Called Outside the Gate
Acts 16:9-15, John 14:23-29
Mike Yaconelli was a youth ministry guru wrote a book called: Messy Spirituality—God’s Annoying Love for Imperfect People. In it, he tells a story that recounts the actions of a group of soldiers and one old priest in the rural countryside of France during WWII:
When an American soldier was killed in battle, “His comrades did not want to leave his body on the battlefield… [They wanted] to give him a Christian burial. They remembered a church a few miles behind the front lines whose grounds included a small cemetery. [It was] surrounded by a white fence. After receiving permission to take their friend’s body to the cemetery, they set out for the church arriving just before sunset.
“A [old] priest… responded to their knocking. His face, …wrinkled and tan, [his] fierce eyes…flashed wisdom and passion. Our friend was killed in battle,’ they blurted out, ‘and we wanted to give him a church burial.’
“Apparently the priest understood what they were asking, although he spoke in very broken English. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said, ‘but we can only bury those of the same faith here.’ Weary after many months of war, the soldiers simply turned to walk away. ‘But,’ the old priest called after them, ‘you can bury him outside the fence.’
What else were they going to do? “Cynical and exhausted, the soldiers dug a grave and buried their friend just outside the white fence. They finished after nightfall… wandered back to base camp. The next morning, the entire unit was ordered to move on, and the group [of soldiers] raced back to the little church for one final good-bye to their friend. When they arrived, they couldn’t find the gravesite. Tired and confused, they knocked on the door of the church. They asked the old priest if he knew where they had buried their friend. ‘It was dark last night and we were exhausted. We must have been disoriented.’
[Compassion] “flashed across the old priest’s face. ‘After you left last night, I could not sleep, so I went out [there] early this morning and I moved the fence.’”
The Church has been SO guilty through the years of putting up fences, and gatekeeping… It doesn’t always look like keeping people out – though some Christians have done a lot of that. Churches have also put up our fence and said, “C’mon in” so long as you look like us, talk like us, and believe like us, sing like us, vote like us; don’t make waves, don’t cause trouble, don’t ask too many questions!
Nadia Bolz Weber said, “If the church could have destroyed the gospel, it would have died long before we got our turn to mess it up. But God’s power to make things right is always stronger than our ability to get things wrong! Thanks be to God!
The book of Acts narrates the expansion of the church’s mission![1] That is the mission of the Gospel. This good news of the Kingdom of God, is on the march, both geographically and sociologically. How far and how wide will the Gospel be taken? Its Divinely-guided progress will not be stopped before it goes to the ends of the earth.[2]
In Acts 16, God’s power is evidenced in the movement of the Spirit upon Paul. Notice, in Paul’s sleeping and in his waking hours, the Spirit will not leave him alone. Jaclyn Williams says, Imagine Paul, weary from his missionary travels, is in a deep sleep, when God sends a vision in a dream. A man from Macedonia calls for help. The vision-seer became a vision-caster. Upon waking, he knows where he and his fellow-travelers are supposed to go next. The people of Macedonia are ready to receive good news. Macedonia was a Roman province located in the northern part of the Greek peninsula. Key cities there included Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea.
After several days in Philippi, Paul and his team left the city center, for seemingly quieter spaces on the Sabbath. Outside the city gate, they head toward the river (Gangas) where they expected to find a place of prayer. There, Lydia and other women are gathered praying. Lydia, most realistically, is a free woman, Roman. She may be widowed, or never married. She is a merchant who trades in expensive clothing worn by royalty and other rich clients. She’s thus a woman of some wealth, but not necessarily of high social status;[3] a householder who seems to have made an independent choice to join Jewish women in worship. This same independence shows up in her openness to Spirit’s movement through Paul’s words; her interest in baptism; and her own expression of the early church’s hospitality. She not only invites, but urges Paul and his companions to stay in her home and they accept on the basis of her insistence.[4]
It seems really important for us to notice that Paul and company are merely in search of sabbath rest and communion with God when they encounter Lydia and the other women. Prioritizing time in spiritual community landed them exactly where God could use them. Paul was attuned to the tender encouragements of the Spirit.[5] They followed that encouragement outside the gates of Philippi and found a wider circle of God-worshipers.
