May 6, 2012 - Fifth Sunday of Easter

1 John 4:7-12 7Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. Acts 8:26-40 26Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.) 27So 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 28and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.” 30 So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. 32Now 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. 33 In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.” 34The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. 36As 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?” 38He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. 39When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. 40But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea. Divine Coincidences “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?” Seems like a simple question, a rhetorical question with an obvious answer. Philip has just interpreted scripture to an Ethiopian and shared with him the story of Jesus Christ. And the Ethiopian has responded to this good news of God’s love and grace. He wants to be a part of the new growing community of disciples. “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?” Well, frankly, just about everything. For one, he’s a foreigner. For another, he’s probably not a Jew, but a God-fearer. The first disciples were Jews. If you wanted to become a follower of Christ and you weren’t a Jew, you first had to be circumcised. God-fearers stopped short of circumcision. The reason we suspect the Ethiopian was not a Jew is another issue: he’s a eunuch. According to Jewish law, eunuchs were barred from worshipping in the temple. The Ethiopian in this morning’s story is a remarkable and unusual character. He is devout, having traveled a great distance to worship at the temple in Jerusalem (though he could only listen from outside the doors to the sanctuary). He is educated, being able to read Greek. He is wealthy, possessing his own scroll of the prophet Isaiah (few could afford one). He is important, in charge of the treasury of the queen of Ethiopia and riding in a chariot. Yet, in spite of his faith, his education, his wealth, and his status, he is also humble enough to know he needs someone to help him understand what he is reading. The disciple in this morning’s story is another remarkable and unusual character. Philip, is not one of the original twelve, but is a Greek-speaking Jewish Christian, a convert himself. He is a deacon, appointed to tend to the needy, especially the widows. He has a gift for evangelism, having recently baptized large numbers of Samaritans after proclaiming to them the good news of Jesus Christ. He is also one who is open and attentive to where God is leading him next. So when a voice or intuition or gut feeling seems to be telling him to go, Philip goes. In this morning’s story there is one other character that makes everything happen – God’s Spirit. It’s the Spirit acting through a messenger that sends Philip south on a wilderness road to where he just happens to encounter the Ethiopian’s entourage. It’s the Spirit’s voice that prompts Philip to draw near (actually run) to the chariot. By coincidence, the Ethiopian just happens to be reading Isaiah’s description of the suffering servant providing an opportunity for Philip to share the story of Jesus Christ – two stories of God’s redemption, restoration, and hope. By coincidence, the travel party comes upon water. It would seem coincidence has brought these two people together to this place in their journey. “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?” Well, frankly, just about everything…except, when God’s Spirit is involved the answer is “Absolutely nothing.” God is the one who has given the faithful the law as a way of life. But God is also the one that inspires the faithful to challenge the limits of the law when right relationships with God and neighbor are at stake. The higher law is the law of love. And the Spirit of God, who is love, blows down another wall of prohibition to restore one who was excluded, and to reveal to another the wideness in God’s mercy. Maybe all of this was just coincidence, like my discovering the assigned reading for today was about a baptism on a morning when we will baptize the infant daughter of Julie and Stan Malecki. But some have suggested coincidences and chance encounters are just God acting anonymously. So how many of our chance encounters with other people are really divine appointments? How can we learn to tell the difference? And what will we do when presented with these opportunities? I pray we will listen to the promptings of the Spirit, who tells us to “get up and go”, looking always for where God is acting in this world, breaking down barriers, calling all to be disciples of the Risen Lord.