Acts 8:26-38 Then an angel of the Lord
said to Philip, ‘Get up and go towards the south to the road that goes down
from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ (This is a wilderness road.) 27So he got up
and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch… 29Then the Spirit said
to Philip, ‘Go over to this chariot and join it.’ 30So Philip ran up
to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, ‘Do you understand
what you are reading?’ 31He replied, ‘How can I, unless someone
guides me?’ And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him… 35Then
Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him
the good news about Jesus. 36As 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?’ 38He commanded the chariot to stop,
and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip
baptized him. (NRSV)
About a decade ago one of the biggest hits in
contemporary Christian music was the song “Basic
Instructions Before Leaving Earth.” If
that is your taste in music, there was a lot to like about the song. Unfortunately, like so many other
contemporary Christian songs, the lyrics left a lot to be desired. The lyrics essentially turned the Bible into
in acronym. It was a clever acronym but
one that fundamentally misunderstands the Bible.
First off the Bible is not about leaving earth, but
about entering into the world more deeply or justly. There are few passages that talk about
humanity leaving the earth. At the very
beginning God declared the earth and all that is in it to be “very good.” Why would we want to leave something that God
has declared to be very good? Creation is not something that we need to escape
from; transformed yes, but escape no. Even
when the Bible talks about Jesus’ ascension it is with an understanding of
returning. So clearly the Bible is not
about leaving the earth.
The second problem with the acronym is the Bible is
not an instruction book, basic or otherwise. It might be nice if the Bible was an
instruction book, it would sure make things a lot simpler if not outright simplistic,
but that is not the Bible. The Bible
tells the story of a collection of peoples and their experience with God. This story is often anything but basic; there
are contradictions and changes as the stories develop. Each generation interprets their experience with
God in a different way than the previous generations. To make the Bible into a basic instruction
book is to ignore the humanity of the Bible’s authors, as well as the purpose
of the Bible itself. Rather than an instruction
book, the bible reveals something of God’s character, which helps us to see the
possibilities of a new future, a new hope.
That is exactly what happens to Phillip on the road,
when he comes upon an Ethiopian Eunuch reading from the book of Isaiah. It is no coincidence that a eunuch would be reading
from Isaiah; unlike other biblical writings Isaiah presents eunuchs and others
with a place of hope (Isaiah 56.3-4). While
Isaiah offers hope for eunuchs, the dominate view of the day would have judged eunuchs
as being cut off from the church, as living outside of the church’s standards. If the Bible was simply an instruction book
Philip would have had no reason to approach the Ethiopian Eunuch. The answer was simple, he was cut off from
worship, cutoff from the church, fortunately the Bible is not an instruction book.
Instead of choosing the simplistic way, Philip approaches Eunuch and asks
him a simple question, “Do you understand what you are reading?” The Eunuch replies he does not, because no
one is guiding him. So Philip joins him in the chariot and they
travel together. During the course of
their travels they continue to discuss the prophet Isaiah, and when they come
to some water, Philip, who is well grounded in the biblical tradition and is
able to see were the Spirit is leading him, is unable to think of a reason why the Eunuch
should not be baptized. If the Bible was
simply an instruction book none of this would have been possible. However, when grounded (like Philip) in the
stories of those ancient peoples experience with God, something of God’s
character is revealed opening us up to see where God is coaxing us, even if it
rubs against dominate understandings.
Something similar to Philip’s experience happened at
the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly. When
it came time to answer the question of who can be baptized (fully included in
the church), we as a church could think of no reason to prevent us from fully
including gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people. We as church could think of no reason why gay
and lesbians couldn’t enjoy the same rights to marry as everyone else. It was
a decision that was a long time coming, but also one that was fully grounded in
the biblical stories. Being grounded in
the stories of an ancient peoples' experience with God, like the story of Philip
and the Eunuch, allowed us as a church
to see God coaxing us to challenge the notion that people should not be discriminated
against for being biologically or sexually different than the dominate
culture.
Unfortunately we have become illiterate. We no longer know the stories of those
ancient peoples' experience with God, leading us to view the Bible as nothing
more than an instruction book. Viewed in
this way we miss out on the future God is coaxing us toward. God has given us a great gift in the stories of
the Bible, stories we need to read and reclaim.
It may not be as simplistic as a basic instruction book, but the stories
of those ancient peoples can lead us to a new future. One where there is promise enough for
everyone, instead of just the few.
