Readings for Holy Trinity Sunday, May 22, 2016

• Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 and Psalm 8 
• Romans 5:1-5  
• John 16:12-15

Bodysurfing, by Pastor Kinsey
“Who am I?” is one of the questions we ask ourselves, in good times, and in bad. 
 
Some years ago, Kim and I took a series of Mother’s Day whitewater rafting excursions, with my sister’s family.  She, her husband and two children, were really into outdoor activities.  They had lived on a houseboat in Los Angeles, and on the shores of Lake Tahoe, and they continue to go fishing on the Great Lakes and the Baja Peninsula.  And it was when we lived in Michigan, that they’d come north, and we’d go south, and we’d meet on the Pine River on Mother’s Day after church.  The 2nd week of May was usually some of the best rafting – that is, the highest and fastest running water of the springtime.  The water was still really cold, so the rafting company provided wet suits.  And most of the time you were paddling so hard, trying not to hit a rock or be swept away by a new current, that you kept yourself warmed up.  In between paddles, you saw breathless views of the pristine river and great northwoods.
 
And mid-way through this afternoon trip, the whole group of 40-50 people, got out of their rafts on one side of the river for a little rest, and fun.  There was a really cool rapids that you could shoot – without your raft!  You just body surfed it!  One by one, everyone who wanted to, could take a turn.  The guides instructed you to hold your arms over your chest, lie on your back, and take a deep breath, because for the next 20-30 seconds there’d be limited opportunity for surfacing long enough to grab any air.  It was exhilarating! And all coaught on videotape to watch later. But, it was not without its dangers!  In fact, my niece, Cheyenne, when she bodysurfed the rapids – she was only like 16 years old – bounced her head off a rock hard enough to get a mild concussion, even though, like everyone, she was wearing a helmet. 
 
“What are human beings … that you care for them?” asks the Psalmist in Psalm 8.  “Who are we?” so marvelously made, yet so vulnerable? 
 
On this Trinity Sunday, we celebrate more than just a church doctrine, we celebrate the magnificent God who loves us unconditionally in creating the universe, who has reached out to us personally in the saving good news of Jesus, and who continues to uphold and support us by the Holy Spirit.  “O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” Psalm 8 begins and also concludes.  Knowing God, means praising the Triune One, falling down in worship, acknowledging the mystery of Creator, Savior, and Holy Spirit. 
 
The gospel of John suggests that Jesus knew there were things he hadn’t yet taught the disciples before he died, rose again and ascended.  And that he couldn’t do it because he realized they were not yet ready – “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now,” he said.  How true is that, even today!  Have you ever had that experience of not being ready to hear the truth, avoiding or ignoring it, till you could?  The remedy, of course, for Jesus, was in sending of the Holy Spirit.  “When the Spirit of truth comes, s/he will guide you into all the truth.” 
 
 “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,” says the Psalmist, “the moon and the stars that you have established; 4what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? 5Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.”  Who are we, to God?
 
“Or, as the Hebrew suggests, ‘who are we’ that you remember and visit us?” as Professor Shauna Hannan translates it, “‘who are we’ that you would give us a job? trust us with such a responsibility?” 
 
The people of faith are in awe of God.  But they also know that God entrusts them with the responsibility of caring for the earth, and that God has created a covenant of stewardship, with each of us as God’s creatures, given us a job, and a task, of protecting this land, water and air. 
 
Certainly, this was already the plan for God’s chosen people, for the Jews, even before Jesus came.  But now, afterwards, we too, all the other nations, the Gentiles, have been grafted on to God’s tree of life.  The same Spirit that “was set up, at the first, before the creation of the earth, …or the sea [given] its limit, …” as Proverbs says, is the same Spirit that Jesus (and the Father) sent at Pentecost – amazingly creative, and guiding us in our decisions and common life we share with our neighbors, each new morning.  Sophia, the Holy Spirit, is the spirit of wisdom and bringer of the kingdom of God down to us, just as the Hebrews experienced her throughout their history. 
 
For the Jews, the Temple and Torah, were symbols and tangible signs they could use to experience the presence of God through the Spirit.  For Gentile Christian believers, we settled on water, bread and wine.  These are infused with the Holy Spirit, and are traveling symbols, not tied to place or land. 
 
