1 John 4: 7-21 (Common English Bible)
Acts 8: 26-40 (New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition)
This passage from the book of Acts is about people who challenge and expand our notion of belonging and how the faith community of Jesus makes us whole. Philip was called the evangelist not to be confused with Philip the Apostle. But we know he was important enough that an angel sent Philip to find the Ethiopian eunuch.
Philip was a disciple of Jesus who came from a Greek background. They were called Hellenists. His ministry began in Samaria and through Philip’s preaching, the Samaritans accepted Jesus as the Messiah and were baptized. The Holy Spirit continued to direct Philip to go toward the south that goes down the road from Jerusalem into Gaza. On this road he encountered the Ethiopian reading from a chariot.
The Ethiopian served as the Treasurer to the queen of that nation. No doubt this gave the Ethiopian status. Only important people traveled in a chariot. And since that individual came from Ethiopia, no doubt his skin was Black. In the broader Roman world being cosmopolitan he would be considered foreign but also exotic and interesting. But as a foreigner and not a Jew plus being a eunuch, he would’ve been forbidden to go past the outer courts of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.
Being a eunuch can come from several ways. Perhaps it was the choice he made to come closer to political power. Eunuchs were valued as someone who could be trusted to guard harems. There was no temptation for a eunuch to do any haky-pakie. And maybe the choice was forced on him. If you’re going to hang out with the Queen and her money, the powers-that-be didn’t want anything mischievous to happen. And of course the Ethiopian could’ve been born this way or had a serious injury in his lower regions.
But yet the Ethiopian was traveling all the way to Jerusalem in a desire to worship the one true God. But he faced a problem. In Deuteronomy chapter 23, it says men with his physical condition cannot worship within the Temple. But yet he continued to read aloud from the scroll containing the Hebrew scriptures. The Holy Spirit had clearly gotten ahold of this person just as it sent Philip to meet him.
But when the Ethiopian also read from the scroll of Isaiah, he felt hope. The text from Isaiah 56: 4-5 states, “For Yahweh says this, to the eunuchs who observe my Sabbaths and choose to do my good pleasure and cling to my covenant, I shall give them in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters. I shall give them an everlasting name that will never be removed.”
Now, you’re thinking, isn’t this a contradiction in the Bible between Deuteronomy chapter 23 and Isaiah chapter 56? Well, I look at it this way. God never changes. God was always like Jesus and vice-versa. This library of books we call the Bible were written by men, whose opinions changed over the centuries guided by the Holy Spirit. And some of their opinions were very wrong if they contradicted the teachings of Jesus. God always wanted eunuchs to worship with God’s followers. It was the hardness of the hearts of the early Hebrew writers of the Bible who set up barriers to worship God.
After reading the positive message in the scroll of Isaiah, the Ethiopian requests to be baptized and Philip immediately immerses him beneath the water.
In the book of Acts we see that God is expanding the borders of the Jesus faith. This particular encounter between Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch shows how the early church grew and crossed into zones that had previously been forbidden. In Acts chapter 15, during the Jerusalem Council, it’s all about the church making important decisions about who can be allowed to belong and how the church must change itself and make room for others. I’m sure some of us might remember the struggle women made to become ministers and a number of years later when those in the LGBTQ community did the same. And of course, there was the typical backlash to both whenever a positive change becomes a reality. But ask yourselves, which side of change would the Holy Spirit be on?
In a way, this story is less about how Philip converted the Ethiopian and more about how the Ethiopian converted Philip. It’s a glimpse on how certain power structures crumble and fall when we encounter and listen to those who are being marginalized. For the first time many Americans are finally waking up and realizing how terrible the Palestinian people are being treated. Protests are growing on college campuses and elsewhere at a rate that I haven’t seen since the 1960s. The Holy Spirit is on the move.
Writer Gloria Anzaladua wrote about a “metiza” consciousness. The consciousness of the metiza is one about uncertainty about the status-quo and ready to embrace change or create new paradigms of society. It is very similar to the biblical term being “born again” and looking at the world in a totally new perspective. The metiza by its very nature is like the Holy Spirit, willing to travel into the unknown, allowing mystery to be revealed in every step.
Philip and the Ethiopian entered into that strange new unknown that surrounds the divine presence. The good news means we occupy a different space, a different orientation to power and abide in new relationships in a radical way.
But love is the key to any relationship. When I read 1st John chapter four, I was reminded of my favorite rock group the Beatles and their song, “All You Need Is Love.” The Apostle John might have liked that song, but I’m sure he would’ve thought more should be added. Although John insists on the absolute importance of love, he had other things to add. Perhaps the most important thing John writes in his letter is verse 11, “Dear friends, if God loved us this way, we also ought to love one another.”
John’s love-letter begins with a statement the Beatles never considered. Where can we get this love that is “all we need?” As John wrote, “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.” And also, “Everyone who loves is born of God. The person who doesn’t love does not know God, because God is love.”
The message in John’s letter and the reading from the book of Acts, opens a space for us to imagine how the lives of “us” and “them” are drawn into our contemporary society. Boundaries are man-made and created to keep things as they are, even with its negative outcomes. The Good News of Jesus breaks through those barriers. We have seen resourcefulness, hope and compassion in the midst of oppression in communities once ignored and forgotten. The Salem Presbyterian Church is breaking through many of these boundaries while other churches are still behind those boundaries. We should follow the example of the evangelist Philip and the positive action he took as written in the book of Acts.
True Christian discipleship is not about the status of a church in its community, but it’s about taking actions the other churches ignore. It’s about good works that promote God’s justice that can have a positive effect on those who are oppressed by the status-quo.
Christian identity is not identified by self identification or going to church every Sunday and correct doctrinal belief. But it is shown in carrying out the works of love and justice. Commitment to justice is never abstract. We should recognize it in visible solid activism. And that is the real fruit we can harvest.
AMEN
