I wonder what it was that Paul said that converted Lydia? It must have been telling because I suspect that Lydia was no push over. We are told that she was a worshipper of God, obviously not a Hebrew because she lived in Macedonia but none-the-less a God-fearing gentile, woman. She was a business woman - trading in purple cloth. Two interesting things here; one she is a woman in commerce and two her trade is in an expensive commodity, purple cloth. Both of which might have put her beyond the pale in the eyes of Paul and his companions had they not been challenged by the Holy Spirit to go to Macedonia.
Under the Hebrew Law, women were not counted as part of God’s chosen people, as I’ve said before that was only adult men. Women could worship God, but obviously God took no notice of them because they were not male! Also purple cloth dye was made from crushed shells and the families making it were often at the bottom of the social hierarchy simply because the process stank and the dye stained the skin of those who made it. Yet the dye and the cloth produced were highly valued as being the colour of royalty and the elite. Lydia, might have been stained with the dye or she might have been dye free but trading in the cloth the dyers made. Either way she was a woman engaging in trade and that was a bit dubious!
Whatever she heard Paul say obviously had a profound effect upon her, so much so that she and her household converted and were baptised. Lydia is obviously wealthy and could instruct her household to do as she wished and if she was baptised then so would they be. They may or may not have had little choice in the matter especially if they wished to retain their jobs or were slaves. Lydia, might have been a bossy, hard woman but I think not because of the end of verse 15 in that 16th chapter of Acts:
‘If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.’
Lydia, I feel is a pious woman, who has been changed and influenced by God and the message of Christ’s Good News. This influence has led her and those she cares about to be baptised and she invites Christ’s ambassadors Paul and his companions to say with her. There are echoes here of Christ’s command to the 70 to go out and share the Good News but without any money or belongings to help. If their words are good then people would be moved to care for them. The same applies to Paul and the others, let the Good News feed you. In more ways than one!
But I still wonder what words Paul actually used to express the Good News and what was that Good News anyway? That is a question I cannot answer but if I turn to the poet George Herbert I might get some way to doing so:
LOVE bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lack’d anything.
‘A guest,’ I answer’d, ‘worthy to be here:’
Love said, ‘You shall be he.’
‘I, the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear,
I cannot look on Thee.’
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
‘Who made the eyes but I?’
‘Truth, Lord; but I have marr’d them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.’
‘And know you not,’ says Love, ‘Who bore the blame?’
‘My dear, then I will serve.’
‘You must sit down,’ says Love, ‘and taste my meat.’
So I did sit and eat.
The Good News Paul spoke about, that affected Lydia, must have been about Love. The unconditional love of God as expressed through the life and sacrifice of Jesus. A love that is all forgiving as Herbert suggests and welcomes us in regardless of who we are or what we have done:
LOVE bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lack’d anything.
Love calls to us and yet we resist because we can think we are not worthy of such love. But what does love do when God perceives that we draw back? It asks us if we need anything?
God’s love is not conditional on our being anything but ourselves, all it asks of us is to let it in. Let in, to our hearts and minds, into the depths of our being to enfold the bits we don’t like as well as the bits we do. If we say yes, and welcome in Love then there is no part of us that can ever be beyond the love of God, or of God’s healing power. Herbert knew that, in his short and at times difficult life, and this poem is the culmination of all his works and the one he wished published last, for he thought it said it all.
God’s love is not repulsed by us, whatever we’ve done or whatever we might be. God’s love is always there for us waiting to be let in by our free choice and once in ready to heal us and make us whole. God’s love is all about making a connection to us and that I think is what happened to Lydia. Something Paul and his companions said made a connection so deep that it changed her life and brought her to Christ.
God’s love is free, ever-lasting and open to all. What words do we, you and I need to use to tell others about it? I don’t know? But like the 70 being sent out on a mission or Paul responding to the call to Macedonia I believe, truly believe that God will give us the right words at the right time, all we have to be is alert and unafraid to speak. This needn’t be scary either; for the most effective conversations often come when we are relaxed and chatting with others and we say something that opens a new door for the one who hears our words. It can be as simple, for example, as telling someone why you go to Church or what your faith gives you, not in any ‘preachy’ way but genuinely from the heart so they hear your joy and thoughtfulness.
Whatever it is and whatever words you use, if God has decided the time is right then your words will have a power you did not expect and they too might lead someone like Lydia to open her heart to God’s love.