Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." (This is a wilderness road.) 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 and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go over to this chariot and join it." So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?" He replied, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this:What is this? A story about an Apostle of the early Church associating with a eunuch? A (gulp) homosexual? Not only a gay person, but a gay person from Ethiopia. This just cannot be! There it is right in the Acts of the Apostles. A narrative about Philip the Apostle sharing the Gospel with a eunuch who would have been someone who is gay in Biblical times. Keep in mind that the age in which the Bible was written the words heterosexual and homosexual were not part of the vocabulary of the day. Sexuality was about the strong vs the weak. Gray Temple addresses this at length in his book Gay Unions In Light of Scripture, Tradition and Reason. The Bible does tell us a lot about what sexuality was like in the time in which it was written.
"Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,
and like a lamb silent before its shearer,
so he does not open his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth."
The eunuch asked Philip, "About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?" Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. 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?" He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. 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. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.
Jesus spoke of the eunuch in Matthew chapter 19. "Not everyone can accept this teaching, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been made so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can." (Mt. 19: 11-12). The raising up of the eunuchs was prophesied about in Isaiah 56: 4-5 in verse 5 the Prophet says: "I (the LORD) will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off." Such implies that a homosexual individual in Biblical times who may have been cut off from the community at one point, when the Messiah comes will be given an everlasting name and place within the reign of God.
Our conservative Christian relatives within Catholicism, Protestantism and even some in our own Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion continue to work to say that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, questioning and queer people should be excluded from receiving Holy Communion, not allowed to participate in ordained ministry, local church service, and not allowed to have marriage equality in the Church or through the Government or Court system. They continue to base their arguments on the Bible as they try to promote it as the "infallible Word of God." Episcopalians believe in the importance of Scripture, but we also cling to Tradition and Reason within which is our human experience. Archbishop Tutu so correctly stated in the movie For the Bible Tells Me So: "The Bible is the word of God through the words of human beings speaking in the idiom of their time. The richness of the Bible comes from the fact that we don't take it literally so, as if it were dictated from God." Bishop Gene Robinson in his book In the Eye of the Storm reminds us that the Word of God is Jesus Christ. "To elevate the words of Scripture to a place higher than the revealed Word of God in Jesus Christ is an act of idolatry." (Page 22). Our Church Tradition while it has yielded so many rich treasures is also full of political gains for some and complete losses for others. It is out of Tradition that Christianity developed the attitude of Supersessionism that is part of the debate over the creation of an Islamic center near Ground Zero in New York City.
Our human reason has been teaching us that LGBTQ people are not diseased nor intrinsically disordered folks just because of our sexual orientation and/or gender expression/identity. We are individuals seeking our way through this world just as those who are heterosexual or of one gender expression/identity. We come with our sinfulness, yes, but our sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expressions are morally neutral. When we exercise our sexual orientation within loving, committed and meaningful relationships we are honoring the gifts that God has so wonderfully bestowed on us. God also honors our loving relationships.
Notice in today's reading from Acts that Philip the Apostle does not tell the eunuch that he must stop being a eunuch in order to be baptized and become part of the early Church. Had there been a commandment or moral problem with homosexuality in the time of the early Church, Philip the Apostle would have most certainly addressed the issue and we would be reading about it. Just as Jesus most certainly would have addressed the homosexual relationship between the Centurion and his slave whom Jesus healed. However as we read through Matthew 8: 5-13 and Luke 7: 1-10 we do not read that Jesus even mentions or is concerned about the relationship between the Centurion and his sexual slave. Those who attempt to suggest that the Centurion not be given room with Israel's Messiah are told that everyone is welcome to the Father's table. In the Acts of the Apostles, Philip wants to tell this questioning eunuch about Jesus and baptize him so he can participate in the Christian faith. It often seems that those who are trying to use the Bible and the Christian Tradition to say that LGBTQ people should be excluded from equality in the Church and society are not paying attention to what our history has really taught us.
Why are Christians so wound up about who should be part of the Church and who should not because of our sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression because of erroneous interpretations of the Bible? A great writer in the Huffington Post writes in detail about what sexuality is and is not in the Bible. The author Rita Nakashima wrote the article in response to what many right wing Christians are writing about Judge Walker's ruling on the Prop 8 case.
Instead of using the Bible, Tradition and not paying attention to reason in order to attempt to exclude people from the Church, why are we not rushing to find ways to include everyone? If we truly believe in the unconditional and all inclusive love of God, why are Christians misusing the Bible, Church Tradition and ill mannered reason to deceive people into thinking that LGBTQ people and many races, genders, classes etc are not wanted or desired by God? It seems that the energy of the Christian Church that is so needed to help people know God's wonderful and extravagant love, is being spent on hate, division, violence and cruelty. Even the Apostles of the early church had to learn to accept diversity. When will the Church of today catch up with the lessons of our history?
Almighty God, you have given your only Son to be for us a sacrifice for sin, and also an example of godly life: Give us grace to receive thankfully the fruits of this redeeming work, and to follow daily in the blessed steps of his most holy life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Proper 15, Book of Common Prayer, Page 232).
Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen. (Prayer for Mission, Book of Common Prayer, Page 101).
Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen. (Prayer Attributed to St. Francis, Book of Common Prayer, Page 833).
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