Sermons from Moorpark Presbyterian Church

Bag Ladies, Eunuchs and Us

by Dave Wilkinson

Isaiah 53 Acts 8:26-38

March 21. 1999

"She usually arrived midway through the morning worship service" writes Dennis Sawyer of Chicago. "Attired in three or four dresses, an apron and a coat, her red wig, often off to one side, was usually secured by a tight-fitting cap, even in summer. She resembled an older, slightly frail Munchkin from the mythical land of Oz.

"Stealthily, she would seek a seat near the back of the sanctuary. As she did, coats and Bibles would seem to sprout alongside the other worshipers, occupying any vacant seats. Undaunted, Katie would keep looking, the large shopping bags dangling from each hand, until she found a row with an empty seat, usually near the front or beside a first time visitor. Setting her two bags in the aisle, she would kneel, cross herself, then pick up her bags, rustle past the other parishioners, and nest.

"During the remainder of the service, she would gesture eccentrically and mumble comments either to her neighbors or toward the pastor. At the conclusion of the service, she would strike a pose of reverent prayer before leaving quickly and quietly.

"Then came the Sunday with a special program and communion. The church was nearly full. Katie, in her familiar attire but with one addition -- combat boots -- could find only an aisle seat in the second row from the front. She proceeded with her gesturing, rustling, and mumbling until communion. At that time, she became very reverent and still.

"The deacon serving her row extended the tray of bread past Katie to the next person in the pew--from whence it proceeded toward the other end. Katie looked around, bewildered, then shrugged, reached into one of her shopping bags, and pulled out a loaf of bread. She offered some to her neighbor -- who politely refused. But Katie insisted. 'Take it,' she told him, 'it's for sinners.'"

I wonder if Katie might not have been an angel in disguise, sent by God to remind his church of a very important fact -- that despite differences of education, material goods, and lifestyle that we value; we are all the same before God. As Paul declares in Ephesians, we are all sinners saved by grace through faith -- and not because of any merit of our own.

This means that God doesn't need our wealth, our job titles, our degrees, or the certificates on our walls -- and He doesn't honor us because we have these things. In fact, those precious distinctives can be barriers to receiving the one thing we finally do need -- the broken body of Jesus Christ handed to us with the words: 'take it. It's for sinners.'

Who are our bag ladies? Who are the people who, if they came to worship, would cause us, at least mentally, to put hats, coats, Bibles and hymnals on the seat beside us and draw back. This is the crucial question in God's word to us this day. Listen to the word of God:

Acts 8:26-38

The story takes place in what is today the Gaza Strip--on a desert road near the old Philistine city of Gaza. Verse 27 introduces a man who is on his way home from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He is the treasurer of the court of Candace, Queen of Ethiopia.

The name Ethiopia was then used to refer to the country we would now call the Sudan. The King of Ethiopia was worshiped as a child of the sun -- much too sacred to actually rule. So the rule was exercised on his behalf by his mother who always went by the dynastic name "Candace." I'll bet you didn't know that.

Now you may be wondering what this Ethiopian official, possibly a black man, is doing making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He certainly doesn't look Jewish.

He's not Jewish. But he is seeker after the God of Israel-- like a number of other Gentiles we will meet in the pages of Acts.

We can picture this African leader riding in his stately chariot, surrounded by the tokens of position and power. But all of the outward signs of success do not satisfy the longings of his inner being. His hunger for truth brings him into contact with Judaism -- perhaps through Jews who had traveled to Ethiopia to trade. They had introduced him to their belief in Yahweh and an ordered life based on the law of Moses. What a contrast this was to the false gods of the Greeks with their petty jealousy and immorality. What a contrast to the pointless, empty lifestyle of the worshipers of these gods. He learns that the God of Israel is different from the gods of the nations. Is there room for him, a foreigner, in the worship of such a God?

He perhaps read the words of Isaiah 56: "And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to serve him, to love the name of the Lord and worship him, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant -- these I will bring to My holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer." (56:6)

He hears and responds to the promise of God through Isaiah. He travels from Ethiopia to Jerusalem to worship at the temple -- God's house of prayer on the holy mount of Zion. There he looks to discover and embrace the truth.

Everything Luke tells us about the Ethiopian indicates that he is not a satisfied pilgrim when he leaves Jerusalem. The temple, the sacrifices, the ancient customs, have not fed his spiritual hunger. But God had promised: "if with all your heart you truly seek me you shall surely find." And God keeps his word. He had brought him to Jerusalem, not for what he could experience there but for what he will experience on the way home. Philip and the treasurer of Ethiopia meet on the road by the Holy Spirit's design. The disappointment in Jerusalem is about to be superseded by the Lord's appointment in Gaza.

