Karen Hollis | Nov 17, 2024 Pentecost 26
Acts 8:26-39 Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Get up and go towards the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ (This is a wilderness road.) So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go over to this chariot and join it.’ So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ He replied, ‘How can I, unless someone guides me?’ And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this:
‘Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,
and like a lamb silent before its shearer,
so he does not open his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.’
The eunuch asked Philip, ‘About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?’ Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, ‘Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?’ He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.
This is the first time I’ve looked at the story of the Ethiopian eunuch through the eyes of gender and it took me on a fascinating path this week. I don’t have time in one sermon to unpack all that I’d like to today, but I invite you to follow me along this journey of exploration of gender, culture, tradition, scripture, and eventually the text.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be reflections of your word to us today, in Christ’s name we pray. Amen
The world of gender and identity is an emerging one these days. Whenever I prepare to talk about it publicly, I feel the need to go back to trusted sources and update myself on the current understanding and definitions, because things are changing so quickly. We’re all familiar with the pride flag (indicate what’s hanging). When Wendy and I started knitting pride hearts last year for the Matthew Mystery project, we found a pattern for that flag, but we also found patterns for all these other flags. (next slide) Look at all of these flags – some of these refer to gender identity, some to anatomy, and others to orientation. The one I want to highlight today is transgender, which is also hanging in our sanctuary (point to it).
(next slide) Originally the term transgender referred to those who didn’t identify with the sex assigned to them at birth. Over the decades, this has evolved to become more of an umbrella term popularly used to refer to people who identify as transgressing the dominant concept of gender. And this definition continues to evolve.1
If gender is this fluid and complex today, we have every reason to believe it was the same in ancient times. Babies were born with the same frequency of ambiguous anatomy, still others had hormonal and chromosomal difference that lead to non-binary development (non-binary means something other than clearly male or female). Gender expression that is different from the sex one is assigned at birth exists in every human civilization, and in many parts of the animal world.2 Traditional Jewish sources show that Judaism is well aware of all of this natural variation. (next slide) According to Elliot Kukla, a transgender Rabbi, there are at least six sexes in traditional Jewish sources:
Zakhar: male
Nekevah: female
Androgynos: both male and female characteristics
Tumtum: an individual with ambiguous sex
Aylonit: born female, later develops male traits
Saris: a eunuch, either born or created3
According to Rabbi Kukla, the Rabbis of history explored the ways that all genders fit into civil and communal life, including inheritance, earning a livelihood, ritual participation, and marriage. Their patriarchal approach was not perfect, however, they also never questioned whether gender diversity really exists, or whether gender non-conforming people should be protected from harm or allowed loving relationships.4
Did you know that Jesus is another Rabbi who talked about gender diversity? And it’s not some awful mistranslation intended to do harm. In Matthew 19 Jesus says this: ‘Not everyone can accept this teaching, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.’
This isn’t a passage that has otherwise stood out for me, so it kind of blew my mind when I read it. Without fully delving into the text, which I may indeed do another day, we have an acknowledgement of gender diversity, we have an affirmation that eunuchs have a place in God’s kindom, and a challenge to see, accept . . . and hopefully one day affirm what is.
Much like explorations of gender, the way from Jerusalem to Gaza has many paths, so Philip had to take a series of dusty paths to find his way to this chance encounter with the eunuch in this morning’s story, who I will call Desta. What do we know about Desta? They are Gentile (non-Jewish), black, transgender (while we don’t know how they identified, they would fit into today’s definition, transgressing the dominant concept of gender), a eunuch (job requirement), the chariot indicates they are in a position of imperial power, status with access to wealth (as the keeper of the Queen’s treasury), and the journey to and from the Temple for worship indicates they are a person of faith. Unfortunately, the Jewish system had its limits when it came to people who transgress gender norms, so a eunuch, Desta couldn’t have been entranced into the Temple or the Jewish system for conversion. There was no pathway for them to learn, to deepen their faith within the Jewish community.
As Desta rides down the road, do they feel the sting of marginalization? Do they ache to belong? Do they long to find companions in faith to help them go deeper? It seems like the perfect opening for the Holy Spirit to show up and reveal to them a way of faith that is free from gatekeeping. I read some stories this week from queer folk about their spiritual lives. One of the main themes I found was clear belief in or experience of God’s presence with them. While they may have been made unwelcome in their home churches, stared at for looking different, or just too afraid of how people will react to show up in their fullness, they knew God was present with them. And that presence consistently accompanied them on a journey from a dissonance between their inner and outer world to finding resonance between them. They report that God is faithful in remaining with them and provided critical opportunities and people to help along the way. Even when they were in the wilderness of their lives, they were never alone.
I like to think that Desta and Philip had a holy exchange there on the road. The story isn’t told from the Desta’s perspective, so we can’t be sure, but I like to think both of them were transformed by the experience . . . in the words of theologian Nichola Torbett, transformed by what can happen when two people “from seemingly different worlds encounter each other outside of the scripts assigned by the dominant culture.”5 Perhaps, connecting in the name of Christ and with the power of the Holy Spirit, they were able to be two humans with the same desire to know God with their whole being and find community in Christ along the way. In Christ our differences are not barriers to belonging, rather we are all part of the beautiful face of God. Amen.
1 https://www.uua.org/lgbtq/identity/transgender
2 https://forward.com/opinion/412749/for-centuries-jewish-tradition-has-recognized-trans-people/ Nov 16, 2024
3 https://forward.com/opinion/412749/for-centuries-jewish-tradition-has-recognized-trans-people/ Nov 16, 2024
4 https://forward.com/opinion/412749/for-centuries-jewish-tradition-has-recognized-trans-people/ Nov 16, 2024
5 enfleshed May 2, 2021