In his Letter to the Romans, Paul says, “…we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand.”  The word “access” Paul uses, is the root word for worshipers bringing their offerings to the Temple.  Only now, we obtain access to God’s grace, by the peace Jesus offers us.  So, “just like the Temple symbolized and actualized Israel’s meeting with the gracious God,” as N. T. Wright says, “so now Jesus has effected such a meeting between this God and all who approach by faith.” 
 
“Th[is] metaphor envisages grace as a room into which Jesus has ushered all who believe, a room where they now ‘stand,’ a place characterized by the (Spirit’s) presence and sustaining love of God,” as Wright describes it.
 
And so, our faith and worship and witness is not restricted by location, but is a vehicle that is as fast as time travel, as versatile as your I-phone, as real as whitewater rafting.  Jesus stands with us wherever we are, and just as powerfully as we feel it in this, or any other sanctuary of worship.  The beauty of our stained glass windows, the depth suggested by this rich solid oak wood, the majesty we feel in the vaulted ceiling, aid us in this experience.  But God the 3 in 1 does limit God’s love and mercy within these walls alone, and we know how our faith is affected and made alive by an encounter with God wherever we stand in our lives, and wherever God stands with us. 
 
In fact, most people, most Chicagoans today, I would venture to say, experience the great 1 in 3in other humans, made little lower than God, and in the world around us.  Who are we, is not just a question in the Bible, but a lived experience for believers, followers, and questioners, every day. 
 
The Spirit blows where it wills, we know not from whence it comes.  “Who we are,” and who we were created to be, that is a gift of love we are continually discovering by faith.  “What are human beings?” is the question we can only answer in community, with other fellow human beings, continually reflected on by the people of faith. 
 
We are bodysurfing through life, you might say, risking a bump on the head, yet also awed at the creation and environment God has placed us in, and being tasked with, such a seemingly ultimate responsibility.  Only by our baptism and in conversation with the world, can we make sense of this gift, and find the courage to take the plunge.  And when we do, we can rest assured that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are there, by our side, supporting and cheering us on.  

Readings for Day of Pentecost, May 15, 2016
and Baptism of Genevieve Lou

• Genesis 11:1-9  
• Psalm 104:24-34, 35b  
• Acts 2:1-21 
• John 14:8-17

Water and Fire, by Pastor Kinsey
Kim and I used to go camping every year in Teddy Roosevelt National Park, the Bad Lands of North Dakota.  For us, it was great get-away.  From the business of pastoring two churches, we drove down lonely U.S. 2 for 2 ½ days, the most northern Highway in the country, and ended up in our seemingly private Cottonwood campground.  The secret was going in the first week of October, just after the camp grounds had officially closed for the season.  But unofficially, you could still go in – that is, if you didn’t mind that the water was turned off to the campsites and bathrooms, and that like here in Chicago last night, temperatures could dip below freezing in your thin skinned tent. 

​But of course, that’s why it was more or less “private”, and for us, peaceful and rejuvenating.  So we roughed it, using our portable solar shower, the year-round pit toilets, and hauling water from the Visitors Center.  We hiked all day, taking in all the wild life we could.  We saw eagles and elk, prong-horn deer and prairie dogs, antelope, and of course, bison.   At nightfall we collapsed by the campfire to cook dinner, alongside the Little Missouri River, babbling by.  After dark, the deer walked past to get a drink from the river, while coyotes howled in the distance.  Fire light and running river, were signs of wonder and healing balm, enlivening us, like a breath of fresh air, like the wind through the cottonwood trees. 
 
Jesus was baptized by the Jordan River, out on the edge of the wilderness, the campsite John the Baptist went to, to recall how God led the faithful into the Promised Land.  40 years of wandering in the wilderness ended for them, as the Chosen People crossed the River Jordan and entered Canaan, the holy land.  And it marked the completion of their liberation from slavery, crossing from death to life; from the great leader Moses, to his protégé, Joshua; from lost to found. 
 
And so Jesus went from Galilee to the banks of the Jordan to be baptized in the water we all are baptized in, and received the gift of the Holy Spirit, like a diving down dove of peace, the same spiritual gift we are given.  And when he rose up out of the water, John the Baptist said he would baptize us with this Spirit, and with fire. 
 
Water and fire are basic to our refreshment and renewal, as a people of faith.  For Kim and I, the campfire not only cooked our dinner, but kept the coyotes at bay.  For Jesus, and for the Israelites before him, fire meant spirit and life.
 
