Here is Water

My favorite part of being a Baptist is baptism. I absolutely love baptism and the role it plays in our tradition. As a child my love for baptism was simply the fact that you were allowed to go swimming in church. Sure it was only for a minute or two but you got to splash around in a very large bathtub in church. What more could a 6 year old ask for? As an adult and pastor, while that is still a part of my love of baptism, I love the symbolism of baptism. I love the importance of baptism, not as a part of salvation, but as a part of being a part of the community. It has become a reminder of my Christian faith, a promise to a life of following Christ. Baptism, to me, is a vital part of our faith and important act.

After preaching and converting the entire town of Samaria, Philip is told by the angel of the Lord to go south down the road from Jerusalem to Gaza, a wilderness road. Philip, a deacon turned preacher who saved an entire city is not asked to return to Jerusalem or head to Rome, he is told to go south. He is told to take the wilderness road. He is not told why. He is not told what he will see or the specifics of the reason. Philip is just told to go and Philip does as he is told. He gets up and goes.

On the road to Gaza, an Ethiopian eunuch, the treasurer of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians was returning home from Jerusalem, reading the Isaiah scrolls. The Spirit said to Philip, “Go over there and join the chariot.” Again Philip doesn’t ask why or demands to know more he runs up to it and overhears the eunuch reading Isaiah. Philip asks him, “Do you understand what you’re reading?” Not a very kind question if you wish to read it that way. If Philip asked that question today I am sure there would be some anger from the receiving party. “What do you mean, “Do I understand?” Are you saying I can’t read?” At least I think that’s the response I would get if I asked a stranger at Starbucks if they understood what they were reading. The eunuch does not take it rudely. He responds, “How can I, unless someone guides me? How can I, unless someone reads with me?” He invites Philip to get in and sit beside him.

The passage he was reading was Isaiah 53:7-8, “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.”

“Who is the writer speaking about?” The eunuch asks. “Is he speaking of himself or of someone else?”

Philip, probably thinking as most preachers do, “Should I get into a deep theological academic conversation about the different messiahs Isaiah speaks to? Should I talk about the complexity of the text and the context of the text?” Instead starting with this scripture he begins to tell him of the good news of Jesus Christ.

As they travel, the eunuch sees water and says, “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. (Acts 8:26-40)

This story reminds me of the TV show Quantum Leap that ran from ‘89 to ‘93. You might recall the premise of the show: Dr. Sam Beckett leaps from place to place in time to set right what once went wrong by leaping into the bodies of specific people. Each show ended with a leap into a new body and with each leap he hoped his next leap was the leap home. Sam would often leap into a new body right in middle of a chaotic or embarrassing moment and the episode would end with him saying, “Oh boy.”

The leaps would not tell Sam why he had leaped into the person or time he did. He needed Al, played by Dean Stockwell, and Ziggy to help him figure out his mission and what wrong needed to be set right. The story of Philip and the eunuch reminds me of this show because Philip is commanded to go south down the wilderness road and is not given a reason why. He is left in the dark of the reason but he goes. He doesn’t question, argue, or pout with the spirit. Luke writes, “So, he got up and went.” In fact, a majority of the time God calls someone to do something, God is rarely specific or into details. The beauty of the it is the person called goes willing (sometimes unwilling) and discovers a long the way what they must do. Then when he has completed his task, Philip leaps to Azotus.

On the road to Gaza, Philip overhears a man reading in a chariot. He doesn't respond to what he hears from the chariot; much like one wouldn't respond to the readings or theological talk coming from a booth over at Chick Fil-A. The Spirit commands Philip to go to the chariot and from there Philip seems to pick up on what he's supposed to do. But Philip is just one of the players in the story. You might say he's a minor character. Sure, he's important to the story but he's not the focus of the story. The focal point of the story is the eunuch. Luke goes into detail to tell us about the eunuch specifically his nationality, his position, and that he's a eunuch.

