Bible Text: Acts 8:26-40 | Preacher: Rev. Dorry Newcomer | Series: Acts | Last Sunday Phil and I worshipped at the Reformed Church of the Tarrytowns, in Tarrytown NY—located along the Hudson River about an hour north of New York City.  The town is also known as Sleepy Hollow, as in Ichabad Crane and the headless horseman.  The church is adjacent to the cemetery where the headless horseman is said to have been buried, and one of their ongoing mission projects is their “midnight rides”, where they go into New York City and deliver food and clothing to people in need. If you’ve got a local legend as colorful as the headless horseman, why not capitalize on it?

We didn’t see the headless horseman while we were there, nor did the place feel haunted to me.  But it did feel old.  The building’s construction started in 1685.  That’s right, 1685.  To put that in perspective, that was a good 150 years before anyone was worshipping at Lima.  I think it may have been the oldest American church building I have ever been in.  These days the church has a modern building right in town that is their primary worship space, but in the summer and on Christmas Eve they open up the historic building and hold worship services there.  As we waited for the service to begin, I thought about all the people who have come over the years to worship and pray in that space, which got me to thinking about the first people, those that got the church started.  Do you think those pioneering Dutch settlers who started the church had any idea what it would look like 300 years later?

Well I’m sure they didn’t anticipate that eventually wood stoves in churches would be replaced by oil heating systems, and outhouses would be replaced by indoor plumbing, and hymn books would largely be replaced by words projected on to screens!  How could they imagine any of that?  But my guess is, if they had enough faith to build a church building, they were people who understood that God is always at work expanding the Church.  There may be seasons of painful pruning, times of low harvest, and even times of local and regional decline.  But the big picture of God’s work is toward growth. Growth in terms of numbers, growth in terms of geography, and growth in terms of maturity.

We see this in the book of Acts.  First there is growth in numbers.  3,000 people converted on Pentecost!  Day by day the Lord added to the numbers of the very early church.  As we move further into Acts, we begin to see growth in terms of geography.  After the stoning of Stephen, persecution forced many members of the early church to scatter, and as they scattered, they preached the word of God wherever they went.  Jesus himself told his disciples this would be the case.  Acts 1:8 says, “And you will be my witnesses, in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

But this growth, in numbers and geography, could only be accomplished by people who were willing to grow in maturity.  It could only be accomplished by people who were willing to let go of the old so they could embrace the new.  The first Christians had to let go of their waiting and embrace Jesus as Messiah.  It takes a lot of courage to make a change like that!  Then they had to let go of their old prejudices.  Earlier in Acts chapter 8, which we didn’t have time to cover in church, Philip was amazingly cooperative and obedient when he followed God’s command to preach the gospel to the Samaritans.  For hundreds of years there had been terrible bad blood between the Jews and the Samaritans—and now, in Christ, their division was being healed.  But only because Philip, and then Peter and John, were willing to get over their prejudices.  The gospel grew only because people were willing to change and grow.

Witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria—the book of Acts records for us how Jesus’ prophecy was fulfilled.  And now Philip has obeyed God’s call to head south from Jerusalem toward Gaza and shares the gospel with a Gentile.  The conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch is the lynchpin, the turning point for the gospel to be spread to the ends of the earth.

Luke doesn’t tell us his name.  But he does tell us he is an important man.  We can tell that by his ride.  Only very important people rode in chariots—most people walked, a few had donkeys, but a chariot?  That’s like having a Ferrari today!  Luke tells us that this man was secretary of the treasury.  He was in charge of all the financial resources of his country.  He most likely had very dark skin, because that was called Ethiopia then is northern Sudan now.  Luke also tells us he was a eunuch, which in scripture is an imprecise term, it can mean a range of things, but Luke includes this detail to show us the man was precluded from fully participating in Judaism.  But his physical issues would not be a problem in terms of the gospel.  He was fully acceptable to God, and was able to become a baptized believer on the spot.  We can assume that the Ethiopian eunuch returned to his home a powerful evangelist!

Luke is basically hitting his readers over the head with the gospel message, that the good news of Jesus Christ was never intended for only one particular group of people, for one small subset of the human race.  The good news of Jesus Christ was meant for ALL.  Rich and poor.  Dark and light.  Jew and Gentile.  We celebrate this at Christmas—for unto all of us a child is born.  But Jesus told us the good news of God’s love would no longer be conveyed only through him.  It would be conveyed through us.  We get to be his witnesses, his ambassadors, his body.  “And you will be my witnesses, in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

We recall these words and don’t give them too much thought, but wow!  Talk about revolutionary!  First, that God would entrust the sharing of the gospel to regular people like us, okay, to me that’s a wow.  Second, that the gospel would be so transforming it would break down barriers and prejudices.  And third, that this work would continue until the ends of the earth are somehow made new.  You WILL BE my witnesses.  Not you were once.  Or you are for a minute or two.  But YOU WILL BE my witnesses eternally.  Even in heaven, we never stop being witnesses.  See what I mean when I say that the big picture of God’s work is always toward growth?

