Draw the Circle Wide
What a peculiar story…
Here in the book that details the Acts of the Apostles, we have Philip summoned by an angel to go south on a road that connects Jerusalem to Gaza. And Philip, without any question or clarification that we know of, heads off.
On the road he encounters an Ethiopian eunuch, someone who has a trusted role in supporting the Ethiopian queen, as the eunuch is departing Jerusalem where he has been to the Temple. As the chariot rolls along, the Ethiopian is reading from the prophet Isaiah – specifically the 53rd chapter.
At the nudging of the Holy Spirit, Philip runs alongside the eunuch’s chariot to catch up to him. Hearing what he is reading, Philip asks the man if he understands.
The Ethiopian admits that he can’t understand what he is reading without help. He invites Philip to join him in the chariot and he specifically asks Philip who it that is being described in this particular text from Isaiah.
Now this text that he is reading from Isaiah describes a suffering servant who is sacrificed for the good of Israel. The description ties this suffering servant to the root of Jesse. Philip uses the prophet’s description as a launching point to tell the Ethiopian about Jesus, about who Jesus was, what Jesus did and what his death and resurrection meant to those who follow.
Upon hearing about Jesus, the Ethiopian asks to be baptized, and as he and Philip come up out of the waters of Baptism, the Holy Spirit whisks Philip away.
That’s quite a story.
Let’s unpack some details and provide a little bit context here. Maybe we can find a foothold for how this text is speaking into our lives today.
We’ll begin here: just so we are on the same page, a eunuch in this context was likely a castrated male or someone with intersex characteristics. In case you are not up on the expanded vocabulary of gender identity, intersex describes individuals born with sex characteristics that do not fit typical definitions of male or female. In the book of Esther, eunuchs are among her trusted attendants at court. The man in this story is working in the Queen’s treasury. It seems as if emasculating a man rendered them more trustworthy in ancient patriarchal structures.
In light of this, the eunuch can be seen as someone who might be doubly rejected by many communities in this story. He is someone we might consider gender non-conforming, and if he was indeed castrated or otherwise physically unable to procreate, he was by Jewish law forbidden to participate in some parts of Temple life.
Also, as someone who was from a different geographic and cultural location, he was an outsider, a foreigner. At a minimum, he is not ethnically or culturally Jewish – he is on the outside of the Jewish community structures.
But he’s been to the Temple and there is something about how he has encountered the teaching and perhaps even his own experience of God that has him curious, seeking, longing to understand and know more.
I wonder if he, as an outsider, might have experienced some suffering and rejection that caused him to identify the suffering servant described in Isaiah? Perhaps “he was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity…” touched him in some deep way.
I wonder if Philip told him specifically about that first time that Jesus was teaching in the synagogue, also reading from Isaiah, chapter 61 – a bit further on from where the man is reading today:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set free those who are oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Maybe Philip remembered to tell him about the sermon on the plain – where Jesus blessed the poor. And maybe the eunuch could see himself in that blessing.
And we already know the Holy Spirit was swirling in this picture somehow. I imagine the eunuch’s heart being strangely warmed, or his own spirit feeling tugged and transformed. I imagine him longing to be part of a community that is following this man, Jesus – to be part of the body of Christ that was the emerging early church. TO belong – as someone who could not belong in many places.
And I need for us to keep remembering that the early church was a mix of Jewish and non-Jewish people. That is what is really heating up over the course of our readings in weeks to come – this tension about who can be part of the community and HOW people can become part of the community. What is required to be part of the community…
And before we go further, throughout Acts, I find myself wanting to be sure that we are remembering who Jesus was as a Jewish teacher.
There has been a history of interpreting this story as a rejection of the eunuch by Judaism and an acceptance of the man by early Christianity. It is vitally important to pay attention to the fact that the eunuch comes to understand Jesus through Jewish scripture. It is an unfair reading to make this a story about why Christianity is superior to Judaism; it is not a story about what Christianity gets right and Judaism gets wrong.
That’s my weekly reminder that we cannot read these stories of early Christianity as a corrective or as a rejection of Judaism.
So… let’s pay attention to the questions both men ask in this story.
Philip, who has been placed on the road at the direction of an angel and approaches the chariot at the direction of the Spirit, begins his conversation with the eunuch by asking him a question, “do you understand what you are reading?”
And only when he is invited, Philip shares what he knows and understands and has experienced about the Good News about Jesus.
I wonder…
What might be the difference between the eunuch ASKING Philip to share and Philip sharing without an invitation?
And then Philip’s sharing causes the eunuch to ask a question, “What is to keep me from being baptized?”
I wonder…
What are the things that keep people from becoming part of the body of Christ?
I wonder sometimes if we might have overcomplicated the process of conversion, of bringing someone into the community. I wonder sometimes if we miss the movement of the Spirit because we have a process or expectations that need to be met before we invite someone to become part of the body of Christ – as if the process and not our experiences of the Spirit are what make a difference.
There is so much here for us to consider as people who are claiming a call to be a place where people belong in community, become followers of Jesus, and believe the good news of the Gospel – in fact this story about the eunuch and Philip might be the perfect illustration of that exact call.
And we are living in a place in a moment in history when debates about who belongs are very charged and actually violent and life-threatening. This week the world watched as the college of cardinals elected a new Pope, another Catholic leader willing to speak out loudly about the treatment of migrants, calling Christians to hold the wider society accountable to care for the least of these.
And it seems to me that what we do in our little community of Faith has reverberations in the larger community of the DMV where ICE raids have families living in fear.
It hurts my heart to watch our communities tremble in fear.
And as I thought about all of this late in the week (maybe yesterday between events), I found myself humming a song that has become something of the reconciling ministries anthem – Draw the Circle Wide. Because it was late-breaking inspiration, we’re not showing the video today – but I’ll be sure to share a link in the week to come and with my blog post. Essentially the message is that no one (NO ONE) stands alone as we stand side by side. It is our work, our call to keep drawing the circle wide, and wider still, sharing the love we have received from God out into ripples that change the world.
Today, I invite you to sit with a couple of questions:
Who is it that explained the good news to you?
Have you been invited to explain the good news to others?
How are you attuned to the nudges of the Holy Spirit?
How will you draw the circle wide this week?
May we be ever mindful, listening with our hearts as well as our ears.
Amen.
Link to a recording of Draw the Circle Wide, Light & Miller
https://youtu.be/PcIQrWOYug8?si=F8oU77_DY2lino9k
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