Spiritual Guides
a sermon based on Acts 8:26-40
Randy L. Quinn

Our text for this morning is taken from the 8th chapter of Acts. Let's look at it and read it together. How about if the people on the left read out loud, in unison, the words of the angel when we get to them and if the people on the right read the words of the Ethiopian, including the scripture he reads, when we get to them. I will act as the narrator and read everything else.

Reading the stories of the Bible and mulling over it in different ways and settings does affect what we hear being said. Each of us hears today's story differently based on the circumstances of our own individual lives.

The Ethiopian in our account this morning also had a unique perspective;  he was an outsider who was reading the Scriptures from an outsider's perspective.  He had come a long way to see the city of Jerusalem. He had come to worship, probably at a significant holiday like Passover or Pentecost. But on his way home, he still seemed to be hungry for more.

I'm not sure if the worship experiences were so dry that he got nothing out of them or if he was so caught up in it that he couldn't stop thinking about all that he had seen and heard.

But here he is, reading his Hebrew Bible. Looking for more answers.

Perhaps he had asked the same questions while he was in Jerusalem. Perhaps no one understood his answers or had heard them answered so many times that they took it for granted and no longer knew how to answer them for strangers.

When we  visited Washington, DC the first time, we went with some long time family friends of mine who had grown up in DC and moved back over 20 years ago. They now live in Arlington, VA, and each had worked for some time in Washington.

They gave us the 'windshield tour' of the city, pointing out some of the sights and explaining some of the history. But there were pieces of the story they had forgotten. There were buildings that they no longer recognized. There were even streets where they got lost!

Like the crowds in Jerusalem who were unable to satisfy the Ethiopian, my friends had forgotten how to answer the questions of a visitor. It had been too long since they had asked them and too long since someone had asked the same questions again for them.

The next day, Ronda and I walked around the city. We bought a tourist map and went from place to place. What we saw was moving. What we saw was exciting. But there were still many questions that we could not answer. Try as we might to read the signs and poke around, there were still many mysteries hidden inside the city.

Like the Ethiopian reading the scroll, we found that you can't read it alone, you need a guide.

So the next day we took a tour bus. There we saw things for the first time -- even though we had walked right next to them. There we had our questions answered. There we found someone who knew the questions and how to answer them for us -- even before we began to speak.

Philip is not quoted in our passage. He seems to be the innocent bystander in the unfolding story of God's spirit at work. And responding to the spirit, Philip finds himself on a rather deserted road on the Gaza strip. Later he finds himself immersed in Azotus where he went from city to city.

In each place, God provided for Philip and his needs were met.

I can relate to this kind of traveling arrangement.  I have traveled before with no reservations along the way. Sometimes I managed to find the last room in the motel, or even the last room in town. Every time this happened to me, the clerk at the motel remarked about my "shear luck."

But, I never felt like that.  Somehow, I knew that it was more than luck. For in a very real sense, I  found my needs being met. Like Philip, I have had changes in my plans along the way. And like Philip, I found myself  in some wonderful -- if deserted -- places where I encountered God.

And today, when I read this passage, I think about those young people who have received Bibles as part of our service this morning. We give them to young people when they are in Sunday School and are at an age where they can read. Our assumption is that they will read them. I know that when I was given one in the third grade I read it, and I suspect that each of these people will read theirs. But I also know from my own experience and from the story of people like the Ethiopian that sometimes it takes more than just "reading your Bible" to make sense of life.

Some people have called this (a Bible) the "handbook for life." But it needs some explaining along the way.

You and I must be like Philip to these young people who now have Bibles. We must be willing to hear them read and to help them understand what they have read.

Certainly we will not know all the answers. Some things we must leave unanswered and open ended. Some things just have to be accepted in faith. But we can explore with them and search for meaning and truth in the Bible and in our lives. We can find ways to apply what we learn into our daily living.

When I was in High School, I remember hearing someone tell me that I needed to have three kinds of friends. The first, and probably most important, was a friend who was more mature in their faith than I. From that person, I could learn and be taught. That was a person to whom I could turn when I had questions and who would help me grow in my own faith.

The second kind of friend was one who was less mature in their faith than I. The purpose for this type of a friend was not to put them down or to give myself a feeling of power or worth. The purpose was to remind me that I too am a learner, and that I too was once less mature than I am. From this person I would learn how to teach and in teaching I would learn how to grow in my own faith.

And finally, I needed to have friends who were not Christian. I needed to be constantly reminded of my own need for salvation as I saw it in others. They would help me be more compassionate and teach me how to grow in my faith as I found ways to win them over to Christ -- not by coercion or by force but with love and grace.

These young people now have Bibles. They will be looking to us who can read as their spiritual guides. They will also be leading by example other children in the Sunday School who cannot yet read. And in school, they will be exposed to many non-Christian ideas and ideals. To nurture each of these groups of people in love and faith, is to live life out of the example of the Ethiopian and Philip.

I need to be in relationship with someone who is my guide and it means that I must help you guide others. That is true for each of us here today. Together we can make an enormous difference in our corner of the world.

Let's all look for our own spiritual guides and look for people that can use our guidance. I am not suggesting that we make ourselves more than we are, but merely to recognize our need for growth.

Let's begin by looking seriously at these young people who now have Bibles to read, but let's not stop there. Let's look beyond the walls of this building to those around us who can benefit from a relationship with us and with our God.