“Philip the Baptist”
Baptism of Jesus Sunday, Jan., 10, 2016
Acts 8:26-40
First Congregational Church, UCC, Saugus, Massachusetts
Rev. Martha Leahy
Ever hear of Philip the Baptist? No? He is obviously overshadowed by the more
famous John the Baptist, but his story is a pivotal one in the history of the early
church. His ministry of baptism made possible the spread of Christianity to all
corners of the known world. Of course, he didn’t baptize Jesus like John did, but
he certainly followed in Jesus’ footsteps of reaching out beyond the boundaries of
his religious heritage.
For Christians the story of Jesus being baptized is a foundational one. It is in fact
by baptism that we become Christians. Protestants have two sacraments: baptism
and communion. Being baptized is the very first ritual for us in our Christian
journey, and we do it to re-enact Jesus’ immersion in the Jordan River by his
cousin John the Baptist. Just as we re-act his Last Supper with his disciples in the
sacrament of communion, we do the same for his baptism.
The Book of the Acts of the Apostles tells the story of how the early church was
formed. We read in its pages about how the original disciples, the students of
Jesus, evolved into “apostles” or “teachers” to others. They created rituals to help
them remember the central teachings of Jesus, and baptism and communion were
the two most important to them. One, because Jesus himself was baptized; he
insisted on it and would not let John say no. He had to begin his ministry with the
blessing of John’s baptism by water and God’s blessing by the Holy Spirit.
In Jesus’ baptism we see the perfect joining of the human and the divine - as we
believe Jesus was - and the joining of our own humanity to God’s divinity. And
communion, of course, is the sharing of bread and cup, simple earthly foods that
are transformed into statements of radical inclusion and Jesus’ open invitation to
his table. Again, the communion ritual perfectly joins Jesus’ invitation to all
humanity with God’s unconditional, divine love for us.
And so here we are with the apostle Philip, on his mission to reach out to those
outside the margins of Jewish society. One of the last things Jesus told his
followers was, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria
and to the ends of the earth,” (Acts 1:8). And so they all split up and went to those
very places.
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Philip first went to Samaria, north of Jerusalem, to the people who were
traditionally enemies of the Jews, and he found a lot of success there with
Samaritans who were receptive to the gospel. Then he receives a direct message,
the scripture says, from an “angel of God” who says, “Go south to the road—the
desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.”
Philip does this and has an amazing encounter with a very unique person. Philip
sees a chariot on the road, and inside the chariot is an African man dressed in fine
robes and reading from a scroll. And Philip hears the Spirit of God telling him,
“Go over to that chariot and stay near it.”
The man in the chariot is a member of the royal court in Ethiopia, serving the
queen herself. He has just come from Jerusalem, where the text says he had gone
to worship, but knowing who and what he is, it is doubtful he made it into the inner
court of the temple. He is a eunuch; he was made that way as a boy and raised to
serve his mistress without the king worrying about her dalliances with the servants.
And there are passages in Hebrew scripture that forbid eunuchs from participating
in worship. However, his curiosity still seems to be peaked about Judaism,
because he is holding a scroll with a copy of certain verses from Isaiah.
So Philip runs alongside the chariot but even though he’s running, he still seems to
have wind enough in his lungs to ask the man, “Do you understand what you are
reading?”
Perhaps at this moment, the Ethiopian may have ordered the chariot driver to stop,
intrigued by this stranger’s question. “How can I,” he says, “unless someone
explains it to me?” And he invites Philip to come sit with him in the chariot, and
off they continue down the road.
The Ethiopian shares with Philip the passage he has been reading from Isaiah:
“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is
silent, so he did not open his mouth.33 In his humiliation he was deprived of
justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.”
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The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about,
himself or someone else?”
Here is the question that has intrigued people for centuries and one we still ask
today, “Are the stories in the Bible only about the people back in those times, or
are these timeless stories that apply to my own life?”
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There is really no way to make the Bible come alive than to sit with a group of
people who want to know the same thing. Is the Bible a sacred work that is equal
parts history and the direct Word of God? Is it an attempt to explain the times
when God or God’s representatives tried to communicate directly with us? Is it a
product of good evangelism and heavy editing according to the spin the writers
desired?
The Bible is probably a heady combination of all of these descriptions. But we
will never know that until we actually read the stories, puzzle them out together,
look up some expert opinions and try to make a decision: “What do these stories
have to do with me and my life today?”
It seems the Ethiopian was very intrigued by Judaism. He went so far as to travel
from Africa all the way to Jerusalem to see the great temple there. He was rich
enough to be able to buy a copy of the Isaiah scroll. He was probably rich enough
to have even purchased a copy of the whole Pentateuch, the first five books of the
Hebrew Bible. There he would have read the Jewish laws in the Book of
Deuteronomy that forbid persons like him from entering the temple and certainly
from becoming converts. For Jewish law specifically says outcasts who cannot
produce children are not welcome.
So, he is maybe confused about the opposing messages of the law and the prophet
Isaiah, who speaks a man who suffered humiliation and even death, when he
wrote, “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is
silent, so he did not open his mouth.33 In his humiliation he was deprived of
justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.”
So the Ethiopian wants Philip to tell him, which book is right: Deuteronomy with
its strict laws against those who suffered humiliation? Or the prophet Isaiah who
had compassion for those who suffered?
So Philip proceeds to tell him about Jesus, who was baptized into a ministry of
reconciliation, making peace possible between people and God and between
human laws and divine intentions. He tells him that Jesus invited everyone to his
table – people just like the Ethiopian – people outside the Jewish community, in
defiance of the law. In fact, Philip tells the Ethiopian this is exactly what his own
mission is: to let outsiders know that they are welcome to be insiders, members of
the Jesus movement.
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As the chariot reaches a body of water, the Ethiopian says to Philip, “Look, here is
water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” According to the
instructions Philip received before he ventured out to evangelize, he was told: In
the kingdom of God there is nothing that stands in the way of anyone being
baptized. People didn’t have to convert to Judaism, or comply in full with
hundreds of laws, or even be married with 3.2 children.
So Philip and the Ethiopian stop and get down from the chariot, wade into the
water, and the Ethiopian is baptized into the Jesus movement. He is freely
accepted without reservations. His country of origin, his ethnic identity, his
religious practices, his mutilated body, his inability to father children – none of
these are obstacles to acceptance in the fledgling, but expanding, Christian
community.
This story leaves us with a question: “Is there anything that might prevent anyone
who is thirsty for the good news of Jesus from being baptized and becoming a full
participant in helping to build the kingdom of God?” A deeper question might be:
“Once we are baptized, what is the cost of being a Christian?” The Ethiopian
picked a passage that describes the kind of suffering Jesus endured for the message
he preached, and although we don’t ever anticipate enduring that level of suffering
for any reason, what is the sacrament of baptism calling us to be and do?
Because we have been baptized into the Christian life, we get to share with each
other the joyous moments of discovery and insights brought to us by the Holy
Spirit. We get to learn and dream together about what God’s plan might be for us.
We get to gather together in this sacred space and re-enact the rituals that tell us
about Jesus’ life, and about our lives, too. Because we have been baptized, we are
passengers on that chariot, riding toward our future, building it together through
study, prayer, faith and action. Thanks be to the God who rides with us. Amen.
References
Bartlett, David L., and Taylor, Barbara Brown, Eds., Feasting on the Word:
Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, Year B, Vol. 2 (Louisville, KY:
Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 454-459.
Zondervan NIV Study Bible, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan: 2002).
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