Inside the Gate and Holier Than Thou

We have been talking about the mysteries of God, about truths revealed, about concepts concerning God that were previously misunderstood or unknown. The concept we’ve been discussing for the last few weeks is that God is the God of all mankind. 

Last week we looked at the story of Peter and the sheet full of unclean animals let down from heaven. We saw it as a story of two conversions: Both Cornelius and Peter were in need, it seems, of education. Both needed to grasp the concept that God is the God of all mankind. Today, we continue the topic by seeing what we can learn from the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch: 

 [A]n angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Get ready and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza.” [That this is a desert road is one of several very significant pieces in the story.] So he got ready and went; and there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure; and he had come to Jerusalem to worship, and he was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading Isaiah the prophet. Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go up and join this chariot.” Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this: 

“He was led like a sheep to slaughter;
And like a lamb that is silent before its shearer,
So He does not open His mouth.
In humiliation His justice was taken away;
Who will describe His generation?
For His life is taken away from the earth.” 

The eunuch answered Philip and said, “Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself, or of someone else?” Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him. As they went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?” [This is the key question of the of the whole passage.] And he ordered that the chariot stop; and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; and the eunuch no longer saw him, but went on his way rejoicing. (Acts 8:26-39) 

A sermon delivered by Claire Davidson Frederick at Pepperdine University entitled: “What shall prevent me?” mirrors my thoughts about this passage so closely, and she expresses it so well, that I will simply quote heavily from it here, while interspersing within it some comments of my own: 

“I was 10 years old, and the 6pm evening service at my Sunday School was just about to begin at the Lebanon Road Church of Christ in Nashville, Tennessee. It was the fifth Sunday of the month. 

“Sometimes on those particular evenings it was our practice to have a night of congregational singing, where anyone who wanted to could get up and lead a song. When they said ‘anyone,’ I naturally thought that that included me. After all, I had been taking piano lessons for the past three years, I could read shape notes, and I had a deep love of God and all things musical. I’d memorized just about every song in the hymnal, complete with its back page insert of number 728: “Our God He is Alive.” I love that song. I love that response of him. I was fairly certain that that would be the first one we would sing on Judgment Day after we all got to heaven. 

“When it came time to volunteer to lead the song, my little hand shot up in the air and I had my finger on the page ready to begin. But my mother, horrified at the attention that I had drawn to our red velvet pew, put her hand on top of mine and pushed it back into the seat. “You can’t do that! You’re a girl!” she whispered in that hot, breathy voice that leaves moisture on the inside of your ear canal. I’m sure every church kid has felt that at some point growing up. My face turned red, and I swallowed hard to keep the lump in my throat from turning into real tears. I had been prevented, even me, from full participation in the kingdom. 

“What shall prevent me—what shall prevent you—from being a full participant in the kingdom? I wonder if the Ethiopian eunuch experienced something like this upon his arrival at the temple in Jerusalem. Eager to offer his spiritual service of worship, he stepped out of his chariot onto the Temple Mount, looking up at this beautiful holy building. Hungry for spiritual community he was desperately seeking to understand where and how he fit into God’s world. 

“You all know what a eunuch is, don’t you? This is a person who began life as a male with all the requisite parts, but prior to puberty had undergone castration. If performed early enough this procedure has major hormonal consequences. Often this was done without the child’s consent [how can a 10-year-old give consent, I guess would be my question] in order that he might grow up and serve in some important governmental or social function. 

“We don’t know if this eunuch chose to be differently gendered or whether it was chosen for him. But what we know according to historical documents from the Middle East is that many boys were castrated in a monastery in Upper Egypt where Coptic priests performed the operation. The child, who was usually less than 10 years of age and certainly pre-pubertal, was restrained in a chair. The phallus—the penis—and the scrotum were tied to a cord which was then pulled taut, and the phallus, the scrotum, and the testes were removed as close as possible with a single stroke of the razor.

