“He went on his way rejoicing…” or “What is to prevent me from being baptized?

(Acts 8:26-40)

Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.”  (This is a wilderness road.)  So he got up and went.  Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of 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 join it.”  So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah.  He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”  He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?”  And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him.  Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this:

“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.”

The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?”  Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus.  As they were going along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look, here 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 went on his way rejoicing.  But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

            I truly chose this passage of scripture to challenge the preacher in me to find God’s word in this odd little story.  In the middle of the week I was kind of regretting this.  But I like this story.  I remember it from Vacation Bible School when I was probably 12 years old.  I’m sure my teachers did not make a big deal about our guy being a eunuch, but the sitting in the chariot studying scripture has stuck with me.  There are definitely some nuggets of meaning here, and I’ll be talking about that, but I also want you to be challenged, even inspired by it.

            I wonder what it would be like to be that guy sitting in his chariot, trying to make heads or tails out of a passage of scripture that is pretty dense and hard to find much meaning.  And yet, he was determined to make his way through it.  It’s important to know that this man, who was head of the treasury in Ethiopia, had just been to Jerusalem to worship. 

He was a Jew, but would not have been accepted by the Jerusalem religious folk.  Being Ethiopian made him an outsider.  Being a eunuch would have prevented him from even entering the temple.  So, here we have it, a person who is determined to practice his faith, but, yet, knows his own limitations in understanding and interpreting scripture.

            Then we have Philip, a prophet who is on a mission to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ.  The angel of the Lord had influenced Philip to be on this wilderness road, almost as if he were destined to find our eunuch friend.  Then the Spirit nudged him to join our friend in his chariot.  How many times have you felt such a nudge and it turned out to be just what you needed to do, for whatever reason.

            Well, as you heard, as Philip got closer to the chariot, he heard our friend reading from the prophet Isaiah.  It was a passage about how Israel was the sacrificial lamb, suffering silently.  As Jesus’ followers began to put meaning to Jesus’ life and death, they would see passages such as this applying to Jesus.  They began to see him as their suffering servant and, therein, were inspired by how he gave his life so that theirs would have meaning.

            So, of course, our friend did not understand what was going on here.  As we all do, when we read scripture, he needed a partner to read it with him, to begin to make meaning out of it.  And Philip, then, commenced to testify to our friend about what Jesus’ life and death and resurrection meant. 

            Soon, they came to a body of water, and our friend asked, “What is preventing me from being baptized?”  And, sure enough, he and Philip went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.  This should remind you of Jesus’ baptism because when they came up out of the water the Spirit of the Lord was present.  This time, of course, Philip was snatched away, but our friend seemed to know this was okay because he went away rejoicing.  Philip found himself at another place and continued his work elsewhere.

            Now, please don’t try to take all this too literally because it really is a symbolic story there to teach us very important lessons.  Our friend, the Ethiopian eunuch, was so very far from being a religious insider on many levels, as I mentioned before.  He was from a land far far away.  Ethiopia is south of Egypt, a long way from Jerusalem.  The people there are very dark complected.  They were ruled by a queen, called a Candace, who had a court full of men who had been castrated.  He was a highly placed individual in the queen’s court, in charge of her whole treasury.  He was materially very well off, but he clearly was spiritually hungry for something more.  And Philip helped to provide that spiritual food for him. 

            So, you must see that, in contrast to the way the religious leaders of Jesus’ time had been, the Jesus movement had become one that was open to all people.  So, when we read about Jesus’ ministry we see him always welcoming all people to his table, to his ministry and mission, showing the God who loves and welcomes all people—even Ethiopians and eunuchs, even Samaritans and tax collectors.  And now, we see Philip being just as open and welcoming to our friend. 

            This welcome is taken to the point of making the act of baptism available to our friend whose question may have left Philip the option of saying no to him.  Our friend, when he saw the body of water, asked Philip, “What is to prevent me from being baptized?”

            Implicit in that question and the whole story is that the religious leaders of the time would have refused to have anything to do with our friend and certainly wouldn’t have allowed him to enter into the holy of holies.  Philip baptized the guy!

            And so, it is a whole new world, truly.  And I say to you that, whenever the Gospel of Good News is preached, it should be a whole new world. 

            …As you know, the General Conference of the United Methodist Church is happening right now, and there are many issues on the table, but the one that is salient to today’s text is the proposal that would change the hurtful and divisive language in our Book of Discipline toward the LGBTQ community.  I and many of you, are hoping and praying that this will pass because, as we know, when the Gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed, it should be a whole new world.

            Just imagine what a parallel to an Ethiopian eunuch would be in today’s world.  I think one comparison could be to LGBTQ people, even folks who are on the edges, people who would maybe be a bit shocking to our Midwestern eyes.  I think that people who are members of the trans community might fall into that category.  There is so much talk these days about how we need to legislate to protect against trans people, to keep them out of bathrooms, to keep them from getting the medical help that might need.  I do not claim to be an expert on these matters, but what I do know is this: Jesus’ first response to anyone was to open his arms and welcome them into the Jesus House. 

In our story today Philip is clearly Jesus’ representative.  And what did Philip do?  He sat himself down in the Ethiopian eunuch’s chariot and taught and testified to him about New Life in Christ.  And, in answer to the eunuch’s question, “What is to prevent me from being baptized (that is, becoming a full member of the Jesus House)?”  By going down into the water with our friend, Philip’s answer was a resounding “Nothing prevents you!”

            There is nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, says Paul in the book of Romans.  Nothing!

            Our job, as followers of Christ, is to be bringers of this whole new world that Jesus opened to us 2000 years ago.  Our job is to resist judging and making rules that prevent people who are different from being part of our “club.”  The Jesus House is open to all. 

            I’ve been reading a book called Why Religion? by a theologian named Elaine Pagels.  She has made a career out of translating and making available lost writings from what is called the Nag Hamadi Library, ancient scrolls that were found by a farmer in Egypt in 1945.  One of the most famous scrolls (they’re called codices) is the Gospel of Thomas.  It clearly did not make it into our Bible but has much to offer us.  There is another called “The Gospel of Truth.” 

One quote that really caught my attention as Pagels wrote about it, said this, “God sent Jesus to find those who were lost and to bring them home.”  Another quote that I love is hers: “This is a book written on our heart that teaches us who we really are.”

I believe these quotes do speak to how we hear this morning’s reading.  Isn’t it lovely to think about Jesus’ purpose as finding those who are lost and bringing them home?  Our friend, the Ethiopian eunuch, is a model for this way of thinking about Christian evangelism.  Isn’t this the message we want to share with the world?  Finding those who are lost and bringing them home.  I like it. 

And for Christianity to help us learn who we really are is exactly what we ought to be doing here, I think.  It worked for our friend, the Ethiopian eunuch, and it will work for each of us.  It will work in our own Christian journey, and it will work as we move forward trying to be the church that Jesus imagined we could be.  May you learn who you really are by knowing Jesus AND may you be a conduit through whom others can learn who they are and be introduced to the whole new world of the Jesus House.  Amen.