Spiritual Hiccups - What Prevents Us?

I learned the story from today's reading in Acts as a young boy.  I suppose the elements of Philip running alongside the chariot and such made for a good Bible Story.  The baptism of the Ethiopians eunuch was also one the first reports of people from outside Judaism becoming followers of Jesus.  My impression is that this story is reasonably well known among church folk.  But for much of my life I never appreciated the significance of that eunuch's question, "Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?"

I grew up in North and South Carolina at a time when Christian faith was almost a given.  Given such a setting, it was hard for me to appreciate the barriers that might have prevented that Ethiopian eunuch from being baptized.  To begin with, he wasn't Jewish, and during the First Century, the fledgling Church had a huge internal fight about how to receive such folks.  For a while the view was they had to become Jewish first, being circumcised if they were male, adopting the Jewish dietary restrictions, and so on.  It took quite some time, probably not until after Paul's death, that the Church in Jerusalem came around to the idea of people being baptized without first converting to Judaism.

But that wasn't the only problem for this eunuch.  The Old Testament forbade eunuchs from being a part of "the assembly of the LORD."  There are also Old Testament verses excluding foreigners.  And so the eunuchs question, "What is to prevent me from being baptized?" might well have been answered, "Quite a few things, I'm afraid."

This passage in Acts clearly depicts a new day when old exclusions no longer apply.  The baptism of this eunuch enacts the prophecy of Isaiah 56 that envisions a new day when foreigners and eunuchs are welcome, a day when God's house becomes "a house of prayer for all peoples."

It is very difficult for us, so far removed from the situation of the early Church, to appreciate what a huge step it was to get beyond all that might well have prevented that eunuch from being baptized.  It is hard for us to realize the dissension and infighting that occurred when a few Christian missionaries began ignoring the official barriers and baptized foreigners, Gentiles, even eunuchs.

I am inclined to think that issues around gay ordination and the Church's relationship to LGBT people are our own struggling with the eunuch's question, "What is to prevent?.."  But beyond these struggles, I wonder if the Church doesn't have many other issues that prevent us from reaching out to the world around us.  Much like early Jewish Christians who assumed that being Jewish was a fundamental part of the faith, a lot of us assume that being Christian is fundamentally rooted in "going to church" on Sunday where there is a choir, hymns are sung, and a preacher delivers a sermon.

I wonder how often we in the traditional church might have the opportunity to help someone who, in some way, is wondering, "What is to prevent me from becoming a part of this Jesus thing?"  And I wonder how often our own assumptions get in the way and prevent us from being much help.  I sure hope I would not have answered that eunuch by rattling off the prohibitions that prevented me from baptizing him.

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