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Introduction
Most often we
think of heroes or heroines as persons who singularly stand out and apart from
others in their community through their courage or moral example. And there is
a place for recognizing the singularity of exemplary lives. Hebrews 11 is such
a list of biblical “heroes of the faith.” This summer your faith community has
been looking at such heroes of faith. But, the truth is, we can only understand
heroes or heroines in connection with their communities. No hero or heroine
stands alone and apart from their community. We cannot fully understand Dorothy
Day apart from her Roman Catholic community and particularly the Catholic Worker
movement. We cannot fully understand Martin Luther King Jr. without also
understanding the black community of which he was a part; its traditions,
practices, music, style, struggles, hopes, dreams, and religious expression. The
story of a hero or heroine is also the story of a particular community or
communities.
The story of “Lydia”
in the book of Acts is not only a story about a unique individual, although “Lydia”
is not a personal name. In reality her name is a province of Thyatira, possibly
indicating she was a former slave without a given Roman name. Her story is also a story about her own communities.
In only a few verses of chapter 16 in the Acts of the Apostles, we learn
something about Lydia and the communities of which she was a part. First, we
will examine three of her communities to better understand Lydia as a
distinctive person. With each identified community we will dialogue around one
reflective question to connect her story with our own story and that of our own
communities.
The Synagogue
The first
community we encounter in the story of Lydia is the synagogue. According to Acts, the missionary
practice of Paul was to find a synagogue in the cities to which he travelled as
the first place to preach and teach the message of Jesus as Messiah. I don’t
think his travels to Philippi were any exception, though it has been disputed.
On the Sabbath Paul and his missionary companions went outside the city gate to
a river, where they supposed there was a
“place of prayer.” If their custom was to look for a synagogue on the
Sabbath, then it would seem that what they were expecting to find alongside the
river was a synagogue. The word translated “place of prayer” (προσευχη)
is a synonym for “synagogue.” The reason it has not been translated as
“synagogue”? First and foremost, because it was an assembly of women! How can
you have formal worship when it’s just a bunch of women? Also, there must not
have been any Jewish males in Philippi, goes the reasoning, to form a
synagogue. It must simply have been a cozy women’s prayer group meeting in a
bucolic setting down by the riverside.
What do we
learn about Lydia from this community?
Lydia is described as a “worshipper of God” or “god-fearer,” a term for
a Gentile proselyte to Jewish faith. Gentile women were particularly attracted
to the Jewish faith. There must have been something in the faith that affirmed
their identity as women. There were in the ancient world women who were even
heads of synagogues. In Philippi, we have what was probably an exceptional case
of a synagogue primarily made up of women. Imagine how this unique community
shaped and formed Lydia as a person of faith and as a woman!
Reflective
Question:
What might someone learn about you as a person and a Christian from understanding your community of faith?
The Household
The second
community we encounter in Lydia’s story is the household. Lydia listened eagerly and her heart was open to hear the good
news of Jesus proclaimed to the women of the synagogue. This led to the baptism
of her whole household. This ancient
Mediterranean household was not the same as a modern household, understood as a
nuclear family, although ancient and modern households have both been typically
understood as ruled and owned by the paterfamilias,
or father of the family, until most recently. This ancient household was the
basic economic unit of society, economia (literally
“household management”) being derived from the word for household (οικοσ).
As well, the household was a place of worship. The household was not based
solely on blood kinship, but also included slaves and freed persons, who
assisted in the family work.
No “partriarchal
family” structure is mentioned in the text, no male head of the household. It
appears that Lydia was the head of her own household, which does not
necessarily mean she was a widow. It does mean she was the leader of her
household; its work, economics, and worship life. Although untypical, there
were households ruled by mater familias, or
mother of the family. It is possible that Lydia’s household was composed
primarily of women. The production of cloth was the work of women. She must
have transferred her business to Phillipi from Thyatira, which was known for
the manufacture of dyed cloth. Some of the women gathered at the synagogue may
have been part of Lydia’s household and business.
It is not
necessary to conceive of Lydia as an “independently wealthy business woman” or
“rich cloth merchant,” as has been the traditional interpretation. Production
and sale of purple dyed cloth was not necessarily a lucrative business for all
persons in the industry. It’s production was a rather disgusting, smelly process.
It’s possible that Lydia and those who worked with her together made a
subsistence living. In this picture Lydia must have relied upon the communal
work of her household to maintain economic sustainability. Only through shared
work was the household community economically sustainable in a peasant society
with very small elite upper class and no middle class.
Reflective
Questions:
How might households in the church
work together collectively to address the economic sustainability of persons within
the household of faith (the church) and in the larger household (economy) of
our communities?
The Church
The third and
final community we encounter in the story of Lydia is the church. Upon the baptism of her household Lydia urged Paul and
his companions to come and stay at her
home. Her invitation is a sign of hospitality. Not only was hospitality a
customary and expected practice in the ancient world, it was the means by which
the early church was established and grew. Churches were not buildings, but the
people who assembled together (ekklesia=called out, a political term). And
their first meeting places were in the household of converts, such as Lydia,
the first European convert to Christianity. By the time we get to verse 40 of
Acts 16, Lydia’s home appears to have become a house church, the center of
Christian life in Philippi. Directly out of prison Paul and Silas come to
Lydia’s household and encouraged the brothers
and sisters, familial titles given to members of the Christian community. Lydia is the patron, and even possibly
the leader, of the Philippian house church.
Lydia’s initial
invitation to Paul was prefaced with these words: “if you
have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my home. And she prevailed upon us.” The indication is that
she has indeed been accounted faithful in her baptism. Her baptism and fidelity
to “the Lord Jesus Christ” places her and the other converts in a new
community, in an alternative society that stands over against the society and
those faithful to Lord Caesar and the Roman imperial order. There is a hint of
danger in Lydia’s compelling appeal “prevailing” upon Paul to come to her home.
The possible danger is narrated in the story of the imprisonment of Paul and
Silas. Lydia practices risky hospitality. A person entered this new community at
Philippi at some risk and danger.
Reflective
Question:
Describe what the church
today would look like as an "alternative community" or "contrast
society" (e.g., living in faithfulness to Jesus as Lord) to our
surrounding communities and society.
Conclusion
Lydia’s three
communities---synagogue, household, and church---help us understand what made
her a distinctive person. Here was a unique woman who was shaped by these three
different communities. A Gentile worshipper of the Jewish God among a community
of strong women forming a synagogue, the head of her own household, leader of a
business which was sustained economically by a solidarity in work, the first
European convert to Christianity, a patron and possibly leader of the Christian
house church in Philippi, a community that shaped a new people together
resisting the empire of another Lord. Here was a woman formed by her distinctive
communities. As we have listened eagerly to Lydia’s story may these words be the
call of her life to radical faithfulness for each of us and our communities …and she prevailed upon us.