“Bleeding was stopped with boiling oil and the wound was dressed with an extract of wax and tallow. In some instances hemostasis (that is, blood control or stopping the bleeding) was achieved with hot sand and the wound was dressed with an extract of acacia bark. The mortality was said to be high—only about one in three surviving. Actually, the reports are quite varied: Even as low as 5% survival is recorded in some places. In a time when the concept of the germ theory of disease and infection were completely misunderstood and when there was no science of wound care, you can imagine the kind of problems this would present. 

“After the castration a nail was inserted into the urethra (the tube that goes between the bladder and the outside through the penis) to prevent a stricture at the site of the transection. The eunuchs then squatted to urinate. Both the urethral stricture and incontinence must have been fairly common because there were reports of the fact that eunuchs carried silver quills for self-catheterization, presumably because of strictures; and others use a removable plug to prevent incontinence. 

“But owing to the high death rate, the survivors were highly valued and were sold at high prices, either to Turkey or to Persia. Eunuchs were often assigned the task of assisting royal women or guarding the harem. This one served Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians. He was a treasure during one of the most prosperous times in the ancient history of the kingdom of Cush. The kingdom of Cush is modern-day Sudan, Upper Egypt, part of Ethiopia and Eritrea, the headwaters of the Nile. 

“Because they could not procreate, eunuchs were not a threat to the sovereign’s rule. They could not establish a competing dynasty. But their status as eunuchs also made them vulnerable to violence. They could be easily replaced or killed without repercussions because they had no sons to avenge their name. Because they were not quite male, and not quite female, they were seen as completely other. They were spiritually unclean, according to the laws of the people of Israel. 

“This eunuch had apparently been a follower of Yahwei for some time, and it would have cost him a small fortune to make the expensive and long and dangerous pilgrimage all the way from the Nile river valley to the holy city of Jerusalem to honor God. Being a high official in this country, he was probably used to a certain amount of access and privilege and did not foresee any problem getting into the temple. Reasonably wealthy, he could even afford to buy (and the merchants apparently were happy to sell him, perhaps as a souvenir) a beautiful handmade scroll of the Book of Isaiah. 

“But if he had only had in his possession a scroll of the Book of Deuteronomy that eunuch would have been saved a lot of trouble, because in that book it clearly states according to the law of Moses that eunuchs are expressly forbidden from entering the temple or the assembly of the Lord (Deuteronomy 23:1). Forbidden from entering. He was, as we’ve said, prevented.

“You see, the temple was segregated by tribe, by race, and by gender. The holy place was for the Levitical priesthood only. The Inner Court was for Jewish men only. The next court was for Jewish women only. And the outer court—the one where Jesus taught and where first Christians met—was for the rest, for the leftovers, the unclean, the ungendered, the eunuchs. 

“Full of hope and expectation, the eunuch might have made it inside the Court of the Gentiles, but no further. He was politely shown the door and prevented from entering the worshipping company of the spiritually elite. Of course, it was easy to spot a eunuch, as we’ll mention in just a moment. Apparently, the eunuch had learned about, and grown to love, Israel’s God; and maybe even believed, despite his transgressive gender and racial status, that he too, was made in the image of God. But on this particular occasion he was told in no uncertain terms that his service and devotion of God could only go so far. The boundaries had been drawn. ‘Your full participation in this religion stops right here.’ He was prevented. 

“Fortunately, if he had to leave on that note, I’m glad he went back to Ethiopia with Isaiah’s scroll as his take-home reading because in this book, instead of hearing a sad song of exclusion, he hears a symphony of hope from a God who promises peace to those who are far off and to those who are near (Isaiah 57:19). The eunuch catches a prophetic vision of a time still to come when God’s house will be called a house of prayer for all nations (Isaiah 56:7). He wonders, I’m sure, when that time will be, when the walls and the inner partition of the temple will no longer separate and distinguish worshipers according to Jew or Gentile, clean or unclean, male or female, eunuch or other. 

