Sunday Stretch: Vol. 127, Easter 6

Start off your week with a grounded take on Bible, prayer, the world, and your life ...

Hi Readers,

It’s Memorial Day weekend and the end of a very, very crazy May/spring around here - so I will keep this intro short. Hope you all are getting a chance to breathe a little this weekend and maybe spend some time outdoors, even if - like us in Minnesota - the weather is a bit colder than expected.

Let’s get to the texts!

Bible Stories

Acts 16:9-15

Acts 16:9 During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” ¹⁰ When he had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.

The Conversion of Lydia

Acts 16:11 We set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis, ¹² and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district^a of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city for some days. ¹³ On the sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there. ¹⁴ A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. ¹⁵ When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.” And she prevailed upon us.

I vaguely remember, in my Church Growth-inspired early days of ministry, hearing a megachurch pastor teach about a sermon series based on Acts 16:9-10, of “Going to Macedonia.” Apparently Macedonia represented some “unchurched” place in America. Anyway, I digress.

What stands out to me now in this passage is something that I initially blew by in my early Bible Study days. That’s the story of Lydia (whose name now reminds me of the young daughter of a close friend of mine from high school). Lydia was a “dealer in purple cloth” aka, a businesswoman and professional in her own right. Luke, the writer of Acts, tells us first that God spoke to Lydia and worked through her. Then, she opened up her household (which indicates that she was the head of the household).

We have so many incorrect and misleading myths about the past, including the biblical past. Too many of us impose modern-day norms onto the past without understanding it fully. I think the Early Church was much more complicated, and its gender norms were much different than we might assume. Lydia is just one of many women mentioned in Acts who were effectively church leaders and elders. But the complementarians of today wouldn’t want you to know that! (Make sure to check out

Beth Allison Barr

’s work on women in ministry for more on this!)

Questions to Ponder

Just to ground yourself in the world of Bible text, take out a globe or a map (or pull up Google Maps or another map app on your phone or device). Locate the cities and places mentioned in this text in modern-day geography. Are you surprised of where they’re located today? Why or why not?

Why do you think the early apostles traveled so much from place to place?

What role did hospitality play in the growth of the early church?

Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5

Rev. 21:10 And in the spirit^a he carried me away to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God.