Even Pentecost – the Greek name for the Jewish festival of Shavu'ot – had the element of fire in its celebration.  For Pentecost was not only the early harvest festival, originally, it was the commemoration of the giving of The 10 Commandments on the 50th day after Passover; or, 7 weeks after their liberation from bondage.  And the fire of course, is the heavenly fire of God’s holy and creative Spirit on Mt. Sinai, as the people waited down below, looking up to what may have been some kind of volcano, praying for Moses to bring the stone tablets back, safely. 
 
“When the day of Pentecost had come” as Acts describes it, in 33 A.D., 50 days after Easter, and 10 days after Jesus Ascended, “all the disciples were together in one place.  And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind,” as loud as a tornado in Kansas, “and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.  Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.” 
 
For me, this recalls the Gospel of John’s story, which compared the Spirit to the blowing of the wind, we know not how or where it comes from, but we know it, by watching the leaves of trees.  So was the unpredictability of this wind!  Jesus promised it would come.  But no one knew when, or how, exactly!  And like the Jewish festival of Shavu'ot, the Festival of Weeks, there was fire.  But this time, not at a distance, terrifying like a volcano, now it arrived like individual tongues of fire comfortably, if somewhat awkwardly, resting over their foreheads! 
 
And like Jesus’ baptism, it wasn’t just a magic show of miraculous signs, but this loud blowing wind, and controlled campfire flames, empowered the disciples for the very first time to act – and in their case, to speak – as they were given ability, in all the languages of the peoples from all over the world, who attended the Pentecost celebration in Jerusalem – and they were, speaking about God’s deeds of power, amazing everyone! 
 
When we first conceived of our art exhibit, “Celebrating the Creative Spirit,” for The Gallery at Unity, we had in mind the many and various ways that the people of Unity might manifest the gifts God had given them, to be creative, to be artists!  And we were overwhelmed with all the talent out there in our humble congregation and Unity community.  And now, at this 2nd Annual, ‘Celebrating the Creative Spirit II,” we continue to be impressed.  God is good, and moves in wonderful ways!  And in our exhibit, I think you’ll find the unpredictable ways that God’s Spirit is filling us up with life, each of our artists risking something, to grow by the creative Spirit they feel within. 
 
Theresa Cho, a Presbyterian Pastor in San Francisco, reminds us that this Spirit is also communal, “that dreams and visions [as Peter conceived of it in Acts 2] are not meant to be dreamt alone but in a diverse community united in the Spirit,” for “we” the people, in the plural.  “This task of dreaming involves all of who we are,” she says.  “We hear and feel it, ‘like the howling of a fierce wind.’  We see and feel it, like ‘individual flames of fire.’  We speak it in our native language, yet it is understood by foreigners.  We are reminded that the Spirit that was present at Pentecost is the same Spirit that is present with us now.  Therefore, we are connected to that same call to live out a faithful life in which dreams and visions may soar,” and “our dreams can blossom in others.” 
 
The disciples were inside, in the upper room when the Holy Spirit came.  And it pushed them out of their insular little four walls, into the streets of Jerusalem, into the world of pilgrims, come to celebrate Shavu’ot, the Pentecost festival.  The Spirit is unpredictable, and blows where it wills, and it pushes the followers of Jesus out into the world, back out into the wilderness, to the Jordan, and beyond, for God wants to renew all of creation. 
 
And here, at this font today, we pray, that the unpredictable, powerfully renewing spirit, will alit upon Genevieve, producing a child of God who is blessed and renewed for a life of wonderful things.  She cannot do it alone, as none of us can.  But all together, we can teach and encourage her, we can suffer and rejoice with her, and one day, we can, and will, let her go, as the Spirit within her matures.  But for now, we can, and do, celebrate her creative spirit everyday already, knowing how she is endowed and sustained by the Holy Spirit, and with fire of Christ Jesus!
 
May water and the Holy Spirit, fire us all up, for our life of faith! 

Readings for 7th Sunday of Easter, Mothers Day, May 8, 2016

• Acts 16:16-34  
• Psalm 97  
• Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21  
• John 17:20-26

Grandfather White Pine, by Pastor Kinsey
I rarely saw my parents argue about anything.  But, they had a pretty serious disagreement once about cutting down trees along the driveway to their northwoods retirement home – of course, they did it with characteristic jocularity.  There were some very old 100-120 foot white pines, and many slightly shorter red pines, there were sugar maples and red oak, a scattering of aspen, and a few beautiful white birch, not just around their property, but stretching for hundreds of acres all around. 
 
