Emmanuel Baptist Church 275 State St.  Albany, NY 12210 (518) 465-5161 Click here for directions
A Welcoming and Affirming Congregation

All You Need Is Love

Rev. Lois Wolff

5/10/09

First Scripture Lesson:  Acts 8:26-40

Second Scripture Lesson:  John 15:1-8

Sometimes I choose sermon titles so far ahead

         that when I sit down to write

                   I wonder what in heaven’s name I was thinking …

                             but this time it works.

I’m going to let you in on some of my thought processes

         as I wrestle with the Scriptures each week.

“All you need is love …”

         Let’s look at Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch.

                   It’s a story of questions:

                             Philip asks: “Do you understand what you’re reading?”

                             The Ethiopian’s answer is a question:

                                      “How can I, without some help?”

                             His next question, one that Biblical scholars have

                                      quibbled and quarreled over and questioned:

                                                “Who is the prophet talking about:  himself

                                                         or some other?”

                             And his most searching and most important question:

                                      “Why can’t I be baptized?”

Let’s think about who this Ethiopian was.

         First, he was not an Israelite.

                   He wasn’t Semitic, he was African.

                             He wasn’t poor – he was a specially selected functionary

                                      of the Ethiopian court in Candace.

                   But as an Ethiopian he was an outsider.

         And second, he was a eunuch.

                   That made him unable, according to Jewish law,

                             to enter the temple.

                   And it made him even more of an outsider:

                             one Baptist preacher describes him as

                                      the quintessential outsider:  a person of color, of, uh, complicated

                                                gender, official to the ruler of a foreign power.

                                                “Complicated gender.”  I like that.

                                                         Makes me wonder:  is any one of us

                                                                             of simple gender?

At any rate, for some reason the Ethiopian had been to Jerusalem to worship.

         He would have had to do so in the outer court of the temple, of course.

                   He was reading Scripture, namely the prophet Isaiah.

                             He asked Philip not for a teacher, but a guide

                                      to understanding the Scriptures.

                                                Which may or may not have made him

                                                         an early Baptist…        

I believe that the eunuch has seen in Isaiah

         and heard in the story of Jesus

                   something of himself:

                             his powerful position comes at a price,

                                      and he will die childless,

                                                which in that time meant alone

                                                         and perhaps unloved.

We usually think of the Old Testament as exclusive,

         God as the God of “Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”,

                   and the rest of the nations outside of God’s loving care.

But listen to two passages from Isaiah’s prophecies

         that must have heartened the Ethiopian eunuch:

                   First, from chapter 11, verse 11:

                             In that day the Lord will extend his hand to provoke to emulation the

                                    remnant of the people that is left – that which is left from Assyria and

                                    from Ethiopia and from Babylon – he will raise a sign for the nations and

                                    will gather the outcasts of the people …”

                                           That takes care of the “foreigner”

                                                and the “person of color” in one fell swoop.

                   And then, from chapter 56, verses 4 and 5:

                             “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,

                                    who choose the things that please me

                                    and hold fast my covenant,

                                                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.”

                        And that certainly takes care of the “complicated gender,”

                             doesn’t it?

As Clark M.  Williamson, professor at Christian Theological Seminary,

         Indianapolis, Indiana, has written:

                   … when the Ethiopian eunuch asks his evocative question, “what is to prevent me

                        from being baptized?”, Philip does not … ask whether the Ethiopian is ‘an open

                        and practicing eunuch’ or a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ eunuch.  Nor does he qualify his

                        response with reservations, such as:  ‘Well, we can baptize you, but we can’t

                        ordain you,’ or ‘well, we can baptize you, but we can’t promise not to

                        discriminate against you.

Philip doesn’t say any of those things.

         In fact, Philip doesn’t say anything.

                   He simply goes down to the water with the eunuch

                             and baptizes him!

If that’s not love, I don’t know what is.

         And if that’s not Philip’s love in response to the way God

                   in Jesus Christ has loved Philip,

                             then I don’t know love and – echoing the letters of John –

                                      I don’t know God.

In our reading from John’s Gospel last week,

         we heard of one image of God’s love in Jesus Christ:

                   the image of the Good Shepherd,

                             which Sharon Davis clearly and beautifully laid out for us.

This week we have the image of the vine and the branches.

         As we abide in this flock, this fold, of Jesus’ sheep,

                   so also we abide in his love.

We are the branches:  we draw our spiritual lifeblood

         from Jesus, who is the vine.

                   If we are cut off from Jesus, we wither and die.

                             And of course if we’re cut off from Jesus,

                                      it’s because we have cut ourselves off.

What a comforting image, to abide in Jesus’ love!

         I think of a child climbing into her mother’s lap

                   or his grandmother’s lap,

                             and being safe and warm and comfortable there.

         I think of a cat curled up in a ball, sleeping with smile on his face,

                   of a dog stretched out at his master’s feet,

                             with his head, in fact, resting on his master’s foot.

         We rarely use the word “abide.”

                   More often, we say “stay” or “remain.”

                             Abide has to do with continuing for a time,

                                      persevering perhaps, staying with it,

         Abiding means sticking with it – sticking with Jesus as he does with us –

                   through life’s sunny mountaintops and darkest valleys,

                             and through all those humdrum times,

                                      through the dailyness of life,

                                                that fills the vast times between.

The only way Jesus sticks with us through everything, and abides in us,

         is because he abides in God’s love.

                   The only way we can stick with Jesus through everything,

                             and abide in him,

                                      is because God is love.

It is God’s love, and abiding in God’s love,

         that enables us to bear fruit,

                   It is God’s love that prunes us as we must be pruned –

                             even if it hurts – and it certainly does hurt –

                                      so that we can bear more good fruit.

My friend Ethel gave me this cross stitch

         that she made for me, using something I said in a sermon

                   at the New Covenant Church years ago:

                             It says, “The Pain of Pruning is a Sign of God’s Presence.”

         This is a reminder to me that the pruning hurts,

                   but that it’s a blessing,

                             because it means that God abides in me

                                      and I abide in God –

                                                even though it hurts.

Walter Wink reports that

         Elaine V. Emeth says that the pruning metaphor works for her only if she thinks of God

            as a gardener who grieves while watching a violent storm rip through a prized garden. 

            Afterward, the gardener tenderly prunes the injured plants in order to guarantee survival

            and to restore beauty and harmony.  Pruning is not to be confused with the tragedies that

            overtakes us; it has more to do with clearing away the debris they leave behind.

So it is true.  All we need is love.  God’s love.

         So, though today is Mother’s Day,

                   and some of us will remember mothers who loved us well,

                             for others this day is painful,

                                      full of either grief or unfulfilled hopes.

         No matter which, all our human attempts at love fall short.

                   But God’s love is perfect, unconditional, steadfast, eternal.

                             Thanks be to God for loving us in Jesus Christ,

                                      and for abiding in us and welcoming us to abide in God.

Amen.