Believers know how to move. God makes a promise to Abraham, then sends him away from his familiar surroundings. Rebecca travels the covenant road when she leaves her family to marry Isaac. The patriarchs and matriarchs of the faith pulled up the tent stakes of tradition and moved at God’s bidding, not at all certain of what they would encounter on the way. Today’s multiethnic congregation of global believers was spiritually midwifed by wandering Arameans who didn’t stay put. But God’s compass leads us to places where we discover that, as Jesus said, “Whoever does what my Father in heaven wants him to do is my brother, my sister, and my mother.”
The kinship of unity brings us to the place we’re meant to be even if we are not sure of the road to get there. Philip’s meeting with the Ethiopian official came about without a GPS to guide him directly to his destination in the desert. No Rand McNally road map, no MapQuest, just an angel who instructs Philip, “Go south on the road that goes from Jerusalem to Gaza.” We accept that challenge to go where God leads us; a place where culture and music, speech and worship redefine the holy experience. Unity One’s leaders are confident that God has determined our destination, just as Philip was literally led by the Holy Spirit who directs him to the official’s carriage. Philip explains passages in Isaiah to the Ethiopian, baptizes him, and then is whisked away by the Holy Spirit just as the baptismal soaking is concluded. Try clicking on that “Get Directions” tab and see what happens. But Unity One leaders can tell you what happens when you climb on board the journey to dynamic worship. Historians believe the history of Christianity in Ethiopia owes its roots to this multicultural encounter between two very different people who shared a common bond.
Jesus said that wherever two or more are gathered, He is there. So the Jerusalem-based follower of the teacher from Nazareth and the Ethiopian queen’s treasury official unite in a multicultural worship service unlike anything known to the disciples when Jesus called them to His service. The Ethiopian was a eunuch, a man who would have been ostracized by the strict adherents of the ancient tradition in which the early church leaders were raised. But the gospel calls no one a stranger and so, for Philip, the Ethiopian is part of the new church diversity which transforms disfigurement into healing.
Can we do anything less but go where God sends us, and welcome those who come to us? There are no passports or border crossings when social media is the means of transportation. And there are no divisions among us when Jesus has torn down the walls that separated us.
