Paul + Lydia + The Holy Spirit*

Paul+Lydia+The Holy Spirit

6-Easter-C

 

In the Parish where Rob and I raised our family

The Easter Season was taken very seriously 

On every Sunday of the Easter Season 

Fr Steve, our pastor, would begin his homily…with 

“Happy Easter Church!”

 

Now this wouldn’t go over very well if there were half dead lilies all over

And we know how notoriously short-lived they are in dark churches;)

So the trick was trying to keep Easter Flowers fresh through the 7 Sundays of Easter. 

And that job was my very first “inside the church” ministry

 

Of course, every Sunday is a celebration of the resurrection

Every Sunday is Easter

But in the Easter season we sharpen our focus 

 

It’s kinda like birthdays

We celebrate the birth of people we love on a particular day

But we are grateful all year long…

We are glad they were born every day…or at least most days;)

but ONE day we set aside ONE day so that we can sing and eat cake and ice cream!

 

The best way that the Church helps us focus comes from the lectionary 

The Gospel selections tell of Jesus making his presence known

He pops in and out of rooms…never mind the locked doors

He sneaks up beside us on the Road

He cooks breakfast on the beach

And for the last three Sundays we are revisiting Jesus’ final words to his disciples… 

…today focusing on the gift of the Advocate…the Holy Spirit…the presence of Christ promised to be with us to teach and remind and give peace

 

And the first readings in Easter all come from the Acts of the Apostles

And many of these first readings tell of the miraculous growth of the early church… 

Myriads and myriads of joyful converts…and miracles too!

But today is different

Today we have the concise but important story of Lydia

 

 

Biblical Scholars usually refer to the gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles as one book: Luke-Acts

Written by the same author 

They mirror each other

Just as in the Gospel, Jesus moves from Galilee to Jerusalem

So, in Acts, Paul moves from Jerusalem to Rome 

The story of Lydia

Placed as it is at the hinge of the story of Acts

Is the pivot point

This is a significant episode

 

Midway through Luke’s gospel

Jesus sets his face toward Jerusalem

And midway through Acts 

Paul gets deliberate about Rome 

 

But Paul is not Jesus.

 

Before today’s happy meeting between Paul and Lydia…

 

Paul had been having his share of trouble

He had some relationship trouble with Barnabas

And then some directional trouble with “where to go next”

In fact

He tried every other compass direction

He tried

And he was blocked

The text says “the holy spirit put up roadblocks”

So here’s the picture in my head:

You know when you are trying to get somewhere new

And you are relying on your google-maps?

Then you make a wrong turn and that little circular crank starts to turn and turn???

Paul goes through that re-routing thing until…finally… 

There are no other options…which is when he has his dream;)

 

Why is Paul reluctant to go west to Philippi?

Well…because it is hard, and dangerous, and…well totally ROMAN!

 

The city of Philippi is a mini-Rome

The people who live there are the children, 

ancestors, or slaves of the original conquering soldiers. 

The natives are long-gone.

The success and vitality of this town is directly related to Rome

 

I bet every one of us would have saved Philippi for last;)

 

 

Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem

It wasn’t going to be easy

 

The Holy Spirit

Finally gets through to Paul

IMAGE: One hand on either cheek…

The Holy Spirit, with one hand firm on each of his cheeks

sets Paul’s face to Philippi and toward Rome

…where the story will end with Paul’s martyrdom

 

He is going.

But even then, Paul can’t escape his unchecked-cultural-assumptions

He sets sail believing that he is journeying to meet the “Macedonian Man” of his dream

 

Instead, just outside the city, he comes upon a group of women

He meets Lydia, a Woman from Thyatira!

Quite simply…NOT a Macedonian man;)

(I love that he gets things so wrong

It makes me feel better about my sometimes-wayward discipleship)

 

The Lord opened Lydia’s heart

And Paul spoke into it

And like those disciples on the road to Emmaus

Lydia “prevailed upon” Paul and Silas and they enjoyed her generous hospitality

 

This is only part 1 of the story…in part 2 Paul and Silas get into trouble in the city

They end up beaten and thrown into prison.

