The Road Less Travled

Acts 8:26-41

Ice breakers can be super fun, or super scary. I want to try one with you all very quickly this morning. Nothing too scary I hope. I want you to turn to the person closest to you and ask them this question “What is your favorite word?”

Now ask “What is your least favorite word?”

Believe it or not, these two words can tell a lot about a person. For example, my husband’s favorite word is Kentucky, his least favorite word is Paterno. And Yes, I know that’s not technically a word, but in our house it’s the closest we get to cursing! From those words you can guess he is a UK fan in a BIG way.

How about my favorite and least favorite words? That’s easy- my favorite word is yes, and my least favorite is no. It’s plain and simple. I like to hear yes almost as much as I like to say yes. I hate hearing the word no almost as much as I hate saying it. And perhaps that basic underlying pull of wanting to say yes and not hear no that draws me to the scripture for our sermon this morning, Acts 8:26-40. Read text

This is perhaps my favorite New Testament story that doesn’t have a woman as a character. It begins in the usual way. Most of our journey stories start out with a visit from a divine messenger, right? no, only me?

Philip is spoken to by an angle of the Lord, a messenger, and told to go from Jerusalem to Gaza down a wilderness road. When I hear the term wilderness in the Bible I tend to think desert. But this is not a desert area. There are trees and valleys and water. I think wilderness here has something to do with being off the beaten path. It is literally the road less traveled. Remember that phrase.

Philip, not scared in the least by the appearance of a heavenly messenger, heads out down the road. There he encounters something very unusual.

There is a chariot stopped on the side of the road and inside this chariot sits a man reading the Jewish scriptures. I’m guessing it was odd to pullover your chariot to read on the side of the road, but I don’t know much about social norms of the day when it came to reading materials.

Philip hears the Spirit telling him to go over to the chariot and join the man. And Philip does it! He doesn’t ask for a background check. He doesn’t let his potential embarrassment hold him back. He goes and is obedient- definitely walking the Road less traveled.

What makes this even more interesting is who is sitting in the chariot. It is an Ethiopian Eunuch.

These terms may need a little bit of unpacking. Ethiopia is a country on the continent of Africa, the horn of Africa to be more specific.  It is where modern humans are said to have originated. It also has a special place in the scriptures.

Isaiah contains references to Ethiopia. Let’s hear from chapter 18. It is an area that God has claimed, called out and said that he will bless. I’m guessing those words might have been the ones that first led the Ethiopian to begin the study of scripture.

He sits there, a stranger in a strange land, having come all the way from Ethiopia to worship God, literally on the road less traveled, continuing to read from the scriptures. I don’t know about you, but I feel like something happened to the man while he was in Jerusalem. You see, that ties into the fact that he was a eunuch.

A eunuch is a male who has been castrated. This happened frequently with young men who were going to be put into the service of a female at court. It was seen as a necessity to make sure that there was no question about the legitimacy of children born to a ruler or noble. It was a barbaric practice that existed for centuries in many different contexts.

Because of this he would not have been allowed in the court of men at the temple. Deuteronomy 23:1 says “No one whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.”  And Leviticus 21:17-21 tells us that even if the person with such an apparent deformity, even if they are a part of the lineage of Aaron, will not be allowed into the assembly.

This Ethiopian Eunuch, head of the Queen’s treasury, has traveled a great distance to worship, only to be kept from the worship he desired. And so, he sits on the side of the road, reading once more the words of Isaiah. Seeking comfort, seeking guidance, hungry for the action of the spirit of God in his life.

God hears this foreign born, not fit for the temple, man and sends a servant of the living God to stand at his side. Yes, my friends, God hears the cries of the righteous and the unrighteous, from those the world sees as worthy and those the world sees as worthless. From the lips of those on the highway, and from the mouths of those taking the Road less traveled.

This man is a spiritual pilgrim who is seeking earnestly to understand. He is not in need materially- he runs the treasury of a nation! But he is as needy as anyone you’ve ever met. And what has kept him from the throne of grace? Not his social standing, not his spiritual education or piety. But his forbidden castration and perhaps his nationality.

It was the rules of man, not God, that kept him from the throne. His sexuality and his nationality didn’t keep him from seeking God, but they kept people from seeing the Holy image of God the father in him.

