The Rev. Deacon Dr. Bette Kauffman's homily, May 7, 2023

 

God With Us

Christ Episcopal Church, St. Joseph

Year A, 5 Easter

Acts 7:55-60; 1 Peter 2:2-10; John 14:1-14

During Easter season, our first lesson every Sunday comes not from the Old Testament, but from Acts of the Apostles—the New Testament book that tells the story of the founding of Christianity.

It’s worth pointing out—because so many people seem to miss this—that Jesus did not found Christianity. The Apostles did. Acts 1 tells the story of Jesus’ ascension into heaven, and then proceeds to tell the story of the founding of Christianity by the Apostles.

As a teacher of religion, I have been asked the question in a most incredulous tone of voice, “You mean Jesus was not a Christian?” The correct answer is, “No, he was not. He was born, lived and died a Jew!” In some quarters, that is almost enough to get one stoned to death!

From my perspective, the story we read this morning of the stoning of Stephen in Acts Chapter 7 does not get enough attention in the church today. We read it just once every three years—on the 5^th Sunday of Easter, Year A. That’s it.

Stephen might get mentions at other times, for example, on his feast day. But that’s Dec. 26, the day after Christmas, a “low church day” if ever there was one! And when he does get mentioned, it is typically focused on the fact that he was the very first martyr.

Another thing that will often get mentioned is that bit about people laying their coats at the feet of Saul. And we all know the next chapter of that story. Saul encounters the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, is struck down, blinded and converted into a believer and Apostle, and, indeed, pretty much the author of the New Testament. So that’s important, for sure.

But… what about Stephen? Who was he? Why was he stoned to death? What was his death-deserving sin? And who, in fact, stoned him to death?

Don’t feel bad if you haven’t a clue about any of that. It really doesn’t get talked about much. So… guess what?

The first thing to know about Stephen, which will give you a bit of insight into why I think he is important, is that he was not an Apostle and he was not a priest. He was a deacon.

The second thing to know is that he was not stoned for feeding the poor, which was his ministry, nor for being a activist on behalf of the poor, as so many deacons are. Rather, he was stoned for preaching.

Hmmm. Does that make you wonder a bit about his sermon? What in heaven’s name did he say?

Well, it’s all there in Acts Chapter 7! You might want to go home and read the whole thing because I’m not going to read it to you. I am going to tell you a bit about it, but first….

To whom was he preaching? That’s an important question because it was precisely the people to whom he was preaching who rose up, dragged him out of the city and stoned him to death.

So who do you think? A bunch of pagans who didn’t want to hear about a bigger, better god than the ones they worshiped? Nope. A bunch of Romans who didn’t want to hear about a god greater than Caesar? Or perhaps didn’t want to hear that they had executed an innocent man? No, and no.

Here’s a quickie version of the back story: In Acts 6, Stephen and six others are chosen and ordained as the first deacons, their job being to correct bias that had developed in the daily distribution of food, such that poorer and less powerful people were getting less than their fair share. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Acts 6 goes on to tell us that Stephen stood out from the beginning, that he was full of grace and did many “wonders and signs among the people.” The powers-that-be who ran the synagogue became more and more worried. They tried to argue with Stephen to no avail because Stephen spoke with wisdom and the power of the Spirit. Quite literally, Stephen became a threat to their power and control over the spiritual lives of the people.

What did they do? They pressured some men to lie that Stephen had blasphemed against Moses and God. Stephen is arrested and hauled before the Council—that is, the priests and elders who ran the synagogue, and thereby control the people because the synagogue was the people’s access to God.

So that’s the context in which Chapter 7 begins with the high priest asking Stephen, “Are these things so?” Did you, in fact, blaspheme against Moses and God? Stephen’s sermon is his answer. In sum, Stephen is preaching to the high priest himself and the group that runs the synagogue—the good church people of the day—and he is defending himself against lies told about him.

So, what does he say? Well, most of it sounds pretty non-controversial. Verse 2 through verse 47, over a thousand words, is the history if the Israelites. Stephen begins with Abraham and God’s covenant with him. He tells the story of Joseph sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, becoming ruler there and bringing the Israelites to Egypt, who in turn became slaves there. He tells of Moses and the burning bush and leading the people out of Egypt, and, of course, he tells of their wandering in the wilderness for 40 years because they didn’t trust God, begged to be taken back to Egypt and made themselves a golden calf to worship.

Then comes the punch line. Stephen tells these powerful religious men that they are wrong about God. God, he says, does not live in houses made by human hands. God is everywhere; the creation that God made is God’s house.

This is a direct affront to their power. If people come to believe that God is everywhere and that they can worship God—in spirit and in truth, just as Jesus had taught—then those who rule via the synagogue are little more than custodians of a building.

Finally, Stephen drives his point home by explicitly connecting their dishonest power—power based on keeping God in a box of their own construction—and their rejection of Jesus. He says,

You stiff-necked people… you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers.

And that drove them right over the edge. Enraged, they drag Stephen out of the city and stone him to death.

So… what is the lesson in all of that for us today? I think of two things, and they are related. First, don’t try to keep God in a box. Humans of all races and nations have a strong tendency to believe that their “God box” is the best, even the only “right” one. We really want to think that we have God figured out and that if everyone else just thought the way we did, the world would be a hunk-dory place.

Second, don’t get between God and people. Don’t try to build earthly power by inserting earthly institutions and constructs between God and people. “The church” is not God. “Christianity” is not God and most assuredly is not the only way to God. Those are our God boxes, and they can easily become idolatries. God will find a way around or through every barrier we seek to put between people and God.

The high priest and the Council perhaps appeared to have prevailed by killing Stephen, but at best they had won a small skirmish. Saul went from guarding the coats of the killers to encountering the risen Christ on the road and to becoming the chief herald and preacher of the liberating news of God with us, everywhere, at all times.

 

  In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. AMEN.