Miscellaneous
The audio and the full text of the sermon are below. There are also questions for reflection at the bottom. Feel free to discuss on our sermon discussion group on Facebook.This is part one in a five part series on The Servant Songs. Acts 8:26-39 (NRSV)26 Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south[g] to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.) 27 So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28 and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.” 30 So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. 32 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.33 In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.”34 The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35 Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. 36 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?” 38 He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. 39 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.Phillip is told by an angel to go to a particular road. Phillip goes. On that road there was a chariot, parked for the time being I suppose, and in the chariot was an Ethiopian official who was in charge of the royal treasury. This official, who remains nameless, had come to Jerusalem to worship God and was returning home. The Holy Spirit tells Phillip to go over to the chariot. Phillip goes, and hears the Ethiopian official reading out loud from Isaiah. Phillip asks, “do you understand what you’re reading?” The official answers back, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And then the official invites Phillip to join him. After reading a section, specifically Isaiah 53:7-8, the Ethiopian official asks Phillip whether the prophet is referring to himself or to someone else. The passage the Ethiopian official read is from one of the four servant songs, which are found in Isaiah 42:1-9, Isaiah 49:1-13, Isaiah 50:4-9, and Isaiah 52:13-53:12.These four passages didn’t come to be known as the Servant Songs until Berhard Duhm identified them that way in 1922. Interestingly, they aren’t actual songs - they are simply part of the poetry of Isaiah. Duhm didn’t call them songs either. It is likely that the German word dichtung was simply mistranslated as song, rather than poem. “Servant Songs” does have a nicer ring to it, though. Duhm had some very specific theories about his Servant Poems, but ever since 1922, the great debate around these songs has echoed the Ethiopian Official’s question to Phillip, that was asked close to two millennia ago - about whom is the prophet speaking? Or, more directly - who is the servant of the Servant Songs?In 1948, Christopher North, in his book The Suffering Servant in Deutero-Isaiah summarized about 50 years of debate, some of which predated Duhm’s theories, about the servant’s identity. North found scholars in the first half of the twentieth century to be all over the map on this question. Here is a list of who scholars claimed the servant could be (don’t worry if you don’t recognize all these names):- Eleazar- Zerubbabel- Jehoiachin- Moses- Ezekiel- Hezekiah- Jeremiah- Uzziah- Cyrus- Isaiah himself- An unknown teacher of the law- An anonymous messianic figure already born in the prophet’s time- A personification of the collective Israel- A personification of an ideal Israel- A pious remnant of Israel- A future messianic figure- A mythological/symbolic figureSo, who is it? The Christian might want to immediate jump to identify the servant as a future messianic figure (i.e. Jesus), but remember that each of the early twentieth century scholars North cited were Christians themselves trying to solve a puzzle presented by a very ancient text.We may also be quick to claim that Phillip gives the answer. Phillip answers the servant identity question with “Jesus” so shouldn’t we. On closer examination of the exchange between Phillip and the Ethiopian Official, we find that Phillip didn’t simply jump to Jesus. Rather, we are told that “Phillip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus.”We do not know whether Phillip drew a direct correlation between the servant and Jesus. What we do know is that Phillip pointed someone who did not know the good news toward Jesus by using this text. Had the Ethiopian Official been reading a different biblical text, surely Phillip would have still pointed him to the good news about Jesus by using whichever text was at hand. This tells us less about the servant songs and more about the truth that we cling to that Scripture in its entirety points to Jesus Christ.Whatever Phillip said to the Ethiopian Official, the Holy Spirit was at work in the man’s heart. Phillip told him the good news about Jesus and, as they drove along in the chariot, they saw some water by the side of the road. The Official stops the chariot and says “What is to prevent me from being baptized?”This is really quite remarkable. The official makes a connection between the good news that Phillip shares and his participation in the good news, and he makes that connection in an instant. The Ethiopian Official is basically saying “if what you are saying is true, then I should be baptized just like anyone else.” This makes a powerful statement about the good news. The good news as Phillip told it must have been focussed on the fact that anyone could be part of God’s covenant people through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus had made it possible for more that the Jewish people to be in this covenant and it was a done deal. It was news, news about an event, something that God had already accomplished