First Presbyterian Church
May 7, 2023, Easter 5A
A Lynching in Jerusalem
Preacher, what are you thinking??
I'd imagine that's what some of you are thinking right now. First official Sunday in the pulpit, congregation feeling anxious and concerned about how things are changing, and you're going to hit us with this scripture? A man getting stoned to death?
It's an ugly scene, no doubt. The act of stoning a person to death is perhaps not as gruesome or grotesque as the act of crucifixion that Christ (and countless others across the Roman Empire) suffered. However, a stoning is hard to match for the sheer spectacle of violent, even unhinged rage that tended to motivate it. We're not talking about easily-handheld rocks being thrown; these are boulders meant to do severe bodily harm. It was a violent spectacle, one of rage; one might think of the lynchings that dotted this country during the civil rights struggle for acts with similar rage behind them.
It's hard to say exactly what Stephen did to provoke such an ending to his life at the hands of decidedly enraged enemies. We only meet him one chapter earlier, when he is one of seven members of the early Christian community appointed to oversee the distribution of food to the poor and widows of the community; this was done so that the disciples could concentrate on the Word of God and not be "distracted" by waiting on tables – yes, they really said that. (This "hospitality committee" consisted of all men; you know how well that would go today…) Stephen is noted immediately as being "full of the Holy Spirit," and also as "full of grace and power," and later as one who "did great wonders and signs among the people"; clearly, he wasn't going to be limited to waiting tables.
This is most of Acts 6. As that chapter continues, a group from a local synagogue assembly apparently took offense at Stephen's works, and tried to play theological "gotcha" with him, only to end up thoroughly embarrassed and shamefaced at being unable to withstand his power of argument and command of the Word (apparently, he didn't have any trouble doing that while waiting on tables). Those wounded snowflakes then ginned up some false witnesses and dragged Stephen before the religious council, where he let loose with a stem-winder of a lecture/sermon that must have made Peter proud, one full of Hebrew history (Moses in particular, since the false witnesses had accused him of disparaging Moses). Stephen was only beginning to connect all of that to the still-recently-crucified Jesus when he was dragged away and killed with stones.
We should note that in one important aspect, Stephen's death is very much unlike the crucifixion of Jesus, in more than just the method of killing. Each of the gospels gives us a detailed description of Jesus's appearances before various official figures -- Pontius Pilate most memorably, but others are included in the different gospels.
No such official proceeding is recorded here. Instead, Stephen is brought before a religious council, one that interrogates Stephen about a number of false charges that others have made against him. It is at the climax of his defense that members of this religious council charge at Stephen and drag him out of the city and stone him to death. No officials of the ruling Roman Empire were involved at all. To borrow terms from American history, Jesus was executed, but Stephen was lynched, with stones instead of rope.
Stephen's final words have done as much to seal his place in the church's history as anything. First there's the admittedly somewhat inflammatory part about seeing the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God – you can see how his enemies might get more enraged at that suggestion. At the last, he echoes the words of Jesus from Luke 23:34 ("Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do") on the cross, asking that this sin not be held against his murderers.
But that middle one is of most interest today. Here it is translated "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Again, it's a lot like something Jesus said on the cross, again from Luke: "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit" (Luke 23:46). But Jesus's own words are an echo of a verse from today's psalm reading. Notice there in verse 5 of the psalm: "Into your hand I commit my spirit."
The excerpt of the psalm given in the Revised Common Lectionary doesn't truly capture the full force of the full psalm; what we've just heard adds a few verses to that to catch more of the language of despair found throughout it. Verse 10 offers this: "my strength fails because of my misery, and my bones waste away." Or there is this extended lament in verses 11-13 (here in the NRSV):
I am the scorn of all my adversaries, a horror to my neighbors, an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street flee from me.
I have passed out of mind like one who is dead;
I have become like a broken vessel.
For I hear the whispering of many – terror all around! – as they scheme together against me, as they plot to take my life.
It's quite a lament, as some psalms are, and seems far from relief.
And yet…the very next verse turns: "But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, you are my God." And from there we follow into those two final verses of today's reading, with their note of trust in God's provision.
