Sunday, May 25th, 2025: "Resurrection People: Lydia"

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 The First United Presbyterian Church

“Resurrection People: Lydia”

Rev. Amy Morgan

May 25, 2025

Acts 16:9-15

9 During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.

11 We therefore set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis, 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city for some days. 13 On the Sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there. 14 A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. 15 When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.” And she prevailed upon us.

One of the things I love about preaching is that it gives me the opportunity to learn about new things I would never bother to know otherwise. This week, the topic was sailing. Specifically, the origin of the term “changing tack.” As an idiom, I knew it meant changing one’s approach to an argument or situation. But it didn’t occur to me until this week that it is based on a sailing technique. 

When sailing with the wind, the sails can be set up to catch the breeze and send you straight on your way. But if your destination is into the wind, you have to “change tack.” “Tack” refers to the side of the boat on which the wind is blowing. To sail against the wind, you have to adjust the sails back and forth to make the boat move in a serpentine line, so the wind blows against one side and then the other, “changing tack” to change direction and curve right and left. 

The obvious connection between my sailing studies and today’s story from Acts is that Paul and his companions took a sailboat trip to Macedonia. But the thing that inspired me to look into the term, “changing tack,” is that Paul has to do this in the idiomatic sense throughout this story. 

He’s tried going into Asia to spread the Gospel, but they were “forbidden by the Holy Spirit.” Then he tries going toward an eastern region called Bithynia, but, the writer of Acts tells us, “the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.” So they end up on the western coast of modern-day Turkey. And in a vision, a “man from Macedonia” urges Paul to come to help them. So they “change tack,” taking their missionary journey in the opposite direction from where they originally planned to go. They also literally change tack, sailing against the northerly winds of the Aegean Sea as they travel from Traos to port city of Neapolis. 

When they finally arrive in Philippi, the missionaries follow their usual routine of going on the Sabbath to whatever Jewish assembly or synagogue is in the area to share the gospel with their fellow Jews. But instead of rabbis and other men reading and interpreting the scriptures, they find a bunch of women. What were these women doing gathered at the river? We don’t know. They could have been gathered for prayer, or gossip, or to collect water. And the fact that Paul just plops himself down in the midst of this group of ladies demonstrates he was ready to change tack again. He doesn’t ask where their husbands are. He doesn’t walk on past, hoping to find the guys hanging out somewhere else. He turns into the headwinds of gender, religious, and cultural expectations and changes tack to welcome an entirely female assembly into the community of Jesus followers. 

But Paul isn’t the only character in this story who is changing tack. We’re told about this woman named Lydia whose life takes several twists and turns. Now, there are a few things about the two verses of scripture that focus on this woman that should make us stop and take notice. 

First, she is named. Most women in scripture are nameless and voiceless, but Lydia is neither. She is named, and her words are quoted. 

But before she speaks, Lydia listens. She receives teaching from Paul and is persuaded by him. And then she changes tack and becomes the speaker and the one persuading Paul. 

We’re told Lydia is a “worshiper of God.” This would mean she was a gentile who had an interest in the Jewish faith, was supportive of its beliefs and practices, but was not a complete convert. Given the polytheistic context of the first-century Roman Empire, many people would study and participate in the worship of deities from various faith traditions without feeling the need to belong entirely to any one in particular.  

But Lydia changes tack. Her heart is opened by God and she turns from her general interest in Judaism, and perhaps other faith traditions, to an all-in, have-my-whole-household-baptized level of commitment to Jesus Christ. 

Finally, we’re told that Lydia is originally from Thyatira, a city in a region called Lydia, coincidentally, a city known for its purple dyes and credited with the invention of metal coinage. So, in some ways, Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth, is a representative of her people - people of wealth, purpose, and creativity. 

But Lydia is also very independent. No husband or any other man is mentioned in relationship to her. She is an independent businesswoman. She personally persuades Paul and his companions to stay in a home that belongs to her and is large enough to accommodate this group. She has the authority in her household to decide that everyone is going to be baptized. 

Again, Lydia changes tack, turning from her safe, successful, comfortable life to the risks and challenges of being a Jesus-follower. Later on in the story, Paul and his companions are imprisoned in Philippi. When they escape, they are brough to Lydia’s house. She turns from respectable, upstanding citizen to someone who harbors fugitives. 

