Birth of the Church: The Act of Listening

Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a wilderness road.) So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it.” So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” He replied, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him. Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this:

“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,
    and like a lamb silent before its shearer,
        so he does not open his mouth.
In his humiliation justice was denied him.
    Who can describe his generation?
        For his life is taken away from the earth.”

The eunuch asked Philip, “About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus. As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?” He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. --Acts 8:26-39 (NRSV)

How well do we listen? How well do we really listen?

When I was going through my chaplaincy training in Minneapolis, this was one of the primary focal points of our learning. Being taught to listen.

What I knew from my own experience in negotiating labor contracts in my past life, and what was reinforced for me during this clinical training, as well as, what I learned in 2019 in mediation training is that we don’t listen well.

We think we do. But, we don’t. We may talk incessantly and just never listen. We may listen once in awhile, especially if it's something we want to hear. We may often listen fully. But, I would suggest that we don’t listen well. Because, even when we think we are listening fully, most of us are thinking about the next thing we have to say. How we will respond to what we are hearing.

We don’t listen well.

Listening is at the heart of today’s story. It begins with Philip. One of those seven we heard about last week. Appointed, along with Stephen and others, to oversee the food distribution program of the early church. Do you notice, once again, where we are seeing the Spirit at work? In the kitchen?

After Stephen’s death, the persecution of Jesus believers belonging to “The Way” increased, led by Saul, who we would later come to know as the Apostle Paul. As a result of this, the Jerusalem church scattered. Philip travels down (really up) to Samaria to proclaim the good news of Jesus to the people with a positive result. Soon Peter and John join him there. Then, all of them return to Jerusalem. While Philip is in the city, an angel of the Lord speaks to him. Calling him to get up and go south to the city of Gaza.

Now, Gaza is along the southern coast of Israel. Traveling there is not easy. Even our text says it’s a “wilderness road.” It’s a journey through rocky territory that takes you to hills of sand that must be traversed before reaching this coastal city.

Notice though, that in our story, Philip listens. And, then, he acts. And begins his wilderness journey. 

It’s not long before he meets someone on the way. An eunuch. An official of the queen - the Secretary of the Treasury for the Ethiopian nation. One appointed who’s entire focus would be one of serving his nation. One who, in our world today, we might view as “other.”

He’s been to Jerusalem to worship there. On his return, he’s stopped along the road in his chariot, reading from the prophet Isaiah. We read in our text that the Holy Spirit directs Philip to go to him. Again, Philip listens. And acts. When he comes to the Ethiopian, he hears him reading. And inquires whether the official understands. Philip, again, listens to his response and his invitation to Philip to join him in his chariot. The passage he is reading is from Isaiah 53, the same passage we heard on Good Friday, often titled “The Suffering Servant.” The Ethiopian asks a question. Philip listens. Then he begins to answer. To share the good news about Jesus. And about this suffering servant. Once dead, now alive. 

But, notice that Philip isn’t the only one who is listening. As the Ethiopian hears Philip’s witness, he, too, is moved to act. In a way that perhaps is surprising to Philip. “Look, here is water!” he says to Philip. “What is keeping me from being baptized?” Immediately they stop and the Ethiopian is baptized by Philip.

Then, notice, as a colleague has mentioned, notice that once the Ethiopian - this unnamed man - is baptized, Philip gets out of his way. Or rather the Spirit whisks Philip out of his way. One can only wonder how the Holy Spirit continues to work transformation in the heart and life of this stranger. This "other."

Today is Creation Care Sunday. Yet, this Sunday is also set in the midst of an eventful week for us in this country. A verdict. Yet, even in its midst, more shootings of people of color. 

The cries of communities of color have been heard in our country for decades. Even centuries. The warnings of environmentalists and scientists about the damage we have done and continue to do to creation have been lifted up, as we just heard from Lana, for over a century. 

