Reflections on "Somebody Who Saves Anybody" Acts 16:6-24

I reworked this sermon that I first preached in February, 2011.  i think the content got better the second time.  the biblical text below is just the second lesson, Acts 16: 16-24.  If you want to read the Lydia part of the story, go back to Acts 16: 6-15.

Two soloists from the choir (thanks Hannah and Barrett) beautifully sang the vocalist parts in the sermon.  As I have found previously, integrating music into sermons can be very powerful.  The Associate Pastor (thanks Lisa) suggested that the next time if the singers were in the congregation or came walking up through the congregation, it would add to the moment. I think she is correct and will do that one day!

I love the final story from Ron Hall and Denver Moore.  I have been told that a Sunday School class at St. Andrew studied this book when it first came out a few years ago, so I suspect some of the congregation was familiar with the story already.

“Somebody Who Saves Anybody”  FPC, Troy; February 20, 2017; Acts 16: 16-24

One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave-girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. 17 While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you[a] a way of salvation.” 18 She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.

19 But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities. 20 When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, “These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews 21 and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe.” 22 The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods. 23 After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely. 24 Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

Introduction:  

**** Female vocalist sings "Down To The River To Pray"

As I went down in the river to pray
Studying about that good ol' way
And who shall wear the starry crown?
Good Lord show me the way!

O sisters let's go down
Let's go down, come on down
O sisters let's go down
Down in the river to pray

MOVE 1:  Lydia chose to go down to the river and pray.

a.  Lydia was a woman who had some status in her community.

1. Lydia is a Greek name, which suggests that Lydia was not a Jew who had ended up as a stranger in Thyatira, but a Greek woman. 
2. Lydia apparently had her own business.
3. She traveled to Philippi.
4. She dealt in cloth.
5. Not just any cloth, but purple cloth. 
6. I remember a few years ago proofreading one of my daughters English papers and the topic was clothing fashions in the Renaissance and Elizabethan era.  Apparently, the styles of clothing worn indicated which class  you lived in.
7. We know that was also true in the time of the early church.
8. Purple was the color of royalty and power.  Lydia undoubtedly moved in the circles of the rich and powerful.

1. Lydia also had a house.  
1. A house where she decided who could be invited to visit.  
2. When she asks Paul and his associates to stay at her house, she does not have to ask permission from her husband or anyone else. She invites them to stay at her house.

1. Lydia was not defined as the wife of some husband, or as the daughter of some father; she  stood on her own, known by her name.  
2. In our time she would be an independent, upper middle-class business woman.

c. the fact that Lydia went down to the river to pray had significance as well.

1. It means that before meeting Paul, she had already chosen to worship God.
2. She belonged to a group of Gentiles who worshiped the God of the Jews, but were not Jewish.  And up to this point, she had not become a follower of Christ.
3. Some scholars think that the fact she was going to the river to pray indicated that there were not enough Jews in Philippi to form  the required quorum of 10 Jewish men necessary for a synagogue to be established.

In summary – Lydia was an independent woman who chose to worship the God of the Jews, even in a place where there were not enough Jews to have a synagogue.

She could choose to go down to the river to pray and worship God or she could choose not to - it was up to her.

***** Female vocalist sings "Down To The River To Pray"

As I went down in the river to pray
Studying about that good ol' way
And who shall wear the starry crown?
Good Lord show me the way!

O mothers let's go down
Come on down, don't you wanna go down?
Come on mothers, let's go down
Down in the river to pray

Move 2:  One woman did not have a choice about whether she wanted to go down to the river to pray or not.

a.  I would tell you her name, but we do not know it.

1. the slave girl does not mean enough to the story for her name to be mentioned.

1. She derived her value from how well she served the purposes of others.

1. Her slave owners saw her simply as profit.

1. Her affliction, the demons that resided inside her, gave her the ability to tell fortunes.

1. apparently, she was pretty good at telling fortunes because her owners made money off of her.

b. Paul rescues her in a sense.

1. But do not miss that she is almost as afterthought to Paul.

1. Paul takes notice of her only because she has become a nuisance to him.

1. Everyday she follows Paul and his friends around shouting out, “slaves of the Most High God.”

1. she is correct in her announcement. But, Paul finds it bothersome to have someone making a scene every day.

