Twenty-third Saturday after Pentecost
Today we continue our Acts Bible study. Please read again Acts 8:26-40.
Last time I wrote about the Ethiopian eunuch and how transgendered Jews were not allowed to enter the Temple in Jerusalem. Philip and the early Christians accepted the Ethiopian eunuch completely as a Christian and a member of the early church. This is diversity on two fronts. Not only is the eunuch transgendered, he is also black African. He is not, however, the first black Christian. That honor belongs to Simon of Cyrene, who carried Jesus' cross.
Yesterday I talked about ways of interpreting texts. In the ante-bellum South, preachers, including many Methodists used Simon of Cyrene as an argument for slavery. Simon's carrying Jesus' cross was the act of a slave, in their reading of the text.
As Paul makes clear in Galatians 3:27-28, Christianity is open to everyone. Not only that, in Christianity all are equal, not only before God, but before each other. Christianity is the only ancient religion that was completely open and egalitarian. "All are one in Christ."
For Luke the most important point in this story is the reading of a text, the Christian reading on a text. That text is Isaih 52:13-53:12. The Ethiopian eunuch, a Jew, does not understand the meaning of this text, when Philip encounters him. Philip gives him a Christian reading of the text (There are other Jewish interpretations). Philip shows him how the text is prophesying the sacrificial death of Jesus, that Jesus died for us, for our sins.
Once the eunuch understands this scripture and then understands Philip's interpretation of it and his explanation of the life of Christ, the eunuch is baptized by Philip and becomes fully and completely a Christian.
Let's key in on verses 30-31 for a moment. Philip asks the eunuch, "Do you understand what you are reading?" The eunuch replies, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" This is a crucially important text for me in my life. My life is dedicated to ever deeper understanding of the scriptures and guiding others in that understanding. That's the chief task of all preachers and Bible teachers.
The Bible is complex and often difficult to understand. Many Bible texts have multiple layers of meaning, richness not often found in other literature. The early church understood interpreting the scriptures as a community task. The eunuch would not have come to faith in Christ on his own. Hardly any of us would. Christianity is a faith passed down from Jesus and the Apostles throughout the generations down to us today. It's truth has endured for 2000 years. Our Christian duty is to pass it down further.
The legend is that the Ethiopian eunuch returned to Ethiopia and spread the gospel there. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church is the indigenous church of sub-Saharan Africa. It was well established by the fourth century AD. There were no white European missionaries involved. Ethiopia is the second largest country in Africa. There are about 80 million Ethiopian Christians. That's more Ethiopian Christians than there are Baptists, or Lutherans, or Methodists, or Presbyterians. Ethiopian Christians translated many early Jewish and Christian writings. Ethiopic translations are in some cases the only manuscripts of some ancient Christian writings. Most notably, the book of 1 Enoch, quoted in the NT Book of Jude, was known only in Ethiopic translation until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the late1940's and 50's, where fragments of it in the original Aramaic were found. Ethiopian Christianity has also produced magnificent art over many centuries. Western art historians are only recently coming to recognize its importance.
Over the last week new conflict has arisen in northern Ethiopia. The conflict is ethnic, not Christian versus Muslim (as is the case of Nigreria). Pray for peace in Ethiopia and pray for the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
Faithfully.
Christian
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