Sermon at Grace Episcopal on May 10th, Mother's Day 2009,

Acts 8:26-40 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Go south to the road--the desert road--that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, "Go to that chariot and stay near it." Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. "Do you understand what you are reading?" Philip asked. "How can I," he said, "unless someone explains it to me?" So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture: "He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth." The eunuch asked Philip, "Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?" Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water. Why shouldn't I be baptized?"
And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both 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 suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.

In our lesson from Acts we're introduced to a new character, a man from Ethiopia who had all the authority of the Queen Mother Candace. She trusted him with her finances, with her whole treasure. He had risen from being her slave to becoming her personal business manager, treasurer, and confidant. He was in a chariot, so we know he was a VIP.

It also seems he was a very religious person. He had traveled all the way from his country in Africa, up through Egypt, and along the Mediterranean coast to Jerusalem. But instead of enjoying the scenery and snapping a few pictures, he was reading the scriptures as he commuted.

Even though he was sincerely religious, something was missing. He didn't have a personal relationship with God.

God had promised through the prophet Jeremiah "You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart." (29:13) So, we see a man who's very influential and important. He commands and it's done; he can buy anything he wants; but he's still not happy. He knows about the Lord but he had never felt the power of the Holy Spirit. He hadn't experienced the freedom that comes when you learn that all your sins have been forgiven. He was still striving to be all that he could because he didn't realize all that Jesus could do for him.
Have you ever met someone like that? Or have you ever felt that despite the many blessings in life you still haven't ever felt fulfilled and you are hungry and thirsty for more? Maybe you've been so occupied with your own personal life: career, family, or finances that you haven't ever stopped to think about why you're empty.

If you have ever felt like that I have great news for you today. Jesus loves you even more than your mama!

I was thinking that in society the symbol of a mother's love is the pinnacle of innocence, purity and sacrifice. I mean when I see our granddaughter Lehiwa sleeping on U'ilani's shoulder there is a feeling of love that that just floods me with delight. And then I saw this blurb called "Things My Mother Taught Me".

1. My Mother taught me about ANTICIPATION..."Just wait until your father gets home."
2. My Mother taught me to MEET A CHALLENGE... "What were you thinking? Answer me when I talk to you! Don't talk back to me!"
3. My Mother taught me LOGIC..."If you fall out off that swing and break your neck, you're not going to the store with me."
4. My Mother taught me HUMOR..."When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me."
5. My Mother taught me how to BECOME AN ADULT... "If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never grow up."
6. My Mother taught me about my ROOTS... "Do you think you were born in a barn?"
7. My mother taught me MATH…. "I've told you a million times not to exaggerate!"
8. My Mother taught me about JUSTICE..."One day you'll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you."

So while it is true that the love of a mother can be deep, it isn't always quite so pure. And that is because God didn't give us perfect mothers. Even if we had the greatest mommy in the entire universe, her love for us is tiny compared to the love God has for us. And even if we had a difficult mother, or if we never knew our moms, the love of Jesus can touch that empty and wounded spot and fill the emptiness.

And that brings me back to the man in the chariot. He's going someplace but he is going without God and that leaves him wanting more.

You may know someone who is searching for God. Maybe they are working right next to you; quietly waiting for you to care enough to chase down their chariots and tell them the only way to lasting peace is with a personal relationship with Jesus.

You see, when God speaks, sometimes we need to ride along, sometimes we need to listen, and sometimes we need to run.

Kara came for the wedding this weekend without her children. Monae stayed back because she had one of her two track meets this year. And she came in first! Now I don't know if you remember Monae when she was little, but she has the all-time record for running around this church! Up and down this aisle, all around the building… she ran.

Now, let me meddle a little: When the chariots pull up in the parking lots of our churches, what do they find? Do they find more empty rituals that they don't understand? Or do thy see people who have a contagious joy? Do they see the power and excitement that comes from being plugged in to the Lord? Do they hear from us that things might seem impossible for humans to accomplish but that all things are possible with God? Do they find the Spirit of God alive and moving?

