Acts 16:9-15
“Finding Our Way”
July 28, 2019
When a successful and driven doctor named Tom from California learns that his adult son Daniel has died while trying to complete a pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago – The Way of St. James – through the mountains of Spain, he sets off to identify his son’s body and see to having him cremated in the movie that came out a few years ago called “The Way” starring real life father and son, Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez.
Despite not being a religious man, Tom decides that he will complete the 500 mile trek, spreading Daniel’s ashes along the way. This is a trip that takes most folks more than a month to complete starting in St. Jean Pied de Port in France and ending at the Cathedral de Santiago in Spain. While walking, Tom starts out wondering why his son would ever take on such a trek, He comes to ultimately appreciate it, with plenty of flashbacks to earlier times when he and his son would butt heads on the sort of life that Daniel embraced which was not driven by a need for comfort and financial success like his father. Tom realizes in his walking, and encounters with a host of characters who are all trying to find their way in life, that his late son’s words have been given meaning he couldn’t have imagined just a few months earlier. These are the flashback words of Daniel when his father had challenged him on the choices he made, “You don’t choose a life, Dad. You live one.”
Life changing journeys are sometimes taken on foot for long distances like the Appalachian Trail or Pacific Crest Trail but more often it may be a matter of putting one step in front of the other. Our encounter today with Paul and a couple of fellow travelers, Silas and Timothy, is a part of the second missionary trip that Paul would take. At some point, Luke has also joined the team because he uses the term “we” to describe how they ended up in Philippi, all as a result of a vision. Originally Paul and company were on track to go back and visit some of the cities that they had engaged with on their first trip but instead the Holy Spirit guided them into this Roman colony in Macedonia and it was when they quieted themselves on this Sabbath day, taking a load off as it were, that they began speaking their truth to the women there. And change – I would say for all parties involved – began to happen.
Lydia, she of the rare and valuable purple cloth which we learned in Bible study on Friday would have gotten its color from boiling snails, was to be the first convert to Christianity in Philippi and in gratitude she would offer hospitality to these travelers. This tale of having found themselves in Philippi, followed what Paul perceived as God directing them to this place, speaks volumes of who you meet on your journey and how a single person can change it all. To begin with a vision often means taking a risk. There are plenty of visions in scripture and so often those receiving them pay attention closely and their life’s journey takes a path that they might not have otherwise imagined. Abraham, Samuel, Daniel, Mary, Joseph, Peter – all of them had visions that were not just pie in the sky but where they themselves were part of the picture, spurred to action in a way that no amount of plotting and planning could have prepared them for.
To trust in God more than the path that society or even family thought was best often can sometimes lead to isolation or even being shunned because we often make sense of the world by rational thought which is not a bad thing, it’s just that it may be incomplete. To open our minds and hearts to the possibility of a new thing happening in our midst that wasn’t predicted by data or preordained by custom is to allow ourselves to not be thrown for a loop by the unexpected.
Consider all of the major decisions you have made to construct what you would now call your life’s path and decisions you will make from this point forward. Have we left room for the Holy Spirit to have input or are we purely relying on the opinions of others, the research we diligently did and the practicality of all the variables? Could we possibly carve out a bit of time before deciding which direction we’ll take in our next big decision for quiet and prayer? Consider that it is in the quiet near the river that Lydia is changed by these globe-trotting strangers who offer her a path that had to seem somewhat crazy and even a bit dangerous within the confines of the Roman Empire which was not known for welcoming new models of leadership and allegiance. Paul responded to a vision that said “Come over and help us” and his first convert in town is a woman in a culture and time where few women had power. This speaks of the openness to the other that is at the heart of the Gospel message that Paul travelled far and wide, by boat and foot, to bring to strangers. He’s traveled a great distance already and has so much farther to go.
On a hot summer day maybe your thoughts turn to journeys you’ve taken on walkways near water, like the Marginal Way in Ogunquit, Maine. Unlike what its name might be interpreted as, the marginal doesn’t speak to something insignificant but rather the margin between the land and the sea. To walk this beautiful one and a quarter mile trail, especially in the less-crowded off-season, is to be able to enjoy the beauty of the coastline with its beaches and crashing waves with visible tide pools, benches for resting in stillness and swooping birds that have the power to alleviate stress. On the Marginal Way you can be transported for a short while to an other-worldly existence and for a bit of time you can forget the bustling activity of tourists and gift shops and restaurants nearby.
Sometimes we know exactly where a journey will lead us and yet we experience it differently. Some of you, like me, may have walked a labyrinth. I remember my first experience of one that was laid out indoors on a college gym floor and I needed instructions on what to do because it appeared too simple. To prayerfully walk toward the center of a maze-like circular path that had only one curvy route, taken in this case in stocking feet with gentle instrumental music in the background and a few candles lit to add to the atmosphere, took a bit of getting used to. Soon, though, I was lost in my thoughts and prayers and grateful for the path on the canvas which afforded me the privilege of not having to keep track of where I was going. That labyrinth almost 20 years ago along with the others I’ve walked since have provided a way to move but not become so preoccupied with the destination that I could enjoy the journey itself.
Paul found himself in a new city after he encountered road blocks that kept him from routes to Asia and Bithynia. Paul and his traveling friends hit a number of detours before the vision to head toward Macedonia and what they discover is that their journey will take them across cultural and ethnic boundaries. God will lead them to previously unknown places and experiences. May we pause often on our life’s journey to listen for the possibility of the new thing God might have in mind for us that we won’t find on a map or with GPS. Let us leave room for the unexpected route God may be carving out for us and may your journey bring you ever closer to the heart of God. Amen.