Philippi - where Paul met Lydia,
the seller of purple
St. Paul was a busy man. I’ve spent the last two weeks on a most amazing tour, with a group following his footsteps around Greece – Philippi, Berea, Thessaloniki, Corinth, Athens, even Ephesus in Turkey.
What surprised me most about Paul was discovering his tenderness. This man who had terrified and persecuted Christ’s followers in his career as Saul of Tarsus, now a convert himself, proved kind, caring and tender towards his new friends in these far-flung cities. These new friends became the foundation, the core, of new Christian communities.
In Philippi, he found Lydia the seller of purple – at the upper layer of the city’s economy; he freed the fortune-telling slave girl from what’s described as demonic possession – which so enraged her owners that they had Paul and Silas beaten and thrown into prison where these bruised and bleeding men sang hymns. Paul baptized the jailer and his whole family after an earthquake freed the prisoners and the jailer would have killed himself, supposing they had all escaped.
Here in Philippi were the elements of a fledging group of followers of Jesus, who identified with this God of Love Paul was showing them. They represented all economic classes – from merchant to jailer to slave. This God who is also Love knew no economic class, honored no categories – neither slave nor free, male nor female. And Paul built all his relationships on this universal Love he was himself learning to live.
So one moral Paul is already teaching me, is to open wider the possibilities of amazing relationships through absolutely refusing to categorize or classify those I meet. Rather to connect with the sparkling man of God’s creating in everyone, across cultures, without age. It's an exciting goal, because there is something special in everyone, something worth discovering.
What surprised me most about Paul was discovering his tenderness. This man who had terrified and persecuted Christ’s followers in his career as Saul of Tarsus, now a convert himself, proved kind, caring and tender towards his new friends in these far-flung cities. These new friends became the foundation, the core, of new Christian communities.
In Philippi, he found Lydia the seller of purple – at the upper layer of the city’s economy; he freed the fortune-telling slave girl from what’s described as demonic possession – which so enraged her owners that they had Paul and Silas beaten and thrown into prison where these bruised and bleeding men sang hymns. Paul baptized the jailer and his whole family after an earthquake freed the prisoners and the jailer would have killed himself, supposing they had all escaped.
Here in Philippi were the elements of a fledging group of followers of Jesus, who identified with this God of Love Paul was showing them. They represented all economic classes – from merchant to jailer to slave. This God who is also Love knew no economic class, honored no categories – neither slave nor free, male nor female. And Paul built all his relationships on this universal Love he was himself learning to live.
So one moral Paul is already teaching me, is to open wider the possibilities of amazing relationships through absolutely refusing to categorize or classify those I meet. Rather to connect with the sparkling man of God’s creating in everyone, across cultures, without age. It's an exciting goal, because there is something special in everyone, something worth discovering.
For Paul’s adventures in Philippi, see Acts 16:9-40
Gone is the distinction between Jew and Greek, slave and free man, male and female – you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Living Bible)
By the way, for those who may be interested, this tour was hosted and led by http://www.biblicaltravels.com/
1 comment:
So glad to have you back and thanks for sharing some of of your thoughts and adventurs in Greece
sdc
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