Fifth Sunday of Easter Acts 8:26-40 & John 14:1-8 May 10, 2009

        5Easter2009                                 Acts 8:26-40 & John 15:1-8                                  May 10, 2009

A rare sight among bulletin covers: California’s Napa Valley!  And picture grapevines at their peak – with deep purples mingling with lush greens.
                                                        
Or these little grapevines – in honor of Mother’s Day!  A slice for all the Moms!                                                           
Some of you may actually be grape growers. Some even may make their own wine.  My grandpa had grapevines in his yard.  I remember them being pretty on their trellises, and, full of seeds. 

I enjoyed learning a little about grapevines this week.  I suppose I could have toured Napa Valley, but why do that when we have Vina Vineyards up the road.  I was interested to learn that grapevines date back over sixty million years – even before humans started living on the earth.  Grapevines haven’t gone extinct because they’re tough, un-demanding and adaptable.  They don’t need perfect soil, and, they’re OK with perfect soil.  Easy to please!  They are survivors. 

What helps also is their strong root system.  The roots anchor them, but also bring nutrients down into the soil. Some of the roots feed the vine, while other roots search for water and food which then makes its way up the vine to produce fruit.  I got a kick out of this kind of dance – roots reaching below the surface – with tendrils reaching above towards the sun and towards things to cling to and grow on.  And then there’s the vine grower training the tendrils and creating places for them to cling. It’s this interaction within the vine that caught Jesus’ attention.

The more I pondered this image of the grapevine, the more it seemed that our First Reading from Acts 8 puts it into story form. So it’s to the Acts story that I want to turn.  Philip, one of the 12 disciples, is a main character.  The story begins with an “angel of the Lord” telling Philip what to do.  “Get up and go south [which scholars say means “go at noon” – the hottest, most illogical time of the day to be out traveling]. 

And the instructions go on, “Take the road from Jerusalem to Gaza” – which we’re told was a wilderness road – so also an illogical thing to do.  Wilderness roads meant robbers.  It’d be like sending him today to the Arabic Sea where ships are being attacked by pirates.  The beginning of the story is so odd and unexpected that we can only conclude that it must be telling us something about God.  

When Philip is told to go he doesn’t say, “What do you mean go at noon?  Or, “What do you mean, go down that road?”  He just “got up and went.”  And the timing was amazing for no sooner had Philip gone and the story tells us a treasurer of Ethiopia is sharing the road with him.  This Ethiopian had come to Jerusalem to worship and was on his way home in his chariot and was reading the Bible.

Now the first question might be why is this court official traveling on a wilderness road – off the beaten track?  And we’re not told, except that we are told that he is a eunuch – one who wouldn’t have been welcome in the Temple anyway.  He may have wanted to keep a low profile.  But here comes Philip who wouldn’t have had the slightest clue what this man had to do with him, except that now, instead of an angel of the Lord telling him what to do, the Spirit shows up.  The Spirit directs Philip’s next step: “Go over to this chariot and join it.” 

So again without arguing, Philip doesn’t just go, he “runs up to” the chariot.  Then he catches on to why the Spirit gave him that nudge.  The Ethiopian is reading scripture and Philip sees an opportunity of a life-time.  Never has he shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ with such an outsider.  This is the first Ethiopian to appear in the New Testament.  And his being a eunuch – means he’s even more of an outsider – but Philip pays no mind, he just responds to the Spirit. 

Philip asks, “Do you understand what you are reading?”  The man replies, “How can I, unless someone guides me?”  Then Philip is invited into the chariot to help him interpret the scripture – and what an important role that is!  How grateful I am for those who have helped interpret the scripture for me.  I’m rejoice to be a part of the ELCA where we hold the scripture precious – not a life-less words to stone us, but as living bread to feed us.  A new gift of the ELCA is this Lutheran Study Bible with sections in it like “What Should We Expect When We Read the Bible?”  Or “Five key principles that Lutherans use when studying or interpreting the Bible.”

But back to the story: with how Spirit-led this story has been so far, we shouldn’t be surprised that at that moment water appears along the road. “Look, here is water,” the man says. “What is to prevent me from being baptized?” 

