Scripture Reading: Acts 8:26-39
Our scripture reading today is a very important story about the early church. In the story, God tells Philip to set out along the road to Gaza, and on his way Philip meets a eunuch from Ethiopia. This eunuch is not given a name in the Bible, but we know that he was a court official for the queen of Ethiopia, and he was returning home from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. He was most likely what was called a God-fearer, someone who believed in the Jewish God but had not fully converted to Judaism. When he meets Philip on the road he is reading from the book of Isaiah, and he asks Philip if he can explain the prophet’s words to him. The two travel along together for some ways, talking about God and Jesus and scripture. Eventually they pass some water, and the eunuch says, “What’s to stop me from being baptized?” Philip baptizes him, the most important part of the entire story, because in that moment, this man, the Ethiopian eunuch, becomes the first Gentile, the first non-Jew, to join the church and be baptized.
But to fully understand why this story is so significant, we have to go back to the Hebrew scriptures. You see, if you look in the book of Deuteronomy, there’s this verse about people like the Ethiopian eunuch. Chapter 23, verse 1 says “No male whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is severed may enter the assembly of the Lord.” This verse comes in the middle of a long list of laws about things that are forbidden and what people are or are not allowed in the assembly. Because of Deuteronomy 23, castration was forbidden in Judaism, and so the only eunuchs mentioned in Hebrew scripture are foreigners. But it gets a little fuzzy on what happened if a foreign eunuch wanted to convert. Perhaps that was why the Ethiopian eunuch was reading from Isaiah on his way home, perhaps he was trying to figure out where his place was in all of this. He was a foreigner, and he was a sexual minority, one that scripture seems to clearly condemn. For some that would have been reason enough to exclude him. There were probably others in the early church who would have kept on walking if they had been in Philip’s place.
But I’m very thankful that Philip did listen to the Holy Spirit and stop, because this story serves as a reminder that the Bible is not always as clear cut as what people want us to believe. You see, there is another very important verse about eunuchs, that just happens to be in the book of Isaiah, the same book that the eunuch was reading that day. The verse that is quoted in Acts 8 is from Isaiah 53, and it’s likely that over the course of their conversation, the eunuch continued reading and asking questions, until he reached chapter 56, which says in verses 3 through 5, “Foreigners who would follow the Lord should not say, “The Lord will surely exclude me from this people.” Nor should the eunuch say, “And I am a dried-up tree.” For thus says the Lord: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbath, who choose that which pleases me and hold fast to my Covenant – to them I will create within my Temple and its walls a memorial, and a name better than that of daughters and sons. I will give them an everlasting name that will not be excised.””
Finally, his questions were answered. He wondered what place there was for him among God’s people, and here it was. I imagine him reading this, maybe even choking up a bit. Deuteronomy had said he wasn’t welcome, but here was a promise for him, both a foreigner and a eunuch, that he was welcome too. God had a special place for him too. I imagine that he looked up at Philip in that moment, and then noticing the water on the side of the road asked, “Is there anything to keep me from being baptized?” And the answer was a resounding no, there was nothing at all to keep him from being baptized. Because even though it seemed like the Bible clearly said eunuchs were to be excluded, in the end God’s love was more expansive than the people thought. In the end God welcomed the foreigners and eunuchs. There was a special place for them because God’s love is fully inclusive. No one is left out.
Today is the day that we celebrate National Coming Out Day. For many of us, the reason we need Coming Out Day is because of Christians who told us that the Bible says we’re sinners, abominations, going to hell. Many people who read the Bible read Leviticus and Romans and 1 Corinthians and they say “see, the Bible clearly condemns gay people.” Now I could spend an hour just explaining why that isn’t true, and if you would like to learn more about that feel free to reach out to me, but if we just look at the story of the Ethiopian eunuch for right now, we see that condemnation and exclusion is never the last word when it comes to God. Ultimately God’s love is greater than we can possibly understand. God created every single person in Their image, and no one is excluded from God’s love. To cling to a single verse and use it to hate and exclude people is to ignore the rest of the story. So many people want us to hate ourselves. They want us to believe that God hates us and we have to deny who we are to earn God’s love. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. God created us as we are, gay, bi, trans, queer, ace, and every other identity, and God’s love includes every single one of us.
This is my first year being fully out. For many years I was only out to certain people. Even in a denomination that officially allows LGBTQ people to be ordained and get married, there were still so many who believe it’s a sin to be gay that I was afraid what would happen if I came out publicly. For many years Coming Out Day was very difficult for me because I would see my friends who were out and wish I could be like them. There are so many in our community who can’t come out for one reason or another. For many, coming out means risking their jobs, homes, or even safety. Coming Out Day can be a sad day for many who wish they can be fully out but can’t be. And it’s ok if you’re not ready or able to come out. But even if there is not a single person in your life you can come out to, there is someone who you can always be fully yourself with, and that’s God. So many people want us to believe that God will never accept us for who we are, but the truth is that when we come to understand and accept our sexuality or gender identity, God rejoices, because we are growing into the people we were created to be. So whether you are out and proud, only out to a few or in certain spaces, or still in the closet, I invite you to celebrate today that you never have to hide who you are from God, because God’s love is fully inclusive.