May 5, 2012
© 2012
I.
Mark and Tisha Donnelly worshipped with Central Christian Church while
Mark pursued an MBA at SMU in Theater and Arts Management. For me, they
represent the next generation of young adults for the Church to reach. Mark had
grown up in a Disciples of Christ congregation but had drifted away after high
school. Tisha had never participated in church or been exposed to much about
Christianity except what she had been learning from Mark. They are artsy,
creative, thoughtful and intelligent. They loved the way Central Christian
Church used the dramatic and visual arts as well as music. They were active and
enthusiastic. We had them for dinner one evening because Tisha wanted to ask
questions about Jesus and Christian faith. What really got the conversation
going was looking at the pictures I had taken on my 2004 pilgrimage to Rome.
The statue of Artemis of
the Ephesians from the Vatican Museum was the jumping off point. For Tisha this
was not the idol whose silversmiths protested Paul’s teaching in Acts 19.
Rather, Artimis of the Ephesians was a symbol of feminist spiritual liberation.
I did not turn the conversation to condemning Tisha for idolatry, but to
talking about how Jesus and even Paul speak to the concerns of today’s women. Tisha
did not make a confession of faith in Jesus before they moved to California to
pursue their dramatic and art careers, but they both claimed Jesus as important
to their journeys.
A.
Many churches are trying a lot of new approaches to reach people like
Mark and Tisha. On Easter Sunday Ed Young of Fellowship Church made the news by
having a live lion and lamb in their service. A couple weeks later they made
the news again with a “pet friendly” outdoor service to help animal lovers feel
welcome and comfortable. I had to laugh a little because many churches have had
blessing of the animals on St. Francis Day in October. Central Christian Church
had been doing that for years before I became their pastor. With a dog park as
a primary community outreach, Central Christian Church also added a service for
dogs and their humans on St. Roch Day in August. I’m not proposing that for 1st
Christian Church, Duncanville, only mentioning it as an example of new ways
churches are trying to reach people.
B.
In Acts 13:36, Paul said to the people in the synagogue at Antioch in
Pisidia, “David … served the purpose of God in his own generation.” We face the
challenge of serving God’s purpose in our generation, in which many of us feel
like strangers in our own communities and even families.
1.
The sometimes superficial Judeo-Christian cultural consensus with which
many of us had become comfortable has dissolved. With the turmoil in global
Islam in the daily news, we are uncertain about how to respond to the growing
number of our Muslim neighbors. Among young adults, the fastest growing
religious identification is “atheist,” and the attraction is not so much
intellectual rejection of belief in God as blaming religion for much of the
violence and injustice in history and the world.
2.
Among the friends of my twenty and thirty something sons, few have any
church experience. Among those that do, very few have continued to be active. Nevertheless,
they do claim to be spiritual people. Our oldest son’s Pennsylvania church
attempts to reach this generation with small home Bible groups that people may
participate in for 2-3 years before they come to Sunday worship. Among the
young adults who are active in church, denominational loyalty and identity and
formal membership have become almost meaningless. Relationships with people who
share their spiritual journey keep them involved.
II.
Acts 6-8 reports the parallel challenges the Church faced in its earliest
days, setting the stage for Philip’s conversation with the Ethiopian Eunuch in
Acts 8:26-40. Suddenly, those first Jewish disciples of Jesus found themselves
unwelcome in the Temple and synagogues. Stephen’s eloquent preaching in the
Synagogue of the Freemen got him hauled before the Sanhedrin and stoned. This
prompted a persecution in Jerusalem that scattered the Christians through Judea
and even Samaria. Though as Jews they would have considered the Samaritans to
be ethnically, theologically and ritually impure, they did worship the God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, so the preached Jesus to them, and a great revival
broke out.
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.)27So 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 worship28and was returning home; seated
in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah.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. 32Now 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.33In his
humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his
life is taken away from the earth.”34The
eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this,
about himself or about someone else?” 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.39When 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.40But
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.
A.
At the height of this revival Philip was sent on an unspecified errand
to a deserted road notorious for dangerous robbers. He was sent toward the
troublesome territory of Gaza. That was the home base of Israel’s ancient
enemies the Philistines and is still a hotbed of turmoil today. The Spirit
seems to drop him down in Azotus, which was called Ashdod when it was a leading
city of the Philistines. Philip proclaimed the good news about Jesus to just
one person, who though important in his own country, would not contribute
anything to the growing, struggling Church in Judea and Samaria.
B.
