Acts 16:9-15 “Those Strong, Praying Women of Faith”
Today we are celebrating
Mother’s Day,
and churches often have some traditions related to
that.
Many churches hand out
carnations, as we are doing today.
You’ve heard our men’s
chorus,
specially gathered together and directed by Eddie Trumble,
which has been a more recent tradition here at Peachtree
Corners.
Now you wouldn’t believe the
emails that have been flying just to pull off today’s music. In one of them, I
tried to talk them into starting a new tradition here –
instead of carnations, all the women get a round trip ticket
for a week’s vacation in
Any of the men I talked to
just laughed.
The point of all this is to
remember and honor our mothers.
And being a mother myself,
I’m going to go public on this one:
Mothers deserve a little
attention one day a year --
because it’s the hardest job I’ve ever done.
There’s an organization out
there called Salary.com that announced this week
their 2006 figures on the value of the work done by
moms.
According to them, a mom,
whether she is a stay at home mom or a working mom,
is worth $85,876 annually just for the mom part of their
job.
But we all know that you
can’t really put a price on moms, because they’re priceless.
When I was a younger mother
and a stay-at-home mother,
I remember thinking that I
ought to print up a business card with my name on it,
just to remind people who asked me “So what do you
do?” that I had
a job.
But then I realized that I
couldn’t fit every job title I did on a business card.
Name, address, phone number would fit,
but there was no way to squeeze in everything I did:
mother, housekeeper, day care center teacher, cook, computer
operator,
laundry machine operator, janitor, facilities manager,
elementary school teacher,
middle school teacher, gardener, van driver,
professional shopper, speech therapist.
And
religious educator, faith former.
That was the big one - and
the one I didn’t even always realize I was doing.
Although forming the faith of
our families is not just the work of moms,
it definitely is in the job description of someone who
is running a household.
We often think of
as the woman in the NT who was the seller of purple
cloth.
But she was more than
that.
She was the reason her whole household ended up being
baptized
She also started one of the earliest house churches in
early Christianity.
Paul first meets
This signals a big turning
point in the history of the early church.
Instead of staying close to
home,
the mission of the church is sent into
Paul goes to
We know that
Lydia was also a woman of strength and prayer,
and she used these characteristics to bring
other people to faith.
Strength
One of the things that we can
piece together about
from these verses is that she was more than likely a
strong woman.
She was a businesswoman, a
seller of purple cloth,
which was something only the rich could afford.
Scholars think she was
probably a widow.
We don’t know her early story
-- how she got where she did.
But we do know that to be a
woman and to run a business and a household in this time and culture was not
the norm. She must have learned
perseverance.
My own mother had five
children, worked full time,
sewed clothes for herself and her three daughters, worked
in the church,
was a 4-H club
leader, and did countless things I didn’t even know about.
But one of the most important
things she taught me was to keep trying and never give up. That idea of perseverance has been critical
to my own Christian journey.
Prayer
Wherever Paul went on his
journeys,
it was his custom to find the local synagogue and teach
there on the Sabbath.
But when he got to
So Paul and his company went
looking for a prayer meeting,
where they eventually found one outside the city
gates.
Despite the fact that
she took the time to worship and pray.
Prayer is not about time – it
is about our priorities.
It is also not about what we
say or even how we say it.
It is about our relationship with God.
How well are we praying in
this church?
Faith
She was a worshipper of God –
a gentile who was trying to learn more about the Hebrew
God.
She was already seeking. The
Lord opened her heart to listen to Paul.
But she didn’t keep it to
herself.
She used her excitement and
passion to spread this good news to her household.
She and her entire household were baptized and next thing we know,
and is supporting the early church with her time and
treasure.
It’s the same way with many
of us.
We have stories to tell of
those who have helped to birth and nurture our faith.
Many of us are here in church
today because our mothers - and our fathers - --
faithfully took us to church.
(Trust me I know that this is
not an easy job).
But studies show that
children whose parents faithfully take them to church
are more likely to continue developing their faith lives
as adults.
If you’re one of those
parents whose children are adults, but aren’t part of a faith community, let me
offer you some additional assurance.
Parents who are consistent
about taking their children to church
are giving them a foundation for moral and ethical
decision making.
There was a recent news story
on the radio about children
who were being raised Christian and those were not.
The researchers in this study
asked the children the same question:
If your
pet dog or a stranger - a person you didn’t know -
were both drowning at the same time, who would you
rescue?
The majority of the Christian
kids said “the stranger.”
The majority of the kids who
didn’t have this foundation
said they would rescue their pet dogs.
Now I love dogs. I have one.
But clearly this study shows
that Christianity teaches some higher values
that kids just don’t pick up on their own from the culture
they live in.
Even though the focus of today’s scripture is
the job of faith forming is not for women
only.
Faith forming is a
tremendously important job that takes place in the family,
in partnership with the church.
And it’s often caught, more
than taught.
I remember growing up in my
own family, a strong practicing Catholic family.
I don’t remember having too
many long theological discussions
about why we went to church or what happened there.
What I remember though, is
during Lent we would gather in my parents’ room,
my dad and my mom and the 5 of us children,
and we’d all kneel around the bed and say the rosary
together.
That formed me - I saw the
family I loved praying together.
Many of us here have our own
stories to tell of how our faith was birthed.
These are stories to celebrate.
OPTION 1 - (Who do you credit for helping to form
your faith? - Call out a name?)
OPTION 2 - (Today, as you go about celebrating
Mother’s Day,
I invite you to talk to
someone about who formed your faith.
Who were the people in your
life that gave birth to and nurtured your faith?
Was it your mother or
father? A grandmother
or grandfather?
Maybe a
friend or neighbor? )
And now I’m going to give you
an assignment for Mother’s Day:
If that person is still in
your life, why don’t you write them a note,
or give them a call today and tell them thank you.
If not, offer a silent prayer
of thanks to God for that person.
Let us give thanks for all
the women and men in our lives
who have helped to form our faith:
Gracious God, we give thanks
to you for our mothers
and those who have been like mothers to us, those who not
only birthed us,
but who birthed and nurtured our faith.
Strengthen us in our own
lives of prayer and faith so that we become
a greater witness to your son Jesus Christ for those
who need it most. Amen.