Listening to the Spirit -Acts 8:26-39
I think the Holy Spirit is likely the least understood person of the Trinity. The Spirit is the odd person out, so to speak. God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit each operate in scripture in mysterious ways. Yet, the Holy Spirit seems the most ethereal and mystifying figure of the three. John Calvin described the Holy Spirit as the fountain of life.[1] C.S. Lewis talks about the Holy Spirit in his book, Mere Christianity, saying:
“If you think of the Father as something ‘out there’, in front of you, and of the Son as someone standing at your side, helping you to pray, trying to turn you into another [child of God], then you have to think of the third Person as something inside you, or behind you.”[2]
Author Rachel Held Evans described the Spirit like “breath, fire, a seal—or emblem bearing the family crest, wind, a bird, and a womb, from which the living are born again.”[3] However you describe or understand the Holy Spirit in your own faith, today the Spirit plays a key role as a main character in our New Testament passage.
We have followed the presence and work of the Spirit since Easter. Jesus appeared to the disciples, locked away with their fear, and he breaths on them, and tells them “Peace be with you.” Fred preached from Acts chapter 8, describing how Peter and John laid hands on those who believed in the word of God in Samaria, and they received the Spirit. Our story today picks up from this point, right as Peter and John are leaving Samaria and heading back to Jerusalem. Listen now, starting with verse 26, as Philip continues this ministry in Acts 8:
Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Get up and go towards the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ (This is a wilderness road.) So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go over to this chariot and join it.’ So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ He replied, ‘How can I, unless someone guides me?’ And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this:
‘Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before
its shearer, so he does not open his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.’
The eunuch asked Philip, ‘About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?’ Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, ‘Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?’ He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.
This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
There are plenty of possible sermons in this story! I have read and re-read this passage for several weeks, and it’s a gut punch every time I think about the wilderness road from Jerusalem to Gaza. We could focus on the significance of the apostle Philip—an insider to Jesus’ ministry—baptizing an Ethiopian eunuch who is foreign in culture, in his power in the court, and in his expansive gender identity to the early church. There are plenty of possible directions for a sermon. Today I want to focus on the movement of the Holy Spirit, and how both Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch respond, so that we can reflect on the movement of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
First, both Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch are open to what is possible. An angel of the Lord sends Philip in a different direction. He is open to traveling on a wilderness road alone. Once he is traveling toward Gaza, Philip is open to the Spirit’s prodding to travel beside the chariot and then to interpret the scriptures for the Ethiopian. He is open to taking risks. He had no idea who he would meet along the road; he had no clue he would be meeting an Ethiopian court official. Philip is open to the present possibilities in each moment. At each turning point in this story, Philip stays present to the Spirit’s directions.
The Ethiopian eunuch is also open to what is possible. After spending time at the temple, the Ethiopian eunuch seeks to learn more about the faith he witnessed in Jerusalem. Even though he is considered an outsider, the Ethiopian is curious about belonging to this new community of believers. He wants to understand the scriptures. He wants someone to teach him and guide him through what the prophet Isaiah is saying. He wants to be baptized. He is open to a new viewpoint and a new way of being. The Ethiopian eunuch is open and willing to follow Jesus and join a new community of faith.
Next, both Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch trust the Spirit. Philip trusts enough to go in a different direction and start walking down a wilderness road. According to the scripture, Philip does not hesitate. He does not ask questions. He does not pause to confer with other apostles. He gets up, follows his new directions, and starts walking on the wilderness road. Along the way, Philip trusts the Spirit’s guidance to approach the chariot, and he trusts he will be able to proclaim the scriptures to this stranger. In turn, the Ethiopian trusts the Spirit to ask for help in interpreting what he is reading, trusting that Philip can assist him. The Ethiopian seems to trust what Philip shares about the gospel of Jesus Christ, for he is quick to ask to be baptized when they find water in the wilderness. Both of them get out of the chariot, and the Ethiopian eunuch joins the faith community through baptism. Even though Philip is taken away by the Spirit at that moment, the Ethiopian eunuch rejoices as he continues his journey home. The Ethiopian eunuch is ready for a new identity in Jesus and a new way of understanding his life back home.