He has traveled the Road less taken in search of a relationship and been turned away by the gatekeepers. This has happened to far too many. There are people who will not darken the door of a church, even for a funeral or wedding because they have been so damaged by those who were supposed to offer aid. There are those who will never spend time with Christians because Christians are judgmental, hypocritical. .  you fill in the blanks. And we have taught them to see us this way. Just like the Ethiopian Eunuch was shown that he was not welcomed.

But God heard his cry in that wilderness space and sent Philip to his aid. Philip asks, “Do you understand what it is you are reading?” That seems so condescending to me. Of course, he knows what he is reading, he is reading it!! He’s literate, educated, reading in Hebrew for Pete’s sake Philip, get yourself together!

But I don’t really think it was a malicious statement. It was a sincere question. Do you understand the book of Isaiah that you are reading? A book filled with prophecy and promise. A book that in Chapter 56 verses 3-8 says “Do not let the foreigner joined to the Lord say,
    “The Lord will surely separate me from his people”;
and do not let the eunuch say,
    “I am just a dry tree.”
4 For thus says the Lord:
To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths,
    who choose the things that please me
    and hold fast my covenant,
5 I will give, in my house and within my walls,
    a monument and a name
    better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
    that shall not be cut off.

6 And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
    to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord,
    and to be his servants,
all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it,
    and hold fast my covenant—
7 these I will bring to my holy mountain,
    and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
    will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
    for all peoples.
8 Thus says the Lord God,
    who gathers the outcasts of Israel,
I will gather others to them
    besides those already gathered.

A book that offers hope to all, even to the Eunuch. He answers, with pleading eyes, “How can I understand if no one explains it to me?” This is what makes me think he wasn’t allowed in the temple. No one had taken the time to talk about the scriptures with him. They had refused, and he needed someone to help him understand this “strange warming of the heart.”

He invited Philip to join him in the chariot and together they read from Isaiah 53

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
    and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.
⁸ By a perversion of justice he was taken away.
    Who could have imagined his future?
For he was cut off from the land of the living,
    stricken for the transgression of my people.

This man, sitting on the road less traveled is hoping that these words mean something. He has discerned from Philip a willing spirit authorized by God even to share the meaning of the scriptures. He holds on to the hope that this might actually be a person who can help him find what he seeks. Salvation, hope, healing.

Philip begins to speak and shares that the one spoken of is Jesus the Christ, the Messiah. He responds so well. But that should not surprise us. We always say God equips those God calls. And God has clearly called Philip to take this particular Road less traveled.

Philip teaches about Jesus’ love, grace, forgiveness, healing, death and resurrection. And It meets its most willing target. They pass by some water, we are not told if it was a lake, a pond, a river, a well. All we know is that there is water present and the Eunuch cries out “Look, here is water! What’s to prevent me from being baptized?”

What is to prevent him from being baptized? What is to prevent him from entering the covenantal relationship with God that Philip experienced? Apparently, nothing, because they pull the chariot over and go to the water right then and there.

What is it that keeps people from making professions of faith today? What keeps people from being a part of the covenant people of God? What keeps people from joining Church Street and Christ Church in their missions?

Perhaps, just perhaps it is us, and other Christians like us. Those who expect a lot out of other people. We expect them to dress right, to act right, to know the rules and etiquette, to know the language of the church, when they have never been a part of it before.

Perhaps its people like us who have spoken judgement instead of forgiveness, wrath instead of love, purity instead of submission.

Philip could have easily turned aside from this impure man, a stranger from another country. But instead he offered to sit beside him, not over him. He listened to his concerns and addressed them. He took the Road less traveled, the road of grace.

Immediately upon coming out of the water the spirit whisks Philip away to another land. The Eunuch celebrates, praising God and continues home. We are left to assume that while Philip and the Eunuch go their separate ways here, they both go with a purpose, to engage in Christian mission no matter the path they wonder down.

The road less traveled- that’s the one that makes all the difference. The word yes, in a world full of no’s, that’s what allows grace to infiltrate our hate filled hearts.

Let us be ones who choose the road less traveled. Let us seek out the lonely, the lost, the hurt, the battered and bruised. Let us trust that the Spirit will do the work. Let us rejoice when God is made known to anyone, man, woman, child, elderly, black, white, brown, straight, gay, poor or rich. Let’s take the road less traveled- the road of Grace, that leads us all back into the fold of God.

