Where Do We Go From Here

47 WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? Respect Philip, for only a brief period, joins the eunuch’s journey, enters his chariot, listens to his story, reads his texts, answers his theological questions, baptizes at his request, and then leaves him be, never to see him again. The integrity of the eunuch’s journey is respected from beginning to end. For a brief time, he is accompanied by Philip, a stranger, who obeyed the Spirit’s promptings. So Luke tells this as a story of two journeys, which overlap ever so briefly. But in a beautiful narrative detail, Luke records three things that they do together: they travel together along the road, they go down together into the water, they come up together from the water. So, for a brief moment, two lives align perfectly. Although the Eunuch’s journey is never disrespected, it is a journey like no other. For he now belonged to Jesus. So, respect doesn’t mean keeping a permanently polite distance. Mission that is in accord with the hospitable love of God is not airy-fairy content- less mush. Rather, it involves profound conversation centred on God’s Son.