GLBT
Year B, Easter 5,
Acts 8:26-40, Psalm 22:25-31, 1 John 4:7-21, John 15:1-8
The eunuch was on his way home to Ethiopia. He had gone up to Jerusalem to worship God. But when he got to the temple, he was turned away. Because eunuchs were not allowed. The Bible is quite explicit, in Deuteronomy 23:1, that no man whose privates are damaged is allowed among the congregation of the Lord. What could he do? He had been castrated in his infancy, to prepare him for a life of service to the royal court. Eunuchs were supposed to be trustworthy because they could not be seduced, nor would they have families or offspring to embezzle for. This one had made the best of his situation, and he ranked very high. But strange, he was drawn to this God of a different nation. I wonder if he was risking his career. It was a long journey, and at his own expense, and for all that, when he got there, he will have been turned away at the temple gate.
And yet he did not turn away. His heart was still open despite his rejection. God was calling him and talking to him, through the scripture, the way God talks to us. In the chariot he was reading Isaiah, chapter 53. Why this passage? He found himself in it. It could have been describing his own infancy, when he was but a lamb, and they took the knife to him. Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth. His question to Philip is a poignant one, Of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or someone else?@ In other words, Could this be about me too? Is it possible for me to included here?
Philip answers with the gospel. He shows him that Jesus is in Isaiah too. Jesus is the foremost Someone Else of whom Isaiah spoke. He is the lamb that was slain, who opened not his mouth, whom justice was denied. The apostle helps the eunuch find Jesus, and, in finding Jesus, to worship God. Actually, God has found the eunuch, and included him in the people of Jesus. You see how it works. Jesus and the eunuch are found together and bound together, a lamb with the lamb, a victim with the victim, the eunuch is now included with Christ and ingrafted onto Christ. At last. No more is he a so-called Adry branch, he is a living branch upon the vine. When he sees the water, he asks, “What is to prevent me from being baptized?”
His question is not rhetorical. He has reason to expect not-full inclusion. The baptism he asks for is in Jewish terms. He knows that Philip has a lot to consider here. First, baptism is not an act for individuals but an entrance into the covenant community, but in Ethiopia he will be alone, so how can Philip realistically admit him into the communion of the church? Second, there’s still the Book of Deuteronomy, the Word of God, and the very explicit statement against him.
Philip has to make a judgment call. He has to make a decision. He has to act. Well, acts are what apostles do, their job is to make decisions on behalf of Jesus. It is a risk. He doesn’t have the approval yet of Peter and James and John. The Spirit has put the pressure on. He has to measure Deuteronomy in the scales of the gospel and read it in the light of Jesus and in the direction of the Holy Spirit. And with this guy looking right at him. Philip answers the question, in action, not with words. He baptizes him. Then he is spirited away, and the eunuch goes home with joy.
The reason I have called this sermon GLBT is not because the eunuch is gay. We don’t know if he was gay, because he was a eunuch. We do know he wasn’t lesbian, and we know he not bisexual and not transgendered. He wasn’t gay, but his castration will have caused some secondary characteristics that gay men often have, but there are many gay men without those characteristics and many straight men with them. I’m a case in point. I have some of those characteristics, and in high school some people called me a “faggot,” but I am quite straight. We don’t know if he was gay or straight, but, yes, he was excluded because of his sexuality, and yes, the whole question of nature or nurture is shown here as finally beside the point.
But the priority here is the act of the apostle. How the apostle takes the Biblical prohibition and subsumes it under the death and resurrection of Jesus in saying “Yes” to a person who up till now has been hearing “No.” It’s the act of the apostle that has led our Board of Elders fully to welcome persons who are gay and lesbian, without qualification.
There is no denying that there are some verses in the Bible which speak against gay people. True, these verses are few. They are far fewer than the verses which speak against the rich. And they are less clear and direct than the verses which speak against eunuchs. But Philip decided to read the law in terms of the gospel, and not the other way around, of reading the gospel in terms of the law. Our Board of Elders here has done the same.
Philip is our model because he did this not just to make this guy happy. He did it because of the power and presence of the living Jesus Christ, around the scriptures which spoke of Jesus in his death and his resurrection. Jesus was present in this whole transaction, through the scripture and the Holy Spirit. That chariot had four passengers: the driver, the eunuch, the apostle, and the Lord. There were three people in the water, the Lord Jesus was among them too. And that=s what we do here, the Lord Jesus is always at the center, in the Holy Spirit, with his resurrection power. We call each other equally to the Lordship fo Jesus Christ, and the challenge of Jesus Christ to lead lives of discipleship, of faithfulness and morality. We want to be branches on the vine so that Jesus may have his way with us.
Now, why didn’t Philip heal him? The apostles do healings in Acts chapters 3, 5, and 9. Of course, growing back a missing body part feels weird compared to making the lame walk or even raising the dead. In my immigrant church in Ontario, I had one elderly couple from the island of Overflakkee, and the Flakkee people are famous for both their very strict religion and their dry, laconic personalities. Dina was in a wheelchair because her leg had been amputated because of gangrene from diabetes. Once I came to visit them, and the Pentecostal preacher was in the living room. With my members! He prayed, and left. I had my visit, and Fred escorted me to my car, and I asked him if he believed in healing like the Pentecostals do. He said, “Ja, domine, we have to believe in healing, but I never seen ‘em grow a leg back on a lady.”
We tend to think of healing as a restoration to some normal state of nature, as a return to how creation is supposed to be. But New Testament healing is different. It’s not a restoration of the past but a preparation for the future, it’s not a vindication of creation but a sign and wonder of the new creation. The pattern of humanity is not Adam and Eve in a pristine state of nature, but Jesus himself, with the wounds and the scars. As the Epistle said last week, it has not yet been shown to us what we shall be, only that we shall be like Jesus. The Old Testament image of God is found in the man and woman, Adam and Eve, but the New Testament image of God is Jesus himself, and we shall be like him.
And Jesus is single. Jesus tell us that in the new creation we all will be single, like the angels, not be giving and taking in marriage. Heterosexual activity is only temporary. People don’t like this. Even the DaVinci Code wants Jesus to be married and have a wife and kids. But Jesus is single, and the image of God, and what we shall be, and healing is always to bring us closer to the image of Jesus and what we shall be in the new creation. So Philip does heal him, by baptizing him, by including him, as a eunuch. And so our Board of Elders also offers healing to gay and lesbian persons. The healing we offer is the end of hiding, the end of guilt and shame, full inclusion, engrafting onto the vine of Christ. Well, that is true for everyone. It’s the very same gospel for everyone, the very same hope for all.
This story is for everyone. Whatever your orientation or condition, it is for you. Have you suffered injustice? Did they steal your life from you? Did you have to be silent? Could you not defend yourself? Did someone cut off some part of your future and your hope? Have you lived in secrecy or shame? The church can=t make it go away or undo what=s been done to you. But we are witnesses of God’s love for you, and that the word of God has life for you, and this congregation believes you and welcomes you and blesses you, and delights to eat and drink with you.
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Daniel Meeter is pastor of the Old First Reformed Church of Brooklyn, New York. He has served RCA congregations in New Jersey, Michigan, and Ontario. He has a Ph.D. from Drew University, and has published two books on Reformed practical theology and history. He has served the denomination in many capacities at the levels of classis, regional synod, and general synod. He is married to Rev. Melody Meeter, who is Director of Pastoral Care at the Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn. They have two married children. Daniel is the son of an RCA pastor. He was born in Paterson, NJ, and grew up in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Jersey, and Long Island. He loves classical music, rock and roll, and the Mets.