Fifth Sunday After Easter

Acts 7: 55-60

Psalm 31: 1-5, 15-16

1 Peter 2: 2-10

John 14: 1-14

May 10, 2020

Steven H. Strain

Nothing quite says, “Mother’s Day” more than a martyr being stoned to death. After

reading this I skipped ahead to see if the psalm was one about smashing the heads of

babies. Your enemy’s babies that is.

Here we are, gathered through the power of technology to reflect on events that occurred

several thousand years ago. We come here today with our politics of division, our mistrust

of those whose beliefs differ from us. Our fear of the different people; those of different

skin or language or religion. We cling to these fears, holding them tightly. We isolate

ourselves and withdraw, cut off from the world. Shelter in place. A place that is more than

just our home.

We fear this virus. The news is full of experts. Some say it’s all a hoax. Some sort of

conspiracy. Other learned folks tell of the rising numbers; our fellow citizens dying at an

alarming rate. We put on our face masks and ease into Wal Mart.

It is a thing we cannot control. Indeed, we know not when there will be a treatment or a

vaccine. Some of us seek someone to blame; the Chinese; or people who traveled to other

lands and came back; the woman sneezing without a face mask. It as if placing the blame

somehow makes things better.

Perhaps the most frightening aspect of these times is our vulnerability. We do not control

our own destiny. Our self sufficiency is called into question. We don’t know if we will

contract the virus; and if we do, what will the outcome be.

How do we react to this fear? This vulnerability? This lack of control?

The lectionary leaves out what led to the stoning of Stephen. He was falsely accused of

speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God. Some said that Stephen told that

Jesus of Nazareth would destroy the temple and change the customs Moses had handed

down. He responds by telling the stories of the prophets, concluding with Moses. In Acts

Chapter 7 verse 51-53 he tells his accusers:

You stiff necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, 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. You are the ones that

received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it.

This did not go over well with his audience.

When they heard these things, they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen.

It is a difficult scene for us to visualize. The crowd enraged. Dragging this man out of the

city. Consider the stone to be thrown. It couldn’t be too big as one couldn’t throw it. Too

small and it would not hurt. These enraged people had to find the right sized rock and hurl

it at a defenseless man. Some of them would have missed. How many stones would each of

them have picked up in the process of killing this man who had offended them? Five? Ten?

Twenty? More?

We don’t know exactly who the people were who carried out this killing of Stephen. I

expect they were ordinary people who committed this atrocity. Most likely men, but there

may have been some women pitchers as well. What happened when he breathed his last?

A few more rocks hurled at the body to make sure he was dead? Go home for dinner?

Stop at the bar for a cold one?

It is easy to dismiss the crowd as ignorant people. Uneducated, illiterate folks who were

easily aroused. It is something right out of the Old Testament. We, of course, are different.

We would never give way to hate. Yet the modern list is long. The people killed because

they were a different race, or sexual orientation or religion. The mass shootings. The

demonstrators who carry automatic weapons and extra clips. Political leaders who call

people names and delight in the chanting crowd.

How many among us insist on holding a grudge? Or not forgiving even the most minor sin.

Contrast that with Stephen; dragged out of the city, pelted with stones. The angry crowd.

How close are we to picking up a stone?

Stephen’s reaction to them is one of love. Of forgiveness.

Lord, do not hold this sin against them.

The crowd acted out of fear. These people were inflamed by their leaders who felt

threatened by this new teaching. This radical notion of living as the prophets commanded.

This radical notion of loving one another. Christ who dined with sinners.

Stephen echoed Christ on the cross who said:

Father forgive them; for they know not what they do.

We can read the text and be smug. Stephen’s experience was different.

But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and

Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

He knew God was with him. He commended his spirt to Christ. Thus, when we hold onto

our fears, we can say Stephen is different as we aren’t looking into heaven and seeing our

Lord and His Father. We want to control our own destiny. We are a proud, independent

people. That leads us to believe that we are in control; forgiveness comes from us and we

dole it out to those we deem worthy.

The vision Stephen saw of heaven, the knowledge that God was with him acted to

strengthen his will. Thus, it is not just a matter of human will but an act of God. Think of

someone who has offended you. Some commentators use the term “enemy” but I think that

is too strong. Consider someone you are not willing to forgive for whatever slight or wrong

you have suffered. Timothy Hare, a Methodist pastor writes:

Parishioners may be encouraged to look upon their enemies through the loving eyes of

God. Then, finding themselves more deeply aligned with God’s heart, parishioners

may pray to discern the next step in the forgiveness process. Forgiveness is not an act

of individual heroism. It is rather, an act of God.

It is also a matter of living into this command to love. To live as Christ would have us live.

One commentator wrote that “Stephen is able to love so recklessly because he has entrusted

himself to Jesus.”

How do we live our faith? Is our faith simply a matter of faithfully attending church? Is it

a question of following doctrine or doing that which Christ’s teaches? Do we embrace and

live out that pesky command to love our enemies?

In these troubled, uncertain times we see people living out the command to love. We see

this in the caregivers, the first responders, the caravans of cars driving slowly by the home

of someone having a birthday. We saw it here as the teachers spent a day driving around

the county to place signs in the yards of the graduating seniors.

Last fall I had the occasion to go through a stack of family pictures. And on this Mother’s

Day the one that stands out is a photograph of my mother and my sister at Christmas.

Mother was a young woman; early thirties and my sister was a toddler. My mother was

full of joy looking at her daughter. We were loved.

The last time I saw my mother Alzheimer’s had robbed her of her mind and she lay in a

bed, unresponsive. I held her hand and said good bye. My father wrote of the “exquisite

pleasure of love communicated.”

So, on this Mother’s Day forgive others. See others through the eyes of a child. Love

recklessly. Live out your faith, and experience the exquisite pleasure my father spoke of.

Amen