through Jesus. Phillip was not asking the Ethiopian Official to make a choice, or to accept Jesus into his heart. He was simply telling him that God’s grace was available to him without the requirements of adhering to law or custom. God’s grace was for him because of Jesus. Period. The Official’s request, no, demand for baptism, came from his joy and enthusiasm to participate in the life that God was now offering him in Christ. “If this is really true, then I am claiming it. Try and stop me from being baptized. There’s some water - I’m in!”We could spend an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out who the servant is in the servant songs. We could try and answer the Ethiopian Official’s question. We could try and piece together exactly what Phillip said and whether he began by telling the Official that the prophet was in fact speaking of Jesus.We could also ask a different “who” question. Who are you in this story?Phillip and the Ethiopian are both strong characters in what is a wonderful narrative told by a master storyteller. Which one are you?Before you answer, let’s examine the character of each very briefly.The Ethiopian Official believes in God, he worships the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He reads from the Bible and tries to understand it. At the beginning of our story he does not yet know about Jesus, or at least, he does not know the implications of the good news. He is a seeker. He is interested in God. When he hears the good news, he is ready to receive it and it had a changing effect on him. Phillip acts as a mentor for the Ethiopian Official. He helps a seeker find. He explains scripture through the lens of Jesus and the gospel. Phillip proclaims the good news in a conversation. In so doing, Phillip re-affirms his own belief, his own convictions about God, and especially about Jesus Christ. In fact, Jesus is to be found at the very centre of Phillip’s convictions about God.When the Ethiopian Official is baptized there is also an effect on Phillip. He would have remembered his own baptism and had it renewed.Are you a seeker needing to find? Or are you a mentor who also needs renewal? While this story is very unique in the New Testament, it’s overall theme is not. One mentors another in the gospel. This is essentially what Jesus asked his disciples to do when he commissioned them to go into all the world and make disciples of all manner of people. The church in the west went through a time where we shyed away from this, or perhaps felt that it was no longer needed. Institutions took care of this, culture took care of this. But mentoring others in faith is very much needed today. Every Christian at one time or another can see themselves in this story. Every believer will, at one time or another, feel very much like the Ethiopian Official - not quite understanding, but seeking, and hoping that the seeking is not hopeless. The hope is that every seeker and mentor will gain or regain an enthusiasm for faith - “you can’t stop me from being baptized!” The hope is also that every Christian will have opportunities to be Phillip, and share the gospel with someone who has not yet heard it. The opportunities for this are more and more frequent in our world.The Church needs to find ways of walking alongside seekers the way Phillip walked alongside. It’s not as though the Church never did this before - we have simply forgotten. One of the most powerful ways that this is displayed is in the season of Lent.For much of the history of the Church, people were baptized at Easter, and quite often, only at Easter. This is still true in many corners of the church. Also, for much of Christian history, those to be baptized or confirmed, if they were baptized as an infant, went through a long process of preparation. For many this process was a year, sometimes up to two years. The process was called catechesis, and those being prepared and trained where called the catechumenate, or catechumens.The final days of preparation to be baptized would be marked by fasting, prayer and self-examination. Catechumens would ask. Am I able to take a vow renouncing evil? Am I willing to take a vow accepting Christ as Saviour and Lord? Will I, with the help of the Spirit, live a life of repentance in the home of the Church - turning away from sin and turning toward God? These are self examination questions, and they are essential in what one promises at baptism or confirmation.The final days of preparation coincided with the observance of Lent by the whole Church. The entire Church would be praying, fasting, and examining themselves. The entire church would be focussed on repentance - turning away from sin, and toward God. Essentially, the whole Church would be walking with the catecumenate in their final preparation before being baptized. The whole Church was being Phillip for the new seeker.Think of the celebration when the baptisms happened at Easter. All would have their own vows renewed. All would remember their baptism and the grace that it represented. On Ash Wednesday we are reminded of our own mortality. Christians receive a sign of ashes to remind them that they are dust and to dust they shall return. Why do we do this? Is it to motivate us to live life well because time is short? Is it to scare us into believing? Neither of these is helpful as far as I’m concerned.The symbol and reminder of death, however, is significant, and once again related to baptism and the overall life of discipleship in Christ. sBaptism is a sign and seal of our union with Christ, who died and then rose again. When we