Sermon

Acts 8:26-40

Our Mode of Transportation

By Dr. Jeffrey K. London

Theologian and author Henri Nouwen writes of having been visited by a Buddhist monk who took one look at him and with eyes twinkling said: “There was a man on a horse galloping swiftly along the road. An old farmer standing in the fields, seeing him pass, called out ‘Hey rider, where are you going?’ The rider turned around and shouted back, ‘Don’t ask me, ask my horse!’”

The monk then shocked Nouwen when he said, “That is your condition. You have become a passive victim of an ongoing movement which you do not understand.” (Henri Nouwen, Creative Ministry (New York: Image Book, 1978), page 3).

The monk’s story may be worth our consideration. Do we really know where our horses are going? Are we, as a congregation, aware and knowledgeable of our new journey or are we just along for the ride?

In our Epistle Lesson from 1st John, we heard proclaimed that it is through the gift of faith in Christ that we are empowered to love. Faith becomes our “mode of transportation,” our horse, that moves us beyond ourselves to love others, to love even the unlovable. Faith is not some sort of intellectual formula or concept. Faith is a relationship of personal trust. Faith is grounded in a mystery that says we have come to know and trust God’s love through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. (Robert McAfee Brown, Reclaiming the Bible: Words for the Nineties (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994), page 13.) And because faith is a mystery we can’t prove that faith is “real” anymore than we can prove love is real. But both faith and love are grounded in trusting relationships that empower us to live as real people.

The love that is shared by Christians is a clear and tangible sign of faith. Which is to say that the reverse is true as well: where love does not exist faith is lacking. When we understand it this way, we discover a check and balance system for ourselves. When we discover ourselves bearing grudges, withholding forgiveness, refusing to love…we are lacking in faith, and the problems of our lives may have more to do with us than with those we would blame. I’m critical of the church when it bashes other parts of the Body. The liberals bash the conservatives and conservatives bash the moderates. When we lack loving respect for different ways of being Christian, we lack genuine faithfulness. Hopefully, through faith, I can disagree with you and not feel the need to bash and degrade you, but love you at the same time. After all, let’s remember, Jesus said love your neighbors and your enemies probably because he knew they’re usually the same people.

Related to love and faith, there are two profound questions in our passage from Acts. The first comes from the lips of Philip who sees and hears an Ethiopian eunuch, a high government official from the court of the queen of the Ethiopians, reading aloud from the prophet Isaiah while riding in his chariot. Philip asks quite simply, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

The eunuch’s response is also quite simple, “How can I , unless someone guides me?” He’s reading the Bible but he doesn’t understand what it is he is reading. He lacks a guide. He lacks a teacher. He journeys but knows not where his horse is going.

So the eunuch invites Philip into his chariot and Philip begins to interpret the Old Testament Scriptures in light of Jesus Christ. Philip proclaims to the Ethiopian that it is Jesus whom the text he is reading from speaks of. It is Jesus who is the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God. Philip must have also mentioned baptism because at the first sign of water the believing Ethiopian asks to be baptized.

All of this happened while moving along in the chariot. In fact, there is movement all over this story. Everyone is on a journey. In fact, within the entire book of Acts Christians are identified through a journeying metaphor as people of “The Way.” (Acts 9:2; 19:9,23; 24:22) We get the picture of Philip literally bouncing around in our text. One minute he’s in Jerusalem, the next he’s on the road to Gaza, then in the Ethiopian’s chariot, then baptizing the Ethiopian, and then he’s in the city of Azotus. Philip’s faith motivates and moves him. We get the sense that Phillip’s journey is not a chaotic one aboard a runaway horse, but rather, he is at home within his journey of faith.

And now the Ethiopian eunuch is on a faithful journey as well. His desire to be baptized testifies to his changing horses. But there’s more to the story here. Please take out your Bibles and turn to Acts, chapter 8, verse 36, found on page 127.

In verse 36 the Ethiopian says, “See, here is water! What is to prevent my being baptized?” and then immediately following is verse 38? Hey, what happened to verse 37? Is this a misprint?

No, it is not a misprint. If you’ll note the letter “m” at the end of verse 36, you’ll see that we are being directed to a note in the margin. There in the margin is verse 37. It is there and not in the text because only some ancient manuscripts include it. This is unfortunate because verse 37 is the Ethiopian’s profession of faith where he says very clearly, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” It’s unfortunate that, quite literally, his profession of faith has been marginalized.

Which begs the question: How often are our own professions of faith in Jesus Christ marginalized? Have we developed a relationship with our faith, one that brings peace and joy, or one that brings that sick feeling that says, “I really have no idea what this is all about, and I really don’t know where my life (and the horse I’m on) is going”?

If faith empowers love and our faith is stuck in the margins of life, then how can we genuinely love one another? We do not live the faith if we leave our profession of that faith in the margin, in the outer peripheral reaches of our lives.

Too often we fall into the trap of feeling overwhelmed. Too many obligations, too many responsibilities, too many hats to wear. Our physical, emotional, and spiritual self becomes exhausted as we go about trying to do 1000 things and end up doing none of them well. When we reach this point, we have become passive victims of an ongoing movement which we do not understand. The push and pull of life has taken over and we feel more puppet than human.

If that’s at all close to where you are then listen carefully, because today the Good News calls us to stop — look down — and examine our mode of transportation. Are we riding a runaway horse that simply carries us away into a mindless existence of constant reaction, an existence in which we feel powerless and out of control? If that’s the horse we’re on then it’s time to acknowledge that fact and get off! It’s time to change horses. It’s time to reclaim the faith that has been gifted to us. It’s time to reclaim a faithful sense of meaning and purpose. And it is through faith, and only through faith, that our lives do come to have meaning and purpose, that we come to see ourselves not as slaves to the grind, but as loved and cherished children of God.

But such faith takes constant attention and nurture. It is not a quick, easy, and painless transition to board faith and live by faith. Scripture must become our owners manual for this mode of transportation, and we, like the Ethiopian need to be taught and guided if we are to be prepared for the journey.

The Good News is that faith is a wonderful gift that brings meaning, order, and purpose to our lives. Faith is our God-given mode of transportation that moves us through life, not around or under life, but through life. For with faith there will never be anything set before us that we cannot manage together with the help of our God and God’s people.

We will not live in fear, but in joy.
We will not live in anxiety, but in peace.
We will not live in chaos, but in ordered meaning.

We will live in faith.
We will live in love.
We will live life to the fullest, to the holiest.

Travel the journey of faith
not upon the runaway horses of our own making,
but on the winds of love
that will gently nudge us and move us ever forward,
ever forward.

AMEN

Copyright 2003 Jeffrey K. London. Used by permission.