Macedonia is a region in what we now know as Greece. And in crossing the Aegean Sea to cover the 125 miles from Troas to the Greek city of Philippi, Paul is venturing further and further from territory he knows - both in terms of location and in religious and cultural familiarity. He is moving from Asia Minor to the shores of Europe, and from the world of the Hebrew people and religion, further into the world dominated by the power and gods of Rome.

The city of Philippi, which Luke simply describes as "a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony," had under the Romans become a colony for retired soldiers. Consequently very few Jews lived there and the citizenry despised those that did. Paul, Silas, Timothy and Luke arrive looking for the familiarity of this local Jewish community among the foreignness of Roman-occupied Greece.

Paul had no inkling of the importance of what was about to take place; he arrived in Philippi unaware that that this would be remembered as the story of the first Christian convert on European soil. So, too, we are apt to miss its significance as the moment we meet our own first forebear on the way of the spread of Christianity west and then north and then finally west again to take root in an even less likely place, Washington, DC.  

Our story's plot isn't complex. Having been in Philippi several days, Paul and his small band wandered one day -on the Sabbath - beyond the boundaries of the city and down to a river. I imagine Paul and his friends searching for a quiet place to pray and recharge their souls...perhaps they were drawn toward the river by the barely detectable voices of singing and musical instruments. According to Jewish law it took ten men to organize a synagogue. So presumably there were not enough Jewish men in Philippi to have one. Instead, those gathering for prayers had only a riverbank for privacy, and when Paul and his group discovered them, only the women of the community were present.

"We sat down," reports Luke "and spoke to the women who had gathered there. A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to us... a dealer in purple cloth." Thyatira in Asia Minor is where they had just come from. This Lydia, a gentile, is reported to be a godly person, regular in her worship. Yet Lydia, inquisitive by nature, is eager to learn from them...and I suspect she also had much to teach!