John 15:1-8, Acts 8:26-40
April 29, 2018
First Presbyterian Church, Sterling IL
Christina Berry
The gospel reading today comes from the farewell speech of Jesus, in which he reminds his followers of their relationship to him and to one another, and the life-giving connection that they share. It’s worth noting as Jesus reminds us of who he is, he shows us who we are, in relationship to him. We are the branches on the vine, where the fruit grows. The production of fruit depends on us as much as it does on him. Let’s listen for God’s word to us in John 15:1-8:
1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower.
2 He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit.
Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.
3 You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you.
4 Abide in me as I abide in you.
Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine,
neither can you unless you abide in me.
5 I am the vine, you are the branches.
Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit,
because apart from me you can do nothing.
6 Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers;
such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you,
ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
8 My Father is glorified by this,
that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.
The word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Our reading from Acts as we continue our series is from Acts 8:26-40. It is the story a Greek-speaking Jew and a follower of Jesus meeting an Ethiopian eunuch and official in the Queen’s court, along the road from Jerusalem to Gaza.
A few things to remember as we hear this story:
First, in Jesus final words to the disciples, he told them, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” So the Holy Spirit is the unseen character in this story.
Second, since Philip has just appeared on stage, as it were, it’s worth knowing where he came from. In an earlier chapter of Acts, a problem arose about who would take care of the widows and orphans, particularly those of the Greek speaking Jews. The apostles did not want to neglect their teaching in favor of waiting on tables, so they appointed seven people to work as deacons, caring for those in need in the community. Philip was one of those seven deacons appointed. But just like the deacons of the church in our time, this was not some kind of second-string job. Philip had been in Samaria, preaching and baptizing there, and now, in this story, the Spirit speaks to him to move on. Let’s listen for God’s word to us in Acts 8: 26-40:
Then 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."
All the negative things that could have happened, don’t.
And all the positive things that happen are a lesson for us today,
spelled out with three characters, in three stages, and three questions.
This story comes from a time in the early formation of the church, when there really was not yet a church, not yet anything called Christianity. All of the people named in Acts were Jewish, either from birth or as converts. Those who were Jews from birth were already branches of the true vine; the others were converts or what was known as “God-fearers.” Converts, if they were male, were circumcised as part of their conversion. Those who did not would worship in the court of the Gentiles, and they were called “God-fearers.” They were faithful people who were not Jews, but who believed. Amid this mix of Jewish folks, this group of Jesus followers were “the people of the way.”
These early believers were almost feverish in their desire to share the good news. They were devoted to teaching and preaching and prayer and worship. Among them was Philip, a Hellenistic Jew called by the Holy Spirit to get out into the countryside. And he got up and went.
As he traveled, he came alongside a chariot.
Philip could hear the Ethiopian in the chariot reading a scroll –
everybody read out loud at that time –
and he wondered if the scripture made sense to the Ethiopian.
So Philip asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?"
And the Ethiopian answered with a question of his own, his first question:
"How can I, unless someone guides me?"
The reading was from Isaiah, a scroll that would have been particularly important to an Ethiopian and a eunuch. You see, in that time, the color of his skin was no barrier for this man – racism as we know it is a much more modern invention. According to the law, this eunuch was an outsider, unwelcome in the temple, even if he was a God-fearer. But in the scroll of Isaiah, this man could have read these words:
…do not let the eunuch say, “I am just a dry tree.”
For thus says the Lord: To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths,
who choose the things that please me
and hold fast my covenant,
I will give, in my house and within my walls,
a monument and a name better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. (Isaiah 56:3-5)
Perhaps the Ethiopian wondered whether his own humiliation would end, and whether he too could be grafted onto the vine of Israel. Perhaps he wondered if the God of the covenant was for him, too. Philip was jogging alongside the chariot, talking to him, and the Holy Spirit, the other character in the story, was hard at work!
“Climb in,” says the Ethiopian.
“Sit here by me and help me make sense of this.”
And then he asked his second question,
“What does it mean? Who does Isaiah mean?”
As Philip guided him in understanding,
The fruits of the Spirit that grow through us, the branches,
are love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, generosity,
faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Friends, those are the only fruits that others can see,
the fruits that let them taste and see that God is good.
Philip could have answered that Ethiopian eunuch in a hundred ways.
But the Holy Spirit was there, whispering in his ear.
