There is something prophetic about today’s lessons.

40 years ago on the second Sunday in May. I was asked to preach  in a little country church in Oglethorpe Ga. – Oglethorpe is divided from Montezuma by a RR track…It is located a few miles  from the better known town of Plains Ga. And not too far from Americus the home of Maynard Fuller, founder of Habitat…

When I arrived on a Saturday afternoon in 1969 I know nothing of Jimmy Carter or of Koinonia, a Christian community that was founded by Clarence Jordan to address racism in the 40’s and 50’s. I checked into the only motel in town. A concrete  block  building with peeling paint on windowsills and doorframes.

The RR tracks not only divided Montezuma from Oglethorpe it also served as visible dividing line  between a white and a back  community .. 1969 was the year I graduated from Seminary in Columbia SC

It was the year that the Beatles gave their last impromptu performance – on of their recording studio in NY

It was the year that Charles Manson murdered Actress Sharon Tate along with five of his cult followers..

The Apollo II landed on the moon and Viet Nam was in full swing…

The Mets won the world series and MLK had been assassinated  only 12 months before .

It was a year that marked the beginning of the end of the Nixon presidency..

When I settled into the little family owned  motel it was not without some trepidation…

As it turned my anxiety was well founded..

The worship service was at 11:00 a .m. preceded by Sunday School at 9:30

When I pulled into the churchyard I was greeted by several men who introduced themselves as the Call Committee.. They looked me over. I did not have a beard or a ponytail.. I was the right shade of brown – they talked about their frustration with the Bishop’s office in Atlanta – which was responsible for assigning pastor’s  on a weekly basis to preach and conduct worship.  They told me how only the week before  they had sent a  Air Force Chaplain from the near-by air base who was “colored”.. They somewhat sheepishly told me that he did not conduct services that day since  he was an hour late (he wasn’t!).

As we stood outside the clapboard building I noticed that the red Ga. Clay was covering our shoes as they shuffled their feet. it was May and in Southern Ga. It can get hot – I was perspiring and the humidity was not helping .. they asked me what I thought about their denial of the Chaplain’s entrance to the chapel? Just then the deacon rang the bell and it was time for church.. I said something about them coming inside and continuing our discussion after worship..

The Lessons where the same as those of today..

Needless to say none of the  original

Call Committee was anywhere to be seen after the service was over…

That was the first skirmish for an idealist pastor living in the South in the 1970’s 

For Since Easter there had been no OT lesson. The First lessons all have been from the book of Acts.  Where the Apostle – gives us Volume 2 of this two Vol. work, which began with the Gospel of Luke and now continues with spread of Xianity in the Mediterranean world..

In the early chapters of Acts we are told how Matthias was chosen to  replace Judas – the coming of the HS  and the spread of early Christianity from a frightened few hiding behind closed doors to the bold proclamation of the Gospel by Peter and the others… From Jerusalem Christianity moves out ward not only geographically  from Jerusalem to Macedonia and Antioch and eventually  Rome -  but more importantly cross culturally.

Enter Philip – As Luke tells the story the Apostles prayed over seven individuals  who where chosen to carry out the various functions of congregational life..

Stephen – Philip – Prochurous – Nicanor – Timon – Parmenas and Nicholous.

Stephen was stoned early in his ministry  ( and I don’t mean high on drugs but high on the Lord) –

He becomes the first Xian do die for his faith.. A man named Soul presided and it must have affected him so much that he soon converted and changed his name to Paul.

Philip – the second is the focus of today’s lesson.

Someone defied only as an Ethiopian Eunic is on is way home after a visit to temple in Jerusalem. We are told that he was secretary of the Treasury for the queen of Ethiopia. the nameless African was reading form the OT prophet Isaiah 53.7-8,

When Philip encounters him and asks him if he understands what he is reading. And what follows is the first reference of a Bible Study in the NT. After Philip explains that the OT prophet is speaking of Jesus and that he is the one who gives new life to all who believe the Ethiopian asks for baptism.. and right there on the spot (without council approval or congregational vote) the man is baptized and becomes a member of the faith community we today call the church.. What makes this reference so unique is that according to the OT Deut. 23.1.and the by-laws of the Jerusalem congregation a Eunice was prohibited from membership in the faith community and I quote “ no one who’s testicles are crushed or who’s penis is cut off shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord’

The Christian Church faith was no longer based on a legalism of exclusion but a fellowship of the forgiven… in JC.

Samaritans

Ethiopians

Romans – next Sunday we will hear how Peter is told to baptize a Roman soldier.

“ I truly understand that God shows no partiality but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him” Act’s 10.34

A neutered African becomes the first convert to the faith. Talks abut barriers coming down.

Several years ago when I preached on this text at ST. Mark’s Isle. Of Palms Lutheran Church it cost me the friendship of a Pastor for whom I was supplying – I made the comparison that in today ‘s churches people are often excluded be cause of the sexual orientation – just as the eunuch was excluded because of castration. What made the rebuff especially painful for me was that the Pastor was past member of a congregation that I had served and I was the one who encouraged her to go to seminary. When I was ordained in 1969 – women still denied ordination! She never saw the irony…

This Sunday that we give God thanks for mothers. I am reminded of words from the renowned Psychologist Eric From who said  “Most mothers are capable of giving milk but only a minority of giving honey too.. In order to be able to give honey a mother must not only be a good mother but a happy person.”  The Art of  Loving.

To often the Church is not made of up happy people rather it is a place where unhappy people want to make everyone else as unhappy as they are. They start  by excluding others, by color,  by political persuasion, by sexual orientation, by the car the they drive and on and on… Lutherans have been especially good about this…(but we certainly don’t have a monopoly) until recently unless your name was Windmueller, Beier, Holtzmann,

Birkmeyer, Hinshillwood, Sorenson ( we do have a few Scandinavians in our  midst)- you didn’t fit..

Things are changing… but it may be too late for some congregations.

So today we celebrate the gift of motherhood – it’s not an official liturgical day but it has become liturgical anomaly in that culture has prevailed!

So we give God thanks for mothers – 

First we thank him for Mother Church – the communion and community into which we where baptized. The One who gave us a new birth and continues feed us at her table..

The Mother whose children make up the diversity of the human race with it’s many colors, languages, and even beliefs.

And let us thank God for the mothers in our lives, those who loved us and those who’s love sometimes was more suffocating than liberating. Let us thank God for the mothers who gave us birth and those who nurtured us when our birth mothers either could not or would not…

Let us remember with Dr. Fromm that the Promise Land of Milk and Honey is first of all not about OT history but about Maternity born of the cross of Christ..

where to quote the Apostle Paul, there is neither male or female, Jew or Greek, Slave or Free… for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.. Gal. 3.28