Verse 28 describes the Ethiopian sitting in his chariot reading aloud from the prophet Isaiah. At the Spirit's command, Philip runs up to join him. As he does, he hears him reading from Isaiah 53:

"He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and as a lamb before its shearers is silent, so he does not open his mouth. In humiliation and judgement He was taken away. Who can describe His generation? For His life is taken up from the earth."

The passage he is reading gives Philip his cue. "Do you understand what you are reading?" Literally he asks: "do you understand what you are continually reading?" We should picture the Ethiopian reading the verse -- and then reading it again. Looking at it one way and then another -- trying to make it fit. His answer to Philip's question betrays his frustration: "Well how could I unless someone guides me? You seem to know what you're talking about. Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else?

Philip has no problem with this question. He knows the answer. Beginning here with Isaiah's prophecy of the suffering servant, he tells the Ethiopian the good news of Jesus Christ -- how Jesus had given His life as an offering for sin and how God had raised Jesus from death -- just as Isaiah had foretold.

Apparently Philip also includes some teaching about baptism. For, verse 36 tells us, "and as they went along the road they came to some water--probably Wadi El-Hesi near Gaza -- and the Ethiopian said: 'look! Water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?"

This is the crucial verse in this text. And the answer Philip gives to this question -- and the answer we give to this question -- is crucial for the church of Jesus Christ.

You see, Philip has a big choice to make. He can respond to the Spirit prompted longing in the Ethiopian's heart by saying, "there is nothing to prevent you from being baptized." That's what we'd expect him to say.

But there is a problem, a land mine, buried in the text. It is possibly a big problem.

Luke points out several times that this Ethiopian, is a eunuch. Now there is nothing surprising about this. It was common in many oriental courts for boys to be emasculated and then schooled to serve as royal officials. It was the only way they would be trusted around the women of the harem and of the court.

But the fact that this Ethiopian is a eunuch is possibly a big problem as far as the extension of baptism. As a Jew, Philip is expected to respond to the Ethiopian's request something like this: "You may not realize this but you are a eunuch. And according to the law of Moses in Deuteronomy 23:1, 'No one who is emasculated or has his male organ cut off, shall enter the assembly of the Lord.' I'm sorry. But because you are a eunuch, you can never fully become a proselyte to Judaism and take full part in the service at the temple. And if you can't be a part of the assembly of the Lord, how can you be baptized into his church?"

Do you see how crucial the Eunuch's question is? "What is to prevent me from being baptized?" "Will I be accepted? Will I find a place with Jesus Christ and his people?"

And do you see how crucial Philip's response is? "How big is the circle of the church of Jesus Christ going to be? Are we going to put hats and hymnals on the seats next to us to reserve them for us and our kind? Or is the church for all who put their trust in Jesus Christ and who intend to live according to His word and call?"

In other words, what is Philip going to do with the law set down in Deuteronomy?

Perhaps Philip is helped in his decision by recalling these words from Isaiah 56 where God says: "let no foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, 'the Lord will surely exclude me from His people,' and let not any eunuch complain, 'I am only a dry tree.' for this the Lord says: 'to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,

Who chose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant -- to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off.'" (53:3-5).

Now eunuchs were not admitted to full privileges in Israel -- despite these words. But these words open the door for Philip to respond to the Ethiopian with wholehearted welcome.

The way Philip makes his decision is a model for us. He listens to the movement of the Holy Spirit within him. But he tests and proves his subjective sense of the Spirit's leading against the Word of God. That's the way to do it.

Philip orders "stop the chariot!" "And they both go down into the water, Philip as well as the Eunuch; and he baptizes him."

"What is to prevent me from being baptized? What is to keep me from being part of the people of God?"

That is a question we must all ask and answer as we meet together as a church.

Donn Moomaw former pastor of the Bel Air Presbyterian Church tells of a time he was stopped on the street by an bearded man. The man asked: "Are you saved?" "Praise the Lord, I am!" Donn replied. The man looked him over, slowly and asked: "but are you sealed?" (By which he meant sealed in the Holy Spirit.) "Praise the Lord, I am!" Donn assured him. The man looked him over again, paused and asked: "but are you separated? (By which he means separated from the things of the world.") Donn replied, "you are going to keep asking me questions until you find something we disagree on so you can either convince me or find a reason to reject me. But I really need for you to accept me as your brother in Christ."

