Fifth Sunday of Easter
Acts 8:26-40
Psalm 22:25-31
1 John 4:7-21
John 15:1-8
Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you from the one who is at work in love. Amen
We’re a little over halfway through the season of Easter,
we’ve heard stories of the resurrection
and of Jesus’ post resurrection appearances to the disciples,
of their fear and doubt
and how Jesus dispelled their fear,
gifted them with peace and the Holy Spirit
and sent them out into the world to proclaim the good news.
Last week we heard how Jesus is the good shepherd
a reassuring image of care and presence throughout life,
and now as we move farther away in time from Easter
and the initial encounters with Jesus,
so too do our texts,
we are moving from the initial awe and celebration
to what it means to daily live with and for the resurrected Jesus,
we start to see how Jesus’ resurrection has changed the lives of the disciples,
how it might impact our own lives.
Our history lesson in Acts today
is the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch.
So far in Acts the disciples have witnessed Jesus’ ascension,
and received the gift of the holy spirit at Pentecost
which blew them out from behind closed doors into the world.
Peter has preached several rousing sermons
which have attracted many new believers
as well as the ire of the religious leaders.
Leadership has been shared with the newly ordained deacons
and Stephen has become the first martyr
as persecution of the Way begins
and ramps up especially once Saul gets in on the act
scattering the apostles abroad.
Scattered, Philip finds himself preaching in Samaria
and the good news is received by some of the Samaritans-
the word is starting to spread outward
not just to the Jews
but to their close cousins.
And then Philip receives instructions from an angel of the Lord
to go travel on the wilderness road between Jerusalem and Gaza.
Out on the wilderness road
he encounters a chariot,
which the spirit tells him to approach-
a bold move since one would imagine
that a chariot of this nature
would be protected against robbers-
remember it was a wilderness road
that the man in the story of the good samaritan was traveling
when he was beset by robbers, beaten and left for dead.
but Philip at the urging of the spirit joins the chariot
and inside he finds someone
that is different from himself in every way possible,
an Ethiopian,
a court official of a queen,
who because of their position is a eunuch,
and yet who is seeking something from Philip’s God,
as they are returning from worshiping in Jerusalem
and reading from the prophet Isaiah as they go.
And all this otherness doesn’t seem to phase Philip,
instead he focuses on what they have in common,
the scripture.
“Do you understand what you are reading?” he asks
and this simple question of curiosity
opens the way for further conversation.
“How can I [understand], unless someone guides me?” The Ethiopian responds,
and invites Philip to join him in the chariot,
and following the official’s lead,
the conversation starts with the scriptures
and moves to the good news about Jesus.
Presumably as part of this good news
Philip mentions baptism
because as they go along
they come upon some water
and his companion says to Philip
“Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?”
and they stop the chariot,
get out and go down into the water
where Philip baptizes the eunuch,
and as they come up out of the water,
we are told the spirit snatches Philip away
so that the newly baptized is left alone
but we are told goes on his way rejoicing.
His encounter with the spirit through Philip has been brief but life changing
as are most of the post-easter encounters with God-
And I have to think that this experience was transformative for Philip as well.
His attention to the spirit in this moment is truly remarkable,
there were plenty of logical reasons
for him to ignore the spirit’s directions,
or at least protest them,
traveling the wilderness road,
the extreme otherness of the person in the chariot,
reasons for Philip to be afraid or hesitant,
and yet Philip listens and follows.
How is this possible?
I think it is possible
because Philip knew
he was joined to something, someone greater than himself,
he was acting as the branch attached to the vine
which was his source of life,
he was abiding in the love of God,
love, which 1 John tells us, casts out fear.
In our other readings for today
we have these teachings that keep using the word “abide”
when describing the relationship not just between Jesus and his father
but also our relationship with Jesus,
there is an intertwining of our lives
such that we draw life from Jesus
like a branch draws life from the vine.
This strength of connection means
that when we act we do not act on our own
and there is power in that.
I know I’ve done things for Jesus
that I wouldn’t have done for myself,
times where with the nudging of the spirit
I have overcome my personal reluctance
to do whatever it is the spirit is nudging me toward
and the result has been more profound than I could have imagined,
leaving me to be thankful that I listened to the spirit
and most of the time,
most of the instances I can think of
are not particularly remarkable
but rather similar to Philip approaching the eunuch’s chariot
and starting a conversation with a simple question,
and overcoming any fear or trepidation that I might have felt on my own
was more than worth the results of the conversations I have had.
As we move farther away from the resurrection appearances of Easter
we are still called to share the good news of Jesus Christ
with those we encounter,
especially those that differ from us,
whether in ways large or small,
and we are able to do this
because we do not do this alone,
joined to Christ
we draw strength from him,
the strength of love that will bear fruit.
And yes this is something that we have to work at,
the paying attention to the spirit,
the drawing strength from love,
the choosing to act,
and the more we practice the better we will get.
We will have a chance to practice this in the coming months
as we move into the next phase of the vitality initiative.
You will hear in just a little bit
what we have done around the question of “who are we?”
now we are moving to ask: “who is our neighbor?”
and this will involve talking to our neighbors,
joining them on their way,
listening to the spirit’s nudges,
overcoming our own reluctance
by drawing on the strength of the one in whom we abide,
the strength of love.
“We love because [God] first loved us.” Amen