Acts 8:26-39

(sermon note: 04-25 sermon note)

Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Get up and go towards 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,
and like a lamb silent before its shearer,
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, ‘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, 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.
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This morning’s reading reminds me of the one about a man named James who was walking on a downtown street one day and he happened to see his old high school friend, Harry, a little way up ahead. “Harry, Harry, how are you?” he greeted his old buddy after getting his attention. “Not so good,” said Harry. “Why, what happened?” James asked. “Well,” Harry said, “I just went bankrupt and I’ve still got to feed my family. I don’t know what I’m going to do.” “Could have been worse,” James replied calmly. “Could have been worse.” A month or so later, James again encountered Harry, this time in a restaurant. “And how are things now?” he asked. “Terrible!” said Harry. “Our house burned down last night.” “Could have been worse,” said James, again with total aplomb, and went about his business. A month later, James ran into Harry a third time. “Well, how goes it?” he inquired. “Oh!” said Harry. “Things just get worse and worse. It’s one tragedy after another! Now my wife has left me!” Harry nodded his head and gave his usual optimistic-seeming little smile, accompanied by his usual words: “Could’ve been worse.” This time, Harry grabbed James by the shoulders. “Wait a minute!” he said. “I’m not gonna let you off so easy this time. Three times in the past few months we’ve run into one another, and every time I’ve told you the latest disaster in my life. Every time you say the same thing: ‘Could have been worse.’ This time, for God’s sake, Harry, I want you to tell me: how in Heaven’s name could it have been any worse?” James looked at Harry with the same little wisp of a smile. “Could have been worse,” he said. “Could have happened to me.”
The eunuch was reading a grim passage from Isaiah about an innocent sheep being mercilessly slaughtered. He had the wisdom to suspect the prophet’s words had a double-meaning to them. The sheep represented someone in particular, either the prophet himself or someone else. Philip seized the opportunity to teach him about the merciless slaughter of our Lord, Jesus, the one whom Isaiah was writing about. Of course, this encounter between Philip and the eunuch took place after the crucifixion so Philip could easily make the connection between Isaiah’s prophetic words and Jesus’ senseless slaughter. Of course the sheep represented Jesus, a man who suffered and died for not justifiable reason! Not unlike poor Harry in that opening joke. He, too, suffered unjustifiably and his friend ultimately really didn’t care. He only cared about comparing his own suffering to that of his friend. Some kind of friend, eh?!
Well, we again have an encounter with our risen Lord as we continue our journey through this Easter season. The eunuch encountered Jesus with the help of Philip interpreting scripture. A couple weeks ago we heard the encounter with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Last week we heard the encounter that all those people had with the help of the faithful and charismatic Stephen. All these encounters with our risen Lord…you’d think our lectionary designers were quite deliberate in choosing the readings for this Easter season! And rightly so…this season is meant for us to reflect on both the sacrifice Jesus made for us and how he conquered sin and death and rose to new life. The last couple weeks we’ve reflected on the latter part of that statement, on how he conquered sin and death and rose to new life. But we can’t fully appreciate our resurrected Lord without acknowledging the sacrifice he made on our behalf. He WAS the sacrificial lamb, led to the slaughter, silent before his shearer, mouth shut, justice denied. And for what? To help bring us back into right relationship with our God. He had to die so that we might live yet again. “Could have been worse…could have happened to me!” That’s right, “it” can happen to us as we heard it happened to Stephen last week. Any one of use can die for sharing the love of God with those around us. That’s just the risk that we are called to take in following Jesus and Jesus’ example. He risked his life every time he healed someone and taught about God. Thus is a great irony: we all want to receive healing and love but we’re suspicious receiving it from those around us. We think everyone has a motive for sharing healing and love with us. But that isn’t necessarily true. God works through people to share his love and healing. It is God working through others despite whatever ownership they may claim. Don’t be suspicious of others, be glad and thankful for God working through them.
God was certainly working through Philip to bring that eunuch to faith and belief. Faith and belief are the greatest gifts of this Easter season. The whole season is meant to build up and strengthen our faith and belief. It takes faith to believe that Jesus died on our behalf. It takes faith to believe that he rose to new life three days later. If we have faith to believe in those two statements, then we have enough faith to encounter our risen Lord. Recall the words Hebrews, “and without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would approach him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” (11:6) For the sake of our discussion this morning, I would swap out “please” with “know” in that verse: “without faith it is impossible to know God…” We all want to know God, even those who don’t believe in him. We are all inherently seeking beings. We may differ in what we are seeking but we are all seeking something in this world. And it is in that seeking that we all come to know God. Recall the words of Jeremiah, “when you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart.” (29:13) Seeking requires faith. We can’t seek with certainty, we must have faith if we are to seek anything. And we must have faith if we are to know God. Proverbs tells us, “I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.” (8:17)
The eunuch sought out our God and found him with the help of Philip. Let us strive to seek him out in our own lives. Let us seek him out diligently and with our whole hearts. Be assured, we will be rewarded for our seeking…God loves those who love him. Thanks be to God! In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.