Rev. Dr. Bary R. Fleet - Pastor
May 13, 2007 – Festival of the Christian Home
Acts 16:9-15
Revelation 21:1-10, 22-22:
John 14:23-29

Trade a Nightmare for a Dream

I read this week that 46 percent of all women have what is now called “Bag Lady Syndrome.”  I won’t ask for a show of hands to confirm the statistic, but I bet there isn’t a woman in this sanctuary who doesn’t know what I’m talking about – even though you might not have it!

These women might well have good salaries, money in the bank, good investments – but they are still afraid that they will wind up broke, forgotten and destitute.  Bag ladies!

There was an article in The Washington Times (Aug. 23, 2006) citing a survey of 2,000 women that 90 percent felt financially insecure, and 46 percent are troubled by a “tremendous fear of becoming a bag lady.”  Ironically, this fear increases as income rises.  Among those with incomes in excess of $100,000 48% fear a life of destitution.

Lily Tomlin, Gloria Steinem, Shirley McLaine, and Katie Couric all admit to having a bag lady in their anxiety closet!

Because of this women are more than twice as likely as men to have a secret stash of cash.  Two-thirds of the women surveyed said that the best thing about money is the security it brings them.

Men might crave the power or status that comes with money, but women like the security.

The tie-in today is that the passage in Acts introduces us to a successful business woman named Lydia.  She owns a home and has her own business.  She’s a “dealer in purple cloth.” (Acts 16:14)   Purple is the color of royalty and wealth, so the text is telling us that she has a business that caters to the wealthy and the powerful – she’s connected to the rich and the famous.

Acts doesn’t tell us whether or not Lydia has Bag Lady Nightmares, but it does describe how she responds to the preaching of Paul.  Based on that we can draw an important conclusion:  She is motivated by faith, not fear!

It is the Sabbath.  Paul and Silas go outside the river, looking for a place of prayer.  They sit down by a group of women, one of whom is Lydia.  They start talking and, according to Acts, “the Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly” to what is being said by Paul (vs. 14).

If Lydia were suffering from the Bag Lady Syndrome, here is where we would begin to see it.  She has a ton of reasons to leave at this point, not the least of which is that she doesn’t know these guys – they are obviously foreigners!

But she responds with faith, generosity and hospitality.

She asks for baptism for herself and her household.  Then she invites them to her home.  Her home became one of the early “house churches”.  Later, in Paul’s letter to the Philippians – Lydia’s crowd – he comments that no one was as generous as they were … no one was as hospitable as they were.  They were the faithful ones, and it all started with Lydia, a woman who chose faith over fear!

It would be easy to address this sermon to mothers, because all of us who have had a mother know how afraid they can be – and we often gave them good cause! 

But the reality is that there isn’t a one of us here who can wake up in a cold sweat, terrified that we are broke, forgotten, and destitute.  Maybe it isn’t a financial fear.  Maybe for us it is the fear of losing our health, fear of failure, fear of being found out, fear of becoming dependent.  Many of us know that dream of being naked and everybody else has clothes on … the fear of having people see us for who we really are.

How would we serve God – IF we weren’t afraid?  Would we open our wallets and give more to the church?  Would we open our homes to foreign exchange students?  Would we give of ourselves in ways that have nothing at all to do with money? 

Vicki McGraw is the director of Christian Education at a church in Cleveland, OH.  One day she was attending a church meeting and struck up a conversation with a woman and learned that the woman’s husband – Bob Fortney needed a kidney transplant.  As they talked, they both became teary-eyed. 

Then Vicki asked, “What do I have to do to be tested?”  Vicki had a clear calling as to what she needed to do, and it turned out that she was a better match than anyone in Bob’s family.  The surgery took 5 hours and was completely successful.  She went home in two days and back to work in 5 days.

Vicki McGraw is not a victim of the Bag Lady Mentality!  She chose faith over fear – and practiced extraordinary hospitality instead of ordinary self-concern.  She said, “A person can find 20 million reasons not to do something, but there is usually one reason that sticks with you as to why you should.” 

So, what is it that God has put us here to do?  What is the one thing that we might be doing as a disciple of Christ to put our faith into practice?  What is it that God is asking us to open … our wallets, our homes, our way of thinking, our calendars … our bodies?

What would be different if we trusted that God can replace our nightmares with dreams?

NOTE:  Today’s sermon is credited fully to Homiletics, Vol. 19, No. 3, May/June 2007.

To prepare for next week’s sermon, please consider reading Acts 1, Psalm 47, Ephesians 1, and Luke 34.     

SERMON IN A SACK:  a teddy bear.  Talk about what we do to make ourselves feel better when we are afraid – like holding tightly to our teddy bears.  Jesus told the disciples that his last gift to them was “peace.”  “Peace I leave with you.”  We don’t ever have to be afraid, because Jesus has promised to always take care of us – no matter what we are afraid of!