Lydia is named as a resourced head of a household. She has an established business, is converted to follow the Anointed One, and has the means to patronize the ongoing post-resurrection ministry.

The household that Lydia maintains is expansive enough to share with others. She believes herself to be “faithful to the Lord” (Acts 16:15b). We applaud her as a woman in a patriarchal construct being able to perhaps hold sway in her community as a dealer in purple cloth (Acts 16:14b). And there’s still something between the letters of the account on which to meditate: Mutuality.

On Sunday, Pastor Eli offered us several considerations based on the account of Lydia. I’d like to highlight one particularly related to mutuality:

How do we make space for others “at the table?”

In this reflection, I extend the table to our household. For example, Lydia joins the table of believers, invites her household to be baptized, and offers space for Paul and Timothy to remain with her and her household. Mutuality. She offers mutuality.

I’d like for us to remain or stay “there,” too. I believe God offers us an opportunity to be with God and each other in the space of mutuality, interdependence, reciprocity, shared experience. As Pastor Eli expressed, we can share “radical, heartfelt dreaming in community” or in our “household.” That’s part of mutuality, too.

For this reflection, I ask you to engage with a bit of radical heartfelt imagination with a friend. Where can we invite God to imagine with us new ways of being that cause us to thrive?

Engage right there at the place of rightful doubt, concern, and realistic checkpoints because of lived experience. Bring God to the shared table where we hold unmet needs. Let’s listen for God together to speak to, with, and through us. We have been faithful because we refuse to keep the most vulnerable among us from the table. So, like Paul and Timothy does after bringing the good news to Lydia, God welcomes our offer to remain with us in our household.