This sermon was preached for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, May 22, 2022 by the Rev. Mia Kano. The readings for this sermon were Acts 16:9-15, Psalm 67, and John 14:23-29.
In the early 1950s, a down and out kid named Gary kept showing up at a small library in Chicago. His parents were absent and neglectful, swallowed up by alcoholism, and so for this young teen, the library became a sanctuary. Years later, Gary reminisced about the library in an interview with NPR,
“The librarian - she watched me for a while. I was kind of this urchin, you know, a street urchin. Then she finally said, you want something? I said, nah I'm OK. And she gave me a card and - hard to talk about it. It was a card with my name on it. And, God, nobody had given me a - anything like that. Nobody gave me anything.”
The librarian also gave him books, starting out with one book a month and then one book a week. In turn, he would tell her his own imaginative stories, which he called thought pictures. Then one day, the librarian pulled him aside and gave him a Scripto notebook and a new number-two pencil, for writing down some of his own thought pictures. Gary was skeptical. “For who?” He asked. “For me,” she said.
In the end, it would be for more than just her, of course. Gary, Gary Paulsen, would go on to author hundreds of books. You may have read some of them. One, Hatchet, was required reading when I was in school. Another, “Dog Song,” won Gary a Newbery Honor. His books stood out for their raw honesty and struck a chord with young readers turned off by other fiction, especially young boys. In his memoir, “Gone into the Woods,” and his interviews, Paulsen credited the librarian’s kindness as the turning point that changed his life, saying, “None of this would have happened except for that.” Except for that librarian, that notebook, that moment of open-heartedness.
In Acts, we are primed to think about how Paul changes Lydia’s life - how God changes Lydia through Paul. God opens Lydia’s heart so that she listens to the truth of the Gospel and she is moved not only to receive baptism herself, but also to baptize her whole household. God opens her heart and in response, Lydia opens her home, hosting the weary apostles.
Then, while Paul goes off on his adventures and missions, Lydia stays to found a key early church, the church in Philippi. She does the hard work of building and holding together a fledgling community, grounded in that first act of open-heartedness and hospitality. We get hints of that community in Paul’s letters back to them, collected into our Bibles as the Epistle to the Philippians. Lydia’s remembered in all sorts of denominations as a saint; the Orthodox Church gives her the title, “Equal to the Apostles.”
In all this, I can’t help but pause to wonder how Lydia might have changed Paul. We can see that Paul is perhaps a bit lost - remember he’s not following some clearly laid out plan with guaranteed success. He’s relying on strange visions to guide his next steps, he’s ending up on the outskirts of strange cities. What would it have felt like for Paul to be met with this open-hearted woman? What would it have been like to be welcomed into her home after his long travels? How might an encounter with one open-hearted, generous soul have reinvigorated Paul? I wonder what she taught him.
Perhaps you, too, have encountered an open-hearted person at just the right moment in your life, when you were weary or alone or lost. A teacher, a coach, a friend, a stranger. Someone who opened their heart to you when yours was troubled. For me, there was the military chaplain I met in the deserts of Jordan. Working for international NGOs on a Fulbright grant, I was two years into giving up on God, on my faith, and on my childhood dream of becoming a minister. But this one chaplain - who wasn’t even Christian himself - took the time to encourage me, dared to suggest that there were gifts still inside me to be used in the spiritual service of others. None of this would have happened except for that.
We risk so much being open-hearted in this world. It took barely a week and a half for the scammers to start sending out solicitation emails to parishioners in my name! When you’ve been hurt, and when you are grieving, it can feel foolish to approach your life with an open heart. After disappointment and betrayals, open-heartedness can feel difficult even within a marriage, a family, or close-knit community. When we are relentlessly bombarded with reminders of the violence and cruelty of the world, the virality of hateful rhetoric and racism, as we have been this week, open-heartedness can feel downright naive. That’s why I think it is important to notice that it is God who opens Lydia’s heart to the strange band of missionaries and the truth they had to say. She does not do it on her own - God is right there with her.
Jesus says to his followers in a dark and frightening hour, on the eve of his brutal execution, “Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” Jesus says to us, You are not alone. I will not leave you to figure this out on your own. Yet his invitation is clear: choose peace over fear. Let your heart be opened.
There’s a chance this week - or the next week or maybe years from now, that you will have the chance to be that open-hearted person in someone else’s life. There’s a chance that you will meet a troubled heart, lost and afraid. It might be a stranger, but it could be your own relative, or friend, or child. I believe that one of the reasons we come here, to this place, week after week, one of the reasons we pray and practice finding Christ’s peace in our hearts, is so that we might be ready to be open-hearted in moments when it feels most impossible, foolish, and naïve. We seek the nourishment, refreshment, and rest that enables us to recognize God's opening of our hearts at the moment we are needed most.
Gary Paulsen has said that the librarian who changed his life probably never knew he went on to become a successful author. He never knew her name. Plus, his first books weren’t even published under his. It’s quite possible that she never learned how God used her gesture of open-heartedness to touch so many young readers. It’s possible that we may never know how our own open-heartedness has changed the world, years later, lives later.