And after a swift conversion of the jailer and his family 

…the section ends with Paul and Silas back at Lydia’s
Back to her comfortable, lively, re-juvenating house-church

 

Lydia signifies something important

In the dramatic story of Acts

With its powerful sermons

And myriads and myriads of conversions

Lydia begins tending to the inside of the growing church

 

 

I am comfortable supposing

That the newbie Christian Church

Didn’t need a Macedonian Man

The Church needed a Lydia

The Church always needs Lydias

 

 

There is a lot going on in the lives of the people of St Stephens

 

1-Young people finishing College and transitioning to an uncertain world of work and Career. Where will I live, what will my work be like, will I have friends?

2-and young people moving on to college from High School

To being away from home…away from the familiar…

For the first time

3-on the flipside there are parents wondering what it will be like after he/she leaves

Will we like having a quiet house?

4- And among us there are many dealing with the slow creep of aging and the debility that often accompanies it

5- And one rests in a hospice bed while her beloved keeps vigil beside 

 

And I’m sure there are more…

 

These…shall we say…transitions

These Philippi experiences…

Where there is plenty of anxiety and fear

lots of questions

And hard to come by answers

Well…wouldn’t having a Lydia nearby make a difference?

 

 

I began with an emphasis on Easter

And an Easter message is always a message of promise and hope and presence

We are an Easter people

And being an Easter people takes us all—Pauls, Silas’, Macedonian men, and Lydias…it takes us all 

 

Some of us here today are coming up against road-blocks

Some of us are in the midst of a little re-routing

And maybe some of us are in a place

To take on the role of Lydia

To step into some inside-the-church ministry of caring

 

Even though I would never say that Church is the only place to rest in the presence of the Holy Spirit

I am comfortable saying that it is a privileged place

Especially here at St Stephen’s

Where both Pauls and Lydias seem to surface when needed

 

 

Each one of us

On this Easter Day

Made our way here

Perhaps some of us made our way in response to God’s love for us

And others did so in search of it

 

And the Easter Word

Gives us Paul and Lydia and the Holy Spirit 

 

 

In the power of the Holy Spirit

Christ is present among us

Helping us to be Christ for each other

 

It starts here…

Or better yet…here is a point on the ongoing pattern of Christian Life

THIS/HERE is both refuge and prompt

 

Paul was nourished and comforted

In the house-church that was Lydia’s home

That pattern continues

It is the Easter Pattern

It is our pattern

 

 

 

 

Suscipe/Receive Monday of Holy Week 2022

Prayer of St Ignatius

RECEIVE

You have given all to me 

To you, Lord, I return it

Everything is yours

Do with it what you will

Give me only your love and your grace

That is enough for me

What Lingers in our Wake?*

5th Sunday of Lent  (Year C, RCL)

John 12:1-8

The Anointing at Bethany 

I’m curious

What do you think the other dinner party guests were talking about as they walked home from that dinner party?

 

This is an extremely sensual…maybe even disturbing, episode 

In the context of John’s unfolding narrative 

this episode offers us an almost impossible depth of richness

 

We have a bit of a problem from the get-go 

Because we have been reading from the Gospel of Luke

We have talked about Lucan themes and the Lucan Jesus

And PLOP

The lectionary switches to the Gospel of John!

 

So we need to take a look at where we are

We need to put on our John glasses

Today’s scene follows directly after the Raising of Lazarus story

It might even be considered a continuation of that story 

…the stories are meant to go together…they need each other

 

The Lazarus story begins by foreshadowing what Mary will do:

“Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, 
the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 
Mary WAS the one who anointed the Lord with perfume 
and wiped his feet with her hair”

 

So the narrator is identifying Mary by what she hasn’t yet done!

That’s a clue that it is really important…it is DEFINING

 

When Jesus went to Lazarus’s tomb and said “take away the stone”

Martha warns: “But Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days!”

 

Looking at the two episodes together

I am struck today by contrasts 

 

Let’s start with Mary and Judas

For Mary, the monetary analysis of her sacrifice never entered her thoughts

For Judas, everything is weighed and calculated…measurability is key

For Mary, extravagance and exuberance erupt naturally in the presence of Jesus

She only has eyes for him…

she is not navigating the concerns of others in the room…

she is utterly free and unencumbered…sitting at the feet of Jesus

 

Judas is attempting to manipulate the scene

He points a deriding finger at her…look at her…what a waste!

