Acts 7:55-60
You are welcome to use parts of this sermon, but if you do, please attribute them properly!
Last week, you may recall, we talked
about the early church basking in true harmony.
Remember? The author of Acts told
us that those early Jewish Christians prayed together, ate together, learned
from the Apostles together, and even pooled together all their individual
resources for the common good of the community.
That first image of the early church had a certain Woodstock veneer – a
veritable love fest.
Perhaps you remember as well that I
said it was quite possible that the author of Acts might be seeing his beloved
church through rose-colored glasses. That is, not everything was always as
hunky dory as the author professed. At any rate, if there was this utopian
euphoria, it did not last for long.
You see, not more than five chapters in
the Book of Acts, and hardly a few years later, we find today’s passage about
the horrific and most violent death of Stephen.
He was an early church parishioner who had managed first to irritate
some members of the synagogue, then had crossed the line by preaching a
vitriolic, though rambling and lengthy, sermon, lasting 53 verses,
nearly a full
chapter in the Book of Acts, and finally had a vision that he described to the
conservative Jewish powers-that-be in great detail.
Stephen: He has his own Feast Day,
which falls on December 26th.
Remember the Christmas carol – “Good King Wenceslas looked out, on the
Feast of…..Stephen”? That is our Stephen
– St. Stephen - if the Roman Catholic Church has anything to say about it.
St. Stephen – patron saint of deacons,
stonecutters and masons, coffin makers, and headache sufferers: Deacons because Stephen was one of the
original seven appointed to assist the Apostles. Stonecutters and masons because it was the
kind of stones these laborers would use in their work that were heaved and
thrown at Stephen, causing his untimely death.
Coffin makers because he was the first Christian martyr, the first
person to die for the faith, and, finally, headache sufferers because to be hit
over and over again in the head with rocks would certainly cause a massive
headache before it caused death.
Now, to be a saint is a really big deal
– even today, even if the required miracles do not have to be quite as dramatic
as they used to be. So let’s put
Stephen, this saint and martyr, into an historical context to get a clearer
sense of the reasons behind his violent death as well as his saintly contribution
to the growth of the early Christian church. In short, let’s figure out how the Holy Spirit
worked through this man, Stephen.
As I said, when we meet Stephen, the
love fest of the early church appeared to be almost over. There was a rift developing – between those
who called themselves Jewish Christians and those who aligned with the old ways
and remained simply Jews.
At their core, however, they were all
first and foremost bound to Judaism. They all worshipped in the synagogue
together. They all said the same ancient
Jewish prayers and read the same ancient Jewish Scriptures.
However, those followers of Jesus, those
Jewish Christians, were stirring things up.
They were inviting people in from the outside (outside of Jerusalem,
that is, people highly influenced by that secular Greek culture, to be
specific) – and, worst of all, those interlopers were assuming positions of
leadership. There goes the neighborhood!
So, in a way, it all began with the
Greek widows, whom I also mentioned last week.
They were the ones that Stephen (a Greek-speaking Jew himself) and
others believed were getting the short end of the stick when it came to food
distribution. Because the widows could
not speak up for themselves, perhaps simply because they did not speak Aramaic
(the language of Jerusalem), these women were apparently not getting their fair
share.
Herein lies one of the very first seeds
of conflict in the early church. It was a
problem, which, in all fairness to the Apostles, they tried to solve. The eleven reasoned that, since they should
be giving their full attention to prayer and preaching, the community should
choose seven others to handle the finances associated with distributing food
equally among the widows, the poor, and the marginalized. These appointees were the helpers, the
deacons, the table waiters. Stephen was
one of the seven – hence the patron saint of deacons.
However, in his heart of hearts,
Stephen was also a wannabe preacher, an orator, and a good one at that, filled
with the Spirit, as the author of Acts would say. Above all, Stephen spoke his
mind. However, good orators always have
their detractors, the ones who do not care to hear the truth, and Stephen was
no exception.
So it was not long before a bunch of those
detractors stirred the pot, greased the skids with a bit of money passed around
under the table, and, before you knew it, people were saying things in the
parking lots about Stephen like, “We heard him speaking against Moses and
against God!” Or – “This man is always
talking against our sacred Temple and Law of Moses. We heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth
will tear down the temple and change all the customs which have come down to us
from Moses!” (Which is “church speak”, of course, meaning “But we’ve never done
it this way before.”).
It was because of irate remarks like
those that Stephen ended up before the High Priest and his Council – as Jesus
once had himself. However, whereas Jesus
chose to remain mostly silent during his tribunal, Stephen rose to the occasion
with an impassioned speech that recounted – in a less than favorable light –
the history of the Jewish people. He
recalled the Exodus – and Solomon. He
pointed out how God’s chosen people had a history of messing up that was
continuing to this very day.
As Baptist pastor, Amy Butler writes,
“Stephen’s speech told of the way in which God’s Spirit had led the Jewish
people through a powerful journey of faith, often taking them into unknown
places and asking them to follow. He reminded those gathered in the
temple of all the many ways in which God had consistently asked them to step
out of what felt comfortable and follow the movement of God’s Spirit, even when
that movement seemed strange, foreign, unusual.”
