Bridge Street United Church

The passage from Acts tells the story of an encounter between Philip, an early church leader, and an Ethiopian eunuch. The eunuch has a key position in the court of the Ethiopian queen. As he is returning home from Jerusalem, he invites Philip to get up into his chariot and to help interpret to him part of the writings of the prophet Isaiah. Philip does so in a way that makes clear Philip’s belief that Jesus is the long-promised Messiah of the Jewish tradition. The eunuch asks if he can be baptized as a follower of Jesus, and Philip obliges. It looks like a perfect example of outreach and evangelism. Church growth advocates would be thrilled! But there were several potential barriers (his situation as a eunuch being a primary one) that would have worked against his inclusion in Judaism and in Christianity at a point in time when Christianity was still a party or a group within Judaism. This story from Acts can raise questions for us both about how we communicate the Christian message and about barriers in the contemporary church to inclusion. I shall try to address some of those questions in this week’s sermon.

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References to sheep and shepherds abound in both the Old and the New Testaments. In some instances, the references are to “the real things,” i.e., the woolly animals and those who care for them. Those references are not surprising given the economic importance of these herds for people in Jesus’ day, not mention for the history of the people of Israel before Jesus. References to sheep, shepherds, and aspects of their respective lives would have made sense to people who had regular interaction with both sheep and shepherds. Such references functioned as good illustrations in teaching or in story-telling in these different eras. In other Biblical references, the people are the sheep and the shepherds who cared, or failed to care, for them were the political or the religious leaders of a particular period. Finally, we have references either to Jesus or to God as shepherd and to us human beings as sheep.

The first half of the Gospel of John, chapter 10, portrays Jesus as shepherd and those for whom he cares as sheep. But this passage moves beyond the care of God for us as shepherd that we find in Psalm 23. It raises questions about such matters as “hired hands” who run away rather than care for the sheep, or “other sheep not of this fold.” This week’s sermon will explore some of the questions that come to mind when we look at this text.

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The Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts were written by the same individual. Reading through the opening verses of each of these books makes clear the close connection between them. Indeed, it would be accurate to call them a two-part work, with the first part (the Gospel of Luke) devoted to an account of the life and work of Jesus and the second part (the Acts of the Apostles) to a recounting of some aspects of the development of the early church. There are some themes that run through these two books.

One of those themes is the emphasis the author gives to the fact that Jesus’ immediate followers were witnesses to the events of his life, death, and resurrection and, as such, were to tell others about those things. Each gospel writer’s presentation of the account of Jesus’ life and work is unique. While there are traditions upon which they draw in writing their gospels, each writer also wants to emphasize certain points and aspects. The emphasis often relates to the context and the perceived needs of the initial audience for whom a particular gospel is written. While all the gospel writers assume that Jesus’ immediate disciples (and, for that matter, his later followers) will share the stories about Jesus as a means of attracting others to this faith tradition, Luke’s Gospel is unique in the emphasis on witnessing, a theme that is found also in the book of Acts.

What might that emphasis mean for us, as those who are Jesus’ followers in the twenty-first century?