And as they went along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What is to prevent my being baptized?” Acts 8:36-37
Yesterday I wrote about the slippery slope and the Holy Spirit, asking “Where will it end?” This destruction of the boundaries between peoples—where will it end?
Today we have the answer. Acts 8 is one place among many in Scripture that provides the answer: It ends where it began.
All means all. It’s not new. It always did.
God showed favor to the offspring of Abraham for a particular purpose. But it was never meant to be an exclusive favor. God’s own self has always violated those boundaries.
Jesus began his ministry with a sermon that reminded the congregation of the time that the prophet Elisha healed Namaan the Syrian—though there were plenty of Israelites he might have healed first. Because God’s blessing is for all.
Jesus lived out that principle when he healed the daughter of the Syro-Phoenician woman.
He told his disciples that they would do greater things than he. The encounter between Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch—equivalent of today’s transgender person—was the first opportunity for a Christian to live out that directive and direction. Philip beat Paul to the punch.
Philip was a deacon, not an apostle, not a person in authority. Except for the authority of his capacity to read and understand the meaning of the life and death of his Lord.
All means all.
God created us, loves us, calls us all into the community of Jesus Christ.
It is a message that still finds resistance today. The culture of the world wants order, wants everybody in their place, with insiders and outsiders. As soon as one boundary falls, another is erected. Okay, yes to baptism, but not to ordination. Okay, yes to the Church, but not to the border. Curious how the people who want order always think that the insiders should look like them.
A black transgender person was the first to hear the words of the prophet Isaiah and the story of Jesus and ask the next logical question. It was a question that brought down the cultural boundaries of the first century and that still challenges the cultural boundaries of today.
What is to prevent me from being baptized? Nothing. Nothing prevents it.
In Christ, all means all. It always did. It still does.
Logo from https://all-means-all.education
Image of Bakos by Karen R. Keen & DALL-E 2023