Acts 8: 26-40 Ps. 22: 25-31
1 John 4: 7-21 John 15: 1-8
Alleluia! Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
In July 2009, thirty five thousand Lutheran teenagers and their adult pastors, youth directors, and chaperones traveled to New Orleans for the ELCA National Youth Gathering. The ELCA had chosen New Orleans as the site for the Gathering prior to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. After the hurricane devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, they decided that the most faithful response was to move forward with the plan to hold the Gathering in New Orleans, hoping that it would not only be an economic boost, but that it would open unique doors for service work for our youth.
Very quickly the apex of the Gathering became those service opportunities. It was determined that each group would devote one full day to service, meaning that on any given day, about 13,000 people were involved in service work throughout the greater New Orleans area. Each group was invited, prior to the Gathering, to name the areas of service that interested them.
Our group from Seattle indicated that we were interested in working on the reconstruction and restoration of homes and neighborhoods. Our 33 kids and 6 adults envisioned a service day that probably involved hard hats and hammers.
When our day of service arrived, we were loaded onto the bus in the bright orange shirts that all of the Gathering participants wore to identify them as a part of this enormous group of folks present in the city. We were, in fact, the first convention to return to New Orleans, some four years later. The buses pulled away from the Convention center and drove for about twenty minutes until it stopped in the middle of a neighborhood. We were confused and slightly miffed when we looked out the bus windows at an upper middle class neighborhood with large, relatively new, homes. Homes that were certainly larger than ours. A rumble of discontented surprise made its way through the bus.
The project director stood and passed out clipboards with survey sheets on them. “All that these people have left in their neighborhoods are their homes” we were told. “There are no schools, no shopping centers, no grocery stores, no libraries, no hospitals, no businesses, no office buildings. They have all either been condemned or have closed because there simply aren’t enough people left in the neighborhoods to support them. Your task today is to interview the people in their homes and ask them what they most need to have come back to the neighborhood.”
We piled out of the bus into the heat and humidity of the day and started off down the street, in groups of about six or seven. We noted as we walked that the watermarks on each home were present at about the 8 foot mark. The smell of mildew was heavy in the air. Only about 1/3 of the homes were occupied; the rest had been abandoned.
We rang the bell and she answered the door. Y’all come right on in here. Y’all are those Lutherans aren’t you? I’ve never met a Lutheran myself, but ever since I saw on the tv news that you were coming, I’ve been praying for you. Sit down. Have some sweet tea. Tell me about your mamas. How are they? Do they miss you?
It was as though we had encountered a foreigner or even an alien. This southern, black, woman was so completely foreign to most of our group that it made some of us squirm. She was HUGGING us! She was TOUCHING us! Her dialect was hard to understand. She was smiling and making eye contact and asking about our mama’s. This was certainly NOT the Pacific Northwest.
Over the course of the next hour we heard the story of her life after Katrina. Of neighbors and friends who are gone…relocated or worse. Of houses and streets and yards that are empty. Of driving a half hour to find the nearest grocery store. But peppered within that story was the constant refrain….Mmmm Hmmmm. God is so good. Yes. Amen.
It was safe to say, that we had encountered someone the likes of whom most of us who had not grown up in the deep south, had ever encountered before. And all the while we thought that we were going to go out and do. Do service. Hammer a nail. Clean out a home. And there we were sitting on the couch and drinking our sweet tea and telling a stranger about our mama’s.
In the reading from Acts today, Philip has been sent out to travel along the road from Jerusalem to Gaza. Now, mind you, the text says, this was a wilderness road. And Philip was one of the early church’s most faithful proclaimers of the Gospel. So he might have wondered why in the world he was being sent out into the wilderness, where there would certainly not be anyone around? Why walk on this deserted stretch of road when he could be going to the city center, or to an area that was densely populated. But he went and as the story goes, he encountered an Ethiopian eunuch, in his chariot, which would have been a vehicle reserved for military action. Probably not what he had expected to find on that road. And in trying to draw a parallel, it might be as if we, as a church were sent out into the middle of say, the rain forest, and we encountered someone very different from us…we can still go with the Ethiopian…riding in a tank, reading Scripture.
The Spirit prompts Philip to go up to the chariot. The Ethiopian asks him to explain Scripture to him. Then, when they come upon some water this stranger asks Philip to baptize him.
It would certainly have been more in Philip’s comfort zone if he had been sent somewhere else and had encountered people who were more like him. And it certainly would have made more sense if Philip had not been alone and if this eunuch, who due to his physical limitations, shall we say, would have been prevented from being in the temple, had not asked if he could be baptized.
But this is Philip. Kind of the rock star of the early Church. And yet. And yet. Every time Philip takes action, it is only when he is prompted, asked, or guided by someone else. By the command of the angel, the questions of the stranger, or the guidance of the Spirit.
Fifty years ago the church had a much clearer understanding of how to do ministry. Even thirty years ago it was socially acceptable, it was socially desirable, to be a member of a church. The majority of Americans were members of a church or were attending church on Sunday mornings. We didn’t have to go out there and reach people. People moved into our neighborhoods and began searching for a church.
But now, in this post-Christian world we live in, it feels much more like we have been sent out onto a wilderness road. We know the story that we have to tell….a story of grace freely given. Of salvation that can’t be earned. Of all of our shortcomings and sins being forgiven forever simply as a gift. But somehow, we are so perplexed at finding ourselves in the wilderness that we don’t know how to begin to share the story with the stranger who is there. And most days, we never even think about traveling out down that wilderness road.
When we stood to leave the home of our gracious southern hostess, she cried and hugged and even kissed each one of us. And then she asked if she could pray with us. We got back onto that bus as people whose understanding of what it meant to live faithfully had been turned on its head. After all, we were the ones who had been sent down that wilderness road. We were the ones who were supposed to be doing the service project. We had the orange shirts to prove it. But our encounter with the stranger had opened our eyes. Our encounter with someone whose language and background and ethnicity and faith tradition was completely different from ours changed us. All because we had answered the call to serve others. All because we had taken one step. Like Philip, we went at the prompting of someone else. But friends, when we are sent out into the wilderness, we need to take into account the possibility that it could be us who are forever changed.
It’s time. It’s time to leave our comfortable places and take the Gospel out into the wilderness. It’s likely that the more uneasy we are the more sure the Spirit is that this is where we are supposed to be. It won’t be an easy journey, but look….here is bread….here is wine. We can be strengthened for the journey. Christ is with us. So let’s go….the Spirit is calling.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Thanks be to God. Amen.
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