"Dealing with Life's Roadblocks"
Sermon Presented May 13, 2007
Acts 16:6-15
When we look back on our lives, we see that life is filled with detours and roadblocks. Maybe you weren't accepted into the university of your choice, the person you wanted to marry decided to marry another, your dream house was unattainable, the specialist you desired wasn't taking new patients, the job you wanted was offered to someone else, the one you married sought a divorce, or the trip you desperately wanted to take was too expensive. We face roadblocks throughout our lives and you may be up against one right now. What do we do when what we desire comes into conflict with reality?
When faced with detours, some may say: "If life dishes up lemons; make lemonade" or "If God closes a door, a window will surely open", but this isn't what we want to hear. In fact, we may tell that optimist to stuff it!
I don't believe that God causes natural disasters and the death of a loved one, but I do believe that when we seek to do God's will, God closes some doors to us or gives us the wisdom to make closure possible. These blockages can redirect us to a new path. Our text this morning deals with roadblocks that God sets to help Paul and company find the right path.
Our story begins with Paul, Silas and Timothy leaving on a missionary journey, and we assume that the author of Luke/Acts joins them because the personal pronoun changes in med-text from "they" to "we". Let's look at the story in Acts 16:6-15. I added verses 6-8 to the lectionary text because I believe these verses are necessary to our understanding. (Read text.)
In 1994 I attended a 10-day Ignatian retreat in Boston. One of the leaders was a Catholic priest and professor of ancient literature at Boston College, Fr. Ed Vodoklys. When Fr. Ed was a student at Harvard, he was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and for months he wasn't expected to live. As he faced a lengthy rehabilitation with no prospect for leading a normal life as he understood normality, his life changed.
He was angry with God! The door he planned to enter was slammed in his face, but as he waited through years of rehab, he discerned a new direction taking shape. I'm not inferring that God caused his disease, but God used that roadblock to bring a new direction for his life.
Fr. Ed eventually went back to school and earned his Ph.D., followed by ordination to the priesthood. He walks laboriously and has almost no use of his left arm, but his brilliant mind is intact, and he radiates the presence of God.
When he administered the sacraments during the celebration of the Eucharist, it brought tears to my eyes. He would take a wafer with his right hand and place it between two deformed fingers on his left. He offered healing to those he served, as God used him powerfully.
God used Paul and his small band to change lives in a place where they had no intention of going, and the direction came through a combination of road blocks and a vision. Last week I related visions given to both Peter and Cornelius, and this week, Paul is the recipient. After being turned back from one path after another, Paul receives guidance through an extraordinary vision, and believing it to be from God, he follows.
As we all know, visions aren't the norm for making life changes. I doubt if Les and Wilanna, Lawrence or Evelyn saw a vision that led them to Milwaukee. I surely didn't! But I imagine that other paths were blocked before this option presented itself.
The gospel writer reports that the Spirit both prevented Paul from going in one direction and then prompted him to advance in another. Throughout Acts we witness the Spirit intervening to guide, assist and inspire the Church. In our text God moves faithful men to the place where grace is most needed. That same Spirit ministers God's grace to us today so that we might offer it to others.
This isn't an easy journey for the missionaries, and when they arrive at their destination, they can't even find a synagogue. On the Sabbath, they move to the river hoping to find a suitable place to worship God. There, they discover a group of women who have gathered for prayer. This may indicate that the city lacks the quorum of ten Jewish men to establish a synagogue.
I can just imagine Paul's initial reaction to this group of women by the river. "God, why are we here? There's no synagogue and there isn't a man in sight!" But Paul soon understands the purpose of this destination when God acts in the lives of these women.
Lydia, the group's leader, is probably Greek - her name is Greek. She is a Gentile and a God-fearer - a term for a Gentile who worships God. She is a businesswoman and a homeowner, and she deals in purple cloth from Thyatira - a city renowned for its textile industry. Purple cloth is owned by the wealthy, so Lydia has an entrée to influential people in a wide geographic area. Following her baptism, she offers her home for Christian worship and a place for the visiting missionaries to stay.
The first half of the reading suggests a sense of frustration. Paul's trip consists of false starts that eventually lead him to Europe. The key to the success of this mission is that Paul sticks with it in spite of its initial failures. Had he not stuck with the mission, there would have been no vision, and no positive direction.
I'm not a very adventurous person because I lack self-confidence. I couldn't make a trip to Germany with maps, a guide book, a rental car and the location of 34 yarn shops like Sara and her friend did. I need a travel agent or a pre-arranged tour so that I'm not filled with apprehension and the thought of wasted time through getting lost and not knowing the language. Paul and his small entourage knew where they wanted to go, but God kept changing their direction. However, they didn't stop.
For Paul, these new doors and new directions meant eventual beatings, imprisonments, stonings and rejection, but with these persecutions, the Gospel spread. Paul followed God's direction and God blessed his mission. In the midst of his trials and suffering, Paul praises God.
God's ways aren't always clear to us. We can be so close to a situation that we can't see God's activity. We can be so caught up in our feelings and plans that we don't hear God's voice. Because most don't have clear visions to direct our paths, we need to pay attention to all aspects of life - expecting God to speak through people and situations. Taking the time to assess the situation, while listening to God, helps us to discern the right direction. If we truly want God's best for us, we must listen for the "no" as well as the "yes". God directed Paul to people on a continent who had never heard of Jesus, and he began his ministry with a small gathering of women.
As Paul answers "yes" to God's call, so do Lydia and her household. Lydia makes a private confession and publicly proclaims her faith through baptism. She then demonstrates generosity and hospitality to the missionaries. God puts her to work immediately as she starts the first house church in Europe.
God is in the business of changing lives. God can touch us when we are reading, listening to music or a sermon, in conversation with a friend, in prayer or while sitting and marveling at nature around us. When God does speak, we need to commit as much of ourselves as we can to as much of God as we understand. Commitment and understanding continue to grow as we follow Jesus.
One of the greatest writers in the area of spirituality was Thomas Merton - a Trappist Monk from Gethsemani Abbey - a monastery near Louisville. Merton ran from God for years until he finally gave up to lead a life of contemplation at Gethsemani. These words were penned in his small book Thoughts in Solitude:
"My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone."
As with Merton, there are times when God is leading and we have no clue that we are being led. There are times when our disappointments and detours bring us to a point of depression and drifting. However, we must never forget that when we commit our lives to follow Jesus, when we truly seek God's direction, we will find the direction we need. It just doesn't always come the way we anticipate, but it will come. There will be roadblocks! What we do with our lives while facing the roadblock determines the direction we will take. Life is a challenge! Why not take advantage of the direction that God offers?
