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    What's Out in the Conversation
    A conversation about this week's lectionary Bible passages

Acts 8:26-9:1 is an important text for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities because the eunuch represents a sexual and social outsider whose intimate relationships differed from those of the majority culture. Charles Allen jokes that the Holy Spirit helped Philip get over his “eunuch-phobia.” Although the eunuch is a foreigner and a gentile, Philip does not hesitate to share his religious culture, without preconditions, to this stranger become neighbor. Wil wonders whether Philip, a Greek-speaking Jew with a Greek name, found himself marginalized in his own Aramaic-speaking Jewish culture for being too much like the enslaving empire. The meeting of Philip and the African eunuch is a reminder that identity is a complex construction, and that outsiders and insiders are not always easily distinguished. Holly Hearon and Charles Allen are impressed by how pro-active the eunuch is: he has gone to Jerusalem, he is reading the Scriptures, he sees the water and he asks to be baptized. When Philip explains the scripture to him, he offers his own interpretation: “Why shouldn’t I be included in God’s people?”

Jewish Scripture has both welcoming and forbidding things to say about eunuchs. There’s a passage in Deuteronomy insisting that people like him should not even “be admitted to the assembly of God” (Deuteronomy 23:1). But the Ethiopian isn’t listening to that. He likes the book of Isaiah, especially this part: “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; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off’” (Isaiah 56:3-5). Instead of letting an isolated passage drive him away, he’s actually become a follower of the God of Israel. This is a powerful reminder that we should never assume that people are without faith or have no spiritual life. In this story we find Philip and the eunuch guiding each other.

Psalm 22:25-31 provides the context of which the story in Acts is an illustration: all nations will be drawn to God. When we envision such an event we often assume that the other nations will change and become like us. But that isn’t what the psalm claims. Rather, the psalm prepares us to expect diversity. Wil Gafney notes that the phrase “God’s deliverance to a people yet unborn” (verse 31) suggests that God has not completed the work of liberation. God’s work is ongoing. This is an encouraging word to those for whom liberation seems, as yet, as distant dream.

1 John 4:7-21 describes a circle of love: God is love, God loves us, everyone who loves is born of God and knows God, we cannot say we love God if we hate anyone God has made because God is love . . .The testimony to God’s love is the sending of God’s Child into the world. This tangible sign of God’s love prevents it from being confined to a feeling; God’s love is active; it is sacrificial; and it is in our very midst. Wil sees these verses as pointing to our calling as Christians. We are to love everyone, including ourselves, including those with whom we disagree theologically. Charles raises the question of how anyone can argue that loving another of the same gender goes against loving God? We can’t afford to put loving God in competition with loving others in whatever way lies open for us.

Much of John 15:1-8 stresses our dependence on Jesus. But, as Charles notes, verse 5 suggests that our indwelling is mutual, not just one way. Holly links the text to 1 John by noting that perfect love takes cultivation.  Here, cultivation is described in terms of being grafted into a solid rootstock. Being grafted, however, does not mean losing one’s identity. A cherry branch grafted into an apple tree still produces cherries. So, the “Jesus branch” should be very colorful. Holly also observes that imprudent or careless pruning can damage a plant irreparably. But, according to the text, we are not given the task of pruning; our role is to bear fruit. We can do this because of the word that Christ has spoken. Wil asks what is this word: Is it life? Is it love? Is it salvation?