A homily by Fr. Gene
Tucker, given at Trinity
Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Sunday, May 5, 2013.
“GOD-FEARERS”
(Homily text: Acts 16: 9 – 15)
Do you know
any “God-fearers”?
I suspect
that each of us does know at least one person who is a “God-fearer”, though we
may not call them by that name.
Lydia, the
central figure on our reading from the Book of Acts, is a “God-fearer”. And the fact that Luke (the author of Acts)
calls her by that description is key to understanding how St. Paul’s preaching
could result in her coming to faith in Jesus Christ.
More about
“God-fearers” in a moment.
First,
however, we ought to examine some of the details of Paul’s meeting the women
who had gathered outside the city gate of Philippi for prayer, for we can learn
much about the religious situation in that area from it.
As we look
at the text, the first thing we notice is that Paul and Silas (his missionary
companion) suspect that the riverside location is a place of prayer. Since Luke
tells us that Paul and Silas went there on the Sabbath day, it is safe to
assume that Philippi had no Jewish synagogue, for in this very early period,
Christians were in the habit of going to the synagogue to worship. There, in the synagogue, they would also
engage in spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ, for in such places, Jews who
knew the Old Testament scriptures could be found who would have some background
with which to understand the Gospel.
But in
Philippi, Paul and Silas must make do with an outside location.
Fortunately,
their suspicions are confirmed, for a group of women has gathered there, and we
can assume that they are noticed by Paul and Silas to be engaged in
prayer. Though Luke doesn’t tell us,
it’s also possible that Paul and Silas can hear at least a little bit of their
prayers, and come to realize that these women are “God-fearers”. (As I said a moment ago, we will have more to
say about God-fearers shortly)
One of the
women is identified by Luke as being Lydia, a woman who was originally from the
city of Thyatira, which is located in Asia Minor, in what is now western
Turkey. Luke goes on to say that she is
a dealer in purple cloth.
At this point,
we need to pause for a moment to unpack the importance of this fact about
Lydia:
Purple cloth, in ancient times, was
very difficult to make. As a result, it
was very expensive, and the clothing made from it was usually worn by royalty
or by the wealthy. Its color denoted
importance.[1] It’s probably safe to assume that Lydia
rubbed shoulders on a regular basis with those who were in the upper strata of
society.
Luke also
tells us that Lydia maintains her own
business and household. These two
factors make Lydia an unusual person for those times, since she was not only a
businesswoman, but the head of her household.
Luke tells us that, after she and her entire family are baptized,[2]
she invites the two missionaries to stay with them at her house.
Now, we
should turn our attention to those persons who were known as God-fearers.[3] The early Church found a ready audience among
these persons, who were Gentiles who had come to believe in the God of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob. They weren’t – in many
cases - full-fledged converts to Judaism, it should be noted, but worshipped
the same God and saw the truth of God’s identity as Jews understood it. Lydia, being a “God-fearer”, was out-of-step
with the pantheon of pagan gods that many in Philippi would have worshipped,
for she worshipped the one, true God, the God of Israel.
Lydia hears
the Good News, and her heart is opened by the Lord to receive the truth that
can only be found in Jesus Christ. Fortunately,
the understandings of God that have brought her to this point in her life
provide a solid foundation for understanding God’s work, done in Christ.
As we
should do anytime we read or hear Holy Scripture, we ought to ask ourselves
what lessons might we draw from the text, lessons that we might apply to our
own time, place and circumstances.
In doing
this, a number of parallels arise between the circumstances of Lydia’s
conversion and our own calling to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with
those we meet.
The first
observation we might make is that the mission
field for Paul and Silas resembles our own mission field in the
twenty-first century quite remarkably.
To be more specific, we can see from Luke’s description of the situation
in Philippi that it was a very pagan community.
(Later on in chapter sixteen, Luke records that a slave girl had a
spirit of fortune-telling, which is an indication of the free-wheeling nature
of Philipp’s religious life.) There was
very little influence – if any - of Judaism there, and perhaps that influence
was so small that only a group of women who were forced to gather by the
riverside was the only indication of it.
We can’t know for sure, but such a conclusion seems possible.
For
twenty-first Christians, the changes that have come about in our society have
shaped our society into a very pagan, free-wheeling culture. Nominally, we remain Christian to some
degree. But people’s attitudes and
behaviors increasingly demonstrate the same sort of free-wheeling attitude that
Paul might have encountered on the streets of Philippi nearly 2,000 years
ago. Idolatry, then and now, was/is
commonplace. Only the sorts of things
that qualify to be idols have changed shape and type. (Ours are far more sophisticated!)
For
another, Lydia and her companions have a knowledge of God, but it is only a
partial knowledge. Paul’s mission is to
“fill in the blanks” to supply what is missing in Lydia’s understandings. He presents the truth of Jesus Christ to her. And she, because of God’s power, opens her
heart to receive the Good News. Lydia
becomes a believer.
Another
parallel arises here: In today’s
contemporary world, many have a partial or imperfect knowledge of God. Sometimes, this smattering of knowledge
arises from what commentators have called a “smorgasbord religion”. That is, people choose to believe or to reject
whatever suits them. They pick and
choose what they want to believe, rejecting – in many cases – the demanding
parts of the Christian faith that would mandate personal changes in their
lives.
But this
smattering of knowledge can be enough ground upon which to move forward, to
present the life-changing message of Jesus Christ.
And that is
our task, to enter a mission field outside our doors that is just as
challenging as the one that Paul and Silas faced in Philippi. For many that we rub shoulders with each day
will have absolutely no knowledge of God, or of the marvelous, life-changing
work of Jesus Christ. Perhaps these very
same persons will have an inner emptiness and longing for something they cannot
identify….that longing can only be filled by God in Christ. Still others will have some knowledge of God,
and perhaps even of Christ. There, a
fertile soil awaits the planting of the good seed of the Gospel of Christ.
May God
lead us into contact with those we encounter, that they may come to the
fullness of faith that comes through faith in Jesus Christ.
AMEN.
[1] This aspect of the color purple survives
today in the color which is reserved for the Bishop, who wears purple.
[2] I can’t resist the temptation to mention
that Lydia’s entire family is baptized.
I don’t believe it is beyond the realm of possibility to conclude that
children were also among those who were baptized in her household. The same can be said about the Philippian
jailer, whose entire household is also baptized (see Acts 16: 33). If we are looking for scriptural authority
for the baptism of infants and young children, I believe these two incidents
provide such authority.
[3] Other persons are also identified as
“God-fearers” in the New Testament:
Cornelius is identified as being one in Acts 10:1 – 8. Other Gentile seekers after God who are
attached to the local synagogue are also identified in Acts 13: 43.
