Easter V, Year B

Acts, 8:26-40
1 John, 3:18-24
John, 14:15-21

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

In today's lesson from Acts, S. Philip heard the Ethiopian eunuch reading the Bible and asked him, "Do you understand what you are reading?" The Ethiopian eunuch responded to Philip, "How can I understand what I'm reading unless someone should guide me?" Peter Gomes, a prominent Baptist preacher and chaplain at Harvard, says that the Bible is like a street light: we can use it for illumination, or we can lean on it like a drunk. The drunk uses the street light not for its intended purpose, but to support himself, his prejudices and narrowness, his confused mind grasping for certainty. That's not how we should use the Bible. The Bible shows us light; it holds up Christ, the light of the world. The primary purpose of the Bible is to reveal God to us.

Indeed, to some extent, we may think of the Bible itself as type of incarnation, a union of the divine and the human. Muslims have a beautiful image of the Archangel Gabriel bringing the Koran down from heaven and giving it to Muhammad. That's lovely. They kind of stole it from the Church, which believes that the Archangel Gabriel brought tidings to S. Mary and declared that she would bring forth Jesus, the Word of God. Muhammad brought forth a book; our Lady brought forth a person, the Word of God. The Bible is about the Word of God.

We believe that the Holy Spirit inspired human beings, such as S. Matthew, S. Paul, S. John, S. Luke, to write, to declare, the Word of God. God used human beings, human talent, to declare his truth. God did not whisper into the ears of a scribe who wrote down what he was saying. Each of the books in the Bible has its own personality, its own style, a human quality as well as a divine quality. God uses human personality to reveal himself, to let us know him. Matthew, Paul, John, Luke were each much different people, and God has shown us more of himself, more of his love for us, because of their diversity and because of their humanity.

If we were to ask Philip to guide us in reading the Bible, what else would he tell us? First, he would have us know that all scripture is a unity. The Bible as a whole is divinely inspired. We can't say the same thing about individual phrases or verses. A phrase, a verse, a part of the Bible must be understood in its larger context. Every thing in the Bible must be understood in the context of the ‘mind of Christ,' in the context of the Church's tradition, in the context of the life, the prayer, and the teaching of the Church, in context of God's unsurpassed love for us and his desire to save each one of us. Every verse in the Bible is not true in itself, in its own singularity, but in its relationship to the whole.

Second, while the Bible does provide us with moral guidance, its primary purpose is not to tell us how to behave. It is not simply a compendium of law or a self-help book. To the contrary, it allows the reader, the hearer, a whole lot of discretion. No one has ever lived up to the demands of perfection: sell all that you have and give to the poor; if anyone strike your right cheek, turn to him the other also; love your enemies and those who persecute you. What the Bible has to say about behaviour begins with trusting God, hoping in God, loving as God does; it begins with mercy, humility, and meekness. We can not know what that means in every instance. The Bible does not simplify or condense life.

Third, God gave us minds. We need to use the divine gift of intellect, and that means being critical and engaging with what we read. We notice that the Bible has many, many types of literature, and different authors have different intents. Some of it is historical writing, some is poetry, some prophecy, some apocalyptic, some legend. We don't treat these all the same way. Different kinds of literature require different kinds of interpretation. So we rely upon the Church, the treasury of human wisdom, to guide us in understanding the Bible, to guide us in understanding the book she wrote!

Fourth, Christians do not worship a book. We worship God who became a man. We worship a person, and this book is about this person. We believe that all of the Old and the New Testaments make sense in light of the Jesus. Christ is the Word of God made flesh, but the Bible is not the Word of God made text. We don't worship the Bible. It is not the sole foundation of our faith. Remember that most Christians through time have not been able to read the Bible. Even today as much as seventy percent of the people in the world are illiterate. Bible reading is beneficial, but it is not essential to being a faithful Christian. Belonging to the Church, prayer, receiving the sacraments, these are essential to being a faithful Christian.

I said at the beginning that the primary purpose of the Bible is to reveal God to us, and thereby the Bible deepens our union with God and promotes the work of Christ. It is a tool God uses to bring people to him. In this morning's lesson, we heard an example of how God surmounts obstacles to reach us. First, God goes to all places. He wants his Word to spread beyond Israel to Ethiopia and to the ends of the world. Christianity is not an exclusive, narrow race or ethnicity, but an inclusive religion of all peoples. Second, God's love is not confined to any one people. The Ethiopian, probably a black man, is as welcome and as accepted by God as a Jew. Third, God wants those on the margins. A true eunuch would not have been allowed beyond the Court of the Gentiles in the Temple precincts. Castration would have left him ritually unclean, and unacceptable to God, forever. Not so with Christianity. He heard the gospel and welcomed it, and so Philip baptised him. Christianity is a universal religion, for all people in all places. There are no marginal Christians. We have union with one another, we are one with one another, because of our unity in the Church, not because of any similarity in class, race, wealth, status, power, vocation, education, appearance.

Let us notice one other element of the story. The Ethiopian is traveling on his way home. Christians have always thought of life as a journey. We recognize that our life here is a passage to a greater life. Before being called Christians, Christ's disciples were called followers of the ‘Way.' Jesus is the way - the way along which we move; Jesus is the truth - the truth in which we live; and Jesus is the life - and the character this life is movement. Our lives necessarily involve movement because movement here implies growth and change. S. Paul spoke about having finished the course and compared spiritual progress to a race. Paul was converted while on a journey from Jerusalem to Damascus. On the Damascus road, Paul saw a great light. God had revealed himself to Paul. In a similar way, in Gaza, on the way back home, God revealed himself to the Ethiopian through the Bible and through Philip. For both Paul and the Ethiopian, God's revelation of himself changes them. They have a change of heart, and that leads to baptism and to a new life. And the best part is: they go on their way rejoicing.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.