Reflections - by Rev. Mees Tielens

As I was reading about the Ethiopian eunuch this week (Acts 8, included in this Sunday’s lectionary), I kept reading that it was Philip the Evangelist who converted and baptized the eunuch.

And I have to say, it may have been Philip the Evangelist who baptized the Ethiopian eunuch, but to say that Philip converted him is misses a key point of the story.

In the passage, an angel sends Philip out to a wilderness road, where he meets the eunuch and teaches him about scripture and especially about Jesus. The eunuch soaks it all up like a sponge, and when the eunuch sees water outside, he asks a fateful question: “What is to prevent me from being baptized?” Philip baptizes the eunuch right then and there, before Philip disappears and the eunuch continues on his way.

When you hear the word ‘eunuch,’ you might remember something about eunuchs being castrated men. Charged with serving women in palaces and keeping them safe, it was essential that eunuchs not be tempted by those they were meant to serve, so many eunuchs were castrated, homosexual, or both.

The meeting between Philip and the eunuch is so notable because ancient Judaism had no place for eunuchs. Deuteronomy 23:1 specifically prohibits castrated men from being “admitted to the assembly of God.” (Why exactly that is is too long of a story to include here, but involves purity codes as well as concerns around procreation.)

I wrote above that Philip doesn’t convert the eunuch, the eunuch converts himself. He has come to Jerusalem to worship as best he can (as best he is allowed to), and when the Holy Spirit guides Philip to him, he recognizes the moment for what it is: a holy opportunity. He recognizes in the story of Jesus space for a person like him, and he asks for what should already be his: baptism—and through that, inclusion in the people of God.

This feels like an important distinction for me, because even though we can’t impose our modern categories around gender and sexuality on Biblical times, it’s fair to have the eunuch stand in for all kinds of sexual and gender minorities. I would say especially those who asked fateful questions of their own: what is to prevent me from being baptized? or confirmed? or married? or ordained? or receive communion? or to belong? and were told: who you are, that’s what prevents you.

Too many young people, even today, are told that their gender identity or sexuality makes them deviant, wrong, sinful, or just plain unlovable. In the Ethiopian eunuch, we have a witness to the contrary. And his witness is a particular one: it’s one of a man who knew his own worth, knew he belonged to God and with God’s people, no matter what other people said, and didn’t give up until others saw that, too.

As a transgender man, it means a lot to me that Simeon Bachos—the Ethiopian eunuch—was added to the Episcopal calendar of saints in 2022. His feast day is August 27, and the collect the church wrote for him goes like this:

Holy One of love, you called your servant Simeon Bachos to study your word and led him to the waters of baptism, making him your evangelist to Ethiopia: give us the grace to follow where you lead, overcoming the barriers that divide and diminish your people, that we may behold you in all your glory; through our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, for ever and ever. Amen.

May it be so