That incident and the courage of Father Houghton are part of this parish’s proud history of supporting and protecting the marginalized in this city. And it is most appropriate that this incident, the baptism of the Ethiopian Eunuch was chosen for this memorial window to the Wilsons. For Luke in his Gospel and in the Acts of the Apostles (which forms the second part of his thesis) demonstrates that the Good News of Jesus Christ is all about inclusion; that it is a universal gospel for all people at all times; that this Jesus is to be “a light to lighten the Gentiles” (that is all foreigners)as was predicted by Simeon in the introduction to Luke's Gospel. Luke illustrates this truth in parables told by Jesus like the Good Samaritan and in healing incidents which included women and foreigners and other marginalized groups. And it was so in the post Resurrection accounts we find in the Acts of the Apostles.

You will remember the account of the Day of Pentecost when people from all corners of the then known world heard Peter's preaching of the good news “each in their own language”. This itself is a metaphor for inclusion. And again today we see the same truth being fulfilled in the baptism of the Ethiopian Eunuch. This man was clearly a person of substance in his own community; he was what was known as a proselyte, that is a non-Jewish believer who we are told “had come to Jerusalem to worship”. He was in a contemporary terms a “devout seeker”. The truth though is that in coming to worship in Jerusalem he was in fact limited by both his being a foreigner as well as by his ambiguous sexual identity from entering fully into the Temple cult. So his pilgrimage would have been unresolved. He was doubly marginalized in the Jewish world of the day. So we find the Ethiopian Eunuch in his chariot heading on that road from Jerusalem to Gaza (a road I have traveled on in the opposite direction) on his way home reading as he went.

Reading scripture alone is not always easy. Sometimes we think we can just open the Bible and start reading and then get disheartened because it does not seem to make much sense or we land in the middle of passages of Jewish history which seem less than helpful or in a prolonged discussion about circumcision or whatever. Scripture ideally is read in community as in Sunday worship when it can be commented upon or in groups like at Adult Education when questions can be raised and discussion take place. It is into this situation that Philip the Deacon appears. So Philip joins the Ethiopian on his journey and enters into dialog with him. This passage is in parallel to the Disciples on the Road to Emmaus from Luke's Gospel. There Jesus joined the two disciples on their journey and opened “the scriptures concerning himself” to them. Both these biblical journeys are themselves metaphors for the Christian life which is often referred to as “the Way”, or a journey or pilgrimage.

Two weeks ago we heard the passage from Luke about Jesus appearing to the disciples after the Resurrection and “opening the scriptures to them” so also here Philip the Deacon this exemplar of the Christian evangelist helps the Ethiopian in his appreciation of what he is reading. Once again Luke is at pains to illustrate the continuity of God's saving work and to see what is happening in terms of fulfillment of what had gone before as well as a transformation into something new. It so happens he was reading from the prophet Isaiah and from one of the Suffering Servant passages. Philip as a good evangelist does not aggressively tell the Ethiopian what he has to believe but carefully listens to his questions and then responds accordingly in his answers.

The best evangelism is always done in response to the questions we ask or by an astute evangelist by anticipating those questions. This man was clearly a seeker, open to new truth. Philip did his bit and did it well for the man sought baptism immediately. But the passage he was reading was not only about the suffering Messiah (and the early church quickly made the connexion between that shadowy figure in Isaiah and Jesus, crucified and risen). It was also about the nations coming to Jerusalem to worship God. In other words what was prophesied by Isaiah was coming to pass in the post Resurrection church. Here this Ethiopian representing two marginalized groups is fully accepted into the new Israel, that is the Christian Church in accord with Isaiah's prophecy.

It is worth making further comment about the man being a eunuch. That fact has been studiously ignored for most of Christian history except for the fact that his being so was yet another reason for his inability to access the Temple worship. But this like many other passages in the scriptures, like those concerning women for example, has taken on more meaning in light of contemporary sensitivities. It is not surprising that gay biblical commentators and those sensitive to a gay agenda see in this story the radical inclusion of a man of at least ambiguous sexual identity. Some would say and not without justification that here a gay black man is baptized and received into the community of the Risen Christ. Given the history of the church and its exclusion of gays and others whose sexual identity could be summed up as ambiguous, let alone the sorry history of the church's active and passive racism, that is a radical breakthrough. Contrary to what the fundamentalists might argue the Word of God is somewhat bigger than our limited human agendas.

Philip who was first heard of as a deacon whose job it was to wait at tables and care for the poor has broken out of that limited role and become the classic Christian evangelist open to the promptings of the Spirit of God and to those seeking to enter more fully into the Community of the Spirit.

And it is that Community of the Spirit of the Risen Christ, or the “Spirit of truth” who leads us into all truth, as John states, into which the Ethiopian Eunuch is baptized as all of us who are baptized have been and into which Anna will be in a few moments.

It is that community which both the First Letter of John and the Gospel of John describe in terms of a “community of love”'a community founded on the bond of love which is at the heart of the Trinity. It is this community, the church, which is the creature of the death and resurrection of Christ. It truly is the Easter Community; the place where God's saving action in and through Jesus Christ is affirmed and celebrated and lived. This community of love is founded on the love of the Father for the Son and of the Son for the Father into which relationship of love we are called to participate. “And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he commanded us. All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.” And as the gospel says “On that day, (the day on which the Spirit of the Risen Christ is poured out upon the Church), you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” On this Mothers' Day as we celebrate the precious relationship of Parent and Child we can appreciate this metaphor used to describe our relationship with God which is at the heart of our spiritual community.