When the Ethiopian asked, “What’s to prevent me from being baptized?”
Philip baptized him, and in that water,
all the fear and prejudice and suspicion was washed away,
and another person who’d been rejected and humiliated was welcomed,
and another person who’d been lost was found.
The Holy Spirit spoke to Philip three times.
The first two, you heard.
First there was “Get up and go toward the south to the road
that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza."
Then 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.)
So 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 and was returning home;
seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah.
Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go over to this chariot and join it."
So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah.
He asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?"
He replied, "How can I, unless someone guides me?"
And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him.
Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this:
"Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,
So 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 and was returning home;
seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah.
Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go over to this chariot and join it."
So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah.
He asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?"
He replied, "How can I, unless someone guides me?"
And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him.
Now 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.
so he does not open his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth."
The eunuch asked Philip,
The eunuch asked Philip,
"About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this,
about himself or about someone else?"
Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture,
he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus.
As 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?"
He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch,
He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch,
went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.
When 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.
But 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.
The word of the Lord
Thanks be to God.
In this powerful story, we find three characters:
Philip, the Ethiopian eunuch, and the Holy Spirit.
Philip and the Ethiopian have speaking parts, that we can hear as we read. The Holy Spirit has a speaking part, too, but we can only hear it if we listen very carefully. There are three stages to the story – the meeting, the scripture study, and the baptism. And the Ethiopian has three questions.
When 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.
But 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.
The word of the Lord
Thanks be to God.
In this powerful story, we find three characters:
Philip, the Ethiopian eunuch, and the Holy Spirit.
Philip and the Ethiopian have speaking parts, that we can hear as we read. The Holy Spirit has a speaking part, too, but we can only hear it if we listen very carefully. There are three stages to the story – the meeting, the scripture study, and the baptism. And the Ethiopian has three questions.
All the negative things that could have happened, don’t.
And all the positive things that happen are a lesson for us today,
spelled out with three characters, in three stages, and three questions.
This story comes from a time in the early formation of the church, when there really was not yet a church, not yet anything called Christianity. All of the people named in Acts were Jewish, either from birth or as converts. Those who were Jews from birth were already branches of the true vine; the others were converts or what was known as “God-fearers.” Converts, if they were male, were circumcised as part of their conversion. Those who did not would worship in the court of the Gentiles, and they were called “God-fearers.” They were faithful people who were not Jews, but who believed. Amid this mix of Jewish folks, this group of Jesus followers were “the people of the way.”
These early believers were almost feverish in their desire to share the good news. They were devoted to teaching and preaching and prayer and worship. Among them was Philip, a Hellenistic Jew called by the Holy Spirit to get out into the countryside. And he got up and went.
As he traveled, he came alongside a chariot.
Philip could hear the Ethiopian in the chariot reading a scroll –
everybody read out loud at that time –
and he wondered if the scripture made sense to the Ethiopian.
So Philip asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?"
And the Ethiopian answered with a question of his own, his first question:
"How can I, unless someone guides me?"
The reading was from Isaiah, a scroll that would have been particularly important to an Ethiopian and a eunuch. You see, in that time, the color of his skin was no barrier for this man – racism as we know it is a much more modern invention. According to the law, this eunuch was an outsider, unwelcome in the temple, even if he was a God-fearer. But in the scroll of Isaiah, this man could have read these words:
…do not let the eunuch say, “I am just a dry tree.”
For thus says the Lord: To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths,
who choose the things that please me
and hold fast my covenant,
I will give, in my house and within my walls,
a monument and a name better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. (Isaiah 56:3-5)
Perhaps the Ethiopian wondered whether his own humiliation would end, and whether he too could be grafted onto the vine of Israel. Perhaps he wondered if the God of the covenant was for him, too. Philip was jogging alongside the chariot, talking to him, and the Holy Spirit, the other character in the story, was hard at work!
“Climb in,” says the Ethiopian.
“Sit here by me and help me make sense of this.”
And then he asked his second question,
“What does it mean? Who does Isaiah mean?”
As Philip guided him in understanding,
the Ethiopian came to believe the good news of the gospel.
So his third question was to the point and quite practical:
"Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?"
I don’t think I’ve ever met an Ethiopian eunuch.
I expect few of you have either.
"Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?"
I don’t think I’ve ever met an Ethiopian eunuch.
I expect few of you have either.
