Sunday Eucharist 8:30 a.m. - Spoken Word 10:00 a.m. - Music & Live Stream
Sunday Eucharist 8:30 a.m. - Spoken Word 10:00 a.m. - Music & Live Stream
April 28, 2024
Christ the King-Epiphany Church
Fifth Sunday of Easter
Acts 8:26-40
Cumberland Heights is an addiction treatment center in Nashville. I read the following on their website about a new addition to their treatment program In October of 2020.
“Who rescued who?” It’s a phrase you hear a lot in the animal adoption world, and those three words couldn’t hold a deeper meaning for the patients in our Women’s Program.
Director Melissa Hudgens, her team, and her patients have been fostering two puppies for the last several weeks. She says it’s one of the best decisions they’ve made for the program – not because it’s smooches and snuggles all the time – that’s a part of it, sure. But it’s also cleaning up messes, practicing patience, and an opportunity to provide a second chance.
“They love to cuddle so the women get lots of affection, but they also get to see the crazy moments too, like when we’re having to chase them around because we forgot the leashes and they take off. It’s a grounding moment that gets us back in reality because life gets crazy trying to maneuver and juggle all that we have to do.
The puppies really have been a blessing,” said Melissa.
Together, the all-female staff and their patients are mothering the once fragile pups, and it reminds them to also nurture themselves.
“Their future is in our hands and guiding them reminds me that my own future also needs my love and attention. Just like the puppies are worthy of a better tomorrow, so am I,” said resident Jennifer. (1)
Who rescued who? Were the women rescuing the dogs? Or the dogs the women? Or did it go both ways?
We could ask the same questions of the story from Acts this morning? Who did the rescuing? Or did both the Ethiopian and Philip get rescued?
The way this story is generally told, it’s Philip who rescued the Ethiopian. On the surface, this is the plain meaning of the text. Philip responds to the angel’s direction, encounters the man in his chariot reading aloud from scripture, interprets the scripture for him, teaches him about Jesus, and then baptizes him along the side of the road. Philip rescued the Ethiopian.
But let’s look a little deeper. This Ethiopian is a complex character. He is a man of great wealth. We know this because he is riding in a chariot and he has in his possession a scroll of the words of the prophet Isaiah – not something your common, ordinary man would have had the means to own. He is a man of learning – he could read the scroll. He is a man of some authority and is trustworthy, in charge of the treasury of the Queen of Ethiopia. All these factors, to this point, are in his favor to those who would originally have read this story. But he is also a foreigner, an outsider. He is an Ethiopian – a man of very dark skin – out of bounds in social circles. And then, this is the biggest factor in his outsider status: he is a eunuch. An explanatory note: eunuchs, that is, castrated males, often served queens or a kings’ harems because they were not seen as sexual beings, and therefore posed no threat. They were often castrated before puberty, giving them a distinct physical appearance, voice, and mannerisms that were considered more feminine than masculine. Because they didn’t fit into traditional binary categories, they were considered profane by nature. Definitely on the wrong side of the line that separates the insiders from the outsiders. The fact that this eunuch was returning home to Ethiopia after making a pilgrimage to worship in Jerusalem is astonishing because, according to the book of Leviticus, he would have been banned from the Temple (2). The ultimate outsider to the faith. The one in need of rescue.
And yet.
And yet, it would seem that he, the ultimate outsider, teaches Philip – the ultimate insider, the deacon and evangelist – the outsider teaches the insider something about the way God works in this world: God draws the circle wider. “What kind of person, after all, earnestly seeks after a God whose laws prohibit his bodily presence in the Temple? What kind of wealthy, high-ranking official humbly asks a stranger on the road for help with his spiritual life? What kind of long-rejected religious outcast sees a body of water and stops in his tracks because he recognizes first – before Philip, the supposed Christian ‘expert’ – that God is issuing him a gorgeous, unconditional, and irresistible invitation?”(3)
And note the profound silence of Philip in response to the man’s question: “What is to prevent me from being baptized?” Don’t you wonder what runs through Philip’s mind at that point? “Well, you’re not even allowed in the Temple. You people are an abomination to us. Besides, you’ve only known about Jesus for, like, five minutes. I doubt you know the Lord’s prayer or the creed. To baptize you would go outside our tradition. It’s a little out of my comfort zone.” But to Philip’s credit, no matter what objections are running through him mind, he says nothing. Because that is the answer. Nothing. There is nothing to prevent him from being baptized. There is nothing to prevent anyone from being baptized; there is no reason to exclude anyone from God’s grace. Period.
So who do you suppose was “more rescued” that day? The one who discovered that nothing could separate him from the love of God? Or the one who discovered that there is nothing that could separate anyone else from the love of God?
If you feel like an outsider, then know that nothing can get between you and God’s grace. If you know you’re an insider because you know how the lines are drawn and you know you’re on the right side of the lines, then know that God doesn’t draw lines – nothing separates us from God’s love. And if you’re one of those people, like Philip, who are open to the Spirit’s leading to include more and more people in the circle of God’s love, then God bless you. Keep on erasing those lines.
(1) https://www.cumberlandheights.org/blogs/who-rescued-who-a-story-of-redemption/
(2) https://www.bobcornwall.com/2021/04/water-baptism-time-to-rejoice.html
(3) https://www.journeywithjesus.net/lectionary-essays/current-essay?id=2995
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