“So let’s fast forward then to Philip, the evangelist. You have to love Philip, because in the Book of Acts, it tells us that he has not one, not two, not three, but four prophesying daughters who are always flying off at the mouth, apparently, and Philip does nothing to quiet them. In fact, it’s possible he was maybe quite proud of them, though Luke doesn’t really say that. But at this point Philip knows a thing or two about being an outcast himself, because if we go back and read the earlier part of Acts 8 we discover that Philip has just been thrown out of Jerusalem due to the great persecution (the persecution that resulted in the stoning of Stephen) that had broken out against the church. Philip was no longer a welcome guest in the temple either. He too was now excluded and was existing on the margins. 

“But following the prompting of an angel, Phillip travels south along the desert road that leads to Gaza, and here it is that he sees this royally dressed, beautiful black man, skin so smooth and shiny because of the hairless nature of his lack of testosterone. In a culture where every man wears a beard, a man with no beard and who is black stands out like a sore thumb. His gender is questionable. His race uncertain. He is not Jewish. He is triply ‘other’—three times unclean. But if Philip has any hesitation in his Jewish gut at all about coming near this person, Luke doesn’t record it. What we do read is that the Spirit of God urges Philip to join himself to this man and Philip does not resist. 

“Here again, we see the power and the initiative of the Holy Spirit and evangelism. We can assume that the kingdom of God in Christ has already broken down Philip’s previously held sectarian thoughts. So when the Spirit tells Philip to go, he doesn’t just go: The story we just read says he runs headlong into the company of a brother who is triply ‘other.’ Jogging alongside the chariot Phillip shouts: ‘Do you understand what you’re reading?’ The way the question is phrased in the Greek shows that he is expecting a negative answer, and he receives just such an answer. The eunuch responds: ‘How can I understand unless someone guides me?’ 

“I wonder what it was about Isaiah 53 that resonated so much with the eunuch? Could he see himself in the suffering servant texts that was most clearly fulfilled in the life and death of Jesus? It says things like: ‘He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering, acquainted with grief, humiliated. Like a sheep he was led to slaughter,’ and so forth. The eunuch can relate to these words—he’s been humiliated himself. The words evoke something in him. Had the eunuch been but a young lamb himself when they took the knife to him?

“So he invites Philip to come up and sit with him in the cool shade of his chariot—a gracious act of hospitality from a man who’s been excluded from this jogging apostle all the time. You see, we all need a beloved faith community. We need someone—anyone—who’s not afraid to wrestle with us, even if we don’t believe the same thing that they believe, even in our differences as we attempt to discern God’s Word and God’s will for our life. And in that act of coming together, Philip and the eunuch create a ‘fellowship of others.’ The chariot is transformed into a new type of church and as Philip steps through the door of that church he preaches peace, and is himself the recipient of peace from one who was far off and one who was near. Isaiah’s prophetic messages already coming true. 

“He asked Philip: ‘Who is the scripture about? Who was rejected? Was it the prophet or was it someone else?’ You see, they’re only two members of that Gospel Church of the Ethiopian Chariot on the road to Gaza, but both members—both Philip and the eunuch—could relate to rejection. So Philip begins right there, and explains the story of Jesus, the Savior who was rejected by his people; how his life was taken away from Earth and how his death was redemptive; of how he reconciles all people to God and to one another. Phillip talks resurrection. He preaches new creation, and the truth that in Christ Jesus all are one and that God is the God of all mankind. In short, he preaches the gospel of grace that we’ve talked about before. 

“Maybe they keep on reading Isaiah. There’s some irony here as they travel through this book and as they travel along this hot, dusty, dry, road from Jerusalem to Gaza. By now the eunuch has already heard God’s promises to make streams in the desert where there had been none; to do a new thing so the former things can be forgotten, and to make way for The Way that they had been previously balked and prevented (Isaiah 43:19). 

