April 28, 2024 Sermon
Sermon title: "The Ethiopian Eunuch"
Scripture: Acts 8:26-40
(Other lectionary suggestions include Psalm 22:25-31, I John 4:7-21, and John 15:1-8.)
Acts 8:26-40
Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch
26Then 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.) 27So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go over to this chariot and join it." 30So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?" 31He replied, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. 32Now 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. 33In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth." 34The eunuch asked Philip, "About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?" 35Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. 36As 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?" 37And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he replied, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” 38He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. 39When 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. 40But 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.
It first struck me as a bit strange that our lectionary suggestions for today include a part of Psalm 22, which is the Psalm Jesus started to quote while he was on the cross: "My God, My God, Why hast Thou forsaken me?" It also includes a passage from the Gospel of John and the first letter of John, which is about love. (The latter has the famous verse that says, "Those who say, 'I love God', and hate a brother or sister are liars, for those who do not love a brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen." And that Scripture goes on to say this: "those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.")
But then on second thought, I realized that the portion we heard from Acts is also about love: the inclusion of somebody "different" in the young church. How was the Ethiopian eunuch different? Well, if he was from Ethiopia, he was BLACK. That's one difference. And if he was a eunuch, he was different there, too. I don't know much about this, and I've never seen much written about it, but apparently in ancient times it was thought that eunuchs had no sexual desire, so those who were eunuchs or who had become eunuchs by choice could be trusted to watch over the harems. As it turns out, not all eunuchs are without sexual desire - but we won't talk about that now! But how interesting that the Scripture mentions a eunuch as if it were (or he were) no unusual occurrence.
Here's a minor point: the queen of the Ethiopians was called Candace. That was not her name; that was her title. Sort of like the pharaoh in Egypt: that wasn't his name; that was his title. And this Ethiopian eunuch had an important job: he was secretary of the treasury. Anyway, Philip is told by the Spirit to go to him, and he does.
Why was this Ethiopian in Jerusalem, anyway? According to the Scottish scholar William Barclay, he had been there to worship. "In those days the world was full of people who were weary of the many gods and the loose morals of the nations. They came to Judaism and there found the one God and the austere moral standards which gave life meaning." Those who went all out and got circumcised were called PROSELYTES. Those who didn't quite want to go that far but still held Judaism in high regard, read the Hebrew scriptures and attended the synagogues were called GOD-FEARERS. The Ethiopian was one of those two, and he was reading Isaiah chapter 53 when Philip met up with him.
The Ethiopian eunuch went on his way rejoicing, we are told. And tradition has it that he went home and evangelized Ethiopia.
As we heard in the reading, he wanted to be baptized, and he was. How interesting that once Philip's task was completed, he disappeared! It reminds me of the road to Emmaus story when the Risen Lord disappeared as he broke the bread and blessed it. Remember that the book of Acts was written by the same guy who wrote Luke, and the road to Emmaus story is also found only in Luke. So maybe for the author of Luke and Acts, once an important task has been performed, there's no need for the person performing the important task to stick around!
As I have said before, Jesus was born into a very stratified and legalistic society. As we saw during the time of Jesus, some members of the Jewish community felt more entitled than other members of the Jewish community. As we have seen, the Pharisees thought that their brand of religion was better and more "pure" than other brands of Judaism. The reason I mention this is that to join the Christian community, all one had to do was be baptized. There were not a lot of other hoops to jump through. And baptism represented three things. First of all, it symbolized cleansing. As a person's body was cleansed, so was his soul bathed in the grace of Christ. The second thing baptism symbolized was a clean break with the past. As the Apostle Paul says elsewhere, when a person becomes a Christian, he is a new creation. (And by the way, that may be one reason that Roman Catholics get a new name: if the person is a new creation, perhaps the person needs a new name as well.) Finally, it was thought that baptism represented a real union with Christ. As the waters closed over the man's head, it was believed that he died with Christ. And as he emerges from the water, it was thought he rose with Christ. (Romans 6:1-4 talks about this.)
One reason the Christian church grew so fast was that the requirements to join weren't that tough! One had to confess one's faith and be baptized, and that was it! Also, everybody felt welcome, because, to quote the Apostle Paul again, now there was neither Jew nor Greek, free man or slave. The openness that Jesus showed during his lifetime even to "outsiders" apparently carried over to his followers and the early church as well.
One more thing: the fact that Philip brings in a black eunuch to the young church has something to say to us as well. Yes, we should accept all races - no question there. But we should also accept ALL SEXUALITIES, not just the heterosexual people we assume are just like us! The church continues to struggle with the gay issue, but this chapter from Acts and Philip's not being bothered by the Ethiopian's color or sexuality should be a lesson to us all! Amen.
Pastor Skip
