Sunday, May 13, 2007

Sermon: "The Bag Lady Syndrome"

Scripture: Acts 16:9-15

A high percentage of women today fear a life of destitution, despite good jobs and healthy bank accounts. The cure for this condition might be more spiritual than financial.

Nearly half of women fear life as a bag lady.

At a time when more and more women are getting more recognition and higher paying jobs, statistics show that 46 percent of women suffer from what is now called "Bag Lady Syndrome."

They might have good salaries, money in their purses, decent savings and investments ? but still they are afraid that they will wind up broke, forgotten and destitute.

According to The Washington Times (August 23, 2006), a recent survey of almost 2,000 women reveals that 90 percent of them feel financially insecure. Forty-six percent are troubled by a "tremendous fear of becoming a bag lady," and this anxiety actually increases as incomes rise. Among those with annual incomes of more than $100,000, 48 percent of women fear a life of destitution.

Lily Tomlin. Gloria Steinem. Shirley MacLaine. Katie Couric. "All admit to having a bag lady in their anxiety closet," writes MSN money columnist Jay McDonald. They all suffer from the bag lady nightmare.

Women have complicated fears about money, observes Judith Briles, a Denver financial adviser. "They fear failure, or making mistakes. They fear they are expendable." Because of this, women are twice as likely as men to set aside a secret stash of money. Two-thirds of the women surveyed said that the best thing about having money is the sense of security it brings.

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

This is interesting stuff because our text for today introduces us to an apparently successful woman, Lydia. It's clear that she's a financially secure resident of the city of Philippi. She owns a business and a home. She's a "dealer in purple cloth" (16:14), having come from the well-known textile city of Thyatira. The color purple is significant because purple clothing is the mark of wealth and royalty in the Roman world ? to be dressed in purple is to boast of influence and power. So Lydia has a close connection to the lifestyles of the rich and famous, and there is very little chance that she will wind up broke, forgotten and destitute.

Does Lydia fall victim to the bag lady syndrome? Acts doesn't say. What today's passage does describe is how she responds to the preaching of the gospel. And based on her response, we can come to a critically important conclusion:

She is motivated by faith, not by fear.

In today's passage, Paul and Silas arrive in the city of Philippi, a Roman colony in the district of Macedonia. While in Troas, a port city on the Aegean Sea, Paul sees a vision of a man of Macedonia, and this vision convinces him that God wants him to preach the good news of Jesus Christ to the Macedonians. So Paul and Silas skip from Troas to Philippi. On the Sabbath day, they go outside the gate of Philippi by the river, looking for a place of prayer, and they sit down with a group of women who have gathered there. They begin to talk, and one of the women listening to them is Lydia ? Acts tells us that the Lord opens her heart to listen eagerly to what is said by Paul (v. 14).

If Lydia was suffering from what we now call "The Bag Lady Syndrome," we would expect to see it now. She has a ton of good reasons to exercise restraint at this point. Distrust of strangers would be a good reason for her to keep to herself. The bag lady syndrome could cause her to clutch her possessions tightly. Fear of loss might inspire her to run home and protect her secret stash of money.

But she doesn't take any of these fear-based actions. Instead, she responds with faith, generosity and hospitality.

Lydia asks for baptism for herself and her household, and then insists, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home" (v. 15). Lydia prevails upon Paul and Silas, and they follow her home. In time, Lydia's house becomes a center of Christian worship and outreach in Philippi, and Paul develops a close and loving bond with the church members there.

In March of 2003, Jane and I had the opportunity to follow Paul's second journey through Athens, Philippi, Ephesus, and other cities that Paul preached in. We have a picture of Jane standing in front of the "jail" that Paul and Silas were in when the earthquake came and opened the door. But, more importantly, we have pictures and fond memories of  going down to the river to retrieve some water from the same river that Paul used to baptize Lydia and her household. I used this bottle of water to pour on the hands of the rest of our group while Bishop Dew held their hands and renewed their baptism.

