Readings for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, April 29, 2018
"Not Waiting," Pastor Kinsey
“Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asks the Ethiopian eunuch in his royal chariot.
How we interpret scripture, or any truth, can make all the difference – and Philip, as he sits beside the African – in his, Lexus Coupe of a chariot – begins to open his eyes to how God is moving, in new ways, through the risen Christ.
On this Fifth Sunday of Easter, a week after Good Shepherd Sunday, a deacon, Philip, is out doing the preaching and bible study, even though that was supposed to be the Apostles job. Philip was interpreting an Isaiah passage about, ‘one like a sheep who was led to the slaughter; like a lamb silent before its shearer, who does not open his mouth.’ Philip is on the main road down to Gaza, the trade route to Egypt and Africa – while the appointed Apostles sit cloistered up in Jerusalem.
The 12 apostles, are supposed to be the interpreters, leaders for the Word, and the Prayers. That’s all they can handle, they decided – and they had an official meeting not long ago to appoint 7 other new leaders to ‘serve at table’ for their fellowship meals. And along with Philip, Stephen, most notably, is one of those chosen to be a deacon of table fellowship. Yes, that Stephen, who then gave a beautiful, and movingly detailed sermon – again, not called to preach the Word! – but a sermon about how Jesus has fulfilled the law and the prophets, and was crucified for it, and how all of them were responsible for that. But, because God raised him up on the 3rd day, they all had a new chance – to repent, to be liberated, to start anew, and be a follower!
And yet, for his eloquence, his truth telling, and his witness to the faith – Stephen was stoned to death by his fellow Jerusalemites! And one Saul, of Tarsus, was there, and ‘approved of their killing him,’ it says. Yes, that Saul, who later was called by the Spirit of Jesus, and, as St. Paul, became the greatest evangelist, and wrote all those letters that are in the New Testament!
So, we have the 12 apostles, called to bring the word, the message of, the death and resurrection of Christ, to the world, stationed and sitting in Jerusalem. We have 7 deacons, anointed to serve at ‘the table fellowship meal,’ which was the early church form of Holy Communion. So, why aren’t they doing what they’re called to? Stephen the deacon is preaching, as powerfully as Peter and the 12, or more so. And Philip, one of the other 7 deacons, has already been to Samaria sharing the Word, and now has been directed by ‘an angel of the Lord,’ to where the Ethiopian eunuch was traveling back home, to be his interpreter of the Word!
The Holy Spirit, I think we could say, is not waiting around for the institutional church to go to work. God is just making things happen through the believers who are ready!
Before 1988, none of us heard this story in church. That’s one thing the church got right! It included this story, of excluded people, into the 3 year lectionary, for the first time. Now, 20, and 30, and 40 year olds, take this story for granted, because they’ve grown up with it, in church.
The story is about a black man, from Africa, who comes to Jerusalem to worship – he is either a diaspora Jew, living outside Israel, or a proselyte, converted to Judaism. For his day job, he’s the Queen’s Treasurer, no less, a very high official! The biblical region of Ethiopia, is not the same as the present day country, but, from the perspective of the Mediterranean people of the Roman Empire, was thought to be on the far edge of the known world, beyond Egypt somewhere. And, he is a eunuch. He may have been born that way, we don’t know. But it was also a common practice for elites serving the King or Queen, to make them impotent, and thus more trusted, around the royal harem - perhaps, his previous job.
Unfortunately, the Levitical rule for eunuchs was to be cut off from full participation in Temple worship. But that did not keep him away… keep him from traveling such a great distance. And later in the book of Isaiah, from which the Ethiopian eunuch was reading in his chariot, there was also Isaiah’s vision of an honored and fruitful place, for faithful eunuchs, in the Lord’s house.
And it is this hope, that the deacon, Philip, fulfills, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, as he joins the Ethiopian, on his trip back home.
“Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asks the Ethiopian eunuch in his royal chariot.
"How can I, unless someone guides me?" he replied.
He was reading from Isaiah 53:
"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?"
