Lydia

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This is sermon #2 of 6 in my series on women leaders in the Gospels & the early church. Here we meet Lydia, who has always been a personal favorite of mine. More to come…

--Rev. Stephanie Spitzer-Hanks, 5th Sunday in Easter, 2026, Homer Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, Homer, New York

If you prefer to watch instead of read the sermon, the video should begin at the beginning of the sermon.

Acts 16:11-15

We [traveled to] Philippi, a Roman colony and one of Macedonia’s leading cities. We stayed in Philippi for several days. On the Sabbath day, we went outside the city walls to the nearby river, assuming that some Jewish people might be gathering for prayer. We found a group of women there, so we sat down and spoke to them. One of them, Lydia, was a business woman originally from Thyatira. She made a living buying and selling fine purple fabric. She was a true worshiper of God and listened to Paul with special interest. The Lord opened her heart to take in the message with enthusiasm. She and her whole household were baptized. Then Lydia urged us, saying, “If you believe I’m truly faithful to the Lord, please, you must come and stay at my home.” We couldn’t turn down her invitation.

Sermon Transcript

This is #2 in a series of 6 sermons about women leaders in the Gospels and the early church. Last week we learned a bit about some of Jesus’s disciples who were women: Joanna, Susanna, and Mary Magdalene, who was sent by Jesus as the apostle to the apostles. She was a pretty big deal.

This week we start in on the early church, where Paul’s fingerprints are all over everything—you almost cannot tell a story about the early church without also talking about Paul.

Paul had a habit of traveling to a new place, preaching, welcoming newcomers to the Way of Christ, helping to establish churches, often getting arrested, and later being released, and then moving on to do it all over again in a new place.

In the passage read for us today, that is exactly what he is up to. We catch up with him and his traveling companions as they head into Philippi, which is in what we now know as Greece. So this was the first time we are hearing about the gospel being preached in what we now call Europe.

On the Sabbath, Paul and his friends head down to the riverside, where they had heard that some Jewish people gathered in prayer. There was a group of women there, who included a woman named Lydia.

Now you can just tell right away that Lydia was a firecracker. She is originally from Thyatira, which was a city in the area we now know as Turkey, which was famous for dyeing purple cloth. Lydia brought these skills with her and set up her own business trading in purple fabric in Philippi. 

It is not specified how she was able to own her own business, which would *not* have been typical at all for women during that time. Was she a widow, who had inherited the business when her husband died? Maybe? We just don’t know. But we do know that she was probably fairly wealthy, since purple dye (which was made from glands from snails that lived in the Mediterranean Sea) was very expensive to make and to buy. Another tip off that she was wealthy is the fact that she employed her own household servants.

So, Lydia was among this group of women who had gathered at the riverside, where some Jewish folks had gathered to pray on the Sabbath. She is described as a “true worshiper of God.” Lydia may have been Jewish, or she may have just been attracted to and curious about the Jewish religion. Again, it’s not clear. But she was there for the prayer service, and she was ready to learn.

On that morning, as Paul spoke to those gathered there, the text says that “The Lord opened her heart to take in the message with enthusiasm.” 

A couple of weeks ago we read about the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and the text said that their “hearts burned within” them, when Jesus opened the scriptures to them. I wonder if this is a similar experience for Lydia: “The Lord opened her heart to take in the message with enthusiasm.”

I wonder what that might feel like?

The experience was so powerful for Lydia that she insisted on being baptized right then and there—and not just her, but she brought everyone who worked in her home along to be baptized, too.

And then, she was not going to let Paul and his companions go—she insisted that they come and stay in her home. I can just imagine her keeping Paul up half the night, asking him questions, soaking in everything he could teach her about the Way of Christ.

While Paul and his friends were staying with Lydia, he still went back and forth to the riverside, reaching more people with the gospel of Christ. 

Then Paul got into trouble over a slave girl that yelled at him every day, until he got so annoyed with her that he healed her of an evil spirit, just to shut her up. If you didn’t know, Paul had a little bit of a cranky personality.

Now the enslavers of this girl were angry with Paul, because they had been making money off the girl, who had been able to tell people’s fortunes—that is, until Paul cast the evil spirit from her. They were so mad that they had Paul and his friend Silas arrested, beaten, and thrown in jail.