“Finally, the eunuch hears the sweet promise of Isaiah: 

Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say,
“The Lord will certainly separate me from His people.”
Nor let the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.”
For this is what the Lord says:
“To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths,
And choose what pleases Me,
And hold firmly to My covenant,
To them I will give in My house and within My walls a memorial,
And a name better than that of sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name which will not be eliminated. (Isaiah 56:3-5)

“You see, in many congregations and church groups, there is no place for the different, no place to offer their gift in worship. In Jerusalem, there had been no place for the eunuch except for a kind of outer-court, back-of-the-bus Rosa Parks type of experience. But on this dusty desert highway, having felt like a dry tree all of his life, the eunuch suddenly sees a stream in the desert. Here’s water. Here’s the way to The Way. There is this new thing, and interrupting Philip, he says: ‘What shall prevent me from being baptized?’ The early manuscripts did not record Philip’s answer but we can imagine that Philip mouths a single word: ‘Nothing.’ 

“This is the mystery that God is the God of all mankind. You can be baptized either with the Holy Spirit or with water. Nothing and no one shall prevent you if you have faith. And in this moment, the gospel was proclaimed to him and to every other person who has been prevented from living fully into the kingdom of God. 

“But the question remains, who are we preventing today from full access to our communities of faith? Do we hinder people from pouring themselves fully into the mission of God by giving them subtle messages that ‘We can’t use your kind of people?’ Do we divide and partition people still with walls of legalism, sectarianism, and social injustice? Is Sunday morning at 10 o’clock still the most racially segregated hour of your week? Do we still in 2020 prevent girls and women from speaking and leading in worship and using their gifts for public ministry? Do we tell the couple who are living together but not married: ‘Clean up your act and then you can come on in and be part of what we’re doing’? Do we prevent the alcoholic and frequently out-of-work man from serving communion because the cigarette smell on his clothes is so strong it’ll knock your socks off? Do we tell the young woman who is coming out with her sexual identity that she can no longer volunteer in the children’s ministry because we’re not sure she can be trusted around our children, even though she grew up in the church and we have known her all her life? Do we ask people to check parts of themselves at the door and culturally commute in order to fit into our particular brand of Christianity?” 

The desert is a dry, dusty, and desolate place. The road between Jerusalem to Gaza is the metaphorical road of life. It’s the road of life for the eunuch. The desert is the last place you’d expect to find water. It is both a mystery and a miracle that in that dry and desolate place the Holy Spirit finds you and that you find living water. 

Baptism, as it’s done biblically, was without a covering. When you were baptized, you were naked, everything exposed, including in the case of a eunuch the castration disfigurement. But here we see the powerful symbol of baptism as a new beginning, a complete covering of grace. The old is gone; now re-covered with a robe of righteousness. It occurs to me that in this story, we are all the eunuch, trying to find our way and where we fit in. Our bodies are mutilated by sin. We are scorned and rejected, we are powerless because our creative parts have been taken from us. We cannot foster a dynasty. Stripped as we are of our working parts, we are incapable of doing anything by and for ourselves. We cannot create, but by grace we are promised a place and a name. Better than sons and daughters, we will be given, through grace, an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. 

What is there to prevent anyone from being fully included in the family of God, where we can navigate (and I daresay celebrate) our differences together? When the answer to this question is firmly and finally “Nothing,” then you’ve got the gospel. You’ve got the good news of a God who is the god of all mankind, who loves the world and wants all his children to become one with him. Then and only then, like the eunuch, we can go on our way rejoicing. 

There’s much more to this story, but I’m going to stop here to hear your thoughts about inclusion and diversity, about differences in the church, about evangelism, about techniques and pitfalls of evangelism, about message and methods and what we learn from this story of the Ethiopian eunuch.

David: A recent article from Wired magazine made a cogent argument that the Internet is breaking up. Is this Babel 2? We’ve been all coming together as a global village but suddenly it appears that China is building its own independent internet and Russia is too. Is God tearing the internet asunder because we were getting dangerously close to coming together? 

Is the vision in this story about everybody coming together in one big, happy, kumbaya family? Is that really what God wants? I think in previous sessions we’ve agreed that God wants diversity, not unity, among us. In one sense the story of the eunuch celebrates diversity. To me, it’s not an argument that we should all flock to that same desert and gather around the eunuch and Philip and grow a church. I don’t think that’s the idea. We should celebrate Philip and the eunuch for who and what they are, and for their relationship with God. I think that’s the message, but I can also see people taking the story as an excuse to build a church, to organize. Once you do that, you’ve lost the spirit of the story, it seems to me.

