Thursday, July 02, 2009

The Eunuch's Baptism

Thursday, July 2, 2009 -- Week of Proper 8, Year One

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 972)
Psalms 131, 132, [133] (morning) 134, 135 (evening)
1 Samuel 13:5-18
Acts 8:26-40
Luke 23:13-25

Baptism is the foundational ritual and sacrament of the Church. In baptism we recognize and convey our essential identity as God's own children, members of the Body of Christ. In Baptism we are filled with God's Holy Spirit, renewed and cleansed and empowered for ministry. Everything flows from Baptism. The Prayer Book speaks of our tradition: "Holy Baptism is full initiation by water and the Holy Spirit into Christ's Body the church. The bond which God establishes in Baptism is indissoluble." (BCP, p. 298)

In our story today from Acts, an angel tells the apostle Philip to travel the wilderness road between Jerusalem and Gaza. Along that road he meets a foreigner, a eunuch who serves as a treasurer for the queen of Ethiopia. The text says that he had "come to Jerusalem to worship." Now that phrase gives me pause. The Torah makes it very clear in the laws guarding community purity that a eunuch shall not be admitted to the assembly of the Lord. (Deuteronomy 23:1) It may be that this unnamed eunuch has experienced some form of exclusion or discrimination in Jerusalem, where he would have been barred from entering the worship assembly. Maybe he is a Jew who was kept outside in the Court of the Gentiles.

Returning home, the eunuch is reading scripture. (In ancient days, silent reading was unusual; people spoke the words as they read.) When Philip joins him in the chariot, Philip hears him read 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." The words are Isaiah's, and they seem to evoke something in the eunuch. Maybe when the eunuch was excluded from the assembly he experienced humiliation and injustice, and seemed powerless to protest. He asks Philip, "About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?"

Philip tells him about another who was excluded from the assembly; another who experienced humiliation and injustice; another who was silent like a lamb. He tells of Jesus whose "life is taken away from the earth," and about his resurrection, the life restored and empowered. Philip gave the eunuch the good news about Jesus.

The eunuch must have been deeply moved. He could identify with Jesus. He wanted to be connected with one who had been humiliated and restored.

Then comes the question. "Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?" That is a loaded question.

I am about to leave for the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. This question from the Ethiopian eunuch is the kind of question that could provoke great debate from our assembly. The scripture says very clearly, no eunuch shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord. That has been our tradition for all of these centuries. But, this eunuch has heard and received the living Word. He has a deep spiritual desire to be baptized, and he has compelling gifts of the spirit to offer to God and to God's people. Shall we bar him from the community? Shall we reject his being and his ministry?

Philip did not ask the General Convention. Philip stopped the chariot and baptized the eunuch, and God's Holy Spirit filled Philip with rejoicing.

Years ago when we were asking whether women could be ordained, there was much debate. Many raised up scriptures that gave women a secondary place in community and family life. Others spoke of the tradition of centuries, going back to the apostles, all males, like Philip. But some spoke of the foundational sacrament of Baptism which identifies us as children of God, fully initiated into the Body of Christ. Is the Body of Christ to be represented only by maleness? "If you won't ordain us, then stop baptizing us," said women, whose compelling gifts and spirit were being offered to the church.

Our General Convention followed the path of Philip. We recognized the presence of God's empowered spirit in women, and we honored the theology of baptism which makes us children of God, members of the Body of Christ, empowered for ministry.

We are still debating. Now we are talking about the descendants of the Ethiopian eunuch. Shall gay people be barred from the community? Shall their ministries be denied to them? Shall they be denied access to the sacraments of marriage and ordination? Shall their gifts and spirit be rejected?

Can there be any doubt what Philip would tell the Church if he could?

Lowell


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Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

About Morning Reflections
Morning Reflections is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.


Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life
We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas

5 Comments:

At 10:33 AM, Blogger Michael Anglican said...

What about
Douay-Rheims Bible
Luke 18:16
But Jesus, calling them together, said: Suffer children to come to me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.

and

NIV Romans 8
17a Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.

There are no exclusions there.

 
At 8:28 AM, Blogger Lowell said...

Yes. There are so many inclusive passages in the scripture. And there are also so many stories about God using those who were thought to be unclean or outside the boundaries of the faithful who are actually the means of God's grace and manifestation. Lots of surprises. God loves everyone, and God uses the most unlikely as agents of divine grace.

Lowell

 
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