Let’s think for a minute about the ends of the earth.  Growing up in a rural area, I was familiar with designations such as “the sticks”, “boondocks”, “East Jabip” and “Timbuktu”.  Turns out Timbuktu is a real place, not just a metaphor!  In Jesus’ day, if you wanted to talk about the ends of the earth, you know what you said?  Ethiopia!  It was, in legendary and mythological terms, the way you expressed the ends of the earth.  God commands Philip to go to Gaza, which was in the desert—another place that might feel like the ends of the earth—and on his way he meets who?  A eunuch from Ethiopia.  God uses Philip to share the gospel with a man who is, in some way, the end of his family line, who is from the ends of the earth, and who has reached the end of his understanding about God—God uses Philip to take this man who is at the end, and brings about in him a whole new beginning.

And God is still using people to do that work today.  This week we’ve heard a lot about the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon.  Did you know that while Neil Armstrong prepared to be the first person to walk on the moon, Buzz Aldrin set out elements for communion?  He said, “I poured the wine into the chalice.  In the one-sixth gravity of the moon the wine curled slowly and gracefully up the side of the cup.  It was interesting to think that the very first liquid ever poured on the moon and the very first food eaten there were communion elements.”  Talk about the ends of the earth!  The big picture of God’s work is always toward growth.  Not just numerical growth, but also geographic growth.  Human beings are carrying the Spirit of God every place they go. Even to the moon.

Philip didn’t go to the moon.  Just to Samaria, and the desert, and a few other places listed later that are not familiar to us.  He was an “ends of the earth” kind of guy.  I think Luke spends so much time on this one person’s conversion so we can see the direct correlation between Philip’s willingness to serve, change and grow—and the direct impact that made on other people’s lives.  Earlier in Acts, Philip stepped up as a deacon to help care for the widows in the church.  Then he willingly went to Samaria, where he helped many people encounter God.  He was having quite a run there when God called him to head to the desert.  He wasn’t worried about staying where he could be “successful”.  He followed God to the new frontier, and there used all he had to serve well.  Maybe that is why, almost 54 years ago now, when my in-laws were blessed with a baby boy, they decided to name him Philip with one L, like it is in the Bible.  They wanted him to be a person who uses all he has to serve the Lord, just as they were doing.

About a month ago, I listened to a sermon online by Bishop Latrelle Easterling of the Baltimore Washington Conference.  She was preaching at their ordination service, not only to the newly ordained clergy in her conference, but to all the many lay people in attendance.  She made a distinction between being a volunteer, and being a servant.  Reading about Philip this week made me think more about that.  Volunteers help when they feel like it; servants help when God calls them.  Volunteers help to get a certain personal reward; servants are only interested in glorifying God.  Volunteers retain the right to say no to any particular task that is too difficult, too demeaning, too controversial; servants strive to keep their hearts open to saying yes to whatever it is God asks of them.  Volunteers make a difference; servants make a sacrifice.

One of the sacrifices of servanthood is moving on.  After his encounter with the Ethiopian official, Luke tells us Philip was suddenly taken away.  I’m sure this was sad for both of them.  The Ethiopian man would have loved more time with Philip, more time to ask him questions and develop a spiritual friendship.  Philip probably would have enjoyed more chariot rides!  But God needed Philip elsewhere.  Next week we will say good-bye to Pastor Brad and his family.  This will be sad for all of us.  But gracefully letting go is at the heart of being a servant.  Letting go of the old so we can embrace the new.  Letting go of the people who explained so much to us and made such a difference for us—so we can deepen our dependence on God.  Growing up means moving on.  And as bittersweet as that is, it is the primary way the gospel spreads.

We cannot imagine what Lima church, or any church, will look like in 300 years.  Our oil heating will no doubt be replaced by something much more efficient and sustainable by then.  I don’t know if indoor plumbing will change much, probably it will also be more efficient and sustainable.  Maybe we will compost all our waste and mow our lawn with goats!  No doubt the church of the future will be employing much different technology than we have today.

We cannot picture the specifics of what church will look like in the future.  But we do know that the big picture of God’s work is always toward growth.  And we can decide to join God in God’s work of expansion.  Do you believe God is at work expanding the reach and impact of God’s Church in the world???  It’s true!  It’s not a headless horseman story.  It’s not legend or myth or fiction.  It is our faith.  Will you offer everything you have, in service to the greatest story of all time, the story of God’s love for the whole world as shown in the person and gospel of Jesus Christ?  Amen.