But I’ve met a lot of people who want to follow Jesus,
and who have been made to feel like outsiders.
I’ll bet you have, too.
I’ve met a lot of people who try to read scripture and make sense of it,
and who have been made to feel like outsiders.
I’ll bet you have, too.
I’ve met a lot of people who try to read scripture and make sense of it,
who are looking for God’s grace even though they’ve been clobbered
with Bible verses taken out of context, people who are hunting in the Bible
for some sign of God’s love.
I’ll bet you have, too.
I’ve met people of color who have been excluded, insulted and persecuted
I’ll bet you have, too.
I’ve met people of color who have been excluded, insulted and persecuted
because they have a darker skin tone than the people around them.
I’ll bet you have, too.
I’ve met people who have been told in every single possible way,
“You are not welcome here.”
with words and actions and body language and insider language,
with dirty looks and narrowed eyes,
with anonymous poison pen letters and nasty social media posts.
And every single time that happens,
the body of Christ is wounded.
Every time that happens, the gospel is put to shame.
They may not be Ethiopian eunuchs, but they are all around us,
asking, “How can I understand unless someone guides me?”
“What does this scripture mean?”
“What is to prevent me from being baptized?”
Philip could have answered a hundred different ways.
“Pal,” he could have said, “You are a eunuch. You’re not like us.
I’ve got a Bible verse to prove that. It says you’re an outsider.
THAT prevents you from being baptized.”
Philip could have answered,
“You’ve got to quit that job, working for the queen.
You need to find something more Jesus-like.”
Philip could have said, “Look, you’re a rich and educated man.
You are a eunuch and an Ethiopian.
You’re not really our kind of people.”
But the Holy Spirit was there, too.
It’s the Holy Spirit who is always the third character in our one-on-one conversations, the Holy Spirit who prods us to speak to someone about the Scripture. It’s the Holy Spirit who enables us to be branches that bear fruit, and it’s the Holy Spirit who makes our fruit sweet, and attractive.
I’ll bet you have, too.
I’ve met people who have been told in every single possible way,
“You are not welcome here.”
with words and actions and body language and insider language,
with dirty looks and narrowed eyes,
with anonymous poison pen letters and nasty social media posts.
And every single time that happens,
the body of Christ is wounded.
Every time that happens, the gospel is put to shame.
They may not be Ethiopian eunuchs, but they are all around us,
asking, “How can I understand unless someone guides me?”
“What does this scripture mean?”
“What is to prevent me from being baptized?”
Philip could have answered a hundred different ways.
“Pal,” he could have said, “You are a eunuch. You’re not like us.
I’ve got a Bible verse to prove that. It says you’re an outsider.
THAT prevents you from being baptized.”
Philip could have answered,
“You’ve got to quit that job, working for the queen.
You need to find something more Jesus-like.”
Philip could have said, “Look, you’re a rich and educated man.
You are a eunuch and an Ethiopian.
You’re not really our kind of people.”
But the Holy Spirit was there, too.
It’s the Holy Spirit who is always the third character in our one-on-one conversations, the Holy Spirit who prods us to speak to someone about the Scripture. It’s the Holy Spirit who enables us to be branches that bear fruit, and it’s the Holy Spirit who makes our fruit sweet, and attractive.
The fruits of the Spirit that grow through us, the branches,
are love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, generosity,
faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Friends, those are the only fruits that others can see,
the fruits that let them taste and see that God is good.
Philip could have answered that Ethiopian eunuch in a hundred ways.
But the Holy Spirit was there, whispering in his ear.
When the Ethiopian asked, “What’s to prevent me from being baptized?”
Philip baptized him, and in that water,
all the fear and prejudice and suspicion was washed away,
and another person who’d been rejected and humiliated was welcomed,
and another person who’d been lost was found.
The Holy Spirit spoke to Philip three times.
The first two, you heard.
First there was “Get up and go toward the south to the road
that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza."
The second was "Go over to this chariot and join it."
The third time the Holy Spirit spoke, you might not have heard it.
But listen!
“What’s to prevent me from being baptized?” the Ethiopian asked.
The Holy Spirit spoke a third time, and answered,
“Nothing. Nothing at all.”
Amen.
But listen!
“What’s to prevent me from being baptized?” the Ethiopian asked.
The Holy Spirit spoke a third time, and answered,
“Nothing. Nothing at all.”
Amen.
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