READINGS: 04/28/2024 ~ Fifth Sunday of Easter ~ *Acts 8:26-40; Psalm 22:25-31; 1 John 4:7-21; John 15:1-8 ~ VIDEO OF THE FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/941327927

God at Work in the World

“Then Philip proceeded to explain and, starting with this scripture, proclaimed to the Ethiopian the good news about Jesus.” — Acts 8:35.

This is a given: cultural context is important. Unless we pay attention to and understand cultural context, it’s hard to comprehend what’s being said, communicated.

I was reminded of this recently because I was talking with a friend about the musical Cabaret. I saw the original Broadway production.

There is a relatively obscure song in the stage production, not in the movie, with the title It Couldn’t Please Me More. It’s more often called The Pineapple Song.

In the play two older people are courting. Herr Schultz gives Fräulein Schneider a brown paper bag. She looks in the bag and smiles and sings.

“If you brought me diamonds, / If you brought me pearls, / If you brought me roses / Like some other gents / Might bring to other girls, / It couldn’t please me more / Than the gift I see; / A pineapple for me.” And of course, she pulls a pineapple out of the bag.

I’m sure many of us have seen or have something with a picture of a pineapple and the word “welcome” hanging on a wall. When I was young I asked my mother who grew up in poverty during the teeth of Depression, what was the meaning of all these pineapples on walls.

She said in her youth transporting this tropical fruit cost a lot of money. So pineapples became known as a generous gift and a sign of hospitality. Pineapples still adorn walls, still hold a cultural aura of welcome but some of us may have forgotten why— the cost. (Slight pause.)

That original production of Cabaret opened on Broadway in 1966. The staging of it spoke to the culture of that time, so I’d like to briefly describe it because of the culture of that time.

As the audience arrived they saw a bare stage. A large mirror was at center stage and people could see their own reflection as they took their seats. There was no overture. The house lights went down, there was a drum roll, a cymbal crash and a flash of light which temporally blinded the audience. Suddenly the MC of the cabaret stood downstage and sang words of welcome.

“Willkommen! Bienvenue! Welcome! / Fremder, étranger, stranger / Glücklich zu sehen / Je suis enchanté / Happy to see you / Bleibe, reste, stay.”

But the implication of the mirror, the dissonant chords of the song, the sudden blinding light and the vaguely threatening character of the MC said ‘you, the audience, are a part of, a participant in what’s happening on this stage.’ That brings me back to the pineapple song.

Herr Schultz is Jewish. Fräulein Schneider is not. Cabaret is set in Weimar Germany in the early 1930s. The Nazis will soon take over. Indeed, throughout the play people dressed in Nazis attire populate the stage.

Fräulein Schneider, knowing the relationship has no future sings this: “For the sun will rise / And the moon will set / And we learn how to settle / For what you get. / It will all go on if we’re here or not / So who cares? So what? / So who cares? So what?”

As I indicated, the message to the audience was you are participants. Not only that but you, the audience, don’t even notice the slow motion disaster being depicted in front of you. This message resonated as true in 1966 in part because this country was slowly becoming enmeshed in the disaster which was happening in Southeast Asia.

And why was I talking with a friend about Cabaret? This week a revival opened on Broadway. (Slight pause.)

I closely studied Cabaret in my theater work so I saw it a number of times. After one performance I was walking down the street behind two older women when one said to the other, “Wasn’t the show wonderful? The music, the acting, the singing, the dancing— great— just great!”

The other woman said, “Didn’t you notice there were Nazis on that stage too?”

The first woman said, “Nazis? There were Nazis?” Yes, that really happened.

To reiterate, unless we understand and pay attention to cultural context, it’s hard to comprehend what’s being said. Context has meaning. (Slight pause.)

This is in the work known as Luke/Acts in the section commonly called Acts: “Then Philip proceeded to explain and, starting with this scripture, proclaimed to the Ethiopian the good news about Jesus.” (Slight pause.)

Cultural context is important but it speaks to us but only if we see it. And there are gobs of cultural context we need to see in this reading from Acts.

The context is that of the First Century of the Common Era. But our tendency is to look at how the story entertains rather than the context. Philip appears and disappears. The court official is a eunuch. The ruler of Ethiopia is Candace— a woman.

