Zig Zag

The scriptures referred to are Acts 16:9-15, Revelation 21:10,22-22:5 and John 14:23-29.

Ever turn on a TV episode and find yourself instantly in the middle of the action, confused as to whether you missed something? You try to figure how what's happening but just when it gets to a very dramatic point, the scene stops, the screen goes black and suddenly the words “24 hours earlier” flash up. Then the story rewinds or jumps back and the rest of the episode proceeds in chronological order so you can catch up on how this situation got started. When you get to the same point in time where the episode began, you now know what is going on. Scripture doesn't do that. And without knowing what happened before our passage from the book of Acts begins, you would never know that we are in the middle of a major plot twist. So let's go back before Paul's vision and see what he was doing then.

We need to go more than a day back. Having gotten the approval of the council of Jerusalem to make Gentiles Christians and baptize them without the need for circumcision, Paul and Barnabas are back in Antioch, their home church and home base, and thinking about setting out to visit the churches they established on their first missionary journey. They have a falling out over taking Barnabas' nephew John Mark with them, since he deserted them the last time. So they split, Barnabas taking Mark as they go to the churches on the island of Cyprus and Paul and Silas going to the churches in what is today Turkey. These churches are all clustered in the southeastern part of the region, not terribly far from Antioch or indeed his hometown of Tarsus, and Paul wants to take the gospel farther. So we read, “They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.” (Acts 16:6) The region called Asia was to the southwest of them. We don't know why the Spirit stopped them or exactly how but Paul then decided to go north. But we are told, “When they had come opposite Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.” (Acts 16:7) Again no explanation of why or how. Did a member of Paul's team get a vision? I think not or Luke would probably have said so. Perhaps there was some practical difficulty. Whatever the obstacle, Paul and his companions are funneled directly west and end up at Troas, an important port on the Aegean Sea and a Roman colony. That brings us to the beginning of our reading.

Paul gets a vision of a man from Macedonia asking him to come and help. Now this is significant. By answering this call, Paul will be taking the gospel out of the Middle East and Asia and into Europe. Not quite 20 years after the resurrection of Christ, his good news is coming to a new continent.

Note also that our text in Acts for the first time says “we”: “We set sail from Troas...” On this trip Paul has brought Silas, also known as Silvanus, who would later also accompany Peter on missions in Pontus and Cappadocia. He is credited with writing 1 Peter, and so acted as that apostle's scribe. (1 Peter 5:12) In addition, Paul takes under his wing his protege Timothy, with whom he will co-write his letters to the Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, the second letter to the Corinthians and the letter to Philemon, (cf. the first verse of each) and to whom Paul will write 2 letters. And the sudden “we” here tells us that Luke, Paul's beloved friend and physician (Colossians 4:14), has come aboard. Later, during his final imprisonment, when facing death, Paul would write to Timothy, “only Luke is with me.” (2 Timothy 4:11) One theory is that Luke wrote his gospel and its sequel at that time and that the Theophilus, to whom both works are addressed, was a Roman official, as well as a Christian, who was helping with Paul's defense before the emperor.

Back to our passage: Luke tells us how they went to Samothrace, an island midway between Troas and Neapolis, the port city of Philippi. Phillippi was not only a gold-mining town but had been the base for Alexander the Great's campaigns of conquest. It was also the site of the decisive battle where Octavian and Anthony's forces defeated the army of Brutus and Cassius. In honor of the victory, it was made a Roman colony and settled by soldiers. It was, as Luke wrote, a leading city of that district of Macedonia and as it turns out the writer and physician would stay there for a while to supervise the fledgling church.

Usually Paul would go to a synagogue and show from the scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah the Jews had been awaiting. But there doesn't appear to be a synagogue in Philippi because instead we are told that on the Sabbath they go outside the city gate to a place beside the river, where they had heard that people met to pray. It looks like the worshipers are all women and they seem to be Godfearers, Gentiles who are attracted to Judaism but haven't actually converted.

