John 15: 1-8; Acts 8:26-34; I John 4:7-21

“Who is this about?”

The scholars who chose today’s texts had something in mind. I always assume that. I cannot imagine them just systematically selecting the texts because it was the turn of those texts. Sometimes they leave a section out or shorten one.  Maybe I give them more credit than they deserve, but I am working with the premise that what there is a method here.   So I went digging for a message that tied all three texts together. The way I think we can see these texts is as representing layers of meaning. So in a sense the lectionary text selectors are bakers. They are baking a layered cake. The Javanese have this cake called kue lapis (for sale in Old Sacramento in Bali Kitchen-no I don’t get commission for mentioning that).   There are more than a dozen thin layers of different dough with various ingredients, even though the layers are pretty much the same thickness. I have been told baking it is extremely time consuming

Earlier we talked that the world and our lives are full of layers: there are layers of paint, there are layers of soil sediment and rock composition, there are layers of skin, there are layers of experience, there are layers of religion and culture, there are layers of memory maybe even and of identity. Here we have layers of text we can put over one another, or peel away. First comes the layer on top of the text in Acts: the Ethiopian eunuch asks about the Old Testament text (which is yet another layers) that talks about the prophet:” Who is this about?” Here we have a man from a far away kingdom who comes to Israel. His disability (which has been imposed on him) puts him as far in the margins as possible, even though kings can use men like him. Then he is from such a distant land that he isn’t even on the map of the times. Philip who feels called to witness to him, has quite a job: how to get this man in a short time from no understanding to faith in God through an Old Testament text which does not mention Jesus by name. But this is lighting speed conversion, the man is baptized becomes he accepts Jesus. So the first question “who is this about” is answered: it is about Jesus.

Now come the next layer. If I were the Ethiopian I would want to know next:” who is Jesus all about?” For that answer we go to the Gospel of John. There Jesus talks about wine vines and branches. He says that we must be attached to Him or we are not perhaps be grafted to him. We are the branches. He is the vine and perhaps God is the soil and the Spirit the sun. The second question is now answered: “Jesus is the One from God to whom we must attach ourselves. Now for an even deeper question: but why? Why should we attach ourselves to Him? I John answers that one. The only thing that can heal the human heart is love, everything is about love if we are going to get anywhere.  And the person and story of Jesus is the way to comprehend God’s love. That is the reason to attach ourselves to God.

Friends, somehow the Ethiopian quickly understands that the text is about Jesus to whom we must attach ourselves if we want to get God’s incredible love. But wait, maybe below these layers of text, imbedded, lies another layer of meaning. Could it be that to that first question: “who is this about? ”there is another answer? Could it be that the question has multiple answers.? Could the answer not only be that the answer is about Jesus, but that it is in the end about the Ethiopian and could it be that it’s even about us?

Friends, the Ethiopian, the wounded but enlightened servant, comes to Israel looking for something: some favor or power for his monarch, some truth, some ingredient or material. He finds a truth for his life. He finds faith because Philip addresses the emptiness in his life by connecting him to God’s love. Then job done, Philip disappears.

Friends, we come to these pews looking for something: some solace, some healing, some truth, some wisdom, a respite from loneliness perhaps, a moment of inner peace. Or all of the above. We come with our layers of life: our life experience, our values, our cultures and we seek to connect with the Eternal One. We sit here and hope something will happen as the Ethiopian perhaps hoped something would happen to him. As the bulletin cover says, all we have to do in unclench our fist that is so tight because of fear and anger and resentment. We must open our hands and receive. May God generously give. Amen.