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Gracias. David. Good morning. It is a pleasure to be with you here this morning. Let us pray God in heaven. Grateful to you for life. We know that you have many instruments to

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choose from. Grateful that you have chosen me at this moment. May I decrease as you increase in your son's name? Amen. For the past three years, I have been growing a small peach tree

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in my backyard garden. It was a going away gift from a retiring Latina pastor in San Marcos when I planted it, uh this tree was only a couple of feet tall with only a few branches though

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though fragile and young, I was determined to nurture this precious gift set in soil with good drainage and under full sun. The little peach tree soon added new shoots, then branches and foliage. And during

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the tumultuous Texas climate, sweltering, summer heat and hard winter freezes. I'm happy to say that my peach tree is still alive. By the end of last summer, it reached the height of 6 ft

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. Although delighted with this result, the purpose of a peach tree is to bear fruit. Mhm Hence this fall before the tree went dormant. I carefully pruned it back as spring approached, the tree awoke

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producing for the first time, several pink blooms and yet my joy would have would grow even more when these blooms change to little peaches so elated by this new development. I send frequent photos to my mother

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showing the progress of the fruit size. We're both sort of competing. She has her own peach tree in her garden. If we look at our world today, clearly, not all changes in life yield

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feelings of joy, like illness, divorce, unemployment , homelessness, death and climate to name a few . But what about life giving changes? Like my precious peach tree? Are there changes that cultivate a

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steady state of joyfulness just as our grievances over injustices render our rage as an unfailing emotion. How can modes of activism build up our capacity for joy, the joy I have in view here is not a

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fleeting feeling of happiness or momentary rush of elation based on habit, stance, competition or escapism. Rather taking our cue from Sunday's lectionary reading in Acts eight . Can we imagine joy as a resilient force in

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our spiritual being that is nourished by life giving change ? Moreover, can this type of joy serve as a motivating force that drives us to make life giving change possible for others. The setting for Acts eight

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was an atmosphere of religious change within first century Judaism stirred on primarily by the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus . For his disciples. This change was joyfully received for it ushered in a new Jewish movement in Jerusalem

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called the Ecclesia and yet for the religious leaders of the temple and Sanhedrin, this change was unwelcome after many failed attempts to censor Jesus's apostles and disciples from proclaiming his good news. Some of the religious leadership

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resorted to brute force to stamp out this new faith movement acts 83 describes the scene as follows. Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house, dragging off both men and women. He committed them

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to prison. Saul's violent harassment triggers a forced migration or in the Greek. It's dia spiral for the hellenistic segment of the church. Among them, the deacon Philip diaspora to the city of Samaria. Philip

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is doubly marginalized both as a non Hebrew in the church and hellenistic Jew within broader first century Judaism. We also have the religious sanction violence that constitutes Philip's mobility as coerce and fugitive. In acts 826.

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Philip is visited by an angelic travel guide of the Lord in the city of Samaria. Though a diaspora body, the abrupt change from Jerusalem to Samaria created an opportunity for Philip to pursue what I call good

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news change, driven not by a vengeful spirit but by the joyful spirit of Jesus's good news. Philip brought liberating and healing change to spiritually traumatized people as well as people with physical disabilities. Indeed, for

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this suffering population, their mental and physical hardships would have carried negative social stigmas that were economically debilitating. As Acts 88 testifies the good news change Philip pursued in Samaria resulted in great joy as it states.

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So there was great joy, Pole Ka in that city, it is in this state of joy that the angelic travel guide instructs Philip to change his geography again. Get up and go toward the south to

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the road that goes from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a wilderness road, Al Estine Emos his new destination for good news change is Gaza. The ancient site of Gaza is located about three miles inland from

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the Mediterranean coast in the northeast part of the war torn modern city of Gaza. Gaza was strategically situated as the last principal stop on the coastal highway before entering northern Sinai. Southern routes also fanned out several

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routes also fanned out from the center into the southern and northern coastal plains. Here, Gaza is the first stop in Phillips, northern coastal itinerary which will end in Cesarea on the surface. Taking a road

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within a desolate landscape, seems like a hazardous move . But such is the way to creating life giving change, particularly the kind that produces empowering joys, the joy that the African American spirituality talks about joy

