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Last Friday and Saturday Tammy and I had the chance to revisit a town from our past – Fort Worth . We lived there for four years, actually we lived south of there in a little town called Crowley . Well, we actually lived just north of Crowley in a Mobile Home community called Swiss Chalet. I cannot imagine a more inappropriate name for a trailer park in the flat prairie land of Fort Worth in the heat wave of 1980, but that is where we lived, laughed and created so many memories. So we were glad to have the chance to go back to Cowtown. We went there last weekend for me to officiate at the wedding of a couple of Texas A&M students, Gary & Denise Cuppett. It was a great weekend and it was only on the way home that I realized one of the reasons why. All I had to do was show up. I did not have to unlock the church or set the thermostat, they had someone to do that. I did not have to rent tuxes or arrange flowers, they had people doing those things. I did not even have to make a hotel reservation for the night, someone else had already made the arrangements according to my preference. All I had to do was show up. We went to the rehearsal dinner at a Mexican restaurant and I did not even have to order. The groom’s family had selected the menu. All I had to do was show up. I do not wish to minimize the role of the pastor at weddings, although I feel that most of my work should be done before the wedding through pre-marital counseling and after the wedding in providing a church home for the new couple. I hold my responsibility quite high in this unique and important threshold of life, but when it came to where I slept, ate and worshipped – all I had to do was show up. And it was nice.

Our mission here at A&M United Methodist Church is to invite and equip followers of Jesus Christ. Ever since Easter we have been talking about our strategy for doing that. We are committed to investing in people’s lives through authentic relationships, inviting them to hear our faith story and experience our faith community. We want those who accept that invitation to feel includedin worship and later to get involvedin small groups. It is our dream for everyone who calls A&M UMC home to implement his or her spiritual and financial gifts. But as the Youth so pointedly presented, the cycle is not complete until we return the investment: until those who have experienced the investment and invitation from others, begin to invest in more lives through authentic relationships. It may sound like a complicated process, but many times all you have to do is show up. That’s what Philip did in Acts 8:26-39. Listen as Kirsten Tesh reads from a translation by one of the greatest New Testament scholars of the 20 th Century, F. F. Bruce. It is found on page of the New Testament in your pew Bibles. Hear now the Word of the Lord:

Now the angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, “Rise up,” he said, “and make your way southward by the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a desert road.) So he rose up and set out on his way. There he came on a man from Ethiopia, a powerful official of the Kandaké, queen of the Ethiopians, a chamberlain who was in charge of all of her treasury. He had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his return journey he was sitting in his chariot reading the prophet Isaiah.

The Spirit said to Philip, “Go up to this chariot and join it.” So Philip ran up to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet.

“Do you understand what you are reading?” he asked.

“How could I,” said the man, “unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get up and sit with him.

The passage of scripture which he was reading was this:

“Like a sheep led off to slaughter,

and like a lamb dumb before its shearer,

so he does not open his mouth.

As he was humiliated his rights were taken away:

as for his progeny, who will declare it?

Because his life is taken away from the earth.”

Then the chamberlain spoke up, “ Tell me, please,” he said to Philip: “who is this person about whom the prophet says this? Himself, or someone else?”

Then Philip began to speak: beginning at this scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. As they journeyed along the road, they came to some water. “Look,” said the chamberlain, “here is water. What prevents me from being baptized?”

He gave orders for the chariot to halt, and both of them, Philip and the chamberlain went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away, and the chamberlain did not see him again; for he continued joyfully on his way.

The Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. In this passage Luke reported to his readers the response and results of those who followed the direction of God’s restless Spirit. Let’s pray.

I fear sometimes we have made life too complicated and at other times we have made it too hard. Don’t get me wrong, life can and often is both. However, as I study the birth of the church in the book of Acts, I discover a principle that we would do well to remember: sometimes all you have to do is show up. F.F. Bruce describes the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts as a restless Spirit, always moving, always preparing, always guiding. In the story that Kirsten just read we see that God leads and God feeds. A ll we have to do is show up.

God leads those whose spirits are listening.

Philip seemed to be one of those guys who did what needed to be done. In Acts 6 we meet him as one of the seven leaders chosen to help tend to the needs of the Hellenist widows. It seems like there was so much church work that needed to be done that some of those to whom the church had committed itself, were not receiving proper care. So seven guys, all with Greek names, were appointed to care for the Greek-speaking widows. When the church came under severe persecution they dispersed. Philip wound up north of Jerusalem in Samaria, and there he became an evangelist, sharing good news with people that had not heard of Jesus. He preached, prayed for healing and cast out evil spirits as God directed. Then he returned to Jerusalem, apparently tending to the responsibilities to which he was appointed.

