Letting Go of Our
Stones
Acts
6:16-8:1
(preached at First Baptist Church, Edmonton, Alberta, on April 22, 2015)
Today, we enter into the story
of Stephen, the first martyr of the Christian faith. The first – but not the
last. Long before the likes of ISIS and long after, we will continue to hear
the stories of brave men and women who were killed – often brutally – because
of their faith in Jesus of Nazareth. From our earliest years of Sunday School,
we are taught to stand up for our faith and to boldly declare the name of
Jesus, regardless of the consequences – whether they be ridicule, ostracism, or
even death. We in the First World have sometimes cheapened the idea of
martyrdom, misapplying the word “persecution” to ourselves who have so many
rights but perhaps not all of them. But most of all, we have a rich history of outstanding saints who stood firm to the end –
whether that end came by stone or lion or fire or machete.
As we enter into the story of
Stephen, it’s interesting to note that he didn’t get killed by the government.
This time at least, the Romans weren’t the ones doing the persecuting. Stephen got killed by the religious
officials in the name of the very God he was proclaiming. One commentator writes
this:
The people who kill
Stephen are neither the local hooligans nor the Roman soldiers who nailed Jesus
to a cross. They are…upstanding members of religious communities: regular
members of synagogues, elders, religious professionals, priests. They are
guardians of vital traditions. (source: Matt Skinner)
Two groups of people – brothers, Stephen will call them – who
each claim to worship the same God, but one ends up dead at the hands of the
others. Christians, Jews and Muslims – three cousins, all with a faith grounded
in the God who appeared to Abraham – have repeated
this story over and over again, killing each other in the name of the God
we each profess to worship.
Lord, have mercy. How did this happen? And why does it keep happening?