These facts entertain us. But the cultural signals in this story are not about entertainment. Here are a few.

An angel speaks to Philip. Hence, God is present to Philip, a Jew. The Apostle is called to a road in the wilderness— in the wilderness— that’s telling. Who does Philip find there? A court official from Ethiopia, a person of wealth, with an influential, high station. But we also need to realize this is a gentile.

Philip joins the gentile in a chariot, the means by which upper class gentiles traveled. This says something about both the Word being heard by the ruling class and about the Word being heard among the gentiles.

This gentile is reading from the Scroll of the Prophet Isaiah. Another signal— Isaiah is the most significant of the prophets.

The Scroll is unquestionably in Greek, the Septuagint, since gentiles read Greek. But we should also realize when the Hebrew Scriptures are quoted in the New Testament— and they are quoted many times— the quotes are from the Septuagint.

Next, the passage from Isaiah is a “suffering servant” passage. Acts says Philip proclaims the good news and starts with this Scripture. You see, the cross would have been folly to the Greeks, the gentiles. There is no choice but to start there.

Something I think we miss because of our Twenty-First Century context is this is only the starting place. Philip then proclaims the good news.

What is the good news? The good news is the covenant in the Hebrew Scriptures does not find fulfillment simply with the cross. The good news is the covenant in the Hebrew Scriptures finds fulfillment in the resurrected Christ.

Then in the wilderness they come to a place where there is water— a place with water in the wilderness. I could spend my next three sermons unpacking that.

The official asks if Baptism is possible— Baptism, a Jewish ritual. Philip says ‘yes’ so it’s also clear this gentile does not need to conform to Jewish law: circumcision.

Last, Philip winds up in Caesarea, the Roman provincial capital of the area named to honor Caesar, built under Herod the Great before Christ was born. In short, Caesarea was a gentile city and Philip winds up there. (Slight pause.)

I hope I have pointed out just some of the cultural signals which applied in the First Century. I want to suggest unless we see, comprehend, get the context, we will have a hard time understanding what the story might mean for us.

Our tendency is to be a little like that woman who did not notice the Nazis on stage. We are entertained so we become oblivious to… the obvious. (Slight pause.)

The sermon title this week is God at Work in the World. I think this passage is clear when we understand the context. The message of Scripture being explained to the gentiles of the First Century is that in Jesus God is at work in the world.

And the good news is the covenant found in the Hebrew Scriptures does not find fulfillment just because of the cross. That would be folly.

The good news is the covenant in the Hebrew Scriptures finds fulfillment in the resurrected Christ. God intervened in the world with a message of hope embodied in the Messiah, the resurrected Christ. That is the good news.

But to hear it, to get it, to see it, to understand the good news and how it is presented in this passage from Acts we need to know the cultural context. Perhaps of equal importance is the fact that we need to know our own cultural context.

The danger of our cultural context is we tend to pay too much attention to being entertained. We don’t pay enough attention to the reality of God Who intervened in the world and even now intervenes in the world with a message of hope, peace, justice, freedom, joy, wisdom and love embodied in and by Jesus. Amen.

04/28/2024
Elijah Kellogg Church, Harpswell, Maine

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is a précis of what was said: “Two things: first, if a revival of Cabaret opened last week, what is that telling us about our own cultural context? Next, the late Rev. Dr. James Cone said this (quote:) ‘Without concrete signs of divine presence in the lives of the poor, the Gospel becomes simply an opiate. Rather than liberating the powerless from humiliation and suffering, the Gospel becomes a drug that helps them adjust to this world by looking for pie in the sky’ (unquote). I think we need to pay attention to the cultural context, both our context and the context of the Gospel to see how they interact, because the Gospel is not an opiate. The Gospel addresses both the reality of the world and the reality of God’s covenant.”

BENEDICTION: Live for God in every moment of the day. Seek to know the places to which God calls us. Because we are loved we may dare to love others. And may the peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep our hearts and minds in the knowledge of God, the love of Jesus, the Christ, and the companionship of the Holy Spirit, this day and forevermore. Amen.