What are the qualifications we set down--consciously or unconsciously--for being "part of the group"?

In Revelation 7:9, God gives the old Apostle John a vision of 'a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne." This John, who received this vision of peace and unity was a former racist. The Gospels tell how John once asked Jesus for permission to call down fire to destroy a village of Samaritans -- a form of ethnic cleansing. But John has learned a better way.

In Ephesians 2, Paul writes about different racial groups in the church. He writes: "but now in Christ Jesus, you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the ancient hatred."

Paul expands on this theme in Galatians 3 where he writes of how there is now "neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for we are all one in Christ Jesus."

Paul says that Jesus breaks down walls of ancient hatred and distrust between racial and ethnic groups and unites us as one new people -- the people of God. This doesn't mean that we cease to be white, black, Latino, Asian -- or male and female. But it does mean that what binds us together -- Jesus Christ -- is much greater than what drives us apart. It also means that we have absolutely no business allowing walls between people that Jesus gave His life to break down.

We need to learn to celebrate what Paul calls in Ephesians 3:10 "The many colored wisdom of God." God delights in diversity. Scripture celebrates the colorful mosaic of human cultures. It even declares that the new Jerusalem, the heavenly city, will be enriched by this diversity since 'the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it,' and the glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.'

God doesn't have a cookie cutter mentality where everybody has to look and act the same. God is equally praised in the Black Pentecostal church, the largely Anglo Presbyterian church and the Chinese Christian church. We don't all worship the same. And that's great -- just as long as we share the same Lord.

Verse 37, the verse in brackets, is interesting. The reason that it's in brackets is that it wasn't originally a part of the text. At an early date, sometime in the first part of the second century, it was felt that the story as Luke tells it was incomplete. Someone decided that Philip should have made certain of the Eunuch's profession of faith before administering baptism so they added this verse.

Now I don't doubt that Philip did satisfy himself as to the genuineness of the Eunuch's faith. But there are some minds that can't be content to leave such things to be inferred. So they added a response by Philip: "if you believe with all your heart, you may be baptized." And then they had the Eunuch affirm: "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."

Now I don't believe in adding to scripture. But at least the addition does point out to us the one and only test we may use as to who we will receive as brothers and sisters--a profession of faith in Jesus Christ. There is, and there ought to be, no other standard.

We should not measure whether their "vibes" agree with our "vibes". We should not be concerned that they use some accepted Christian jargon--or even if they use words we don't understand. It is not important that they be willing to subscribe to our political agenda -- be it slow-growth, no-growth, wide open growth, Republican, Democrat, or whatever. Certainly it should never be race, education, profession or economic class.

When people come to worship beside us, we need to remember God's command to us given through the Apostle Paul in Romans 15:7: "welcome one another, therefore, as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God."

And we may even be surprised.

Hebrews 13:2 tells us: "Let love of the brethren continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it."

A newsletter called "Our America" tells how "Dodie Gadient, a schoolteacher for thirteen years, decided to travel across America and see the sights she taught about. Traveling alone in a truck with a camper in tow, she launched out. One afternoon, rounding a curve on I-5 near Sacramento in rush hour traffic, a water pump blew on her truck. She was tired, exasperated, scared and alone. In spite of the traffic jam she caused, no one seemed interested in helping.

Leaning up against the trailer she prayed, "Please God, send me an angel -- preferably one with mechanical ability." Within four minutes, a huge Harley drove up, ridden by an enormous man sporting long black hair, a beard, and tattooed arms. With an incredible air of confidence, he jumped off and without even glancing at Dodie, went to work on the truck. Within another few minutes, he flagged down a larger truck, attached a tow chain to the frame of the disabled Chevy, and whisked the whole 56 foot rig right off the freeway onto a side street, where he calmly continued to work on the water pump.

The intimidated schoolteacher was too dumbfounded to talk -- especially when she read the paralyzing words on the back of his denim vest: "Hell's Angels -- California." As he finished the task she finally got up the courage to say, 'thanks so much' and carry on a brief conversation. Noticing her surprise at the whole ordeal, he looked her straight in the eye and said: 'don't judge a book by its cover. You may not know who you're talking to.' With that, he smiled, closed the hood of the truck, and straddled his Harley. With a wave, he was gone as fast as he had appeared."

You never know. So if a Katie comes in, don't rush to throw your coat on the seat next to you. Pay attention! She might be an angel in disguise.