Acts 8:26-40
David A. Davis
March 10, 2024
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Our reading today tells of just two people. One person has no name given but is identified as an Ethiopian eunuch. Our text for the morning is the only reference to a eunuch in the New Testament. New Testament professor Eric Barreto is my Lenten partner teaching these texts from Luke and Acts as together we all ponder what it means to be a neighbor and go and do likewise. Dr Barreto has shared that scholars of the bible and of ancient history are of many minds and opinions when it comes to understanding the identity, the personhood, the role, and the portrayal eunuchs. They were understood to be in the margins and yet often served in positions appointed by kings and queens. They were not considered a threat to royalty’s lineage when it come to the children of the monarch and yet they were often educated and wealthy by the standards of the day. In the Hebrew bible, eunuchs are included in lists of the most vulnerable and lowest in society’s strata along with orphans, widows, and strangers. Yet Isaiah, for one, clearly includes them within the promise of God.
As for the eunuch from Ethiopia. They were a foreigner and a person of color. Scholars disagree about whether they were Gentile or Jewish. If they were Jewish, as a eunuch they would be prohibited from full participation in temple worship because of their gender and sexual ambiguity. This person with no name given is a royal court official with a high position in charge of all the money. They could read and clearly traveled as a person of means and status. When it comes to cultural and ritual norms, when it comes to economic and political factors of the time and region, when it comes to this biblical story of just two people one on one, one of them is the definition of life on the margin. The definition of the marginalized.
The other person in the story is named Philip. Philip appears just a few chapters before the reading you are about to hear from the Acts of the Apostles. Philip was one of seven others appointed by the disciples. The bible says they were people “of good standing, full of Spirit and of wisdom.” Some in the community were complaining that the widows were being neglected and not receiving the daily food distribution. The disciples needed help so that they could devote themselves to prayer and serving the word. Actually, it sounds a bit more snippy than that. According to Luke, the disciples first response was “it is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables”. The tradition calls these seven the first deacons. The disciples prayed and laid hands on the seven including Philip and Stephen. Though the seven were ordained to a ministry of compassion and service to the community, Stephen and Philip, at least, were also engaged in proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ. You will remember that Stephen was martyred for his preaching and doing great wonders and signs among the people. After Stephen’s murder, Saul (later to become the Apostle Paul) was continuing to ravage the church in Jerusalem. The apostles and deacons and others fled for their own safety. Philip went to Samaria and was proclaiming the good news about the kingdom of God.
Our text this morning begins after Peter and John return to the region around Jerusalem. The scene shifts dramatically from the hustle and bustle of a rapidly growing community of faith in Samaria. This story told by Luke in the Acts of the Apostles only includes the unnamed eunuch from Ethiopia and deacon Philip in the middle of nowhere.
Acts 8:26-40
So it’s not just the two of them. Yes, there must be someone driving the chariot. But that’s not what I mean in saying it’s not just the two of them. The story of Philip and the unnamed person from Ethiopia is framed by the presence of God. An angel of Lord told Philip to head down the wilderness road toward Gaza. After the baptism, “the Lord snatched Philip away” and dropped him in Azotus well to the northwest near Caesarea that sits on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Lord at the beginning and the Lord at the end. In between the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it”. God in the beginning, middle, and end. It was not just the two of them in the middle of nowhere. And it is not a stretch to consider it a God-thing that the person in the chariot was reading from the same scroll of Isaiah the prophet that Jesus read from when he went to the synagogue very early in Luke and read “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…”. Different verses, same scroll. It is not a stretch to conclude that coming upon some body of water along the wilderness road in the middle of nowhere in the desert is something approaching a miracle. Or that Philip’s lack of an answer to “What is to prevent me from being baptized?”, that the wordless answer was for both of them to go down to the water. The answer is the baptism. The answer is a divinely inspired, Spirit-filled moment of grace. I don’t know how fast that chariot was moving down the road but that Forrest Gump-like moment of Philip catching up to, running alongside, and being able to hear the man reading the prophet Isaiah, that has to be the Spirit of the Lord at work too.
One of the very important lessons you can learn in a small group studying scripture is that there are always lots of questions to ask of a biblical text. More importantly, plenty of those questions may not have a particular answer or any answer at all. Even more, neither small group participants or leaders or pastors or preachers or biblical scholars or professors have all the answers. Along this wilderness road of faith, beware of those who think they have all the answers. It can also be true that some biblical passages, like this one, leave the student of the bible with more questions than answers; even after some really good study and conversation. But at least one thing seems to be clear and can be affirmed in Luke’s telling of the story of Philip baptizing the unnamed person who was a eunuch from Ethiopia. It was just the two of them and God out there in the middle of nowhere.
Here’s a Jesus-like question: when it comes to just the two of them, Philip and the person from Ethiopia without a name, which one is the neighbor? A first thought probably gives the nod Philips way. Philip comes alongside the seeker from Ethiopia. Philip is the “someone” who guides the Ethiopian treasurer to understanding. Philip takes the time to answer the person’s searching question about “the sheep being led to the slaughter, the lamb silent before its shearers, the one in humiliation denied justice.” Philip sat right there next to the one shunned by many and “starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to them the good news about Jesus.” Philip is the one who welcomed the marginalized yet elite, elusive yet rich, confused yet educated, gender fluid, person of color, never quite understood then or now child of God. Philip welcomed him to the faith the comes with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Philip is the one who embraced the stranger he found along the way with the water of God’s grace poured out. Philip baptized the unnamed person whose baptism with no name emphases his marginalized status now shattered by God’s boundary blind love. It is Philip’s culturally and religiously defiant neighboring along the wilderness road known to no one but the one now rejoicing along the way. Known to them, and of course, God.
Yet, there is the bold neighboring of the member of the royal court from another country who doesn’t get offended when their ability to understand is questioned. The educated person of means whose transportation and attire likely screamed wealth is not frightened by the stranger who suddenly runs up to the moving vehicle on a road that could not have been safe. A stranger whose means of transportation and attired likely screamed “I need help”. The one on foreign soil fresh off the humiliation of being treated as someone less than, named as “other”, back at the temple in Jerusalem, they asked for help from a total stranger in the middle of nowhere. The vulnerable one who had a level of status who had to have had multiple experiences of being taunted, shunned, and their own personal safety being threatened at the hand of another invites this person up to sit next to them right there along the wilderness way. This one refusing to be defined by the world’s boundaries is gracious in listening to, learning from, and accepting in a way that can really only be understood as Spirit inspired unexpected hospitality. The baptized member of Candace the queen’s court from Ethiopia going on their way rejoicing after such courageous neighboring along the wilderness road known to no one except them, the one now proclaiming good news in the towns along the sea, and of course, God.
The title of this sermon is “One”. When I turned in the title a few months ago now, I was drawn to the Ethiopian’s question, “How can I understand unless someone guides me?” Someone one. One. Neighboring one by one. But now I know the title of the sermon should be “both”. When it comes to just the two of them, which one is the neighbor? Both
What does it mean for you and for me to neighbor when no one else is watching other God?