Sermon
Welcome to our third in a series of sermons on proclamation and confession. These sermons aim to help us consider for ourselves, how and when and to whom we might proclaim and confess our experiences and beliefs about our faith in Christ, our experiences of the church, and our understandings of scripture, to others.
The Book of Acts has been our home for these weeks as we follow the stories of the apostles helping to spread the teachings of Jesus. In the Book of Acts, Luke takes great care to describe how the apostles spread the teachings of Christ to the ends of the earth. Two weeks ago, Peter and John healed a lame man through the power of Jesus' name and interpreted the events of Jesus resurrection to a crowd that has gathered. Last week Peter and John were under house arrest and Peter answered to high temple authorities about the teachings of Jesus. As the audience for the apostles' words widens, going from helping an individual, then an audience of the crowds and then authorities, we also see in today's text a deepening of the impact of the message, this time from Philip.
This passage from Acts includes not just the explaining of the events of Easter, but is also an example of the freedom and hope for fullness that comes from studying and sharing our experiences of scripture. Even though the eunuch is different ethnically, socially, sexually, and racially, it makes no difference to Philip. The Holy Spirit has sent him to this man reading Isaiah alone at the side of the road. He wants to know more and invites Philip into his chariot to join him in the conversation. A religious man having just come from a journey to Jerusalem to the temple to worship, he is curious and welcoming to Philip.
The scripture the eunuch is reading comes from Isaiah 53 and 56. Isaiah 53, v 7-8 reads,
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
By a perversion of justice he was taken away.
Who could have imagined his future?
For he was cut off from the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people.
We are not told what Philip and the man discussed, but we are told that Philip began to speak “starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus.”
That's important. Philip started right where the eunuch was. The text that the eunuch was reading would have given Philip a clue about what was on the eunuch's mind as he read. The eunuch's question implies that he is hoping to be the “someone else” perhaps because of his sexual context. Isaiah in general was often quoted by Jesus as a way of teaching that Jesus was the fulfillment of such scripture. In ancient times there were Deuteronomic and Levitical laws that stereotyped eunuchs as immoral. Some Jewish leaders believed that eunuchs were not within the covenant because of the inability of the eunuch to be fruitful and multiply, a major Abrahamic tenant. If Philip began with the text that the eunuch was reading and guessed why the eunuch was troubled, he might have reminded him that not much farther in Isaiah, in chapter 56:3b-5 it says,
and do not let the eunuch say,
“I am just a dry tree.”
4 For thus says the Lord:
To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths,
who choose the things that please me
and hold fast my covenant,
5 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.
In Christ, there is no such thing as being cut off from the Lord. Jesus Christ came to fulfill scripture just like this and grant a full life to those who love the lord. There is freedom from alienation and sure hope for remaining within God's covenant with Christ. Regardless of their social status as a trusted court official, rich enough to ride in a chariot, educated enough to read Greek, and devout enough to study Isaiah, their racial ethnic status as Ethiopian, or their sexual status as a eunuch.
This text in Acts shows us an example of the power of allowing ourselves to be spirit led in where we go and what we say and in what circumstances. Interpreting this text as Philip leading the eunuch to find freedom and inclusion in the words of scripture and the teachings of Christ is only one way to interpret this. In my own way I look for the leading of the spirit as I try to present the good news each week. I have resources for study and maybe some strategies. But my message always comes from my own life, my thoughts and my experiences. That is something each of us has. Our lives, our experiences, our loves, our troubles, our resilience, our joy, all come together in each of us in unique combinations. God uses all of us, not just preachers, to engage in relationships and conversations that further God's mission in the world. Think of us as different ingredients in God's great recipe. What flavor do you bring to the mix?
Take just a minute to think about where you find yourself in this scripture.
Maybe you're the eunuch, faithful in your faith yet worrying about whether you belong, taking a pause to read scripture in hopes of some encouragement. You are the one asking the questions. You have strengths and you are curious and willing to engage. Then a stranger approaches and you find yourself having just the discussion you were hoping for. You feel strong enough afterwards as you joyfully make a new commitment and are never the same.
Maybe you're Philip and find yourself in a new place, on a new road, only to discover that your purpose there is to pay attention to these new surroundings. Maybe you meet someone in need and feel led to see if you have a role to play there. You follow your heart, listen well, and maybe you find yourself confessing the truth of your own faith. You share a bit about your own understanding of how God works in us and for us, and you hope that the spirit will give them what they need from your words. You stay long enough to share in their new commitment and excitement.
I am most interested today in how we can be Philip. Twice in the text Philip responds to the holy spirit, three if you count him getting whisked away to his further travels through the region. First an angel of the Lord appears, and the second time the Spirit spoke. Actually hearing the angel or the Spirit is where I feel challenged. The angel that comes to me is really really soft and I think she mumbles. If I follow her nudging though and follow where she leads then after the fact, I hear her voice loud and clear. It's nice to get that confirmation. I've found that the best way not to miss her voice is to remember to stay in touch. By that I mean that if I have a regular prayer practice, a regular devotional practice, a regular uncloud-my-brain art-play practice, a regular get-yourself-to-the-ocean practice, I find that I am more able to recognize how the Spirit speaks to me and gets my attention. The Spirit gets our attention in different ways for each of us. It's important to spend the time to get to know the language that the Spirit uses to speak to us. I feel like asking that age old question, if the Holy Spirit speaks to me but I don't hear, did the Holy Spirit still speak? Somehow Philip understood what he was to do; that couldn't have happened if he didn't know how to listen in the first place. Only then could God's work begin.
We are called to pay attention to God's work in our lives, experience the joy, experience the questions and resolutions, experience the clarity after clouds, and then tell about it. We are called to share in whatever way suits us best all that God does in our lives. It is by sharing our stories and our experiences that others can hear God's word to them.
To God be the glory,
Amen.