28th Day of Easter, Saturday May 9: Acts 16:1-15

Lest we think Paul was an anti-youth curmudgeon having rejected John Mark, Acts introduces Timothy, another ‘2nd generation’ Christian, son of a believer mother, though a non-Christian father. Timothy joins the evangelistic road show through the towns of Turkey – and begins a vocation commemorated in letters to Timothy later in Christian scriptures.

Momentum slows in west and north Turkey, called Asia and Bithynia. Resistance is not external as in earlier stories, but internal, a sense that the Spirit of Jesus is not allowing them, or silencing them. On the other hand, in the port of Troas, near Gallipoli, the key bottleneck between Mediterranean and Black seas, the edge of Asia Minor and boundary of Europe, a vision of a man of Macedonia beckoned Paul to cross the waters to reach out to a new (to him) continent.

In Philippi, Roman capital of Macedonia, Paul heads ‘down by the river to pray’ and meets Lydia. Lydia is an entrepreneur managing a luxury goods trade based in Asia Minor and reaching into Europe. She becomes patroness and host – and has her household baptized, and convinces Paul to join her as much as she joins him – a reflection of the early leadership of church by patrons of either gender.