Then there was this whole incident where Paul and Silas were keeping their cellmates up to all hours with their loud praying and hymn-singing—that is until there was an earthquake that broke all the doors open and unfastened all the prisoners’ chains.

The jailer woke up and saw that the prison doors were all wide open, and, knowing he will really be in for it with his boss for letting all the prisoners escape on his watch, he grabs his sword and is about to kill himself with it, but just at that moment, Paul pipes up, “Don’t hurt yourself, Mr. Jailer. We are all still in here!”

(If you haven’t already gotten the picture—Acts is a pretty action-packed book, full of some WILD stories.)

Then the jailer and *his* household convert to the Way of Christ, and *they* are all baptized. It’s a big night. In the morning, Paul and Silas are released from prison (legally, and without the aid of any earthquakes). 

And *then* we get the next and last mention of Lydia in the Bible: in the very last verse in this action-packed chapter, we read this:

“After leaving the prison they went to Lydia’s home; and when they had seen and encouraged the brothers and sisters there, they departed [from Philippi].”

In this one verse we learn that in the days since her own conversion and baptism in the river, a house church has begun to thrive in Lydia’s home. Her home was a meeting place for “the brothers and sisters” who had joined her in following the Way of Christ.

And this is how the gospel of Christ spread through the known world: Paul would blow into town, preaching, converting folks. A group of believers would start meeting in a home. Then Paul would move on, but the church would remain—worshiping and growing in faith and love for God and one another.

In the beginning of this new religion that we now call Christianity, there were no church buildings. No pews, no hymnals, no priests or pastors in robes and stoles. No institution as of yet. That came later.

What they had in the beginning was a group of believers, and someone who had a house they could meet in to pray, and sing, and share what they knew about God, and about the Way that Christ had shown them.

And some of those houses belonged to women. Lydia was one, and we will meet others over the next weeks.

I love Lydia for her enthusiasm. Just the words Luke uses to describe her: She listened to Paul “with special interest.” “The Lord opened her heart to take in the message *with enthusiasm.*” She “urged” them to stay with her. They “couldn’t turn her down.” 

This is a woman who knows what she wants and is not afraid to insist on it! And nobody is criticizing her for being too bossy or telling her to be quieter or more demure—she is being praised for it!

As a gal who has never been particularly meek or timid or submissive, I appreciate having Lydia held as a role model for outspoken women like me. Maybe some of you do, too.

Paul could get cranky in some of his letters, and for good reason, because a lot of these early churches had people disagreeing with one another, and they developed factions within the church that were threatening to tear it apart. Sounds familiar, right? Such problems still plague churches today.

But the letter he wrote to the church at Philippi—the church that Lydia was *instrumental* in founding—was full of joy and gratitude for them. He said:

“I thank my God for every remembrance of you, always in every one of my prayers for all of you, praying with joy for your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”

That reminds me of this church: of Homer Congregational Church.

Y’all have been on this green for a good long time. The people who started meeting here to worship way back in 1801 made a choice to “partner in the gospel” and by the grace of God, here we all are, 225 years later, still gathering on this green.

I know only a few of us get the printed worship guide on Sunday mornings, and I don’t know whose idea it was to print this on the bottom of the front page, but this is what it says:

“Grateful to the native peoples upon whose land we stand, we have gathered on this Green since 1801—Still Growing Deeper as We Do God’s Mission.” 

Paul’s words to the Philippians could just as well be addressed to you:

“I thank my God for every remembrance of you…praying with joy for your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”

You have had many leaders over the years. I really enjoy looking at the array of portraits of past ministers hanging on the other side of the wall behind me. Some really impressive beards.

And soon it will be time to welcome someone new. I know you are hoping it will be very soon, but there is still need for patience! I pray that your new pastor will have the enthusiasm of Lydia! And that you as a congregation continue to hold the gospel and one another close, and continue to joyfully work together and with your new pastor, when she or he comes at last.

I know many of you feel anxious and are ready for this in-between time to end. But try to remember that this is just one dip in this congregation’s 225 year journey so far! Keep the faith. Keep growing deeper as you do God’s mission, while you wait for your next Lydia, or maybe Paul.

But while we anticipate that day, may you continue to hold on to the blessing Paul gave to the Philippians, and that today I give to you:

“I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Thanks be to God!