A Radical Difference
Text: Acts 8:26-40
Danger and opportunity always go hand in hand. They are two sides of the same coin. The problem is that we don’t always see the other side of reality. Most of us are not comfortable with a sense of ambiguity. We want to be able to be in control. We prefer certainty to uncertainty. We prefer quick answers to unsolvable questions. We’d rather stay in the known than staying in the unknown or unknowable. In doing so, we may conclude that’s all there is to it without making additional effort to engage the mystery.
The truth is that we can’t know anything to its fullest. We can only know partially as Paul says, in 1 Corinthians 12:12, “now I know only in part.” There is no way we can be certain about our future. We don’t even know what will happen to us or to our loved ones tomorrow. Once we realize the smallness of our knowing – how narrow our views are, and how incomplete our knowledge is, then we can participate in the work of the Mystery we call God. The work of the Mystery is all about connecting, opening, moving us freely beyond any existing boundaries. We can see these aspects in the story we heard today.
The followers of Christ were in a great danger. Stephen, one of the seven deacons appointed by the apostles, was stoned to death after delivering a provoking speech. A severe persecution began against the church in Jerusalem. So, the early Christian community could not stay in the same place. They were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria. The danger of persecution and the spreading out of the followers brought a possibility for other people to hear the good news. Those who were scattered went from place to place, proclaiming the word. Philip was one of them. As one of the seven deacons together with Stephen, Philip must have felt danger in his bones.
Despite the challenge, Philip did what he was called to do - healing the sick, sharing God’s good news, and so he consequently brought joy to the city of Samaria. The Bible does not say how brave or heroic Philip was. Instead, the Bible says how attentive Philip was to the Spirit. It was the Spirit who was the director of many stories throughout the early Christian movement.
The Spirit led Philip to encounter someone he’d never cross paths with, an Ethiopian eunuch. There is so much unknown about this person. Our attempt to understand the significance of this character must serve first and foremost the hidden message the story is trying to tell us. In other words, our interpretation of the text must overcome any categorizations based on ethnicity, sexual identity or class. For, that is precisely why the story is given to us – to help us cross any existing human boundaries.
I wish the Bible gave this person a name, so I don’t have to use the gender binary pronouns like he or she. I will just use the male pronoun as used in the Greek text. The Bible gave us some clues as to understand his social location. He is an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the queen of the Ethiopians. The distance between Ethiopia and Jerusalem is more than 4100km. It would have taken almost three months to travel by a horse. Whether he actually traveled that far is not the point. The point is what that particular location meant for the community of Luke, to whom Acts was written. In the ancient Mediterranean world Ethiopia was often considered to be located at the “ends of the earth.” So, by including the farthest country they could think of at that time, Luke is telling us that the Holy Spirit could indeed reach out to the ends of the world. In other words, the Spirit knows no boundaries.
Such meaning became even more clear when the Ethiopian eunuch invited Philip to baptize himself. “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?” Philip didn’t say anything. Sometimes, silence speaks louder than words. In fact, it can be deafening. Philip’s silence was the right answer. Nothing could prevent him from being baptized – the Gentil from a faraway country with a darker skin and sexual minority. The eunuch traveled all the way from Ethiopia to Jerusalem to worship, but because of his sexual identity he could not participate in the temple rituals (Lev 21:20), and he could not belong to the community of Israel. (Deut 23:1) Yet, he knew that his sexual identity didn’t matter to God. He saw himself as a full participant in the family of God, and Philip affirmed his self-proclamation.
This is the work of the Spirit – announcing our place of belonging until no one in the world goes hungry, unheard, or unseen. The eunuch needed Philip, who could, by being attentive to the Spirit’s guidance, bring him the message of the boundless love. Philip needed the eunuch, who could demonstrate such love with lived experiences. Crossing their own boundaries, they were brought together by the Spirit. A difference is not a barrier to a community of faith. Rather, it is the very ingredient to make the community real and authentic. And that’s what we are called to be.
1: Just to be clear: it’s not Judaism as a whole that excluded eunuchs. It’s a certain tradition within the tradition of Judaism. Isaiah speaks of eunuchs who observe the covenant as being honored by God. And Rabbinic traditions accept eunuchs serving as priests. (Jewish Annotated New Testament second edition edited by Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler p. 240)