May 6,
2012 - John A. Baldwin
The
Bible is filled with interesting characters who make a brief appearance and
then disappear, never to be heard from again. This morning's first reading has
one such person - a nameless man who is identified as a eunuch, as well as
being an important official in service to Candace, queen of the Ethiopians.
What might we surmise, or hazard a guess, about this individual?
To
begin with, Ethiopia is in the heart of Africa, so most likely he was racially
dark in complexion. As a eunuch he may have been castrated as a child, although
in translations of ancient texts, eunuchs can also be physically intact men who
are impotent, celibate, or otherwise not inclined to marry & reproduce.
Some scholars have suggested he might have been a gay man. That there were
varieties of descriptions of who and what eunuchs are, is alluded to in Matt.
19:12, where Jesus himself says, “There are eunuchs who have been so from
birth, there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are
eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of
heaven.” (I'll bet that's a passage you didn't learn in Sunday School!).
Over
the Millennia, eunuchs have performed a wide variety of functions in many
different cultures as courtiers, domestics, and guardians of women or harems.
Seemingly lowly domestic functions—such as making the ruler's bed, bathing
them, cutting their hair, or even relaying messages—could in theory give a
eunuch "the ruler's ear" and impart de facto power on the humble but
trusted servant. In the case of the Ethiopian eunuch, he had gained so much
trust with Queen Candace that she gave him charge over her entire treasury.
We
might also note that he is a religious man. He had come up to Jerusalem, into
the very heart of Judaism, to worship, and he's a literate man who reads Holy
Scripture (in this instance, the Book of the prophet Isaiah) with a desire to
understand. When the apostle Philip approaches his chariot, he is eager to go
deeper into holy mysteries. He is thus receptive to opening his heart to Jesus
Christ, and entering into the waters of baptism.
What
seems clear to me is that the Ethiopian eunuch, given his nationality, race,
and sexual status, is an outsider, (a marginalized person), who under normal
circumstances Philip would never have approached. However, the Holy Spirit
whispers in Philip's ear....”Here is someone you must connect with”. Philip
steps outside his comfort zone. He puts aside judgmental thoughts he might have
previously harbored about who is worthy or not worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven,
and a new soul is welcomed into the family of Christ.
This
story about Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch is an appropriate one, not only on
a Sunday when we are baptizing an adult and 3 infants, but also on a Sunday
when I'd like to reflect with you on a powerful experience I had last weekend
as a member of a Kairos team at Sussex II state penitentiary.
When
our team of 28 men entered the Sussex II compound on April 26th, we entered
into a world of 1200 inmates, sentenced to incarceration due to their crimes,
addictions, poor judgments and mistakes, gang memberships and broken lives.
Courts have locked them away both to punish and protect. As a society we judge
our prison inmates as being unworthy of respect or dignity. We try hard to
forget about them by locking the doors and throwing away the keys. We are far
more interested in punishment than rehabilitation. It has surprised me over the
years, in trying to involve others in prison ministry, how disinterested so
many are. People even here at Emmanuel think: “They deserve to be there!” “Why
should I concern myself with them, or even pray for them?” “Good riddance to
bad rubbish.” While I confess that I too am grateful that many of these inmates
are not loose to inflict harm on others, I do wonder: Just how faithful to the
heart and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ are these attitudes toward the
incarcerated?
Have
you ever thought through the implications of Jesus' Parable of the Last
Judgment (Matt. 25), in which the righteous are praised for feeding the hungry,
giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, and visiting the sick and
those in prison, while the unrighteous are castigated for not engaging in those
acts of kindness? Like the unrighteous, we might protest that we'd do most of
these things if we knew we were doing them to the Lord, but visiting in
prison?.....not interested, period. Guess what. Jesus isn't giving anyone a
pass in this Parable.
When
we reflect on the giants of the faith in the Old and New Testaments, as well as
in church history down through the ages, some interesting things emerge. Jesus,
Peter, Paul, Joseph, Joan of Arc, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. have all been
jailbirds. Some might dismiss this as comparing apples to oranges. Some are in
jail because of their faith, others because of their crimes. There are some
people, however, who make no distinction at all. Back in the early 1980's, I
along with 75 other Episcopal priests presented ourselves for arrest at the South
African Embassy in Washington, DC to protest the horrendous evil of apartheid
in that country. One of the families at my church promptly disassociated
them-selves with me, our parish, and the Episcopal Church, because they felt I
was setting a terrible example for their two daughters. Jail is jail is jail.
How dare you!
How
easy it is to forget as well, that some of the most important people in the
Jewish-Christian narrative of God's interactions in the human drama had less
than stellar qualities. Jacob was a liar and a thief in stealing the
inheritance of his brother Esau. Moses murdered a man before leading the
Israelites out of Egypt. Rahab & Tamar, two of Jesus' ancestors, were
prostitutes. King David was guilty of adultery and murder. And yet, the message of forgiveness,
redemption and new life beyond the wickedness of their sinful actions is a
critical component of salvation history.
When
our team went into Sussex II prison we spent the weekend entering into
relationships with 42 inmates (7 tables, each with 6 inmates and 3 team
members). The men ranged in age from 23 into their 60's, with sentences as
short as 4 months, with some there for life. Many had drug-related offenses.
Few had relationships of any kind with their fathers. A great majority were
Afro-American.
Sitting
at my table was a young man with obvious gang connections, a 40 year old white
man who had been a high school cross-country star, an Hispanic who had allowed
drug addiction to tempt him into stealing money from his position as a bank
teller, a middle-aged man in prison for life, and a young black youth who
rarely opened his mouth. We entered the weekend as strangers, we left it as
friends. Our purpose was clear and simple: to build a bulkhead for Christ in a
harsh environment.....to bring to those who feel lonely, marginalized,
rejected, and ashamed the good news of God in Christ. We were not there to
judge them, but to love them, and to entice them towards faith in Christ Jesus.
As St. Paul asserts in his Epistle to the Romans, “Nothing can separate us from
the love of Christ.”
Perhaps
the biggest surprise of the weekend for me was the fellow at my table who
shared that he was in prison for life, and was fortunate not to have received
the death penalty. He evidently did something pretty awful, probably involving
the taking of a human life. And yet I witnessed in him, a Christian faith that
was deep and authentic, very different from some others who seemed to be
dabbling at it during the weekend. Again and
again he displayed a “pastor's heart” reaching across the table to
others who were struggling to make sense of God's love and grace in the midst
of so much in their lives that had been pretty crappy. He had no illusions
about himself, but he had felt the power of God changing his heart and giving
him a purpose for living beyond the pale of society.
Why
is it that with so much evidence in scripture, tradition and experience of
God's love, forgiveness & healing power that so many Christians embrace a
harsh, judgmental, and unforgiving attitude towards those we lock away? What do
we believe God is calling us to as people of faith, if not to reach out in love
to the unlovable, and to those we fear. Jesus himself urged his disciples in
his Sermon on the Mount to love our enemies & pray for those who persecute
us. (Matt.5:44)
I
came away from the weekend, aware that we had touched but only a few lives in
prison, but deeply grateful that we had made the effort. Many, many more are
living in a cauldron of fear, anger and despair, and are thirsty for love so
many were denied as children. I hope and pray in the years ahead that the good
and faithful here at Emmanuel,
especially those who've been strengthened and
nourished through Cursillo, may summon up the courage to go beyond our
comfort zones and engage with prison ministry. The harvest is plentiful, but
the laborers are very few.
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