Sermon -

Who's In and Who's Out?

Acts 8:26-40

May 14, 2006
The Rev. James Sledge
Boulevard Presbyterian Church, Columbus, OH

The words I’m about to utter likely qualify for the weirdest opening to any sermon I’ve preached in the twelve or so years that I’ve been preaching on a more or less weekly basis.  It’s simply a verse from the Bible, but…  Well, you’ll understand as soon as I read it.  Here goes.  No one whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off shall be admitted to the assembly of Yahweh.  See what I mean?

Don’t get mad at me.  These words are straight out of the Bible, from the 23rd chapter of Deuteronomy.  They are part of the Law codes, the commandments Moses gives to the people of Israel after they have escaped slavery in Egypt and are camped at Mount Sinai.  If you’ve ever looked at this section of Deuteronomy, or its parallel passages in Leviticus, you know that there are lots and lots of rules here.  It begins with the 10 Commandments, but that is just the beginning.  There are rules about clean and unclean foods, rules about tithing, rules about Sabbath, rules about Passover and other festivals.  There are rules about sanitation and rules about raising children.  There are rules about slaves and about people captured in battle.  There are rules about witnesses in court cases and rules about commerce.  There are lots and lots and lots of rules.

Of course these rules in the Old Testament have to do double duty.  They serve both as religious rules and as the rules of the society at large.  We leave these latter laws to civil government in our society.  The people who pass the laws may be informed by their religious faith, but generally we don’t think of speed limits and zoning laws and federal trade regulations as religious issues.  We’re happy to let those sorts of laws be based in on something other than religious principles.

I say generally we don’t think of civil laws as religious matters, but that is not always the case.  I was watching television a couple of weeks ago and caught some of the political ads that ran before the primaries on May 2nd.  (At least they were few and far between compared to what awaits us in November.)  One of these ads was by Kenneth Blackwell, and in it he touted the fact that he had led the fight for the amendment restricting marriage to something between a man and a woman.  And when that amendment was on the ballot in 2004, many people did think it was a religious issue, and they went to their Bibles, to those rules Moses gave to the Israelites at Mount Sinai, and said, “See, it says right here that a man can’t bed down with another man.”  And it does.

How many of you have read all those rules in Leviticus and Deuteronomy?  I’m betting that a lot of you haven’t.  I once saw an article which suggested that more well intended resolutions to read the Bible cover to cover had faltered on the pages of Leviticus than any other book of the Bible.  If you have read Leviticus, you not only know that it is filled with pages and pages of rules, but that many of the rules sound quite bizarre to us.  In fact most of us break a great number of them nearly every day.  For example, if you don’t eat kosher foods, if you like bacon, or if you wear cotton polyester blend clothing, you are breaking a number of the laws in Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

Religious rules are hardly restricted to Christianity.  Obviously the same rules from Leviticus are part of Judaism.  Muslims have many very similar rules.  You’ll find rules in Hinduism and Taoism and in the local tribal religion of some remote South Pacific island.  Rules about morality and purity are an almost universal feature of religion.

That’s completely understandable.  After all, religion is, at least in part, about aligning our lives with a higher power, about learning to live in ways that cohere with what we created to be.  We need rules, both the kind that restrain evil and those that guide us in shaping our lives so that they will be good and abundant and meaningful.  And as religious communities form, these rules also serve to set the boundaries of the community.  Who’s in and who’s out?  In fact a lot of religious rules are precisely about such things.  What are the minimum standards for membership?  What are the behaviors that will get you tossed out?

And that brings me back to the rule I read at the beginning of this sermon.  You remember it.  No man who’s not fully a man can be admitted to the assembly of the Lord, of Yahweh.  Who’s in and who’s out?  Well according to Deuteronomy and Leviticus, castrated males are out.  Why should God care?  Why have such a rule?  Actually, I can think of some good reasons.  In the ancient Middle East it was common practice to make eunuchs of those who served in the royal courts.  After all, the king needed to protect the harem.  But apparently the God of Mount Sinai didn’t like this practice.  Humans ought not be mutilated for the sake of another.  Besides, Israel was not a numerous people.  They needed all the families possible.  No, eunuchs and castration would not do for Israel.  And so it was banned in the strongest possible way.  Eunuchs were not fit to be part of the religious community.  Who’s in and who’s out?  Eunuchs are out.

