ROME IMPROVEMENT 05/02/2021

MORE POWER!  MORE GLORY!!  MORE SPIRIT!!!

SURVEYING THE SITE—Acts 8:26-40

In the Easter season, many things get turned upside down. We started with the site of death which became the source of life, poetically speaking, the tomb became the womb. After talking about the resurrection, we went back to some of John’s earlier writings. This week, we leap ahead to after Pentecost. Don’t worry though, we’ll get back to Pentecost at the end of the month. 

At this point in the book of Acts, Jesus has met with the disciples on the Mount of Olives and ascended into heaven, leaving the disciples with the instructions to wait for the Holy Spirit. While they are waiting, the disciples decide they need to replace the witness of Judas; they choose Matthias.

With their numbers restored, they wait to discover what God has planned for them. The wind of new creation comes, and flames like that of fire appear. Many hear and believe the Good News. The disciples gather in Jerusalem where they teach in the temple daily.

The work of teaching, preaching, and caring for the great number of people who have come to believe is greater than the work the twelve can handle. So, the community elects seven to help serve at table. Among them are Stephen and Philip.

Stephen is indicted and condemned for being a follower of Jesus, and after preaching a sermon that ends with forgiving the people who are going to stone him to death, he dies. Saul, who held the coats of those who stoned Stephen, initiates a campaign to destroy the followers of Jesus. (Stay tuned for chapter 9.)

Philip has been healing and teaching in Samaria, baptizing men and women. Simon, a magician, is also baptized. But Philip’s authority is apparently limited because Peter and John are told of the people believing in Samaria and go to impart the Holy Spirit on them.

(The distinction between the baptism into the name of Jesus and the baptism of the Holy Spirit continues in the book of Acts. Simon, who witnesses the works of Peter and John, tries to buy the powers they have. This results in Peter admonishing Simon and causing him to repent. (To this day, those who use the Gospel for financial gain are charged with simony.)

Now, sent by the Holy Spirit, Philip goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza on a dark desert highway, with cool wind in his hair. We join him there.

READING THE BLUEPRINT

An angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise! Go South, to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is in the desert. So, Philip got up and went. Now, there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians, controlling her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home. Seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and be intermingled with it.” So, Philip ran alongside it and heard the Ethiopian eunuch reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” He invited Philip to get in and sit beside him.

Now the passage of scripture the Ethiopian eunuch was reading was this,

“Like a sheep, led to the butchers,

like a lamb, silent before the shearer,

he does not open his mouth.

In his humiliation, justice was denied him.

Who can explain this generation?

For his life is taken away from the earth.”

The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or someone else?”

Then Philip began to explain—starting with this writing he spoke to him the good news of Jesus. As they were going along the way, they came to some water. The eunuch said, “Behold! There is water. What is to prevent me from being baptized?” He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.

When they came up, out of the water, the spirit of the Lord, snatched Philip away. The eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing.

Philip found himself at Azotus, and, as he was passing through the region, he spoke the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

ROUGHING IN THE HOUSE

This text is multi-faceted. It has become one of the central passages of the LGBTQIA+ community as it has considered the import of the Levitical law regarding the place of the eunuch. Whether someone with crushed testicles is able to worship in the temple, homosexuality in general, and the inclusiveness of God’s love facilitated by the Spirit are all part of this story.

This text also expands the evangelical work of the seven who were chosen to serve at table. It also addresses whether Scripture can be understood just by reading it and whether individual interpretation is enough.

Lastly, this story tells us, we may be actors within the story of faith, but we are not the workers of faith itself: faith is truly a gift given through the Holy Spirit. When all is said and done, the Spirit blows where it wills, and we neither know where it comes from or where it goes. This week, we are told that the Spirit blows from Samaria and goes to Caesarea, but this is just the beginning of the new creation wind blowing in our midst. Can you feel it now?

PUTTING UP THE WALLS

This story of traveling from places you don’t belong to those you do is powerful. Embedded within the text is a passage from Isaiah that needs to be looked at both in the context of Isaiah and our world today, as well as that of Acts.

In the violence then and now, who are those who are being led to the slaughter?

Who are being stripped of their value?

Who are those who are being publicly humiliated, belittled, demeaned, shunned?

Who has justice denied them?

Who can explain these times when life is taken away from the earth?

Can we not see the LGBTQIA+ community in these words?

Many come to our centers of worship seeking to know God’s word for them only to be met with words and actions of rejection. They then find themselves on desert highways traveling back to homes of uncertain welcome. The Spirit is calling us to rise and go to those desert places, to be companions in faith. We are called to explain the words, offering hope to those who live in a troubled world. For God’s word of love is for all of us.

I am amazed with what the Holy Spirit is doing in this text; but I am most amazed that Philip didn’t find a way to get in the way of the Holy Spirit’s work, one of the Church’s greatest sins. We think that Philip is the one who makes this story possible; but, in reality, the eunuch is the one who makes this story possible. It is the eunuch’s desire to belong that has brought him to Jerusalem to worship at the temple, but the temple would have had to refuse him because of his life condition.

Given that, the eunuch still carries this text with him. He is returning home in silence, without protest, understanding that this is the way of the world. Then this stranger appears out of nowhere running alongside the horses pulling the chariot.

Philip asks, “Do you understand these words?” The eunuch responds, “No”, and then asks, “Who is the prophet speaking of, himself or someone else?”

Isaiah was speaking of Israel, a people who had been determined to be faithless, and were now away from the land, the earth, God had given them, taken away to die in Babylon. Israel is the suffering servant. They were the ones who could not explain their times and were condemned to die.

In Acts, Philip claims Jesus as the suffering servant. Yet, in the midst of the story, the eunuch is also the suffering servant, silently humiliated and denied justice. Then, in the community of two, Christ’s justifying presence is known. That presence brings wholeness and incorporation. Through this communion with the Spirit, the waters of baptism, waters of drowning-death and new life are known. Rising up, being resurrected, the eunuch is able to take the seeds of this new community with him to Ethiopia. He goes on The Way, rejoicing.

And Philip? Philip continues to serve at the table and waits for all who are marginalized, those traveling on the desert roads of alienation, with the words of Christ’s hope, “Child of God, you have been marked with the cross of Christ and sealed by the Holy Spirit forever. Know that the body of Christ is given for you. Know that the cup of the new covenant, shed for you and for all people, continues to include you and sustain you in all that you do.

HANGING THE TRIM

Today we are challenged to answer the question anew. We have God’s word. We have water. We have wine; we have bread. We have Christ’s command to love one another. What is to prevent us from being the people of God?

On the way, rejoicing, let us forward move. Preaching Christ’s great wisdom and God’s word of love.