Baptism as Belonging: A Sermon for 5B Easter

 

Baptism of the Ethiopian Eunuch by Blair Piras

There were so many directions I could've gone in on with these lectionary readings, but I felt it so strongly that I needed to talk about this story from the Acts of the Apostles Chapter 8 when Philip encounters the Ethiopian eunuch. And, as luck would have it, I recently rediscovered a DVD I had bought years ago of Preston Toscano's performance of various gender-bending bible stories. It helped to make this text even richer. 

See what you think. 

Texts: Acts 8:26-40, Ps. 22 24-30, 1 John 4:7-21; John 15:1-8

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Our lectionary readings this morning are so full…so rich…that it’s hard to know where to begin. We have this wonderful analogy in our Gospel of God as a vine grower…carefully cultivating and pruning branches. Jesus…for us…representing that true vine…the source that feeds and bears fruit.

We hear of the deep well of love in our epistle from the First Letter of John…reminding us that this perfect love casts out fear.

We’re so used to hearing the first line of Psalm 22…”My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” during Holy Week…that we never hear the rest of Jesus’ final prayer at his crucifixion…those beautiful last verses of Psalm 22… as he places all his trust in God…all the saving deeds God has done.

But the story I am most drawn to is our first reading as Luke recounts in the Book of Acts the apostle Philip’s encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch.

Not only is this a story about the growing and expanding church…showing us the ways of evangelism…that scary “E” word.

It makes clear that the love of God knows absolutely no boundaries or borders and extends to everyone.

So…let’s just back up for a moment…and first get a little bit of background on this story out Acts Chapter 8.

We have to first set the scene.

Things at this time are more than a little dicey for the apostles.

They’ve buried their beloved first deacon…Stephen…who was stoned to death for proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah.

Paul is still Saul…and he’s on a rampage.

He’s been going house to house in search of those who are followers of Jesus to arrest them and throw them in jail.

With this sort of tension hanging in the air…many of the apostles have scattered.

Philip went to Samaria of all places.

And as we know from other Gospel stories…the Samaritans were Jews not in league or in love with the Jews of Jerusalem.

To borrow a sports analogy…theirs is a relationship like the Georgia Bulldogs to the Florida Gators.

While in Samaria…Philip encounters a magician named Simon who is claiming to have great powers until Philip shows Simon and the Samaritans that he has even greater powers through the name of Jesus.

So many Samaritans start converting to believing in “The Way” that the apostles in Jerusalem sent Peter and John to help.

Those two arrive…lay hands on the Samaritans…and have it out with Simon when he offers them money in exchange for having these powers of conversion.

So that’s the background…and that’s where our story picks up today…with Philip being summoned to leave Samaria.

He’s told to head down the “wilderness road” that leads from Jerusalem…which is in the interior of the country…to the coastal area of Gaza…a place we are now sadly familiar with due to the war.

Because this is a “wilderness” road…we get the sense this is a place of unknowns…and strange encounters.

The wilderness is where the Israelites wandered for forty years…alternating between complaining about their conditions when things are tough…and then praising God when they receive manna from heaven. 

The wilderness is where Jesus faces temptation by Satan…summoning up every ounce of his energy to say “No” to the human desires of food and having wealth and power over others.

Now…on this wilderness road…Philip finds himself having this strange meeting with someone from one of the other “outcast” groups of his day: a eunuch.

Eunuchs had a peculiar place in First Century society.

They were men who either were made eunuchs by war injuries or they had been medically-altered.

They often held high and trusted positions in royal courts.

This particular eunuch we know is from Ethiopia…a black man who was very much an outsider to the Jews of the region…and is a man of some standing in the court of an Ethiopian queen as her chief financial officer.  

We also know that he’s coming from having been in Jerusalem to worship.

Given that he’s reading from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah…he might have been at the Temple in Jerusalem.

That would’ve been awkward.

Not only is he a foreigner. But as a eunuch…he may have encountered some difficulty at the Temple…which was a highly-gendered space with men on one side and women and children on the other.

In the same way that shepherds were not held in high esteem…eunuchs encountered prejudice in some quarters.

Levitical law prohibited them from taking part in Temple rituals (Lev.21:20).

In fact…they were kept at arms-length from anything involving Judaism (Deut. 23:1).

And so it’s to this eunuch that God has summoned Philip…a Jewish follower of Jesus.

He runs and meets this outsider in the wilderness as the man pours over a passage from Isaiah about the suffering servant.

Philip listens as he reads.

The eunuch asks, “About whom does the prophet say this? About himself or about someone else?”

It’s a great question.

Who is this who stands silent before an unjust system?

I think we are always too quick to immediately see this…as Philip did…to be speaking about Jesus.

That is…of course… our interpretation of that passage from Isaiah.

But I think it’s important for us to take a moment to consider what may have been happening for this Ethiopian man.

The biblical scholar and performer Peterson Toscano does a wonderful interpretation of this text.

Toscano gives the eunuch a name—Desta.

He imagines Desta taking in this scripture…and weighing its words in light of his own existence as a societal other.

I think there’s a tendency for many of us to separate ourselves from the words we hear and speak in our worship services.

We see the stories of the Bible as talking about other people without taking the time to absorb how the messages…the situations…the emotions are very much ones that we may have felt and experienced.

But if we abide in God…and therefore if God abides in us…then these words in the scriptures should touch us…and connect to our own encounters in the world.

Then…maybe…it’s not just Jesus who we see suffering silently before an unjust system…but maybe we have felt that sting in our own lives.

And maybe if we haven’t personally felt it…perhaps we can imagine it when we hear the stories from others.

Philip talks to this eunuch…Desta…and they travel along for a few more miles. And as Toscano imagines this conversation unfolding…Desta finally reads a little further into the scroll of Isaiah:

Hear these words from Isaiah Chapter 56:

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.” For thus says the Lord: To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast to my covenant, 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.” (Is. 56:3-5)

Buried beneath all the exclusionary language in the Torah…the prophet has revealed to Desta and to Philip…that God’s perfect love does not hate the one who is a eunuch.

Can you imagine how freeing…how liberating it is to know that level of love?! 

They come upon a pool of water.

The grateful Desta exclaims, “What is to prevent me from being baptized?”

The answer: nothing. Nothing at all.

The prophet has spoken…God has proclaimed the ever-expanding circle of love.

And Philip takes this man into the water…baptizing him in the name of God the Father…God the Son…and God the Holy Spirit.

This lost one is found.

And…just like us…becomes part of one faith…one hope…one love.

In the name of God…F/S/HS.