his homily is a short “starter” homily that encourages the assembly at our 5:00pm liturgy to add their own insights and reflections in conversation with the preacher. Gathered in a circle in the early evening, we enjoy this evening Eucharist as a more intimate form of worship on the Lord’s Day.
***
“Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?”
This is a great question. A quick answer may come to our world-weary minds: lots of things, dear one! Lots of things prevent you from being baptized.
The question is asked by an Ethiopian eunuch, a person who experienced at least two layers of discrimination. First, they were most likely a literal eunuch who underwent a procedure to make permanent – by way of a physical surgical alteration – their status in vocation and society. In Philip’s world of Palestinian Judea, this also means the eunuch, as someone physically altered, would never have Temple privileges.
The Ethiopian eunuch, by virtue of being a eunuch, and because that term could refer to various actual identities and situations, has sometimes been thought of as “the first gay Christian.” In our cultural and political context, it would not be wrong or inaccurate for us to at the very least call them queer, and to note their departure from sexual and gender binaries.