The reconversion of Europe to the Christian faith is one of the very limited number of goals on which most of the major denominations can agree in their ecumenical dialogue nowadays. While Christianity flourishes in Africa, South America and Asia - and thrillingly, against all odds, among China's billion-plus population - back home the news is not good. Ireland lives on past glories and only slowly are we waking up to the evidence of spiritual and moral bankruptcy that is the unwholesome residue in the bucket when godliness and fear of the Lord has drained away.
That is why tomorrow in church it will be an upbeat experience to hear the story of Europe's first convert to Christianity. Surprisingly, she was an Asian from the other side of the Aegean, where the Apostle Paul and his missionary team began their outreach in Philippi, a kind of "zimmer city" for Roman army veterans.
St Luke was with Paul on this momentous journey when the breakthrough into Europe took place and he selects only three of the first converts for mention, primarily to demonstrate how God breaks down dividing barriers through the Gospel and can unite in Christ people of very different kinds. Read all of the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 16, to get the big, absorbing picture.
Philippi was not a particularly religious place. It seems there weren't even 10 serious Jews to form a quorum for a synagogue, which was why Paul went down by the riverside on the Sabbath to where some women met for prayer.
Lydia hailed from Thyatira, famous for dyes, and she specialised in upmarket purple, heading the Macedonian outlet for the manufacturer back in her native city. More importantly, she was a worshipper of God - behaving like a Jew without being one. In today's language she was a morally upright churchgoer who had not yet had a transforming personal encounter with Christ.
That changed when Lydia heard Paul proclaiming Jesus as God's King, crucified as a criminal, now raised to heaven as the Saviour of all who will believe. "The Lord opened her heart to respond," Luke summarises cryptically. That is, her inner eyes were opened to see and believe the message of Jesus. Again, the model is a universal one. The word of God was proclaimed, and the Spirit of God acted in concert with it to transform Lydia. Living faith always shows itself. A senior nurse recruited from India quietly went round his Dublin hospital within days of arrival looking for "born-again Christians" - and he found them, some in bed ill, others like himself caring for them. Lydia professed her faith by being baptised, instantly earmarking herself as a committed believer, but she also offered hospitality to the mission team. "Now I am one of you, let me share my home with you, and my resources, to help you in your work for Jesus," would be to put into Lydia's mouth words corresponding to her actions.
That is how the Gospel first made an impact on Europe, in the conversion of the wealthy businesswoman Lydia, followed by an exploited slave girl, then the governor of the city's jail. Different as chalk from cheese, yet all three changed by the same Gospel and welcomed into the same church.
Christians today in the two-thirds world look pityingly at Europe, which is in their eyes a mission field. Like Paul, more and more of them are aware of a call from God to preach the Gospel to us. While we talk rather dispiritedly about the reconversion of Europe, it seems God is already on the move as Korean, Filipino, Chinese, Brazilian, Kenyan, Nigerian and South African Christians, among, others come as missionaries to Europe. A spot of role reversal, both from the pulpit and in the pews, would be good for our souls tomorrow. Let's stop kidding ourselves that Africa, Asia and Latin America badly need missionaries and admit it is Ireland that needs them. We can then humbly begin to pray for those who are already here and who are finding among us, as Paul did when he came to Europe, people whose hearts the Lord is opening to respond to the gospel.
G.F.