Lydia, the seller of purple

finally he is called in a dream to Macedonia. He goes to Philippi, on the outer fringe of the Jewish diaspora, where he finds no synagogue where he could preach the gospel; so he goes to the river probably looking for Jewish leaders, and finds ’only’ women.

"The Lord opened her heart"
And there he meets Lydia. Lydia who has had her heart opened by the Holy Spirit, so that she can hear the message of God. Remember this verse: " The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul."

It is excruciatingly difficult, sometimes, to talk to people about our faith. We get tongue-tied, we feel foolish, we feel that no-one could possibly be convinced by what we have to say. And that’s quite right, they can’t. But they can have their hearts opened by the Spirit, just waiting for a Christian to put into words, or better still into actions, the meaning of their faith in Jesus. We don’t have to convert people, the Spirit does that. All we have to do is speak honestly and openly about what faith means for us.

So Paul, who seemed this time to be on a mission that was going nowhere, meets the woman who will be the lynchpin of the church in Philippi. Other churches give him nothing but grief, the Philippians are a constant source of support for him, financial as well as spiritual. His letter to them is one of the warmest of the epistles. He’s founded a church in what seemed an unlikely place, and it’s been one of his success stories.

Listening to the Spirit
And it happened because he listened to the Spirit, heard and obeyed when the Spirit said "no", went where the Spirit called him, and met Lydia the seller of purple, whose heart the Spirit had opened.

Sometimes - not all the time, but sometimes - there is a reason why things don’t seem to go right. The house sale that falls through. The job offer that doesn’t come. Sometimes it just is what it is, and we have to cope and try again. But sometimes it seems that it really is God’s providence; that he has a plan for us, and is just waiting for us to see it, listen to the voice of the Spirit, and follow.

Jerusalem to Rome
Lydia, the seller of purple. Is this just a story of Lydia and Paul, or is it more? The book of Acts is a journey; a journey of the gospel from Jerusalem to Asia and then on to Rome. And here, near the middle of the story, as Paul leaves Asia for the first time, he meets Lydia the seller of purple.

Purple wasn’t just an indicator of wealth. It was a symbol of political power. The more important you were as a Roman senator, the more purple decoration you had on your tunic and your toga. The emperor, and only the emperor, would wear a toga made entirely of purple cloth. Purple was the colour of the Roman elite.

And here, as the message of the gospel crosses the Aegean and moves towards the heart of the Graeco-Roman world, here the imperial purple and the message of the kingdom meet.

But they don’t meet on a battlefield. They don’t meet in a trial of strength - ’my God is more powerful than your God’. How can a faith that’s based on a God who humbled himself to be a man, who was prepared to die for humanity because he loved us so much, who was prepared to submit to torture and degradation and humiliation - how can a faith like that truly be spread by power politics and strength of arms?

No, the battle between Roman power and the message of