1 John 4:7-21
“Love & Water”
Preached Sunday, April 25, 2024
I want to take a moment and tell you how absolutely excited I was for the opportunity to baptize a beloved child of God this morning AND for that baptism to happen with these assigned texts this morning. Our readings came from the assigned Revised Common Lectionary texts for this Sunday morning - part of the love passage from 1 John and the story of the Baptism of the Ethiopian Eunuch. These texts alongside participating in the sacrament of Holy Baptism is just - chef’s kiss - perfection.
This match-up combines 2 of my 3 greatest joys as a minister:
1. Telling everyone that they are a beloved child of the God who is Love - and I mean EVERYONE - we’ll dig into that a little more with the Acts texts. And -
2. Baptizing children of God - claiming them by and for Love as God’s beloved child, and welcoming them into the community of faith
I hope, by the end of this sermon, you are just as hyped as I am for the loving and inclusive Kingdom of God that God paints for us in the Scriptures today and that we got to glimpse in the act of Baptism today.
So let’s start by going back to the basics of some of what happens in Baptism. For some this may be a refresher and still for others, you may hear it for the first time or with new ears.
In baptism, we are adopted into God’s family. Every child, every person, on this earth, is already a child of God and already loved by God. In Baptism, we formalize that adoption and celebrate that love. As an adult, that person makes a public statement of their faith, accepting that they are loved by God and promising to serve God. When we baptize children, parents make promises on behalf of their child - that one day, if they so choose, they can accept for themselves. And the parents promise, to the best of their ability, to raise their child to know the God who is Love. So we have God making a promise in Baptism: You are my child and I love you. We have the baptized or parents of the baptized making a promise: I will follow God and/or I will raise this child to know God. And then the congregation also makes a promise on behalf of all Christian communities: We will love this person, we will show them Jesus through our love, and we will accept them into the family of God, the Church.
For as we are all children of God, the Church as a whole is a reflection of God’s family. And this congregation, we are a microcosm of God’s greater worldwide and universal family. One of the vows we make in our baptism is this: that we “confess Jesus Christ as our Savior, put our whole trust in his grace, and promise to serve him as our Lord, in union with the Church which Christ has opened to people of all ages, nations, and races.”
And so, phrased another way, we recognize that the family of God, the Kingdom or Kin-dom of God, has people in it of all ages, nations, and races in it. When we baptize a child of God, we are saying, welcome to a beautifully diverse and inclusive family. You, no matter who you are, you belong here.
And it’s even more beautiful, diverse, and inclusive than our baptismal liturgy lets on. While our liturgy specifically states all ages, nations, and races being included in the Church, in the family of God, our list is much shorter than the Holy Spirit’s work, because the work of the Holy Spirit is always reaching out to all and widening the circle of God’s love. So Christ has opened the Church to people of all ages, nations, and races...and genders (in Christ there is no male or female), classes, sexualities, abilities, etc., etc - there is no marker, no one group or person that Christ would exclude from His Church if that person wanted to belong to it. Christ has already decided on ALL. Sometimes we just have to catch up with the Spirit. When I went to seminary in the South a common bumper sticker on the cars of my classmates was “Y’all means all.” And when it comes to who the Holy Spirit offers the love and grace of God to - y’all truly means all.
As God has opened the Church, the Family of God, up to all who wish to know the love of God - to love God and love neighbor as ourselves. So are we called, through our Baptisms, to extend that love to ALL too. Our Scripture from 1 John today starts, “Beloved, let us love one another.” And it goes on eloquently, speaking of love as a Christian - the love God has for us and the love we are to have for one another. Let me lift up a few lines to you:
“God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.”
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.”
“Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate a brother or sister are liars, for those who do not love a brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.”
It is easy to accept the little children we baptize as beloved children of God. Innocent and sweet and so very cute. Children in which we can see our own children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews. It is easy to love the infants we baptize, to welcome them into our family, into God’s family.
And here is the challenge, friends, fellow Children of God, siblings in Christ - it is harder to imagine those we fear in the place of these children, being baptized, shown God’s unconditional all-inclusive love, and welcomed into our family, the family of God. Because if we’re being honest - there are always those we may fear. Our political climate thrives off of us fearing one another. We may fear those who have a different race or ethnicity than us. A different citizenship status. A different sexual or gender identity. A different social class. Or belonging to a different political ideology. We may fear whoever the new bogeyman of the week is according to the news channel we watch. Whoever is deemed “the other.”
