One of the big issues in religion, going back to the beginning of biblical history, is, who, may belong to the faith community? Or to pose the question in other words, who is welcome to become a member of the people of God?
Behind this question of who is welcome, is the much bigger question of whether these are God's requirements, or human requirements. There certainly does seem to be a human instinct for drawing boundaries between us and them.
Our first lesson from the book of Acts, gives the answer, which the early church believed Jesus had given, to the question of who is welcome. To understand the answer, we must take one quick step back to chapter 1 of Acts, where the disciples are having their last conversation with the Risen Christ. They want to know, is this the moment when God's Kingdom comes? Jesus answered them with 4 statements about what would happen in the future. The book of Acts is written, in part, to show that those 4 statements were fulfilled.
In order to understand the meaning of this story, we need a good deal of back ground, much of which I got 2 months ago from a New Testament scholar, when I visited Scripps College. Gay Bryon's book is entitled Symbolic Blackness and Ethnic Differences in Early Christian Literature. The country, from which the Ethiopian eunuch came, is not modern day Ethiopia, but modern day Sudan, which was frequently referred to in the Old Testament as Cush. It was outside the Roman Empire, and caused a good deal of trouble for the Romans. The country was ruled by a succession of queens, whose title was Can-da-see and who were in constant battle with surrounding nations. Both because they were outside the empire, and also because Rome did not succeed in conquering them, this country and it's Treasurer, represented "the ends of the earth."
At the same time, the Ethiopian eunuch also represented a racial difference from the Jewish disciples, because he would certainly have been a black man, a class difference, because he was a cabinet minister, the Treasurer of the Candasee, the equivalent of Alan Greenspan, and an economic difference: a wealthy man. We know he was wealthy, because he was riding in a chariot driven by someone else -(the ancient limousine), and he has purchased in Jerusalem a luxury item: a scroll of the book of Isaiah. There is no way of guessing the cost of such a scroll; its value would have been based on the number of sheepskins needed to write out the 66 chapters of Isaiah, and the cost of the labor and skill required to copy it. Finally, the Ethiopian was a eunuch, a man who had been castrated. It was common both in the ancient western world and in China for officials in royal courts to be eunuchs, because they would have neither wives nor children to provide for. However, they were regarded as unnatural and ambiguous "others", who were not allowed to worship in the Temple, or to serve as professors in Athens. Across the religious and cultural spectrum, they were outsiders to everyone.
Now let us look at the events in the lesson. Three things stand out. The first is that the action is guided by the Holy Spirit. The only reason the apostle Philip went to the road toward Gaza was that the Holy Spirit directed him to do so. Once he was in the place intended by the Spirit, he was told to approach the chariot in which the Ethiopian was sitting. These two references to the guidance of the Spirit, make it clear that this meeting is not by chance, but is specifically a fulfillment of the prophecy about the Gospel being proclaimed to the end of the earth.
The second thing that stands out is that the Ethiopian is presented as a model of virtue. The clues here are subtle, and therefore less certain. We are told that the Ethiopian had gone to Jerusalem to worship in the temple. So this was not a business trip, but a personal pilgrimage to the central place of Jewish worship. Another clue is the fact that he has purchased a scroll of Isaiah, which he is reading immediately as he leaves Jerusalem. And the final clue, provided by Gay Byron in her book, is the emphasis on silence and humility as primary Christian virtues. Both the verses cited from Isaiah, about the silent humble lamb, and the response of the Ethiopian, asking for help in understanding Isaiah, emphasize humility.
The third thing that stands out is the readiness of the Ethiopian to hear and accept the Gospel, and his request to be baptized on the spot. Because he has obviously learned a great deal about Judaism, and worshipped with Jews, and made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, he has both the understanding of God's ways, and the desire for spiritual growth. What he lacks is acceptance and fellowship-as a eunuch he would not be welcome as a convert to Judaism. Now comes Philip, who tells him the good news of Jesus-namely the forgiveness of sins, the healing of the sick, the welcome of outcasts, and the resurrection from the dead. In that good news, the Ethiopian eunuch hears the possibility that he too might be welcome among the followers of Jesus. Listen to his question: "What is to prevent me from being baptized?" Since the Jews rejected him he is asking if he will be rejected again. Instead, Philip accepts and baptizes him. From him as an outsider, it is a question of inclusion; for Philip the apostle it is the guidance of the Spirit; and for St. Luke the evangelist, the author of the Book of Acts, it is fulfillment of prophesy.
As I thought about this ancient fulfillment, I realized I had read 6 months ago about a contemporary fulfillment of the same prophesy. For many centuries, Christianity has been a religion of Europe, and then of North America. In the 17th centuries missionaries began to go out to distant countries, and gradually the good news of the Gospel had indeed spread around the world. Recently, however, Christianity has had an explosive growth in Africa and Latin America. In 1900, 10% of Africans were Christians, today 46% of all Africans are Christian. Likewise in Latin America and in Asia, there are growing numbers of Christians. These increases have come both in the traditional churches-for example there are 7 or 8 times as many Anglican in Nigeria as in the United States-and in the Pentecostal and prophetic churches. This information comes from a book by Philip Jenkins called The Next Christendom, and from an excerpt of that book in the Atlantic Monthly last October.
I wonder if these facts have anything to do with us at St. Thomas? Is it possible that we, as a parish, might have some role to play both because of who we are, and also because of where we are? Who we are is a parish with a longstanding outreach to outsiders, whether they be in need of clothes, or food, or shelter. We are a parish that has undertaken ministries to ethnic communities-first the Chinese and now the Japanese. A Native American priest has served us. And we are a parish with a special interest and practice in healing and prayer. Here we are in Sunnyvale, which has an increasingly international population, coming especially from India, and from Asia but also from the Middle East from the South Pacific, from Africa, Central America .... What could St. Thomas become, if we truly fulfilled the prophecy of Jesus, that people will come from east and west, from north and south, to sit at the table in the Kingdom of God? What might we be able to offer the diocese, and Silicon Valley, as a faith community of diversity? I don't know the answers to these questions now, but they are in my thoughts and prayers. I hope they are in yours as well.
Amen