Are we listening? Or are we so concerned about our own needs that we have failed to hear or even refused to listen - and, then, to act? Notice that in our story listening is always connected to action. What are we doing to change how we live? What are we doing to correct the damage and trauma inflicted upon people or God’s creation we have “othered” in our world?

As is apparent from this story, we trust that God through the Holy Spirit is at work in our world to bring about restoration. And new life. But, like Philip, we are called to come alongside this work. To listen. And, then, to act. Because to do otherwise simply cheapens the gracious gift of life given to each one of us in Christ.

Are you listening?

Preached on Sunday, April 25, 2021, online to Grace & Glory Lutheran, Goshen, KY, and Third Lutheran, Louisville, KY.

Easter 4 - Creation Care Sunday

Readings: Acts 8:26-39, Luke 24:44-47

Birth of the Church: Conflict and Change

Our text today is in three parts. 

Before we begin, it’s important that we understand the context and background of our story, as well as, a tiny bit of explanation as to how the Narrative Lectionary works.

Since Christmas, we’ve spent our time working through the gospel of Luke. We’ve heard different themes: the theme of journey, both as Jesus travelled from Galilee to Jerusalem plus the journey of the disciples and their own understanding of who this Jesus was. Then, there’s the theme of welcome and inclusion, as we were witness to how Jesus healed and invited in those residing on the edges of society. We also heard the theme of conflict, as we watched the escalation between Jesus and the religious leadership in the temple, eventually leading to the crucifixion by the Romans.

Many of these same themes carry into the book of Acts, which is where we move today. 

Acts is really the second volume of Luke, written by the same author. Addressed to the same person we met early on - Theolophilus, which is translated “God lover.” But, while Luke is the story of Jesus and his ministry, Acts - its full name being “The Acts of the Apostles” - Acts is about the early church and its ministry. But, more than anything, Acts is really about the work of the Holy Spirit - this third person of the godhead that continues to be active in our world today. That is still so mysterious to us. And that is, honestly, the most subversive person in the Trinity. 

It may seem odd to move so quickly to Acts after the Easter story. But, really, that’s what happened. It was only 40 days after his resurrection that Jesus ascended and then only 40 days later that God poured out the Holy Spirit on the growing group of disciples on that first Pentecost. We will hear story when we celebrate Pentecost Sunday in a few weeks. However, for the next few Sundays, we’ll be moving into the book of Acts. And our primary focus, uncomfortable as it can sometimes be - our primary focus will be on conflict. Because in ministry to human beings, whether inside or outside the walls of the church, conflict happens. It did in the early church. It still does today.  

We begin in Acts, chapter 6. 

In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. --Acts 6:1-7 (NRSV)

When problems or conflict in our church communities arise they are rarely about theology. How many times have you gotten into an argument with someone over a theological issue? Right. Probably never. Problems in the church often begin in the midst of practical ministry. Choir. Or the men’s or women’s groups. Or altar guild. Or, as in the case of today’s reading, in the kitchen. 

In this story, we have two groups that are linguistically and culturally different - the Judaic Jews and the Greek Jews, or Hellenists in our story. The Greek Jews speak the language of imperial Rome and come from outside Jerusalem. They’re the newcomers to the city. And, according to them, they’re being treated by the other disciples as though they are the newcomers. Treated unfairly. Their widows aren’t getting the same amount of food as the Jewish widows from Jerusalem. So, they complain to the leadership of this first church. To the twelve. 

In the world of leadership there are two kinds of challenges. The first is what we call a technical challenge. It’s something that can be easily fixed. Like when the roof leaks. Or the grass needs to be mowed. We just need the right person with the right skills to make a fix. The second type of challenge is what is called an adaptive challenge. It doesn’t have an easy fix, but requires a complete change of mindset. What’s happening in this first part of our reading is a technical challenge. There’s a fairly easy fix. The twelve disciples meet and devise a plan to expand their leadership team to include some of the Greeks. Seven to be exact. It’s to this group that the twelve will delegate this ministry of service - of feeding the poor. It’s a different type of ministry than that of the twelve. But, just as important. So, while these seven men do their ministry of service, the twelve disciples will continue their ministry of sharing the Word. 

