Pastor's Message - May Newsletter

Dear Emanuel Members and Friends –

“Then 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 he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship  and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go over to this chariot and join it.’  So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’  He replied, ‘How can I, unless someone guides me?’ And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this:

‘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 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.  As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, ‘Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?’  He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.  When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.” Acts 8:29-40

“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  John 13:34-35

One of the themes running through the book of Acts (sequel to Luke’s gospel) and Paul’s letters is the God-inspired breaking down of religious, economic, and social boundaries that separated Jesus’ first followers – all Jews – from Gentiles who responded to the message of Jesus.  The reading from Acts for May 19 (Acts 11:1-18) recounts one of these stories, that of Peter baptizing Cornelius, a Roman centurion, and his family.  The visions granted to Cornelius and Peter that brought them together are recounted in detail in Acts 10.  Peter came to the conclusion that, “ God shows no partiality,  but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” (Acts 10:34-35).  In Acts 11, Peter was called on the carpet for entering the home of a Gentile family and eating with them.  Peter explained his vision of a sheet covered with animals, reptiles, and birds that were edible but considered unclean (that is, non-kosher), and the command “Rise, Peter, kill and eat.”  When Peter resisted, a voice came, “What God has made clean, you must not call unclean.”  The vision was repeated three times, and was followed immediately by the arrivals of messengers from Cornelius summoning Peter.  Peter made the connection that the vision was not only about food but about people, that no class of people was to be considered unclean, that no class of people was beyond the reach of God’s love.

The passage from Acts 8 at the beginning of this newsletter is another story of boundary-breaking and inclusion.  Philip had previously gone to Samaria (the region between Galilee to the north and Judea to the south).  He had preached the good news, casting out demons and curing those who were paralyzed or lame.  Following this success, the Spirit led Philip to the road between Jerusalem and Gaza, where he met a traveler returning from worship in Jerusalem.  He had traveled a long distance to worship, as he was treasurer to the queen of Ethiopia, which is many miles and weeks of travel from Jerusalem.  Despite his high office and the power that came with it, he was excluded from those in worship at the Temple, both because of his status as a Gentile and because of his being a eunuch, as Deuteronomy 23:1 excluded such from the community of faith.  Clearly, he wanted to worship at the Jerusalem temple, having expended so much effort and having traveled so much distance to be there.  And yet, having arrived there, he found himself to be doubly an outsider, excluded both by ethnicity and anatomy, consigned to the farthest fringes of the worshiping community.   

When Philip found him, he was reading Isaiah’s description of the Suffering Servant (Isaiah 53:7-8), which perhaps reminded him of his own status as one denied the possibility of descendants.  He asked Philip, “About whom was the prophet writing, himself or someone else?” because in his reading from Isaiah, the eunuch found a description of one who he sensed was a kindred spirit, one who would truly understand him and have compassion on him.  This gave Philip an opening to tell the eunuch about Jesus.  As they passed a body of water, the eunuch asked, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?”  The chariot stopped, Philip and the eunuch went down into the water together, and the eunuch was baptized on the spot, with no further preparation.  This eunuch who earlier had been pushed to the margins was, through the waters of baptism, made a full member and brought into the very center of the Christian community of faith, so much so that we still read his story two thousand years later.  And, as that Ethiopian eunuch returned home, the gospel would truly be taken “to the ends of the earth”, to the farthest fringes of the known world of the time.

Two thousand years later, the Christian community continues to struggle with issues of boundaries and inclusion.  In many congregations, persons are still excluded from membership and from participation in worship and leadership on the basis of race, national origin, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity.  When the eunuch asked Philip, “What is to prevent me from being baptized?”, Philip was perfectly aware of Deuteronomy 23:1, which may have been used as a “clobber text” supporting the exclusion of eunuchs from the community of faith.  That text was in Philip’s Bible, as it is still in ours.  He could have quoted that text to the eunuch and sent the eunuch away to sorrow at being sent away empty once again.  But, led by the Spirit, Philip instead followed the law of love as spoken by Jesus at the Last Supper:  “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another.”  In the same way, over the centuries, the Spirit has led Christians to re-evaluate “clobber texts” that endorsed slavery, excluded women from church leadership, and altogether excluded LGBT persons from the community of faith.   Over time, such texts have been subordinated to Christ’s law of love. Ultimately, under Christ’s law of love, the labels we use to divide ourselves are meaningless before God, as Paul wrote in Galatians 3:28 that “In Christ there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” 

Paul also wrote in his second letter to the Corinthians: “Our competence is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” (2 Corinthians 3:5-6)  Paul was not only speaking metaphorically; legalistic interpretations of Scripture actually have killed and continue to kill.  They have been used over the centuries to justify acts of violence – as earlier in Paul’s life they had driven him to acts of violence against followers of the way of Jesus - and have driven LGBT persons and others to suicide.  Scriptures can be read in ways that enslave, or in ways that liberate, in ways that are death-dealing, or in ways that are life-giving.  The theological term “hermeneutic” refers to the lens through which we read Scripture.  If we read Scripture through a hermeneutic or lens of fear, we will gravitate toward those texts that depict a vengeful God raining down destruction upon the disobedient, and spend our days on earth cowering in terror before an angry God.  If we read Scripture through a hermeneutic or lens of purity, we will gravitate toward those texts that tell us to avoid persons and situations that might lead us into sin – and while we assuredly should avoid occasions of sin, an exclusive focus on purity may lead us to overcompensate  and avoid anything that might challenge us to learn and grow beyond our own limited experience, may lead us  metaphorically to shrink-wrap ourselves and cut ourselves off from the world around us, lest we risk contamination.   By contrast, Jesus read Scripture – and viewed God – through a hermeneutic or lens of love.   This lens of love empowered Jesus to see God, not as fearsome, but as Father, empowered Jesus to risk “ritual contamination” by eating with those considered to be unclean and unacceptable, empowered Jesus to lay down his life in love even for those who disowned and rejected him -  and empowered Peter to welcome the Roman centurion and Philip to welcome the Ethiopian eunuch into the community of faith.

Paul claimed that the Holy Spirit gave him competence – gave him authority – to set aside death-dealing interpretations of Scripture in favor of those that give life.  Does this mean that “anything goes”?  Absolutely not!  It does mean, though, that we are called to view Scripture, as well as the boundaries and norms that shape our life together, through the lens of Christ’s life and teaching, his death and resurrection, and especially through the lens of his commandment to love, all as interpreted by the Holy Spirit.   Boundaries and norms based on love will prohibit any act that would bring harm upon another others; as Paul wrote in Romans 13:10, “Love does no harm to a neighbor.  Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”

In recent years, Emanuel Church has widened our welcome to the community, particularly to the homeless and economically distressed. We are a more faithful congregation for having done so.   The journey of offering hospitality in Christ’s name is never ending.  Our denomination, the United Church of Christ, strongly encourages hospitality toward those on the margins, speaking of “extravagant welcome” and, for example, using terms such as “open and affirming” to describe congregations that have made a specific commitment to welcoming those who have been excluded by other churches, particularly the LGBT community.    

As Peter showed the love of Christ to Cornelius, the Roman centurion, as Philip showed the love of Christ to the Ethiopian eunuch, may we, too, continue to follow the Spirit’s lead in showing the love of Christ toward those who are “othered” by society.  Truly, may they know we are Christians by our love!  And, like the Ethiopian eunuch, may those who find their way to Emanuel church leave rejoicing!

See you in church!

Pastor Dave