Acts 16:9-15  Psalm 67 Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5 John 5:1-9

For thirty-eight years, the unnamed “sick man” of our Gospel lesson had been seeking healing; for a “long time” he had been lying by the pool by the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem. Our lesson tells us that he was too weak to drag his frail body through the encroaching crowds. Angels would occasionally stir up the waters and just at this time it was necessary to be the first to make one’s way into the healing waters and, thus, receive the mystical healing power – impossible for one so weak with illness. This pool was a vessel of healing, but it remained inaccessible to one who could not get into the waters on his own strength, and there was no one to help.

Quite unexpectedly, the sick man heard the voice of one whose attention he had attracted. “Do you want to be made well?” What must have seemed to be a chance encounter with an amazing stranger had suddenly turned his life right side up. “Stand up,” the stranger said to the sick man, “take your mat and walk.” The man picked up his mat and walked away, healed by virtue of his faith in the words of an unknown stranger – there was no touch, no healing waters, just Jesus’ command, and the man’s faith. In what had seemed to be a chance encounter, God had been revealed in the human person of Jesus of Nazareth – the true vessel through whom God is revealed to all the world.

In our lesson from Acts, we read of what seems to be another chance encounter between the Apostle Paul and Lydia. Lydia is a follower of Christ about whom we know very little with the exception of this brief mention of this encounter with the Apostle Paul who, in a dream, had been compelled to travel to Macedonia. We hear of Lydia only in these few verses from Acts 16 and later when she again opens her home to Paul after he is released from prison, yet she is often depicted in religious paintings and stained glass. Lydia, the seller of purple, symbolizes the hospitality of the open heart of a worshiper of God, listening intently for the word.

Lydia was not the typical worshiper of God or typical citizen of first century Macedonia. From this brief description in Acts 16, we know that she was female – not a plus in this society. However, she had her own business – a rare position for a woman of this time and place. And, not only a business, but obviously, an upscale business; purple was reserved for the elite of society and particularly royalty – these members of high society would be Lydia’s customers with whom she interacted throughout the day.

Furthermore, from this small amount of information, we perceive that Lydia, at some point in her past life, had left the protection of home and family in Thyatira located in Asia Minor, and that she would have travelled quite a distance for this seemingly chance encounter with Paul in the Roman colony of Philippi in the district of Macedonia.

Our lesson tells us that the “Lord opened [Lydia’s] heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul” – the word of God that Paul brought to Macedonia, as he had been instructed in his vision – carrying the words and works Jesus Christ to the world – the words and works of Jesus Christ, which were and are the revelation of God to the world. Lydia listened to these words of revelation; she became perhaps the very first convert to the word of Christ in, what is today, Eastern Europe. She and her household were baptized. Lydia, seller of purple among the elite of Philippi, became the vessel for the revelation of God on this new horizon of the known world. And, she invited the bearers of the word into her home just as she had invited the Father and Son and make their home in her heart.

This “chance” encounter with the Apostle Paul was indeed no chance encounter – just as the encounter between the unknown sick man and Jesus at the pool by the Sheep Gate had been no chance encounter. Ordained by God, both lives and hearts were opened to the revelation of God through Jesus Christ.

What seems to be chance encounters are incidences of God’s miraculous hand at work in our lives and those touched by our contact. Unlike the original disciples who gave up their livelihoods and left their families, few of us are asked to do that. Even the Apostle Paul continued his tent making as he journeyed through Galatia and Philippi, and Corinth. He used his skill to provide for his needs and he used his skill as an introduction into the lives of those he encountered on his journeys. As we read in today’s lesson from Acts, Lydia didn’t give up her trade as the seller of purple. Actually, it was her trade specifically that allowed her entry into the lives of those to whom God had called her to be a vessel of the Word of Jesus Christ.

Each and every one of us is a vessel. Each one of us gathered here has a story to tell, a message to share. Few of us are asked to give up our livelihoods and leave our families behind to go into world spreading the Gospel, but every one of us is commanded to be a vessel.

Are there anxieties, resentments, fear, anger, uncertainties, or other distractions that are clogging your vessel – keeping it from flowing freely?

In what ways is your vessel flowing as it should? How are you a vessel – at school, at work, in your civic activities, at the grocery store, or on the fishing pier? How are you a vessel serving Jesus Christ is the world through the Church of the Advent? We do not serve the Church – we are the Church serving the world in the name of Jesus Christ. How and where are you a vessel just as Lydia, seller of purple, was a vessel? One with Christ, how are you the vessel that God is calling you to be? Do you want to be made well?

We celebrate our oneness with Christ as we come together to the Table to share his body and blood. Here, through the work of the Holy Spirit, we become living members of the Body of Christ – vessels through whom the Word of God will be carried into the world. And, WE, the Body of Christ, loving, listening, offering hospitality, and keeping his word, go forth in His name, vessels of the peace of Christ in a broken world.