WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER
Psalm 67 Acts 16:9–15
Preached by the Reverend Kathy Peters
May 9, 2010

There is a lot going on in this seemingly simple story that continues the travels of the apostle Paul and the establishment of the early Christian Church.  If we read the passage just before this one we learn that Paul and his entourage were headed for other parts of Asia when “the spirit of the Jesus did not allow them” (Acts 16: 7 ) to go. Instead Paul has a dream, a vision in which a man of Macedonia urges him to come and Paul obeys. When he gets to Macedonia (read here Europe) he encounters a number of women gathered by the river for prayer. Among them is a woman named Lydia, who deals in purple cloth. Purple cloth was only available to the very rich and Lydia would have been a woman of considerable wealth and power. Lydia prevails on Paul to baptize her and her entire household thus becoming the first European Christian and then Lydia insists that Paul and his friends come to her home to be fed and cared for. Lydia has received the extravagant hospitality of Paul, is moved to return it and Paul is equally moved to receive. Lots of surprises here!  Paul and Silas never intended to be there. Paul should not have been sitting with the women….it just wasn’t done. And what was Lydia a woman of means doing “down by the river”, a place where the “outcasts”, those on the margins of society gathered? And what happened to the “man from Macedonia”? Not much happening here as it is “supposed to”. So it begs the question for us:  How do we know what God wants us to do, and where God wants us to go, and with whom God wants us to work? And when we get to where we're going, what surprises wait for us? Where and to whom might we be asked to give and receive hospitality?
Last week I asked you to imagine, to dream, to envision what God might be asking of you, and of this community of faith.
So have you had any visions lately? We talked in Bible study this week about the reality that in our culture and in particular the church culture that we find ourselves in, that talk of visions as Paul seems to have had, might get you at the very least funny looks or more seriously a suggestion that you see a mental health professional. Other cultures and even other church communities however might embrace your insights. Our biblical texts are full of stories in the Old and New Testament of God speaking to God’s people by way of visions. Now don’t be so skeptical!
Have you ever had a dream that helped you to see more clearly what direction you might take?
Have you ever talked with a friend about a problem you were having and had a moment of clarity about what you needed to do?
Have you ever wrestle with a group of people about what needed to be done to resolve a situation and come out on the other side with a clearer vision of what needed to happen?
Have you ever had an “aha” moment?
Visions are not just about “seeing things”……..they are about being open to what God is trying to tell us.
One commentator observed that perhaps we need to open our hearts and minds to God at work in our lives (right now) in the most dramatic and unexpected ways, ways that might "forever [change] us, even to the point of providing hospitality (like Lydia did) to foreigners and those just freed from prison" (David Forney in Feasting on the Word as quoted in S.A.M.U.E.L. ucc.org 5/9/2010).
I asked us last week to Imagine!  I ask us this week to be open to God at work in the midst of our lives.
This is not just a personal call to listen and discern what God wants me or you to do.  This text focuses on the nagging, inspiring call of God to the community. Even in the biblical stories about visions and dreams, the move is outward, toward the wider world of God's grace and actions in the life that we share. John M. Rottman compares God to "a prompter in a play," inviting the people "to listen for directions within the ongoing drama," a story with a plot that at its heart "is a love story," because "the Creator of the universe wants a personal, Holy Spirit-mediated relationship" with each one of us, but this relationship "has a social impact that spills over into the lives of others" (The Lectionary Commentary as quoted in S.A.M.U.E.L. ucc.org 5/9/2010)

We are all in this together my friends, in this place and in this time. We are called to give and receive hospitality in the midst of the place that we find ourselves, in the midst of the place that God has sent us. We need to be brave in this place where we are, brave enough to listen together for the places, no matter how unlikely, that God wants us to minister. Paul ends up in a place that he probably never intended to go. Lydia “preaches to the preachers” through her actions of hospitality.
It seems fitting that on this day that we celebrate motherhood and all those women in our lives who have given not only birth but, in a larger sense, life to each of us, it is fitting that we look to the life of an early Christian woman to move us to act, to move us to have visions of life giving hospitality, to move us off of our butts…like a mother might…to be brave enough to do something.

I am not preaching anything new here today. In fact like any good mother, you might even say I am being a bit of a nag! Well get used to it.
The gospel call us each week, prompts us each week, nags us each week to look for the places that we need to go to give and receive God’s love and hospitality…….
Where do we need to go together?
I have a dream that this congregation would build a Habitat for Humanity home in our community.
Rick Holloway has a dream that we would install solar panels on our church and become a place that says to the whole community that we care for this earth that God has blessed us with.
Some have a dream of creating a vegetable garden here on our grounds so that we might provide fresh food for those in need.
Others have a dream that our budget would not need fundraisers so that we might use our fundraising efforts to support mission work
We heard this weekend about a dream of churches “birthing” other churches…yes even in New England that has a church on every corner.
What might your vision be, what might this congregations dream be and when will we have the courage to listen for God’s dream for us and be brave enough to act.
Amen