But if we fear another person - we do not love them, for perfect love casts out fear. Fear keeps us from love - love of our fellow siblings in Christ, our fellow beloved children of God - and fear of “the other” also keeps us from love of God. In a line that always challenges and convicts me, Christian-Catholic activist Dorothy Day put it like this, “I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least.” I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least…it’s basically a paraphrase of our passage from 1 John today and it should challenge and convict us.
With this in mind, let us now turn to our reading from Acts. We have today the story of the Baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch.
The Ethiopian eunuch is traveling home from Jerusalem while reading a scroll from the book of Isaiah. Phillip feels a nudge from the Spirit to go talk to them. So Phillip runs alongside the chariot and gets invited in, and as they pour over the scroll together, Phillip tells this person, tells the Ethiopian Eunuch about Jesus, about all that has transpired, about his death and resurrection.
I’m going to use “they” as the singular pronoun for the Ethiopian eunuch because eunuchs, as one commentator put it: “Eunuchs did not fit conventional notions of gender in the Roman world. They were simultaneously men and nonmen, neither male nor female. Sexually impotent, they were powerless and thus often scorned according to Roman constructions of masculinity and virility.” In other words, eunuchs did not fit the binary of man or woman. In today’s world, people who do not fit the binary often use the pronouns they/them/their to describe themselves. As a woman I use the pronouns she/her/hers. A man would use he/him/his. The most common pronouns for an individual who says they do not fit into either of those camps is they/them/theirs - singular. I am going on this tangent about pronouns, not just to explain why I am using they to refer to the person in today’s Bible story, but because I think a lot of people have some fear around the concept of sharing pronouns or those people who are trans- or non-binary and use different pronouns than would have been assigned to them based on sex at birth. But if this is something you struggle to understand or causes fear in you - the answer is simple, as told to us from 1 John: Love. Love drives out fear and fear keeps us from loving God. If there is fear due to not understanding or even misinformation given to us from popular news sources, we have to interrogate that fear and meet it instead with Love - the Love that comes from God.
One way we can show that love is if someone you know asks to go by they or asks you to use different pronouns than you used to use or expected them to use - it’s really really important to use the pronouns they ask you to. A recent study shows that 1 in 6 Gen Z adults are LGBTQ. On top of that 25% of today’s LGBTQ youth use non-binary pronouns. Research shows that the suicide risk decreases by 50% for youth when those close to them use their correct and preferred pronouns. That’s right - you can reduce the risk of suicide by HALF for a youth, just by calling them by what they have asked to be called. And if you ignore their request, it actually increases their risk for an attempted suicide. Moreover, when we respect someone by referring to them how they want to be referred to and by calling them by the name they want to go by, we are showing them Christ’s love through our words and actions.
The Ethiopian Eunuch would have been considered an outsider, or someone that might be feared, for other reasons too. As an Ethiopian, literally meaning “burnt face” in Greek, they would have been viewed as an outsider to the Greco-Roman world. The text said they went to Jerusalem to worship but there is a question as to whether they would have been considered as a Jew or Gentile, or a “god-fearer” - those who admired the Jewish God but were not converts for a variety of reasons.
In general, they had ambiguity of character. Everything from their gender to their ethnicity to their religion is liminal. In essence they represent, as one commentator put it, “surprise, subversion, and expanse.” They are not who the early church disciples would have pictured as being welcomed into the family of God.
And nonetheless, thanks to the Spirit’s leading, Philip is sharing the story of Jesus with the Ethiopian eunuch, and their response to Phillip is this: "Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?"
Phillip could have come up with a lot of reasons: your gender, your status as a Eunuch, you being Ethiopian - a different race and ethnicity. You being a Gentile. Phillip could have said, “this is not for you.” or “You wouldn’t quite fit in with us.” But instead, Phillip and the Eunuch go down into the water, and Phillip, led by the ever inclusive Spirit, baptizes them into the family of God. In essence saying, “God loves you. I love you. You are a child of God. You are my sibling in Christ. Welcome to the Church.”