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in your soul. In the lyrics of Sam Cooke . There have been times that I thought I couldn't last for long, but now I think I'm able to carry on. It's been a long, a

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long time. Coming. But I know a change gonna come. Oh yes, it will. Throughout the Bible, it is the desolate road, the barren road, the road that criminalize and marginalized people

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travel that reflects the divine way to making life giving change. For as Jesus showed his disciples this way of making life giving change is the way of the cross. The way that results in resurrection, joy

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, enraptured by this good news. Joy. Philip eagerly set off just two words and a conjunction. So he got up and went at this point. What Philip is certain about is his next destination.

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You say it gaza at its core, Phillip's assignment in these places was about good news change. A task that remains the same today for all followers of Jesus Christ. This change is rooted in genuine acts

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of love as stated in our third New Testament lectionary reading first John 478 beloved. Let us love one another because love is from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does

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not love does not know God for God is love as much as such. This good news change constitutes a care reflex for people's spiritual and physical well being . It is not only about telling people that God

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loves them, but also about showing them God's love in ways that better their physical, social, political and economic situations. While I find Philip's task, the same for today's Christians, my imagination of this

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next destination is starkly different for the suffering cries of mothers, fathers, toddlers, grandparents, aunts, uncles and school, Children of modern Gaza call out to me from the rubble of destroyed houses, hospitals

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, schools and mosques. If Philip was instructed today to travel from Jerusalem to Gaza, would he have changed his mind and stayed in some area? Would the geopolitics of the region have driven him to walk

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away from his life, giving, changing change and joy, inducing faith in Jesus? I come to these impossible questions, not as a Muslim or a Jew, but as a Christian who was transformed by

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the good news of Jesus Christ 31 years ago, my sense is that if Philip was willing to go to the politically and religiously controversial region of the Samaritans and provide them with care, he would very likely

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be willing to do the same for today's people of Gaza. But Philip is not here. We are the living Christians of today. Hence, how can today's Christians pursue life giving change for the hungry,

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the thirsty, the strangers, the naked, the sick, they incarcerated in Gaza today so that their morning turns to tears of joy on the way to ancient Gaza. Philip encounters an Ethiopian Munich returning home

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alone on the same desert road from Jerusalem to Gaza . In acts eight. Luke gives significant narrative attention to two individuals that Philip meets in his diasporic journeys , Simon, the magician and the Ethiopian eunuch with

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the first person Luke gives us his name and profession , but not his place of origin. Whereas for the second person, we are not given a name but his place of origin, profession and religious affiliation

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. Luke's repetition of the second person's Ethiopian identity and professional resume overshadows his status as a eunuch. For this does not appear to be a problem. Despite these rhetorical moves, the Ethiopian eunuch enlivens our imaginations

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to other inflections of his identity as in his blackness and gender queerness. Yet I agree with Doctor Margaret Amer astute. Reading that the eunuch here was likely a descendant of the Jews exiled to Ethiopia after the

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Babylonian conquest of Judah. When viewed as a diasporic Ethiopian Jew, there is one detail about this figure that comes into clear focus, his spiritual aloneness as described in verses 27 and 28. He had come

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to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home seated in his chariot. He was reading the prophet Isaiah. Despite the position influence and wealth of this diasporic Ethiopian Jew, he is pilgrim aging alone. As we

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learned in the songs of a sense, the spiritual practice of return particularly for exilic Jews was meant to be a community event. For instance, in Psalm 122 verse one, Shira Malo la David Shamar,

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Beom Rly Beth Ana, I rejoiced when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord. The singer emphasizes the communal nature of the return to Jerusalem and the joy this fellowship produced

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. Not only is he pilgrim alone, but he is reading scripture without any dialogue partners. After the destruction of Jerusalem, the Jerusalem Temple in 587 the exilic Jews were forced to rely primarily on sacred text

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for spiritual nourishment and preserving religious identity. Such an emphasis on sacred text coincides with the rise of the proto synagogue gatherings in exile where the community gathered to hear the reading of scripture. Hence, it is

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sorely telling that this diasporic Ethiopian Jew is reading a sacred text that was the product of community and yet engaging it without a community in my reading of our electionary passage. It is his spiritual aloneness that marks

