I belong to numerous groups on Face Book that indicate my varied interests, profession and faith. It is a common practice in one such group for newcomers to greet the group and introduce themselves. "Hi, I'm Sven, I'm a brothel manager from Botswana". Ok, I made that one up. A few days ago someone introduced themselves, "Hi, I'm Matt and I am a nobody". Heartbreaking. You never know when you'll be given an opportunity to evangelize or lift up a fellow beloved creation so off I went. 'Hi, Matt, I am a firm believer that we are all 'purpose built' , all unique, all 'queer' in our own way. Our trick is to discover it, embrace it and gift it back to the world. Do not ever sell yourself short. You are amazing if you will only accept it. Huge hugs.'
In today's passage we have Philip interacting with an Ethiopian eunuch. If this isn't right off the page from the book of Jesus, I don't know what is. Philip is engaging probably the least likely person that the religious right would engage. The Ethiopian would be essentially unapproachable, unsaved, unsavable and not worthy of even a discussion. As the word translated as "Eunuch", we can see that to us he might very well have fit into our broad rainbow 'paradigm' of queer, gender non-conforming or some other characterization that does not fit in easily with those that are considered saved, possible of salvation or even 'unnatural' by some 'Church' definitions.
Just as Jesus spoke to lepers, sinners, women, Samaritans, Roman Centurions as well as their lovers, now Philip is reaching out to the foreigner, the marginalized and as we might say, 'queer'.
What I said to Matt a few days ago is blindly true. I don't know Matt from a whole in the wall. I may never interact with him again. The membership in that particular group covers the entire planet. He could actually be from Botswana, Mumbai, Manchester or Montana. There are truths out there that you will not find spelled out in Scripture by mere incompetent words, mistranslated and abused. There are truths that, when subverted are not just vexations of the Spirit, but a downright denial of the Spirit itself. That unspoken truth that was lived by Jesus is that we are all welcome. We are all unique, queer and robustly loved. It is inexplicable perhaps to us in our limited understanding but it is important enough a message that the Son became incarnate, lived and died for it. We are all beloved and all worthy.
Our job today, as always, is to love ourselves and reach out to love others, especially in ways that highlight and use our own unique talents to do so. It is sometimes said we have only one mouth but two ears to highlight our need to listen. We also have two arms to embrace and love our fellow beloved creations, our brothers and sisters, they, their and them.
For reaching out in love and inclusion to all, we pray.
Acts 8:26-40
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 Philipbaptized 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.
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‘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 Philipbaptized 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.
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