“Church on the Move:  A Mother’s Heart”

Pastor Corey Fields

May 13, 2007

Acts 16:11-15

            When is the last time you visited a new and strange place, where nothing was really familiar?  Do you remember what it was like?

            About 7 years ago, I was visiting Athens, Greece with a group from my college.  We were going there for a about a week and that was actually the first time I had ever been out of the country besides Canada.  When you’re a visitor in Athens, one of the best ways to get around is the subway.  We also rode around on buses but that was not very fun because we always got off the bus with pale, sore hands because we were holding on for dear life.  So when my friends and I wanted to go eat somewhere or visit a place, we took the subway.  I couldn’t quite figure out the subway system.  You get this ticket that you take with you and you slide it into some sort of automatic reader as you go into the station.  Well I just kept my ticket that I purchased one day and used it several times over the course of a few days.  My friends kept telling me, “Corey, you’re supposed to buy a new ticket every day.”  I said, “Nah, look, the reader takes it every time.”  There were no attendants, no one looking at my ticket, and it was working.  So I kept using it.  One night, when we were on the train, I noticed that two police officers had gotten on and were going around in each car asking to see people’s tickets.  And right about the same time, I also noticed that all of my friends that were with me were staring straight at me with this look of fear.  These Greek police officers get to me, look at my ticket, and sit down beside me and start to write.  At the next stop, they escort me off the train.  The officers then proceeded to question me, and tell me that I had boarded the train illegally enough times to warrant an arrest.  But the officers, I guess out of sympathy for my very apparent stupidity, settled for issuing me a citation that they demanded that I pay on the spot.  The fine emptied all of our wallets of Greek currency.  And so, I’m proud to say that it was in Athens, Greece where I came the closest I’ve ever been to being arrested.

            It’s tough to be in a new and strange place, isn’t it?  Most of us know what it’s like to be in a strange place.  Sometimes it’s pleasant – especially if you’re vacationing.  But many times strange places come with confusion.  It’s interesting what the brain does in new and strange places.  We perk up – we’re very alert, and we’re looking for social cues, instructions, and guidance as to what we should do, how we should act, etc.  Sometimes, it doesn’t turn out so well.  And you know it’s not only actual physical places where we find ourselves in new and strange places.  As the years go by, we often have times where we are in a new and strange place emotionally or spiritually.

You see, in the passage we just read, Paul was very far from home.  Very far from comfort.  Very far from the familiar.  He was deep into Gentile territory, well into what is modern day Europe, at least a week’s journey away from his Palestinian home.  Here in this area, things would have looked very different.  We get a hint of this in the passage itself, where it tells us that they went “outside the city gate to a river, where they expected to find a place of prayer.” (v.13).  There was no temple or church to be found in the city itself.  They found some women who were gathered praying.

And then the story tells us about a woman named Lydia.  Lydia was obviously a very successful woman, somewhat of a rarity in this time and place.  She had her own business and her own home, and the story tells us that she was a dealer in “purple cloth,” something that was supplied to kings and rulers.  Paul had earlier received a vision to go to this place.  So during this “prayer meeting” of sorts, Paul tells these women something they haven’t heard before…the good news of Jesus Christ.  They responded to it and received it, and became full believers.  Then verse 15 says this: 

Acts 16:15

This successful, Gentile woman – who was used to being around royalty – accepted with open arms Paul and his ragamuffin crew.  She embraced them, welcomed them, and ultimately tried to give them a home away from home.

What is it about being home?  Why is it that, after a long and hard day, we long to go “home?”  Why is it that home is, for many people, the place they will give up almost anything in their schedule to be during those special times of the year?  I used to work as a campus minister.  Time after time when the students I worked with were having a rough go and under a lot of stress, they would break down in tears and just say, “I want to go home.”  What is it about being home?