Isaiah may have been talking about either the nation of Israel, or its leaders, or possibly himself, the prophet. But those Jews who believed Jesus was the Messiah, newly interpreted this passage as referring to the risen Jesus. He too, especially in Luke’s gospel, was silent before his accusers at his trial, and was humiliated. Justice was denied him by his generation, his contemporaries, and they took his life away from the earth. But God judged his as innocent!
We don’t know most of what Philip told the Ethiopian Treasurer that day, but we know his interpretation, understood that Jesus was the person the prophet Isaiah was referring to. And, we also know he intentionally left out the verse about the sacrificed person being a substitute for the people of the nation. Luke is not interested in going there – to the doctrine of atonement. Luke’s interpretation is that, we’re all complicit in Jesus’ death, but because God raised him up, we have been given a gift, the free gift of love and forgiveness – despite our defensive and warring nature, despite our whimsical desires to pick up a stone, like St Paul did, and participate in the demonizing or destruction, of innocent victims.
God has given us a new day of creation, the 8th day, the day of resurrection, and life beyond death. God has given us grace!
God does not wait for the church, and our imperfections, to act. If it is not acting according to the Holy Spirit – not spreading the good news, not preaching the Word outside its walls – God will send the next in line, to go. God will find those who have not been invited before – like Philip, and the Ethiopian eunuch. God includes those on the farthest margins of our social consciousness.
So, who is welcome, according to God’s Word? Clearly Africans, as well as Hebrews! And LGBTQi are welcome; Gentiles are welcome; male and female. All are welcome! The stumbling-block has been removed!
But if they are not here, in our gathering, it may include some work on our part – to go out there – and develop a relationship with those not previously on our radar, those from beyond the margins of our little church, or work-world.
But, if God can go there, why can’t we?
God’s grace is awesome! It can do wonderful works before our very eyes, and put us on important roads. For those, with this kind of faith – whether you’re a pastor, deacon, or, newly baptized – you’re ready to be an interpreter of the Word. God is calling you!
"Not Waiting," Pastor Kinsey
“Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asks the Ethiopian eunuch in his royal chariot.
How we interpret scripture, or any truth, can make all the difference – and Philip, as he sits beside the African – in his, Lexus Coupe of a chariot – begins to open his eyes to how God is moving, in new ways, through the risen Christ.
On this Fifth Sunday of Easter, a week after Good Shepherd Sunday, a deacon, Philip, is out doing the preaching and bible study, even though that was supposed to be the Apostles job. Philip was interpreting an Isaiah passage about, ‘one like a sheep who was led to the slaughter; like a lamb silent before its shearer, who does not open his mouth.’ Philip is on the main road down to Gaza, the trade route to Egypt and Africa – while the appointed Apostles sit cloistered up in Jerusalem.
The 12 apostles, are supposed to be the interpreters, leaders for the Word, and the Prayers. That’s all they can handle, they decided – and they had an official meeting not long ago to appoint 7 other new leaders to ‘serve at table’ for their fellowship meals. And along with Philip, Stephen, most notably, is one of those chosen to be a deacon of table fellowship. Yes, that Stephen, who then gave a beautiful, and movingly detailed sermon – again, not called to preach the Word! – but a sermon about how Jesus has fulfilled the law and the prophets, and was crucified for it, and how all of them were responsible for that. But, because God raised him up on the 3rd day, they all had a new chance – to repent, to be liberated, to start anew, and be a follower!
And yet, for his eloquence, his truth telling, and his witness to the faith – Stephen was stoned to death by his fellow Jerusalemites! And one Saul, of Tarsus, was there, and ‘approved of their killing him,’ it says. Yes, that Saul, who later was called by the Spirit of Jesus, and, as St. Paul, became the greatest evangelist, and wrote all those letters that are in the New Testament!
