Loving God, you continue to act in surprising ways in order to show your people that your salvation knows no bounds.  Grant us the eyes to see and the ears to hear the prompting of your Spirit, and open our hearts to you and to all, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

    Today’s reading about Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch is both strange and amazing, all at the same time.  It begins with an angel telling Philip to head out to a road that is basically in the middle of nowhere.  He finds there a man from Ethiopia, riding along in his chariot, and reading aloud from the prophet Isaiah.  Imagine being the man in the chariot and suddenly seeing a random stranger running alongside and asking if you understand what you’re reading.  As it turns out, he doesn’t understand, and he invites Philip to get in and sit beside him.  They have a long conversation about Isaiah and about Jesus and about the good news, and miraculously, they come to some water in the middle of the wilderness.  An impromptu baptism follows, and then Philip is somehow snatched away by the Spirit of the Lord.  And the Ethiopian goes on his way rejoicing.

    Now, at least some of you probably stopped somewhere near the beginning of the story and asked, What exactly is a eunuch?  After all, we don’t talk about eunuchs every day!  And so, for those who are wondering, a eunuch is either a man who has been castrated or a man who is incapable of reproduction due to a birth defect.  In Middle Eastern countries, it was usually eunuchs who took care of the women in the royal harem.

    However, in the case of the Ethiopian eunuch we hear about today, he serves the queen of the Ethiopians by looking after her treasury.  He is an educated man who has the means to afford a chariot, an Isaiah scroll, and a trip to Jerusalem and back.  He was most likely a convert to Judaism, and as such he was making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

    This in itself is pretty amazing, as the Jewish law excluded eunuchs from “the assembly of the Lord” (Deut. 23:1).  However, it is easy to see why this man might have been drawn to the prophet Isaiah, for in Isaiah we find a different attitude toward both eunuchs and foreigners.  Listen to what Isaiah says:

Do not let the foreigner joined to the Lord say, “The Lord will surely separate me from his people”; and do not let the eunuch say, “I am just a dry tree.”  For thus says the Lord: To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, 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.  And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servant, all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it, and hold fast my covenant– these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer;... for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples (Isa. 56:3-7).

    By the time that Isaiah is around, there is a far more inclusive attitude, at least among some people.  So the Ethiopian eunuch is a man who was seeking the living God, and who was open to gaining a better understanding of the Law and the prophets.  As for Philip, the passage that the man was reading from Isaiah presented a perfect opening to talk about Jesus, as the early Christians found in Isaiah’s suffering servant a description of Jesus’ suffering and death.

    As they talk about this, and as Philip shares the good news about Jesus, it seems that the Spirit touches the heart and mind of this Ethiopian eunuch, and he comes to believe in Jesus.  And as they come to some water, the man asks a very interesting question.  “What is to prevent me from being baptized?”   Now let’s see - how many barriers can we think of?...

    The man is a foreigner and is of a different race.  His gender and sexuality are somewhat uncertain.  He hasn’t attended the requisite number of baptismal classes or worship services.  He doesn’t have a proper sponsor.  He doesn’t have a church community that he will be part of when he returns home.  And, if you pay attention to the footnotes in your Bible, you will see that some well-meaning scribes in the early centuries of the church’s existence felt that something else was missing: There is no proper confession of faith!  And so one was added in some of the later manuscripts.

    However, in this particular instance, God’s grace knows no bounds.  This man is to be included in the community of those who believe in Jesus, and will become the first person to share the good news about Jesus in Africa.  In the same way, Philip will now travel up the coast of the Mediterranean, in Gentile territory, sharing the good news about Jesus as he goes.

    Over and over again in the book of Acts, God shows the disciples how Jesus came for everybody – even Gentiles, even Africans, even eunuchs, and even Roman centurions.  While the first instinct of the disciples would have been to exclude those who were different from themselves, God’s actions are always radically inclusive.

    And so, in baptism, God welcomes into the community both men and women, slave and free, Jew and Gentile, babies and adults, eunuchs and fathers, single and married, all races and languages and peoples.  Jesus came for all of them, and for all of us, and gives to us forgiveness, life and salvation.  Thanks be to God!  Amen.

Easter 4 (NL 3)                                Acts 8:26-39
May 7, 2017
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

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