The first European Gentile convert to Christianity is Lydia, a woman who ironically came from a town in the very province of Asia which the Spirit kept Paul from visiting. She was a dealer in purple cloth. The dye was made by crushing thousands of shellfish and thus such fabric was expensive, often worn as a sign of nobility or royalty. Which means Lydia was wealthy. In fact since another name for the area she came from was Lydia, it is possible that this was not her actual name. Some have suggested she is one of the 2 women in the Philippian church whom Paul mentions as coworkers of his in his letter to that church. (Philippians 4:2-3) The reason she was on the other side of the Aegean from her hometown of Thyatira was because she was selling purple cloth from the East to Romans and Greeks in the West.

We are told that “the Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul.” Not only does she listen, she believes and she and her household are baptized. There is no mention of her being married so this may mean her servants or slaves. This was not unusual. The head of the household in Greek and Roman societies, while usually the father, was also the person in charge of family worship.

And then she offers to put up Paul and his entourage in her home, which indicates it was a big house and is a further sign of her wealth. Greek and Roman homes had a front room, off to the side of the entrance, where visitors were entertained and household worship took place. Lydia's home probably became the first house-church in Europe.

This is all very interesting and really important but why did I make such a fuss that the lectionary hadn't included the 5 verses prior to the beginning of our passage? Because none of this might have happened had Paul's original plans been followed. Paul was originally doing what might be thought of as a bishop's visitation schedule of established churches in the region and then he was going to push just a bit into neighboring regions. But thanks to the Spirit blocking him, he was taken farther west, across the water to a new continent.

Often we think we know better than God what we should be doing for him. We stick to what's safe and prudent and logical. We don't take big chances and we try not to go into unknown territory. But often what God wants us to do is something entirely different from what we expected. So we need to listen as well as speak when we pray to him.

God answers all prayer. Sometimes it is “Yes!” As it says in 1 John, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” (1 John 5:14) This is what Jesus meant when he said he will do anything if we ask in his name. (John 14:14) “In his name” means in accordance with his Spirit and God's will. Thus if you ask for things that run contrary to God's will, like things for your personal power or pleasure, things that are not really your needs or that are not good, you will get a different answer.

And indeed God sometimes answers “No.” He is a wise and loving parent who knows better than to say “yes” to everything we think we want. What we ask for may not be good for us or it may not be good for others. The most famous example of this is Jesus' request in the garden of Gethsemane that the cup of his suffering and death on the cross pass him by. I think he was sincere but he also says something that should be understood in all our prayers: “Yet not what I will, but what you will.” (Mark 14:36) Sometimes we have to go without or go through a rough experience for our sake or for the sake of someone else, as Jesus did.

But sometimes God is saying “Not yet.” We may have to grow till we get to the point we can handle what we ask for wisely. Or it may be that the situation is not ripe for what we ask. An example of this is found in the story of Joseph. (Genesis 37-50) His dreams of his family bowing to him do not endear him to his brothers. So they fake his death and sell him into slavery. He is in turn sold to Potiphar, the captain of the Pharaoh's guard. He does well and is put in charge of all his master's household. But he is falsely accused by Potiphar's wife and thrown into prison, albeit one that handles Pharaoh's prisoners as well. He is made chief trustee at the prison and comes across two of Pharaoh's disgraced officials. He interprets their dreams and tells the cupbearer, the one whom he knows will get back in good with Pharaoh, to remember him and to get him out of prison. Sure enough, the man is restored to his position of trust but he promptly forgets Joseph. Then scripture tells us that 2 full years pass before Pharaoh starts having weird dreams and only then does the cupbearer remember Joseph and his ability to interpret dreams accurately. You just know that for those 2 years Joseph had to be asking God in his daily prayers why he was not being released. Did he not interpret the dreams properly? If so, what gives?

