[In addition to her role as Co-Director of Red Letter Christians UK, Sally Mann is also a Baptist minister. She was invited to speak to another congregation about why her church had signed the Inclusive Church Charter. And so she told them a story…]
(If you don’t know this Bible story, you can find it in Acts 8:26-36.)
We pick it up at verse 36: ‘As they rode along, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look! There’s some water! Why can’t I be baptized?”’
Philip replied….
“Sir, isn’t it obvious? Let me direct you to Leviticus—flip back with me, will you? Leviticus 21:18-23. Our Scriptures expressly forbid your full inclusion. It’s clear—a man with damaged testicles, because of his “defect”, would desecrate the Lord’s sanctuary. It’s not just in one clobber passage, sir, there are more. All kinds of sexual others are covered in our Scriptures. Here, in Lev 20:13: “If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.”
‘These aren’t my words, they are God’s!
‘I understand that you have been to Jerusalem, hoping to worship? No doubt you were turned away. Your state is part of the fallenness of the world, or perhaps your own sin? So you are an object lesson to the rest of us, and keeping you out is the way we know we are worshipping a holy God. I would change this if I could. But Scripture is clear. You are part of what we call “abominable”. We can’t change a single word of the Law; it lasts forever, not a word of it will be removed. It’s a slippery slope if we let our culture, or our feelings, help us interpret Scripture.’
‘But, Sir,’ said the Eunuch, ‘How closely have you read your Scriptures? See here in Isaiah 56:3-5, a prophecy that says eunuchs who keep the Sabbath will be given a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters. Has this day happened, Sir? Have sexual others, once excluded by the Levitical code, been made sons and daughters, and been welcomed into the new Temple?’
Philip is disquieted:
‘Well, I hadn’t remembered that bit. I don’t think it means that…and anyway, it’s not happened yet. But don’t feel judged. God doesn’t hate you, he just hates your sinful state. I mean, if you are okay then sex isn’t just about procreation…and where would that leave us? God made Adam and Eve—not Adam, Eve, Steve, and someone of indeterminate sex.
‘No, no, it’s best if we continue to think of you as an outsider. It makes it easier for us, and for all the strict Jews within our movement who hold these Scriptures very dearly. They would find your presence unacceptable. It’s their culture. If we let you in, they might leave – and some of them are bankrolling this whole show. I mean, unity matters.’
Sensing he might be on to something, Philip continues:
‘What is more, it’s not just your problematic sexual identity, is it? You are foreign and a Gentile. We have a lot of Scriptures about that. And you are a slave. Okay, a fairly posh one. But nevertheless, the Scriptures tell us how to keep slaves, so it can’t imagine they are fully included as equals. Slavery is Biblical. In fact, the Scriptures tell us we are allowed to take slaves from the people we conquer, and to force their women into marriage, even if we are already married. In the old days, our leaders had many wives. It’s there in Scripture – although I think we’ve stopped doing that.
The Eunuch responded,
“But sir, I understand that there has been a new prophet in the line of David. I have heard about him. This man Jesus? Does he agree with this? What does he say about people of different sexual identities?”
Philip thought long and hard:
‘…Well, I can’t actually recall him saying much. He did say a lot about adultery. In fact, some pretty hard lines about remarriage. I’m sure we’ll keep to them. I remember it word for word: “I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.” I remember that because we said to him, “If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry!” And Jesus answered in a strange way, I still don’t know what he meant, I’ll quote him… “Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”
‘We don’t know what that means—being born, being made, choosing?
‘Come to think of it, it’s a bit odd he was so quiet on all this. The Roman Empire is full of sexual vice. I can’t recall him ever calling out homosexuals. You know, in our world, homosexual sex can’t possibly mean consent—pederasty is rife here. I hear there’s a lot of it in Corinth. No doubt, our church leaders will write to them at some point. The Greeks have a word for it: malakoi, which means “soft ones.” Paul came up with his own word, arsenokoitai, but sometimes it’s hard to understand exactly what he means! It’s a practice the Romans have – they are into all things Greek. Basically it’s pederasty. Roman officials (pederasts) purchase boy slaves (catamites) for sexual intercourse. They call it worship, these Romans. If the church actually gets to Rome, our leaders will have to write to them, because it’s a cultural norm there—but is clearly oppressive. These young boys are bought as temple prostitutes, and these officials keep them as personal sex slaves. I’m sure we’ll write something about it to Corinth and Rome so the Christians know that’s not to be done. Our future leaders will have to find words for it—they may even invent some. Keeping rent boys, using prostitution for worship; well, that’s nothing to do with Christianity, is it! Yes, we’ll probably write letters to them. And they will know what we mean, because they live there. The boys themselves are tainted through it. You wouldn’t want one in your home. They are hardly real men, are they?