Once again God took charge, but only because Philip was listening. He was told to go on a deserted road, some believe it was around noon. Philip went and perhaps he was surprised to see someone riding there on a chariot, it was probably an ox drawn chariot, so it may not have been moving much faster than Philip. Again God leads by telling Philip to approach the chariot. Philip does and perhaps he was surprised to hear this African man reading from the Old Testament, specifically Isaiah, more specifically a passage about a Suffering Servant. Philip engaged the treasurer from Ethiopia about what he had overheard. The man asked him who this passage was about and perhaps Philip was surprised at how easy this was because God leads those whose spirits are listening. He began to tell the man about Jesus, beginning (and this is important to note) right where the man was. God told Philip to go on that road, the man was already in his chariot on the way home, the book of Isaiah was already open to the right place. It seemed like all Philip had to do was show up.

I finally saw Taylor Hicks Thursday night on TV. I had heard something about this guy on the radio and TV over the last few weeks, but I had never seen him. Taylor Hicks is the singer from Alabama who won the fifth contest of American Idol. I usually don’t follow this show that much, but when all is said and done I do like to know a little about the winner. So when Taylor Hicks was on a late night talk show the other night, I watched. His was a strange story. He was in New Orleans last August squeaking out a living when Hurricane Katrina rolled in. He caught the last taxi out of New Orleans and traveled 15-hours to West Monroe. Somewhere along the line one of the airlines offered him and all the stranded people a free flight to anywhere in the country. He went to Las Vegas, because he had never been there before. There he discovered they were auditioning for this American Idol show. He went and was selected. One of the three judges on the show told him he’d never make it, but this last week he won the contest.

What an amazing journey since being stranded in New Orleans just nine months ago. Two things stood out to me in his story. One was when he was asked if he thought this was just a coincidence, he looked almost surprised. He said, “I don’t believe in coincidences.” The other was when he was asked on his biographical form for the contest, “If you win, who will you thank first?” he responded “God.” Again I don’t know anything more about this guy from Alabama, but I do know that all he did was show up.

I’m not saying that God caused Taylor Hicks to become an American Idol. I’m not sure what God thinks about all that stuff, but his story does remind me to be open to opportunities that seem to come out of nowhere. It may not be a coincidence when I feel compelled to call someone at the exact time that they need someone to talk to. It may not be a coincidence when I read a passage of scripture in the morning about feeding the hungry and I come upon a person in need of a meal that afternoon. It may not be a coincidence when a neighbor comes home from watching The DaVinci Code and wants to visit with me about my faith. Bruce Wilkinson refers to these moments in his book The Prayer of Jabez as divine appointments. God leads those whose spirits are listening and sometimes all we have to do is show up.

God Feeds those whose spirits are hungry.

So Philip and the chamberlain from Ethiopia are riding along and Philip tells the man about Jesus, the Suffering Servant whose death brought a life that could not have been imagined – fresh, new, forgiven, purposeful, and empowered. The man was quite receptive, I’m not sure if his spirit could have been any hungrier. When they were riding by some running water (a brook, stream or river), the Ethiopian man asked if he could be baptized right then. The chariot stopped, they got out, he got wet and life was never the same again. Philip ran to his next divine appointment and the man returned to Ethiopia where according to Irenaeus, the second century church father, the chamberlain became an evangelist in Ethiopia. He was certainly an influential man, serving as the treasurer to the Kandaké, the king’s mother. He certainly was an influenced man, being transformed by the restless Spirit who wanders through the book of Acts and our world too. It also bears mentioning that this story was recorded when the world was believed to be flat. Ethiopia was the southernmost part of the explored world. This man was returning to the edge of the world, the end of the earth. I wonder if the readers remembered Jesus saying, “ Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” I wonder if Luke was prodding the memories of his readers who may just have read Jesus’ words from Acts 1:8, “ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Philip had already been to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria; now the restless Spirit had taken him to the ends of the earth somewhere between Jerusalem and Gaza.

We have the opportunity to do the same thing in this community. In the youth group alone, one of the youth moved to Colorado in midyear. Another youth returns to Switzerland next month. One of Zac’s friends told me he had spent the last six years in Japan. This may look like a medium sized city in central Texas, but it is very much an international city with people from the ends of the earth, many of whom are hungry for food that only the Spirit can provide – food that changes lives and satisfies souls. You don’t have to know it all or conjure up ways to meet these whose souls are hungry. The restless Spirit will take care of that. All you have to do is show up. Philip started where the chamberlain was and told him what he knew - Jesus is Lord. The Spirit did the rest and still does.

It was a nice weekend last weekend when all I had to do was drive to the hotel, give them my name and find the church where the wedding was taking place. All I had to do was show up, but what a mess it might have been if I had not done that. What a difference it would have been for the Ethiopian chamberlain if Philip would have resisted the Spirit and not gone to that deserted road. How many opportunities are there in your life where God leads and God feeds and all you have to do is show up? Aren’t you glad someone showed up for you? Return the investment, sometimes all you have to do is show up.

Amen!