“When we open our hearts to God, God invites us to step into the greater, divine vision of life, leading us to places and people we never imagined.”[6] That dream changed the course of Paul’s ministry …as much as it transformed the lives of those, like Lydia and her household, who were ready to follow wholeheartedly in the Way of Christ.
I wonder… How many people today have altered the course of their life or ministry as a result of a dream? Have any of you ever had a dream that you thought was from God or was more than “just a dream?”
Earlier this year, a church member made an appointment with me. We had met and spoken to one another several times, but we had never had a formal conversation. So, I was curious what this might be about, bracing for the unknown, as you might imagine. They came in cheerfully, a bit awkwardly, and said something like, I’m here because I have to tell you something. I don’t want you to think I’m crazy, but a few months ago I had a dream. It was a dream about our church and the dream said that I was supposed to tell you. You can tell I was apprehensive about doing this because it’s taken me this long to get the courage to do it.
This person went on to say that they had only had one other profound dream experience - years ago - that was a warning that actually did prove to be true. So, in their experience, a dream like this was unusual and should at least be paid attention to.
I’m listening! I said.
In the dream, our church was providing groups where people could come to work through something, find support. They were looking for places to feel safe and secure. These would be non-judgmental spaces and leaders. The dream said the church is supposed to start a safe space like this; it would grow, they said. Training would be given to core group leaders so they learn how to form these kinds of groups. Then they added, the voice in the dream said to tell Valerie this.
Our Western culture tends to downplay the significance of dreams, even as the Bible suggests they are one way to show that the Spirit of God is at work in the world.[7] You might be thinking, This is some hooey! Or you might be thinking, well this sounds just like us and aren’t we already providing safe spaces for ESL students, and discussion groups and those who come to Messy Church. Sure. We are. And… the sharing of this dream made me (want to) keep my heart open to the possibility of something New. Perhaps it is also a call to listen and explore how the Spirit of God may be at work in the dreams of our people.
The Spirit can perform dramatic declarations, but the possibility of quiet revelations is just as real. Are we willing to listen closely to the gentle nudges of the Holy Spirit? Are we prepared to step forward even when we don’t have all the answers?[8]
Paul did not expect to be called to Macedonia. He did not expect to meet Lydia by the river outside the city gate, but God called him there, led him there. At that “gathering place” next steps of faith unfold. A church was formed at Philippi to whom Paul would later write the letter to the Philippians. That was Lydia and her circle of women and her household, charter members of the church at Philippi – started right there on the banks of the river.
To whom are we being called that we haven’t met yet? What names, or communities, or people groups need to be added to our friendship chain? Notice this chain wasn’t enclosed to make it into a circle, because we want our circle to grow, to be open.
What doors, what gates need to be opened to God’s expansive mission of Love and grace? What fences need to be moved? Jesus moved all the fences throughout his ministry. He has made room for you in his Gospel, in his love, in his Grace.
Edwin Markham’s little poem called Outwitted, says:
HE DREW a circle that shut me out—
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in!
Let us draw the circle wide, Weatherly.
[1] West, Audrey Divine Visions? Acts 16:9-15, Christian Century, May 2025
[2] Hartsack, Chad, The Book of Acts, Baylor Series of Faith and Ethics
[3] Common English Study Bible, Acts 16:14 notations
[4] Smith & Williams, The Storyteller’s Companion to the Bible, New Testament Women, Vol 13
[5] Williams, Jaclyn P. Working Preaching commentary Acts 16:9-15 2025
[6] ibid.
[7] West, Audrey Divine Visions? Acts 16: 9-15, Christian Century, May 2025
[8] Williams, Jaclyn P. Working Preaching commentary Acts 16:9-15, May 2025e