Both Paul and Lydia allow the wind of the Spirit to move in their lives, changing tack to sail against challenging or unexpected conditions. And this takes the early church in new directions. Lydia and her household are the first converts to Christianity in Europe. Lydia represents the leadership of prominent, independent women in the church. She inspires generosity in the Philippian church, recognized by Paul in his letter to them, saying, “You Philippians indeed know that in the early days of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving except you alone. For even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me help for my needs more than once.” There is no condemnation of wealth, but rather praise of generosity, an acknowledgement that the gospel isn’t restricted to the poor or the wealthy, but that all are invited to participate in the work of God’s reign on earth. 

In order to keep changing tack so the church can move in new directions, Paul and Lydia must respond to the Spirit, not decide for the Spirit. Paul doesn’t decide to go to Macedonia; he responds to a vision. Lydia doesn’t decide to follow Jesus; she responds to Paul’s teaching. Paul doesn’t decide to bring the gospel specifically to women; he responds to the people he encounters. Lydia doesn’t decide to become a generous patron of the fledgling Christian church; she responds to the needs of church’s mission. 

Over the last few months, I’ve been exploring with our elders some of the ideas in a book about church leadership by former PC(USA) moderator Joan Gray. She describes two approaches to church leadership. One is the “rowboat” church model, where we feel like it’s our job to chart a course and row together in that direction. The other is the “sailboat” church model, where we allow the Spirit to lift our sails and move us in whatever direction God desires us to go. While most churches don’t perfectly embody either of these models, Gray encourages us to explore the way of the sailboat so that we, like Paul and Lydia, can allow the church to move in new directions, responding to the Spirit instead of deciding for the Spirit. 

This idea of sailboat church isn’t new. In fact, some of the earliest symbols used by Christians to identify themselves and their places of worship were anchors and sailboats. Gray writes that “The early believers used a sailboat to symbolize the church because the idea of being powered by the Holy Spirit of God, as the wind moves a boat, was at the heart of their experience of being church.” 

As resurrection people, we are powered by the Holy Spirit of God. And therefore, we are skilled at changing tack when we encounter resistance or sense new movements of the Spirit. 

Several years ago, this church got a grant to expand our ministry to young people in the surrounding community. It was decided that we should launch a soccer league for at-risk kids in town. That effort never really took off, so we changed tack and developed Art Hub, a free arts enrichment camp. Making that shift has lifted our sails, and in a few weeks we’ll host our sixth Art Hub Camp. 

Our church was founded 150 years ago because Rev. William McCreery, following the wind of the Spirit, changed tack in the face of challenges. He was struggling to find a suitable place to found a Presbyterian congregation along the front range, traveling back and forth from Evans as far South as Canyon City. But when two strangers invited him to join their expedition North to Alexander Canyon, as Big Thompson Canyon was then called, he changed tack and discovered the ideal spot for First United Presbyterian Church.

This congregation has had to sail against some strong winds throughout our history. As pastors came and went, as finances and membership fluctuated, as ministries grew and petered out, through mergers and schisms, through disagreements and harmony, through building new buildings and trying to keep them from falling apart, we have learned to change tack and go where God is leading us. 

And who knows where the Spirit will take us next? It’s not up to us to decide. But we, God’s resurrection people, are called to respond. We can respond to those who are begging for our help, even if their need isn’t obvious and we don’t exactly know what they will require of us. We can respond to those who share their wisdom and insights and faith with us, even if we don’t fully understand it all. We can respond to the people God puts in our path, even if they aren’t the people we expected to encounter. We can respond to the needs of the church’s mission with generosity, even if that requires some risk on our part. 

I will confess that I am actually not a fan of sailboats. I’ve been on one exactly once, and that was one time too many. The idea of a sailboat church might be just as appealing to some of us. We like our plans, our “decent and in order.” We like to decide where we’re going, set a course, and move along with the wind at our backs. Sailing into the wind, changing tack, sensing the movement of the Spirit – it all sounds like something that will send us below deck feeling slightly nauseous.

But I came into the life of this church almost 8 years ago in a moment when things were so financially tenuous you weren’t sure you could call, or keep, a full-time pastor. And I have witnessed how the Spirit has moved in all kinds of wacky and surprising ways to welcome new ideas and adapt to changing needs. Through building catastrophes and COVID, staff changes and street construction, you all have kept changing tack and moving toward that vision of being “The Heart of Christ in the Heart of Loveland.” And while many of the ups and downs and twists and turns have been uncomfortable at times, if I had it to do over again, I’d hop on this boat in a heartbeat. In a time when many churches feel like sinking ships, we are a sailboat church, loaded with resurrection people. And we will continue to sail faithfully together, no matter how many times we have to change tack. 

To God be all glory forever and ever. Amen.