Now...the goal today is not to exoticize the Ethiopian eunuch or “other” those today who would be of a different gender, race, or status than we’d expect to be Christians...the goal today is to hear the Ethiopian eunuch shown the love of God, be baptized, be welcomed into the family of God - and then to hold up a mirror to us:
Are we still allowing the story of Jesus to reach those who, to many in the church, would represent surprise, subversion, and expanse? Are we allowing the story of Jesus to break down our walls of division, our prejudices, our stigmas, or preconceived notions? Are we allowing the love of God to drive out any and all fear we have of our fellow siblings in Christ? Are we joining the Holy Spirit in building a church that is beautifully inclusive, diverse, and loving? Are we loving all as we love the infant we baptized today?
Friends, at the start of this sermon I told you that I hoped at the end of this sermon you’d be as excited as me to share the Good News of God’s love for all God’s children. To be hyped about the image of God’s Kingdom, God’s Kin-dom, that is painted for us in our Scriptures today and that we get to catch a glimpse of everytime we baptize a child… Like me, you may also be challenged and convicted, to confront our fears with love, to stretch ourselves to better love each other, to let God’s perfect love drive out fear…
But may that also excite you. May it excite us all. Cause there is nothing better in this world than getting to share God’s love with all God’s children and claiming each and every beloved child of God through the waters of Baptism.
May it be so. Amen.
And so, phrased another way, we recognize that the family of God, the Kingdom or Kin-dom of God, has people in it of all ages, nations, and races in it. When we baptize a child of God, we are saying, welcome to a beautifully diverse and inclusive family. You, no matter who you are, you belong here.
And it’s even more beautiful, diverse, and inclusive than our baptismal liturgy lets on. While our liturgy specifically states all ages, nations, and races being included in the Church, in the family of God, our list is much shorter than the Holy Spirit’s work, because the work of the Holy Spirit is always reaching out to all and widening the circle of God’s love. So Christ has opened the Church to people of all ages, nations, and races...and genders (in Christ there is no male or female), classes, sexualities, abilities, etc., etc - there is no marker, no one group or person that Christ would exclude from His Church if that person wanted to belong to it. Christ has already decided on ALL. Sometimes we just have to catch up with the Spirit. When I went to seminary in the South a common bumper sticker on the cars of my classmates was “Y’all means all.” And when it comes to who the Holy Spirit offers the love and grace of God to - y’all truly means all.
As God has opened the Church, the Family of God, up to all who wish to know the love of God - to love God and love neighbor as ourselves. So are we called, through our Baptisms, to extend that love to ALL too. Our Scripture from 1 John today starts, “Beloved, let us love one another.” And it goes on eloquently, speaking of love as a Christian - the love God has for us and the love we are to have for one another. Let me lift up a few lines to you:
“God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.”
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.”
“Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate a brother or sister are liars, for those who do not love a brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.”
It is easy to accept the little children we baptize as beloved children of God. Innocent and sweet and so very cute. Children in which we can see our own children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews. It is easy to love the infants we baptize, to welcome them into our family, into God’s family.
And here is the challenge, friends, fellow Children of God, siblings in Christ - it is harder to imagine those we fear in the place of these children, being baptized, shown God’s unconditional all-inclusive love, and welcomed into our family, the family of God. Because if we’re being honest - there are always those we may fear. Our political climate thrives off of us fearing one another. We may fear those who have a different race or ethnicity than us. A different citizenship status. A different sexual or gender identity. A different social class. Or belonging to a different political ideology. We may fear whoever the new bogeyman of the week is according to the news channel we watch. Whoever is deemed “the other.”
But if we fear another person - we do not love them, for perfect love casts out fear. Fear keeps us from love - love of our fellow siblings in Christ, our fellow beloved children of God - and fear of “the other” also keeps us from love of God. In a line that always challenges and convicts me, Christian-Catholic activist Dorothy Day put it like this, “I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least.” I really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least…it’s basically a paraphrase of our passage from 1 John today and it should challenge and convict us.
With this in mind, let us now turn to our reading from Acts. We have today the story of the Baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch.
The Ethiopian eunuch is traveling home from Jerusalem while reading a scroll from the book of Isaiah. Phillip feels a nudge from the Spirit to go talk to them. So Phillip runs alongside the chariot and gets invited in, and as they pour over the scroll together, Phillip tells this person, tells the Ethiopian Eunuch about Jesus, about all that has transpired, about his death and resurrection.
