Proud to be a Eunuch?
So, under the heading of "Biblical Queers: Our Gay Saints", this Sunday's services are devoted to telling the story of the Ethiopian Eunuch from Acts and the community claiming God's promise from Isaiah 56:1-8:
Thus says the Lord: Maintain justice, and do what is right, for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed. Happy is the mortal who does this, the one who holds it fast, who keeps the sabbath, not profaning it, and refrains from doing any evil.
Do not let the foreigner joined to the Lord say, “The Lord will surely separate me from his people”; and do not let the eunuch say, “I am just a dry tree.” For thus says the Lord: To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it, and hold fast my covenant— these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. Thus says the Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, I will gather others to them besides those already gathered.
It's nice to know that, in spite of the machinations of some within the church, although some churches continue to close their doors, their altars and their pulpits to TLGB people like me, I'm welcome at the Holy Mountain, which is a house of prayer for ALL peoples ... especially for those who in Israel's past have been particularly outcast or specifically excluded, like the foreigner, the barren, or those whose genitalia don't function in a normative way, i.e. to produce progeny. Disrespect and disregard for those who do not bring forth children continues in sometimes not-so-subtle forms today ... ask almost any childless couple, especially straight couples, and they'll tell you so.
Jesus talks about eunuchs in the Gospel of Matthew [chapter 19:21] during his challenge to the pharisees that their understanding of divorce is irresponsible and unjust. When Jesus calls them to a higher standard, they say that under those circumstances it is not expedient to marry. Jesus' reply is that some are eunuchs because they are born that way, some are eunuchs because humans have made them so and some are eunuchs as a matter of choice because of the kindom of heaven ... and certainly Jesus himself, if he was indeed a single, celebate man, possibly falls in that third category. As a lesbian who never tried to conform to society's usual expectation of women and knew instinctually that neither sex with nor marriage to any man would ever work for me, I consider myself as a eunuch of the first kind, one who is born that way. The whole point of Jesus' comment about eunuchs to the pharisees is basically to say to them, "y'know, marriage [as they understood it within that culture, within that time] isn't the only option for people ..."
Anyway, the great thing about the Ethiopian Eunuch's story is that Philip baptizes him into the faith without reservation, after Philip had taken the time to teach him something about what he was reading, about who Jesus was. Imagine the contrast: here's a foreigner, clearly of African descent, a person of some political power yet outcast from the presence of God in the temple and the very righteousness for which he hungers and thirsts. Here's Philip, a Jewish kid from the sticks, blue collar, member of an oppressed minority, not that well educated, but he knows his Hebrew Scriptures. When it is all said and done, Philip goes on to another ministry task, the eunuch's still a eunuch ... but at least he has found a home with God.
Y'all can tell that I have much more to do with this yet to make it into a usable sermon.
But at least I've blogged ... hopefully my experience will be different from Lutheran Chik's and Blogger WON'T eat my homework ...
Thus says the Lord: Maintain justice, and do what is right, for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed. Happy is the mortal who does this, the one who holds it fast, who keeps the sabbath, not profaning it, and refrains from doing any evil.
Do not let the foreigner joined to the Lord say, “The Lord will surely separate me from his people”; and do not let the eunuch say, “I am just a dry tree.” For thus says the Lord: To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it, and hold fast my covenant— these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. Thus says the Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, I will gather others to them besides those already gathered.
It's nice to know that, in spite of the machinations of some within the church, although some churches continue to close their doors, their altars and their pulpits to TLGB people like me, I'm welcome at the Holy Mountain, which is a house of prayer for ALL peoples ... especially for those who in Israel's past have been particularly outcast or specifically excluded, like the foreigner, the barren, or those whose genitalia don't function in a normative way, i.e. to produce progeny. Disrespect and disregard for those who do not bring forth children continues in sometimes not-so-subtle forms today ... ask almost any childless couple, especially straight couples, and they'll tell you so.
Jesus talks about eunuchs in the Gospel of Matthew [chapter 19:21] during his challenge to the pharisees that their understanding of divorce is irresponsible and unjust. When Jesus calls them to a higher standard, they say that under those circumstances it is not expedient to marry. Jesus' reply is that some are eunuchs because they are born that way, some are eunuchs because humans have made them so and some are eunuchs as a matter of choice because of the kindom of heaven ... and certainly Jesus himself, if he was indeed a single, celebate man, possibly falls in that third category. As a lesbian who never tried to conform to society's usual expectation of women and knew instinctually that neither sex with nor marriage to any man would ever work for me, I consider myself as a eunuch of the first kind, one who is born that way. The whole point of Jesus' comment about eunuchs to the pharisees is basically to say to them, "y'know, marriage [as they understood it within that culture, within that time] isn't the only option for people ..."
Anyway, the great thing about the Ethiopian Eunuch's story is that Philip baptizes him into the faith without reservation, after Philip had taken the time to teach him something about what he was reading, about who Jesus was. Imagine the contrast: here's a foreigner, clearly of African descent, a person of some political power yet outcast from the presence of God in the temple and the very righteousness for which he hungers and thirsts. Here's Philip, a Jewish kid from the sticks, blue collar, member of an oppressed minority, not that well educated, but he knows his Hebrew Scriptures. When it is all said and done, Philip goes on to another ministry task, the eunuch's still a eunuch ... but at least he has found a home with God.
Y'all can tell that I have much more to do with this yet to make it into a usable sermon.
But at least I've blogged ... hopefully my experience will be different from Lutheran Chik's and Blogger WON'T eat my homework ...
posted by Reverend Dona Quixote @ 12:20 PM
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