(John 15:1-8; Acts 8:26-40; I John 4:7-15)

“Practice what you preach!” Most if not all of us are probably very familiar with this expression. But I would like to suggest this morning that we become even more familiar with another expression: “Practice the Presence!” I’d like to see us gently reminding ourselves to “practice the Presence,” and I’d like to see us gently reminding each other and others to “practice the Presence” as well. For if we can get in the habit of “practicing the Presence,” we will be drawn closer to the God who loves us, closer to others, and closer to being the persons and the church God created us to be.

We find an early Christian named Philip “practicing the Presence” in our Acts of the Apostles reading for today. Now there’s always been confusion about the Philip in our reading for today. He wasn’t the disciple Philip. No, he was one of the men mentioned in the sixth chapter of Acts, from a time when the church was growing and the original disciples of Jesus just couldn’t get everything done.

In particular, in Jerusalem, a complaint had arisen among the Hellenists, the Greek Christians, as opposed to the Hebrews, or Jewish Christians, that their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of bread. By the way, isn’t this an interesting glimpse of how the early church took care of those in need: they fed them, every day! Because of this complaint, the 12 original disciples called together the church community and said, “It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables. Therefore, friends, select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task, while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word.” And among the seven men the faith community chose as the first deacons was the Philip mentioned in our lesson for today, this Philip who is a wonderful example to us of “practicing the Presence.”

Now Philip was chosen as a deacon. Just as our deacons today pass the offering trays and serve Communion, Philip the deacon was to pass out the daily food to the widows--to serve the widows there in Jerusalem. He was chosen for a specific purpose in a specific place. But he must not have been one of those persons who had to nail down exactly what he was to do before he committed, making it clear that he was going to do that but only that. For when Philip perceived that an angel of the Lord was telling him to “get up and go,” leaving Jerusalem to travel a road toward Gaza, he did it--apparently with no ifs, ands, buts, or maybes, apparently not even having a clue about what he was getting himself into! And while on this road, doing there, well, he wasn’t sure what, he saw a fancy chariot. In it was a stranger, obviously a foreigner, and a foreigner with money and power, thus a potential danger. But Philip wasn’t practicing safety or caution; he was practicing the Presence of the Spirit of God. And Philip perceived the Spirit or Presence of God telling him to “go over to this chariot and join it.” So, again, with no ifs, ands, buts, or maybes, apparently not even having a clue about what he was getting himself into, Philip ran to the chariot.

The man in the chariot was reading from the prophet Isaiah. He was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had just come from Jerusalem, where he had gone to worship, and he was returning home.

The man was reading what we know as the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, the passage that says, “Like a sheep, he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth….” When Philip drew near, the Ethiopian asked him, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” And so Philip began to tell the Ethiopian that the passage was about Jesus, and he then went on to tell him all about Jesus.

About this time, they came upon some water. Now commentators have pointed out how odd it was that they would just happen to come upon water at this particular time, especially in such a dry area. But, remember, Philip was practicing the Presence of God, practicing obeying the Presence of God with him, and when one does this, obviously miracles happen--miracles like being able to catch up on foot with a chariot, miracles like two strangers having a serious conversation about what’s really important in life, miracles like refreshing, healing, life-giving water suddenly appearing in parched places.

The Ethiopian man said, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?” Of course, the man knew what might prevent his baptism. As he eunuch, he had been castrated, and thus the Jews saw him as “less than,” forever barring him from being a full participant in Jewish life and worship (Deuteronomy 23:1). But practicing the Presence, Philip knew that God wanted him to baptize the eunuch and welcome him fully into the faith community.

Once the baptism was completed, Philip was literally “Spirited away.” The Holy Spirit determined Philip’s new course and audience. Philip perceived that God wanted him to move on to a place called Azotus and proclaim the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea. So this he did. He didn’t have a strategic, carefully-thought-out plan, and apparently he didn’t periodically go back to the 12 disciples to ask direction or permission. His direction and permission came from the Spirit of God. He opened himself to this Presence of God with him, and he went wherever he perceived that Presence with him was blowing him. Yes, Philip is a great example of what it looks like to practice the Presence.

As Leonard Sweet has said, “The power that ‘preached’ to Philip; the power that ‘preached’ to the Ethiopian eunuch…that power was neither scripted nor strategic, neither planned nor programmed. It was the power of the Holy Spirit. It was the power of the Spirit of God working through one of Christ’s followers in surprising, remarkable, and unexpected ways.

For the first generation of Christians, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ made present within the human heart, was what made ‘Christianity’ a living reality. There was no preconceived idea for ‘church growth,’ no specific guidelines for ‘mission expansion’ or ‘church planting.’ There was only the openness of disciples to the wonder working power of the Spirit. In other words, the first generation of Jesus’ followers did not ‘practice what they preached.’ Instead they ‘preached what they practiced.’ And what they ‘practiced,’ first and foremost, was the presence of the Spirit. What they ‘practiced’ was incarnating Christ by listening to and obeying the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives” (Sweet, Leonard, “Practicing The Presence”).

There's a wonderful legend about Saint Francis, the 13th century monk, who one day told his brothers that he planned to go into the nearby village on a preaching mission. He invited a novice to go with him. On their way, they passed an injured man, and Francis promptly stopped, saw to the man’s needs, and then arranged ongoing medical care for him. They went on and soon passed a homeless man who was near starvation. Again, Francis stopped his journey and ministered to the hungry, homeless man. So it went, through the day--people in need, and Francis lovingly caring for them as best he could--until the sun was low in the sky. Then he told his novice friend that it was time for them to return to the monastery for evening prayers. The young man replied, "But, Father, you said we were coming to town to preach to the people." Francis smiled, for Francis knew that spontaneously, faithfully acting on the Spirit’s proddings, practicing the Presence, was more important than human plans, pride, or fears.

A professor of New Testament in a large seminary in a large northern city every so often disappeared for the day, returned home tired in the evening, but said nothing about where he had been. One day, a friend happened to be on business in a very deprived part of the city and, upon turning a corner, saw his friend sitting on a curb alongside an obviously homeless man. The friend quickly stepped back so as not to be seen, and watched. For a long time, the professor chatted with the poor man. Finally, the two of them got up and walked across to a small restaurant where they were last seen deep in conversation while enjoying their meal together. Later, the friend spoke of this with the theologian and asked exactly what he was doing. Somewhat embarrassed, the professor said he regularly took a day off to visit the inner city. He would just be available and see which person in need the Spirit directed him to. Then he would listen to the person, share his faith with the person, and help the person however he could. This was this modern Christian’s way of practicing the Presence, putting himself in a regular situation to learn to better practice the Presence.

As Christians, we believe that our Lord’s Spirit has been poured out upon us. We each have his Spirit with us at all times, day and night. But there’s a big difference between those who have the Spirit present in their lives and those who actually practice the Presence. Practicing the Presence means working at being sensitive to the Spirit’s prodding, going immediately to where the Spirit would have us go, responding to those to whom we feel drawn, and helping them respond to God's invitations and initiatives. Practicing the Presence means setting aside ifs, ands, buts, and maybes to boldly step out in faith to do God’s work as individuals and as church. The Spirit is always prodding us to get God’s church in order, physically as well as spiritually, to be God’s church. Let us pray for determination to be like the early Christians and practice the Presence. Amen.

-- Terry Chamberlain Diehl; Hickman Mills Community Christian Church; May 6, 2012