May 3, 2015
God is Love
- John 4:7-21
- Dr. Teri Thomas
May 3, 2015
God is Love
1 John 4:7-21 and Acts 8:26-40
I tend to be brief in my communication.
I call it concise, succinct, and to the point.
Some call it terse or curt or abrupt.
Sometimes I condense a message so much
that I end up under communicating.
The full message of what I am saying doesn’t come through.
I try to be careful.
but I also know that it is a reaction against the way others sometime communicate.
You know the sermon-
you tell me what you are going to tell me.
You tell me.
Then you tell me what you told me.
It drives me nuts.
Or you start off on a point,
half way there you take a rabbit trail off in another,
totally unrelated direction,
and you may or may not ever come back to the original point.
I stop even trying to track after the second trail.
Some folks wear me out with irrelevant details,
sidebars and back stories
so that by the time they reach the main point,
I am off in la-la-land.
That is why I appreciate concise and to the point.
And I have decided to produce a condensed version of the Bible.
But actually, John already produced it,
and we heard it read this morning.
God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them… those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.
That is the Bible in 28 words.
It seems to me that everything else in this book (the Bible)
is merely an exposition, an explanation or an example
of that one basic truth.
Let’s look at this morning’s passage from Acts.
The Book of Acts is Luke’s attempt
to paint a picture of the Spirit's work in growing the church from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.
He tells stories that show how the Spirit- empowers the church to live out God’s love.
In this morning’s reading we have the story of Spirit-led Philip
(not the disciple)
as he moves into completely new territory
to spread the news of God’s love.
It begins with Philip answering the angel's call
to go south on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza.
Along the way he encounters an Ethiopian Eunuch.
The Ethiopian Eunuch was an outcast, an outsider, unworthy of Philip’s time and attention.
He might not look that way at first glance.
Clearly, he has status.
He rides in a chariot with a driver.
He has wealth.
He owns a scroll.
He is educated.
He can read the scroll.
He has devotion.
he is studying scripture and went to Jerusalem to worship.
He is humble enough to ask for help.
He is hospitable enough to invite Philip to join him.
But, as Luke tells us 5 times in this short passage,
the Ethiopian is a eunuch.
A eunuch is a male who has been castrated.
Most often, this happened before puberty.
They were “created” because they could be trusted
to work among women in the royal household.
Even with their position of trust and responsibility,
they were considered unclean and immoral.
The eunuch surely knew the Jewish scriptures.
There’s a passage in Deuteronomy insisting that people like him should not “be admitted to the assembly of God” (Deut. 23:1).
He had lived with that condemnation his entire life.
But now, on this trip, after being denied entry to the temple
the Ethiopian is reading the book of Isaiah,
and the prophet wrote:
“Do not let the foreigner joined to God say,
‘God will surely separate me from the chosen people’;
and do not let the eunuch say, ‘I am just a dry tree’.
For thus says God to the eunuchs who … hold fast my covenant, I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name better than sons and daughters… (Isaiah 56:3-5).
The eunuch invites Philip to ride with him and teach him.
What does it mean?
Does this apply to me he asks?
Am I in or am I out?
And Philip teaches him the scriptures and the story of Jesus
and how Jesus is the promise of redemption and restoration and hope for all of us- even him.
Moved by the possibility of being a child of God,
the eunuch asks: “What is to prevent me from being baptized”?
Philip could have said- Well, almost everything.
The eunuch is missing the sign of the covenant (circumcision) for Jewish males.
He held the wrong job, giving his loyalty to the Queen and not to God.
Philip, actually was never authorized to go out on his mission, or to baptize.
Besides, they were in the middle of the desert and there was no water.
Philip could have said,
believe in Jesus, pray hard
maybe God will give you a pair and you will desire women.
Then we can baptize you.
But instead of following tradition, or culture,
or the way he was brought up to believe,
Philip had the driver stop the carriage at a spring of water
and he baptized the eunuch.
The story raises the issue clearly:
Who is worthy of God’s love?
An Ethiopian eunuch, that's who.
The last person in the world one would expect to be loved by God, by God’s followers.
That's the whole story of the Book of Acts.
God's love is wildly inclusive.
This one great truth affects our lives in so any ways.
You see, if God is love and indeed loves us,
that has to affect our relationship with others.
How can we ignore anyone
if we know and worship a God like this—a God who is love?
How can we harm our fellow human beings
if we know and worship a God like this—a God who is love?
How can we fear another person
if we have confidence in a God like this—a God who is love?
(Ross West)
If we serve a God who has structured the universe
so that love is what is most important,
our only proper response is to live with love ourselves
and love other people just as God loves us.
Thanks be to God.