Sermon for the 5th Sunday of Lent: ‘Rescue’; preached at the Eucharist, Sherborne Abbey on Sunday, 28 April 2024 by the Reverend Rebecca McDonnell (Acts Ch 8: v 26 – end; John Ch 15: v 1 – 8)
I wonder if anyone else has been watching the RNLI’s BBC series ‘Saving Lives at Sea.’ We have been avid watchers since the beginning in our house, and it has been incredible to watch the daring and deeply moving rescues of volunteer crew across the UK and Ireland during this latest series as the RNLI celebrate their 200th anniversary. Last week’s episode was particularly harrowing, as we watched helmet footage of a rescue by volunteers from Walmer lifeboat station on a shout in December of last year. They were called out to assist border force in a rescue of a small boat totally overfilled with people desperate to find a place of safety, caught in the busy shipping lane of the English Channel.
As the crew arrive on scene border force are helping people onto their bigger boat, but as the small rib they are crammed in begins to take on water and sink the scene gets hectic as they end up in the freezing water. They’ve been sat in such tight conditions their legs are seized and they can’t kick to keep themselves afloat. You can hear them cry out that they don’t want to die. The RNLI crew step in and rescue 5 stranded in the water, with border force taking the rest. One casualty drops unconscious, but thanks to the care of the crew he is a revived and taken to safety. The voiceover tells us this crew then had to immediately go on to help another small boat in difficulty. We are told 70 people have died in crossings like this in the last 6 years, although I expect it’s much higher, and the RNLI save all lives at sea with professionalism and care, without discrimination.
This episode aired last Tuesday, the same day we heard the news that the government’s Rwanda bill passed, and the same day 5 migrants died in the English Channel in one of those small boats. The youngest was a child of 4, the same age as my youngest. I pass no political comment, but simply my desperation and sadness at the pain of this world.
In today’s reading from Acts we enter the turbulent world of the early church, under persecution from both Roman and Jewish authorities in the time immediately following Jesus’ death and resurrection. There was fear and death among those early believers as evangelist’s travelled and taught on the good news of the Risen Christ under great risk of persecution. Philip was one of the first evangelists to preach the Gospel outside Jerusalem and Judea. He begins in Samaria, a place with a history of tension and conflict with the Jews in Jerusalem.
An Angel of the Lord comes to him and tells him he must turn south on the road that leads from Jerusalem to Gaza. The word ‘south’ here is both a direction but also possibly a time, meaning noon, so he is stipulated both a time and a place to move according to the spirit. So here he is, wondering through the desert in the heat of the day, not knowing where he is headed and who he might meet. (I wonder if we can imagine refugees on this same road feeling equally lost.)
And then an interesting character rolls into the story; heading home to Ethiopia is the chief treasury officer to Candace, the Queen of the Ethiopians. He has been on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to worship the God of Israel and has somehow got hold of a valuable scroll of the prophet Isaiah, which he is reading aloud whilst he is being driven in his chariot. The Holy Spirit urges Philip to literally run and catch up to this man; midday, in the Gaza desert, he meets a wealthy, God-fearing, scripture reading, chariot riding, African official. But his most defining feature in the reading, is the fact he is a Eunuch. Despite his position of power and wealth, this sets him apart and in a minority of society.
Philip hears what he is reading and enquires ‘do you understand what you are reading,’ which could also be understood as ‘what are you seeking by reading?’ This passage of Isaiah is one of scorn and shame, of vulnerability and humiliation. It would have really spoken to the Eunuch, who was stigmatised in Jewish and gentile circles for being emasculated and mutilated. He was also cut off from full participation in the covenant community according to Deuteronomy 23.1. Philip breaks open the scriptures with this man, placing Jesus at the centre of the story as the sheep who before it’s shearers is silent. You will remember these words of Isaiah from our Holy Week services. Jesus is the slaughtered lamb, he knew deep pain, humiliation, vulnerability, and death on a cross. He stands in solidarity who suffer abuse, violence, and stigmatization.
We have a new covenant in Jesus that God’s love and his Kingdom is for all people of this world. Philip and the Ethiopian come across water in the desert- a miracle from God! And the Ethiopian asks to be baptised immediately into the family of Christ. They come out of that water as brothers. As the RNLI volunteers pull those suffering souls from the water, they are showing them genuine human love.
How can we learn from these two examples, our reading from Acts 2,000 years ago, and the care of strangers happening in our waters here today? God’s Kingdom belongs to all, and Jesus as the slaughtered lamb stands with us in our suffering. We are called as Christians to share the Gospel of Christ with all we meet, to show in word and action that his love is for all. And we are called to stand for those who are stigmatized, abused, and forgotten, to lend our voices to those who have no voice. To show care without judgement or motive.
Our Gospel reading has another of the well known ‘I am sayings’ of Jesus that we have throughout the book of John. These are not parables but mashal, an image and its application to real life. Today is ‘I am the true vine,’ and we are to be the branches of that true vine and bear fruit, abiding in Jesus. The vine is a popular Biblical image, standing for divine judgment but also divine love. In this new image, God is still the vine grower but instead of Israel being the vine, it is Christ who has become the true vine, symbolising the new covenant.
It is only by listening and embodying the words of Jesus and abiding in him in love that we become the vine branches and produce fruit. Fruits of grace, of faith, of compassion and love. It is his direct command to abide in him that should draw us to abiding in fellowship and grace with one another. As strangers are rescued from dangerous water, as the Ethiopian Eunuch is brought out of the waters of baptism to new life in Christ, so we should seek understanding through scripture, to reach out to all in need.