ACTS 8:26-40
PSALM 66:1-8
1 JOHN 3:14-24
JOHN 14:15-21
Sermon – May 14, 2006
Our theme for today, as we continue our celebration of Easter Season, is ESL.
No, not “English as a Second Language”, but Evangelism, Stewardship, and Love.
At the beginning of The Acts of the Apostles, Jesus ascended into
heaven and those who believed in him as Savior and Lord gathered together in
Jerusalem to select as an Apostle, a worthy successor to Judas the
betrayer. At that time, there were 120 believers in Jesus in the
entire world gathered as a community.
Then, as promised by Jesus, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and an
extraordinary, peaceful revolution began.
By the end of the book of Acts, the Gospel of Jesus Christ had burst out
of its nursery in Palestinian Judaism and spread as far as the capital of the
Empire – Rome itself.
As a result, people hungry for meaning and purpose in their lives, hungry
for forgiveness, hungry for hope, hungry for community, found all these and
more and experienced radical transformations by the power of God. People of all ages, classes, languages, and
many ethnic groups, religions and varied personal histories and circumstances
were brought together to worship the one true God, to live as communities of
faith which broke down the walls that had previously divided them, and created
a counter-culture totally different from the violence, oppression and despotism
which characterized Imperial Rome.
How did this happen? Guided and
strengthened by the Holy Spirit, believers in Jesus Christ reached out to
others with the Good News of the transforming love of Jesus, and invited them
to become part of this new movement.
One such dramatic example is today’s story from Acts of the
conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch.
Let me offer a little background to this memorable vignette. The Philip in this story is not Philip the
apostle but Philip the evangelist (bringer of the Good News) who had only just
been ordained two chapters earlier in the book. He is traditionally known as one of the first deacons. The Christian community grew and needed more
leaders, additional kinds of leaders and leaders from new constituencies. The original twelve apostles, plus Matthias,
were all Palestinian Jews; the original deacons were all “Hellenists” – Jews,
but Jews who all had Greek names and presumably spoke primarily or perhaps
exclusively Greek. The message of Jesus
Christ had, on the first Pentecost, gone beyond Aramaic and Hebrew and now was
ready to reach out beyond Palestine through Greek, which like English today,
was the first language of many people and the second language of many more.
Philip first went and preached and healed among the Samaritans, a small
minority group despised by the traditional Jewish leaders, who considered them
to be ethnically and theologically only partly Jewish which, to them, “didn’t
count” at all.
Philip’s next audience had far more historical significance: a single
person who “had come to Jerusalem to worship” and was therefore either a Jew
or, more likely, a proselyte: one who worshipped the One True God but had not
fully converted. On his way home, he
was reading aloud from the Book of Isaiah – in Greek translation – so Philip
understood what the man was reading, could talk Greek fluently with him, and
was inspired to explain the “suffering servant” passage to him as foreshadowing
Jesus, who suffered to take away the sins of the world. This is the same Scripture we read on Palm
Sunday and Good Friday.
The man was from Ethiopia. And he
was not just any Ethiopian; he was, you could say, the Secretary of the
Treasury.
So it was that Christianity came to Africa years before it came to
Europe (something European commentators don’t mention much). The Gospel of Jesus Christ had leaped not
just out of Galilee and Judea, but to a whole new continent!
Philip had also broken through another barrier: this man is described as
a eunuch, a castrated male, who according to Deuteronomy 23:1 was barred from
entering “the assembly of the Lord.” No
Matter how devout he was – devout enough to undertake the long pilgrimage to
Jerusalem, an onerous trip even by chariot, devout enough to read from
Scripture on the way home as well as en route, devout and humble enough
to welcome a biblical interpreter into his First-Century-style government
“stretch limo” – he still, within traditional Judaism, would be forever an
outcast.
In response to the man’s request, Philip baptized him in the Name of Jesus Christ, in whose community there are no second-class citizens, never mind
outcasts due to birth or disability.
This truly is Good News. Everyone can be a first-class member of
God’s family. And this comes with added
benefits.
The Ethiopian eunuch, after all, had no children in the flesh. But people have read and been inspired by
his story for 1900 years so he has
millions of “children in the faith” by being part of God’s family.
[So Justin, as you, like he, prepare to be baptized, remember this
is a story of one of your spiritual ancestors. And mine. And of all of
us.]
Evangelism: Bringing the Good News of Jesus to those who
are hungry for it. Stewardship involves giving systematically both to make Evangelism
possible and to make the love of
Jesus real and tangible for those who are hungry spiritually and in other ways.
The First Letter of John is direct and to the point on this issue: “How
does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or
sister in need and yet refuses help?”
Oh, yeah: we have to walk the walk as well as talk the talk. So one of the things we do here at St.
Barnabas, now for the 15th Mother’s Day in a row, is gather in real,
tangible gifts that cost us money for some of those whose Mother’s Day is
filled with memories of real-life nightmares: the survivors of domestic
violence in Middlesex and Somerset counties.
We gather in gifts to the residents of the shelters for battered women
and their children, and those served by the outreach offices of those agencies,
who have survived horrific and often
life-threatening situations and have some basic needs beyond safety both day to
day and to help get started in new homes.
And the most basic need is love and respect. And not just with words.
That’s why this altar platform is crowded with gifts. That’s why we help women resettle into new
homes with furniture and household items.
That’s why the struggle against domestic violence is one of our parish’s
Four Mission Priorities.
And that is why this mission priority, like the others, is on our “to do”
list year-round, because being good
stewards who are dedicated to this mission does not stop after Mother’s day any
more than a person’s spiritual growth should stop after his or her baptismal
day. “Little children,” writes the
author of the First Letter of John, “Let us love, not in words or speech, but
in truth and action.” Amen to that.
[So give me an “E”] E:
Evangelism. [Give me an “S”] S: Stewardship. [Give me an “L”] L: Love.
Love is why we do the other two things, and all things. The two greatest Commandments, after all, are
to love God totally and to love our neighbors as ourselves; the rest is
details. And, as the First Letter of
John also reminds us, “We love because God first loved us.”
And the love God has for us is not the kind that shows up, guilt-riddled,
once a year, or the kind that sends a card but doesn’t come in person, or the
kind that lasts only as long as cut flowers, but the kind which is there for
us and with us, everyday, all year, 24/7, for our whole lives – and
beyond. The kind of tough love which lovingly
tells us the truth about ourselves when we don’t want to hear it but really
need to. The kind of enduring love
which loves us when we need it most and deserve it least. The kind of muscular love which will go to
any lengths – or depths – to pick us up.
The kind of unconditional love which only our divine Parent can offer us
all the time.
All we have to do is respond, and offer a little smidgen back to God, and
to our fellow creatures of God. And when
we do that, the love multiplies: it’s as easy as E, S, L.
(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard
St. Barnabas Episcopal
Church
Monmouth Junction, NJ