Don: The very fact of the eunuch being unable to create is, I think, a highly significant point of the story and it does relate to what you’re saying.

C-J: I spent a couple years in the First Unitarian Universalist Church as a Christian and they hate hearing that word, but I never backed away from it. There was a lot of cognitive dissonance. The church has a very large LBGTQ community and some of them came out of traditional Christian backgrounds, from Catholicism to Pentecostal, but they left because of the things Dr. Weaver talked about today. I think it is one of the most beautiful things I’ve heard. It reflects who God is—inclusive. We can be flawed by circumstances, but as they say in addiction: Secrets keep us sick. We need to be authentic before God and community. 

It’s a dangerous place for people, that place Dr. Weaver described; a very dangerous place, even today. If they were able to hear what he said, I think that many of them would know the relationship that I feel everyone here has experienced. It is profound. They can accept facts, but they don’t think of God as being a real entity, because what kind of God would that be out of their experience? 

Reinhard: I agree that what we just heard is remarkable. These were the formative years for Christianity, after Jesus asked the disciples to preach the Gospel from Judea to Samaria to the ends of the earth. The disciples were hesitant. Where to begin? The messages from God to Peter and Philips provided the breakthrough, pushing them to make a move, not just stay in Jerusalem, where the disciples were pariahs among the Jews. 

Paul tells us that the mystery of the God of all mankind means that salvation is not only available to the chosen people, but to all mankind. The disciples had to start preaching the gospel almost beyond their capacity. The Gentiles started getting the news about Christ and the crucifixion. Peter preached to the Jews outside Israel; it was Paul who preached to the Gentiles. 

Donald: Today’s remarks are pivotal. They are very important for us to consider in this world of “us and them.” We’re not very unified at this point—the fact that we recognize we’re not unified must really mean we’re not. It relates to our recent discussion of baptism to a church versus baptism to the Gospel. To me, that’s a fairly important distinction, one that isn’t considered by Adventists. 

There used to be, at the back of the Bulletin, a list of unique Adventist doctrines. They were the distinctions that made you an Adventist. Before you were baptized, you went down to the front of the church and raised your hand and agreed that you would abide by those doctrines. Doctrine is divisive. We try to get people to come to our way of understanding, but it would be much better to acknowledge that other people can have other doctrines yet still be our brothers and sisters in Christ. 

Florida is a swamp, not very pretty if it’s not manicured, but once manicured it can be spectacular. Developers build grandiose gated entrances to otherwise often nondescript housing developments. But why are there gates at all? Is it to make people on the inside feel distinguished from those on the outside? I really don’t think it’s for protection. It’s to satisfy a human urge for something. I suspect people are more likely to spend more money on a home in a gated community than on one not in a gated community. 

How do we take the gates down? What would allow us to to be more open to each other? Is it okay to be in a community of people you understand, or is it better to be in a diverse community? Some of the best moments in my life have been in places where I have stood out as “other.”  I took it upon myself, in those cases, to try to blend in. (I am not talking only about Africa, please don’t misinterpret what I might seem to be inferring.) I’ve traveled throughout the world—many of us have—and know that a meaningful conversation—not just “It’s a beautiful day!”—with somebody who is different from me is exhilarating. But it takes a lot to get there. 

We have in this community 10, maybe 12 different ethnic Seventh Day Adventist churches. They are by no means exclusive but “others” might not feel as comfortable there as in their “own” ethnic church. Is it just because we like to be around our own? Or are we afraid of the other? 

C-J: I think it’s affirmation. I think it’s tribalism. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Everybody wants to feel safe, not in the sense of violence. It takes a long time to communicate and explain to people when they say: “Why do you do it that way? I’ve never seen that done.” Different food and other traditions for me are a very rich and beautiful tapestry, but they may make other people feel really uncomfortable. “Why would I do that? I like this, but why do you live like that?” 