Who could ever condone such behavior!

Judas is corrupt…His motivations are corrosive. 

There is nothing likeable about Judas in John’s gospel.

The common purse is for the needs of the poor

He manages the common purse

He is a thief

Mary’s extravagance could have lined his own pocket

 

Mary does NOW what Jesus will ask his disciples to do in the next chapter

He will wash their feet

And instruct them “Do this in memory of me”

Mary becomes a model disciple NOW…intuitively and without instruction!

 

Judas corrupts discipleship…

Mary gets discipleship…

 

 

Then there is Life and Death

Lazarus is dead…and is resuscitated 

He is alive and continues to be present in the story

For John this is what propels the political and religious forces to coalesce against him

 

Mary’s anointing is in anticipation of Jesus’ death

She senses deeply the mission of Jesus and she responds in the moment

Without reserve

With abandon

She won’t get another chance

 

And then there is the assault on the senses

Aroma versus Stench

The aroma of Mary’s ointment counters the stench of Lazarus’ tomb…

the stench of death

 

This detail in the story seeped into my imagination

And it demanded my attention!

 

I googled “why are smells so evocative?”

The olfactory bulb sends its information directly to the amygdala – the memory bank for emotional experience.  There is no extra processing en-route, as there is for our other senses, so smell memories link to emotional memories in a raw state.

 

I sent out this prompt to 10-15 friends

Describe a smell that floods your mind with an arresting memory—person place or event:

 

There was a bit of overlap…but here are a few of the responses:

My mother’s perfume---Estee Lauder

My father’s pipe tobacco…it signaled: I’M HOME!

The Peonies that lined the driveway of my family home

The aroma of my mother frying chicken

The smell of coffee being ground…I remember my mother taking me the grocery when I was four or five and her getting a bag of freshly ground coffee

Perfume of a girl I made out with in High School…don’t use my name;)

The smell of lily of the Valley…the crisp fresh jasmine-like scent of a small bouquet I picked on the way to school to give to my favorite teacher Sr. Michelle…I was in the 1^st grade

 

But one shared memory really helped me understand this gospel story in a fresh way.

 

My friend, Mary…of course it was a Mary…

Responded:

Lilac bushes lined one side and the back edge of our backyard where I grew up. Each Spring, when the lilacs bloomed, my Mother would send us kids out to make cuttings so that she could make bouquets for every room in the house. The bouquets were replenished for as long as the bushes provided. The fragrance filled the house!  Lilacs = Spring = Mom. When I was first married and we bought our first house, I brought transplants from my parents' yard to plant in my first home. I just couldn’t imagine spring without Lilacs to cut…without that fragrance in my home! 

 

I began to wonder about Jesus’ Mary 

About her rich and fragrant ointment

Mary is rubbing this on Jesus’ feet

She used enough for it to fill the house

And she takes her hair and wipes at the excess

Her hair is saturated 

 

Perhaps Jesus’ Mary… 

     Like my friend Mary and her essential Lilacs

Perhaps Jesus’ Mary

Wants to take the aroma of Jesus

The scent of Love with her

 

She saturates her hair

She wants a remnant of his presence

Something to carry with her

 

And perhaps Jesus takes her---

Her scent of devotion and love 

With him to his Passion

 

It is a scent of love

And Love always goes both ways

Giving and receiving 

LOVE always in relationship

 

 

This is rich imagery

But it’s true isn’t it?

Love does have a scent

 

Fear and corruption do too…

There are giveaways in our language:

We say that something “smells fishy”

Or from Shakespeare “There is something rotten in Denmark”

Or when some person or event “leaves a bad taste in our mouth”

 

 

On this fifth Sunday of Lent

As we prepare for Palm Sunday and Holy Week

I feel drawn to investigate the smell of my life

What is my life’s ratio of aroma to stench?

What lingers in the wake of my encounters with people and places and events?

 

If I can see corrosiveness trailing in my wake

Am I keen enough…honest enough… to investigate?

Does my Judas-like outrage against …just against

Overpower

My Mary-Like freely-spent…devotion and love?

 

What lingers after I pass by?

