Acts 8:26-40, 1 John 4:7-21, John 15:1-8 Panzer Liturgical Service
This week, we meet the disciple Philip, preaching in
the desert near Samaria. We don’t cover the previous chapter of Acts in this
year’s lectionary readings – that is covered in Year A – but if we were to flip
back to chapters 6 and 7, we would meet Stephen, who along with Philip and five
other men, was called to be leaders in and servants to this new group of
believers. Think of them as second-generation disciples.
It is during this time that we also meet Saul, a
persecutor of the early Christian believers, and who approved of not only
persecution but the killing of those who preached the resurrection and
teachings of Jesus. Stephen was stoned to death for blasphemy with Saul’s
approval. That’s what makes his conversion to Christianity so remarkable. We
know him better as Paul, the foremost spreader of Christian teachings and
defender of opening the faith to all, even Gentiles from every corner of the
world.
Back to our story - in chapter 7, Stephen inflames the
Jewish leaders so much that they take him out of the city and they stone him to
death. The remaining Christian leaders react accordingly – they flee Jerusalem,
scattering into the nearby towns and outlying communities. Philip flees to
Samaria (to the land of the Samaritans), about half the distance between
Jerusalem and Nazareth, Jesus’ hometown. There the crowds hear his preaching
and many are converted.
But one day, the Holy Spirit compels Philip to leave
the safety of the city and journey on a road south of Jerusalem, toward Gaza.
There, at noon, he encounters an entourage. The man he meets comes from even
further away, from Ethiopia in Africa. And he is not a refugee in the normal
sense of the word. He has status. He rides in a chariot. He is educated in both
Greek and Hebrew, asking questions about what he has been told about Jesus and
how Jesus’ identity is related to the things he has read from the prophet
Isaiah. He is humble enough to know that he needs help making sense of what he
has heard and read. And he is hospitable, inviting Philip to ride with him in
the heat of the day so he can learn the things he needs to know. Barbara Brown
Taylor says that this is the equivalent of a foreign diplomat seeing a street
preacher on the corner in Washington, DC and offering him a ride in his fancy
limousine.” [i]
So here we have a rich diplomat encountering Philip
and asking questions about Jesus. But that’s not the most unusual part of the
story. We know at least two other facts about this man that make him stand out.
First, that he is from Ethiopia. This makes him easily identifiable as
different – he’s a black man among men of Middle Eastern descent. And second,
he is identified as a Eunuch – a man whose sexual status makes it safe for him
to work around or for women. We aren’t given any more information than that.
From this description, we assume he has two presumed
strikes against him. His appearance would be easily seen by anyone passing by.
But his status as a Eunuch – that would be information would not be readily
available. Either way, this man would probably have been rejected by the Jewish
society – accepted as an emissary of a foreign queen, perhaps, but more likely
rejected as unclean by the teaching of the Jewish law.
That’s why this story is so important. We usually
think of Peter and Paul as the ones who sought to welcome people outside of the
Jewish fold. But in reality, many of the post-resurrection preaching encounters
are with non-Jews. And at the beginning of this story, we can see that this encounter
is not an accident. The Holy Spirit, through an angel, literally tells Philip
to leave the familiarity of his current situation and hit the road.
It is no coincidence that Philip is exactly where he
needs to be to encounter someone with questions about Jesus. And when their
teaching session is complete, the Eunuch asks an important question – “Hey,
here’s some water - is there anything that would prevent me from being
baptized?” And obviously, the answer was “No,” because as soon as the chariot
stopped, Philip and the Eunuch go into the water and Philip baptizes him, just
as Jesus commanded. And then something really weird happens – the scripture
says, “When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched
Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more and went on his way rejoicing. (Acts
8:39) – also a discussion for another day 😊.
So, what do we learn from this encounter?
1 – Baptism is one of the ways we enter the life of
the church. It is true for most of us, and because we were baptized as infants,
we have no memory of it ourselves. But that doesn’t make it any less important
or impactful. Baptism is a right of passage – first, we were no people – then
we were God’s people. This wasn’t something Philip required of him. No, the man
saw water and said, “Is this something that I can have?” And even before it was
the sanctioned practice of the early Christian church to baptize Gentiles, the
two of them got in the water and Philip baptized him In reality, by the time
Peter and Paul were able to convince the Council to go along with it, the Holy
Spirit had already done the work, paved the way, and gone on to do other
things.
2 – Sometimes we encounter God in community –
sometimes it happens in the wilderness. But it always happens when two people
are willing to share in a moment of faith with one another. This Ethiopian
Eunuch has questions, and Philip appears to give him answers. And Philip
doesn’t see the barriers that others might see in this man before him – he’s a
different race and may be considered an outsider by other religious communities.
