We follow a three year lectionary cycle of scripture readings
following the life of Jesus and the church year. We are in season of Easter year B. The cycle allows us to hear about 70 % of the
bible in 3 years. If we hear all four readings
every Sunday, which we don’t. I’m
telling you this for two reasons; one we hear a lot of the bible in worship,
but not all of it. There are good parts
that we never hear. So you have to fill
in the gaps yourself. At home. With a bible.
Two, I don’t choose the readings
we hear or I preach on. They’re chosen
and sometimes they’re crap. Sometimes
the lectionary is like going on a date with someone you sort of know like a
friend set you up? Sometimes that date
is amazing, and you talk for hours and have a ton in common and you can se yourself
being in love with this person. And
sometimes its like that date, a dud, the one where you have nothing in common
at all. Nothing to talk about. No attraction. Just a desire for it to end so
you can go home and watch a movie on the couch.
This is the lectionary. Sometimes
it’s a treasure field. And sometimes its
like dumpster diving for a half-eaten piece of fruit. All of this is to say that about 60% of the
time I feel like I’ve heard treasure and have treasure to share. And 20% I’m still looking for the half eaten
banana. 20% is reserved for treasure that I just miss because I’m too
tired. Its not you, Jesus, its me. Sorry.
Today is a treasure trove. I
could preach three sermons. So here’s
one. Philip is a Christian and a deacon
in Jerusalem. His job was to serve the
poor in the name of Jesus, so the 12 apostles could devote their time to preaching
and teaching and writing the gospels. Instead,
a persecution scatters the Jerusalem church and prohibits them from
distributing to the poor. So Philip is
waiting. And Stephen, his fellow deacon
is stoned to death for preaching about Jesus.
So Philip doesn’t apply for that position. Who would?
Then he is sent by the Spirit. He
is dropped into a story. An Ethiopian Eunuch,
in the court of the Queen, and the treasurer of Ethiopia, is traveling home
from Jerusalem, in a chariot. Reading a
scroll of the Prophet Isaiah. This is a
very black, very wealthy man. He is Jay
Z. Wearing Armani. In a Limo. He is literate. Though he is likely reading Hebrew and apparently
struggling with it. A personal scroll of
the prophet Isaiah was a treasure itself.
He is a worshiper of God. Jewish religion and theology was known around
the ancient Mediterranean. It was
old. They proclaimed one God, the creator.
Their temple was a wonder to behold. Their
sacrificial worship was a massive religious machine. He is a Eunuch. A mark of slavery. Though not to be correlated exactly, this text opens us to acknowledge sexual and physical discrimination.You’ve heard of transgendered or gender
nonconforming or queer? These are aspects of sexual identity that I didn’t know
about until recently. I thought people were
male or female. I was ignorant. But just because we don’t have knowledge or
understanding of something or someone doesn’t make them wrong or abnormal. We get to learn, to grow, to change. Neither the eunuch nor the 21st century gender nonconforming youth chose a path of vulnerability and discrimination for themselves. This Ethiopian man was someone with a very high status,
who was likely dismissed in Jerusalem because of his low status as a eunuch---they
were outcasts in Roman and Jewish society.
Gender non-conforming, transgendered, queer. Not accepted.
Not welcomed. Branded on his body
as a nobody. Unable to participate in the worship of God. He lives with physical
humiliation. He is status inconsistent
in a world that loved and required status consistency. Black men who make it in this country still
experience status inconsistency. The privilege
of wealth or education and the disadvantage of being black make for an
uncomfortable life. Philip is sent to this
man. And asks if he understands what he’s
reading. Philip doesn’t seem to notice
the external issues---wealthy, foreign government official, branded on his body
as a nobody. He sees an internal struggle, pain. He is reading a passage from
Isaiah about someone who has experienced humiliation. And he wonders, is this about Isaiah or
someone else? I think this man went up to Jerusalem to worship and was rejected there because of his status as a eunuch. I believe he was humiliated in Jerusalem. Isn't it amazing that he opens this text from Isaiah about humiliation? I think his question is this; How is it that my humiliation still haunts me, despite my place in the court of the queen of Ethiopia? How am I both royal and a nobody at the same time? I wonder if he heard his
own story in Isaiah? A royal figure who gets
rejected in Jerusalem because of his nonconformity. Philip share the gospel about Jesus with him—a
gospel about the Son of God, the savior of the Word. Titles reserved for emperors. From the house
of David. A King of the Jews, a prophet,
a preacher, a healer, a teacher, the hope of the people. Crucified.
Physically Humiliated. But raised
from the dead. God turns Jesus’ humility
into the power of salvation and life.
Especially for those who experience humiliation and shame. Jesus death and resurrection means that God
loves the rejected ones; the Eunuchs and the gender noncomforming and the
transgendered and the queer and the black man and the cis-gendered,
heterosexual white upper middle class pew sitter. So this Ethiopian finds water in the desert,
because God is crazy, and says what is to prevent me from being baptized? Well, eventually the church would. But on that day, before all the rules and dogma
and exclusionary sexual morals, nothing could prevent it. Because nothing can
separate us from God’s love for us. Not even
bad religion. And he was washed and
welcomed as a child of God. And the spread
of Jesus’ message leaves Israel in the abused and humiliated and loved body of
an African man. Black and brown bodies
received this gospel before us. They are
our ancestors in faith. Our great grandparents. What wisdom they have to offer us, if we’re
willing to listen. Just as quickly as Philip
entered the story, he left it. Holy
encounters may be brief, confrontational, and transformational. But these personal one to one accompaniment
relationships are where real authentic gospel ministry happens. This accompaniment mission is how the gospel is shared, transmitted, and spread. Not by forcing people to read the bible, but by coming alongside people who are wrestling with their shame and pain and humanity in the context of their faith in God. You may meet someone tomorrow who changes your
life, who guides you, shows you God’s love and grace anew, makes you feel
welcome and accepted and treasured. Or
you may give that to someone else.
Either way, that’s where we see the risen Jesus. Amen.
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