Then we sat down along the river and heard the story of Lydia. We reminisced as to how it must have been to be Lydia or one of her household. We were refreshed, renewed, reinvigorated, having just renewed our baptism near the spot where Paul and Silas had impacted at least one family with baptism. Lydia's home became a place of worship.

Sometime after the baptism of Lydia, Paul writes his letter to the Philippians, he expresses his gratitude in this way, "You Philippians indeed know that in the early days of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you alone" (Philippians 4:15).

No church shared with him and supported him ? except the Philippians.
They were the generous ones.
The hospitable ones.
The faithful ones.
And it all started with Lydia, a woman who chose faith over fear.

Today is Mother's Day, so it's tempting to address this sermon to the mothers of the church. But such a focus would be misguided, since the bag lady syndrome afflicts more than just mothers ? in fact, it hits more than just women. Each of us, men included, can wake up in a cold sweat, terrified that we are broke, forgotten and destitute. Each of us can have our own frightening vision of being wiped out financially, robbed of stability and security, and condemned to a life on the streets.

If it's not financial fear, it very well could be another kind of fear. Fear that we'll lose our good health, fear of catastrophe, fear of failure, fear of discovery, fear of dependency and so on. 
The antidote, however, is not a tighter grip on our possessions or our lifestyle however it is presently constituted. It's not a better vault for our secret stash of money that we need. It's not a fear-driven attitude that causes us to hold back, play it safe, distrust strangers, and thereby close ourselves off to the surprising good news that God is putting before us.

No, the way to awaken from the bag lady syndrome is to choose faith over fear. The way to find real peace and security is to practice generosity and hospitality.

This can mean: 

 - opening our wallets when we are asked to support a worthy cause, be it Strength for Service, UMOM, Westside Foodbank, etc.

 - collecting backpacks to support our Annual Conference Mission.

 - filling shoeboxes to support a worldwide mission, or collecting socks and underwear for needy children closer to home.

 - giving of ourselves in ways that have absolutely nothing to do with money: volunteering our time and talent to enhance our own ministry right here at SHUMC.

So, what is it that God has put you here to do?

Where is God at work in your life ? right here, right now?

A few months ago I told you about one of our parishioners who said that she is now a shut in and all she can do is send her tithe and pray for her church. That's all she can do??!! What more could one ask of someone in her situation. She is giving all that she can give. She loves her church. She is doing what God has asked her to do.

What is the one thing that you should be doing as a disciple of Jesus Christ, as you put your faith into action?

Each of us is being given an opportunity to trade a nightmare for a dream. If we follow the examples of Lydia, along with countless other people of faith, we will find ourselves moving from anxiety to serenity, and from a life ruled by fear to a life shaped by faith. The particular path we follow will be different for each of us. It might mean opening our homes, as Lydia did, or opening our wallets, or our calendars to mark a time for service to this church.

Whatever you open, the point is to practice hospitality and generosity, in line with what God is doing in your life.

Only then does the syndrome end, and the dream of discipleship begin. Do you have the bag lady syndrome? Only you can change that.

Lydia practiced faith not fear. Open your hearts to God's desire for you. Not one of us is too old to do what God expects of us. "Been there, done that, time for someone else to do it", is not a good answer, nor the right answer when God calls us into action.

Lydia came to Paul. She did not wait for Paul to come to her, she reached out to Paul. Lydia was a take action individual, not only with her business, but more importantly, with her life and commitment. Baptize me. Use me. She might even be the one who started singing: Now thank we all our God with heart and hand and voices. Let us stand?let us sing.

Sources:

Harper, Jennifer. "Nearly half of women fear life as a bag lady." The Washington Times. August 23, 2006. washingtontimes.com.

Starling, Gayle Elizabeth. "Ultimate hospitality: Christian educator donates a kidney to aid a fellow church member." United Church News. May 2004. ucc.org.