Home. A place of safety (like home plate or home base—“olly, olly, in come free”).
Home. A place where you can be you—surrounded by your stuff.
Home—a gift, I realise once again, as we get ready to host families who have no home right now.
Home. As I worked with today’s reading from Acts, I began to see another dimension of home—being with God.
In the book of Acts we follow the apostles as they struggle with where to go and who to include in the growing community of those who believe in Jesus. In today’s reading we hear the adventures of the converted Saul, now named Paul, and another disciple, Timothy.
Right before our reading Acts tells us—
They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7When they had come opposite Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them; 8so, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas.
And while in Troas, Paul has a dream of a Macedonian man begging them to cross the Aegean Sea and bring the gospel to Europe. And so they set off--landing at Samothrace, quickly moving to Neapolis, and finally to Philippi—the leading city and Roman colony.
I was reminded of a story about a family from New Zealand. The husband went to an Eastern bloc country, and stayed there six months in a rented flat (as was required), and paid $25,000 to adopt a child from an orphanage. He returned to Aotearoa happy that they were now family. And then somehow he learned that the boy had a brother.
So back he went to the Eastern bloc, stayed in another run-down flat for another six months and paid a further $25,000. But just as he was about to leave the country, news of a sister reached him. She was more difficult to trace and adopting her meant travelling huge distances with no guarantee that he would be successful in finding or adopting her. But he was determined to bring them all together as family. Miraculously, he was able to do just that.
(Liz Lightfoot, Seasons of the Spirit, May 25, 2014)
That story would not leave me alone as I thought about Paul’s travels in Acts—from Palestine to what we now call the Middle East even to the bottom portion of Europe. What was he doing? Certainly preaching about Jesus. Certainly witnessing to the power of God. Certainly being a thorn in the side of established oppression and injustice (which was most notably the Roman state, although it could be his fellow believers in God, be they in synagogues or house churches).
I think a good image for what Paul is doing as he is traipsing across huge tracks of the world—is what that New Zealand man was doing as well. Bringing the family together. Reaching out. Doing what God has done for us in love. Creating home.
We have to leave for another time the interesting story of the Spirit of God directing where Paul and Timothy are going to go (and not go).
We have to leave for another time why in Paul’s dream a Macedonian man asks him to come, when in reality he is greeted and housed by a woman, Lydia.
We have to leave for another time the whole background of Lydia—an outsider because she was a woman—an outsider because she was in a messy, smelly business, dying cloth—an outsider because she was also a foreigner in that place.
We have to leave for another time the community that was praying there by the river and why Paul sought them out.
When Lydia and her household (notice it is HER household) are baptized—she recognizes that she can offer something to Paul. Her home. A place to stay. A place to unpack your stuff and be for a while.
Our translation says, “she prevailed upon” Paul and Timothy. Now that is not just, “We decided to take her up on her offer.” Nor is it, “She twisted our arms until we said yes.” The word translated as “prevailed upon” is used only one other time in the New Testament—in the gospel written by the same author as Acts—Luke, in the story of the Emmaus road.
You remember, those two disciples traveling on Easter Day (not yet knowing what has happened) meet a stranger on the road. They talk in depth about many things, including Jesus’ message and his death. And when it becomes late, those disciples “prevail upon” that stranger to stay for dinner—and when he breaks bread, they recognize him as the Lord.
(Brian Peterson, Working Preacher.com, 2013)
Lydia prevails upon Paul and Timothy to stay at her house. She offers them a home. And in so doing, she is acting in the image of God. For in the end, no matter how far we travel, God is our home. As Psalm 90 says in its first verse, “Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.”
Home. Not a place in which to safely hide—but an anchor as we are invited out into a wider and wider world.
Home. Not a place to celebrate ourselves—but a sure foundation as we are invited into greater and deeper fellowship with others.
Home. Certainly a gift—but a gift that we, like Lydia, are invited to share with others.
In God’s image.
In God’s name.
With God’s grace.
We too can “prevail upon” those who long
to hear, and see, and know the love of God.
To be “Home.”
May it be so. Alleluia. Amen.
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