Easter 5B Sermon

Easter 5B

Acts 8:26-40

April 28, 2018

St. Matthias

On any given Saturday – at the Walmart on Lakeshore in Birmingham, you will find a preacher who has made these great big signs with Bible verses and popular Christian phrases.  There must be 20 or more of them and he stands by Lakeshore and preaches.  He has a microphone.  He has a rather large speaker on top of his van and even with the windows rolled up – you can hear his music.  Phyllis and I have waved and honked and I would just imagine that he is an interesting person to talk with.  But I have never stopped.

          

There are people who knock on our front door from time to time representing one Christian group or another and wanting to share a pamphlet, tell us about what they believe and invite us to join their Church.  I always have mixed feelings when this sort of thing happens.  On the one hand, I am annoyed that I must stop what I am doing and either answer the door or pretend I’m not home.  But I must admit that I have a certain amount of respect for these people who would spend their time inviting others to come and worship with them.

           This is what happens in the story of Phillip and the Ethiopian eunuch from our first reading this morning.    Phillip is a deacon ordained by the Apostles earlier in the Book of Acts.  He comes to be known as Phillip the Evangelist and for good reason.  He was an excellent preacher, and many believed after hearing him.  He has just converted a great number of people in Jerusalem when we pick up the story this morning.  An angel of the Lord appears to Phillip telling him to go down the road to the city of Gaza.  Along the way, he meets an Ethiopian official sitting in his chariot and reading from the prophet Isaiah.  I will be the first to admit that the Book of Isaiah in the Old Testament can be a bit challenging to understand at times.  But the Ethiopian has Phillip - and he asks him to travel with him in his chariot and tell him about Jesus.  The Ethiopian believes. He sees some water, they stop, he is baptized, and then goes on his way rejoicing.  Phillip continues on to Caesarea.

          

There is in me when I read this story 2 kinds of competing thoughts.  First, God works in such wonderful ways.  The sick are healed, the hungry fed, the blind can see – and the Holy Spirit works in and through people.  I love to hear the ways that God works in your lives.  It’s not just about believing – you can see it happen.  From Birmingham to Haiti and Honduras – in parishes large and small – from The Abbey to Camp McDowell - I’ve seen God work.  In young and old, male and female, tall and short, saints and sinners – I’ve watched as God moves common, everyday, garden-variety people to do great things.  And we can’t help but go on our way rejoicing. 

But there is also that feeling – that this could never be me.  God works in other people and does great things.  But that’s other people.  It is easy to come up with reasons God doesn’t work in us.  I’ve never seen an angel.  There are no burning bushes.  God has never appeared to me or handed me 10 commandments or anything like that.  I don’t know if I could just walk up to an Ethiopian in a chariot.  I don’t want to knock on doors and pass out pamphlets.  It is easy to tell ourselves that I can no more do something great for God than I could paint the Sistine Chapel, compose the Hallelujah Chorus, or walk on water. 

And that is the problem.  When we think of ministry – when we imagine God working in us - too often we start at the top – afraid that God will call us into the Lion’s Den or command us to part the Red Sea or die on a Cross and rise again in 3 days.  We imagine a God who tells us to go do the impossible or else.  But the scriptures and Deacon Phillip tell us of a different God.  Rather than do the impossible we are instead invited to stand at the foot of the cross and at the opening of an empty tomb and to let God work through us.  And it is then that we find that ministry requires only the talent or ability we already have and enough faith to proclaim We Believe.

I think I have learned this building Habitat houses.  Did you know don’t have to be a plumber to do plumbing.  You don’t have to be a roofer to nail down shingles and you certainly don’t have to be a carpenter to frame a house.  I’ve learned to build steps, run wiring, and mud walls.  If you mess up, you start over, and you get it right.  There is the overwhelming sense of doing good. 

This is the message from the story of Phillip and the Ethiopian Eunuch for us this morning.  Believe it or not – God can work even with you and me.  The Holy Spirit can lead us to share what we have found with a world looking for what we have here at St. Matthias.  God does not need people with any more special skills and qualifications than what we already have.  What God needs in you and me is faith.

Faith can move mountains, calm the waves, and give you just the right words to say an Ethiopian official.  With Faith, you can comfort the sick, feed the hungry, and offer hope and fellowship.  You don’t have to wear a collar to minister – you don’t need to be a saint for others to see Christ in you – and you can love others from the overflow of God’s love for you.  Then you will go on your way rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.  And who knows, along the way you just might meet an Ethiopian who can explain the Book of Isaiah.  AMEN.