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In the public sphere, Christianity represents itself these days as a religion of exclusion and judgment. A 2015 study by the Barna Group showed that among Millennials who don’t attend church, 87% see us as judgmental, 85% as hypocritical, 91% as anti-gay, and 70% as insensitive to others. We have come to be known for who we are against rather than who God is for.

The apostle Philip would be appalled. Frankly, the Holy Spirit would be horrified, too, if this week’s story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch is to be believed. In this story, the Holy Spirit calls on Philip to welcome the eunuch—who is both a foreigner and a gender nonconformist—into the family of God despite a clear scriptural prohibition against people like him. This passage shows that the Holy Spirit is active outside the bounds of what the church considers “proper,” calling us to a radical hospitality that embraces everyone who seeks faith. God’s welcome is bigger than we dare to imagine.

Establishment Religion and the Rejection of the Eunuch

The story focuses on a eunuch who has traveled to Jerusalem from his home in Ethiopia. The term eunuch refers to a castrated male, many of whom seem to have served as officials in foreign courts (see, for example, the many eunuchs in the book of Esther). This particular eunuch serves as the chief treasurer for the queen of Ethiopia (8:27), having responsibility for her entire treasury.

The eunuch has traveled far from home in order to worship God in Jerusalem (8:27). Though he is not Jewish, he has heard of the Jewish God and has traveled across the world in order to join himself to the community of believers.

Yet, it seems that the eunuch has been turned away by those in charge of the Temple, as he remarks that he has found no one in Jerusalem willing to teach him (8:31). Likely, the religious establishment in Jerusalem has rejected him because the Bible makes clear that eunuchs are not to be admitted to the assembly. Deuteronomy says, “No one whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off shall be admitted to the assembly of the LORD” (Deuteronomy 23:1). That would make the eunuch unwelcome, even though he is a genuine seeker who wants to know God.

As Christians, it’s tempting to read this text as Judaism rejecting the eunuch while Christianity will accept him (as we’ll see in a minute). However, much of Judaism also has declares God’s radical openness to the all of humanity. It is better to see this text as contrasting establishment religion, which seeks to regulate and control access to God, with true faith, which welcomes all. In our day, the Temple might best be understood as the religious establishment of the Christian right.

The Holy Spirit and the Radical Welcome of God

As the eunuch travels from Jerusalem to Gaza on his return home, an angel sends the apostle Philip to proclaim the gospel of God’s welcome to him (8:26). However, Philip has no idea what God is up to until quite late in the story. When the angel appears, he simply tells Philip to “get up and go toward the south” (8:26). As Philip heads out, he knows nothing of the eunuch or his chariot—just that God has told him to go. Even when Philip catches up to the eunuch’s chariot (8:29), he still has no idea who is in the chariot or why he is to approach it.

This makes clear that the welcome of the eunuch is God’s doing and not Philip’s alone.

When Philip reaches the chariot, he hears the eunuch reading Isaiah. Philip doesn’t begin by giving him the hard sell. Instead, he simply asks if the eunuch understands what he is reading. Only when the eunuch invites him does Philip join him in the chariot (8:31) to answer his questions.

When Philip enters the chariot, he discovers that the eunuch is reading Isaiah 53. This is one of the Servant Songs that Christians have read as prophecies of Jesus. The text tells us that “starting with this scripture,” Philip told the eunuch the good news of the gospel. Philip begins where the eunuch already is, showing how the passage that he is already reading relates to the gospel as a whole.

At every step, Philip respects the stranger’s process and trusts his experience of God. He knows that God has already been at work with the eunuch long before their encounter. Philip is merely a facilitator for the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit.

As they are passing some water, the eunuch asks Philip, “What is to prevent me from being baptized?” Unlike the leaders of establishment religion, with its concern about the boundaries of the faith, Philip sees no barriers between the eunuch and God. All those who are drawn toward God, who seek to understand, who seek the guidance of the faithful are welcome.

The Holy Spirit doesn’t seem to recognize prohibitions against people joining the family of faith—even those that are written in scripture.

A House of Prayer for All People

In fact, Isaiah himself has a vision of the radical hospitality of the God of Israel. Just a few chapters after the passage the eunuch was reading with Philip, Isaiah declares that the Temple itself should be open to all those who seek after God. He says,

Do not let the foreigner joined to the LORD say, “The LORD will surely separate me from his people”; and do not let the eunuch say, “I am just a dry tree.” For thus says the LORD: To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it, and hold fast my covenant—these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burn offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my alter; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. (Isaiah 56:3-7).

This passage from Isaiah affirms the openness of God’s covenant to everyone who seeks after God, regardless of nationality, or ethnicity, or gender conformity, or income level, or political party, or any other identifier that could be used to prohibit them.

Rather than making news for the people we exclude, belittle, and reject, we, too, could be known a house of prayer for all peoples. We need no longer be dominated by the establishment voice of the Christian right, which protects the boundaries of power at all cost. Instead, led by the Holy Spirit, we may dare to embody the radical hospitality of God, who has flung open the doors of the Temple, welcoming everyone who will come.