The beauty of it is it makes me question who I am. What makes my way the right way?. And it can be scary. But gated communities are usually about elitism and self-protection. You don’t have to fight with anybody about why you are right (“might makes right”, “white and righteous” and so on) in terms of a context of choice. Because there’s diversity in all those tribes also. It would be insane to say everybody from New York behaves a certain way. We distinguish between New York City, upstate New York, central New York, and so on. I think it affirms who we identify with—rural, city, educated, uneducated, and all the things that come with that. But people are people when you sit down next to them on the bus and talk to a stranger. It’s a wonderful experience, all that just kind of falls off. They want the same thing. 

Michael: It’s a bit more than just talking to strangers, and while I agree with Donald that it is about feeling comfortable with those who are like us, I think it’s a little bit more than that too. The fundamental belief in Christianity is that in order to be saved you have to do things a certain way, you have to believe certain beliefs. The problem with that is that the eunuch did not have to do that yet he was still saved. That is when people have some serious issues and that’s where the church would have some serious issues. 

If God is dispensing grace to everyone, why would the church put its foot down and say: “No, you can’t! You have to have it this way!” I do think that, in that sense, churches are getting in the way of God. They are not dispensing the way of God, they are actually preventing it.

Carolyn: To me, the ideal gathering of Christians would be in a church forum or synagogue forum or wherever. We are all so different in so many ways, as this beautiful story shows. It really gives me hope that we can go beyond the rules and open up our churches to everyone as a hospital. We can love them and we can have this journey together.

Kiran: One of the problems with the LGBTQ community coming into the church is that we fundamentally view them as sinners. For example, if a sex addict, man or woman, came in to the church openly declaring their addiction but adding that they read the Bible and wanted to be accepted into the church, would we accept them? Would we put them in charge of a children’s Sabbath School? Would we not be scared to do so? Yet I know I am a sinner too, but I’m not admitting it. I’m a hypocrite. 

Jesus said: “If you think about a woman, in your mind you commit adultery.” So who does not? Hello?! If we see ourselves as sinners in need of grace, then we should see the other as a sinner in need of grace too. But for some reason, when we come into the church, we don’t talk about the struggles we go through every day. A lot of people struggle with porn addiction. A survey found that 60% of pastors watch porn. Can we let a pastor who admits watching porn deny admission to LGBTQ people? I think humility and the utter honesty about our own selves is required if we are to be united. 

The story of the eunuch is really a revelation for me. I have struggled so much about this topic. At one camp meeting, the Michigan Conference gave everybody a book about homosexuality. Then I started listening to opposing views by Adventists. They were digging so deeply into it, and getting down to the tiniest Biblical nuances. I had to quit because I couldn’t really see the point. 

But when you step back and see yourself as a sinner in need of grace and then recognize that the other person, no matter what bracket they fall into, is also a sinner just like you, then your job, like that of Peter and Philip, is to introduce to them the gospel news and the Christ who is going to forgive them and take care of them. I think that’s that’s what matters.

C-J: I think there’s a place for science, in terms of explanation, brain chemistry, and all of that. But when it comes to grace and redemption, I agree with Kiran. Absolutely. I work with military vets, many of whom have been incarcerated for things. I was giving rides to one particular vet, and he started sharing more and more of his life, as he felt safe. And he shared with me something that in my past, I would have pulled over and said: “You know what, I can’t do this, I really have a very strong feeling about people who have done this.” But I didn’t, and I really was surprised at myself. 

He is a born-again Christian. I was quiet for a little bit and he was kind of shuffling papers. I said: “Well, you’ve paid your debt to society. And God is about redemption.” We’ve never talked about it again. Because really, what Kiran said is so true. What kind of a person would I be if I talked this but do that, and I’m not truthful about it. Restoration isn’t just: “I don’t do that anymore.” Restoration is spiritual. 

It’s something we can’t do. It’s only the grace of God. You can try all day long. It’s grace, and God restores. What we have to do is love. We’ve been restored, we have to be gracious, but it’s an act of God. It’s merciful. 

