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(Acts 8:) -- 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.
(1 John 4:7-21) -- Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows
God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his
only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and
sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.
No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we
abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent
his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So
we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides
in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so
are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever
fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say, "I love God," and hate
their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom
they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.
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A seminary classmates of mine, Minka Sprague had one of those life-changing moments that seems to happen so often when
mothers and children find themselves together. I don't know why that it. Maybe it's the divine motherly role of being so
responsible for the nurturance and safety of vulnerable life, or possibly the baffling frustrations that come from oversight
of willful and precocious little ones. But it seems that the chemistry of powerful loving connection between parent and child
provides a thin environment for engaging the ultimate. Minka's children and Deena's children were playing together; the mothers
were watching and talking. A thin place between heaven and earth.
"There are two ways to raise children," Deena said with certainty. "You can say 'yes' unless there's a
good reason to say 'no.' Or you can say 'no' unless there's a good reason to say 'yes.'" As soon as Deena said it, Minka's
whole life sorted right before her eyes. Minka knew Deena was right. And she also knew she wanted to be one of those persons
who said "yes" unless there was a good reason to say "no." She thought to herself, "Why in the world
would she prohibit her children without a good reason? (Prohibit) anyone? Myself? Saying 'no' unless there was a good reason
to say 'yes' struck her as living negatively. Worse, it seemed like asking the universe to prove itself with every step."
So she started watching her patterns. She was about a 50/50 "yes-no" person. But she noticed, that when she
was rested and centered and secure, she usually said "yes" unless there was a good reason to say "no."
And when she was tired, overwhelmed, interrupted or fearful in any way, she tended to say "no" unless there was
a good reason to say "yes." She also noticed that her decisions seemed instinctive, instantaneous.
Minka decided to become more intentional. Watching this process became her Lenten discipline. She slowed herself down
when choices arrived or the kids demanded an answer. She says, "I wanted to live with "yes." I didn't want
to miss a blessing, miss offering one. I began to hear myself say things like, 'I don't know. I'm busy right now. Can we
decide this after dinner?' When my son said something about 'putting things off,' I sat him and his sister down and told
them what Deena has said, what I was doing. He was twelve, my daughter was nine and they got it. (Instantly.)
Somewhere St. Paul says that with God is it always "yes." John's epistle today says "God is love, and
those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them." God's love, God's divine "Yes" is so complete,
so unwavering that we can speak of the way God loves us as "perfect love." No fifty-fifty proposition here, but
100 percent perfect love. John goes further to say, "Perfect love casts out fear," and I would add, only perfect
love can leave us perfectly fearless.
Living within this divine energy, this divine word that always says "yes" unless there is a very good reason
to say "no," this perfect love that casts out fear, living in this way is living within the divine life. To live
that way is like being attached to the very life of God, being filled with the Spirit of God, living so organically united
with Christ that it is like being a branch that receives its nourishment and life directly from the vine; the Vine who is
Christ himself.
We heard earlier about an experience of the apostle Philip who found himself driven by the Spirit to enter into a conversation
with a passing stranger, a royal eunuch from the court of the Ethiopian queen Candace. Philip shares with this stranger the
story of Jesus through the images of the prophet Isaiah -- it is Jesus who is the silent lamb, denied justice, killed and
now risen from the dead. There is something in this story that seems to speak deeply to this eunuch. Maybe he too has known
the loneliness of injustice; maybe he too has had to stand silent and mute in the face of powers he cannot overcome. Whatever
it is about this story, the stranger responds with his own energetic "Yes!" "Look," says the eunuch,
"here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?"
It is one of those moments when it seems Philip found himself in a thin place, a place where the distance between heaven
and earth is very thin. From one perspective, there is a very good reason to prevent the Ethiopian eunuch from being baptized.
The Holy Scripture in both Leviticus 21 and Deuteronomy 23 clearly states that a person like this stranger cannot be joined
to the congregation of God's people. He is not whole, therefore he cannot be holy. But Philip has been living in a new community
-- the community of Jesus. In Jesus' community, boundaries of purity and race and nation, boundaries of brokenness and failure
are overcome by the radical hospitality of his table. Jesus said "yes" to so many people who had heard "no"
all their lives. Many thought it scandalous.
Philip had lived with this new radical "yes" long enough for it to take root in his very being. That Spirit
flowed in and through him. He was a branch attached to the true vine, Jesus. He hears the insistent question, from the Ethiopian
eunuch, "What is to prevent me from being baptized?" "Nothing!" cried Philip, announcing a resounding
"yes"
Toward the end of her say-yes-unless-there-is-a-good-reason-to-say-no Lent, Minka realized it was time to plan the Easter
dinner. "So what do we want for Easter dinner?" she asked one evening. "Tacos!" they said in unison.
Then, in stereo, "What's the good reason to say 'no'?"
She made the nine year old go with her to the supermarket. There was no way she was going to endure this alone. Their
cart was overflowing when they got to the checkout: refried beans, ground beef, cheese, tomatoes, onions, tortillas, avocados.
She looked around at other carts: roasts of beef, pork loins, legs of lambs. She yearned for sunglasses.
Mutely she watched the woman who always totaled her groceries ring up their order. Minka avoided her eyes. Then she
had to pay. "So," said the cashier with a huge grin, "didn't anybody tell you it's Easter?"
Minka looked at the nine-year old with "your turn" on her face. She was perfect. "There wasn't a good
reason to say 'no'," she fairly chirped. "And Kathryn is bringing the margarita pie for dessert!"
"It's a long story," Minka said to the cashier's quizzical look. "Have a great Easter."
Sounds like a great Easter dinner, doesn't it? Saying "yes" unless you've got a good reason to say "no"
sounds like a vital connection to the resurrection life of God's great "Yes" to humanity, Jesus the Risen One.
Sometimes it takes a bit of consideration to know just what is and what is not a good reason to say "no." Philip
looked at an old Biblical tradition, and in the light of the hospitality of Jesus, could no longer justify turning down the
Ethiopian eunuch's desire to belong, to be made welcome and included in God's congregation. Leviticus and Deuteronomy just
weren't good enough reasons to say "no." Minka had to re-think some cultural norms before being able to say "yes"
to her children's desires. Tacos for Easter. It's not your normal fare.
There's a long list of things that it is altogether right and appropriate to say "no" to. Sometimes I think
that list tends to grow longer as we get older. I want to think about that a bit. I'm not sure that's a good thing.
I'm pretty sure, though, that when I am deeply grounded in the love of God, the perfect love that casts out fear, I know
I feel more secure, more open, more vulnerable and available to offer a freely given "yes" to all of those things
for which I can't find a good reason to say "no." Those are probably the times when I do less damage, the times
when I'm more attached to the vine, the times when I can allow God's fruitfulness to emerge through me. That's a good place
to abide, to rest, to find peace. "God is love," says St. John. "Perfect love casts out fear." Fearless
peace is found in the perfect love of God. God's great "Yes" that overcomes all of our "No's."
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