All their neighbors had banded together in a state program called Firewise.  It was meant to protect their property from the danger of fire, a risk that was greatly enhanced by the dense woods surrounding them.  And so, underbrush was cut back everywhere, and then, all their driveways were tested to make sure that fire trucks could easily access the house.  My parents’ driveway was long and winding, and so they had a half dozen trees marked for removal.  But this alarmed my mother, who loved each and every tree on their property, and she spoke up, advocating on behalf of her beloved pines and oaks.  My dad was much more utilitarian about the matter, a Life Insurance Actuary, who believed the safety of family, trumped the life of a mere handful of trees. 
 
They went back and forth about it for months, until my mom finally took her stand for the biggest and oldest white pine in the middle of driveway close to the house.  She could part with every other marked tree, but not that one.  And that’s just the way it was going to be!  And indeed, that’s what the compromise ended up as.  And so, for a number of years she enjoyed that great-great-grandfather white pine.  Until one day, one of the grandkids accidentally backed right into it with the Dodge Caravan, causing thousands of dollars of damage.  And not long after that, the old white pine ended up in the woodpile, cut up and stacked for firewood!  Mom had done her best to stand up for her children.  Now her favorite would give its life to warm her and her family, on many a winter’s night.
 
The Tree of Life, is introduced in the very last chapter of Revelation.  Or, should I say, re-introduced, being clearly named after the Tree of Life mentioned in the beginning of Genesis, in the Garden of Eden.  In the renewed Messianic age to come, according to Revelation, the new Jerusalem will come down out of heaven to earth, and there will be a “tree of life on either side of the river, with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.”
 
The promise of the tree of life, then, is that God provides enough to feed everyone year round, a very traditional motherly thing to do, something my mother was proud of doing for her family all her life.  But the tree of life also had leaves that were for the healing of the nations.  And the seven churches that John wrote to in this Revelation letter, were so embattled from the ways they were persecuted and stigmatized, and left for dead, that leaves of healing must have sounded as good to them, as they do to us today – leaves with a healing balm for our pain and fears, our losses and hopeless days.  The tree of life, transformed from Christ’s cross, provides peace and prosperity for all.
 
But sometimes healing can cause new pains.  (Be careful what you ask for!)  Paul and Silas, heal a slave-girl in Philippi, in our Acts reading, and end up in jail for it!  The dishonest owners are the ones who press charges!  Their slave-girl may have been liberated – which you’d think is a good thing – but actually, that’s the last thing they wanted, and they’re furious because she was their capitalist goldmine, their dream come true.  The slave-girl, says Acts, “brought them a great deal of money by fortune-telling.”  But when she was healed, set free and made a whole person again, instead of walking away with their tails between their legs, the owners showed no shame or remorse, whatsoever.  Instead of filing a truthful claim about their lost income, they sought revenge on Paul and Silas, who indeed follow in the footsteps of Jesus, when they are arrested, beaten and incarcerated. 
 
The healing of the nations’ will begin with our liberation, and our confessions that we play a part in a whole system of sin, even, at times, for our own benefit.  Only whole-hearted confession and breaking free of the chains that imprison us from loving others, can enable us to begin to live out the gospel, as Paul and Silas do. 
 
After being flogged and jailed, and left for dead in the innermost cell, their feet fastened in stocks, Paul and Silas, instead of blaming the slave-owners or magistrates, reportedly were praying and singing hymns to God, while the other prisoners listened to them.  And then, when an earthquake shook the foundations of the prison so violently that all the doors were opened and their chains were unfastened, it was like a miracle!  But the jailer had been sleeping, and so they easily could have fled for freedom, which is just what the jailer assumed when he awoke in the darkness!  And that struck him with such a deep sense of guilt about it – the exact opposite feeling of the opportunistic slave owners – that he drew his sword and was about to kill himself… until, Paul intervened, and shouted in a loud voice, do not harm yourself, for we are all here.  And with torch lights relit, the jailer was so relieved that he fell down trembling, before Paul and Silas.  And when he regained his composure, he brought them outside, asking what he must do to be saved, like them?
 
What was, like them, of course, was the uncharacteristic restraint, in response to their mistreatment; The praying and hymn singing, despite their bruised and shackled bodies; The doing unto the jailer as they would have the jailer do unto them, even though he was more like their enemy; The saving the life of the jailer, who was executing the orders of imprisonment, and possible death for Paul and Silas!  Sometimes our faith, when it is lived in the way of loving sacrifice for others, is the strongest and most powerful word we can speak as Christians. 
 