embrace our baptism, we are embracing that we have died to an old way of life. We leave that part of life behind in the waters of baptism, either washed away or, more apt for our purposes here, dead in the water. We come up out of the water to a new life.The pattern of Christianity is not “live now for tomorrow we die.” It is this: “die to the old way of life and be reborn in Christ.” This is the journey through Lent which begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Easter Sunday. We receive a sign of ash, of our death, on the Wednesday, and then celebrate as seekers come through the waters on the Sunday to new life. We are renewed in our own life in Christ as well.This journey of self-examination, prayer and fasting is spread out over 40 days in Lent, but is also found in smaller form on the Easter weekend. On Friday we remember Christ’s death, on Saturday we wait, on Sunday we celebrate the resurrection. We don’t always love the Friday and Saturday, particularly, to my thinking, the Saturday. We tend to ignore it, but this is the very place of prayer and preparation. What will we do with Holy Saturday? That day is Lent intensified. Jesus is in the tomb and we ought to place ourselves there too, at God’s mercy. We have died and hope to witness resurrection on the Sunday.Every year we have the opportunity for this renewal, where we can reclaim our baptism where we die and rise with Christ. Every year we check in with God to reorient our lives to him. And the Churches traditions remind us that that journey is not meant to be taken alone. The seeker needs the mentor, and in many ways, the disciple needs the seeker so that they can be reminded of the newness of life in Christ and what it really means.The excitement of the Ethiopian Official is infectious - seasoned disciples of Jesus need more of that. Bring on those who don’t quite understand what they read if they look at the sacred scriptures, or perhaps more likely today, those who don’t quite know what or who they are seeking. We have news for them, and it is very good news.We will spend some time using the servant songs as our jumping off point, just as Phillip did with the Ethiopian Official. There are certainly many threads to pull on in the servant songs without ever looking at the New Testament. We are however, going to take our cues from this encounter between Phillip and the Ethiopian Official. This is an occasion to engage with the good news about Jesus, not just conduct an intellectual exercise about particular poetry from Isaiah.We must pick up on the first thread of the Holy Spirit’s activity. Phillip is prompted by an angel to go to the south road. Then he is prompted by the Holy Spirit to stand near enough the chariot to hear the scroll being read. We must listen for the Holy Spirit and also must learn to obey. Who is the Spirit telling you to stand next to? Perhaps you are to mentor them in the good news.There are the threads of conversation, invitation and proclamation. Phillip and the Ethiopian Official have a two way conversation. Phillip doesn’t preach a sermon, but he does proclaim the good news. Most likely, you will be mentored or will mentor in conversation, but we must open ourselves to this. You may also ask yourself who in your life needs to be invited to the conversation. Who might need to hear the good news? Who is a seeker who you can talk to or even bring to Church so they can be exposed to the gospel of Jesus Christ.We will pull on the thread of baptism. This may be an occasion for you to renew your baptism, to be reminded of what it means and to reclaim your vows. Perhaps you have not yet been baptized and this is an occasion to consider it, or like the Ethiopian Official, to enthusiastically claim it. Finally, we will all hopefully claim the thread of enthusiasm. The Ethiopian Official couldn’t be stopped as he claimed the promise of baptism. I pray that if you do not have it already, that you will find enthusiasm for the good news about Jesus in your life. That you will remember the fullness of your faith that culminates in a glorious new life in Christ.For Reflection1. What does it look like to be enthusiastic about the gospel? 2. Philip heard from an angel and was guided by the Holy Spirit. Try to imagine what Philip might have been doing (meditating? Praying? Dreaming?). Might the angel appeared in the form of a person? What can we do to hear from the Holy Spirit and to follow through on what we hear? 3. Are there any dangers in doing what we think the Holy Spirit is telling us to do? How can we avoid the pitfalls?4. Did Philip and the Ethiopian experience “church” on the desert road? Does the passage challenge us to think differently about what church might be?5. The claim was made that all of Scripture points to Jesus Christ. How can this be?6. Do you need a mentor in the gospel? Or, will you mentor someone in the gospel? What kinds of things can mentors do for seekers?7. Read Acts 8:9-24 (Simon the Sorcerer) to get some context for the story about Philip and the Ethiopian Official. Note the contrast between the two “seekers” (Simon -- who was wowed by the signs, miracles, and power that Philip seemed to have; as opposed to the Ethiopian, who was simply studying the scriptures in humility, with no thought of power or personal gain). Think of “seekers” you know, or times when you have been a “seeker.” What role does the Bible play for “seekers”? Feel free to discuss these or other questions on our sermon discussion group on Facebook.*Special thanks to Bonnie Zimmer for help formulating some of the above questions.