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his otherness in the story. While Philip also comes forth as an other in that he is a member of a minority Jewish movement escaping violent persecution. If anyone is not the norm on this desert road to

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Gaza, it is Philip in contrast to the Ethiopian eunuch. However, Philip is not spiritually alone but rather accompanied by the Holy Spirit, moved by the Ethiopian Jews spiritual aloneness. Philip's spiritual companion instructs him

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to go over to this chariot and join it. The word there is Kahlo which means to glue. In other words, the spirit wanted Philip to stick himself to the chariot as an intervention to his spiritual

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aloneness without hesitation, Philip becomes a runner, right ? That's the dro mile race to him close enough to hear him reading the prophet Isaiah. First Philip addresses the spiritual aloneness that the Ethiopian eunuch experienced in

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his solitary reading of sacred scripture by asking him, do you understand what you are reading? Immediately? Phillip's question changes the reading experience into a communal encounter between him, the Ethiopian eunuch and the Holy Spirit

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in typical rabbinic reading fashion. His question about the sacred text leads to a counter question by the exilic Ethiopian Jew. How can I unless someone guides me resulting in a communal dialog, learning moment of scripture

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. This intervening act of fellowship wins over the trust of the Ethiopian eunuch so much so that he invites Philip to get in and sit right next to him . Now side by side in the chariot, the

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two see each other face to face. And it is quite interesting that Luke is using a lot of terminology with the a a prefix going up, going up, driven by his spiritual joy. Philip changed

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the spiritual loss of his new friend. This fellowship however, would not be a permanent solution for both were headed to two different destinations. The Ethiopian eunuch would need a spiritual awakening that could sustain him even

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in his aloneness here, the Ethiopian eunuch was reading would prove vital to his spiritual awakening and sense of community. Reading from the exilic prophet Second Isaiah. He had come to the passage about the suffering servant

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as an exile himself, reading the exilic prophets seemed like a preferred section of scripture for spiritual nourishment. In addition to addressing Celic life, the exilic prophets like second Isaiah, Ezekiel and Jeremiah also had much

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to say about Ethiopia. Here, the Ethiopian eunuch poses a second question to Philip about whom may I ask you, does the prophet say this about himself or about someone else? In his question? The

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concern is about the identity of the man suffering alone in the text. Perhaps the aloneness of the suffering man in the text triggered his question for he knew aloneness before Philip arrived. For not only was the

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suffering man in the text alone, but he was also abandoned by the justice system. When someone is denied, justice, politics is always involved for as the protest signs across the street, declare no justice

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, no peace. In this section of the suffering servant, the spiritual intersect with the political while moved by the solitary figure in the text, the Ethiopian eunuch lacks clarity about the spiritual activism in this passage

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to remedy his confusion. Philip explains this passage of the suffering, solitary man and his denied justice rather than some abstract figure. Phillip shows him that the man is an actual contemporary person. His name is

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Jesus. For Philip, this spiritual awareness that knows who was denied justice and yet overcame this denial is part of what constitutes the good news. When asking the question, who is the person suffering? We

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must also ask, why is this person suffering to ask, why should lead us to a systemic awareness involving injustice and oppression. Does not the social body as well as the spiritual body of Jesus force us

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into this form of politically informed spiritual awareness. Is this political consciousness? Not also the good news. I think Franz Fanon would agree because he reminds us to not for us, not to politicize. Suffering

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is spiritual poverty reaching the coast near Gaza. The diasporic Ethiopian Jew accepts the belief that the man in the passage is a real person. His name is Jesus and he is baptized. Now the water that

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they discover is quite interesting because they were on a desert road. The only likely water available is the Mediterranean Sea. So they arrived to Gaza and he was baptized alone no longer. He is spiritually awakened

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to a new life. And with this change, he finds genuine joy, that joy that is deep in your soul. This joy reminds me of a long standing tradition within Mexican culture. When you hear

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the celebration of Mariachi music and that is El Grito . And I'll give you an example of what that sounds like the de la. I hear those gris . That's what I imagine this Ethiopian eunuch doing a

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Grito of joy that his spiritual awakening allowed him to