Yesterday we celebrated the descent of God’s love. Today we celebrate the ascent of St Stephen, first to die for Jesus, who ‘filled with the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God’ (Acts 7:55).
The Son of God became the Son of Man so children of men can be made children of God led by Stephen, deacon and martyr. Our Lord was born to raise the sons of earth yet that raising is through death and sometimes a very cruel death.
The stoning of Stephen followed a verbal assault upon the high priest and his council in verse 51 of Acts 7: ‘You stiff-necked people… for ever opposing the Holy Spirit… betrayers and murderers [of the Righteous One]. You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and yet have not kept it’. Fiery words. We read on: ‘ When they heard these things [the high priest and his council] became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen… dragged him out of the city and began to stone him’ (v54, 57, 58).
We gain insight into Stephen’s conflict with the Jewish authorities which caused his martyrdom in the second reading from Galatians. Paul’s experience of God’s love like Stephen’s centres on the crucifixion where he sees ‘the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me’ and professes it is consequently by ‘faith in Christ, not by doing works of law’ that we are put into right and enduring relationship with God (Galatians 2:20,16).
In the fullness of time 2000 years ago God chose to enter history and reveal himself as the Trinity, as love, with the invitation to live in relationship with himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That relationship, that love, is a wondrous gift, a grace given which cannot be earned even by the holiest and most law abiding of humans but only by trusting that love. ‘God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life’ (John 3:16).
The context of Stephen’s martyrdom is similar to that of Our Lord’s crucifixion. It follows the announcement that God is no longer to be seen as God of just one group, the Jews, but as God and loving Father of all. That announcement or revelation conflicted with the legalistic distortion of Judaism that had come to see God’s relationship with humans as conditional upon their doing right, and that seen as following the letter more than the spirit of the law. In the parable of the Good Samaritan Our Lord portrays the infuriating truth that the priest and Levite did right passing a man good as dead, avoiding contamination by possibly touching a dead body. It was the non-legalistic one, not bound by the letter of the law, the Samaritan, who did right by the love of God Jesus came to reveal.
How is it that communicating the love of God is so costly?
Looking at Jesus on the Cross and in his body and blood offered at the eucharist we see the price of love from God’s side which has implications for our costly discipleship. Holding God as God of all counters and angers those who see God as exclusively their God, the God whose reward they earn following the rules of their religion. I feel uncomfortable about Stephen’s diatribe which seems to have been the immediate cause of his martyrdom but it echoes Our Lord’s countering the same Jewish authorities with a vision of God as God of all and the Law as an instrument of love and not a tyrant.
There is much to consider about the martyrdom of Stephen but it's time to draw things together with an eye to practical application both corporate and individual.
First a thought about the so-called cancel culture, a term, first used in the US, to describe attempts to block or ‘cancel’ people or groups with certain viewpoints. The celebrities Russell Kane (picture) and Maureen Lipman went on BBC last week suggesting comedy shows were in jeopardy because people are getting so angry at the beliefs of others. Comedians live in fear worrying whether they can ever be funny again. What a sad thought! To live as Christians is to be the but of comedians at times - we can bear that - though persecution of Christians elsewhere in the world is no laughing matter. Then, another thought, within the church we need vigilance to respect diverse views as for example on the remarriage of divorced persons, the ordination of women and same sex unions. St. John’s is said to be an inclusive church but that inclusion is founded on respect, not just tolerance, for our diversity, so-called traditional and progressive followings, lest we lose the plot and block each other. Communicating the inclusive love of God starts at home, in my heart and yours, with giving the benefit of the doubt as the Samaritan did, though that does not exclude selfless voicing of righteous anger after the example of St Stephen.
How is it that communicating the love of God is so costly? Not only do other people not want to know they are loved by God, we ourselves, as believers, find pain in the truth of it. Speaking as someone who does a lot for God in evident ways I need to be continually reminded that my love for the work of the Lord comes second to my love for the Lord of the work. When I come into church to do something I need to remind myself to kneel first and homage God before I do what I have to do for him. Letting the love of God into your life needs vulnerability, owning our flaws, and exposure to the heart warming work of the Holy Spirit. Like those microwaves defrosting things for use at Christmas dinner the Holy Spirit reaches our centre, our heart of heart, last but we need to allow the love of God access.
Come, Holy Spirit, melt our hearts and melt our hearts to others so we pay the price of love and with St Stephen one day ‘see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God’ (Acts 7:55)
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