The Ethiopian Eunuch was even farther off from the Jewish beginnings of
the Church than the Samaritans. Ethnically, he was Nubian – a Black African, not
even Abyssinian who shared a Semitic ancestry with the Jews. He had embraced
the God of Israel and come to Jerusalem to worship. Though “eunuch” was
sometimes used for high government officials, that he was also described as a
court official of the Candace suggests he probably had been castrated to
protect the integrity of the Queen. That would have made him ineligible to
enter the Jerusalem Temple. The language of “come to worship” suggests he was
on a pilgrimage rather than engaging in Temple worship.
C.
Philip’s interaction with the Ethiopian Eunuch is a tangled web of
messy ministry. The Greek word for treasury is gaza, the same spelling as the unfriendly territory where Philip
and the Ethiopian met. I think this word play emphasizes the messiness Philip
is facing. The Ethiopian had the considerable sum required to purchase a
hand-copied scroll of Isaiah. Though obviously intelligent, he did not have the
education to interpret it. How did he know he could trust Philip to guide him?
How did he know he could trust the good news about Jesus that Philip proclaimed
to him? He was reading Isaiah 53:7-8 when Philip approached him. We can see how
that easily leads to Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. I wonder if he and
Philip got as far as Isaiah 56 that talks about foreigners and eunuchs being
welcomed into God’s covenant people. Is that what prompted him to ask to be
baptized as eligible converts to Judaism would have been? None of the New
Testament had been written yet. The Ethiopian would not have had the Gospel
stories of Jesus nor the teaching of the Epistles. Isaiah is the only Scripture
he brought back to Ethiopia from which to proclaim and teach the good news he
had heard and believed about Jesus. Modern evangelism would consider this
inadequate follow-up.
III. Love drives fear out of
messy ministry. I have long been fascinated by 1 John 4:18. “There is no fear
in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” I am convinced that when we respond
to situations, challenges and crises out of fear, we almost always make the
wrong decision. Fear makes us timid when we should be bold. Fear makes us lash
out when we should listen. Fear makes us cling to what we might lose when we
should be generous. Fear makes us focus on consequences when we should focus on
faith. Fear makes us focus on punishment when we should focus on grace. Love,
not courage, shows us how to respond to our fear. Courage rises out of that
love to be able to do what love calls for even when we are afraid.
A.
We may well feel fear in the face of the unfamiliar and uncomfortable
trends in our culture, particularly among the emerging generation of adults.
Fear can lead us to retrench and withdraw. Or fear can lead us to capitulate
and copy. But love will motivate us to proclaim the good news about Jesus to the
people who do not know him and may have distorted ideas of what it means to
trust him. Love will motivate us not to be satisfied with just getting enough
people to keep the church going but to enthusiastically cultivate disciples who
follow Jesus into a whole new life.
B.
Former National Public Radio reporter and social critic Ken Myers was
recently asked by Ginny Mooney of the Christian
Post how the church can be relevant to the broader culture to draw seekers
to Christ. Myers replied, “Let’s substitute the phrase ‘way of life’ for the
word ‘culture.’ How can the Church be relevant to the way of life of its
neighbors? As Eugene Peterson has said, ‘by showing them a better way of life.’
… If people are just looking for a religious Band-Aid or spiritual Prozac, they
are not seeking the redemption promised in the Gospel which calls them to die
to self and live (really live) to Christ. … The Great Commission is all about
making disciples, not converts. … Pastors (and churches) need to be committed
to the long-term task of nurturing mature believers.”
C.
This Philip is probably a Greek convert, not the briefly mentioned
Philip among Jesus’ twelve disciples. His encounter with the Ethiopian offers four
simple, practical steps for addressing the unchurched and dechurched people of
our generation. (Ralph Milton’s E-Zine for
people of faith with a sense of humor)
1.
You have to be there.2. They have to be interested.
3. You have to be willing to teach.
4. You have to be ready to act.
D.
Love drives fear out of messy ministry. Love is the better way of life
we show to the people to whom we want to proclaim the good news about Jesus. This
is the love that permeates all of 1 John. Love is what pushed Philip past his
fears, and the Ethiopian went on his way rejoicing! Unchurched people decide
whether what we say about Jesus is authentic and trustworthy based on their
observation of our love for each other and our love for those hardest to love. Unchurched
people will hear the good news about Jesus if we love them enough to listen to
their questions and opinions without arguing them. Every one of us has someone
like Mark and Tisha in our lives whom we can love.
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