Scripture: Acts 8:26-40
Since Easter, we have been covering the times Jesus appeared in person to continue to turn the world upside down.
To put this passage in context, we need to start with where it is in the account of the early church. It began with everyone hanging out together, all of the current believers, and went on to where there were differences, until the leaders ended up stoning Stephen, which began a huge persecution of the church.
So, instead of hanging out together – they finally started doing what Jesus had told them to do – not hanging out and remembering him, but going out and telling others what he had taught them. Churches never do good when they are comfortable, they do much better under persecution or under stress.
Phillip, who was one of those who helped make sure that everyone was treated fairly at the meals was more of a natural at this, he was compassionate as well as versed in scripture.
So, running away from the center of persecution, Philip ends up in Samaria. Others might be reaching out to those of their own kind, but not Philip. You remember the story of the good Samaritan, told by Jesus because they were the most hated people the local Jews could think of? That is where Philip went. Gotta love Philip, he really did get what Jesus had told him. Peter, by the way, not so much, something we will talk about next week.
Besides doing miracles in the name of Jesus, Philip was obviously listening to God, since God told him where to go in this particular passage.
The important thing to understand is that we don’t have to have an official title or role for God to use us. Philip was in charge of the food, and now God was using him for something else. No one in the church has a single role – we are all called by God to do what God calls us to do.
So, Philip headed out to Samaria – a missionary to those who weren’t Jewish. In a way, most of you are able to be missionaries to the unchurched better than I am.
You, like Philip, are in touch with those who don’t come into church, you know them from work, they are your neighbors, they go to the social events you go to, and they surround you every day. Every Sunday when you go out through the doors, you go into the world for Jesus, just like Philip.
Now, when God sent Philip, this very ordinary individual, he sent him to the road to Gaza. As we consider the news of the world today, the very word speaks volumes to us. Now, I want you to understand something very important. The story today, and the story next week speaks to the fact that God does not discriminate in who he loves and calls his own.
So, we find Philip facing, not an Israelite, but rather a stranger. He was, according to today’s Scripture, several things. First of all, his skin was black – in the days when Acts was written, the definition of Ethiopian was someone with dark skin. He was the quintessence of stranger – he didn’t look like Philip.
We also know he was very intelligent and powerful. He was reading the scroll while he went along the road, so obviously he had someone driving the chariot, and it says he was an important person in the queen’s court. He was also the treasurer for her. So he was not only intelligent and powerful, he was trustworthy – you only put someone you trust in charge of your money.
So that finally we also discover he is a Eunuch of the queen. Most of you know exactly what that word means. For Philip, and the man himself, it meant something even deeper. You see, the Jews of that day had a firm policy – they followed the dictates of Deuteronomy 23:1 which says: [23 “No one whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off shall come into the assembly of the LORD.] (We did not read this scripture aloud because of the age of children - but invited the congregation to look it up)
If this gentleman had gone to Jerusalem to study, as it says he did, he would have been stopped at the doors of the temple and would not have been let in. The color of his skin would have told them that he was a stranger, but the fact of his condition would have locked him out. He would be forever rejected.
Here is the problem with taking a single verse out of the Bible and trying to apply it, which is called proof texting. The purpose of the Deuteronomy law was two-fold. First, at that time a majority of Eunuchs were priests in temples which promoted temple prostitutes. God did not want the Israelites emasculating the priests when they were called. But secondly, the only way a male could become a Jew, by definition, was circumcision, which could not be performed on a Eunuch.
Thus the Deuteronomy verse, a single verse, made them turn their backs on the man seeking God. Just so you know, they missed a lot by being legalistic.
So this man, coming back from Jerusalem, studying the scroll of Isaiah, had been met with slammed door after slammed door. You are black. You are a stranger. You are a Eunuch. You are not welcome.
That, by the way, is how a majority see, not the temple of that day, but Christians of today. They see them as slamming doors on them for not feeling worthy, for not being like us. Forgetting, of course, that Jesus said that he came not for the whole, but for the broken.
So, when we reject someone, or think someone doesn’t belong, we are just like that temple in Jerusalem, excluding people that God has called.
Which is why God sent Philip, who was listening, to the Ethiopian Eunuch. He prepared the man by having him read the perfect verse from Isaiah so that Philip would be there ready to explain it. In an awesome God moment, it all came together, and this stranger, who was not a Jew, was welcomed into the kingdom.
Then comes the potent moment. He has had doors slammed in his face, again and again because of the color of his skin, and because of his sexual issues. No one would even speak to him about the scroll that he was reading.
So he asks Philip – "in the context of what you have just told me about this man Jesus, is there any reason why I cannot be baptized?" And, of course, we know the answer. The temple may have shut him out, but he is not excluded whatsoever from the Kingdom of God that Jesus proclaimed.
But the thing is, he should never have been excluded. No one should take a single verse from the Bible and make it all about one verse.
If we jump to Isaiah, the same scroll he was reading, we find a very different passage: Isaiah 56:3-5
Do not let the foreigner joined to the Lord say,
“The Lord will surely separate me from his people,”
and do not let the eunuch say,
“I am just a dry tree.”
4 For thus says the Lord:
To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
who choose the things that please me
and hold fast my covenant,
5 I will give, in my house and within my walls,
a monument and a name
better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
that shall not be cut off.
God does not reject the Eunuch or the foreigner. God, the Old Testament God, did not reject him. It was only people who thought they were better than him rejected him.
And, God, of course, accepted anyone who came. It was not about the outside, it was about the inside. Jesus himself, in Matthew 19:12 did not differentiate between external events and the choice not to become married or bear children. All were accepted.
Back in the early days of Christianity in the US, it was common for people who were becoming new members to be examined by Session. That still is true. Back then, they had a yardstick, and the person had to prove that they were worthy, much like the Eunuch, who failed the test.
There is a story from those days of a conversation between God and a black individual who had applied numerous times to join a Southern Church. He was repeatedly denied, simply because they didn’t want “his kind” in the church. After he told God his story, God simply replied “I know what you mean. I’ve been trying to join that church for a long time, and they won’t let me in either.”
When we reject someone from joining the church, for any reason other than faith, we are rejecting the God who is supposed to be head of the church. When we discriminate against someone for whatever reason, we are discriminating against God.
We have had four adults join the church this year including two last week. We had a discussion at Session as they came before us about the ONLY things they were allowed to question – First, did they believe that Jesus was their Savior. Second, did THEY want to join US. Fortunately, they both agreed to join, and we have precious new members today.
You don’t have to join the church and become a member to belong here. All who come belong and are welcome. But if you choose to take the next step, it isn’t based on who you are or whether you are worthy. So the Eunuch was baptized and became a Christian.
And Philip? He kept on going and breaking boundaries of who should learn about Jesus. That little line there at the end? Azotus is now called Ashdod and is a city in Syria. By the days of Jesus it was not a part of the Israelite Kingdom. It was outside of the bounds of the territory. And Caesarea, which while it was located inside of Israel, was a Roman stronghold.
We have been talking the last few weeks about everyone being welcome in the church. I actually found it hard to choose this lectionary passage because of all of the political commotion going on today. What I can say is that all of us are different from one another. We are all strangers, no matter how long we have been here. We are all sinful, and we are all broken. But more than anything, we are all welcome, by the God of the Old Testament and the Jesus of the new.