On hearing this we may not think anything of it. We do not have eunuchs in our culture. It's not a practice that many Americans take place in. Our armies do not castrate young men who are taken prisoner in war to stop them from breeding. Or at least we hope not. We are told this Ethiopian is a eunuch because it plays an important role in the narrative God is writing with Christ. For Jews, in order to be allowed into the temple you had to be physically clean. Diseases that brought on leprosy, blindness, hemorrhaging, or deafness were seen as diseases and sicknesses caused by sin and you were forbidden to enter the temple. Likewise eunuchs were not allowed into the temple because they were not whole. They were not complete. They were unclean because they had been robbed of a body organ. They were on the do not let in list.

Luke tells us the eunuch is reading from Isaiah, specifically Isaiah 53:7-8. Just a few chapters down he is going to read a passage that reads, “Do not let the eunuch say, “I am just a dry tree.” For thus says the Lord: To the eunuchs who keep my commands, who choose the things that please and hold fast my covenant, I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name better than the sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.”

Imagine being a person who has been told that they were not welcomed into the temple, they were not welcomed to participate in certain rituals because they were not whole because they were unclean. Imagine, then, reading of a person who goes willing to his shearers and does not open his mouth. Imagine, then, reading the promise God gives to the eunuchs just a few chapters later. Imagine the new story you are being told of the new things God is making through Christ. Imagine the joy. Imagine the freedom. Imagine.

Luke culminates this story with the act of baptism. At some point in his conversation with the eunuch, Philip must have mentioned baptism. He must have described the story of Jesus going to John and being baptized in the Jordan river. Philip must have told him of how the sky opened and a dove flew down and the voice of God saying, “This is my son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” Philip must have shared theses stories because Luke writes, “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 being baptized?”” This beauty of the story shines through as Luke writes, “both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.”

Over the centuries and years we've become a church based on rules and guides. We call those rules and guides doctrines. While some doctrines are good and necessary, some will need to be revisited and we will need to ask ourselves what the story of the eunuch is teaching us. We will need to reconcile the hope of Isaiah, the promise of Christ, the eunuch's rejoicing, and our rules that seek prohibit certain groups from experiencing or participating or rejoicing in the hope of Isaiah and the promise of Christ.

“Here is water, what is preventing me from being baptized?” Luke doesn't say that Philip went into a long explanation of the classes the eunuch needed to attend. He doesn't say that the eunuch needed to listen to Beth Moore or Billy Graham or make a pilgrimage to the temple and wait on approval from the apostles. Luke doesn't tell us this story ever makes it to the apostles ears. The Ethiopian leaves the waters alone. He makes his way back to Ethiopia without Philip. Philip leaps to Azotus and goes on about his preaching business.

This story reminds us that the Jesus who came and proclaimed an inclusive kingdom that belonged to the unexpected, the eunuchs of the world, is indeed the Son of God, and that the promises are being filled. We have this story to offer and it is a story that doesn't exclude. It is a story that urges us to say to one another, to our neighbors, to our friends, to our families, to the strangers, to our enemies; the oppressed, the outcast; the abandoned the beaten, the lost; the poor, the rich; the republican, the democrat, the tea partier, the occupier; the illegal immigrant, the homosexual; to the men, to the women, to the children of all races, “Here is water. Come and join us. Let us love you. Be a part of our faith, of our family, of our community.” This is a story that reaches out and pulls us in asking, “Here is water. What is preventing me from being baptized?”

What is that prevents you from leaving here still rejoicing? What is that prevents you from reaching your hand out? What is that prevents you from coming to this table? What prevents you from joining this church? What prevents you from trusting God? What prevents you from loving those we've deemed eunuchs? What prevents you from being baptized? What prevents you from remembering your promise?

Let it go. Step into the water and let it wash away. Bury it with Christ in your baptism and be raised to walk in the newness of life as one with Christ.

What is it that is preventing you?