Trinity Lutheran Church

cts 8:26-38

Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch

Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Get up and go towards 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, 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.

Let us Pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts are acceptable to you. Amen.

Sometimes when I gather with friends or family, one of them will say, “I can’t believe you are a Pastor.” Sometimes it is a compliment and other times, well I think they are truly shocked. Generally it happens when I make a comment that no one would expect or tell a joke that would be banned on television by the FCC. There is for whatever reason there is a different standard for Pastors and all church workers than for all of my other friends who are not in the ministry. I personally find it interesting to see what people think a Pastor does and what they should be. I asked around to see what people were thinking about Pastors and what we should be like. Here are some of their responses. Several said, “When I think of a Pastor I think church.” Another thought Pastors should be nice to everyone. Someone said they should be accepting and willing to share their knowledge.  Another said that Pastors only work one day a week, so they should like working on Sundays. A family member of mine said, “someone who does not like to hear themselves talk.”

In all seriousness though a friend of mine said, “a leader and a faithful follower of God.” Yeah, they grew up in the Lutheran church. My first year in seminary we read a book called, “Reclaiming the L Word”, by Kelly Fryer, the book focused on what it means to be Lutheran in our world today. Kelly is a former ELCA Pastor and Seminary Professor. It was one of those books that really hit home to me in my first year about not only my calling, but about how all of us as Christians are called to live. In her book, “Reclaiming the L Word”, she says, “A pastor’s job is to lead God’s people into the freedom Christ died for – to spark our imaginations – to call us into the future God has in store for us – to challenge us to follow where the Spirit leads – to equip us to do what God calls us to do. A pastor’s job is to help us become who we are: members of a priesthood of all believers. And OUR job, as the baptized people of God, is to get busy – at church, at home, at work, in the community, and wherever God sends us  — being God’s people and doing what God leads us to do.”.

This idea is pretty radical, well as radical as our story for today. The book of Acts, where our story of the family comes from today, is about people realizing the church is now them. They are the bodies of Christ called to go out into the world. The early Christians were expected to take seriously their responsibility for the life of the church. Jesus was no longer with them, so it was up to the people to carry out God’s mission in the world.

As we learned in our story of the family today, Philip is moving the church into a new territory. During the time of Acts there had never been a Christian in Africa. This was a first and this meant Christianity and the church would be forever changed. There were five things the early Christians did that helped to start the carry the early church to those who needed to hear the Good News the most. They prayed, they allowed people to be who they were created to be; they took action not sitting by waiting for something to happen, they expected to be surprise, and they were hopeful. These five things combined to create one overarching message- God is at work in every single one of us. Each one of us has something different to offer.

The book of Acts is filled with stories of people who are called to be at work in the world. Story after story in the book of Acts are focused on people who have been called by God to do something in the world. In a few weeks we will celebrate Pentecost, the day when the Holy Spirit came down upon the world and lit those early Christians on fire. In the book of Acts the people were invited into a world of holy chaos. They were called to live differently in the world and called to do ministry in a different way. They were freed to do ministry that would excite some and scare others.  God was and is at work in everyone. Because of God’s presence in our lives, we too are freed to do ministry in our world.

We are freed to bring the radical love of God to all the ends of the earth. We are freed to use our gifts to bring the Good News to all people we come in contact with on a daily basis. We are freed to do ministry that will ignite a passion deep within our souls and at other times will scare the life out of us. We are also freed to come to realize that ministry is not a just for a Pastor, but for all of us, for the priesthood of all believers, it is for you and for me. Ministry is for the person to your left and to your right. Ministry is for the person we would never expect, God’s love and message was for the Eunuch that day.

In our story of focus for today we hear a story of one of the less likely to ever be one God’s disciples- an Ethiopian Eunuch. This man according to the book of Deuteronomy and Jewish tradition was seen as half a man, unable to enter the assembly of the Lord. He was someone who was on the outside of Judaism and as we know from our story he wanted to understand God and what the prophet Isaiah had to say and what God had to say. And here come Philip inviting this man into the fellowship of the Lamb who was slain. As Philip and the Ethiopian engaged in conversation about the Scriptures and what it says, they came upon a body of water, and the Ethiopian wanted to know why could he not be baptized right here, right now. So Philip baptizes him and by doing so opened the Gospel to a whole new world. Philip was freed to do ministry in a new way, a way that would excite and also scare others.

Philip did not wait for the right person to come and baptize this Ethiopian Eunuch. Instead, he went ahead and baptized him and brought him into the priesthood of all believers. He welcomed him into the fellowship that frees him to bring the Gospel and to all people. He was freed to be who God had created him to be without reservation. It is the same promise and freedom we have been given in our baptisms. By God’s grace we are freed to be radical. We are free to create holy chaos in our world even when we are deadly afraid of the outcome.

We are freed to be like those early Christians: to live as we are created, to praying, to take action, be hopeful, and to expect the unexpected. It is in our baptisms we are freed to do ministry in all the world, not sitting back waiting for someone else to move, but instead to make the first movement. We are called to bring the Good News to all people, to serve others, to walk alongside them in their need, to be present with others in their times of trail, to help when we are able, and to welcome people into our community. God’s grace allows us to be who God has created us to be without apologizing for it. It allows for us to be radical and for all of us to work together to bring the life and ministry of Jesus into the world. That is what the book of Acts is about- everyone bringing God’s love into this world by their gifts. It is the same calling we have today- to bring God’s love into this world, by using our gifts. It is not just the calling of Pastors or other church leaders, but all of us. We are all called to go where God is calling us, knowing that God is leading us and God’s love is supporting us. Amen.