Sermon by Marjorie Brown for Sunday, May 10th 2009

Philip had an interesting morning, didn’t he? An angel of the Lord told him what road to take, and he followed orders and had a really unusual encounter with a rather exotic character – a meeting that changed the other man’s life forever and probably had a lasting impact on Philip too.

I've always liked this story that Tim has read to us today, and I used to read it unthinkingly from the point of view of Philip, the Christian believer. I learned from it that when we wait on the Spirit, we may be called upon to be available to people just when they need us. I've found this to be true in my own life again and again. I have also learned from it that when we share the good news with someone, it may be a brief encounter and we will never find out how their particular story turns out. We just have to trust God and let them go - their future is in his hands, not ours. That's a lesson I had to learn when I was working as a chaplaincy volunteer in a hospital, seeing people at times of crisis and then never seeing them again afterwards.

So you can see why the story has meant a lot to me. But a few years ago I read a sermon by an African-American Baptist minister called Fred Lofton on this very same passage from Acts, and it gave me a whole new perspective on the story. I want to try to share a little bit of that perspective with you today.

The way his sermon changed me was by inviting me to see the story from the point of view of the other main character: that rich and exotic stranger on the road, the Ethiopian eunuch. Here was a man with an interesting history and a challenging situation. He was an African man who had been deprived of his manhood, as so many people in the ancient world were, in order to save his life and secure him a career at the court of the Ethiopian queen. His life and career came at the cost of a terrible mutilation that must have caused him psychological agony as well as physical pain. His pride and dignity were taken away from him and he was forced to live a life restricted by limits that were not God-given but put on him by other human beings. So many people in our world then and now suffer in this way. They are held down by racism or sexism or poverty or disability from living the life that God intends for them.

The Ethiopian eunuch didn't give up in despair, however. He made the best of the options that were available to him. He was clearly an educated man - we know that because he was reading the Hebrew scriptures, presumably in the Greek translation that was widely available. So he was able to read in a language other than his own. Literacy of any kind was a minority skill in those days, and bilingual literacy was even rarer.

We also know that he was a man in a position of trust and authority. In fact, he was the controller of the queen's fabulous wealth. He was her right-hand man. He must have proved his worth in years of faithful, hard work.

Another thing we know about him is that he was a man on a spiritual quest. He was interested in the monotheistic and ethical religion of the Jews - they believed in one God who gave people a moral law to live by. That was a very attractive alternative to the other religions on offer in the pagan world. The Ethiopian court official was so interested in Judaism that he travelled from Africa to Jerusalem to worship in the famous Temple and find out more about their faith.

He was a genuine searcher, eager to find out more. He was humble enough to know when he needed to seek help. Although he was in sole charge of huge amounts of money on behalf of the Queen of Ethiopia, he was a beginner in terms of understanding the things of God. So he knew that he needed a spiritual adviser when he tried to read the Hebrew prophets.

This man, this treasurer, had an open heart and mind, and when he heard the good news from Philip, the news that made sense of the Hebrew scriptures, he responded immediately. He was a man of decision and action, unlike that rich young man in the gospel story who turned away sorrowing from the invitation of Jesus because he was too fond of his wealth to give up everything and follow the Lord. The Ethiopian acted at once. He commanded his charioteer to stop beside the first water that he saw, and he requested Philip to baptize him without delay.

After his baptism, Acts tells us that Philip was snatched away by the Spirit and found himself somewhere else altogether. But however much this may have surprised Philip, it doesn't seem to have disturbed the Ethiopian, who simply went on his way rejoicing. Now he too was filled with the Spirit. Legend has it that he returned to Africa and founded the Ethiopian Coptic Church, the oldest continuing Christian Church in Africa. Thus, through the power of God, this man who was abused and enchained by human beings was empowered to do great things for the kingdom of God.

There are two different lessons to learn from this story, depending on whose point of view we take. We can learn from Philip, the Christian believer, to wait on the Lord, to hear his direction, so that we can be available to those who need us, without worrying about how their story will come out. And we can learn from the Ethiopian eunuch that whatever life or human oppression can do to bring us down, the power of God is available to us to set us free, and not only to set us free but to give us the gifts we need to make a difference in the world.

God's call on us is what ties these two stories together, the story of Philip and the story of the Ethiopian. It's God's action, God's love for us, that makes us seek for him. Friday, the day before yesterday, was the day when the Church commemorates the life of the mediaeval English mystic, Julian of Norwich. She received a number of visions and dictated an account of them, because unlike the Ethiopian eunuch she was illiterate. One of the things she learned from her visions was this: We never look for God until he in his goodness shows himself to us.

It's God who acts first, God who seeks us out, God who gives us a hunger for him. The Ethiopian treasurer would never have travelled all the way to Jerusalem, never have struggled to understand the scriptures of another nation, never have invited Philip into his chariot, if God had not loved him and wanted to call him.

And we too would not be here in this church if God had not invited us to come. We would not be seeking God if God had not first wanted to find us, just where we are. We would not be coming to this table, to receive the food of eternal life, if God had not asked us to come to his banquet. We would not be baptizing Oscar this morning, as we shall do in a very few minutes, if God had not called him to be his beloved child.

That brings us back, as always, to the good news of Jesus Christ, who came from heaven to seek us out, to love us and to save us. As John says, "In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us." Yesterday morning the youth work committee had a very fruitful meeting in St Paul's Cathedral crypt, during which we worked hard to find a set of words that expressed what our vision for St Mary's youth work is. We wanted to root it in the prior love of God which is boundless and all-encompassing, and which is reflected in our loving actions towards one another.

What we needed to say is that whatever we do is a human RESPONSE to God's love, not a lonely striving and searching for someone who doesn't want to be found. God pours out love freely and abundantly upon us, whether we respond or not, just as the waves of the ocean envelop the rocks on the beach. But we are given the ability to respond to that love. As a young child, just learning to walk, tumbles into the arms of its mother, so we are called by our loving creator to entrust ourselves to him.

The Ethiopian treasurer had only to hear that invitation, and he responded at once. May we too make that simple but life-changing response. And may God strengthen Oscar's parents and godparents as they make that response on his behalf today.