This week, for the fifth Sunday in the season of Easter, Rev. Cari preached a sermon that pulled together Acts 8:26-40 with her recent reading of Andrew Solomon’s 2001 book The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression. Today is the threshold of “Mental Health Awareness Week” which caused her to make this choice.

The story of the conversion of an Ethiopian eunuch by the side of the road in Acts 8 is a powerful one intersecting race, sexual difference, and the barrier-breaking power of the Holy Spirit of God. The fact that the eunuch asks Philip to interpret Isaiah 53, is where she makes the connection to mental health.

Listen to the full sermon to hear the invitation as Rev. Cari encourages the congregation to be hospitable to suffering, open to dismantling barriers, and transformed as we offer our vulnerabilities to the grace of God.