John 15:1-8 Acts 8:26-40 1 John 4:7-21
The readings this morning from the Bible are about roads and
points of connection and about going home.
They are about a longing for belonging, connection to place, to people,
to something greater.
The Reading from Acts begins with Philip. Philip is somehow open to communication from
God that asks him to go places without explanation or maps or anything. This is a relationship of profound trust that
puts him on the country road, the wilderness road. The roads we travel lead us not only to a
destination, but bring us together with others on the road and that’s exactly
what happens between Philip and another child of God, the Ethiopian
eunuch. Incidentally, the word “Synod”
which we use in the Lutheran Church to designate groupings of Lutheran Churches
means “On the road together.”
This man from Ethiopia had some roads opened to him and
others closed as he entered the courts of Candace, queen of the
Ethiopians. Being a eunuch meant he was
castrated. That meant he could be
controlled, that certain distractions would be removed. But it also meant that he could serve in a
high position, a court official, the Head Treasurer. His trusted position meant that he had some
freedom to move about, enough time off for a vacation to Jerusalem, enough
money to purchase a scroll of Isaiah, and enough freedom to pursue his unusual
spiritual and religious path. It meant
he learned to read, which gave him tremendous power to think for himself and to
seek to understand.
His spiritual path led him to this road. He was on his way home from a spiritual
pilgrimage. He was going home to
Ethiopia, wondering how to interpret this scroll, wondering how not to lose
this connection he was feeling. It turns
out his journey is just beginning, because just then he meets Philip on the
country road.
It is likely this man was interested in this particular
passage from Isaiah for a reason. I think he could identify with what he was
reading. Like the person referred to in
the story, he has been sheared and gone under the knife. He was damaged goods. He was humiliated and yet he couldn’t open
his mouth—he was powerless to do anything about it. So he was drawn to the one referred to in
Isaiah, he wanted to know him. He wanted
to know that someone else experienced suffering like he did and could
understand his journey. He asks and
Philip explains the good news about Jesus to him. Immediately, the man sees how their stories
are joined and wants to be grafted into the vine.
Here is water! What
is there to prevent me from being baptized, to finding the place I belong, from
being grafted to the true vine. He had a
longing in him and he finally found a connection that felt like home, so he
wanted to take an action, have the experience of baptism to wash him clean of
all that had gone before and signify his path on a new road to home in Jesus.
I imagine Philip was baffled. He would have been baffled by this man’s
faith. In one moment this man went from
not understanding it, to getting it better than Jesus’ own disciples. This man
didn’t fit the preconceived ideas of who would respond to the Good news. It was
years that Christians argued who could be baptized. Did they have to be circumcised? Did they have to be Jewish first? And still we ask these questions about how to
accept and welcome gender non-conforming people into the fellowship and love of
Christ. This is what this eunuch
was. He was neither male nor
female. He was different. He didn’t fit into most people’s
categories. Philip was certainly baffled
by this. Which box do I check when I
enter his baptism into the records? What
is to prevent me? In human terms,
everything. In God’s terms,
nothing. This man was another valued
branch on the vine and surprise to Philip and all of us, we don’t have a say,
nor should we, about who is on this vine with us. God made each one, loves each one, and prunes
each one. We’re all on this country road
together and God is calling us home to abundant life, here and now.
1 John urges us to love one another. To love is to stay connected. It is to put aside any fears we have of
people who are different from us, to put aside our fears of God, and stand in
boldness on the road, remain in boldness connected to the vine. This is good for us, because we often live in
fear and shame. We are not good enough
to be connected to the vine. We don’t
know enough. We’re not wise enough. We’re too sinful. We don’t fit into the categories. But it is God who is our Savior. We don’t save ourselves. It is God’s love that flows through us like
sap, that nourishes our faith and brings us in connection with God and all the
other branches.
The road and vine are very similar images. Both connect us. Both convey something, or provide a means to
move along a path. So here is Jesus in
another of the “I am” proclamations (“I am the bread of life, I am the gate, I
am the good shepherd.”) This “I am”
statement links Jesus with God’s utterance to Moses at the burning bush when
Moses asks God’s name and God answers, “I am who I am.” “I am the true vine,” Jesus says. God is the vinegrower. We are branches that are connected to
God. We get pruned. Even if we bear fruit, we get pruned to bear
more fruit. I don’t think this means
that people are cut off of that God takes them away from us to teach us a
lesson or get something from us. Rather
we get pruned of every part of us that gets too far from our life-source, from
our true vine, Jesus, and from God the vine-grower. We get pruned of our fears, of our
distractions, of our selfishness, of our materialism, of our prejudices, of our
limited views. Those parts of us that
are unloving, that are asleep, that keep us from seeing the truth, those things
are pruned.
They are pruned that we may abide, that we may remain, that
we would stay connected with source of our life and power, that would love our
siblings on the vine with us, that we would be part of something greater
At the risk of ruining both a John Denver song and
scripture, I’ve written words to Country Roads.
“True Vine, nourish us, keep us in your love, prune us gently, bring
your Kingdom, Lead us home, True Vine.”
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