Easter 5B, April 28, 2024
New Covenant, Acts 8:26-40
“The Sound of Silence”
In our passage from Acts this morning, we read that an angel of God speaks to Philip and says, “At noon, take the road between Jerusalem and Gaza.” So he does and in the middle of the day, in the middle of the desert, he encounters a chariot riding, scripture reading, gender neutral, African official. Just another day in the life of an evangelist!
We don’t know if this person was born a eunuch or if the procedure was elective. If it happened by accident, an act of violence or a health reason. We do know, that the eunuch is introduced to us as a man and that Luke uses male pronouns to describe him. But, in the eyes of society, religion and the culture, the eunuch was not considered to be a male or female. The eunuch isn’t able to identify as either gender. The eunuch is not he / him or she / her. The eunuch is gender neutral.
When Philip arrives, at the urging of an angel of God, the eunuch is reading a passage about a sheep-like figure that keeps silent, while experiencing humiliation, injustice, suffering and death. The eunuch asks Philip, about whom is the prophet speaking? This passage must’ve been intensely personal for the eunuch, who likewise would’ve had similar experiences of humiliation, discrimination, exclusion and injustice because of that lack of a gender identity.
We don’t have the text of Philip’s sermon. All we are told by Luke is that Philip “Shared the good news.” I believe we can safely imagine that the good news Philip shared were the stories of Jesus welcoming everyone and excluding no one. Jesus acknowledging people’s worth and dignity, then himself, experiencing humiliation, injustice, suffering and death. Because, when they come upon some water the eunuch asks, “What would keep me from being baptized?” How about that! What’d ya know! Another miracle! A water source in the middle of the desert road!
When they come upon this water in the middle of the desert, the eunuch says, “What prevents me from being your sibling in Christ? What would prevent me from being included in the body of Christ? Of course, what the eunuch is really asking is, “Does my lack of a gender identity keep me from being part of the religious community?”
Notice, after the eunuch asks the question, there’s silence. Philip says nothing. The next words are the eunuch saying, “Stop the chariot!” After asking the question, there’s silence. There’s nothing. This silence speaks volumes. Nothing is said, because there’s nothing to prevent him from becoming a part of the body of Christ. There’s nothing, not even the eunuch’s lack of gender identity that can exclude him from the family of God. Nothing prevents Philip and the eunuch from entering the water together and emerging as siblings in Christ.
The eunuch’s question, “What is to prevent me from being baptized?” is not a question about the wideness of God’s love. It is a question about the church’s willingness to be inclusive. “What is to prevent me from being baptized?” is not a question about the wideness of God’s love. It is a question about the church’s willingness to be tangled together, inter-woven, inter-twined, inter-connected, and bound to one another, like a vine, without judgements, without conditions and without labels. May it be so. Thanks be to God. Amen.