The Fallacy of the Bootstrap Gospel

Matthew 20:1-16

“That’s not fair!” It’s something cried out in the playground every day.

“That’s not fair.” Something mumbled at the dinner table when brother gets a bigger piece of the much loved lasagna, or when sister gets a smaller piece of the much disliked broccoli.

“That’s not fair” words tumbling out of the mouth of a student who slaved over a paper only to learn that another student got an extension.

“That’s not fair” thrown about in the breakroom when talking about another person’s promotion, perhaps one you felt you deserved.

To quote my father, and I would guess most of your father’s “Life is not fair.”

Only, we expect it to be, don’t we? We expect to get from life what we put into it, and we expect others to be rewarded the same way. That is part of what our American, pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, mentality runs on; the premise that if we work hard enough, do the right things, then we can all arrive at the same destination.

And perhaps that’s what makes this morning’s teaching so displeasing, uncomfortable, down right yucky. I have even heard that there are people who avoid coming to church on the Sunday this story comes up in the lectionary. They dislike it that much!

Jesus is teaching, talking really, to his disciples and he again picks up this theme of the kingdom of heaven is like. . .

We’ve heard these phrases, the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed.

-the kingdom of heaven is like a shepherd looking for a lost sheep.

-the kingdom of heaven is like a woman searching her whole house for one coin.

- the kingdom of heaven is like yeast

- the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field.

Here we get the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning. . .

With all of these kingdom of heaven phrases we have a tendency to take some literal interpretation. God is the landowner, we are the servants. God is the shepherd we are the sheep, God is the woman we are the coin (or perhaps that’s a bit of a stretch)

There is a huge problem reading these passages in this manner. Not one of these parables, in fact not all of the parables put together, actually describe the literal kingdom of heaven. Not one! Not all! Parables are comparisons, they are stories, and they are used to illustrate an idea, a concept that we really have no words to describe.

When we say March came in like a Lion and out like a Lamb, do we literally mean that the beginning of the month of March started with a lion coming down the streets and ended with a lamb walking away? Of course not. We mean the weather was rough at the beginning and calm at the end.

That is what parables do, they explain an idea or concept, not the actual kingdom of God. A picture is worth a thousand words, and parables give us a picture, a glimpse into the upside down, tables turned kingdom of God.

There was a landowner who went out in the morning to hire workers in his fields. And right off we have something that should cause us to pause. Landowners didn’t hire their workers, managers hired the workers. What was this landowner doing out in the marketplace looking for workers himself? That’s odd. His HR person should be holding interviews for him.

He finds workers, agrees to the normal day’s pay for a normal day’s work and sends them on to his fields. He’s a just landowner, he doesn’t try to cheat them; he agrees to pay the daily rate, not more, but certainly not less. The workers agree and go on to their jobs.

Later in the day the landowner goes out again and finds people waiting for work. I don’t know how many of you have experience with this, but growing up in Lubbock, Texas I remember groups of men, usually Latin American men, would gather outside of the local hardware store that my bus drove past on the way to school each morning. Construction foreman would pull up in their company trucks and load as many workers as they needed into the back of the truck, with promises of a day’s pay.

Driving home past that same hardware store there were occasionally still people standing around at 4pm. They looked tired, desperate, some older, some more frail, but still waiting for someone to hire them.

This landowner goes out at 9 am and hires a group of workers and agrees to pay them what is fair, or right, or just. Then he is out again at noon, then three with the same offer. And then at 5 pm he goes and finds people still waiting to be hired and says “Why are you here not working?” And they respond “Well I slept in too late.” “Well I didn’t feel like working this morning.” “Well, my parents didn’t teach me how to fill out the proper paperwork to get a job.” “Well I’m freeloading.”

No; they respond “no one has hired us.” Plain and simple. They have been waiting for a job and none has been provided. And so the landowner sends them on for the last hour of work. He doesn’t even promise them a fair wage, just an hours’ worth of work. But an hours’ worth is better than nothing, and so they go.

An hour later the owner calls to his manager (he has a manager, so why was he hunting down workers) and has him gather the workers to be paid beginning with the last and going to the first.

Everyone who has lined up for kindergarten or concert tickets or Black Friday specials knows that this is NOT how things are done. First come, first served. But that is not the way this landowner chooses to act.

