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Zooming - Week Three

raemx February 05, 2025 0 0

Lydia texts us! — Pretext, context, subtext!

 

In this text message about a textile merchant, we want to have eyes open for the context — what’s around the words, the subtext — what lies underneath the words, and then the pretexts we might bring to those words!

SEEDS TO SOW: If you could send a text message to someone in the Bible who would you text and what would you say?

Read Acts 16: 11-14

Context and textiles.

The context: apostles on the move looking for a place of prayer and a group of women who had gathered by the river. What do we gain if we don’t just skip past this scene-setting but dig in a little further? What do you notice or what catches your attention when you take time to explore the scene?

Another of the text words we are thinking about this week is ‘textile’ as Lydia was a dealer in purple cloth. The Bible doesn’t always provide CVs or job descriptions, especially of women, so it’s significant that it’s mentioned here. What does the fact Lydia was a textile dealer tell us about her?

Read Acts 16: 15

Subtext and text messages.

In this pocket of space that has opened up — across potential barriers of gender, culture and status — a woman comes to faith in Jesus. 

Imagine Lydia texting her family and friends about what happened. One of the subtexts of The Acts of the Apostles (a title that came much later) is actually the importance of God’s acts in the world. Lydia was someone who listened, Paul is someone who spoke, but it is God who opened her heart.

What is the text message of this encounter? For us as individuals and as a wider community?

Let’s take time to pray that God might open more hearts.

Read Acts 16: 15

Pretext!

Lydia at the end of the verse seems to be putting the pressure on Paul a bit! Perhaps there was more she wanted to know or learn before he left town. While the hospitality was genuine it could also have been a bit of a pretext so that she could grill him further on this new faith! 

If she came to Paul with a pretext… she isn’t alone! At the time and over the intervening two thousands years people have come to Paul with their pretexts, their assumptions and agendas. What’s lovely about Lydia is whether or not there was a pretext is that she offers genuine hospitality, shelter and connection. 

When we come to the Bible, what do we bring with us? What are our pretexts? 

How can our attitudes and past experiences hinder and help our understanding of the Bible?