The Road Less Travelled March 19th, 2023
Light of the world, your Word brings new vision and hope. Shine your Spirit on us as we listen to the Scriptures, to open our eyes on your Word at work in the world and show us the path we can follow. Amen.
New Testament Reading:
I’d like to begin by reciting a stanza from the poem, “A Road not Taken”, which was written by the American poet, Robert Frost. Many of us probably remember it from school. It goes like this, “I shall be telling this with a sigh, somewhere ages and ages hence: two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”
And that’s what we heard in this morning’s reading from the book of Acts, the road which the Apostle Paul and his travelling companions did take and the impact which that had on the future of the Christian Church, right up until today, which, as Frost wrote, “has made all the difference.”
Our reading began with these lines, “And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas.” The “they” in this case are the apostle Paul and his fellow missionaries, Timothy, and Silas, who are with Paul at the beginning of his second missionary journey. They were in Galatia, which was in modern day Turkey, and were wanting to go further east in Asia, but the Holy Spirit intervened and prevented them from doing so. Then they thought they would travel further north in that region but once again were thwarted in their efforts. We’re not told how, or why, they were prevented from doing so, only that it was the Holy Spirit who blocked them.
So, Paul and Timothy and Silas traveled east to Troas, which is on the coast of Turkey. This is what took place when they were staying there, “And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.” There is something to notice in these lines, it’s the word “we”. Up to this point in Acts the author, Luke, wrote in the third person, using words like “they” and “them” but now that all changes, now he writes, “immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia.” By that change in pronouns, from the third to the first person, Luke shows that he has now joined the expedition. We don’t know where he came from, or how he got there, or what contact he had with Paul. Perhaps they met in one of the villages Paul and his companions passed though on the way to Troas. We do know Luke was a doctor and a very respected contributor to the Scriptures and his writings give us an amazing glimpse into ancient biblical times. Maybe Paul had gone to see him for some medical advice and Luke had come to faith because of that encounter. But at any rate he joins up and the “they” becomes a “we,” and Luke is now united with Paul as they reach out toward Macedonia.
Luke tells us that they caught a boat and set sail for Macedonia, a province in Greece, and more importantly, which was located in Europe. This was to be another major turning point in the history of the Church. Because of Paul’s obedience in following the directions of the Holy Spirit, the gospel went westward; and ultimately Europe and the Western world were evangelized. Thus, by going to Macedonia, Paul was taking the Gospel from one continent to another. That represents a major, historic expansion for the Christian faith as more and more people became followers of Christ. From the moment Paul stepped on Macedonian soil, Christianity was no longer just an “eastern” religion.
This was to be that “road less travelled” for Paul. Luke says that after seeing the vision of that man from Macedonia urging them to come and help them, Paul understood that it was God who was telling them to go there. Just like us today, Paul had his own ideas of where he should be going to spread the Gospel, but God, in his plan of salvation for the world, had a different road for Paul to take. And so, in faith, Paul trusts in God and crosses the Aegean Sea and lands in Macedonia.
Once Paul and his companions landed in the province of Macedonia they went to the leading city of the area, Philippi, and began spreading the Gospel. Now Paul’s routine when he entered a new town was to go the local synagogue on the sabbath. That was where he would meet the already religious people who knew something about God from the Scriptures. But Philippi was a Roman city, without a large enough Jewish population to have a synagogue. According to the laws of the Old Testament you had to have ten adult male Jews in order to have a synagogue. If there weren’t that many, then the Law allowed that the Jewish people were to meet by a river and have prayer meetings there on the sabbath.
So that is why Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke walked along the riverside on their first sabbath morning in Philippi — to see if they could find a Jewish prayer meeting. And to their delight they did, Luke says, “and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together.” That would have been a big surprise to Paul and his friends, they would have been expecting a group of Jewish men by that riverside, but instead it was a number of women who had gathered to worship God. The first people to hear about the Saving Grace of Jesus Christ in Europe were to be women. This truly was a road less travelled.
So, Paul preached the Gospel message to those women at that riverside, and this is what took place, “One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshipper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “‘If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.’” This woman, Lydia, was from Thyatira, which was a city in Turkey. It was known for its purple dye, made from mollusks’ shells, which was very popular with the Romans. She was a believer in God and after hearing Paul’s message she came to faith in Jesus Christ as being the Son of God and the Saviour of the world. And as a sign of her new-found faith, not only did she get baptised, but she had her whole household baptised, as well. She then invited Paul and his fellow missionaries to use her home as a base for their missionary endeavors.
So, what we see in today’s reading is that God is sovereignly at work behind the scenes, even when we’re not aware of it. Think about how God put Lydia and Paul together. She was from Thyatira, in western Turkey, and God brought her to Philippi. Paul tried to go to Turkey but was prevented from doing so and was led to Philippi by a vision of a man from Macedonia. God orchestrated an encounter by a river so Lydia could hear the message from Paul and receive salvation.
What we can learn from this is that it’s our responsibility to simply share the word of God whenever we have the opportunity. It’s God’s job to open hearts. Through situations such as this Paul came to understand that. Later on in his ministry, when the church in the city of Corinth was having troubles, they were arguing over who was the leader of the church, Paul, or another man by the name of Apollos. Paul wrote these words to them, “What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” This was a reminder to them that they were to do more than sit around and pray for God’s direction for service, they were to go out and start serving him. And that’s the same for us today. You can sit in a parking lot and turn the steering wheel of your car all day long, but if the car isn’t moving, you won’t get anywhere.
We should, however, take time, like we are doing here today in church, and other quiet times during the week, to concentrate on where we can be of most use as the Lord’s servants. The mission, of course, doesn’t even belong to the church; it is God’s mission. Yet, we the church, are called to understand what God’s mission is for us. We have to ask ourselves, where is the Spirit calling us? What vision calls us beyond the boundaries into ministry where we had not considered it before? God will lead us; we just need to be ready when he does.
And who knows, as Frost wrote, “I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” That road less traveled which we take could make all the difference in someone’s life and indeed, in our own lives.
Let us Pray:
Heavenly Father, Grant us the vision of your kingdom. Grant us forgiveness and new life. Grant us the stirring of your Spirit so that we may proclaim your love and change this world. May your Spirit make us wise. May your Spirit guide us. May your Spirit strengthen us so that we may be strong in the faith, courageous in witness, and persistent in witnessing to others. Amen