Acts 8:26-40
“Understanding”
May 2, 2021
Three centuries ago, the French writer and philosopher Voltaire, kept getting into hot water. It happened so often that he was even put in prison a couple of times and he was exiled to England, all because of the stuff he had to say about the church and royalty and what he saw as their intolerance. Those institutions were not used to clever and witty writers taking them on with jokes and satire. Voltaire famously proclaimed, “Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.”
Today we learn about what happens when questions lead to new life. This traveler was heading home after worshipping at the temple in Jerusalem. He is called an Ethiopian here but what that meant in the world Luke was writing about was that he had dark skin and was from somewhere south of Egypt. The fact that he was traveling in a chariot and that he could read scripture aloud in Greek meant that he most likely held a prominent position in the court of the Queen. And he invited Philip, who overheard his reading aloud, into the chariot and there questions were asked that would change both of their lives and signal the wideness of God’s welcome.
Like so many of us, reading scripture all by ourselves fills us often with more questions than answers.
The first question in this passage comes from Philip, who by the way, is not the apostle Philip. This Philip is one of the seven deacons chosen by the apostles themselves a couple of chapters back to take over the distribution of the food every day. He’s said to be “full of the Spirit and wisdom.” (Acts 6:3)
The eunuch admits he needs help with the intention of the words of the prophet Isaiah, as translated in The Message, where there’s a couple of lines that talk about a “sheep being led to slaughter, and quiet as a lamb being sheared, he was silent, saying nothing. He was mocked and never got a fair trial.”
The eunuch wants to know who Isaiah is talking about – is it Isaiah himself or someone else.
Maybe the eunuch was finding himself in this passage as an outsider.
Sure, he had a nice chariot and could obviously read which would have been rare back then.
This eunuch was in charge of the queen’s finances but he was also, because of his physical condition, known to be of a lower social status and thus could be replaced or killed and nothing would happen to his attacker.
Eunuchs were extremely vulnerable to the whims of those in power. He also comes from the geographic ends of the known world.
Philip then answers him by sharing the Good News about Jesus who knew a bit about being looked down upon, condemned and killed. Maybe, in the midst of the questions and answers, the eunuch found himself in Jesus’ story. Isn’t that what we’re all seeking?
We know that Jesus constantly sided with the oppressed, the ones others treated with disdain, those that “proper” society had little use for?
And so it goes with another question, when amazingly water along the road appears, “What is to prevent me from being baptized?” that both men’s lives are forever altered.
We do not hear words as an answer. But Philip was responding to the voice of the Holy Spirit with the answer to the eunuch’s question of what is to stop him from being baptized with an “Absolutely nothing.”
All the prejudice and judgment against this foreign, dark-skinned, outsider that had been around for generations no longer mattered.
Instead, Philip through the act of baptism of this outsider, demonstrates the new inclusivity that the Jesus followers were called to embrace.
Where, up until then, this had been a movement of Jews bringing other Jews into the Jesus fold, Philip here is saying that there is no outsider – there is a place for everyone.
What is dividing us as God’s children right now?
Is it income or race or sexual orientation or national origin?
Could it be our respective takes on what it means to be followers of Jesus?
Are we worried that there’s not enough room?
Are we truly listening for the voice of the Holy Spirit who may just be saying that nothing, absolutely nothing keeps any of us from the wideness of God’s mercy and grace?
Rather than be so sure we have the answers, let us instead keep asking ourselves, and each other, the questions.
Let us offer this prayer then from the Rev. Dr. Karen Munson, UMC District Superintendent in Central Maine titled “Are we there yet?”
Are we there yet, seeing without understanding on this wilderness road?
Are we there yet, to a place where the poor eat and are satisfied,
to a time when all the ends of the earth remember and turn to you, to soul space where there is truth in saying, I love you, GOD,
because we truly love our siblings, all of them?
Not yet.
Will you be with us while we are not yet?
Will you open our ears to good guides?
[Will you be with us day after interminable day as,
the mutating virus, resistance to risk reduction,
and saying no to vaccines slow the journey to full community gathering?]
Will you walk with us into the wide plains of justice and mercy?
Will you plunge us into baptismal waters that we pass along the way?
You already are.
You already are.
You already are.
You already are.
You already are.
AMEN
By Rev. Dr. Karen Munson, Many Waters District Superintendent
Acts 8: 26-40, Psalm 22:25-31