Whether Stephen was consciously echoing Jesus's words from the cross in his own exclamation, or was directly remembering the psalm on his own, we don't know. What we do see is that, even knowing that his end was near, Stephen did not despair. His trust remained fast in Jesus, and his remembering these words seems to have been a help, in that moment of final terror, that allowed him to hold on to that trust in the darkest moment.
What is it that allows us to hold on to that trust in dark, uncertain times? Where is the connection, where is the foothold that helps us to remain firm on that "rock" and "refuge" that is sung in verse 2? What is going to help bring us back in those times when, unlike Stephen, we don't necessarily seem to be quite "full of the Holy Spirit" but instead we're unmistakably full of decidedly less sanguine fears and despairs and hopelessness?
On the other hand, what of the seeming, apparent fact that Stephen being "full of the Holy Spirit" ended up in his being brutally killed? How is that comforting at all? Is that what following faithfully and devotedly gets us?
It's hard not to think of Jesus's own words in Matthew 10:34: "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth: I have not come to bring peace, but a sword."
As writer Enuma Okoro puts it in The Christian Century:
In theory, I like the idea of being close to God, intimate to the point of speaking regularly with God—and receiving clear directives. Whenever I was confused about something, I could just ask God and get clarity on the matter. I’d never have to wonder about what my next step should be. God would lead me and guide me and maybe even use me to get an important message across to other people.
It sounds divine! Except that in the Bible, an intimate relationship with God usually sends people’s lives into chaos. It makes them widely unpopular as messengers; it sends them to the margins of society. It also quite often gets them killed.[i]
There's the challenge: to hold on to the idea that even if this call to serve and to follow and to proclaim ultimately leads us into danger or hardship or marginalization, if it deprives us of the comforts of society to which we have become accustomed, even if all of those things happen we are still God's own, sisters and brothers with and in Christ Jesus, and as the psalmist says to God, "my times are in your hand."
It was only a few years ago that the idea of "serving God" was best exemplified (as strange as it seemed then and seems now) by staying home, not risking being the one who brings illness and suffering to another. Who knows what form it will take for any one of us, or for this church, in the future? Are we at a point where such witness as Stephen's might yet provoke such violent reaction, even from religious leaders or those who claim religious authority (as happened to Stephen, remember)? Or, conversely, are we at a point of wondering if anyone is paying attention at all? Does anyone even know we're here, much less listen to what we say?
Oh, and one more thing, about those added verses from chapter 8: it sure looks like things are going from bad to worse. The followers of Jesus (except, apparently for the twelve) are scattered out of Jerusalem, and this Saul fellow who minded the coats of the lynch mob is inspired to go on his own personal rampage against these followers. It looks bleak indeed.
However, if you keep reading you see this in 8:4: "Now those who were scattered went from place to place, proclaiming the Word." Look at that: this wave of persecution that was meant to stamp out this "good news" ends up helping it spread far beyond Jerusalem. The rest of chapter 8 contains a couple of interesting stories about Philip, another one of those table-waiting deacons like Stephen, who ends up helping the Word spread not only into Samaria, but even down into Africa (read the chapter to see). As for this Saul fellow, we'll run into him again too, but things won't exactly go as he plans. Eventually he'll change his name and his affiliation and do an awful lot of spreading the word under the name Paul. I guess that old saying about "darkest before the dawn" might fit here.
Whatever the case may be, we know we have a place to turn for words that can guide and comfort, yes? Hear Jesus on the cross; hear Stephen at the hands of his killers; hear the cry of the lamenting psalmist; hear all of these who knew that their times were, as our times are, in God's hands.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Hymns (from Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal): #463, How Firm a Foundation; #432, How Clear is Our Vocation, Lord; #719, Come, Labor On
[i] Enuma Okoro, "Living By the Word: May 14, Fifth Sunday of Easter," The Christian Century 11 April 2017 (accessed 9 May 2020), https://www.christiancentury.org/article/living-word/may-14-fifth-sunday-easter?fbclid=IwAR0i0pUWH2FmJ3ahUj3kbXF-DgtvQ0gitGZM1iMwPer-bDMQ98MuACeI65U
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