In those days many things would have prevented him.  First, his being a eunuch!  According to a rule stated in Deuteronomy 23:1, that made him unable to join "the assembly of the Lord" at worship.  Second, we learn he was a court official for the queen of Ethiopia – a place far away from Jerusalem where the devote would travel for worship. So he is distanced by circumstance and by location – significant barriers to overcome!  But Philip welcomes him into the family of the One who, like a lamb, was led to the slaughter, as the man had been reading in Isaiah. 

This marginalized man was hungry for something deeper in his life – and the Holy Spirit was attentive to his hunger.  But not without the help of Philip!  This story – with each step fed by the Spirit’s guidance, is a sign of God’s unstoppable grace.  And here is the connection with Jesus’ image of the grapevine.  Philip wasn’t acting in isolation. He wasn’t doing his own thing. Everything he did was in response to guidance. He was like a branch connected to the vine.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be as clearly guided by the Spirit as it seemed Philip was?  We too would do what the Spirit called us to do if we knew for sure it was the Spirit nudging us.  This month’s commentator in The Christian Century, Bill O’Brien, summed up his reflections on this story from Acts in this way: “Walking back through this story, I cry out to be freed from the tyranny of the urgent, from dependence on humanly designed methods.  I pray for a submissive spirit that greets the day with “Where do we go today, Lord? I am ready and willing.  Just let me [catch] the wind of the Spirit...”  Earlier Bill had written, “Who can predict the consequences of decisions made…” [at the bidding of the Spirit?]

Or as Beverly Gavanta writes on this text, “Philip’s role seems almost comical, being whisked into a desolate location at the worst time of the day and subsequently swept off again to another assignment.  What Luke emphasizes is the determination of God, who is in control of events.” 

I introduced this story naming Philip a main character and that is what he is, “a” main character.  Not “the” main character.  And that is what I hope for my own life and for the life of Faith Lutheran and of the ELCA.  I hope that the main actor is not any one of us – not the Staff, or the Church Council, or the ELCA Council, or the worker bees who serve so faithfully.  If the main actor instead is the determination of God, with us in the supporting roles of responding with suppleness and trust – then our lives, our church, and the ELCA will be fruitful beyond measure.  

But even then, such fruitfulness may not be the kind the world recognizes or knows how to applaud.  St. Paul names the fruits: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control – things that may not get the headlines.  Who is it Jesus will call us to love?  Where will we be called to advocate for peace?  To whom will the Spirit send us to act kindly and gently?  What kind of self-control is in the service of God’s purposes?  Jesus reached out to the least expected.  His fruitfulness was always cross-shaped and if it is Jesus we are following, our fruitfulness will likewise be cross-shaped.

The fruit of the vine comes because the Vine-grower prunes to shape and guide, not for the branch’s purposes, but for life-giving purposes of the Vine-grower.  God’s purposes may differ from ours – which is why Jesus urges us to pay close attention to the vine imagery and to not be afraid of being pruned. To be so tended is a gift we are offered over and over, day after day – if we will but receive the promise of our baptism and such gracious relatedness.  

A highlight of my week was this past Thursday when I was interacting with the Kids Praise littler siblings playing on our playground.  Little Peter called to me and said with a big grin on his face, “I’m glad I got baptized.  I like getting my head wet.”  Peter had been baptized when he was hardly old enough to talk, but he’s been reminded of his baptism regularly and it makes a difference that he belongs to Christ and Christ’s church.

The newest Weavings Magazine came out this week and says it well in the words of John Cassian: “To cling always to God – this must be our major effort – the road that the heart follows unswervingly.” But the best news is that God is the one who gives us the will to so cling and the ability to do it.  If you get even the slightest nudge to cling to God, or even a twinge of hunger to learn what such clinging means, sit up and take notice.  As Bill O’Brien said, “Who can predict the consequences of decisions made” at the bidding of the Spirit?  Like Philip, may we be given the grace to be as supple and responsive!  

Amen

   +Pastor Peg Schultz-Akerson, to the glory of God
Faith Lutheran Church, Chico, CA