Who is Your Ethiopian Eunuch?
Eric Lemonholm
October 16, 2011
Proper 24 A – with alternate Acts Scripture
Philip and the Ethiopian Acts 8:26-40 Memory Verse: II Corinthians 5:17, Matthew 22:15–22 – but going back to last week’s Gospel – Matthew 22:1-14
Who is Your Ethiopian Eunuch?
There is an old curse: “May you live in interesting times.” We certainly do live in interesting times.
We are in the midst of a recession – or even a depression – with no end in sight.
Our nation and our world have more wealth than ever, but it is concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, while unemployment rages, teachers and police officers are cut, and our infrastructure crumbles.
It’s time to speak out, and even march, for justice for the 99% who have born the burden of these times.
2011 is a year of protest, from Tahrir Square to Times Square.
Perhaps, as Diana Butler Bass said, it is time to put the protest back in Protestant and march with our neighbors!
It does not mean that the people in the top 1% are bad; it’s just that from biblical times to today, societies fall apart when they get so out of whack, with wealth concentrated in the hands of a few while the middle class shrinks into poverty. In the short term, it’s good for the 1%; in the long term, it’s not good for anyone.
Does the word of God, the Bible, have something to speak to our current situation?
You betcha!
We’ll see more about that in the weeks ahead.
Now, we are continuing our journey through the book of Acts in the New Testament, the story of the early church. This week, we’re actually going back in time a bit, to before Saul’s conversion.
If you remember from past weeks, the Pharisee named Saul had persecuted the church, arresting Christians and putting them in jail.
Many Christians fled Jerusalem, and scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.
It was like trying to put out a grassfire by stomping on it.
Sometimes, the more you try to stamp it out, the more it spreads.
That’s what was happening with the early church.
The more Christians were persecuted, the more they spread from village to village, from city to city, and started new house churches.
Philip was one of those disciples who fled Jerusalem.
He went to Samaria, north of Jerusalem, the land of the Samaritans, and shared the good news of Jesus Christ there, baptizing people as followers of Christ – even though Samaritans were racially and religiously abhorrent to many Jews.
“Get up and go,” said an angel to Philip one day.
Get up and go.
The messenger of God gave Philip a direction, a road to travel, but not a sure destination or detailed itinerary.
Get up and go.
Go south on the desert road that leads to Gaza, and on to the desert of Sinai and to Egypt.
And Philip got up and went.
On the road, he meets an important man, the royal treasurer of the Queen of the Ethiopians.
He’s an African man, dark skinned, a foreigner.
He is also a eunuch. He was castrated in the service of his queen.
As a eunuch and a foreigner, the Ethiopian would not have been allowed to worship in the Temple in Jerusalem, by biblical law, as in Deuteronomy 23:1 – “No one whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.”
A literal adherence to biblical law prevents the eunuch from being welcome to worship in the Temple.
But the Ethiopian made the long journey by chariot from Ethiopia to Jerusalem to worship God anyway.
Now, he is sitting in his chariot and reading the scroll of the prophet Isaiah.
He worships the God of the Jews, the living God, and he desires to know God better. But the Ethiopian Eunuch is confused by Isaiah’s words in ch. 53:
Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,
and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.
Who is the prophet describing?
He cannot figure it out.
The Holy Spirit commands Philip to run to the chariot.
So Philip runs up to it and hears him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” [The Eunuch] replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invites Philip to get in and sit beside him.
Philip does not hesitate or refuse to sit with the man because of his race or sexuality.
He hops in the chariot and goes along for the ride.
Then, starting with those words from Isaiah, Philip explains to the Ethiopian the meaning of God’s word in the Old Testament in terms of Jesus.
The Ethiopian Eunuch was obviously an intelligent, successful person who was seeking God.
But he needed some help. He needed a mentor to interpret the Bible for him, to explain what it means, to connect the words of Scripture with the person of Jesus and the community of the church.
It is the same with us.
We do not just read the Bible on our own, and interpret it as solitary individuals.
No, we read the Bible surrounded by a great cloud of faithful witnesses, past and present, who have read the Bible and interpreted it in the church, the body of Christ.[ii]
That’s what Philip provides for his friend from Ethiopia – one-on-one guidance for reading the Bible through the lens of faith in Jesus.
We need to dig into God’s Word like the Eunuch.
We are going to renew and revive our identity as a Book of Faith congregation.
As they travel that bumpy road, the Bible study companions come to some water.
The Eunuch asks Philip, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?”
Remember, according to the Old Testament law in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, this man was excluded from worshiping in the Temple.
This is a real question he is asking.
Is there, in fact, anything to prevent him from being baptized as a follower of Jesus?
Is the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ good news for him, regardless of his race and sexual status?
The answer is yes.
The good news is good for him, too.
There is nothing to prevent him from being baptized as a Christian.
There is nothing to prevent him from full inclusion in worship and the sacraments.
In fact, in the same book of the prophet Isaiah that the Eunuch was reading, just 3 chapters later in Isaiah 56, we read this:
3Do 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.”4For thus says the Lord: To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant,5I 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.
6And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it, and hold fast my covenant—7these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.8Thus says the Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, I will gather others to them besides those already gathered.
The Ethiopian Eunuch is a fulfillment of this prophecy!
So Philip baptizes him, and they both go their own ways, sharing the gospel with those they meet.
In fact, the Christian, Eastern Orthodox Church in Ethiopia traces its origins to this royal official.
The Christian church is a lot like that wedding banquet in Jesus’ parable from last week – or at least we should be.
Everyone is welcome to the wedding feast – rich and poor, good and bad, black and white, male and female, gay and straight.
Everyone is welcome – especially people on the margins, like the Ethiopian Eunuch.
Everyone who enters the banquet receives the same festive wedding robes.
Everyone who becomes a Christian is bathed in the waters of baptism and clothed with Christ.
As Paul wrote in Galatians 3:26-28:
[I]n Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.
This is why we in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America decided in 2009 to allow local churches the right to decide for themselves to welcome and bless gays and lesbians.
This is why our church council is talking about our congregation’s policy about blessing civil unions.
We rightly bless animals. Why would we not bless the lifelong committed relationships of our gay and lesbian neighbors and friends?
What is to prevent us from extending God’s blessing to them?
In this fast paced, diverse, interconnected world in turmoil, it is easy to succumb to fear.
Fear of the unknown.
Fear of change.
Fear of differences.
Fear of people who are different.
Fear of the future.
But remember what God says about fear: Do not be afraid!
Do not fear.
Do not fear the unknown, says God, because I know you.
Do not fear change, says the Lord, because in the midst of our changing world, my grace and mercy never change.
Do not fear differences of race, creed, color, culture, class, or sexual orientation, says God, because I have created all people in my image, and I will welcome all people to my wedding feast and bless them.
Do not fear the future, my children, says our heavenly Father, because the future is in my hands, and I have promised you the kingdom of heaven.
Amen!