We are called to trust the Sprit and to be open to possibilities just like Philip and the Ethiopian. There are times when this trust is held and lived out collectively, in community, and there are times when we are called to trust as individuals. I want to lift up three examples of what trusting the Spirit can look like along the journey.
Our church family is in the midst of trusting the work of the Spirit as we pray for the discernment of the Pastor Nominating Committee. We have placed our trust in the nine members of the PNC, that they will faithfully represent our congregation as they read candidate’s profiles, listen to sermons, and talk with them. This is one way we in the Presbyterian Church (USA) trust that the Holy Spirit can work through a committee! It’s holy work, both for the PNC, and for our congregation, as we wait and pray that the Spirit will work through the call process to connect our congregation with our next leader.
Sometimes we trust the Spirit’s movement in an instant, in a flash of revelation. Frederick Buechner shares a wonderful story about how the Spirit got his attention. He writes,
“I remember sitting parked by the roadside once, terribly depressed and afraid about my daughter’s illness and what was going on in our family, when out of nowhere a car came along down the highway with a license plate that bore on it the one word out of all the words in the dictionary that I needed most to see exactly then. The word was TRUST. What do you call a moment like that? Something to laugh off as the kind of joke life plays on us every once in awhile? The word of God? I am willing to believe that maybe it was something of both, but for me it was an epiphany. The owner of the car turned out to be, as I’d suspected, a trust officer in a bank, and not long ago, having read an account I wrote of the incident somewhere, he found out where I lived and one afternoon brought me the license plate itself, which sits propped up on a bookshelf in my house to this day. It is rusty around the edges and a little battered, and it is also as holy a relic as I have ever seen.”[4]
The Spirit’s whimsy can grab our attention in ways we may least expect.
And finally, I want to share a story about this church family trusting the Spirit and being open to possibilities. Over two years ago, on Palm Sunday, a teenager showed up to visit for the first time. Will had recently moved to Richmond from Boston, and he through the internet he found Second Pres. Will came to this church family with a lot of questions and an open mind. As he got to know this church family better, we learned he had left his family after his parents did not accept him when he shared that he was gay. Will left his family’s home in Ohio, and lived in Boston for a while before finding his way to Richmond. Will found Second Pres to be a warm, kind community. Many of you gave him a ride to church, and he found a community that welcomed his questions and encouraged him. Last summer, Will moved back to Ohio after reconciling with his family. He recently transferred his membership to another PCUSA church in Springfield, and he was accepted to the University of Kansas for their Religious Studies program. He is still in touch with his Second Pres church family, and I have Holy Spirit goosebumps thinking about how the Spirit worked through Will and through this church, teaching us all about what is possible.[5]
When we are open and paying attention, the Holy Spirit may surprise us new directions, a license plate spelling out the message we most need to hear, or a new child of God we are called to welcome with open arms. As this week unfolds, I invite you to pay attention to the whimsy and purposeful movement of the Spirit. Our task is to try not to hesitate, like Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. We strive to listen and follow. We may be guided to ask for support. Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch remind us to listen and trust that the Spirit may guide us into the unknown, but we will not be alone. We can trust and follow the Spirit that is inside and behind us, nudging us forward in faith.
[1] Wesley Bentley, “Calvin and the Holy Spirit as fons vitae.” December 31, 2008. Church History Society of Southern Africa. https://core.ac.uk/outputs/43167508?source=oai
[2] Sam Schuldheisz, “Pentecost with C.S. Lewis.” May 6, 2023. https://www.1517.org/articles/pentecost-with-cs-lewis
[3] “Breath, Fire, Wind, Womb: A Reflection on the Holy Spirit.” Rachel Held Evans. May 31, 2017. https://rachelheldevans.com/blog/spirit-pentecost-searching-for-sunday
[4] Frederick Buechner, Listening to Your Life: Daily Meditations with Frederick Buechner. Harper Collins, 2009. 326-327.
[5] Will agreed that I could tell part of his story in this sermon. April 28, 2024.