TEXT: Acts 8:26-40

Acts 8:26-4026 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.)27 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 28 and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah.29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go over to this chariot and join it."30 So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?"31 He replied, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him.32 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.33 In his humiliation justice was denied him.Who can describe his generation?For his life is taken away from the earth." 34 The eunuch asked Philip, "About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?"35 Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus.36 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?"38 He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.39 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.40 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.

"WHEN THE SPIRIT IS LOOSE, LOOK OUT!"

TEXT: Acts 8: 26-40

If you saw the film Mission Impossible a couple years ago, you knew when it ended that there would soon be a Mission Impossible II. It was inevitable-and I might add, an inevitability that I looked forward to happening. So now it has hit the big screen: filled with chase scenes, plots and sub-plots, romance, adventure, thrill-a-minute action, and the impish grin of Tom Cruise. "Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is…. Oh well, impossible, but you can do it, you are a star and after all this is a big budget movie!"

As those early disciples clustered in the borrowed safe house following the crucifixion of their rabbi, they had no idea of the long run that they were in for, or just how impossible a mission they were about to be asked to accept. No, they were just plain confused and scared. Then the crucified, dead and buried rabbi whom they had been following around the countryside for a few years suddenly appeared in their hide out, even though the doors had been securely shut and locked, to confirm the truth of the story of his resurrection that the women of their number had reported to them.

After calming them down and having a bit of gefelti fish with them, we are told that before leaving for the evening he said, in effect, "My peace I leave with you." He went on to say, "As the Father has sent me, so send I you!" And then he blew his breath, the empowering Spirit breath, across them, and said "Receive the Holy Spirit."

They breathed deeply, not fully comprehending, because there was no way any one could have comprehended, the impossibility of the mission which they, and those who were yet to become disciples, had just accepted. Holy Spirit had been let loose in the world in a new and wondrous way, and when the Spirit is let loose in your life, look out for you are in for being swept into a story line beyond the imaginings of any movie script writer.

As with many story lines, this morning's text from the book of Acts has fast forwarded the time line to several months following that scene in the safe house and after what the church has come to refer to as Pentecost. Following Pentecost the gospel begins to spread like wildfire across the known world of those who lived within the sphere of the Roman Empire. It was as though the Jewish religious leaders and Roman political leaders had set a small blaze to protect themselves from threat of future danger only to have the wind of the Spirit whip it into an uncontrollable blaze which roared across their landscape. Suddenly Holy Spirit was being poured out upon, and embracing all, within its grasp. We will "flash back" to that event in a couple weeks. But for now we look in on the dramatic activity of Spirit in the life of one new follower, a conversation, and a conversion which reflect the impact of the Spirit when let loose.

It's the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. It begins in the desert, a landscape devoid of life, and ends at a spring, where new life begins. It is the story of an event that was not the church's idea, but instigated by the Spirit of God which taught the church that even the most marginalized of persons are included in the scope of God's redemptive love. It is an account of an event that is to have on-going universal significance for in it is revealed that Easter is not just for the first disciples, or a special group of the elect as some would have us believe, but rather for the world. And yes, I am talking about evangelism-evangelism without borders, an evangelism open to embrace every person with the liberating good news of the gospel of the commonwealth of God.

Just this past Friday a consultant who is working with me warned me that it is not unlikely for a minister with my temperament to become cynical after being in the pastoral ministry as long as I have been. "Say it isn't so!" I wanted to say, but I am afraid she is right.

If you have been in the "church" business as long as I, then you have seen one denominational emphasis on evangelism after another over the years. Each came with its slogan. Bold Mission Thrust was just one in a string of many for those of us who have at one time or another been identified as Southern Baptists. With one great church growth movement after another, the denominational religious planners urged us to share an evangelistic presentation of Jesus with every person in the world by the year 2000. We didn't. Now when I hear talk of starting new churches in NYC with the intention of them becoming mega-churches, I wearily turn away. I am weary, as no doubt many of you are, of quick fixes to the problems presented by an increasingly secular and pluralistic world. I would rather turn to Acts.

True, our story this morning is an evangelistic story, the story of a gift. But it is also a story which seeks to evangelize you and me-the church. It is a bold reminder that the gift of the Holy Spirit comes with some cost. But then maybe that's why we are so shy about being evangelists.

Our story begins with a man named Philip, an early believer of the gospel as preached by the disciples in Jerusalem and one of the first to serve in the role of church ministry which has come to be known as deacon. Philip is told to get up and head out into the middle of the wilderness at high noon of all times. That was not a time or place that most folk would have chosen, but he did not chose, rather he was chosen and sent by Holy Spirit.

Once he has place himself along the road in the wilderness, he meets a strange pilgrim. An Black man, an Ethiopian, a rich Ethiopian, a member of the Queens court Ethiopian, and a eunuch at that-a person of uncertain gender or sexual orientation. He is sitting with all his regalia up in his chariot reading what our story teller reveals to us as being the prophet Isaiah. And Spirit says to Philip, "Go help him out." Which Philip does.

Philip answers his questions and tells the Eunuch about Jesus. He doesn't tell him a lot, just what he knows. And he must have done a good job because the Eunuch decides that he wants to be baptized then and there. Philip resists. He would if he could, but you see they are, after all, in the desert. After all what are the church's rules on baptism, on baptism of Blacks, on baptism of borderline Jews, or even more scandalous, of persons with gender orientations which under the Jewish law had been declared unacceptable to God.

The Eunuch, interesting we never know his name, just this statement of his sexual orientation, points out that indeed there is water. Miraculously. And Philip baptizes him-this man from the margins. Remember, it is Holy Spirit who set this thing up, not someone with a "politically correct" agenda. And the Holy Spirit descends, sending Philip on his way to the next fringe community and the Eunuch home to Ethiopia rejoicing.

This wonderful account of evangelism and the universal scope of the gospel was not the church's idea, nor was it Philip's idea. He was thrust out of Jerusalem into Samaria by the Spirit when persecution of the church broke out. In Samaria it was discovered that the Spirit embraced those of questionable Jewish linage or religious orientation when the wildfire of revival broke out. Then Philip was thrust out of Samaria into the wasteland by the same Spirit to talk to of all people a rich Ethiopian.

I wonder if the reason we are not more evangelistic is not that we are afraid that it won't work, but rather that we are afraid that it will work.

I heard a pastor earlier this week explain that the reason that the church which he pastors is so small is not because they do not do good things in the community. They do. But rather because they are afraid that if they are more open and receptive to new folk then those folk will want to join with them and along with those new members will come new ideas and understandings of how to do things and the church will have to change. Its easier to keep things under control.

Well, friends when the Spirit is set loose you are not able to keep things under wraps any longer. This story was not just about the conversion of the Eunuch. It the story of the conversion of the church. Holy Spirit has just leapt another boundary, kicked another wall down, busted open another door. There's a party going on, and guess who is invited? You are. We are. This is not an invite to another denominational promotion. It is an invite from Holy Spirit, herself. So let's go tell the good news, be evangelistic. The Spirit is loose! Have we got any volunteers to ride that wind?