As always, our lessons are a great gift to us, and the very first reading today is one that is especially compelling.
Do people still have visions? Visions that are as vivid as living life and that lead to action. Paul saw a vision of a Macedonian pleading with him to come to preach God’s good news. The vision was so real that it was enough to make him drop everything to set sail. And once in Macedonia, he preached as he had been told to do, speaking to those who had gathered. Among those who gathered were, it would seem, women, including the cloth dealer Lydia. Her stock in trade was purple cloth, a cloth of high value of importance to the wealthy.
We don’t know Lydia’s back story. How had she come to be so independent? She seems to have been a successful business woman, dealing in a luxury item. Even in these few lines, we see something of her personality. She was open minded, eager to hear Paul’s message. And once she heard it, she was decisive. She was unhesitating in inviting these heretofore unknown men to come and lodge at her house.
That this was an unconventional request is suggested by the phrase that she had to be persuasive – she “prevailed” on them to come. And she did not simply welcome them. She was wholly open to them, transformed by what they said to the point that she was baptized and the whole household was baptized with her. She was a woman with influence, certainly over her household. She seems to have been socially unconventional, a woman operating without the supervision of a husband or father or son. She was a woman on her own, economically self-sufficient, making her own decisions. A woman for our times.
We should heed her example of attentiveness and openness. There are many voices trying to influence us. We need to hear the voices that speak truth and generosity, as she was able to do. There are, however, some voices, alas, that are not generous. They draw lines that question the rights and interests of other people, people who are not “like us” and who don’t belong. We need to see this attitude as destructive of our shared human needs.
I suggested that Lydia in her independence and values was a woman for our times. But her ways were not for everyone in our times, alas. You could stay with her without providing, say, a jet plane in return, as Trump’s recent guest from South Africa felt constrained to provide. Lydia we can feel sure would be the good host. She managed her household well, we imagine — someone who was generous, successful, enterprising, open to what was powerful and true.
Let’s return to the visions. Paul was in Macedonia where he met Lydia because he had a vision in the night that he believed was sent by God. And because he believed that, he acted on the vision. He simply set sail. He went to Macedonia because he felt summoned to preach, and, once there, he did so with influence. —–
Revelations also offers a vision. This is a different kind of vision from Paul’s, a vision – not of a worldly place where someone felt he needed to be, as Paul was — but a vision of the new Jerusalem, a place of light and peace and people living in honor and truth – all shown from a high place by an angel. This is a vision that does not call to action but that holds out a golden dream of light and peace. It is a vision of healing and abundance in the engulfing presence of the light of God. This is a vision to inform all of life.
And, finally, our gospel offers a vision – here vision in the sense of an account – a vision of real healing, of the healing from physical suffering that transforms an individual’s life. This is a story that even in its simplest form is one that anyone hearing has to be deeply moved by. This is a story about ignoring legalisms– like prohibitions on Sabbath actions — in favor of human generosity.
It first briefly recalls the healing of the official’s son, a child near death who at Jesus’ word is restored to life.
It then goes on to its main subject, the story of a man long paralyzed, perhaps his whole life, who faced not only his physical suffering but the isolation that no one seemed to care about his plight. There was, it would seem, no one to help him do what he badly needed, to be put into the pool that would give him respite. This is a story of physical pain and the personal pain of isolation. And the take-away, perhaps, is that Jesus responded to that pain. He saw a person’s suffering and found a way – admittedly a way beyond what any one of us could do – to alleviate that pain. But still there is a lesson that anyone could take away. This is the lesson that, in whatever way possible, suffering needs a response. It’s the same lesson as that offered by the good Samaritan, who does not pass by on the other side.
So we are given three visions –
a vision of guidance,
a vision of God’s new Jerusalem,
and a vision of Jesus’ modeling of legalism-defying service.
Our collect today prays for such love of God that we will love God in all things. To go back to Lydia, that is, I think, what she does. When she encounters Paul, she hears God’s truth. She welcomes his words. She calls him to her house. Like her, we must hope to sift truth from falsehood. We must hope to recognize and truly hear the truths that we need to hear. And then, doing then, we must not just hear, but respond as we should.
