Sermon: Why Not? April 29, 2018

Click here to watch or read the sermon from Sunday, April 29, 2018, the Fifth Sunday of Easter.

Raising children means fielding questions. One of the most common questions in our household is, “Why not?” What do you mean I can’t ride my bike without my helmet, or skip the vegetable course, or stay up until midnight? Why not? Usually, we have answers. But occasionally our children stump us, and we’re forced to yield. As the gospel began to spread outward from Jerusalem, Philip the Evangelist and the Ethiopian Eunuch were brought together by the Spirit. Their statues – racial, religious, sexual, socioeconomic – would have kept them apart were it not for the gospel. But hearing the gospel proclaimed by Philip, the Eunuch sees water and asks, “What is to prevent me from being baptized?” His “Why not?” question cuts through centuries of invented boundaries and brings them both to the only source of true life: the risen Lord, Jesus Christ.