Easter
5 2015 (Year B)
Father Adam Trambley
May 3, 2015 St.John’s Sharon
In this morning’s reading from Acts, Philip has been
preaching the gospel in a city of Samaria.
Philip, you might recall, was one of the first deacons. The apostles commissioned the deacons to help
ensure that the widows were got their meals on wheels on schedule, whether they
spoke Aramaic or Greek. Instead, the
deacons we know about, Stephen and Philip, end up engaging the very practical
and essential matters of evangelism. We
assume that everyone kept getting fed, but the deacons start doing a whole lot
more
After successful ministry spreading the good news in
Samaria, which is north of Jerusalem, an angel of the Lord tells Philip to take
the road south of Jerusalem toward Gaza.
Philip has to walk back to Jerusalem and then keep heading southeast
toward the Mediterranean coast through a wilderness area. As he’s walking along in the middle of nowhere,
he hears a chariot coming from behind him.
The chariot was probably something to see, both because it was foreign
and because it was huge. Philip didn’t
see one of the Roman racing chariots we think of from the movies with one or
two guys standing up and holding on.
This chariot was big enough for an important official to have a seat
where he could read a scroll that was probably a couple of feet high, while
another person drove and Philip still had room to jump in. We’re talking the Hummer of chariots,
probably with the state seal of Ethiopia on it, being pulled by at least two or
three good sized horses decked out in whatever colorful accessories horses of
high-status sported in those days.
Philip is probably starting to step back off the road to get a good look
and to keep from being run over, when the Spirt tells him to “Go over to the
chariot and join it.”
So Philip runs up beside the chariot. Gratefully for Philip, the chariot had a long
way to go before they got home to Ethiopia, so the horses were probably walking
and not galloping. Philip hears the
Ethiopian reading from Isaiah and asks if he understands what he’s
reading. The Ethiopian says, “How can I,
unless someone guides me?” and invites Philip in. The scroll is open to one of the suffering
servant passages and the eunuch asks who the passage is written about. That question gives Philip the opening to
tell the Ethiopian all about Jesus, beginning with the scripture open in front
of them.
They come across some water, and the Ethiopian eunuch asks,
“What is to prevent me from being baptized?”
That question could be answered a number of ways, that we’ll come back
to in a minute, but Philip’s answer is that nothing prevents it. Philip and the Ethiopian go down into the
water, the Ethiopian eunuch is baptized, and then the Spirt of the Lord
snatches Philip up and drops him at Azotus, which is on the Mediterranean Coast
north of Gaza, while the Ethiopian goes home rejoicing. Great story!
I want to unpack some aspects of this narrative that I think
are important for us.
The first is this question of the eunuch’s, “Look, here is
water! What is to prevent me from being
baptized?” Actually, any number of
things might have prevented him. Most
importantly, he was a eunuch, and Deuteronomy 23 says that eunuchs will not be
able to enter the assembly of the Lord.
Other Jewish groups, like the Essenes at Qumran, refused to allow
eunuchs to join them. On top of that, he
was a foreigner. We don’t know for sure
if he was a gentile or an Ethiopian Jew, maybe a descendent of the Queen of
Sheba who came to visit Solomon hundreds of years earlier. Either way, he worked for the Candice, which
was what they called the Queen in Ethiopia, so he probably participated in any
number of official religious ceremonies.
We don’t know for sure, and Philip may not have known either. On top of that, this guy, who was treasurer
of Ethiopia, was probably not leaving his job to move to Jerusalem or Samaria
where he could join the local church and bring his pledge in every week. None of these issues matter to Philip – or
maybe they did matter to Philip, but the Holy Spirit told him not to worry
about them and baptize him anyway.
Then, when Philip baptizes the eunuch, the Ethiopian is sent
out on his own as a new Christian to live out the Christian life. Here, I think, is where things get really
interesting. Philip is taken away by the
Spirit and the Ethiopian has to respond to his baptism in his own way, in his
own place, guided solely by God.
Scripture doesn’t tell us what he did, but church history does. One of the earliest Christian churches is
found in Ethiopia. Ethiopian
translations of scripture are some of the earliest translations that we
have. The Ethiopian church traces its
foundation back to this eunuch baptized along the road by Philip. We have no reason to doubt that this man of
importance and learning, who sought God enough to drive a chariot hundreds of
miles to Jerusalem and back while reading the scriptures along the way, and who
was baptized by one of the first deacons, was exactly the type of person God
would use to convert a nation to faith in his Son Jesus Christ.
We should have the same trust in God’s Spirit to work
through people that we baptize. I work
with a pastor who instructs everyone who he baptizes to tell the story of what
God has done for them to as many people as they can in the next week. Since the newly baptized usually have a lot
of unbaptized friends, on the next Sunday some of them usually show up to be
baptized, too. That’s how churches
grow. Instead of ensuring people get the
right theological understanding and doctrinal niceties before giving people
permission to talk about their faith, we need to have everybody witnessing to
the very straightforward story of what God has done in our lives to anyone who
wants to hear it. When the Ethiopian
eunuch did that, a nation was converted.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the conversion of Ethiopia was
prophesied in the Old Testament. Isaiah
11:11 says that the Lord will reach out his hand to reclaim his people, and
mentions Ethiopia (also known as Cush).
