“The Spirit of Freedom”
Acts 8:26-40
Last Sunday was Pentecost and we are told that 3,000 people joined the brand-new Church that day, and the numbers kept growing and growing and growing.
And the Book of Acts is the story of the early Church and how it evolved from there.
It’s an exciting adventure.
And in it we get an intriguing picture of a group of people—folks just like you and me—who are continually being changed and formed and transformed in their understanding of God and one another.
And one of the things that stands out most is that even though the Church is born on Pentecost, the Church is not finished on Pentecost.
It is a work of God, always under construction—all the way to today.
It’s always changing.
It’s growing, it’s moving, it’s fluid.
And it’s not that God changes, it just that our understanding of God and God’s ways change and develop the more and longer we live in God, learn from God and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit.
The gift of salvation—the Gift of God’s Holy Spirit is an ongoing gift, it’s not just a one-time event, and the Church is constantly learning more and more about what it means to follow God.
And Philip found this out up close and personal in our Scripture Passage for this morning as he is the first one, besides Jesus, to spread the Gospel beyond the bounds of traditional Judaism.
You see, the first Christians were Jews.
And when they accepted Christ as Lord, Savior and Messiah—they still considered themselves Jews.
And they didn’t yet know that God’s salvation is for all people: Jew, Gentile—you name it!
They didn’t understand that God doesn’t play favorites.
So, an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.”
Philip does what he is told.
And then, the Holy Spirit speaks to Philip again: “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”
Inside the chariot is an “Ethiopian eunuch” reading the book of Isaiah the prophet.
A eunuch was a castrated male servant considered to be safe to serve the women of a royal household.
Despite this, eunuchs were considered to be sexually immoral.
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According to Deuteronomy 23:1 “No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord.”
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And according to Leviticus Chapter 21, eunuchs, along with “the blind or lame, disfigured or deformed; no [person] with a crippled foot or hand, or who is hunchbacked or dwarfed, or who has any eye defect, or who has festering or running sores” or any other “defect” including “crushed testicles” is allowed to come near God’s sanctuary.
These people were considered to be sinners and outsiders.
Remember how, over and over again, in the Gospels Jesus is chastised by the religious leaders for eating, hanging out with and making friends with prostitutes, tax collectors and sinners?
Who do you suppose the “sinners” are?
Many of them can be found in the list from Leviticus 21.
They are the eunuchs, the homosexuals, the blind, the disabled, the disfigured, the deformed, hunchbacks and the like.
People thought they had done something bad to deserve their condition or situation—therefore, God was punishing them and they were considered “sinners” and “less than.”
Jesus knew better.
And in the Book of Acts, Jesus’ brand-new Church was beginning to learn this too.
And we all, Lord willing, continue to learn, but we ALL still have a long way to go.
None of us know everything there is to know about God and how we are to live as Christ’s Church.
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As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13: “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.
Now [we] know in part: then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”
I find that exciting, do you?
As the Church of Jesus Christ, we are on a journey--a journey of learning more and more about the living, loving eternal God and how we are to treat and love those around us.
The Ethiopian Eunuch had been an outcast his entire life.
He’d been looked down on, sneered at, made fun of and shut out of God’s sanctuary.
And here he is riding in a chariot, down a deserted road and he’s reading Scripture.
***Put up Slide 4***
And the Scripture he is reading is Isaiah 53 which refers to someone who has been shorn or cut.
And it sounds like him.
Could Isaiah be referring to people like this Eunuch who has always been told that he is outside the grace of God’s love?
Could Isaiah be speaking to someone like him…
…a man who has been “despised and rejected by people”…
…a man who has been pierced and crushed…
…a man who was taken and emasculated like a sheep before its shearers?
We are told that “when Philip ran up to the chariot” he heard the [eunuch] reading.
In the ancient world, people read out loud.
It wasn’t until 300 or 400 A.D. that people started reading silently due to the advent of monasteries.
So, Philip hears the Eunuch reading the words from Isaiah
And the Eunuch asks Philip: “Tell me please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?”
Have you ever wondered anything like that?
When the Bible tells us that “God so loved the world,” have you ever wondered if that includes you?
