What Love Looks Like 1 John 4:7-21,
by Rev. Randy Quinn
Spiritual Guides Acts 8:26-40,
by Rev.
Randy L Quinn
Evidence that Demands a Verdict,
1 John 4:7-21,
by Rev. Thomas Hall
And Now . . . a Word from Our Sponsor,
John 15:1-8, by Rev. Tom Hall
Mother's Day Sermons:
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A Convenient Story
based on Acts 8:26-40
Rev. Karen A. Goltz
A few
weeks ago at the pastors’ text study that I attend, one of my colleagues made
the comment that he thought the book of Acts was written by a PR guy for the
church. I kind of agree with him. Everything happens a little too perfectly
in Acts. By the beginning of the fourth chapter, Peter has preached two
sermons, and a total of eight thousand devout Jews abandon their heritage and
religion, get baptized, and become followers of the way of Jesus. Peter gets
arrested, preaches another sermon, and is let go. He and the other apostles
continue preaching, and the church grows at an insane rate, with all believers
living in perfect harmony with one another, unencumbered by greed, mistrust,
ego, differences of opinion on how things should be done, or any of the other
human failings that have plagued every other institution I’ve ever heard of,
religious or otherwise.
The church is growing so quickly that they
have to form a social ministry team, which consists of Stephen, Philip, and
some others. This impresses the people of Jerusalem so much that now even
some of the priests begin to follow the way of Jesus.
Now the religious authorities are getting
really peeved, and they arrest Stephen on false charges. At his trial,
Stephen preaches a sermon, which really ticks them off, and they take him out
of the city, have a young guy named Saul watch their coats, and then throw
rocks at Stephen until he dies. First real negative thing to happen to the
church, but Stephen faces it with grace and courage, the model for all martyrs
to come, and doesn’t seem to mind dying at all. He even pulls a Jesus, and
prays that God will forgive his murderers even as they’re in the very act of
murdering him.
Now this young guy Saul who watched
everyone’s coats while they were stoning Stephen decides he hates the church,
and engages in a serious persecution of the church in Jerusalem. (You might
recall that this same guy will later have an amazing conversion experience on
his way to Damascus, change his name to Paul, and become the greatest
missionary of all time.) But before this happens he persecutes the believers
in Jerusalem, and this persecution has the unintended consequence of
scattering the believers all over the countryside and the surrounding cities,
where they can now preach about Jesus to whole new groups of people who
haven’t heard it before. Even the longtime nemesis of righteous Jews, the
people of Samaria, become followers of Jesus.
Then we get to today’s reading. An angel of
the Lord speaks to Philip and tells him where to go. Don’t you just hate it
when that happens? And when he goes, he meets an Ethiopian eunuch who’s
reading the Hebrew Scriptures. And not just any part of the Hebrew
Scriptures, but the part of Isaiah that just happens to be talking about the
suffering servant, probably the easiest passage in the entire Hebrew bible to
interpret in regards to Jesus. Which of course Philip does, and then of
course the Ethiopian eunuch is baptized, and Philip is snatched away by the
Spirit of the Lord (again, something that I’m sure happens to all of you on a
regular basis) and is deposited to another place, where without missing a beat
he continues to proclaim the good news.
The whole book of Acts continues like that,
with everything getting set up just perfectly for the optimum effect of
growing the church. It all seems so convenient, and maybe a little
contrived. I mean, of all the passages of the Hebrew Scriptures to be
reading, the Ethiopian eunuch just happens to be reading that one from Isaiah?
But when I looked at that passage in its
context, I realized it’s not such a farfetched coincidence at all. First of
all I wondered why Luke the PR guy bothers to tell us that Philip meets an
Ethiopian eunuch. I get that the fact he’s from Ethiopia means the gospel is
spreading far and wide. But the eunuch part—doesn’t that fall into the
category of ‘too much information?’ Until I found out that eunuchs have
always been excluded from the worship assembly of Judaism. Both Deuteronomy
(23:1) and Leviticus (21:18-21) specifically prohibit them from membership in
the congregation of Israel. As such, they were often tormented and demeaned,
never allowed to forget that they were less than everyone else. This
particular eunuch was as much a Jew as he could be, returning home from
worshiping in Jerusalem. He wouldn’t have been allowed in the Temple proper,
but would have had to remain in one of the outer courtyards. In spite of
that, though, he was committed to the Lord, and was committed to worshiping to
the greatest extent he could, including traveling all the way from Ethiopia to
the Temple in Jerusalem, where he’d be derided and excluded, and even
tormented. And on his way home, he was reading Isaiah. That particular
section of Isaiah is speaking words of comfort to a people who are afflicted
and tormented, reassuring them of God’s love and promising them that their
suffering will soon be over, and that God will redeem them, restore them to
glory, and provide for all their needs beyond their imaginings. That section
of Isaiah specifically states that infertile women will bear children (54:1),
the thirsty will have water (55:1), the hungry will eat (55:1), the foreigner
will be welcomed (56:1-8), and the eunuchs will be included and honored
(56:1-8). And it will all begin with this man who suffered so publicly, much
like the Ethiopian eunuch himself has suffered. It’s really not surprising at
all that he’s drawn to this particular message of hope.
And out of the blue the Spirit of the Lord
directs Philip to tell him that this man of public humiliation, this suffering
servant, is real, is named Jesus, has been glorified, and is ushering in the
reality of that hope for the excluded and the forsaken. Philip tells him that
through the waters of baptism, everything that made him despised will no
longer matter, that he will be accepted as he is into the whole body of
Christ, the Church as it should be, the Church as it must be.
There are parts of the book of Acts that are
convenient and contrived, but what can’t be mistaken is the radical inclusion
of all people into God’s love. All those barriers that we work so hard to
build and to keep ourselves separate from those we deem undesirable, God in
Christ breaks through. God sees something desirable in each and every being
he creates, and we are one in the body of Christ, and the body of Christ is
not complete without every one as members. Not necessarily members in the
administrative, church records kind of way, but true members of the body of
Christ, who abide in him as he abides in us. Because apart from him, we can
do nothing.
I may not be able to convince eight thousand
people to make radical changes in their lives for the sake of Jesus Christ by
simply preaching a sermon or two, but I pray that the Spirit of the Lord will
help me to say this to you: the love of God in Christ reached this Ethiopian
eunuch when he was drowning in a place of sorrow and exclusion, lifted him up,
and sent him on his way rejoicing. The love of God in Christ reaches out to
you wherever you are, too. Amen.