Zephaniah 3 mentions people calling on the name of the Lord from beyond
the rivers of Ethiopia, and Psalm 68:32 says, “Let Ethiopia stretch out her
hands to God.” Noteworthy, too, is that
Isaiah 56 says that foreigners and eunuchs who do what is pleasing to the Lord
will have a place in his temple and a memorial better than sons and
daughters. So everything that began with
today’s reading was spoken about hundreds of years earlier in scripture.
We might also take note that the Ethiopian eunuch is reading
the scripture in his chariot even when doesn’t understand it and doesn’t have
anyone to teach him. We might think,
“Why bother?” But if he didn’t take the
step of seeking God, he wouldn’t have found him. If he didn’t do the hard work of trying to
understand the scripture, he wouldn’t have been able to formulate the questions
he needed to ask so that he could understand.
If he didn’t do all of his own work, he might not have been given Philip
to lead him the rest of the way.
So, too, we need to pick up the Bible and read it. Sure, some parts are difficult and some parts
are boring and some parts aren’t particularly pleasant. Some parts even challenge what we think we
know about God and the church and Christianity.
But if we prayerfully read and come up with questions, God will bring
people beside us who can help offer answers.
You can call me anytime with a scripture question, and I’m happy to
answer it if I can, or I’ll go find an answer.
But there are others around who God might just send to help, too. The truly amazing thing might be how much we
will understand and be encouraged if we just start reading.
This story also serves as a reminder that we can use our
travel time for God. We can listen to
scripture or hear inspiring music on the radio or on CDs. We can read the Bible or say our prayers
while someone else is driving, maybe even reading them out loud so that the
driver can join us. (Here I means
prayers beyond the ones we say for safety when we get into the car with certain
family members – and parents of 16 year olds know what I’m talking about.)
Also noteworthy here is that the
story goes nowhere if Philip isn’t willing to go anywhere and do anything to
accomplish Jesus’ work. An angel says
leave this city and walk through the wilderness. Philip says OK. The Spirit says run up to a chariot, which
had to seem like a really bad idea, but Philip did it. Philip baptizes a guy with a national
treasury at his disposal, and before he can even say thank you, God picks Philip
up and drops him somewhere else, and Philip walks up the coast and just starts
proclaiming the good news wherever he is.
Are we willing to do that? Do we
trust God enough to drop everything and follow his lead? Would we be willing to risk going way out of
our comfort zone for the opportunity to share what God means to us with some
random stranger in a way that could lead thousands of people to a new life? The lesson of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch
is that one divine appointment can have a ripple effect in countless lives, so
we want to be open to every encounter God wants to give us anytime, anyplace,
anywhere with anybody.
Finally, I want to mention how
much hope there is for the church in all of the stories in this eighth chapter
of the Acts of the Apostles. At the end
of chapter seven, Stephen is stoned as the first martyr and a general persecution
of the church begins in Jerusalem.
Everyone but the Apostles scatters to other places. But that very scattering leads to the gospel
being proclaimed from Jerusalem throughout Judea and Samaria and to the ends of
the earth according to Jesus instructions.
Philip has to leave Jerusalem, so he goes to a city of Samaria and heals
people and casts out demons and preaches the word of God and there is much
rejoicing in that city. Then he is
instructed to go down this wilderness road and meets the Ethiopian eunuch and
the good news spreads further.
We are in a time when the church
has some difficulties. While the church
in America is not facing persecution, we can look around and realize that
things are not quite what they once were.
I have been working with a number of folks from throughout the Episcopal
Church who actually believe that this is an opportunity for God to begin a new
dynamic phase of growth and evangelism.
This group, called the Acts 8 Moment, is looking at how we proclaim
resurrection in the Episcopal Church through prayer, evangelism, and effective
communication and social media strategies.
Some of us were in Columbus last week to prepare for General Convention
this summer, and drafted a number of resolutions, including a call to the
church to refocus on the core components of Christian discipleship and a
proposal for church planting and for existing church revitalization. I’ll give you all more details as we dot the
i’s and cross the t’s over the next month.
I also believe that we have a
similar Acts 8 Moment here at St. John’s.
I truly believe that God has been laying groundwork for the coming
season to use us for the revival and renewal of this community. To do so, we might get scattered a bit, and have
to follow the Spirit down some wilderness roads and approach dudes in some very
strange chariots. Nevertheless, if we
are prayerful and faithful and willing, we will have incredible opportunities
for fruitful ministry. I don’t know the
details, and almost all of it will come from you faithfully taking the next
right step and not out of any brilliant plan from the priest. But if we are willing to follow, God will lead
us where he wants to use us.
When they came up out of the water…the eunuch saw [Philip] no more, and
went on his way rejoicing. May all whom God calls us to encounter, go on
their way rejoicing because they know Jesus more deeply.
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