‘The current chapter is never the last one’

LOUISVILLE — Using Acts 8:26-40, Luke’s account of Philip baptizing the Ethiopian eunuch, as her preaching text, the Rev. Dr. Courtney Pace wove a complex history of faith into just a few minutes during worship Thursday at the Annual Event of the Association of Partners in Christian Education.

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Pace is the Prathia Hall Scholar in Residence of Social Justice History at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. She pointed out that baptizing this eunuch — “this wonderful human whose body was mutilated without their consent” — was “not an issue for Philip, Jesus or the church. Given all of what this eunuch had been hearing about Christians, why would they want to be part of the church?”

“In this season when people come to us seeking understanding, as a historian the only thing I know to do is look back on the story,” she said before surveying a brief history of faith beginning with God’s covenant with Abraham and landing on the present day.

After a long history of being conquered and exiled, the people figured, “If God’s promises were real, they only belonged in the future,” Pace said. “They didn’t know how long they’d be waiting, or even what they were waiting for. They just knew it was time for something. It had been time enough a long time ago, and nothing had come.”

Then “a young man from the country claimed to be God’s son, gained numerous followers, and then is lynched by the empire,” she said. “This is the moment in which the eunuch lived. Why would this kind and curious human want to be part of that movement?”

Here’s a summary of this long history of faith, she said: In spite of the foolishness of humans, God continues to condescend into human work.

“All along the way,” she said, faithful prophets — including Harriet Tubman, Dorothy Day, Margaret Sanger, Prathia Hall, James Cone, and Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde — have spoken truth to power.

“God has promised the kin-dom of God on Earth, where people love each other, love God and gather in joy and delight to worship God together, to make sure everyone has enough and is safe, to honor each person and each body as made in the image of God — a place where God dwells with the people,” she said. “But so much of what we see and hear doesn’t look anything like that.”

“God has promised to be with us always, but some of us have never felt more alone or abandoned,” Pace said. “Those in power delight at our powerlessness, and they dare to blame it on God. This is not where we thought we would be now. Home does not feel like home anymore.”

At this crossroads, we can either trust in the promises of God or give up, she said. “As people of the covenant, as children of God, let us hold fast to the promises of God,” she urged. “We tell the stories of our people to our children, and we tell them over and over how God has provided for us in the past. It’s almost as if God is already here.”

But on other days, “this feels impossible,” Pace said. “Grief is paralyzing, and our words feel empty. Even singing feels useless. But day after day we get up. We remember the stories and the promise. We celebrate when others’ hopes come true, even if ours don’t. We remind ourselves God’s mercies are new every morning.”

We pray, and we wait. “Waiting is never easy. Ask any child,” Pace said. “God has promised, and with receipts in hand, we show up to worship. We mourn, we dance and we cry. We try to remember home. We try to petition God’s ear. We try to strengthen ourselves to get through the day.”

In addition, “we get together with friends, and we find communion beyond the walls of the church,” she said. “In this togetherness we find ourselves sharing stories, wine and bread and laughter, even letting ourselves sometimes experience the world with childlike wonder.”

In the waiting, “we find the God of our ancestors is the God who is right here with us,” Pace said. “We feel deep within us that God’s promises are worth believing, that the new day is worth waking up for, and the water is worth jumping out of the chariot for.”

When we remember, “it’s almost like we’re already there. As we long for home and carry it with us, we build it right where we are. It’s always been about love, about life. Even a crooked tree can bear fruit,” Pace said. “God is among us and working through us. God is already birthing the kin-dom through us. The current chapter is never the last one.”

“May it be so.”