C Easter 6. 2010                                         Christ Church , York

A woman holds the office of Speaker of the House and ranks second in line behind the President in our government. Indeed a woman came pretty close in the last race to winning that same office of President all on her own! In other nations meanwhile women have already served as Presidents and Prime Ministers, many of them with great distinction. In other fields there are now a number of women who are CEO’s of major corporations and there are women who serve as Presidents at some of this nation’s largest and most prestigious Universities and Colleges. In short it cannot be doubted that women have made great strides over the past few years and they now hold major leadership positions in a wide variety of fields including business, government, academia and the military. This does not mean that we have reached a position where there is either full equality of pay in all these positions or that all discrimination has ended. But it is safe to say that women have a good deal more equality today than ever before and that they continue to make strides in all areas of our common life.

Until you look at the Church that is. Here, while we are all understood to be equally sons and daughters of God, it cannot be said that there is any such thing as equality between men and women in the Church. In many churches, including some within our own Lutheran tradition, women are barred from being ordained as pastors. In others, including yet more Lutheran churches, women are prohibited from reading scriptures or taking part as leaders within worship. In some extreme cases, women are not even permitted to hold membership within the church. Even in our own Evangelical Lutheran Church in America , which has ordained women for almost 40 years, there is still not full equality. Of the 65 bishops in our Church only a handful are women and there are very few female pastors who hold senior pastor positions in our largest congregations. And it goes without saying that there are still some congregations that would have a difficult time with a woman as pastor. And all of these difficulties and prejudices are often summed up in one sentence, which I have heard so often that, “If Jesus had wanted women to preach, He would have called woman disciples.”

The problem is that such assertions cannot be backed up by the biblical record. For it is evident, even in a cursory reading, that Jesus, the Apostle Paul as well as the other apostles and disciples, all had a reverence and respect for women in general and for the wonderful women of faith in particular. Indeed at times it seems that it was the women who formed the mainstay of support for Jesus and His movement. And it was women like Martha and Mary who played significant roles in the major stories of Jesus’ life and ministry; it was the women who walked with Him on His final journey, women who stood below His cross, women who ministered to Him in His final hours and women who cared for Him at His burial. And on that day of resurrection it is a woman named Mary who is the first to encounter the Risen Lord and it is that same woman who goes to announce to those male disciples huddled in their upper room with its locked doors that she has seen the Lord. And because she is the first to proclaim this Good News of His resurrection, she is known as the Apostle to the Apostles, the bearer of Good News to those who will bear the Good News. Indeed there are references throughout Scripture to women of power and strength, whose faithfulness, humility and tenacity helped to establish and solidify the early Christian church. And on this Mother’s Day, surely it is most fitting to remember that Jesus was born of a woman and that it was this Mother Mary who would come to be known by her most ancient of titles “Theotokis” or God-bearer. So it is that the story of Jesus’ life, the story of the early church and the story of that same Church down through the ages would be incomplete were it not for the stories of the women who fill its pages and those who begrudge that same role to women in our church today simply fail to understand their Scriptures. As an evangelical catholic who supports the ancient ways of the Church then I can do no other, based on Scripture itself, than to affirm the role of women in the life of our Church today and to give thanks to God for the gifts they bring and the proclamation they bear to the world.

And so it should not surprise us that it is a woman that we find holding center-stage today in our lesson from Acts - a woman named Lydia . She was a true servant of God, who heard the Apostle preach and, through the power of that Word, found that her heart was opened to the immensity of God’s love. But what sets Lydia apart from the many others who were listening to Paul as he preached at Phillipi that day was that she both heard the word of God and felt the claim of God upon her life. In that simple act, Lydia is a model for all of us, male and female alike. For Lydia heard the word and the Lord opened her heart so that she could respond to that word. She listened intently, hearing the Lord’s plea with open arms and a willing heart.

Who was this Lydia ? Well she was likely a fairly wealthy woman, since she worked as a merchant who dealt in purple cloth, the color of royalty and therefore she probably made a good living at the time. But her wealth and status did not stop her from coming with the more ordinary people to hear the words of Paul that day. In this she is a model for those of us who sometimes do not hear because we believe that we are well off with things as they are, that everything is fine, that we have no problems, no worries, no poverty, no affliction. Sometimes being so richly blessed by God makes us less open to Him and instead more reliant upon the promises of this world. Not so Lydia . She was wealthy, but she had a hunger and a thirst for the Good News of Jesus Christ; she was already wealthy, but now she would receive a message of spiritual richness. We can only offer thanks to God for those like Lydia who always hunger for the rich Word of God.

Lydia was also a woman of influence and already a worshipper of God but she wanted more, much more. Lydia was a seeker of truth, yet she was also open to the new possibilities of the Spirit working in her life. Lydia sought for the answers to life’s questions and found them in the compelling witness and power of Paul’s preaching. In the power of that preached Word, she experienced something so life transforming, that she became a convert to Christ. And so exhilarated was she by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, that she told others in her household and they too came to Christ, sharing in her joy about the truth of the Good News that she had found. It is a great thing when an entire family and a whole household comes under the power of Jesus Christ, for we know that it is often those closest to us that are the hardest to reach and the most difficult to convince. And the problem often lies with us. For our family members see us as we are, with all our infirmities, iniquities and hypocrisies. They know our faults and our failings. They know that sometimes our example does not convince them or compel them to come to Christ. That Lydia was able to convince her whole household to come to Christ shows the esteem that she was held in and the positive example she showed of faithfulness to God. We can only offer thanks to God for women like Lydia who stand as shining examples of the godly life among us.

And Lydia shows us yet another characteristic of the Christian life together and that is hospitality. Lydia was not content just to hear the message and then go home. Rather she invited Paul and his followers into her home. We who have been baptized and now believe are likewise called to show concern and hospitality for those in the body of Christ as well as those outside it. Lydia exercised hospitality and today she shows us that the Church is called to be a center of such hospitality as it welcomes all those who are spiritual wanderers, those who have no spiritual home or moorings, those who have no resting place. The church should be the hospitality center for the community, the nation and the world. As long as there are churches there should never individuals who feel spiritually homeless. Lydia was a true servant of God who found her heart opened by the power of the preached Word and the Good News of Jesus Christ. Lydia was a true servant of God because she reached out to her family and brought them to Christ. Lydia was a true servant of God because she extended hospitality to Christ and His followers. Today the Church calls for more individuals like Lydia among us who will prove to be true servants by loving the Lord and His people. What we seek today are more Lydias who will show joy and compassion, will help those in need and will respond fully to the Good News of Christ. What we seek are more Lydias who will share the faith with others, who will open the door and invite all those who are seeking Christ to find a place of comfort and rest. Lydia is a wonderful example for us all, male and female alike. Lydia is an example of what good leadership in the Church can and should be about, regardless of whether that leadership is given by a man or a woman. Lydia is a wonderful example of how women have nurtured and nourished Christ’s Church since the very beginning. And so I pray that God will send us more people like Lydia , a true servant leader of God and an example for us all. Amen.