Do you notice, though, where the Spirit seems to be most at work? It’s from out of this group of seven that Stephen comes. The Spirit, subversive as it is, is more at work in this moment in the kitchen. 

Our reading continues.

Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people. Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called)—Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia—who began to argue with Stephen. But they could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke.

Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, “We have heard Stephen speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.”

So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin. They produced false witnesses, who testified, “This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us.”

All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

Then the high priest asked Stephen, “Are these charges true?”

To this he replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran.

“Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the covenant law with them in the wilderness. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen. After receiving the tabernacle, our ancestors under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of David, who enjoyed God’s favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built a house for him.

“However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says:

“‘Heaven is my throne,
    and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me?
says the Lord.
    Or where will my resting place be?
Has not my hand made all these things?’ --Acts 6:8-15; 7:1-2, 44-50 (NRSV)

They’re trumped up charges. Just as the charges against Jesus were trumped up. Stephen, like Jesus, is a threat to the status quo. In his speech, which is much longer than what we read, Stephen is telling the Jewish people that things are changing. Perhaps the thing he says that is hardest for them to hear is that it’s no longer about the temple. It’s not about the building. God will not be and cannot be contained within four walls, as much as we’d like to contain God and limit the movement of the Holy Spirit in the world. This is an adaptive challenge for the people, because it will require a huge change of mind and heart. To recognize that God’s dwelling place is no longer only the temple. That the Holy Spirit will be and continues to be at work, not only within the walls of the church, but also in the wide, wide, world beyond. 

The reading continues.

[Stephen speaks.] “You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him— you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.”

When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.

While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep. --Acts 7:54-60 (NRSV)

As we hear the end of this story, it’s hard not to see the similarities between the stoning of Stephen and the crucifixion of Jesus. Yet, what we know on this side of Easter, is that it is often in the darkest places, in the places where there seems to be no hope, that the Holy Spirit is most at work. Because, just as the Spirit was at work bringing life out of Jesus’ death, so, too, would the Spirit be at work bringing life out of Stephen’s death. Not in the same way. But, still working goodness out of evil. Light out of darkness. Spreading the good news of Jesus Christ into the most unexpected parts of the world. 

We are in a season of change in the church. It began well before the current pandemic, but has been pushed even more quickly as a result. The Holy Spirit is pushing us outside our church walls. Outside our comfort zone. Into a world that desperately needs to hear and see and feel the love of God, a world that as we’ve seen especially in the violence of this past week is a world that desperately needs to know the love and grace and life that God offers. 

It is our natural human tendency to resist change. This can lead to conflict. But, here’s the thing. As we are hearing today, the change and the conflict that may result as we continue to grow and move beyond our walls is not new to the church. We’ve been here before. What we learn from this experience of the early church is that no matter our resistance or the conflicts that may arise, God can and has and will work through it and us to do new things. This is the message of the resurrection. This is the message of the early church. This is the message for us. Here. Now. In this brand new world.

May God the Holy Spirit do its subversive work in our churches, in our people, in our hearts, so that we might share in new and unexpected ways this amazing good news of new life. Amen. 

Preached April 18, 2021, online with Third Lutheran, Louisville, KY and Grace & Glory, Goshen, KY.

Easter 3

Readings: Acts 6:1-7:2a, 44-60; Luke 23:33-34a, 46

 

Good News Spreads: Transforming

Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” The men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” He answered, “Here I am, Lord.” The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength. Acts 9:1-19a (NRSV)

Grace and peace to you from our Lord and resurrected Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

In our reading last week, we heard the story of how the Good News was beginning to spread. From Mary Magdalene, word of Jesus’ resurrection had spread to Peter and John and, then, last week to the remaining followers, including Thomas. We heard last week how Jesus breathed on the disciples. That he breathed into them the Holy Spirit and commissioned them to continue to spread the Good News. The Good News of the complete reversal that God had performed in raising Jesus from the dead.

