Acts 7:55-60
The Martyrdom of Stephen
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| Rembrandt, The Lapidation of Saint Stephen 1625 (PD) |
When the military draft ended in 1972, every branch of the United States Military had to reconsider their approach to recruitment and retention.
Following the war in Vietnam, not to mention Korea, few saw military service as a viable career option.
Even prior to the end of the draft, as each branch of the service was instructed to draw down the number of personnel, an extremely steep decline caused concern about the safety and defense of our nation.
Anticipating a deeper decline, given the reputation of the Marine Corps rigid culture and hard lifestyle,
the Marines launched a new recruiting strategy in 1970, beginning with a commercial that featured a young corporal “storming the beach” as he drops onto a beach blanket next to a beautiful young woman.
As that scene closes out, the narrator proclaims that “some Marines even get to drive tanks” as the same young corporal sits down into mustard colored Corvette. You know the beautiful 70’s snot/grey poupon shade?
But statistics regarding recruitment and retention were staggering.
Regardless of troop drawdowns, recruitment was in a tailspin for all branches of the military and with government cutbacks, the Marine Corps was looking at a crisis.
The incentives introduced in their 1970’s Corvette commercial offering beautiful women and fancy cars not only didn’t boost recruitment, but it dropped their projections even further.
Being the smallest branch of the military they couldn’t match the incentives being offered by the Army, Navy, or Air Force.
And holding the reputation as one of the less “accommodating" or enjoyable branches of the service to join, there wasn’t an awful lot to attract the numbers they needed to sustain their recruitment objectives.
It appeared the crisis couldn’t be avoided by using the conventional means of recruitment, and it seemed there was no way out.
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Our first lesson for today comes from Acts 7, and it is the story of Stephen.
Stephen who is known better as one of the first leaders of this early religious movement known as the Church.
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| Jean Fouquet, Étienne Chevalier and Saint Stephen 1420-1480 (PD) |
A movement also struggling with its retention and recruitment, not only because of how new it is but because this leader also becomes its first “martyr.”
Today, a martyr is known better as an individual who dies for their religious or other beliefs.
That would seem like a fairly broad definition, and being such a broad definition it could open the door to fanaticism, generalizations, and abuse.
In fact, it is probably a title we have come to associate less with Christianity and more with acts of terror.
And while I am not suggesting that Christians should be able to corner the market on the term martyr, I think we would have a healthier understanding of the term if we defined it the way it was defined for Stephen and in the story we heard today.
The death of Stephen and the events that occurred in the midst of his stoning are the focus of the first lesson today, but we didn’t get to hear how these events came to pass in the preceding 53 verses of this 7th chapter of Acts.
An event that solidifies his title of martyr far more than his demise.
Stephen is arrested and brought before a religious tribunal, a court that has set out to squash this religious movement and has made no secret about it.
Stephen knows the odds are against him, he also should have known it would be much wiser to go with the safe answers when asked about the authority of the religious elites and the role of the Temple.
But Stephen uses the story of Israel, all the way back from Abraham, to Joseph, to Moses and on to explain how the God of Israel is meant to be the God of the world.
It is not a testimony that is unique to Stephen.
In fact he cites Micah and Jeremiah and Isaiah who also share a prophecy of the God whose intention is to be in relationship with ALL people.
But the Temple had come to serve as a jar, something that could bottle up God and release the Divine in small doses to those who made sacrifices, obeyed the religious elites, and affirmed the authority of men rather than God.
Micah, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Stephen are not opposed to the Temple, but they are opposed to the notion that human beings have authority or control over God.
These prophets recognize that God is not meant to be controlled, because God desires to be known, loved, and have a relationship with ALL people.
But the role that the religious elite who are opposing Stephen have taken on, is to dictate just who is worthy of the Divine and to protect God as if God is their own possession.
It isn’t a means of protecting God, it is a means of protecting themselves and their authority.
But Stephen isn’t interested in undermining them, he is interested in protecting them.
Because God is not meant to be bottled up, and if any human authority should try such a thing it would be to their own detriment.
Ever hear of the saying “A bull in a china shop?”
Well, lets just say God can be a fairly sizable bull, just ask Jonah, ask Job.
So, Stephen’s testimony serves to protect this tribunal judging him as much if not more than the protection of the early Church.
And this is the true nature of a martyr, a word that originally stood for one who bears witness to the truth, oftentimes a truth that is meant to benefit the one hearing it.
So, Stephen is not defending himself in this court, nor is he defending the Church that he is leading.
He is bearing witness to the very prosecution standing against him.
The prosecution condemning him.
The prosecution that is about to stone him to death.
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| Mariotto di Nardo, Saint Stephen Before the High Priest and the Elders of the Sanhedrin 1408 (PD) |
And in his dying breaths he will not call for them to be cursed for their actions, but forgiven!?
Certainly a hard frame of mind for us to reconcile today, is it not?
Not only our unfamiliarity with this notion of martyr, but our unfamiliarity with Stephen’s notion of forgiveness, his notion of mercy!
What could drive such an illogical response to one’s own persecution?!
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A little over a week ago an executive order was passed concerning what has been dubbed the Religious Liberty Order.
This order was developed in response to what many considered to be the targeting of Christian communities, even the bullying and silencing of them over the past eight years.
This order was deemed to be “a measure that would give our churches their voices back.”
It will supposedly free clergy and religious leaders to endorse candidates and sway parishioners views, regarding partisan issues.
But, as many of you have heard me say from this pulpit, in newsletter articles, in classes, in private, and quite publicly;
That is not my job.
My call as an ordained minister in the Church of Christ is to preach and teach the Word of God and the doctrines of the Church.
And Sisters and Brothers if I ever exhaust the doctrines and teachings of the Church in my proclamation of God’s Word, I will reconsider presenting my political views to you from this pulpit, but I don’t see that happening in the years I have left in this life.
