Acts 8
4-28-24
Acts is the story of the first church.
Baptism of the Ethiopian Eunuch
Paul Goodnight
The risen Jesus shows up at
the beginning of the book,
but then he goes up and
leaves
Peter and the rest of them to
figure
things out for themselves and
Acts is that story.
At the beginning of the story, for the first 7
chapters,
The church seems like it’s
got things firmly in control.
Peter is its obvious leader and he’s
doing his administrative best.
They’re stationed in Jerusalem,
They’ve got a church of about
120 people,
a pretty good size church to
work with.
They make solid administrative
decisions,
they have nominating
committees,
Peter preaches great sermons,
They have people join in
membership,
the church is growing,
They have healing services
they have a very
aggressive stewardship program.
people die from shame if they
don’t give enough.
Acts says “They
devoted themselves to teaching,
fellowship and the breaking of bread and the prayers.”
A good church plan if I ever
heard one.
Peter was doing great things
in Jerusalem.
Then, I think the Holy Spirit got bored with the whole
thing.
Around chapter 8, the Holy
Spirit decided to take
the nice, pleasant, well-run
church
in Jerusalem and do something
new.
we see Paul, who is still
Saul, who is a Pharisee
and is working overtime to
get rid of the followers of Christ.
He turns the heat up, and the
church and its people
are forced to leave their
comfortable Jerusalem
church and scatter around and
go elsewhere.
In the rest of chapter 8 we get the first story
of what that scattered church
does.
It says the Holy Spirit leads Philip down the road
from
Jerusalem to Gaza, it points
out that it’s a wilderness road,
a road of the unknown, the
dangerous, the unexpected,
just like the Holy Spirit
likes it.
And there Philip meets an Ethiopian Eunuch
who’s riding in a chariot.
It said he had come to
Jerusalem to worship
but he was now heading home.
The Holy Spirit tells Philip
to go and talk to him.
The Eunuch is reading the
book of Isaiah.
Philip offers to explain the scriptures to the Eunuch
The Eunuch invites him on
board the chariot.
There Philip explains the
words of Isaiah
and tells him about the Good News
of Jesus Christ.
The Eunuch is obviously moved
he sees
some water outside the chariot and says,
“What is to prevent me from
being baptized right now?”
The answer was, at the time, everything.
Everything was stopping this
man from being baptized.
He was a eunuch.
A man who was physically altered
so he could
be hired to take care of
female royalty.
He was sexually different
than the norm.
And as such, the scriptures prevented from joining
in the life of the temple.
Told, in very clear terms in Deuteronomy
23:1
“No one who has been emasculated can enter the house
of the Lord.”
This man was an outsider. His sexuality was different.
The rules of religion made
him an outcast,
called him an abomination,
rejected him.
Even some documents from the
earliest Christian church
rejection of Eunuchs from
being able to be baptized
and participate in the
church.
It says that the Eunuch was coming from Jerusalem.
and that he went there to
worship.
And it’s not unthinkable that
he was sent home from there.
Sent away from God and the
worshipping community
because of who he was.
Religion turned the Eunuch. away, but he still sought
God.
He still read the scripture.
He still talked to Philip.
He still let the Sprit move
him.
Over the years, I’ve met people in the church
who, just like this person
have been rejected
by the church because of
their sexuality.
They’ve been told the church doesn’t want them.
That they need to deny themselves
or God won’t love them, can’t
love them.
And the church can’t accept
them as they are.
And yet, many of them still
come back.
They still seek God, they
seek the Christian community.
These people are an example
of bravery.
These people are a testament
to the power of the Spirit
to overcome years of bad
theology led
by a very narrow reading of
the scriptures.
Anyone who has been rejected
by
the church for any
reason,
because of their sexuality,
or color,
or gender, or what they’ve
done in the past,
or how they look, or who their
parents are . . .
anyone who has faced
rejection and still seek out
God and the Christian
Community
they are an inspiration.
They renew my faith.
They convert me again.
They help me to know that
there is more
to this than reason and
rules.
They drive me to understand
the way of Jesus
and the Word of God better.
They let me know the power of
the Spirit.
And this Eunuch is an
inspiration.
He hears the story of Jesus
and hears about
the healing and forgiveness
of baptism.
He sees some water by the
side of the road
and he wants to be baptized
right there.
What is to prevent me from
being baptized?
And apparently, Philip
doesn’t see that there is
anything preventing it, and
Philip baptizes him
right then and there.
Now sometimes they call this story
“The Conversion of the
Ethiopian Eunuch.”
The Eunuch is converted to
the faith.
He became like us. The church
rejoices.
But is that really the most amazing thing that
happened?
Was the Eunuch the main one converted to the
faith?
Or was Philip converted to the faith?
Was the church was converted to the faith?
Was the church converted to
the Way of Jesus?
Did the Spirit lead the Eunuch to Philip?
Or did the Spirit lead Philip
to that Eunuch?
That
same water, that same spirit
that has washed and sent so many people
that has inspired people through the
generations,
has inspired us to welcome the stranger,
to help those who are hurting,
to treat others
with kindness,
to work for
justice, to feed the hungry,
to offer comfort
and prayer to those who are hurting,
and it sometimes
just inspires to make it through the day.
In
our baptism God has claimed us.
We are forgiven and we know that
we are loved
eternally.
And that love
changes people.
That same Spirit, those same waters of
salvation
that drove that Ethiopian out of his chariot
and into a new life, drives us.
That same Spirit that drove Philip to go
from the comfort of Jerusalem
to the wilderness road that led Gaza
drives us too.
That same Spirit that got bored with
the nice, stable church in Jerusalem,
snatches us up and send us out into
strange and uncomfortable places,
hopefully to meet people we never would
have met before.
She drives us to follow the way of Jesus
and to use the scriptures for love
and inclusion instead of hate and exclusion.
She shows us that nothing is preventing us
from sharing the love of God with everyone.
That same Spirit, that same water of baptism,
that drove them, drives us today.
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