1. He does not seem to care about her for her sake; he cares about her as far is it impacts him.

1. So in the name of God, Paul drives the demon from her.

1. Suddenly, she is out of the picture.

1. The story shifts to her owners being angry withPaul for what he has done to take away the gift their money-making slave has.

1. In fact, when her owners bring charges against Paul, they do not even mention the slave girl. Instead, they argue that Paul and Silas are disturbing the peace with their preaching.

1. The slave girl is not even worth mentioning. 

We do not know if the unnamed slave girl would have liked to go down to the river to pray because she does not get to choose what to do with her life.

***** Female vocalist sings "Down To The River To Pray"

As I went down in the river to pray
Studying about that good ol' way
And who shall wear the robe & crown?
Good Lord show me the way 

Move 3:  We live in a very different time and place, but we recognize in our world some of what we read about Philippi.

a.  We recognize the Lydias in our world.

1. the people who are self-sufficient.

1. Who have some money and some status.

1. They have choices.

1. They can go down to the river and pray if they want; or not.

5.  We recognize Lydia because most of us identify with Lydia, not the slave girl.

b. We still have people like the unnamed slave girl in our world.

1. People who are marginalized.

1. Who do not have opportunity.

3.  who have very little power.

1. Who live without hope.

1. Hear the good news:  God connected with Lydia and the unnamed slave girl.

1. Lydia was already praying for God.

1. She was already seeking to worship God.

3. Now in this moment, she discovers the power of the resurrected Christ in her life.

d.  The slave girl also had some sense of the holy.

1.  She recognized Paul and his colleagues as “Slaves of the Most High”

2. she may have been filled with demons, but they did not keep her from seeing God’s presence in her midst.

1. Both Lydia and the unnamed slave girl are given new opportunities for life in Christ as Paul invites them to know the resurrected Christ.

1. Lydia seems to have changed in the way we can best understand.

1. she opens her home to other servants of God.

3.She gets baptized.

1. She has her whole household baptized.

1. We know she became a leader in the early church.

1. Encountering Christ through Paul changed her life in ways we recognize.

1. We know less about the unnamed slave girl.

1. But her life had been altered in a powerful way when Paul banished the demons from her.

2.  But, she was freed from her affliction.

3.  And she now knew the love of God for her and the power of Christ to transform her life in concrete ways.

e. Hear the good news – the God who connected with Lydia and the unnamed slave girl desires to connect with you; 

1.  Christ invites you to new life.

2. Just as Lydia was baptized, we gather around the waters of baptism to announce that the one who claims Jackson in the waters of baptism has claimed us and calls us to be transformed.

Conclusion:  The book Same Kind of Different As Me, Ron Hall and Denver Moore, 231.

it tells the story of Ron Hall, an wealthy white, international art dealer, and Denver Moore, an African-American, who had grown up in poverty in LA and had been homeless on the streets of Ft. Worth when he met Ron Hall and his wife Debbie.

The story details their very different lives before they met and the powerful story of the relationship that emerged between them.

One of the last stories told is about Denver Moore, the former homeless man, being invited to preach at a church and Ron Hall, the international art dealer being asked to introduce him as the speaker. 

As they sit on the back pew waiting to be called down to speak, Hall and Moore negotiate what Hall will say in the introduction.  He wants to give a glowing commentary on Moore's life.  Moore resists.  Finally Moore tells Hall to say this by way of introduction:  “Just tell em I'm a nobody that's tryin to tell everybody 'bout Somebody that can save anybody.  That's all you need to know.” 

Jesus is that somebody.  Lydia was an anybody. the unnamed slave girl was an anybody.  You are an anybody that Somebody comes to save.

That's all we need to know.

***** Female and male vocalists sing "Down To The River To Pray”

O sisters let's go down
Let's go down, come on down
O sisters let's go down
Down in the river to pray

O brothers let's go down
Let's go down, come on down
Come on brothers, let's go down
Down in the river to pray

O sinners, let's go down
Let's go down, come on down
O sinners, let's go down
Down in the river to pray

As I went down in the river to pray
Studying about that good ol' way
And who shall wear the robe and crown?
Good Lord show me the way