It was clear that Stephen was pretty
frustrated at the inability of these conservative-minded Jews to contemplate both
change and the possibility of the Spirit working in mysterious ways, its
wonders to behold. “You stiff-necked
people,” he concluded, “forever opposing the work of God!”
Well, that just about did it, as far as
his listeners were concerned - and so we find ourselves at the beginning of
today’s passage. The Pharisees and Sadducees
who tried Stephen were furious. The
author even says that they “ground their teeth at him in anger.” And it was at that moment of serious teeth
grinding and fist shaking that Stephen had a vision that he just could not keep
to himself. He announced, “Oh! I see
heaven wide open and the Son of Man (i.e. Jesus) standing at God’s side!”
That statement – to put it bluntly -
was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
The author tells us that the Council members covered their ears. Such blasphemy! Then, hissing like snakes and yelling
invectives, they dragged Stephen out of the city, a growing mob in tow, and
began pelting the deacon with stones and broken bottles – hence the patron
saint of stonecutters and masons.
It was hot and thirsty work, and, in
capturing a wonderful detail, the author tells us that the ringleaders took
their cloaks off and laid them at the feet of a young radicalized Jew named
Saul (who would one day be renamed Paul the Apostle), but who now watched the
proceedings with great interest and a controlled lust for violence in the name
of traditional Judaism.
Stephen died that afternoon – bruised,
cut up, and beaten to a pulp – not unlike the one he died for and not before he
whispered similar dying words, “Master, don’t blame them for this sin.”
“Forgive them, father, for they know not what they do.”
That is the bloody story of Stephen – of
a man promoting change, caught in the midst of violent conflict that cost him
his life, but remaining true to his Messiah to the very end. What do
we make of him? What is it about his story that caused his peers to proclaim
him a saint, and how should such saintliness be reflected in our church today?
First, this story tells us something
about change, the impact that change can have on a community, and how we cope
with such change. Those Jewish
Christians – those Jesus followers – brought a new perspective and a new way of
looking at things that made traditional Jews very uncomfortable, to say the
least. Those newcomers had a lot of
newfangled ideas – some of which were good and some of which ended up being
pretty unworkable.
For example, the idea of deacons has
lasted some 2000 years – though deacons do less table waiting now than originally.
Then there is Stephen’s concept of radical welcome and inclusion – opening our
doors to everyone – be they Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female (as
Paul wrote years later in his letter to the Galatians), be they gay or
straight, conservative or liberal, greatest or millennial generation – all are
one in Christ Jesus. That notion has
been a bit more problematic, but we are getting there. Pooling all our resources – well, that really
never did stand a chance.
No matter how you look at it though, change
is inevitable, and perhaps that is something we can take from this story.
Stephen understood that the Holy Spirit is alive and well if folks will just be
on the lookout for it. It may not lead us where we want to go. It may lead us to undertake significant
changes in order to continue to be the church in an age of increasing
secularism. However, being attuned to
the Spirit beckoning should certainly be a lesson for us if we are intent on
not just surviving, but also thriving.
In Stephen’s case, the specter of
change was a source of violent and deadly conflict – hence the patron saint of
coffin makers. However,
it does not have to be that way. Change
may lead to conflict (in fact, it probably will), but conflict need not always
lead to a bad outcome. Conflict can also
be an opportunity for growth, self-reflection, and transformation. Conflict can lead to new life, not
death. Dealt with positively, change and
conflict can be healthy experiences for any congregation – ours included.
Second, this story of Stephen tells us
something about standing firm in our beliefs. One
blogger I read this week noted, “When I look at this passage, I wonder why
Stephen had to say so much to his hostile accusers. Why didn't he coat the
truth with a little sugar and save his life? That is, of course, what our
culture teaches us to do, isn't it? We are skillfully schooled in the art of
offending no one by blurring the truth just enough to feel honest about telling
it while standing clear of possible repercussions.
For Stephen, there was no cowardly
compromise, no sidestepping the issues or tap-dancing around reality. Stephen
chose to speak the truth, the unmasked truth, in spite of the obvious threat of
consequences.” Stephen was passionate
about the Gospel message and impassioned by the Holy Spirit, and so he spoke
the truth as he understood it not in anger and vindictiveness but in love –
albeit tough love - and with great honesty.
At the core of Stephen’s passion was
his conviction that, through Jesus, another world is possible. “Imagine that!” He might have said. “Do not cling to the old ways, but imagine
what is possible.” That is the truth
that must be preached, that must be lived through our rituals and traditions –
especially now. Firing up
our religious imaginations to speak the truth as Stephen did in new and
relevant ways is perhaps the highest calling of our church today.
Finally, this story of Stephen reminds
us that, although Stephen lost his life to the onslaught of rocks and stones,
to the very end, he remained faithful to the Living Stone, the rock of refuge,
the strong fortress. Mouthing words of
forgiveness with his dying breath, this saint lived as all Christians are
called to live – in reconciliation, impassioned by the truth of the Gospel, in
communities with doors wide open in welcome, eager to grow and be transformed.
Here’s to Stephen then: agent of
change, protector of widows, orator of truth, waiter of tables, first martyr of
the faith, and patron saint of deacons, stonecutters and masons, coffin makers,
and headache sufferers.
by Rev. Nancy Foran, Raymond Village Community Church U.C.C.
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