Jesus told His disciples when the hungry crowd was all around them, "Feed them!" Do you know Christians have the franchise on the Bread of Life?! And it's not a drive through! If we don't take time with people we will go right past them as they hunger when we have Jesus neatly tucked away in a picnic basket in our trunks. But sometimes when the Lord speaks, you gotta run.

The second character in our lesson is Philip - the deacon, not the disciple.

Philip was accessible to God. He was accessible to hear what God wanted him to do. A lot of us are often too busy for God to get our attention. We often have our minds on our family or our jobs, or we're busy doing good stuff that we aren't accessible to stop what we're doing and obey to do God stuff. Did you hear that? Good stuff vs. God stuff.

Now, here is an amazing part of the story: Philip was in the middle of having great success preaching Jesus to the Samaritans. Samaritans were getting saved. The Mother Church in Jerusalem even sent a credentials committee to check out what was happening in Samaria. You see, Samaritans were considered to be so low. Have you ever hear that expression, "he has a face that only his mother could love"? Well most Jews in those days didn't believe that even their mothers could love Samaritans. But here was Phillip, hanging out with the ugly and unlovable, and God was doing miracles and changing lives through his work. Out of nowhere the Lord sent an angel to tell Philip to leave his successful crusade and go jogging in the desert. And when Phillip heard the word from the Lord, he dropped everything else and ran to where God wanted him.

I would have been tempting to say, "But, Lord, this Samaritan revival can't continue without ME! Surely you don't want ME to leave! I can really build something great here." However, God's reasons are different from ours. Since He is the Lord, He has just a little different perspective than we do. And to build His Kingdom, we need to be willing to be available to do His work.

Philip was available to God even if it meant running after a chariot in the middle of a desert road when the Holy Spirit told him to go to "that chariot" and stay near it. In fact he ran close enough to hear the Ethiopian reading.

It's a good thing that this happened 2000 years ago. Especially since it's now illegal to read text messages while you're driving. Or can you imagine driving along a freeway and seeing some crazy guy run up to your car? It would be like, "I'm outta here!" as you gun the engine and call 911 on your cell phone.

But Philip was ready to go where God needed him. He could have offered many excuses not to go: "Lord, I can't just run up to this officer and expect him to acknowledge me - I'm just a lowly deacon. Besides, Lord, did you see the size of those body guards? What if he wants to argue? He might ask me a question I can't answer, and then I'd be embarrassed!"

However, Philip didn't do that. Philip obeyed the Lord immediately.
And when he got close the Ethiopian was reading words describing the love and sacrifice of Jesus: words that were written hundreds of years before Jesus was born. Here is part of that passage from Isaiah 53 (verse 6), "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way, but the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all."

When Jesus Christ hung on the cross, every sin and every ounce of pain we have ever felt, was moved to Him. He paid the price, He took our shame, and He did it with a love that was even stronger that the strongest love our mothers ever could have for us. Jesus loves you even deeper than your mother ever can, and in Him there is life, there is fulfillment, there is love.

In other words, Jesus loves you even more than your mama. But to experience Him or to share Him with others, sometimes you have to be willing to run.

Now, it's not about running to please Him. We can never run fast enough to catch up or impress God. It is more like running to jump into His open arms to join Him. I can see this picture in my mind: my children running towards me as I kneel down to stretch out my arms to hug them. And God loves them, even more than their mama. Or if you are a guy, think about being on a baseball field and running to catch a fly ball and stretching your arms wide and catching it!

That's what the Ethiopian eunuch did. He stopped his chariot and ran into the arms of Jesus. After looking for something, He found God - up close and personal. One little point to add that's kind of cool: Christian history tells us that the eunuch's first convert when he retuned home was the Queen Mother Candice, herself. Years later, when the first missionaries arrived in Ethiopia, they found a thriving church started by this eunuch.

Are you willing to run into Jesus' arms and discover the depths of His love? Are you willing to run to join Him in what He is doing?

Or is it time for you to ride along and listen and share His love with someone who needs you to start right where they are, telling them about the gospel of Jesus? But that is a message for a different day.

On this Mother's Day, the key point of our message is that Jesus loves you even more than your mama. It is time for you to run & jump into His arms and enjoy the love and the life He has for you! And then share it with someone else. Amen?

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