A Mixture of Faith and Fear

Acts 16:9-15
May 13, 2007

St. Paul United Methodist Church of Little Rock

Reverend John Fleming, Pastor

Have you heard about this? There are all kinds of syndromes out there, but one that’s drawing a little attention these days is one called The Bag Lady Syndrome. And according to a survey taken last year by The Washington Times, forty-six percent of nearly two thousand women surveyed suffer from it. The syndrome, the fear of these women, is that some day, down the line, before the end of their lives, they believe that they’ll be poor and penniless and pushing a grocery cart with all of their belongings in it.

The ladies surveyed are not there yet. In fact, they are all far from it, but still it is a fear of their’s. Right now they have money in their purses, healthy balances in their checking accounts and investments that are doing quite well. But still, forty-six percent of them admitted to feeling financially insecure. A couple of these women are famous. Among them are Lily Tomlin, the great actress and Katie Couric, the host of a major news program. Katie, I am told said, “I have a bag lady in my anxiety closet”

So what is the real fear? Well it has to do with their financial futures. Their fears are complicated ones. These women fear making mistakes. They also fear that they are expendable.

I can remember something my dad has told me many different times. He admitted that he had talked with my mom about a divorce. I think they were both kidding, though divorce is no laughing matter. I tell couples that I talk to before their weddings that they should never threaten divorce. My dad told me that he had mentioned divorce to my mother. Her reply was simple, “You can’t afford one.” Well that is the opposite of what the women surveyed fear.

I will tell you something else about them. Women, as it turns out, are twice as likely as men to have a secret stash of cash hidden away somewhere. Men tend to see money as a means of power and influence. Women don’t see money that way. Women see money as a sense of security. And the more security that have, the better they feel.

This leads us to our scripture lesson for this morning taken from one of my favorite chapters in Luke’s second volume, the Book of Acts, the story of the beginning of the church. The sixteenth chapter is not my favorite chapters in Acts, but it ranks right up there. There is a theme in this sixteenth chapter. It is this one, because of one member entire households are saved.

The background for our story is that the apostle, Paul, has a vision one night of a man pleading with him to come to Macedonia. The vision was real and the man’s words were, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” So Paul and Silas make their way there and end up spending a couple of nights in the city of Philippi.

On the Sabbath day, the two of them make their way just outside the city gate, where they hear there is a place of prayer. Women are gathered there and among them is Lydia. Luke gives us some clues about her life and her spirit. He tells us that she was a worshiper of God. He also tells us, “The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what Paul was preaching.”

Those are the things about her spiritual life. The details of her personal life are also pretty important. Luke tells us that she was a dealer in purple cloth. Most of us will wear purple from time to time. I’ve got a couple of purple ties that I wear. I am wearing one this morning in honor of Lydia. You need to know that in the days of Paul and Silas and Lydia, only the wealthy wore the color. The cloth was costly because of the amount of dye it took to make it. It was also the color of royalty and power and influence. So Lydia could charge a hefty price for the cloth. From all that we know that Lydia had a home and a business. She also had a lot to lose by responding to the preaching of Paul.

I guess it would have been easier for her just to sit there and listen to his words and do nothing about it. After all, we’re all taught that we ought to stay away from strangers. She could have done that. If she started following the Jesus Paul talked about, there was a good chance she could lose her business and some of her possessions. She could have held those possessions a little tighter. She could have listened and then gone home to make sure that her secret stash of cash was where she left it. She didn’t do any of that. Instead the teachings of Paul changed her

life and after she heard them, she asked to be baptized. She also asked Paul to baptize everyone in her family. She offered this powerful word, “If you think I’ve been faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my house.”

Do you see how she responds to the teaching. She acts out of faith. She offers generosity and even hospitality. I don’t know if you realize this or not. I learned this just this week. Lydia’s house, the one Paul and Silas headed towards, became the church in Philippi. And the church in Philippi became one of Paul’s favorite ones. His letter to them has been called an epistle of joy. He wrote it from a prison cell. Paul’s joy came from how the Philippians responded to his ministry. He said this about them, “…no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you alone.” The Philippians were the generous ones, they were the hospitable ones; they were the faithful ones. And it all started because Lydia chose faith over fear.

And here we are on Mother’s Day, the Sunday that we have set aside to honor our mothers and those who have been like mothers to us. It would be easy to preach just to the mothers in the congregation today because all of them have chosen faith. Raising children is an act of faith. They hold a little baby in their arms, she is just minutes old. They don’t know what to do. Faith will show her the way. She has a teenager living in her house. She does not know what to do with her. Faith will show her the way. Her son is on his own. He is going down the wrong path. She does not know what to do. Faith will have to guide her words of counsel. Well, you get the idea. Mothers must choose faith over fear time and time again. So the sermon, ladies, could be preached just to you.

I would like to say that faith is something that must be passed on. There is a great passage in the letters to Timothy. Paul talks about a faith that is passed on to Timothy. It was first in his grandmother, Lois, and then in his mother, Eunice. And Paul says, “Now this faith, I am sure, lives also in you.” We must teach a trust in God.

Our sermon today could be preached to the husbands of these women and to their children. I could say, “You ought to pay attention to all that they do for you!” I am sure that you read the statistic that said that if you had to pay mothers for the work they did, their salary would be $138,000. That is a lot of money.

But this morning I don’t want just to preach to the women. I want us all to have a lesson the subject of choosing faith over fear. After all, we all have fears. We fear that our health will falter. We fear that we’ll be wiped out. We fear that some catastrophe will happen in our lives. We fear someone we love will die. We fear failure. We fear dependency. We fear and we fear and it is a nightmare for us.

So what do we do? How do we choose faith over fear? How do we get to the point that we offer hospitality and generosity instead of just playing it safe? Maybe the first thing that I hope for all of us is that God will do for us what God did for Lydia. Remember Luke’s words, “The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to Paul’s words.” First, be open to what you can learn in God’s word.

Just this week I heard the story of Vicki McGraw, a lady who works in a church in Ohio as their Director of Christian Education. She went to a church meeting and struck up a conversation with a woman. As it turns out, the woman’s husband needed a kidney transplant. We know a little about that in our church. As they talked, both became teary eyed and then Vicki McGraw asked, “How can I be tested?” She sensed that this is something she was supposed to do. She had never met this man or his wife, but still she immediately made the decision to donate one of her kidneys to him.

She was tested and as it turns out was a perfect match, much more so that any of the man’s family members. The surgery lasted five hours and was a complete success. Vicki was out of the hospital in two days and back at work in five. The next Sunday, her pastor told the congregation about the gift. He said this, “I’ve witnessed something unexpected. People are asking where God is in their lives. They realize all of this was not a coincidence. They know God was at work.”

I guess you could say that Vicki chose faith over fear. You could also say that she gave a great gift of hospitality. Vicki also said something about it. These were her words, “A person can find twenty million reasons not to do something, but there is usually one reason that sticks with you as to why you should. I just couldn’t ignore it.” And today we honor women for making great sacrifices for us.

Let me leave you with a few questions for your heart. What has God put you here to do? What is the one reason that is sticking in your mind while the twenty million excuses take a back seat? What has God put you here to do? Where is God working in your life, right here and right now? What is the one thing that you should be doing as a disciple of Jesus Christ to put your faith into action? I hope you will always choose faith over fear. Let us pray.

(Special thanks to a preacher’s magazine I subscribe to, Homiletics, for the idea and two of the stories in this sermon. I dedicate this sermon to my mother, Mary Fleming. She has given me great gifts, but most of all, the gift of a strong spirit. Thanks, Mom!)