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St. Luke’s Institute
Mon of 6th Week of Easter
May 6, 2013
HANGING OUT
WITH WOMEN +++++++++++++++++++
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St. Paul should fire his publicity agent
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He’s gotten a bad rap as being no friend of
women
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Yet here he is again, hanging out with the
ladies who pray down at the river outside Philippi
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That meeting place is still called Lydia’s River
today
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That’s because Lydia, the purple dye dealer, was
baptized there
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A 4th c. church excavated nearby has
no baptistery, doubtless because a baptismal site was right there
PAUL & LYDIA +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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The encounter between Lydia and Paul is poignant
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Lydia not woman’s name as her district of origin
& she may have been known as “that Lydian woman”
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Slaves were often identified by region and
dyeing wool was a ghastly job handed over to their class
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Freed slaves moved into the selling end of the
trade as a natural extension of their skills
WHY SO CAPTIVATED? +++++++++++++++++++++++++
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All points to the idea that Lydia was a
freedwoman who heard Paul more personally than most
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Why she was so captivated by his teaching
intrigued me
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Paul preached that in Christ there’s no Gentile
or Jew, woman or man, slave or free person
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Lydia was a Gentile, woman, and former slave!
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Paul spoke to her perfect storm of issues and opened
her heart to the Gospel
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In response, she opens her home to Paul and his
companions for use as a house church
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Her hospitality makes an impression
APPLICATION +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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What will it take for our perfect storm of
issues to come together and hear the good news as Lydia?
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Reaching rock bottom? Having crossed the final
boundary? Realizing that the promise sin offered me can only end in death?
CONCLUSION +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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Though Paul is jailed shortly, upon his release
he will make a beeline for Lydia’s
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Why not?
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If only we all could hear the Gospel as keenly
as she did!
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