You know the rest: Joseph tells Pharaoh the dreams predict 7 years of bumper crops and 7 years of famine and he advises Pharaoh to save the surplus for the lean years. Pharaoh puts Joseph in charge of that. Later Joseph's brothers find out what happened to him and they are afraid that Joseph, now the second in command in Egypt, will get them back. But he says, “Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me but God intended it for good to accomplish what is being done, the saving of many lives.” (Genesis 15:19-20) Joseph was able to see in hindsight that had he not been forcibly taken to Egypt, enslaved by a high ranking official, accused and thrown into the prison for high ranking prisoners, met Pharaoh's cupbearer and then kept in place till the time for him to interpret the warning and get ready for the famine, he wouldn't be where he was. He wouldn't have been able to save all those people, including his starving father and brothers. He saw that the answer to his prayers wasn't “No” but “Not yet.” God's timing is not ours.

But sometimes God's answer to our prayers is “I have something else for you.” One example is Moses, who flees Egypt after committing a murder and lives as a shepherd. Then he sees a burning bush and the next thing he knows God is commissioning him to return to Egypt to lead the Israelites out of slavery. He is reluctant but finally goes and it turns out to be the job he was suited for. Then there is Gideon, who is working in the fields when the angel of the Lord tells him to save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. He is so reluctant he devises a test to see if God is really calling him to be a warrior. He is and so Gideon manages to liberate his people using a much smaller force than was considered adequate for the job. Finally, none of the disciples could have imagined what they would end up doing when Jesus called them. Peter, Andrew, James and John went from being fishermen to being emissaries for God to people both great and small throughout the known world. And Paul went from being a rabbi and zealous opponent of Christ to being his ambassador to the Gentiles. They say if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.

I myself came to the Keys for a radio job. I was working as a home health nurse on weekends. Many years earlier back in St. Louis I had intended on going into the ministry. Then I had kids and found out I was making more as a nurse than I would as a minister. Once here I joined St. Francis as a member of the church. Then I started leading Morning Prayer on Sundays when our priest wasn't there and giving talks. Our priest encouraged me to become this diocese's first licensed lay preacher. Then, before she left, she approached me about becoming what was called then a Canon 9 priest and leading St. Francis. Later I was invited to become the interim Pastor at Lord of the Seas. And at about the same time, I was asked to become the chaplain at the county jail. Each time the offer came out of the blue. I prayed and talked to my wife and said “Yes” to the task God was putting before me. I couldn't have predicted 40, 30 or even 20 years ago the curious path on which God would lead me to where I am.

Just as I eventually got to the ordained ministry in what seemed like a roundabout way, so Paul eventually did get to the region he wanted to visit before he got diverted to Macedonia and Greece. On his way back he stopped at Ephesus, planted the seeds and left Priscilla and Aquila in charge. On his next journey he returned to Ephesus and spent almost 3 years there. In the end there were 7 churches in major cities in Asia and Lydia and they are the ones specifically addressed in the book of Revelation. The message of Jesus came to the area, just not in the way Paul originally had planned.

Our God is the God of zig-zags, of detours, of plot twists and unexpected turns. But it only looks that way to us. He is like a master chess player, moving the pieces into position according to his plan. We can't always see where he's going with this. We can't always see exactly how the endgame will come together. We can only put our trust in his love for us. Paul tells us, “And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

But we do know his ultimate goal: a world where, as we read last week, “There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain,” a world where the old patterns of human behavior are over and past and everything and everyone is being made new. It will be a world where, as Jesus says, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” We will live with the God who is love. But even now the God who is love lives within those who listen to his Spirit and go where he leads us, even if it is surprising or counterintuitive.

Of course, there are things that do divert us from the way God wants us to go. There are stories that the wreckers of Key West would put out false lights to misdirect ships to run aground on the reef so they could salvage them for their cargo. Some say these are only legends but this world is full of false lights promising to guide us to happiness or success. However as it says in Revelation, God is our light, the Lamb is our lamp and we must walk by his light. As it says in the hymn we are about to sing: “In him there is no darkness at all. The night and the day are both alike. The Lamb is the light of the city of God. Shine in my heart, Lord Jesus.”