scramble to get out of town.
Another reaction people have to conversion talk is that it feels so formulaic. In an understandable attempt to make the gospel accessible, to demonstrate how simple it is to jump on the gospel bandwagon, quick, graspable steps are outlined. This is all you have to do to become a Christian.
To wit, the four spiritual laws. First, understand that God loves you and the entire world (John 3:16). Second, jumping over to Romans 3:23, humans are sinful, we all do the wrong thing. Third, Jesus died for these sins (I Corinthians 15) and Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14). And finally, we must receive him because he stands at the door and knocks (Revelation 3:20).
This approach has an appeal to the orderly, individualistic, Western mind. But I'm skeptical that it does justice to the testimony of the gospels, how people came to follow Jesus himself, or to the witness of the early church, how people came to adhere to the Christian message. Just consider the testimonies found in the book of Acts.
Peter's Pentecost sermon says that Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Acts 2:21)
Paul's conversion on the Damascus Road includes no particular words, but rather, upon seeing the light, he is simply obedient.
Peter preaches to Cornelius …in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him (Acts 10:35)
The apostles back in Jerusalem heard that the Gentiles had simply Accepted the word of God (Acts 11:1) and that God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life. (Acts 11:18)
Paul preaches in Antioch By this Jesus everyone who believes is set free from all these sins from which you could not be freed by the law ofMoses (Acts 13:39)
Peter, reflecting on how the Gentiles seem to believing in Jesus just like the Jews says We believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as theywill (Acts 15:11)
Later in chapter 16 Paul and Silas declare Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and yourhousehold (Acts 16:31)
This reference reminds us that sometimes in Acts the whole family is converted. We see this in the story of Cornelius and his household (this probably means family members, business associates, and domestic servants). Lydia and her whole household are baptized after Paul's preaching.
All this is to say that we do well …to note the communal, corporate quality of conversion in Acts. Conversion is adoption into a family, immigration into a new kingdom: a social, corporate, political phenomenon. (Willimon, Acts, p.102)
In Acts there is no one way to become a Christ-follower, a determined pilgrim, a believer. There's not necessarily a particular moment. Conversion is more a process than a moment.
But just like the knowledge slowly sinks in that I'm passionate about playing the trumpet or I'm in love or I'm convinced that I'm never going to eat meat anymore or I now know that I'm called to be a teacher, it's also important to name what is going on, to declare the knowledge you know to be true, to admit to the flowering, the opening of the heart.
And rituals help us here. That's why we ask for baptism, a visible sign of an inner knowing. That's why we pause to partake at the Lord's Table, a visible symbol of the heart's longing and commitment.
These things are beyond words. What happened to Lydia is not spelled out. She's there by the river. She talks with Paul. Somehow she knows, she senses her heart opened wide. It just is, we don't know exactly how it happens. I understand this to be a God thing, God planting an irresistible yearning, a hunger, a drive, an anointing if you will, upon us to do what the Lord would have us to do.
I'm encouraged and heartened and instructed by the way this seems to happen so often in the early church within a group of people, a community. It is also instructive how this story criss-crosses cultural and economic boundary lines, allowing God to work in surprising places. But mostly I hope that the testimony of this businesswoman Lydia would resonate within us freeing us up, opening our hearts, to the Spirit of God working within us.
