“Unexpected Outcast”
Acts 8:26-40
May 6, 2012
I have always taken the table of the Lord
as the center of our Christian fellowship.
In fact the table of the Lord, is the center
of any community of the faithful.
Around it, all in the community find a
place to share in the fullness of the body
of Christ.
In its way, the table is the end product of
the preaching of the gospel that reaches
out into the world and invites all to come
and find restoration under God. That is
the goal of the story told in Acts, the
universal embrace of the gospel. As
Luke tells the story, the gospel moves
out into the world and gathers under the
wings of God’s mercy those who have
been lost, pushed away or forgotten.
The story of the Ethiopian Eunuch is the
first real unfolding of the story beyond
the confines of the Israel. The Bible
often tells the tale of the insignificant of
the world who are great in the eyes of
the Lord. Such stories are reminders of
our created-ness and reliance on God.
Yet here, in this Ethiopian we have the
opposite, a fairly significant personage.
We find him in his elaborate chariot,
cruising along, stretched out and reading
Isaiah. He has traveled to Jerusalem on
pilgrimage and is now returning home.
His name is unknown, but his boss is
not. He is secretary of the treasury under
Queen Candace of Ethiopia. So he is a
potentate, at home in the court of
Ethiopia and no doubt welcome at royal
courts across the Middle East.
Yet on his pilgrimage and in his reading
of scriptures, he may have gotten a
mixed message that he was not welcome
in God’s court. Deuteronomy 23:1
indicates eunuchs were not permitted in
the assembly of the Lord. Thus this high
court insider, is in reality an outcast. He
is one who is lost and separated from the
Lord and the Gospel.
But, you say, he is not reading
Deuteronomy, he is reading Isaiah. And
that is significant, for the prophet offers
a more hopeful word. In chapter 11,
Isaiah promises that God will gather the
remnant of God’s people found in
Ethiopia. He also promises that “eunuchs
who keep my Sabbaths” will be
welcome in the house of God and will
receive “a name better than sons and
daughters.” (54:4-5)
So is he in or out? Is it Deuteronomy or
Isaiah? It is significant for us to realize
that if he only has the written word of
scripture, his acceptance or rejection
could be argued either way. How can he
discern what is true and acceptable?
How can he understand how God sees
him…unless…unless someone guides
him?
What he needs is someone who not only
understands scripture, but also knows the
God of scripture. He needs someone to
teach him who has felt God’s embrace
and in the words of Tom Long, one who
can “read the cold ink on the page in the
warm light of God’s Spirit.”
Each of us, at some point in our lives,
need a Philip in our lives. A mentor, a
counselor, an insightful guide through
the scriptures to the table. As he reads,
the eunuch has encountered Isaiah’s
words of a sheep led to slaughter and in
whose humiliation justice was denied.
He asks Philip about Isaiah spoke.
He means is the prophet speaking about
himself or someone else. Philip answers
with a story, the story of Jesus. And you
have the sense, that Philip understands
that the eunuch’s question is about more
than a single individual, the eunuch is
also asking how this story connects with
him.
Surely the eunuch knows about
humiliation and justice denied. And no
doubt as he read he was wondering if
God was speaking to him and to his own
experience of being an outcast in the
place where he just made spiritual
pilgrimage.
That’s what we believe too, you know that the biblical word is never only about
“back in the day.” We say it is the living
Word of our Lord. And as such, it is
always a word to us in this moment, at
just such a time as this, today.
Jesus stood up in his hometown
synagogue and proclaimed “Today,” as
he read from Isaiah, “this scripture has
been fulfilled in your hearing.” And as
Philip shared Jesus’ stories with the
eunuch, the news that day was even
better than the Ethiopian could have
hoped. Not only does God know and
understand the eunuch’s experience of
being humiliated and ostracized, Jesus
himself took on the lowly and outcast
state.
Philip proclaims for him that what Isaiah
said is about the Ethiopian and it is about
Jesus, who was “like a sheep led to
slaughter” and who was himself
humiliated and denied justice. But in
Jesus, and for all who follow him, the
stony road of suffering is transformed
into the highway of exaltation. “Out of
the anguish,” Isaiah proclaims, “he shall
see light…the righteous one, my servant,
shall make many righteous. When the
story of the eunuch is reflected through
the cross and resurrection of Jesus, it
becomes a narrative of redemption,
restoration and hope.
In that setting he is moved proclaim his
faith publicly. “What is to prevent me
from being baptized?” he asks Philip.
When you think about it, a lot. A lot of
things could have prevented him from
baptism. He lived in Ethiopia, cut off
from Israel. He was a eunuch, which
meant he was in violation of the purity
code, check Deuteronomy. He was an
official of a foreign government, loyal to
the wrong sovereign.
In other words, he belonged to the wrong
nation, held the wrong job and possessed
the wrong sexuality.
Yet Philip heard the Spirit of the Lord
and baptized an Ethiopian eunuch. And
when he did, in Paul’s words, “…you
who once were far off have been brought
near in the blood of Christ. For he is our
peace, who has made us both one, and
has broken down the dividing wall of
hostility…so then you are no longer
strangers and sojourners, but you are
fellow citizens with the saints and
members of the household of God.”
(Ephesians 2)
The cross is the where the dividing wall
was broken. This table is where we
gather, all, to welcome one another, and
to share the journey together. It is where
we offer guidance to another who
hesitates to come, and where we may
seek guidance for our approach. At
home we may pray at table, “Come,
Lord Jesus, be our guest.” Here Christ
beckons you, “Come, sit, all of you,
broken, humiliated, hurting and outcast,
and know that we are one.”