Philip couldn't see the mission objectives from where he stood, but he heard the command- and, whatever concerns he might have had, the command was enough. Philip was not being sent to wait or to wander like some street corner evangelist seeking the holy in random events.

Philip was being deployed to engage in a specific encounter as a part of God's plan. It is important to remember who is in charge when one is faced with what seems like insufficient instructions. Philip knew the difference between the devices and desires of his own heart and the command of an angel.

Philip was sent down the road from Jerusalem to Gaza-a road that included a long stretch through the middle of nowhere. The road began in a cosmopolitan city then emptied into the great desert that separated Palestine from Egypt. But it was the only route you could take if you were headed home to Ethiopia from a visit to the temple in Jerusalem.

The directions were pretty simple- you went south by southwest toward Egypt, into the desert, then you turned west, and kept going for a very, very long time. In Philip's day seeing a man from Ethiopia was to encounter a person who had come from the ends of the earth. From our vantage point we can see that Philip was being sent toward Gaza, at an angel's request, to deliver the gospel to the gentiles and thereby to the ends of the earth. But all the same, Philip held his life in his hands when he agreed to go. The directions were simple but the journey was not. This wilderness road was a favorite place for thieves to lie in wait for the unwary traveler.

But no thieves showed up in this story-only a chariot that shone like fire, a dark skinned man the color of night, a pool of water conveniently present next to a desert road, and Philip who was willing to go wherever God sent him. The spirit would kindle a fire in the desert by combining these most unlikely ingredients - the tinder was a book, then God placed a backwoods Jewish boy in the same chariot as a worldly Ethiopian court official.

As Philip spoke about the scriptures, illumination began to dawn in the man the color of night. The sun began to rise within him as he listened to Philip tell the Good News of Jesus Christ, the resurrected One. The man warmed to the idea of being more than a seeker, more than just another of the intellectually curious.

"What is to prevent me from being baptized?" he asked with great excitement. So Philip and the official got down from the chariot that shone like fire and stood in a pool that seemed to offer them the heavens- the cloudless sky was reflected up at them from the still water as though they ascended into the air by stepping down from the chariot.

This moment of decisive clarity was not the end result of random action, some happy coincidence. The Ethiopian had come all the way from the Candice- a queen's court on the far side of the world. He was drawn there.

Philip was sent. He zoomed out of town to get to the wrong place at exactly the right time.

God had prepared both men over time and at the right moment gathered them into one place. They were like tinder so dry that they were on the verge of spontaneous combustion. God gathered this ready fuel- then dowsed it with water- and the blaze began.

Who could have predicted this outcome? Who could have imagined what would come next? Not Philip. Not the Ethiopian court official. And, much of the time, we too really have no idea what will actually come next in our life.

Being faithful does not mean knowing the details of the future, or seeing the roads down which we may be called to walk before the command even comes.

This is bad news for those of us that would prefer to design the future before we encounter it. Stories like this one about Philip and the Ethiopian show us the broad range of human affairs in which the Spirit might, at any moment, meddle. Those of us that want to be constantly in control may find this attribute of God very disturbing. Even worse God's mysterious impulse to interact with all manner and condition of people, even ones like us, is not confined to biblical times.

Today is a prime example. In America, this is a day when we remember, and celebrate, one of the most out of control states a human being can experience. Although it is not a holy day on the church calendar it is a day to honor a state of being that people say passes all understanding and contains both incalculable bliss and the possibility of agonizing pain. This experience that we celebrate today will mark your flesh, change your body, and turn your life upside down, but amazingly, people actually seek it. We are all living proof of the truth of this statement.

Today is Mother's day. For those of you who have borne children- did I describe at least the edge of the radical transformation that happened to you? I am a father so I have never experienced life growing within me. But I have had the pleasure, the heartache, the challenge and the joy of raising children. I have the opportunity to admit that I am not in total control of this life, or of other people. I know that God is involved and that both of my sons have their own desires, ideas and directions. Even as a father it is clear to me that parenthood is a wild ride down a wilderness road with many hands reaching for the steering wheel. I know that some of us in my household know how to drive. I'm just not always sure which ones.

I thank God that some of my hopes have been realized. I thank God that many of them have not- for my hopes and dreams were pale in comparison with the gifts that God has given. I also thank God for my mother who gave me life, put up with my relentless exploration of the world around me, and endured my taking apart most of the mechanical devices in her house as I satisfied my desire to know how things worked.

I thank God for the mother of my children, who has put up with my relentless exploration of the world around me, but fortunately is also the beneficiary of my having learned how to repair many of the mechanical devices in a household.

And I thank God for all of you who have held life within you, committed yourselves to the intention of raising faithful, decent, lovely human beings and endured the pain, the challenge and the work that is inevitably paired with the joy and wisdom that comes from motherhood.

Today it is our honor to offer you breakfast. It is fitting that the funds we will raise in the process will provide water for children that may seem to some to be from the ends of the earth. It is fitting that we should hear about Philip and a seemingly chance meeting around water with a man the color of night. We are preparing to send some St. James disciples to meet people the color of earth at El Hogar in Honduras. We too believe that we have been sent.

Day and night, water, earth and sky- we share this world with others who also hope for heaven. Water is a constant need in this life and a common thread that binds Philip, a nameless Ethiopian, all mothers, several Saint James young people, dozens of orphans in Honduras and the spirit of God in a dance of creation that cannot be predicted or contained. But it is not about being in control. It is about responding to God.

Jesus said to his disciples, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

"I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them."