Good News - Week of 4/22/2018

The Vineyard Keeper

NOTES ON THE SCRIPTURES

Acts 8:26-40: Philip is instructed to go to a certain road where he encounters an Ethiopian eunuch on his way home after worshiping in Jerusalem. Philip finds him reading Isaiah’s scroll, and explains what the Scriptures say about Jesus. Then he baptizes the eunuch

Psalm 22:25-31: A psalm of praise and commitment in which God is celebrated for God’s provision and authority, and all people are challenged to worship God, to fulfill promises to God, and to proclaim God’s righteousness to unborn generations.

1 John 4:7-21: An exhortation to love one another, because God is love. If we cannot love our brothers and sisters whom we have seen, we cannot love God whom we do not see, but, as God has loved us, inspiring love for God in our hearts, so too, we should love one another. Such love drives out fear.

John 15:1-8: Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. God desires us to bear fruit, and to do so we must remain in Christ.

Reflection
On a local and personal level, Philip’s example is a good one for us to follow as we seek to love God and others, and bear fruit for Christ. A number of factors stand out in this “fruit-bearing” moment of Philip’s. He was willing to be driven out of his way by his love for and obedience to God. He was willing to engage someone who was very different from him, and who would usually have been marginalised by his people. The eunuch was a foreigner, a Gentile and a man who had been castrated and was therefore, in one sense, unclean. He was also willing to meet the man where he was, beginning the conversation from the questions and reading of the eunuch. He did not impose his own agenda on the man, but listened and responded graciously and gently. Finally, he welcomed the eunuch into the community of faith by baptising him without question. All of these loving acts are the ones Jesus calls all his followers to perform in order to bear fruit. Our love for God is truly revealed as we act in these loving ways toward one another, and to the “outsiders” we encounter. And, as we welcome, listen to, serve, and love others, the impact of that on their lives can have healing, transforming, and empowering effects that can flow out to touch others and make a real difference in the world. To change the world, and manifest God’s Reign we don’t need to do “great” or dramatic things. We simply need to love the people God sends across our path genuinely, humbly and sacrificially.

Ubi Caritas (Where love is)