UNLESS SOMEONE GUIDES ME
May 14, 2006

TEXT: Acts 8:26-40
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.) 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 and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.” So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. 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.
In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.”

The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?”

Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. 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?”He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. 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. 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.

John 15:1-8
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.


The movie version of The Da Vinci Code will be released this week amid great anticipation, much debate, and some considerable protest. John Forester, in the Reading Eagle this morning, predicted that some preacher in some church in Berks County is delivering a scathing sermon warning against the evils of the film.” I am not going to disappoint John, but what I have to say is a bit less than “scathing.” While I personally thought the book was a good read with an appropriate amount of action/adventure and intrigue, I do think it was intellectually dishonest. We have had some discussion about the book at a Soul Café gathering and probably will in the future, so I am not going to deconstruct the story for you now.

The problem that many are finding with The Da Vinci Code is that while it is clearly a work of fiction, and as such can go just about anywhere the author wants, Dan Brown makes some assertions of fact at the beginning of his book that just are not the case. Because of these claims of factual material, many people are believing that there is strong evidence that Jesus was married, produced a love child with Mary Magdalene, has a direct line of heirs, and that this secret has been guarded by the Roman Catholic Church through its agencies Opus Dei and the Priory of Sion, and preserved in the secret so-called Da Vinci Code.

I don’t think intelligent, biblically informed people have anything to worry about when reading The Da Vinci Code.

Both Fundamentalists and the Catholic Church are much upset about this book because they believe that most people will take it as gospel. Unfortunately we live in a culture that is pretty much biblically illiterate and will believe what they are told. For example, according to one poll, 82% of Americans believe that the phrase “God helps those who help themselves” is in the Bible. Fewer than half of all adults can name the four gospels. And 60% of Americans can’t name even five of the Ten Commandments.

A Barna poll indicated that at least 12% of adults believe that Noah’s wife was Joan of Arc. Another survey of graduating high school seniors revealed that over 50% thought that Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife. A considerable number of respondents to one poll indicated that they believe the Sermon on the Mount was preached by Billy Graham.

If people don’t know their Bible and church history, how can you expect them to know what to believe?

Luke, writing in the book of Acts, relates the story of an Ethiopian eunuch sitting in his chariot reading the from the book of Isaiah. He was apparently heading home to Nubia after a visit to Jerusalem where he may have picked up the Greek Septuagint, a papyrus copy of the Old Testament. This man was the financial advisor to Queen Candace and had considerable authority; he was in charge of her treasury. Why he was reading from the book of Isaiah, or what his business in Jerusalem might have been, is unknown. He would not have been accepted within the Jewish community, first because he was black, and second because he was lacking in the necessary physical equipment to procreate, and therefore unable to produce heirs. That would have made him persona non grata, but here he was reading a portion of Isaiah known the “Servant Song.”

It’s more than coincidence that Phillip is traveling the same road. Luke says that he was told by an angel to go in this direction, and “then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.” So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?”

That’s a good response. How can we understand anything without the necessary background and information. All things are subject to interpretation, but you have to have some guidance in discernment. The Ethiopian was looking for some help in knowing what the Bible was saying. How many times have you heard television evangelists shout, “the Bible says” in order to back up a particular point? They are very good at quoting the Bible, but not very good at interpreting it. For example, one of the big controversies in the church today is homosexuality. The conservatives are against it and believe that all gays and lesbians should be excluded from the church.

Since they are Christians, followers of Jesus, they like to ask “What would Jesus do?” Well, let’s look at the Bible. What would Jesus do? Strange, Jesus has nothing whatsoever to say about homosexuality. But he does have a lot to say about divorce. So if these fundamentalist Christians want to be strict followers of Jesus, shouldn’t they be condemning divorced persons and excluding them from their churches as well. If so, half their members would get up and walk out.

How can we understand the Bible unless someone guides us? That someone is the Holy Spirit, the active voice of the Living God, who through the words and teachings of Jesus communicates his love and his radical inclusivity of all persons who desire to come to the banquet table.

Our God is not a God who is programmed to hate the people that we hate, and exclude the people that we don’t like. If God is a God of love and mercy, accepting of all who would come to God, then shouldn’t his followers do the same? Voltaire had a point when he said, “If God created us in his image, we have certainly returned the favor.”

Philip brought the word to one who had been excluded because of his race and his sexuality, and when the Ethiopian eunuch saw the water in the desert, he asked, “What is to prevent me from being baptized?” And Philip baptized him, including him in the fellowship of God.

Our families are places where those related to us are included. Families which do not include all its members destroy the meaning of “family.” Families are places where people are loved, accepted, nurtured, and guided. This is part of the basic structure of the family. It is where values are taught, where ethics are learned, where the rules of behavior are formed, where children are guided so that they can grow into members of the global community and sow the seeds of universal love.

Kahlil Gibran, writing in The Prophet, wrote these words which may be familiar to many of you: You may give your children your love, but not your thoughts, For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies, but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

We need interpreters to guide us. We need parents to show us the way. We need trusted leaders who will not lead us astray with lies and deception. We need to discern the activity of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Though we like arrows fly on our own trajectories to our own targets, we need the bow to point us in the right direction.

The Ethiopian eunuch was a spiritual seeker, on the fringe of religion, seeking a community that would embrace him in his difference, and welcome him to a journey of faithfulness with a loving and accepting God. He becomes the model of the future of the United Church of Christ with its vision of radical hospitality. He becomes the example of the inclusive family in the household of God.

We are connected to each other and to God as branches to the vine. It is the vine that nourishes and sustains life. Let us work to continue to bear the fruit of the spirit.

Harry Serio