Who’s in and who’s out?  The question is not just an ancient one.  There are people here this morning who were members of the Presbyterian Church when women were allowed to join but were second class citizens.  They weren’t fit to be elders or deacons or pastors.  Not too many years ago Jimmy Carter withdrew his membership from his Baptist Church because they wouldn’t admit a black member.  Who’s in and who’s out?

We Presbyterians are still fighting on this one when it comes to gays and lesbians.  In a strange sort of logic we say gays are welcome as members but unfit as elders or deacons or pastors.  And even though our denomination says gays are welcome as members, I know a number of pastors whose churches would never allow an openly gay person to join.  Who’s in and who’s out?

We’re not the only denomination engaged in this fight.  So are the Lutherans and the Methodists and others.  Last year there was a case in the Methodist Church courts when the pastor of a church denied a gay man membership.  It was a rather odd case.  The man had sung in the choir for some time and decided the time had come to deepen his commitment, to become a full fledged member.  But the pastor said no.  The regional Methodist governing body removed the pastor for this, but the national council reinstated him, saying he was within his rights as pastor to exclude the man.  Who’s in and who’s out?

The biblical book of Acts was written by the same person who wrote the Gospel of Luke.  That gospel takes us to Jesus’ resurrection and ascension while Acts takes us from that point on to Pentecost, the birth of the Church, and to its growth and spread throughout the known world.  During the season of Easter, readings from Acts occupy the Old Testament lesson slot in the lectionary, the three year cycle of readings appointed for each Sunday.  The idea is that Acts functions as a kind of continuation of the Old Testament.  The story of Israel, God’s people continues in the story of God’s people, the Church.

The book of Acts also asks questions about who’s in and who’s out.  The very first Christians assumed that you had to be Jewish before you could be Christian.  People who wanted to join the Church had to become Jewish first, had to follow the Law, had to be circumcised if they were male, had to observe the dietary and purity restrictions.  Who’s in and who’s out?  Only those who are fully Jewish are in.  But Acts tells how the Spirit led the Church to reach out.  The gospel reached across those boundaries.  Gentiles were welcomed.  Circumcision was no longer required.  Adherence to the Jewish dietary restrictions was lifted.  Who’s in and who’s out?  The love of God in the good news of Jesus reached out beyond what everyone thought the boundaries were.  God’s amazing love reached out and claimed those on the outside, the poor, the outcast, the sinner, the Gentile, the leper, the woman, the mentally ill, the prisoner.

In our reading from Acts, …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.”  God directed Philip and the good news of Jesus that he was sharing to a place where he encounters a eunuch, one of those males not fit for the community of God.  Who’s in and who’s out?  Eunuchs are out. 

This was no chance encounter.  The angel has directed Philip to this place and the Spirit tells Philip to go over to this eunuch.  And so Philip helps the eunuch to understand the scripture he is reading.  He tells him the good news about Jesus, about God’s love poured out for all in Christ.  And the eunuch says, “Look, here is water!  What is to prevent me from being baptized?”  And that Methodist minister said, “Well you’re a eunuch.  You cannot be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.”  But Philip, filled with the Holy Spirit, immediately baptized him.  And the Spirit then whisked Philip away.  His work of reaching out beyond the boundaries was done.  And the eunuch went on his way rejoicing, went on his way to tell others about this amazing love of God that was for eunuchs, too.

Who’s in and who’s out?  I had a seminary professor who had an interesting way of picturing the difference between God and humans.  God is like this (throwing arms wide open), forever going out from Godself, creating out of love, embracing out of love.  But humans are sinful and like this (hunching over and pulling in arms as if clinging to something).  They’re constricted, driven to protect what is theirs, to cling to what they think is theirs, and to draw lines and boundaries to keep out people who scare them or who are too different from them.

All of us have ended up on the outside of those lines and boundaries.  We’ve been told that we are too young or too old, too pretty or too ugly, the wrong sex, the wrong political party.  We went to the wrong school or lived in the wrong place.  We didn’t have enough money or didn’t belong to the right club or organization.  We weren’t smart enough or educated enough.  Who’s in and who’s out?  Nearly all of us know what it’s like to be out.  But the amazing love of God in Jesus reaches out wide across all lines and boundaries saying, “My love is for you, too.”

Thanks be to God!