Follow the Verbs

Acts 8:26–40 NRSV

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.

The phrase is well known to us all. If you ever watch a movie or crime drama on TV you hear it all the time. The phrase is “follow the money”. This phrase tells the main character how to find out if a crime has been committed and where to find who is responsible. Usually, the trail leads to someone unexpected and leaves us feeling a rush of excitement at the reveal of who it is. It makes for great viewing.

Today’s text is somewhat similar. We are to follow what will lead us to bring other people to God. In this case we are to follow the verbs from this text.

To begin we have to have some context. In the beginning of chapter eight, we are following Philip, who was preaching to crowds in the city and area of Samaria. Samaritans were usually regarded with contempt by those who were Jews as they were considered half breeds, Jews who had mixed with foreigners. But Philip proclaims the Gospel to this group of marginalized people and they receive it with great joy. This lays the foundation for the other apostles to come to the area and continue the work.

After meeting the other apostles in Samaria, we come back to Philip. He is told to go out of the city in which he is doing ministry and head south. Now doing this makes no sense. There is really nothing that is south of this area. In fact, we are told that this is called the Wilderness Road. But Philip has been told to go by the angel of the Lord, and so, he goes. Here is the first verb that we are to follow in our Christian lives, go.

There on the road he encounters someone unexpected. It is an Ethiopian eunuch who is returning to his country after going to Jerusalem for a pilgrimage. We are told that that he worshiped there but there are two reasons that will make this unrealistic. The first is that he is a eunuch and according to Deuteronomy, eunuchs had no place in the worship of Israel. They were cut off both literally and figuratively from the worship of the Jews. The second reason is that he is a foreigner and therefore a Gentile. Gentiles, unless they were converts, were also not allowed in the worship of the Jews. But this man has made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem which means that he is one who wants to follow the God of Israel. And when he sees this man, Philip is told to go and join him.

When we are told to go, it is to go outside of the church and meet with people outside the walls. A metaphor that has been used is that we are not to dine in and have people come to us but rather we are to go out and practice spiritual take out. In other words, we are to share the good news of the Gospel wherever we find ourselves.

The verb that follows go is join. Philip is told to go and join the eunuch in his chariot. Philip is not sure why, but he again goes and approaches the chariot. There he finds that the man is reading, most likely out loud, from a scroll. Now this may seem unusual to us when we read silently, but in ancient times reading was generally done out loud. And something else that may not strike us as strange but would have shown this man’s importance and his wealth was the reading of the scroll. Scrolls and books were expensive in ancient times and only those with great wealth were able to purchase them. Plus, the fact that he had a chariot showed even more his importance and wealth.

When Philip reaches the chariot, he hears the man reading and asks if he understands. The man states that he does not and how can he unless he has a guide to help him understand. It is remarkable that for his importance this man is humble and willing to ask for help. And so, Philip joins the man in the chariot to ride along and listen to any questions and to try to explain what is being read.

We are called to join as well. When we go out, we are to join people wherever they are and to form relationships with them. We are not to go out and beat them over the head with the Bible and claim that we know what is best. Rather, we are called to join them in their lives, to get to know them, to understand them and what they need. And joining with folks can take some time. There is a saying that goes like this: People do not care about how much you know. They want to know how much you care. When people know that we care, they are more open and receptive to what we have to say and they are more likely to listen. The eunuch knew that Philip cared when he asked the question and then joined him in the chariot.

Our third verb to follow is listen. How many of us have ever asked a question and then “listened” so that we could respond to the answer that was given? Instead of truly hearing what a person says, we believe that we must have the correct response. But when we truly listen, we can hear what the person is saying and understand where they are coming from.

Philip listens to the eunuch who reads from the scroll of Isaiah, what we would know as chapter 53. There he reads of the suffering servant and is confused. “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?[1]” is the question that is asked by the eunuch. The man genuinely wants to know about whom the prophet is writing. And Philip has the answer.

Philip then follows the last verb, tell. He begins to tell the man of the “good news about Jesus”. When he does this, he is reaching out to the eunuch and telling him that he has a place in a community of worship. That the one whom the prophet wrote about is the one who came to reach out to the marginalized and those who, like the eunuch, were considered outcasts. This same one opened up the doorway to all who believed in him no matter what condition their body was in and no matter where they came from.

It is in the interpretation that Philip shows what we are to do as well. We oftentimes claim that anyone can read the bible and understand what is written there. But do they and, by that same token, do we? When we don’t understand what do we do? Try harder to understand on our own? If you are like me, you turn to someone who can help interpret the scripture by opening up what we might not understand. And this is a part of our tradition. Our confessions make a point that we are to interpret the scripture by the inward illumination of the Holy Spirit but that we are also listen to the external preaching of the Word of God no matter what form it comes in.

In the interpretation of the scripture the man accepts what Philip was teaching him. He wants to be and is baptized. Philip is taken away at that moment to another city and the man is left alone. But he is joyful. The preaching of the Gospel brings joy to the lives of those who preach it and those who accept it. And so, this eunuch goes back to his home where tradition tells us he helped to begin the Christian church there. All because he also followed the verbs.

Following the verbs can be a bit nerve wracking. We are called to go out of our comfort zones and be a part of the bigger world. And in many cases, those outside of our church walls are hostile to religion. They believe that we are provincial in our mind set, that we are hostile to others, that there is no place for them in our churches and that we are hypocrites. To those outside of our walls, why should they even come in? But here is where we follow the verbs. We are called to go outside of our walls and meet those who believe these reasons for not coming into the church. In doing so we are to join them and show them that we care. By showing them that we care we are to listen to them and understand where they are coming from. And finally, we are to tell them the good news about Jesus. The one who welcomes all, who even welcomes us, is the one who leads us in following the verbs. It is not us who will initiate the work or who will cause the work to flourish. That is God’s job. Ours is to assist with the natural process and go where the Spirit leads us. Amen.

[1] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989. Print.