Events
Sermon
A phrase we use to say a lot about Christ’s Redemption Church (CRC) was “Jesus without barriers!” That is what tonight’s sermon is all about.
I want to tell you a story. A true story.
Elder Chris, Elder Curtis, Brother John, and I use to go to a church prior to this one. I remember one service. A man came in. He had obviously just used a drug. He stood in the pews. He looked scared. I can’t tell you his history. His background. What he had been through. What brought him to that point. But, what I CAN tell you is that when we began to pray and worship as a congregation walls were forced down.
This haggard man slowly made his way to the altar. All eyes were on him. But his eyes were fixed to the cross behind the podium.
When he got to the steps to the altar’s platform his knees hit the ground. He bowed his head. His sobs made his shoulders shake.
Several people in the church got up. They went to him. Each laid a hand or arm across him. They prayed. Oh did they pray. He wasn’t alone. He was welcomed. No condemnation. No judgement. He was given the space to call out to God. To come to Him in that moment.
This was love. This was following biblical commandments in ACTION!
Have you ever seen someone with the Holy Spirit that lived a life the church at large disagreed with? Tell me about it in the comments.
Have you seen the church turn people away who didn’t fit the rules they setup? Not ones for safety. I’m talking didn’t wear the right clothes or believe the same things.
“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in you stop them.” -Matthew 23:13
In this verse Jesus is berating the religious elite for putting barriers up. Preventing people from accessing God. He goes on to call them out. Most of the chapter consists of this. He even goes beyond their barrier building.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!” -Matthew 23:23-24
Jesus quite literally and spiritually flipped tables. He challenged the religious and social culture of his time and beyond. He fellowshipped with those that society separated from. The sick, prostitutes, sinners, tax collectors, and more. He kept on expanding this to non-Jews. Even to Eunuchs. Those who couldn’t enter any aspect of temple life. They were even considered a third sex. More than just castrated men. They held a deeply marginalized place in society.
In ancient times the eunuch category was fundamentally about gender identity and expression. Ancient texts describe the grappling to understand this category of humanity. They didn’t fit into the strictly male or female binary. A person could be labeled a eunuch because their gender expression and orientation didn’t fit into the ancient way of thinking. Thus they had a third, fourth, fifth, and even more gender categories. Similar to transgender people today. Or even intersex.
In Jewish law eunuchs were deemed defective and excluded from worship and priesthood. With Deuteronomy 23:1 barring them from assembly.
But Jesus flipped tables.
“But he said to them, ‘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.'” -Matthew 19:11-12
This was foretold by the prophets. That they would be welcomed to God’s Kingdom.
“Do not let the foreigner joined to the Lord say,
‘The Lord will surely separate me from his people,’
and do not let the eunuch say,
‘I am just a dry tree.’
For thus says the Lord:
To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
who choose the things that please me
and hold fast my covenant,
I will give, in my house and within my walls,
a monument and a name
better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
that shall not be cut off.” – Isaiah 56:3-5
God would reward their faithfulness. God declared His house would be “a house of prayer for all peoples,” extending welcome beyond those previously considered outsiders. These verses mark a turning point. Those barred by religious culture and laws would be welcomed beyond just tolerance but genuine belonging and blessing.
Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward 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, the 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. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.” -Acts 8:26-40
This takes us full circle back to my story at the beginning. God doesn’t want barriers. He doesn’t want sacrifices. He just wants us. Everyone. No matter the hurt. No matter the habit. No matter one’s past. Just us. To call upon His name so He can give us rest. The sick, the poor, the homeless, the addicted, the angry, those with disabilities, mental health struggles, etc. He is here for all who call upon Him.
Amen.
Further Study
The Widening of God’s Mercy by Christopher and Richard Hays
Transforming: The Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians by Austen Hartke
Pastor
Alex Burchnell