Daily Office Readings for Thursday of Proper 15: Year 2
Morning, Psalms 131 and 132, Evening, Psalms 134 and 135;
Job 1:1-22; Acts 8:26-40; John 6:16-27
“Then the Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go over to this chariot and join it.” (Acts 8:29)
There are three significant entities in the reading; there is Philip, the treasurer of Candice who happens to be a eunuch, and of course the angel or Spirit of God. The eunuch is returning from the Temple in Jerusalem where he was probably not welcomed due to his bodily defilement. But he is a faithful student of scripture and faithful practices.
I wish we had the name of Candice’s treasurer; I don’t like referring to him as “the eunuch.” We learn that, like most of us, he needs assistance in understanding what the scripture is really saying. I like the way Philip obeys the Spirit, and also, how he assists this treasurer. He doesn’t go back to Adam and Eve, or Abraham or even Moses. No, he starts with Isaiah, he starts from where the person was, in his reading. Sometimes we try to give a person too much information. The Spirit did not say go over to the chariot and rule it. The Spirit said, “Go over to this chariot and join it.”
Another part of our story that I really like is that after the explanation of the scriptures, which must have also talked about our Lord Jesus and the importance of Baptism, they come upon some water. Then “the eunuch said, ‘Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?’ He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.” As a priest I have used this model by Philip to baptise people who ask for it as soon as possible, normally at the next Sunday worship service if possible.
Beyond the lesson about how to coach or teach, and of baptism, there is the listening to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We today, should not think that the Holy Spirit of God does not speak to us today, it still happens. At the end of this experience both men go their separate ways: the eunuch, back to Ethiopia rejoicing; and Philip, again following the Spirit and proclaiming the Good News!
Let us also proclaim the Good News in Christ Jesus. And let us proclaim Good News for, and to, the people of Ukraine as we too listen to what the Spirit is saying to us.
As we listen to what the Spirit is saying to us, let us live to love, to serve, and to teach, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
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