Oak Chapel United Methodist Church

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Thus ends the story of the first Christian martyr, St. Stephen – who (except for his faith) was an ordinary man, a-dime-a-dozen really. Stephen was a waiter in Jerusalem and a very early convert to our faith. Unfortunately (at least from the world’s point of view “unfortunately”) his enormous enthusiasm for Jesus got him killed. In the next two hundred and fifty years, tens of thousands more, all over the Roman Empire, would suffer and die for the Jesus religion, but when it ended the Emperor of Rome was fast losing his power and the Bishop of Rome was picking up all the pieces. (That’s why it was the Bishop of Rome who became the head of the church, the Pope.) It’s a story we must not forget. The more Christians the Romans killed the more there were. The blood of the martyrs was, indeed, the seed of the church. And the whole horrible and glorious story began with the stoning of St. Stephen.

He stood before the Sanhedrin (the High Council), right where Jesus had stood, and told them their own history, but not to there liking. He began with Abraham, went on to Moses, and the prophets, and the exile, and the building of the Temple, but as he told the story he emphasized not the faith of the Jews but their lack thereof – their ingratitude for all God had given them. He told how the Sanhedrin’s ancestors had broken God’s covenant with Abraham, how they had sold Joseph into slavery, how they had resisted Moses every step of the way, how they had deserved the exile, how they had tried to reduce God to one who could be contained in a man-made Temple. And he ended with these words: “And you continue, so bullheaded! Calluses on your hearts, flaps on your ears. Deliberately ignoring the Holy Spirit, you’re just like your ancestors…you’ve kept up the family tradition – traitors and murderers, all of you! You had God’s law handed to you by angels – gift-wrapped! – and you squandered it!” No wonder they stoned him to death.

The traditional translation says that when they heard Stephen’s words “they covered their ears,” but I like Peterson’s paraphrase: “ear flaps.” I thought of all the ear flaps and blinders we put on to avoid hearing the true Word of God. Now, there is a whole array of natural protections which prevents us from hearing or seeing or remembering what we cannot stand to hear or see or remember, what would threaten our very ability to survive. The person who, after a terrible automobile accident, cannot remember a thing, for example – even though he was quite conscientious at the time. That’s a merciful brain saying, “No, you won’t be able to survive (mentally survive) if you remember what you’ve experienced – at least not now, so for the time being we’ll block it out.”

More often, however, a person’s refusal to see or hear or remember isn’t for survival. More often it’s for pride, or for not wanting to change, or for protecting privilege, or for not having to admit mistakes. An alcoholic, for example, will spend a life-time denying (to others and to himself) that he has a problem, and utilizing all kinds of ear flaps and blinders in the effort, until one day (if he’s lucky) the truth chases him down. Painful to face such truth? Oh, yes. But not as painful as going on in the lie.

These Jewish leaders’ refusal to hear God’s word from Stephen was that second kind of ear flap, an obstinacy designed to protect a fabric of lies. If Stephen was the first martyr (and he was), these city councilmen may have been the first non-Christians to appreciate the incredible implications of the Gospel. “If Stephen is right….!” “No, we cant think of that.” No wonder they covered their ears. If our history is not what we have always believed it to be, if we’ve been wrong about the Messiah, if now we’ve crucified God’s Anointed One – then we will have to change in a most incredible way, and every piece of our world, every aspect of our lives, every relationship, everything we think, and say, and do, will have to be different. We can’t take that in. We’ll just cover our ears and not listen.”

But there is something about truth. “It will out,” Shakespeare said. Galileo, based on his careful observations and calculations, wrote that the earth was not the unmoving center of the solar system, around which the other planets revolved (as was universally believed by all the smart money) but was instead one of those planets and did, in fact, move -- around the sun. The Inquisitors called Galileo before them and insisted that he recant, take it back, that business about the earth moving. So he did, knowing that the truth would someday come out, and not thinking the fight worth the effort. But as he walked away, he was heard to say, famously, “It still moves.” Truth is truth. And God’s Word is the truest of all truth.

We see can truth already beginning to leak through in the story of Stephen. Holding the coats of the stoners, and egging them on, was a Jewish fire-brand, Saul of Tarsus. At some level Saul must have been touched by this plain man’s testimony and by his peaceful death, asking God to forgive his killers. Soon God grabs Saul. He becomes a prince of the church, the first (and still the greatest) Christian theologian, a missionary beyond compare, an organizer, a preacher, and himself a martyr. Paul. St. Paul. Truth always wins. “An though the wrong seem oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.” “The body they may kill. God’s truth abideth still.”

Here’s a truth: God created the world, and the world belongs to him. A Word of God, if you will And no rationalization of ours will make it any less true. God knows we try. We proclaim, in many ways, “The earth is mine.” “I own it.” “I can shape it.” “I can hoard its riches. And I can abuse it.” (The secular environmentalists, by the way, try to convince us to respect nature because “nature belongs to everybody.” I find that very unconvincing. It seems to me, if there’s no God, the world belongs to the strongest.) But, if there is a God, and the Word is true, that the earth is His, then I will be the most scrupulous protector if it. It’s not mine, but it’s also not yours, and it’s not everybody’s. It’s God’s. And I want to turn it back to him in the same condition I found it.

Marriage is “instituted of God.” That’s another truth. That’s part of God’s Word, isn’t it? It was God who created Adam and Eve, and made them as he did; and it was God (not some philosopher) who said that “a man shall leave his mother and father and cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” We can say, if we choose, that “marriage has outlived its usefulness.” Or we can say that, “marriage can be whatever we want it to be.” But truth is truth. It doesn’t go away just because we say it isn’t so. And let me add (in case you think I speaking only about homosexual marriage) that long before that issue was before us heterosexual marriage, traditional marriage, was in deep trouble...and still is Too many divorces. Too much illegitimacy. Too many children being raised in single family homes, or by God parents, or grandparents, or foster parents. When we enter the discussion about gay marriage, we have to enter with clean hands. Homosexuals marrying will never cause half the havoc that heterosexuals unmarrying has caused. And that’s not to say it’s right.
We are so accustomed to hearing what the polls say, and to believing that if the polls say something it must be true, that we can’t imagine any truth that runs contrary to public opinion. And that’s pitiful. I dare say, if Stephen had taken a poll in Jerusalem that day, it surely would have shown that 95% of the people believed that Christianity was pure nonsense and its followers were merely screwballs and troublemakers. And, if Stephen had gone with the polls, he never would have said what he said, and never would have been stoned. And the church would never have grown.

The news commentators, in these transitional weeks for Roman Catholicism, insist on citing polls: 76% of American Catholics practice birth control, 52% want women priests, 68% think men priests should be able to marry. And now, incredibly, before the new Pope had been in office for twenty-four hours, 34% percent think he’s too conservative! The press couldn’t understand why John Paul, who took so many unpopular stands, was so popular. Four million people came to his funeral! That’s odd, for someone who seldom said what people wanted him to say. Thank God somebody is not listening to public opinion! Thank God there are still some leaders in the world, and in the church, who will say, “We’re not marketers. We really don’t care what the polls say. We care what God says.”

The Book of Acts describes Stephen as one “full of faith and the Holy Spirit,” and it says that, as he was preaching to the Sanhedran that day, they couldn’t look directly at him, because “he looked like an angel.” (It’s amazing what God can do with an ordinary man or woman!) To speak truth in the face of certain death, to insist on it’s being heard in spite of people’s precious ear flaps, to hold it tight to the end, and then to pray for those who are killing you, is to act like an angel, a messenger of God on earth. Martyrs are the closest thing we have to angels in this vale of tears.