So, we have the 12 apostles, called to bring the word, the message of, the death and resurrection of Christ, to the world, stationed and sitting in Jerusalem. We have 7 deacons, anointed to serve at ‘the table fellowship meal,’ which was the early church form of Holy Communion. So, why aren’t they doing what they’re called to? Stephen the deacon is preaching, as powerfully as Peter and the 12, or more so. And Philip, one of the other 7 deacons, has already been to Samaria sharing the Word, and now has been directed by ‘an angel of the Lord,’ to where the Ethiopian eunuch was traveling back home, to be his interpreter of the Word!
The Holy Spirit, I think we could say, is not waiting around for the institutional church to go to work. God is just making things happen through the believers who are ready!
Before 1988, none of us heard this story in church. That’s one thing the church got right! It included this story, of excluded people, into the 3 year lectionary, for the first time. Now, 20, and 30, and 40 year olds, take this story for granted, because they’ve grown up with it, in church.
The story is about a black man, from Africa, who comes to Jerusalem to worship – he is either a diaspora Jew, living outside Israel, or a proselyte, converted to Judaism. For his day job, he’s the Queen’s Treasurer, no less, a very high official! The biblical region of Ethiopia, is not the same as the present day country, but, from the perspective of the Mediterranean people of the Roman Empire, was thought to be on the far edge of the known world, beyond Egypt somewhere. And, he is a eunuch. He may have been born that way, we don’t know. But it was also a common practice for elites serving the King or Queen, to make them impotent, and thus more trusted, around the royal harem - perhaps, his previous job.
Unfortunately, the Levitical rule for eunuchs was to be cut off from full participation in Temple worship. But that did not keep him away… keep him from traveling such a great distance. And later in the book of Isaiah, from which the Ethiopian eunuch was reading in his chariot, there was also Isaiah’s vision of an honored and fruitful place, for faithful eunuchs, in the Lord’s house.
And it is this hope, that the deacon, Philip, fulfills, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, as he joins the Ethiopian, on his trip back home.
“Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asks the Ethiopian eunuch in his royal chariot.
"How can I, unless someone guides me?" he replied.
He was reading from Isaiah 53:
"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?"
Isaiah may have been talking about either the nation of Israel, or its leaders, or possibly himself, the prophet. But those Jews who believed Jesus was the Messiah, newly interpreted this passage as referring to the risen Jesus. He too, especially in Luke’s gospel, was silent before his accusers at his trial, and was humiliated. Justice was denied him by his generation, his contemporaries, and they took his life away from the earth. But God judged his as innocent!
We don’t know most of what Philip told the Ethiopian Treasurer that day, but we know his interpretation, understood that Jesus was the person the prophet Isaiah was referring to. And, we also know he intentionally left out the verse about the sacrificed person being a substitute for the people of the nation. Luke is not interested in going there – to the doctrine of atonement. Luke’s interpretation is that, we’re all complicit in Jesus’ death, but because God raised him up, we have been given a gift, the free gift of love and forgiveness – despite our defensive and warring nature, despite our whimsical desires to pick up a stone, like St Paul did, and participate in the demonizing or destruction, of innocent victims.
God has given us a new day of creation, the 8th day, the day of resurrection, and life beyond death. God has given us grace!
God does not wait for the church, and our imperfections, to act. If it is not acting according to the Holy Spirit – not spreading the good news, not preaching the Word outside its walls – God will send the next in line, to go. God will find those who have not been invited before – like Philip, and the Ethiopian eunuch. God includes those on the farthest margins of our social consciousness.
So, who is welcome, according to God’s Word? Clearly Africans, as well as Hebrews! And LGBTQi are welcome; Gentiles are welcome; male and female. All are welcome! The stumbling-block has been removed!
But if they are not here, in our gathering, it may include some work on our part – to go out there – and develop a relationship with those not previously on our radar, those from beyond the margins of our little church, or work-world.
But, if God can go there, why can’t we?
God’s grace is awesome! It can do wonderful works before our very eyes, and put us on important roads. For those, with this kind of faith – whether you’re a pastor, deacon, or, newly baptized – you’re ready to be an interpreter of the Word. God is calling you!
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