Donald: I agree with Connie with regard to the gated community. It’s elitism. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. But it struck me on my recent visit to Florida that the communities weren’t all that elite. Their gates give them a false sense of being elite. Is there a relationship between their gate and our church? Do we thumb our noses at the rest of the world as we drive to Sabbath service? I grew up in a Catholic neighborhood. They must have thought: “Who are those people? On Saturdays they just kind of withdraw and don’t speak to anybody.” When people are drawn together, do they have a bigger sense of who they are by setting up some rules and saying, “Hey, we’re all in, we’re all right, let’s all shake hands!”? 

With regard to salvation, an old joke familiar to all Adventists has a non-Adventist saying: “Up in heaven, be quiet, because the Adventists think they’re the only ones there.” Why is that even funny to us? 

Don: Because there’s an element of truth to it?

David: This issue of salvation and redemption is raised over and over and over again by Christians, and to me, that’s one of the divisive things. Not all religions agree that this is the purpose of life, or even the purpose of Jesus Christ. (Maybe in future we could talk about that.) In what way was the eunuch saved? What was his sin? The message in the story is that he experienced kindness and love and friendship and fellowship from Philip, and he felt great about that. He realized, I guess, that there was, after all, some goodness and some love and in the world, after all—that there was a God, after all. 

So what was he saved from? Was he saved from cynicism? He must have been pretty cynical about the world up to that point, since he had not experienced the really good things in life. When all of a sudden he did, what a revelation that must have been. Was that his salvation? There is nothing in the story to say that he was joyful because he was saved for the afterlife; rather, he was joyful because he was saved for the here and now, in the heaven on earth.

Kiran: There is a problem with exclusivity. When I joined the Adventist church my friends talked about a special message for Adventists: They would be chosen by God in the last days. It messes with your head. If you believe it, you don’t want to accept that your church is wrong in any way and you don’t want to accept any newer understanding. Catholics have the same problem! Peter learned so much from Cornelius—I think we all should understand that every interaction we have with somebody else is going to enrich our own spiritual life. That was the big takeaway last week for me. 

I’m so glad we had that discussion because we all—Adventists, Catholics, Muslims…—arrogantly assume that ours is the best path therefore you should listen to us. But the truth is, both sides are going to learn something. It just takes humility.

Reinhard: Regarding the gated community: People sometimes behave differently in church than they do outside it. When we moved to a small town near Detroit, the closest Seventh Day Adventist Church was all black. The first time we went they looked a little bit surprised because we looked different. During the program, they even cut parts of it thinking it might not suit us. I don’t know what they cut. We all want our comfort zone. People in our church are good people on the whole, there’s no question. I like to associate with Adventists. As individuals, we reflect our church to the outsider, and Adventists tend to have a reputation as good, religious people.

People who live in a gated community maybe behave differently inside and outside the gate, but we have a duty to show people that we care, show them the love of God, because this reflects on the church itself. To evangelize we really have to show others what we believe, show them that we care and want to share the love of God. Our deeds are as necessary as our words, even if we live in a devil’s community! God knows.

Homosexuals are good in God’s eye as long as they do his commands and follow the law of God. Our problem is when we see them behaving outside the moral law. God loves sinners, but hates sins. But we cannot judge those people. We can only show the love of God to them.

Janelin: Oftentimes I feel a great responsibility as I go through my everyday life as a Christian physician. I’ve always got medical students coming in to see me. Two recent ones are part of the LGBT community. My Bible and my devotional sit right on my desk, and I always wonder what the students make of that, what their experiences with Christians have been like. I hope they will know that I accept them as they are, but I may be judged for wearing my Christian hat at work. 

I always feel this big responsibility when I’m with people who happen to have led different lives from me. I really just want to show God’s love. Some have shared with me their negative experiences, but I always hope that my actions and my words show that I don’t expect everyone to be uniform in their thoughts and opinions. 

Don: Please note that we won’t have class next week but will regroup the following week. Think about more lessons to be learned from Peter and from Phillip, and from his friend the Ethiopian eunuch with his hairless, smooth appearance. 

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