This week and for the next few weeks, we are in the book of Acts. This is the book in the Bible that gives us stories of the early church--stories of how this first community of believers lived together and, particularly, stories of how the Good News continued to spread.

In the chapters before today’s lesson, the news of Jesus’s resurrection has spread throughout Jerusalem and beyond. The number of believers has continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem. So much that, as their numbers have grown, so has opposition among the Jewish and Roman leadership. This growing tension reaches a climax with the arrest of Stephen, who gives testimony about Jesus’ death and resurrection and, particularly, about the complicity of the religious and political leadership in his crucifixion. It is this testimony--this truth--that results in Stephen’s stoning and death as the first Christian martyr. It is after his death that we are first introduced to Saul--one of two main characters in our lesson today. We know Saul better as Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles and prolific writer of letters to the various faith communities he helped found throughout the Mediterranean area.

But, before he became Paul, he was Saul. We first hear of him in Acts 7. “Then they (speaking of the people Stephen had angered with his testimony)--then they dragged Stephen out of the city and began to stone him: and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul...And Saul approved of their killing him."

After Stephen died, a severe persecution began against the church in Jerusalem. All of the disciples except for the small group of apostles were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria. In the third verse of chapter 8, we read that “Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women” and committing them to prison.

As the disciples were scattered, the Good News continued to spread. Not only throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria, but also into other places. One of those places was Damascus in Syria. It’s the same Damascus, Syria, we know today. Saul was determined to destroy the new believers, those who belonged to “The Way,” which is what they called this movement. Wherever members of “The Way” went, Saul was determined to go after them and imprison or even kill them. 

The city of Damascus, which was 135 miles away from Jerusalem, was one of his target cities. It was on Saul’s first journey to Damascus to hunt out the people of “The Way” that we witness a great reversal. These reversals are characteristic of the Good News. These moments when God completely disrupts expectations and unexpectedly reverses everything. Reversals that indicate to the early disciples that God is at work. That, when God’s intentions are realized, the normal state of affairs is turned completely upside down.

This is what happens with Saul. He experiences a series of reversals. Of great change. Of transformation. God disrupts his experience along the road to Damascus. He changes from seeing to being blind. From a confident and zealous persecutor to one who confesses ignorance about the “lord” he can’t recognize. From a man planning to lead captives back to Jerusalem in chains to one who must be led into Damascus by others. From having authority over others’ bodies to becoming completely dependent with his own. From a man on a mission to one who must now wait to learn what he is to do next. From a man exercising great power over the church to one who has been completely overpowered. Completely overpowered by Jesus. 

Reversal. Transformation.

But, Saul is not the only one. As we move through our story, we are introduced to Ananias, one of Jesus’ disciples in Damascus. Ananias has heard about Saul and his reputation. So, when Jesus appears to Ananias and tells him to go meet Saul, he argues with Jesus. Unaware of the reversals that Saul has already experienced, Ananias is determined that he will not confront this arch-enemy of his and of all of the other believers of The Way. So, he argues with Jesus. But, Jesus responds. “Go, for he is an instrument who I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel.” 

In his conversation with Ananias, Jesus has redefined Saul for him. Saul’s past or his reputation no longer fully express who he now is. Jesus has chosen Paul as his own “instrument” or, better, “vessel” through which to continue to spread the Good News among those who have not yet heard. And not by himself, but as a member of the community of disciples, as one of the The Way.

Reversal. Transformation.

As part of the process of becoming ordained, I was required to participate in CPE. CPE stands for Clinical Pastoral Experience. It consists of 400 hours of chaplaincy training in a hospital or other care situation, where trainees learn how to provide pastoral care for people who are sick or hospitalized, or in need of help to make meaning of a difficult time or situation in their lives. 