Jesus invites us to open our hearts, our lives and our homes, anyway. Jesus invites us to look for the troubled hearts among us and to be the peace he gives.
“The librarian - she watched me for a while. I was kind of this urchin, you know, a street urchin. Then she finally said, you want something? I said, nah I'm OK. And she gave me a card and - hard to talk about it. It was a card with my name on it. And, God, nobody had given me a - anything like that. Nobody gave me anything.”
The librarian also gave him books, starting out with one book a month and then one book a week. In turn, he would tell her his own imaginative stories, which he called thought pictures. Then one day, the librarian pulled him aside and gave him a Scripto notebook and a new number-two pencil, for writing down some of his own thought pictures. Gary was skeptical. “For who?” He asked. “For me,” she said.
In the end, it would be for more than just her, of course. Gary, Gary Paulsen, would go on to author hundreds of books. You may have read some of them. One, Hatchet, was required reading when I was in school. Another, “Dog Song,” won Gary a Newbery Honor. His books stood out for their raw honesty and struck a chord with young readers turned off by other fiction, especially young boys. In his memoir, “Gone into the Woods,” and his interviews, Paulsen credited the librarian’s kindness as the turning point that changed his life, saying, “None of this would have happened except for that.” Except for that librarian, that notebook, that moment of open-heartedness.
In Acts, we are primed to think about how Paul changes Lydia’s life - how God changes Lydia through Paul. God opens Lydia’s heart so that she listens to the truth of the Gospel and she is moved not only to receive baptism herself, but also to baptize her whole household. God opens her heart and in response, Lydia opens her home, hosting the weary apostles.
Then, while Paul goes off on his adventures and missions, Lydia stays to found a key early church, the church in Philippi. She does the hard work of building and holding together a fledgling community, grounded in that first act of open-heartedness and hospitality. We get hints of that community in Paul’s letters back to them, collected into our Bibles as the Epistle to the Philippians. Lydia’s remembered in all sorts of denominations as a saint; the Orthodox Church gives her the title, “Equal to the Apostles.”
In all this, I can’t help but pause to wonder how Lydia might have changed Paul. We can see that Paul is perhaps a bit lost - remember he’s not following some clearly laid out plan with guaranteed success. He’s relying on strange visions to guide his next steps, he’s ending up on the outskirts of strange cities. What would it have felt like for Paul to be met with this open-hearted woman? What would it have been like to be welcomed into her home after his long travels? How might an encounter with one open-hearted, generous soul have reinvigorated Paul? I wonder what she taught him.
Perhaps you, too, have encountered an open-hearted person at just the right moment in your life, when you were weary or alone or lost. A teacher, a coach, a friend, a stranger. Someone who opened their heart to you when yours was troubled. For me, there was the military chaplain I met in the deserts of Jordan. Working for international NGOs on a Fulbright grant, I was two years into giving up on God, on my faith, and on my childhood dream of becoming a minister. But this one chaplain - who wasn’t even Christian himself - took the time to encourage me, dared to suggest that there were gifts still inside me to be used in the spiritual service of others. None of this would have happened except for that.
We risk so much being open-hearted in this world. It took barely a week and a half for the scammers to start sending out solicitation emails to parishioners in my name! When you’ve been hurt, and when you are grieving, it can feel foolish to approach your life with an open heart. After disappointment and betrayals, open-heartedness can feel difficult even within a marriage, a family, or close-knit community. When we are relentlessly bombarded with reminders of the violence and cruelty of the world, the virality of hateful rhetoric and racism, as we have been this week, open-heartedness can feel downright naive. That’s why I think it is important to notice that it is God who opens Lydia’s heart to the strange band of missionaries and the truth they had to say. She does not do it on her own - God is right there with her.
Jesus says to his followers in a dark and frightening hour, on the eve of his brutal execution, “Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” Jesus says to us, You are not alone. I will not leave you to figure this out on your own. Yet his invitation is clear: choose peace over fear. Let your heart be opened.
There’s a chance this week - or the next week or maybe years from now, that you will have the chance to be that open-hearted person in someone else’s life. There’s a chance that you will meet a troubled heart, lost and afraid. It might be a stranger, but it could be your own relative, or friend, or child. I believe that one of the reasons we come here, to this place, week after week, one of the reasons we pray and practice finding Christ’s peace in our hearts, is so that we might be ready to be open-hearted in moments when it feels most impossible, foolish, and naïve. We seek the nourishment, refreshment, and rest that enables us to recognize God's opening of our hearts at the moment we are needed most.
Gary Paulsen has said that the librarian who changed his life probably never knew he went on to become a successful author. He never knew her name. Plus, his first books weren’t even published under his. It’s quite possible that she never learned how God used her gesture of open-heartedness to touch so many young readers. It’s possible that we may never know how our own open-heartedness has changed the world, years later, lives later.
Jesus invites us to open our hearts, our lives and our homes, anyway. Jesus invites us to look for the troubled hearts among us and to be the peace he gives.
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| Gary Paulsen, bestselling author. |
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