In our culture, hospitality is an industry.  In popular thought, hospitality is about pampering.  It’s about being elaborate, exquisite, offering the best there is, going above and beyond the things most people would want.  But think about it for a moment: does an elaborate atmosphere and being served really make you feel at home?  You might be physically comfortable, but are you home?  Or is the true meaning of hospitality something completely different? This is where we today might have a distorted view of what exactly is going on in stories like Paul and Lydia where someone is invited to stay in a home.  There was no hospitality industry back then.  In these times, when you were invited to someone’s home, you were being invited to come and share life with them for a little while.  This is why Jesus took so much flack for going to the homes of certain people, because it involved more than just “being hospitable” as we think of it.  If you’re pampering and serving, you can still keep your emotional distance. 

In the Bible, this kind of invitation into one’s home and life was a common response of those who were intimate with God.

Luke 24:28-30

God’s people live as a family.  Christian hospitality is when we, in the spirit of Christ, allow people to be home.  When I was in seminary, I read a fascinating book about Christian hospitality and how we have completely lost the tradition of the early church in this aspect.  Here are some quotes from that book:

“For most of the history of the church, hospitality was understood to encompass physical, social, and spiritual dimensions of human existence and relationships…in almost every case, hospitality involved shared meals.  Table fellowship was an important way of recognizing the equal value and dignity of persons.”

“When a person who is not valued by society is received by a socially respected person or group as [an act of true hospitality], small transformations occur.”

“As Christians, we offer hospitality within the context of knowing Jesus as both our greater host and our potential guest.” 

This is what is going on with Paul in Lydia’s house.

Home is where you are just you.  No games, no expectations.  At home, you take off your heavy load and remove your mask.  Most importantly, home is where people know and care about who you are.  Home is where the things that are important to you are also important to everyone else.  Home is where you’re valued.  Home is where you’re given space, and not forced to be a certain way or believe certain things.  Why, after a long hard day, do we long to be home?  Because we’ve just spent most of our day playing roles and wearing masks.  We’ve spent the whole day trying to be what everyone wants us to be.  And when we say, “I want to go home,” we’re often saying a lot more than just that we’re physically tired.  We’re saying, “I’m done playing games today.  I’m done with people’s expectations of me.  I need to just be me.”  The roles we play – it’s exhausting. 

And it has often been said that mothers have a special, ingrained knack for this sort of thing.  Mother’s have a way.  They can make a place truly home.  And there’s no use in playing the games with mom.  She knows you all too well.  She changed your diapers.

Now, as we know, it is not always our family’s house where we are “home.”  Some of us are a part of broken families and many difficult circumstances, and going home – as in, to family – can be a very painful and unpleasant thing for some of us.  But even then, we all have our place.  “Home” isn’t always with family, but it is always somewhere.  We all find “home” somewhere, even in our fast-paced, hectic world.

I love my mother.  It was my mother who went many extra miles to make sure I knew I was loved.  I was a strange child.  I said strange things and was interested in strange things.  And it was only with my mother that I knew I could be myself and not be teased or insulted or ignored because I wasn’t something else.  I played in marching bands for a total of 7 years.  Every game – every halftime show, I could look up into the bleachers and see my mom smiling and clapping.  Every bowling tournament, every baseball game, every play, every concert, every sermon…mom was there.  And after each one, whether I had succeeded or failed, I could be at home with mom…because the results didn’t matter.  She was just proud of me – not proud of what I could do.  A mother’s heart.

This is ministry.  Paul was in a new and strange place.  Lydia, having found a renewed heart for God, did everything she could to give him a temporary home away from home.  Lydia had a mother’s heart.  She knew that Paul not only needed food and rest, but also a place to unwind and be himself.  Mother’s are good at this, you know.  Mothers know that you need a lot more than food and a bed, even though they usually have those areas covered pretty well too.  This is our call.  We are Christ’s ambassadors to a world of hurting people who may not have any other place where they can be home.

How can FBC have a mother’s heart?  Why does it matter?  Because God has done it for us.  Through Jesus Christ, God’s great love and great gift for us is that we don’t have to change, or be anything else, or learn anything first…before we come to Him.  The church on the move has a mother’s heart.