In my CPE training at a hospital in Minneapolis, I was grouped with 4 other trainees. All of us came to the group with no or very little practical experience, other than a class or two we had taken in seminary. After one week of orientation, each of us was assigned as a chaplain to one or two of the medical units in the hospital.  

I was terrified. We were all terrified. None of us felt ready to do this important work. Each week we would meet and process our experiences together and tell each other over and over that we were enough. That each one of us was enough. That God had chosen us as God’s instruments--as God’s vessels--and that, as broken and inexperienced as we were, we were enough. 

By the end of our training, each one of us was transformed. Transformed with the understanding that we were enough and beginning to see all of the possibilities that God had in store for us. 

Reversal. Transformation.

This is what God does. God dramatically re-orients our expectations and causes us to reassess what is possible. God did it with my CPE group. God does it with Saul. God does it with Ananias. God does it with you, too.  You, a broken vessel. A chosen, broken vessel. Chosen by God to come into community here and together do the impossible. 

This is the church that Acts imagines. A gathering of broken vessels chosen by God, coming together in a cooperative existence and building a community that lives into a future that completely defies human expectations. What if God continues to surprise and disrupt us as with the Acts church? To surprise us just as God surprised Saul and Ananias with promises of a different identity and an expanded future? To completely reverse and transform our expectation of what is possible? To nudge us to a new experience with new possibilities?

What if?

Amen.

Preached April 15, 2018, at Grace & Glory Lutheran Church, Goshen, KY.
Fourth Sunday of Easter
Readings: Matthew 6:24; Acts 9:1-19a.

Not the Same Anymore: Stones of Life, Not Death

But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he died.  Acts 7:55-60 (NRSV)

Grace and peace to you from our risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Does it feel shocking to you? A little jarring, perhaps? That, on this Mother’s Day, this day we hold up mothers and women and, particularly, we lift up the qualities of mothers, those maternal qualities that both women and men possess. Qualities such as caring for others, for nurturing and loving. Qualities that give life, instead of those that take away life.

So, does it feel shocking to you that, on this day when we celebrate those life-giving qualities, our reading from Acts should be that of the stoning and martyr’s death of Stephen?

I can’t speak for you. But, I know that when I opened the text to prepare this week’s sermon, this Mother’s Day sermon, all I could think was, “Oh, wow! How can I find care and nurture, love and life in this passage today? How can I preach a sermon of life in the midst of the violence and death of Stephen?” 

Was it only last week that we read the description of the early church--how the disciples held all things in common, how no one was in need, how they spent time daily in the temple, praying, and praising God, and how, daily, God added to their number? How did we move from such a place of wholeness and life, a place of salvation, to this place of violence and death?

Well, for me, the way in which to figure this out, to make sense of this is to move backwards from today’s text, into previous chapters. To go back and to see how it is we got here.

It didn’t take long that things began to fall apart for the early church. Even though many signs and wonders continued to happen, the disciples certainly weren’t making many friends among the Jewish leadership. We read in Chapter 4 that, as Peter and John were performing miracles and speaking to the people, proclaiming the Good News of Jesus’ resurrection, the religious leaders came to them, very annoyed at what they were saying to the people. 

They had Peter and John arrested and brought in front of the leadership to question them, they were amazed at their boldness and even more amazed at their message, given the nature of Peter and John as "uneducated and ordinary men." The leadership could find nothing to hold them on. So, they were forced to let them go, but not before they ordered Peter and John not to teach or speak in the name of Jesus.

It wasn’t only with the Jewish leadership that trouble began to happen. Within their own ranks, selfishness and greed began to appear, challenging the disciples’ tradition of holding everything in common.

Some of the Greek disciples began to complain against the Judean disciples, claiming that their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of good. In response, the twelve disciples decided to appoint seven elders to take charge of distributing food. In this way, the twelve would then be able to more fully devote themselves to prayer and to preaching the Word. One of those seven appointed was Stephen.

