Fifth Sunday of Easter May 18, 2003. (Preaching Helps).

Acts 8:26-40

Psalm 22:24-30 (25-31 NRSV)

1 John 4:7-21

John 15:1-8

In Luke 24 the risen Jesus opens minds so they can understand the Scriptures. He opens the Scriptures to point out where he shows up in them, from Moses to the prophets. In Acts the apostles continue this work of opening Scripture and opening minds. That's not a bad description of the preacher's task. It is in fact the calling of all the baptized to open minds and open Scripture to Jesus Christ.

In the first reading Philip runs alongside the chariot of the Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the queen. The official is reading the prophet Isaiah. He admits that he does not understand what he is reading. Philip vaults into the chariot and points Jesus out in the text. Properly catechized or not, the eunuch stops at the first oasis and asks Philip to baptize him.

In terms of the Gospel reading, Philip is the vinedresser, the vinegrower's agent. He grafts the eunuch into the vine. In her poem "Long Barren" Christina Rosetti writes, "O Rose of Shar'n, O Thou my Living Vine/ O sturdy Cedar, David's Son divine,/ O graft me close, enwrap my withering stem/ Lord, help me grow, instill new life within!"

So grafted, the barren one, this eunuch, will produce fruit. It will not be the fruit of children that would bring him glory as a father. It will instead be the fruit of love and faith from being grafted into Jesus.

Grafting is not the vinedresser's only job. Pruning also falls in the vinedresser's job description. We don't read of any pruning work that Philip performed on the eunuch. Surely there will be plenty to prune in time to come if the eunuch is to produce good fruit.

The story of Philip and the eunuch shows us that it was a good time to be the church, those years right after Jesus' ascension. It didn't look like it. Stephen was executed by the mob. Believers were expelled from Jerusalem (8:1). They had been nestled safe and secure in the Holy City. In spite of injunctions to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, human nature being what it is, those early believers probably would have been content to stay put. Perhaps they would have funded a little preaching station in Galilee, maybe start up a mission congregation in Antioch of Syria. Probably not much more. Then they ran afoul of the authorities in Jerusalem and had to get out of town fast. The believers scattered. The book of Acts does not record any complaining about it, no account of anyone bemoaning their fate. No doubt some did. They were separated from family, homes, and jobs. Schooling for their children was interrupted. But none of that gets recorded. What does get recorded is that those who were run out of town proclaimed the good news along the way and in all the places where they took refuge, places they ordinarily would not have gone. Who would go to Samaria if they didn't have to, if it wasn't a good hiding spot? These refugees proclaimed the good news to Samaritans. Samaritans believed and were baptized.

And Philip hopped a ride with the official of the Queen of Ethiopia who was on the road home after a diplomatic mission. Ethiopians were of a different color and culture. In all likelihood the Apostles would have taken the gospel many places before venturing to Ethiopia. This one now was in Christ along with the other believers. As a eunuch he was excluded from the inner parts of the temple. He was damaged goods and not fit to come into the presence of the Perfect. Whatever it was that made him a eunuch would have pruned him also from Israel's vine had he been a son of Israel. By baptism he is grafted into Christ along with all the other baptized. With them he is bold to stand in God's presence.

From this account of Philip, Acts turns back to the story of Saul, whom God transformed from enemy to apostle, changing his name from Saul to Paul to mark the transformation. Paul went out and transformed more enemies into friends. It didn't look like it, but it was a good time to be the church.

Now is a good time to be the church. It doesn't look like it. We live in the "postChristian" era. In the post-Christian era the stores are open on Sunday. Youth soccer has games and practices Sunday mornings. Christmas break is "Winter holiday." Easter vacation is "Spring break." In a figurative sense we too have been scattered. We have lost our place of privilege in the capital city. There has been a lot of complaining about it, a good deal of bemoaning our situation. None of that will change things back to the way things were. What will be recorded, remembered, and celebrated is how we proclaim the good news along the way and in the hinterlands to which we have been scattered, to the Samaritans and Ethiopian court officials and Sauls of our day.