What is more, I not only believe I do not have the authority to dictate to you how you should vote, but Article 28 of the Augsburg Confession outlines specifically where the line of my authority is drawn, and the realm of civil authority is clearly behind that line.
But what troubles me most about this whole thing, is that in the most powerful and wealthiest nation in the world, where Christianity is claimed as the predominant religion by 70.6% of the population; does our Christian persecution really look anything like Stephens'?
And just where is this 70.6% that is supposedly fighting the persecution of Christians on a Sunday morning?
Are they waging this struggle alone in the comfort of a recliner in their living room every Sunday morning?
A friend of mine who is a Doctor and a Muslim came to me one day to inform me that he had a Christian medical student from the Middle East who needed help.
The student’s visa was about to run out when he graduated as a doctor, and he was terrified to return home with his family where Christians were being truly persecuted.
My friend wanted to know where this young man could go in the Christian community to get support.
Not because the Muslim community was unwilling to provide him with support, but because he had been turned away by so many in the Christian community since he didn’t look quite Christian to them.
What does our own persecution even look like when we are the persecutors of our very own Christian brothers and sisters?
What is more concerning still is what that kind of witness looks like to a world that needs a Church that will be martyrs of the Truth of Christ, witnesses of the Truth of Christ.
But, it isn't always easy, and I don’t want to make it out to be after all, look where it landed Stephen.
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I would argue that Stephen’s witness to Christ is unparalleled anywhere in scripture.
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| Vittore Carpaccio, The Sermon of St Stephen 1514 (PD) |
Although the tone of the lesson seems dulled, blunted by time and language.
The reading for today closes out with a description of a barrage of stones.
Alluding to a prolonged stoning, a far less preferable method of execution.
Most often the condemned were meant to be executed by the first several stones, which were larger than we usually imagine.
But if the condemned would not fall, the entire community would take part in this public spectacle and the longer it took, the more people would come out to take part.
And so, a barrage of stones not only implies a painful and prolonged death, but truly a lonely persecution by a large crowd that is only growing larger as they gather against Stephen.
Yet, as this crowd grows in number and in rage, Stephen’s voice rings out with the final breath he will ever take, offering the final petition to God that he will ever make;
“Lord, do not hold this sin against them!”
A final petition made on the behalf of his own persecutors, his own executioners.
And I can only imagine that for Stephen, looking out on this crowd, it must have seemed that the whole world had truly gathered together against him.
For us today, listening to this story, appalled by what transpired, horrified by the barbarity of the scene, it is hard to imagine this incident as anything but a defeat.
A witness that falls on only deaf ears.
And yet on the edge of the crowd stands Saul, trusted by this crowd to guard their most valuable possessions and soon trusted enough to continue the persecution of the Church that Stephen is proclaiming.
A young man who will soon take on the name Paul, taking on the witness of both Stephen and Christ as he carries the Gospel far beyond the walls of Jerusalem, to the ears of people not meant to know such a God as the God of Israel.
Paul, the martyr who brings this message to those considered unworthy, people like you and me, after encountering Christ for the first time at the stoning of Stephen rather than on the road to Damascus.
If we are not daring enough to be martyrs, witnesses, to the Gospel of Christ in the face of persecution, then the world may only ever hear silence.
And if we demand protection in order to bear such a witness, then how much do we truly believe in the witness made to us.
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In 1973, after re-evaluating their recruiting ads, the United States Marine Corps went out on a limb.
They found a photograph of a Drill Instructor named Sergeant Taliano, glaring up into the face of a young terrified Marine Recruit.
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| Chuck Taliano with a copy of the now famous poster U.S. Military Stock Photo, 14 February 2006 (PD) |
They released a new series of ads.
No Corvettes or super models this time, just gritty pictures of the unpleasantries of boot camp.
They led the campaign with the image of Sergeant Taliano, staring into the chin of this young kid as if he was about to tear his head off.
Underneath the picture were the words “We don’t promise you a rose garden.”
The TV spot even included Lynn Anderson’s country hit "Rose Garden", and as she sang, still framed pictures of miserable young men started to scroll across the screen.
Retention and recruitment froze, then they experienced a bump until the Marine Corps numbers plateaued out.
The Marine Corps has rarely had recruiting shortfalls since that campaign.
They found people believed that if there was something truly worth believing in, truly worth being part of, it would not be easy.
In fact it may even be unpleasant at times.
In fact it may even be unpleasant at times.
It’s what landed me on Parris Island as a Marine Recruit decades later!
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Today, there are a lot of people demanding that the Church be protected.
Some are even calling for the Church to call the shots, dictating who should be in power and how things should be run.
I have to admit that I myself would love for our politicians to hold onto any kind of religious or ethical system to guide them, heck, even a fortune cookie would be okay!
But if Stephen could believe in the Church in its infancy as stones rained down on him, how can I not stand by a Church that has been built on the cross of Christ and stood tall for over 2,000 years, oftentimes without protection of any kind!
We see in the promise of the Gospel that the Church will continue on, no matter what challenges stand in our way, but we should be careful what authority we claim.
After all, it was not only the religious authorities that directed the civil execution of Stephen, but it was the religious authorities that directed the government-led persecution of another man,
and that case landed God squarely on the cross.
Amen
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| Diego Velázquez, Christ Crucified 1632 (PD) |
Sources
Boyer, Dave. "Trump Gives Churches ‘their Voices Back’ with Approval to Take Part in Partisan Politics." The Washington Times. The Washington Times, 04 May 2017. Web. 10 May 2017.
Coleman, David. "U.S. Military Personnel 1954-2014: The Numbers." Research. History in Pieces, 30 July 2014. Web. 10 May 2017.
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