Philip sees him for who he is – someone in need of the Good News.
The spiritual journey is multidimensional. There is the interior journey – our personal belief in Jesus and our commitment to Him as Savior and Lord. But there is also our communal belief in Jesus, as we worship, learn, and serve him together. I like reading the bible, but I love studying it with other people or preparing to preach on Sunday morning. Yes, I love teaching, but I also love being taught as I hear other people’s interpretations or experiences with the same words I have read and pondered. It’s taken me a while to get it, but I now understand that it is the merging or melding of our journeys together that makes a more representative portrait of who Jesus is, what the scripture is saying, and how God is calling us to live. More than ever, I believe our strength is in our diversity. Everyone brings something to the table if they are willing to share the love of God.
3 – The Holy Spirit works in mysterious ways. I’ve
never had an implicit belief that God actually makes me do things I don’t want
to do. But I do often wonder how I got to where I am. Have you had someone
describe an encounter as serendipitous? Or ever heard the phrase, “being in the
right place at the right time?” God may or may not actually direct our
footsteps the way that the writer of Acts describes for Philip - both the going
in and the coming out of his encounter on the road to Gaza - but God is
certainly on whatever roads we travel. Jesus’ words to his disciples in the
Last Discourse, found in the gospel of John, chapters 14-17, give instructions
on how to live as disciples, even after his death. And the writer of John’s
first letter hammers the message home.
In today’s gospel lesson, Jesus says that we are to
love other people – all other people – to be willing to give up our lives for
them, if necessary. The ministry that Philip and the other deacons and
disciples were doing was dangerous. Stephen had already been killed and he was
not the last one to share that fate. But they went anyway. They told people
what they knew about Jesus and invited them to come on the same dangerous
journey with them. And people came.
In our increasingly divided world, all three of these
passages remind us that the Kingdom of God is not exclusionary – it is
inclusive. We aren’t the ones who get to decide whether or not someone is the
Kingdom. We are not called to be the gatekeepers. We are not called to be the
rule-keepers. We are called to be members of a team, workers together for
Christ.[ii]
I know it feels like a recording stuck in a
never-ending loop… Love… love… love. But that’s what Jesus gave us to do. We
are called to proclaim this radical love to everyone who needs it (and that is
everyone), to comfort those who have been rejected, and to challenge the belief
that Jesus has called us to a private club. We are called not just to be a body
of believers, but to also be lovers – that is, doers of the word.
I’ll end with this observation: I love the image that
Jesus gives us of being grafted into his vine. Drive through Germany or France,
within a few minutes or hours from here, and you will see vines and vineyards
as far as the eye can see. Already the vinedressers are going through the
fields to make sure that the main vines are undamaged and sturdy after the
winter weather. As the season goes on, they will trim away damaged branches or
leaves to keep the vine healthy so that the whole plant can flourish and
produce good fruit, giving us good wine.
Likewise, we are called to stay connected to him –
Jesus calls that abiding in him… making Jesus the main thing, and not
ourselves. And it’s the hardest thing we will ever have to do. But wow – the
fruit that comes from that experience – Paul talks about it in Galatians 5 – love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self-control – you can never have enough of that.
From the beginning of his ministry to the moment of
his resurrection, Jesus was inviting people in – “come on in, you are welcome
here.” And when Jesus commissions people like Philip, and folks like you and
me, he is at it again, asking us to give his invitation voice - “come on in,
you are welcome here.”[iii]
Will Willimon talks about a church evangelism project gone wrong when a couple of retired school teachers go visiting one Saturday
afternoon and end up evangelizing one of the poorest neighborhoods in
Greenville, SC. Take a right, the instructions said… but because they were
looking at the map upside-down, they took a left. But bringing Verleen to
church and bible study made a big difference in how that congregation began to
understand their work in the community. Turns out a former drug addict and
victim of domestic violence knew a little something about how important it is
to be invited to a different kind of life.
The church doesn’t exist only for itself. It is the
sign – the proof – that Jesus’ resurrection is real and ongoing, through us. We
are the primary way that God’s work gets done in the world. And we stand
against the spiritual and physical forces as an alternative to the way it’s
always been done. We are the sign that God intends to redeem the world. We are
the way that God invites everyone to be a part of God’s family.
Come on in – everyone’s welcome here!
[i] Barbara Brown Taylor, Feasting on the Word – Year B, Volume 2: Lent through Eastertide.
[ii] Will Willimon, May 2: Come On In, Pulpit Resource, Vol. 49, No. 2, Year B https://www.ministrymatters.com/all/entry/10733/may-2-2021-come-on-in
[iii] Ibid.
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