On the Road Again

There is an amazing degree of similarity between the story of last week – the journey to Emmaus – and the story for this week – the journey of an Ethiopian eunuch. The similarity is so striking that it prompted me to title the sermon I am working on for this Sunday at Seneca Presbyterian Church: “On the Road Again.” Each story involves a physical journey. Each involves a stranger who interprets scripture for travelers who are seeking to understand. In each, the stranger mysteriously disappears at the conclusion of his work. One ends with the sacrament of communion, the other with the sacrament of baptism – the two universally shared sacraments for all expressions of the Christian faith. In case you’re wondering, it’s not a coincidence.

          Luke is the only Gospel writer to give us part two of the story. His book of Acts tells us how the gospel message spread from Jerusalem to Rome and from the Jewish to the Gentile world. It’s primarily about the Apostle Paul, but it doesn’t start there. It starts with stories of the apostles and the first disciples. Jesus had promised the disciples that when they received power from the Holy Spirit, they would do everything they had seen him do, and even more. The Spirit is the abiding and empowering presence of the risen Christ living among those who follow him. In the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, we see a realization of that promise. Philip steps in the role of Jesus as the interpreter of scripture, the one who enables faith, and the one who seals that faith sacramentally as he baptizes his Ethiopian friend.

          But such a gospel parallel is not the only amazing facet of this story. For me, that prize goes to the Ethiopian. He has just undertaken an arduous journey from Ethiopia to Jerusalem in order to worship in the Temple. But curiously, as a eunuch he would have been forbidden to enter the Temple. That reality is probably why he asked Philip, “What is to prevent me from being baptized?” This aspect of the story fascinates me. Why would you feel compelled to move toward a faith that considers you a second class citizen? Can it simply be the power of the Holy Spirit pulling us all toward new challenges and deeper understandings?

          Those questions cause me to ponder others:

• Have you ever felt excluded and unworthy to enter God’s holy house? What kept you away?
• Do you know of others who have experienced that same exclusion? What kept them away?
• Did anything overcome the barrier?
• Could it have been the hand of the Holy Spirit directing the action?

 I welcome your reflections.