Sermon from May 1 & 4, 2016
Acts 16: 9-15
St. Stephen’s, Huntsville, Texas
St. Luke’s, Livingston, Texas
Trinity & St. Michael and All Angels, Longview, Texas
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Back in the 1970s and 80s, one of the most successful businesswomen in the world was a woman from Dallas named Mary Kay Ash.
Mary Kay Ash started her own business called Mary Kay Cosmetics.
Mary Kay was a savvy saleswoman, knowing just how to get her cosmetics out there in the market place in front of other women.
And she empowered women, encouraging them to reach their highest potential.
Mary Kay empowered women by inspiring them as sales women for her cosmetics.
Mary Kay Ash became a Texas icon, with big Texas hair and big fake eyelashes and a big pink Cadillac.
And when one of Mary Kay’s girls reached a sales pinnacle – she got that top saleswoman her very own pink Cadillac.
In fact, when you drove around Texas in the oil boom days of the late 70s and early 80s, if you saw a pink Cadillac on the road, it was most likely driven by one of Mary Kay’s sales women.
And that distinctive shade of light pink became Mary Kay’s trademark.
Because her Pink Mansion in Dallas and her big pink car and everything about her – seemed to just ooze – with the color of pink.
Back 2000 years ago, one of the most successful businesswomen in the European world was a woman who lived in the city of Philippi – a woman named Lydia.
Lydia ran her own business, possibly named “Lydia’s Boutique of the Purple Cloth.”
Luke, who is the writer of the Book of Acts, makes no mention whatsoever of a man who helped to support or to manage Lydia’s business in Philippi.
However the Book of Acts does tell us that Lydia was a seller of purple cloth.
And that distinctive shade of royal purple became Lydia’s trademark – as her big home, her big car and everything about her seemed to just ooze – with the color of purple.
Back 2000 years ago, in ancient Greece where the city of Philippi was located, the purple dye that was used to make purple cloth was extremely expensive.
Purple dye had to be gathered drop by drop from the veins of certain shellfish.
Even an ounce of purple dye was extremely expensive.
It was for this reason that only the wealthy, only the powerful, only royalty – were able to purchase and wear purple cloth.
Therefore, Lydia ran one of the most exclusive shops in all of the city of Philippi:
“Lydia’s Boutique of the Purple Cloth.”
Meanwhile, the Apostle Paul crosses over into Europe by boat.
Paul arrives in the city of Philippi and looks for the place where the worshipers of the one true God meet to pray.
And Paul spots Lydia, with her big Philippian hairdo and her big purple Cadillac, praying down by the riverside.
Paul tells Lydia the good news of Jesus Christ.
Then Lydia is baptized.
And all in Lydia’s household of servants – and all of her saleswomen – are also baptized.
After her conversion, Lydia issues an invitation of hospitality, saying:
“Now Paul, y’all come and stay at my purple mansion, ya hear.”
Yet I wonder:
What was the good news that Paul told to Lydia that convinced her to become the very first Christian on the European continent?
I believe that the good news of Jesus that Lydia heard – is that we are saved, saved from a life where only the rich and the royal are worthy enough to be valued and loved.
I believe that the good news of Jesus that Lydia heard – is that purple cloth is now for everyone.
And a clue into my belief comes from what happens next in the story in the Book of Acts.
After Lydia, the powerful seller of purple cloth, is baptized,
In the very next scene, a slave girl, at the bottom of the social ladder, is converted.
Then in the next scene, Paul and Silas are put in jail and they sing hymns all night long.
From this, the jailer who is holding them captive is converted – and then the jailer and his household are baptized.
Lydia is converted.
Then the slave girl is converted.
Then the jailer is converted.
I can just imagine that first meeting of the first church in Philippi at Lydia’s house.
The ex-slave girl and the ex-prison guard walk up to the door of the big purple mansion.
And Lydia greets her new Christian sister and her new Christian brother with open arms.
They all share their stories of their personal conversion to Jesus Christ:
All while sitting on a purple tufted sofa and eating off of purple dinner plates and sipping on purple drinks with tiny umbrellas in them.
And then, I imagine that Lydia asks her new fellow parishioners this question:
Have either of you ever worn anything purple?
Of course, neither the slave girl nor the jailer have ever worn anything purple in their lives.
Purple is way too expensive and rich and royal for common folks to wear.
So then Lydia goes into her coat closet.
She pulls out two purple robes.
Lydia places them on the shoulders of each of her new friends, clothing them in the rich purple of royalty.
For in Jesus Christ, we have all become a royal priesthood.
Once we did not love equally,
But now we are loved equally.
Once we were not worthy to wear purple,
But now we are clothed in purple cloth.
You see:
The first church in the city of Philippi, the very first church on the continent of Europe, initially consisted of these 3 people:
1. A high-class businesswoman with a purple Cadillac,
2. A low-class slave girl,
3. And a middle-class corrections officer.
Yet all of them are welcomed with open arms into Lydia’s royal purple mansion.
And the Episcopal Church is made of all classes and races and persuasions of people:
High class, middle class, low class….and no class.
Yet all of us are welcomed into these doors with open arms.
All of us are draped in the purple cloth of royalty.
For in Jesus Christ, we are a royal priesthood.
In Jesus, we are loved, unconditionally and equally.
In Jesus, we are saved, saved from division by race or class.
Therefore my friends:
Invite everyone into God’s mansion.
Pull out the royal purple robes.
Drape purple fabric on each other’s shoulders.
Because in Jesus, you have been made worthy:
Worthy to wear –
Purple.
AMEN.
Bishop Fisher 