I’m going to use “they” as the singular pronoun for the Ethiopian eunuch because eunuchs, as one commentator put it: “Eunuchs did not fit conventional notions of gender in the Roman world. They were simultaneously men and nonmen, neither male nor female. Sexually impotent, they were powerless and thus often scorned according to Roman constructions of masculinity and virility.” In other words, eunuchs did not fit the binary of man or woman. In today’s world, people who do not fit the binary often use the pronouns they/them/their to describe themselves. As a woman I use the pronouns she/her/hers. A man would use he/him/his. The most common pronouns for an individual who says they do not fit into either of those camps is they/them/theirs - singular. I am going on this tangent about pronouns, not just to explain why I am using they to refer to the person in today’s Bible story, but because I think a lot of people have some fear around the concept of sharing pronouns or those people who are trans- or non-binary and use different pronouns than would have been assigned to them based on sex at birth. But if this is something you struggle to understand or causes fear in you - the answer is simple, as told to us from 1 John: Love. Love drives out fear and fear keeps us from loving God. If there is fear due to not understanding or even misinformation given to us from popular news sources, we have to interrogate that fear and meet it instead with Love - the Love that comes from God.
One way we can show that love is if someone you know asks to go by they or asks you to use different pronouns than you used to use or expected them to use - it’s really really important to use the pronouns they ask you to. A recent study shows that 1 in 6 Gen Z adults are LGBTQ. On top of that 25% of today’s LGBTQ youth use non-binary pronouns. Research shows that the suicide risk decreases by 50% for youth when those close to them use their correct and preferred pronouns. That’s right - you can reduce the risk of suicide by HALF for a youth, just by calling them by what they have asked to be called. And if you ignore their request, it actually increases their risk for an attempted suicide. Moreover, when we respect someone by referring to them how they want to be referred to and by calling them by the name they want to go by, we are showing them Christ’s love through our words and actions.
The Ethiopian Eunuch would have been considered an outsider, or someone that might be feared, for other reasons too. As an Ethiopian, literally meaning “burnt face” in Greek, they would have been viewed as an outsider to the Greco-Roman world. The text said they went to Jerusalem to worship but there is a question as to whether they would have been considered as a Jew or Gentile, or a “god-fearer” - those who admired the Jewish God but were not converts for a variety of reasons.
In general, they had ambiguity of character. Everything from their gender to their ethnicity to their religion is liminal. In essence they represent, as one commentator put it, “surprise, subversion, and expanse.” They are not who the early church disciples would have pictured as being welcomed into the family of God.
And nonetheless, thanks to the Spirit’s leading, Philip is sharing the story of Jesus with the Ethiopian eunuch, and their response to Phillip is this: "Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?"
Phillip could have come up with a lot of reasons: your gender, your status as a Eunuch, you being Ethiopian - a different race and ethnicity. You being a Gentile. Phillip could have said, “this is not for you.” or “You wouldn’t quite fit in with us.” But instead, Phillip and the Eunuch go down into the water, and Phillip, led by the ever inclusive Spirit, baptizes them into the family of God. In essence saying, “God loves you. I love you. You are a child of God. You are my sibling in Christ. Welcome to the Church.”
Now...the goal today is not to exoticize the Ethiopian eunuch or “other” those today who would be of a different gender, race, or status than we’d expect to be Christians...the goal today is to hear the Ethiopian eunuch shown the love of God, be baptized, be welcomed into the family of God - and then to hold up a mirror to us:
Are we still allowing the story of Jesus to reach those who, to many in the church, would represent surprise, subversion, and expanse? Are we allowing the story of Jesus to break down our walls of division, our prejudices, our stigmas, or preconceived notions? Are we allowing the love of God to drive out any and all fear we have of our fellow siblings in Christ? Are we joining the Holy Spirit in building a church that is beautifully inclusive, diverse, and loving? Are we loving all as we love the infant we baptized today?
Friends, at the start of this sermon I told you that I hoped at the end of this sermon you’d be as excited as me to share the Good News of God’s love for all God’s children. To be hyped about the image of God’s Kingdom, God’s Kin-dom, that is painted for us in our Scriptures today and that we get to catch a glimpse of everytime we baptize a child… Like me, you may also be challenged and convicted, to confront our fears with love, to stretch ourselves to better love each other, to let God’s perfect love drive out fear…
But may that also excite you. May it excite us all. Cause there is nothing better in this world than getting to share God’s love with all God’s children and claiming each and every beloved child of God through the waters of Baptism.
May it be so. Amen.
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