The last shall be first, it didn’t endear him to his workers then, it wouldn’t endear him now.

They workers begin receiving their pay. Those who worked an hour received a day’s wage. The gossip spread to the back of the line. “If they worked and hour and got that much, imagine how much we will get.” They begin to think. And as they received their wages, their faces fell. They received a day’s wage for a day’s work.

It was exactly what had been promised. They had agreed to it in the early hours of the morning. But now it was not enough. Now they felt cheated. Now they felt taken advantage of.

Why? They made a contract and it was honored. Why feel put out, angry, cheated?

The landowner replies “Why are you upset? I paid you what was due. Are you envious because I am generous?”

Yes

Yes, they are envious. And yes we often are as well. It isn’t so much that other people get things from God that we don’t get. It’s not that they got more or better rewards. The problem seems to be that they got the same, and they don’t deserve it.

That’s the issue these workers have. They did the work, so they deserve the day’s wage. The other’s didn’t do as much, as hard, as good what have you work and therefore shouldn’t get the same things.

It’s not that they have been cheated, they got exactly what they had originally expected. It’s that others got the same amount. “You have made them equal to us.” Is their response.

Dr. Ira Brent Driggers, an Associate Professor at Lutheran Theological Seminary puts it this way “Even the workers hired early in the morning . . . roll out of bed unemployed. But the owner finds them and gives them work. I imagine they were, no less than the nine o’clock hires ‘standing idle in the marketplace.’ Whatever they were doing, it wasn’t working. There was no real livelihood prior to the owner seeking them out. But by the end of the day they seem to have forgotten this. Or maybe they never really understood. What is clear is that, come payment time, they are thinking only in terms of just reward. Pay must be commensurate with the hours worked – as if the work itself was not the real ‘reward.’”[i]

The workers do not recognize the gift of grace they have received in order to have work in the first place. They have become convinced that they are being treated unfairly because other’s received the same amount. And so the landowner asks “Are you envious because I am generous.”

Rev. Doctor Emerson Powery says the landowner’s question, “Are you envious because I am generous?” (verse 15), is the translation of a Greek idiom which literally translates as “Is your eye evil because I am good?” An “evil eye” (ophthalmos poneros) suggested a deeper problem than meets the eye. As Jesus taught earlier, “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy (ophthalmos poneros; so, if you have the “evil eye”), your whole body will be full of darkness” (cf. 6:22-23). In this account, the “evil eye” was the opposite of generosity (e.g., jealousy, greed, stinginess, etc.).[ii]

Viewing someone else’s good fortune as our demotion is ridiculous at best, and evil at worst. We have not earned our place as children of God, we can’t do that. It is grace, a gift, unmerited favor. Yet there are those who would act as if they somehow deserve their standing with God. I think that Matthew shares this parable to remind us that whether we are 7^th generation Christian, or just walked in off the street to hear the Gospel for the first time, our status is the same, laborer for God, child of the king, beloved.

Who do you identify with in the parable? The laborers who worked all day, received enough to feed their families, and yet feel cheated? The workers who were only there an hour and yet were blessed with enough to feed their families?

How we see this parable tells us a lot about how we see our role in the kingdom of God. “Faced with God's boundless love for the world, especially when it is lavished upon others, we reveal whether we view our own labor as a gift from God or as benefit to God, as the joyful fulfillment of our created purpose or as the mere endurance of scorching heat.”[iii]

The Gospel Truth is that we are all equal recipients of God’s gifts. The truth in our hearts is that sometimes we are jealous when such gifts are shared with others in equal measure.

To quote the great theologian Louis CK,
“The only time you look in your neighbor's bowl is to make sure that they have enough. You don't look in your neighbor's bowl to see if you have as much as them.”

The kingdom of heaven, my friends, is like a generous landowner, who went out every hour seeking to give people a job, a calling, a vocation; and never stopped seeking even when there was little time left to work. And then gave them all enough to feed themselves and their families.  Let us not be evil eyed toward the gifts other’s receive. Let us rejoice that they too have their daily bread.

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[i] Ira Brent Driggers Working Preacher September 21, 2008

[ii] The Reverend Doctor Emerson Powery, Working Preacher September 21, 2014

[iii] Ira Brent Driggers Working Preacher September 21, 2008