Philip goes quiet for a moment, and then continues,
‘But there was this time when a Roman centurion came to Jesus because his ‘beloved boy slave’ was ill. It was a particular word he used. My friends Luke and Matthew wrote about it (Luke 7:1-11; Matt 8:5-13). It was so strange. We were so shocked Jesus went to that home. I mean, to be honest, we all knew the man was likely a pederast, and the boy a calamite. But Jesus went and healed that boy.
‘He did these weird things. Women…foreigners…tax collectors…Samaritans…prostitutes. He was scandalous like that.
‘Of course it’s different now. We’re building an institution here. We can’t have all these blurry edges. Anyway, our argument is Biblical. It’s in the Word of God.’
The Eunuch was suddenly quite energised:
‘But, I heard,’ he said, ‘that your Jesus claimed to be the Word of God. Perhaps your Scriptures are words of God, and surely inspired. But along comes one who claims to be the Word of God. Surely that matters? I hear some of his followers describe him this way – as Logos, the one by which we can judge every other thing, every rule, every theology, every conception of God. Why are you sending me back to Leviticus law? Perhaps it has done its job? It’s revealed we cannot keep it. I heard this Jesus broke many of your social rules concerning outsiders and those spiritually unclean. He touched, welcomed and included them. He didn’t use his words to demean them. He loved us. Isn’t this true? Philip?
He continued,
‘I heard one of your own friends, Peter, is struggling with a similar issue about inclusion. He knows your Scriptures—who is clean and who is not. Yet I hear rumours that he had a dream about clean and unclean things. Surely your people will write about it? In his dream Peter refused to eat anything unclean and a voice cautioned him not to call unclean what God has declared clean. And then, is it not so, that while Peter was trying to understand the meaning of that vision, three Gentiles, “the unclean”, arrive! I heard this dream journeying through Caesarea. A man called Cornelius told me of it. Because it was his house Peter stayed in! Peter let him know as a Jew, he is prevented from entering the house, yet God instructed him not to call defiled what God has declared clean. So, Peter preached the Gospel; there the Holy Spirit came down upon all. Perhaps this Spirit will show us yet more light from these Scriptures? Cornelius told this to me. It caused a rift because the Jewish believers are arguing about whether to include the Gentiles. Who knows how that will end?
The Eunuch’s eyes seemed to fill with tears, as he continued,
‘Philip, I’m a slave, a foreigner, a gentile, a eunuch. One of indeterminate sex. Sent away from your temple but seeking God and life. I come just as I am, I can’t come any other way. What must I do to be baptised?’
Of course, this is not how the story ends. Without hesitation, Philip baptises the Ethiopian Eunuch. There are two conversions that day.
Perhaps it’s important that Philip has just returned from a mission to Samaria, retracing the journey Jesus had taken him on, to break down prejudice and cross cultural and gender shibboleths (John 4). Missional people appear far more able to resist defining themselves by doctrinal adherence. Many have already journeyed away from seeing Church maintenance as the crux of their call. There is something about missional life, focussing on Jesus and justice, that knocks certainties out of you. At best, you cling on to Jesus and then other things seem a whole lot less weighty. Philip is on that journey. And so, the Gospel is spread to Africa. The Jerusalem Church struggle and argue, but they do allow Gentiles in. And Paul does write to the Roman Empire churches and tell them abusive sex is wrong. He uses precise words to do so. And so, eventually, other abuses which were justified by clobber verses are condemned by the followers of Jesus…slavery, patriarchy… And so on, and so on.
We journey on.