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Lessons:

Acts 8:26-40
Psalm 22:24-30
1 John 4:7-21
John 15:1-8

 

An “angel” – another word for the Spirit, in Acts – “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 Philip took this wilderness road, prompted by Spirit.

 

It was not an easy time to go anywhere.  We read in the first chapter of Acts, that right before his ascension to heaven, Jesus had told the apostles “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.”  Acts is the story of this unfolding of the Christian mission in a world desperate for hope, justice, and new life.  As chapter eight opens Stephen has been stoned, and Saul, who approved the killing, has begun a severe persecution of Christians in Jerusalem.  Many fled, and, as Acts says, “were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria.” Acts tells us that the apostles, however, remained in Jerusalem for a while, continuing to gather and witness to Christ in the midst of persecution.  “Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house,” Acts says; “dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison.”

 

Philip, though, had gone ahead to Samaria.  The verses just before today’s passage, describe the stunning effectiveness there of his ministry.

 

“The crowds with one accord listened eagerly to what was said by Philip… hearing and seeing the signs that he did, for unclean spirits, crying with loud shrieks, came out of many who were possessed; and many others who were paralyzed or lame were cured. So there was great joy in that city.”

 

Acts goes on to report that when Peter and John (back in Jerusalem) heard of how the message of the Messiah was being received in Samaria, they also went there and joined Philip’s ministry.

 

But now the Spirit is calling Philip to “go south toward Gaza on a wilderness road.”  The phrase is so evocative for Biblical literature; it reminds us of the unforeseen roads taken by so many on their journeys deeper into life with God – Abraham, Moses and ancient Israel, Mary and Joseph, and, of course, Jesus himself on the roads that would lead finally to Jerusalem.  Like those before him, Philip planned nothing of his journey in advance.  It wasn’t Philip’s idea to go to Gaza anymore than it had been to go to Samaria.  But, maybe by this time Philip was beginning to trust the Spirit a little more with his life.  What if we were to live this way?  What if we were to begin opening ourselves a little more to the Spirit?  What roads might we be willing to take that perhaps we weren’t before?  Suppose we were to give up more of our plans, our schedules, our reasons why we can’t respond to God, and just begin to go where God calls us.  How different would our lives in Christ then be?  And, how different might our world become?

 

Traveling the same road as Philip is an Ethiopian – a common name at the time for someone from a land south of Egypt.  He has been in Jerusalem worshipping, and is reading Isaiah, so we might assume he is Jewish.  In the first century there were, in fact, Jews living in a number of places outside of Palestine, including Ethiopia.  The Spirit tells Philip to join the Ethiopian’s chariot.  So Philip runs right and asks him, “Do you understand what you are reading?”  The Ethiopian replies, “How can I, unless someone guides me?”

 

“How can I understand, unless someone guides me?”  What a searching question.  Yes – guidance to understand what God is saying to us, not just once upon a time, or once for all time, but to understand today, to understand new, afresh.  What is God saying to me, to you, today?  The early church, as it struggled to know what God was saying after the resurrection, discovered that we can not know what God is saying in scripture by ourselves.  We need others; we need a conversation to discover what God is saying to us, indeed to know where God is calling us.  This is what Acts is saying to us.  God’s authentic word is an interpreted word.  We know God’s word in partnership with God and with others.  Apart from such conversation, such partnership, we cannot know the fullness of all that God would reveal to us.  Not only does the Ethiopian need Philip in order to understand the scripture he is reading; Philip also needs the Ethiopian in order to understand what God is saying to him, why he has been called to this wilderness road, and how God is opening ways for him to go deeper into his life with Christ.

 

“And he (the Ethiopian) invited Philip to get in and sit beside him.”  The scripture the Ethiopian was reading, Acts says, was from Isaiah:

 

“‘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.’”

 

Acts says that 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.”  About whom is the prophet speaking?  Someone long ago?  The Ethiopian?  Philip?  Or even about us?  Acts suggests strongly that the scripture speaks to all of us as we interpret it in our time and situation.  It is about Isaiah and the ancient exiles, and it is about Jesus of Nazareth; but, it is also about the Ethiopian and Philip, and about us.  It is about God’s love, God’s desire for justice.  As Philip and the Ethiopian speak the Spirit moves deeper into both their lives, and into the space between them, converting them both, in a sense, more deeply to Christ.  The Ethiopian sees some water and asks, “What is to prevent me from being baptized?”  But, Philip also has entered a deeper relationship with Christ.  In becoming, in effect, a missionary – a messenger of the good news of Jesus Christ – he has become more a Christian himself.  Just as the Ethiopian comes up out of the water of his baptism, the Spirit “snatches Philip away,” calling him on to the next place God needs him to be (Azotus).  Philip’s ministry is remarkable.  But, what is even more remarkable is Philip’s own growth in love and service to God, his own transformation in Christ by the call and work of the Spirit in his life.