The jailer then leaves his post to take Paul and Silas to his own house and wash their wounds, as a sign of reconciliation.  And Paul tells the whole household the story of Jesus’ saving gift of life.  And finally, the jailer and his entire family were baptized without delay, and setting food before them, they rejoiced together in a meal of celebration!  Gathering, Word, and Meal!
 
What happens to the slave-girl, liberated from her chains of oppression, we don’t know for sure.  I’d like to think that she too, sees the light, and follows Paul and Silas, and becomes a believer, and was maybe, just maybe, invited to the communion feast of the jailer.  That is my eschatological hope, at least, because I wonder: is she really liberated, if she doesn’t have anyone to show her the new life of Christ?  Are there some who escape the darkness of their past, but still live lives in the shadows, not quite engaged, not quite fulfilled?  Unsure of the good news and what it means for them?
 
Sometimes it’s difficult for us to share our faith.  We may think we don’t know the right words, or may be afraid of rejection.  But when we show it, in our living, if we take the courage of our convictions, even in the smallest things, and people begin to notice, then we only need invite them to come and follow.  “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’”  “Let everyone who is thirsty come,” as Revelation concludes.
 
Our believing, is not a perfect knowledge, for we know now only dimly, as Paul said.  Believing is following, one day at a time, one foot in front of the other, renewed by the community of believers, who know the degree of difficulty of trying, too. 
 
For some, following will be protecting every tree under our care because of its intrinsic value, while for others, following will be protecting the forest and the integrity of the whole, no matter what the sacrifice.  No one can say who is more right, or declare who is wrong.  The challenge is for the many intertwined roots of our faith to hold strong, that we all stand together, even as we risk walking on the very vulnerable road toward the Messianic tree of life, where one day, the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, will claim us in a song of joy, and in the bounteous feast, forever. 
 
Alleluia, Christ is risen!

Readings for Easter 6C, May 1, 2016

• Acts 16:9-15  
• Psalm 67  
• Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5  
• John 14:23-29 

"Down By The River Talk," Pastor Fred
Once again, dreams and visions, Jesus and the Spirit, are Paul’s GPS guidance system!  Visiting cities throughout Asia Minor – which is present day western Turkey – Paul is forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia, and when “they attempted to go into Bithynia… “the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.”  So they stayed in a little town called Troas, on the very western tip of the continent. 
 
“During the night, Paul had a dream,” writes Luke in the next Act of the Apostles scripture we read from today.  Paul saw a Macedonian standing on the far shore, calling across the sea: “Come over to Macedonia and help us!”
 
The dream gave Paul his map. They went to work at once getting things ready, Acts says.  All the pieces had come together.  It was Paul’s 2nd Missionary journey, and he was eager to press on further, and spread the good news in new places.  This vision confirmed it, and they knew now for sure that God had called them to preach the good news to the Europeans, for the first time – in Macedonia, which was in northeastern Greece. 
 
Putting out from the harbor at Troas, the next day they tied up at a place called New City and walked from there to the main city in that part of Macedonia, Phillipi -- a Roman colony.  They bided their time, getting the lay of the land.  And when the Sabbath came, they had a plan.  They went outsed the city walls and down along the river, where they supposed there was a place of prayer. They took their place with the women who had gathered there, and they simply talked with them.  
 
One woman, Lydia, was from Thyratira and a dealer in expensive textiles, known to be a god-fearing woman, i.e., a Gentile who worshiped the God of Abraham.  As she listened with intensity to what was being said, the Lord gave her a trusting heart… and she believed!  After she was baptized, along with everyone in her household, she told Paul in a surge of hospitality: If you’re confident I’m in this with you and believe in the Lord truly, come home with me and be my guests.  Paul hesitated.  But Lydia wouldn’t take no for an answer.
 
I’ve always kind of wondered how they “supposed” there was a place of prayer, in an informal, unmarked, space “down by the river” outside the city gate?  How did they know?  We do know that, as Paul was eager to tell others about Jesus, and spread the good news, he usually entered the local synagogue of a new city first.  But this had limited appeal, apparently.  Most of his new churches were populated by Greeks, pagans, and non-Jews.  It seems he had more luck out in the Gentile neighborhoods. 
 