You know, the Bible is seldom just a Word about “back then.”
It is often a word to us, to this moment, to our circumstances as well.
And so, yes, Isaiah was speaking to the Eunuch’s own personal experience of being an outcast, deprived of justice.
And Philip told him about Jesus, Who Himself was like “a sheep led to the slaughter” and Who Himself was humiliated and denied justice.
Have you ever been humiliated?
Have you ever been denied justice?
Have you ever felt like an outcast?
If so, Jesus can relate to you.
He has been there.
When on earth, Jesus identified with the poor, the lowly, the outcast, the freaks.
He sought to lift people up and out of their distress by filling them with the confidence which comes from being loved unconditionally, from being embraced and accepted warts, deformities, defects and all!
This is the kind of God we have.
And this is the kind of people we are to be: loving, accepting, open to all.
The first Christians were just starting to learn about this as they began to rub their eyes after being awakened by the Holy Spirit.
Philip told the Eunuch “the good news about Jesus.”
“And as they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, ‘Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?’”
Wow.
Talk about the place where the rubber meets the road.
It’s one thing to tell this guy about Jesus.
It’s quite another to accept him as a brother—an equal!
All his life Philip had been taught that eunuchs were in violation of the purity code.
All his life he had been taught that only the Jews were God’s Chosen race and heirs according to the promise.
“Why shouldn’t I be baptized?”
Well, Philip couldn’t think of a reason why he shouldn’t.
The Eunuch belonged to the wrong nation, held the wrong job and had the wrong anatomy.
But in the face of this, Philip heard the voice of the Holy Spirit give a different answer to the Eunuch’s question.
“Why shouldn’t I be baptized?” asked the Eunuch.
“There is no reason why you shouldn’t be baptized,” whispered the Holy Spirit.
The chariot stopped.
“Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him…”
And the oppressive walls of prejudice and ignorance started tumbling down.
A person who felt humiliated and lost had been found!
And the Holy Spirit was telling Philip, the Ethiopian Eunuch and you and even me that the doors to the Kingdom of God are wide open for all who will come.
And isn’t this good news for the middle schooler or teenager who is ostracized by his or her peers and struggles to fit in at school?
Isn’t this good news for the person who has always felt like an outsider?
Isn’t this good news for the drug addict and the alcoholic?
Isn’t this good news for the poor, the sick, the disabled, the disfigured, the sad, the lonely, the depressed?
Isn’t this good news for the LGBTQ+ community who has been told for years and years by the church that God doesn’t love them the way they are?
Isn’t this good news for those who have been terribly hurt by churches?
Isn’t this good news for the immigrant, the prisoner, the captive, the lost, the least?
Isn’t this good news for the person who feels too sinful, too unworthy?
Isn’t this good news for those who live in the homes surrounding this church building?
Isn’t this good news for you?
I know it is good news for me!
And let’s not forget it, as we mingle with our fellow human beings—no matter what they look like, no matter their socio-economic status, no matter their sexual orientation, no matter where they come from or what they have done--all people have been created in the image of God and therefore have sacred worth, are loved beyond measure and are persons for whom Jesus died!
We are to remember this, and treat one another accordingly.
The Ethiopian Eunuch was still a Eunuch after hearing and accepting the love of Jesus Christ.
But, he was, none the less, a changed man, as he went on his way—rejoicing!!!
He had learned to love and accept himself because God had accepted him, and because of this he could love and accept God and others.
Christian tradition tells us that this fellow went home and shared his new-found faith and that the Ethiopian Coptic Church can be traced back to him.
The Ethiopian Eunuch asked:
“Who is the Scripture talking about?
Is it talking about me?
Am I included?
Am I loved?
Will the Church accept me?”
Do you know anyone who is wondering these very same things?
If so, what is the Holy Spirit calling you to do about it?
And will you do it?
Almighty God,
Like Philip so long ago, speak to us through Your Holy Spirit.
Give us a desire to love You and our neighbors.
Give us a desire to put that love into practice.
Help us to see all people as Your beloved children and use us to bring all people to You—especially those who feel left behind.
In Jesus’ name we pray.
Amen.
