St. Philip, Deacon and Evangelist

Today we commemorate the feast of St. Philip, Deacon and Evangelist. We first encounter him in the Book of Acts, when the Apostles appointed the first seven deacons, to care for the widows and orphans in the Early Church.

We heard this passage about how he shared the gospel with the Ethiopian Eunuch. He was reading about the Messiah prophesied by Isaiah: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.” He asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” Then the Scripture says, “Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.”

We learn three things from this text.

First, this story shows us that we can encounter Christ in the Old Testament. The purpose of the Hebrew Bible is to point towards his coming, and that is why we continue to read the Old Testament, because it shows us, in prophecy and in allegory, more about who Jesus is. I heard a preacher say this past week, “If I asked you to open your Bibles to the Gospel, you could open it to any page at all, and you’d be there.”

Second, this story shows us that baptism does not need to be delayed (e.g., until the Easter Vigil). The Ethiopian Eunuch asks Philip, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” The Scripture continues, “And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.” Sometimes, the Holy Spirit’s timing is different from that of the Kalendar.

And third, this story shows us that sometimes, when God opens the door for us to evangelize, he has already been preparing the heart of the other person, independently from us. I once heard this explained as God “working the other side of the street.” Sometimes, sharing the gospel is not about convincing the other person but proclaiming the good news for which they have been longing and which they have been waiting to hear. And this is why our collect of the day asks for “the grace to be heralds of the Gospel, proclaiming your love in Jesus Christ our Savior.” Ultimately, we are not necessarily called to be debaters or convincers but “heralds,” those who have good news to share, that oftentimes, God has opened their ears to hear, as he did with the Ethiopian Eunuch.

So we remember Philip as the kind of sharer of the gospel who could find Christ in the Old Testament, could be sensitive to the timing of the Spirit, and who saw himself as a herald of good news. St. Philip, pray for us.