The sixth chapter of Acts describes Stephen in this way: “Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.” Even when some of the Jews attempted to argue with him in the synagogue, we read that, “...they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke.”

It was this group of Jews, these religious people, these people of faith, who then began to stir others up against Stephen. As the momentum built against him, he was confronted by them, arrested and brought before the Jewish leadership council. 

But, even then, Stephen, would not be stilled. Even in the midst of a parade of false witnesses lined up against him, our text reads that “all who sat in the council looked intently at him, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.”

And, then, he began to speak. Full of the Holy Spirit, Stephen began to challenge these religious leaders. To challenge their perception of God--that God’s dwelling place was not only the temple, as they believed. That God dwells not in houses made with human hands, but, as the prophet says, quoted in Acts 7, “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me,” says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? Did not my hand make all these things?” 

After the people heard this, they were enraged. And they dragged him outside the city. And it was there that they began to stone him. To kill Stephen with stones of death.

It is easy for us to sit back and to condemn these people, isn’t it? Who, of us sitting here, would ever do such a thing?

But, the people who kill Stephen, who stone him, are not local thugs. They are upstanding religious folks. Regular members of synagogues. Committed leaders, religious professionals, Priests. They are guardians of valued traditions. Their own traditions of faith. They are the faithful who have invested much of themselves into the religious ideas and systems that they believe are necessary, that are crucial, for making God known in the world.

They simply wanted to protect their understanding of God, an understanding that had become so important to them that it closed off their ability to be curious about that understanding. 

They presume to know exactly how God works. They refuse to make room for anything that a visionary, like Stephen, might say. And then, they lash out in violence because they are victims of the oldest sin in the Bible, the sin of idolatry. 

I wonder how much we are like them. How much we, too, like to contain God in our own little “God box.” Thinking that God can only be found within these walls, only within the church. That we are so focused on what is happening here, within the church, that we fail to see the other places where and the ways in which God is present. Or that we are so filled with our own arrogance that we fail to humbly gather with fellow seekers and to be open to both new and old ways of finding God.

You see, Stephen’s story isn’t about identifying and vilifying the bad guys. It’s about recognizing the reality that all of us are too prone to reject God’s messengers and to hold on tightly to what feels safe and secure, to what we already know, or think we know. To worship creation instead of the Creator. To imagine that God can be contained and, therefore, controlled and owned.

When we do this, when we seek to control God and to own God, we are no different than those who hung Jesus on the cross. Or those who cast stones of death upon Stephen.

The antidote for this, though, is not to avoid being religious. The antidote is to be open to encountering God. To be open to a God who breaks into our midst, who disrupts the status quo that we want to protect so dearly. It is to determine whether we hold onto our convictions so hard that we leave broken bodies in our wake. Or that snuff out life and vitality in other ways.  

The story of Stephen challenges us. It challenges us as the body of Christ, as it did Stephen, to take on Christ’s ministry, to take on his crucifixion and ministry of servanthood as our own. To be filled, like Stephen, with the Holy Spirit so that we might be the presence of Christ in our world. 

To be--as we read in 1st Peter--living stones. Followers that are being made into the image of the Creator, that are living stones being built around Christ, that chief cornerstone, and into God’s spiritual temple. To be a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people who are God’s own possession and who are called to speak of the wonderful acts of the one who called us from darkness to light, from death to salvation, to be stones of life and not stones of death. 

This is the story of Stephen. It is the story of a visionary, who saw the depth and breadth of God and of the life that God offers. Life offered not just to him or to us. But to all people. And, on this day that we celebrate and hold up those who give life, what else is there that could be more affirming?

Thanks be to God!

Amen.

Preached May 14, 2017 at Grace & Glory Lutheran Church, Goshen, KY
Fifth Sunday of Easter
Readings: Acts 7:55-60, Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16, 1 Peter 2:2-10, John 14:1-14.