 

 

When I was working in the hospital…during my chaplain days

I was often with dying patients

And its true…death definitely has a stench

And it doesn’t magically go away

 

But the nurses taught me about an ointment that you could put 

Under your nose…above your upper lip

It doesn’t make the smell go away 

It just deals with it

 

We Christians don’t deny death

Holy week will take us through the cross to Easter

Not around it

Or under it or over it

Through it

 

 

 

Of the 10-15 people I polled

And I used the word smell deliberately

so that it could refer to the

pleasant as well as the unpleasant

All the responses were sweet memories 

even if tinged with loss and longing

 

John’s gospel is keen on abundance…a major theme starting with all that WINE (chapter 2)

Abundance

Be assured

there is plenty of fragrant love on offer

 

 

 

It seems to me that our discipleship challenge is to gather it up

The loving and being loved

Gather it up

Grace upon grace

…enough to saturate our hair…

 

What do we give off as we encounter people, places, and events?

Is it a love that lingers?

A love that leaves a scent?

Is it a love with a measure of momentum?

 

So that 

beyond us…it will take on ever new life?

 

LET IT BE SO!

 

On Craddock

Craddock’s point was that preaching should focus not on preacher, text, or sermon, but on the listener and on “gaining a hearing” for the gospel in a culture that thought it already knew what the gospel was about. He argued that the way to gain a hearing for the gospel is by communicating indirectly. The “something lacking” in a Christian land is “something one person cannot communicate directly to another.” Preachers were invited to shift from trying to prove a point to putting the listener in a dynamic conversation with the text. There was room for the preacher to ask questions—and room for the listener to draw his or her own conclusions.

From: 

"The people’s preaching class: Fred Craddock in retirement"            By William Brosend

Fully, Imaginatively, and in Living Color

 

At the Heart of the Liturgy, Conversations with Nathan D. Mitchell's "Amen Corners" 1991-2012

Edited by: Maxwell E. Johnson, Timothy P. O'Malley, and Demetrio S. Yocum; Forward by Mary Catherine Hilkert, OP

(screenshot from the original amen Corner, footnote 40: Burghardt, Long Have I Loved You, 335)

Dangerous Unselfishness

 

Monday of the Second Week of Lent

From: For the Life of the World, Alexander Schmemann. Copyright 1963, 1970, 1972, 1973, St. Vladimir's Seminary Press

...Christianity is not reconciliation with death.  It is the revelation of death, and it reveals death because it is the revelation of Life.  Christ is this Life.  And only if Christ is Life is death what Christianity proclaims it to be, namely the enemy to be destroyed, and not a ‘mystery’ to be explained.  Religion and secularism, by explaining death, give it a ‘status,’ a rationale, make it ‘normal.’  Only Christianity proclaims it to be abnormal and, therefore, truly horrible.  At the grave of Lazarus Christ wept, and when His own hour to die approached, ‘he began to be sore amazed and very heavy.’  In the light of Christ, thisworld, this life are lost and beyond mere ‘help,’ not because there is fear of death in them, but because they have accepted and normalized death.  To accept God’s world as a cosmic cemetery which is to be abolished and replaced by an ‘other world’ which looks like a cemetery (‘eternal rest’) and to call this religion, to live in a cosmic cemetery and to 

‘dispose’ every day of thousands of corpses and to get excited about a ‘just society’ and to be happy! – this is the fall of man.  It is not the immorality or the crimes of man that reveal him as a fallen being; it is his ‘positive idea’ – religious or secular – and his satisfaction with this ideal.  This fall, however, can be truly revealed only by Christ, because only in Christ is the fullness of life revealed to us, and death, therefore, becomes ‘awful,’ the very fall from life, the enemy.  It is this world (and not any ‘other world’), it is this life (and not some ‘other life’) that were given to man to be a sacrament of the divine presence, given as communion with God, and it is only through this world, this life, by ‘transforming’ them into communion with God that man was to be.  The horror of death is, therefore, not in its being the ‘end’ and not in physical destruction.  By being separation from the world and life, it is separation from God.  The dead cannot glorify God.  It is, in other words, when Christ reveals Life to us that we can hear the Christian message about death as the enemy of God.  It is when Life weeps at the grave of the friend, when it contemplates the horror of death, that the victory over death begins.