Where are the places needing visits around Unity?  Who might be a good candidate to receive the good news in Edgewater? 
 
As a pastor, part of my call is to visit the sick and those in nursing homes.  When I arrived here, Cindy and Barb were attending Unity from All American Nursing Home, so I went to visit them.  And I’ve had a few Unity folks visit All American with me ever since, making new friends there.  What other institutions, like schools, coffee shops, social clubs, might we visit? 
 
In the story from Acts, a group of Gentile women have assembled for some kind of Jewish-style open-air-synagogue prayer service.  I’m not sure what it means that it was outside the city gates.  Were they on the margins, on the fringe, not welcome inside?  Or did they just like being by the living waters of the river, on the Edge of the Water, and claiming this public space as holy – as church, for them?
 
But it made for a different dynamic, not without tension, when Paul just walks right on over, and introduces himself to the women’s prayer breakfast and starts telling them about Jesus.  He can do that, because, they’re just out there – and, well, maybe because he’s a man!  But it is certainly easier, not to have to negotiate any imposing physical brick walls of a church building, the long vulnerable walk up so many stairs, not sure what’s through those doors, or which pew to choose!  That’s a lot of barriers to break through!  How can we help break down any barriers we have, and make walking into our building a more natural, less stressful, and more inviting experience, I wonder?
 
Sitting on the park bench on the water’s edge, Paul discovers that Lydia is a seller of purple cloth, a woman of some capital who invested in the process of gathering and milking, of millions of little snails, necessary to make the pricey purple dye, used primarily for, the elite stripe on Roman Senators’ togas.  And she seems to be the one who has organized this community of prayer – Lydia is well-positioned.  She has a head on her shoulders – is a strong business woman.  So, you wouldn’t have thought Lydia would have been, needing anything.  But she was eager, hungry, searching, for a word of life, a word of God.  It didn’t seem to take Lydia very long after Paul approached her, to decide this was the way she wanted to live.  Lydia dragged her whole family into the river of life, with her!
 
It makes me wonder who else among our neighbors might just be more receptive than we think to a conversation… people we might never have dreamed or envisioned, might want or need a word or invitation from, the likes of us.
 
The encounter by water’s edge, is a mutual breaking down of religious, gender and cultural barriers too – much as Jesus did with the Samaritan woman in the public space at the well, when he started a conversation with her.  Here on the margins of the life-giving waters, the European women, who have become colonized clients of Rome, and claimed the spirituality of Judaism, encounter Paul, a male Jew and Roman citizen, who has become a follower of Jesus, and evangelist for the risen Christ.  What they will have in common after this meeting, is the freeing gospel of grace.
 
But the story doesn’t stop with Lydia’s life being changed in this encounter and coming into the Christian community.  Lydia puts it right back on Paul and asks him to take a life-changing risk of engagement too.  Lydia tests her welcome into this new group – the assembly and life she’s just joined – by prevailing on Paul to come to her place!  She invites Paul so she can share her life. She invites Paul and the brothers, to come now and stay in her home and discover the gifts she brings.
 
And Paul… hesitates.  Like Peter crossing the threshold to stay with Cornelius’ family, the Gentile Roman Centurion after his baptism – Paul, who is used to making his own way, beholden to no one, is being invited to stay in the household of a Gentile businesswoman for the first time.  He gets changed and stretched too. The gifting is not one sided, but mutual.  And it would bear much fruit, as we know from Paul’s letter to the Philippians, some years down the line.
 
In Acts, God’s Spirit moves as it chooses, inhabits whom it will, and is not confined to a particular routine or pattern.  God’s Spirit precedes us; is everywhere; and looks upon and hears all people.  And God’s attention, power, and compassion are not even limited to those who call themselves Israelites or Christians.  
 
And so now, Lydia’s hospitality, included a mutual sharing of the gospel – for true discipleship and learning involves dialogue, mutuality, and humility.  We might see Lydia as a disciple who has taught her house-gathering how to worship God in word, and by acts of kindness.  And it all started with a conversation by the Edge of the Water. 
 
Where is God sending us in Edgewater?  We don’t have to cross over to a whole new continent.  But we might be well prepared, as John said last week, to be intentionally in conversation – for some time – writing letters, or texting, or whatever, for it to bear good fruit! 
 
Let’s set sail, and make our dreams and visions come true! 
 
Alleluia, Christ is risen!