"Faith Like Stephen"

A Sermon by the Rev. Amelie M. Sell

Preached at Pleasantville UCC, May 22, 2011

   Today, our focus is on a difficult text from the book of Acts.  The book of Acts is the history of the followers of Christ as they established the first Christian churches and communities.  The first Christians faced many pitfalls.  Many of the early Christians were followers of Jesus during his lifetime.  The first major trauma of the early church was when Jesus, their inspiration, leader and savior, was brutally executed by the Romans.  As the church grew and expanded, its members experienced persecution and hostility from not only strangers but also from their own family members and former friends.  One of the most shocking and sobering events the first Christians experienced was the stoning of Stephen.  The story of Stephen’s death is our focus for the day.

   Steven was a prophetic teacher and leader among the first Christians.  Steven was one of the first Christian Elders: he was singled out by members of the early church to help with the distribution of money and goods to Christian widows.  Acts Chapter 6 Verse 5 describes Steven as “a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.”  Steven started to attract attention from people who were not Christians.  After Stephen did great wonders and healing among people in his community, opposition arose against Stephen from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen.  These men began to regularly argue with Stephen when he spoke publically about the Good News.  Eventually, Stephen was seized, charged with blasphemy, and brought before the Sanhedrin, the assembly of 23 judges in each Israeli city who legislated on significant matters.  Stephen took advantage of his presence before the court to evangelize to the judges and to the people who arrested him.  In his sermon, Stephen connected all important events in Jewish history to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and also pointed out some ways he felt the Jewish religion had gotten off track.  Stephen’s evangelistic message did not impress the Sanhedrin or the angry people who brought Stephen before the court.  Today’s scripture picks up at the point in the story when the angry mob had tried of hearing Stephen’s message.   Please hear the account from Acts Chapter 7 verse 54 through chapter 8 verse 3:

When they heard these things, they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen.  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. "Look," he said, "I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!" But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he died.

And Saul approved of their killing him.  That day a severe persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria.  Devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him.  But Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison. 

   God is our comfort when we are facing persecution.   The members of the church who were imprisoned by Saul could count on God even when they could not count on anything else.  Jesus quoted Psalm 31 when he was on the cross.  Please hear these eloquently worded verses that testify to the consolation offered by our God when we are facing the darkest times of our lives:

Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16

In you, O God, I seek refuge;
   do not let me ever be put to shame;
in your righteousness deliver me.

Incline your ear to me;
   rescue me speedily.
Be a rock of refuge for me,
   a strong fortress to save me.

You are indeed my rock and my fortress;
   for your name's sake lead me and guide me,

take me out of the net that is hidden for me,
   for you are my refuge.

Into your hand I commit my spirit;
   you have redeemed me,
O God, O faithful God.

My times are in your hand;
   deliver me from the hand
   of my enemies and persecutors.

Let your face shine upon your servant;
   save me in your steadfast love.

   Stories of martyrs for the Christian faith have long been an inspiration for followers of Christ.  As twenty-first century Americans, we don’t face the same types of persecution other Christians face who live in places where being Christian is politically or socially unpopular and undesirable.  But, it is important for us to remember that our churches have been built on the backs of people like Stephen who were willing to risk everything for our God. 

   During his own stoning, Stephen’s faith led him to pray to God and ask for forgiveness for the people who were murdering him.  Stephen’s faith was so strong he knew he would soon be in the arms of Jesus.  The young man Saul was one of the people who not only participated in Stephen’s stoning, but then went on to punish and imprison many other followers of Christ.  During our summer worship services, we will be reminded of Saul’s conversion to Christianity and his taking on the new name Paul.  When Paul wrote about his journey to faith, he attributed the prayer said by Stephen at his own stoning as being the catalyst for Paul becoming a convert to Christianity and one of the greatest leaders in Christian history.

   Contemporary American Christians may have it easy compared to the believers in the early church, but because we are not persecuted for our faith we may become complacent.  We know that we don’t have to worry about being carted off to jail or put to death because of our faith in Jesus.  But, the underlying problem with this complacency is we may minimize the importance of our relationship with God and our relationship with the church.  Most of us are not constantly forced to think about what we believe, why we believe it, and defend our faith to others.  Our friends and our neighbors may know we go to Pleasantville Church, but we are not forced to justify to them why we come here.  We also don’t have to defend our faith to governmental authorities or our superiors at work.   We are blessed to live in a society where the laws protect us and allow us to believe without fear of persecution.

   I admit that even I have few opportunities to defend my faith to others, even though I am a pastor.  And, when I am put in the position to explain what I believe to non-church members, I don’t always come up with very articulate responses to people’s questions.  I officiated at a wedding last Saturday at a restaurant in Hatboro.  The couple who got married are former Catholics who wanted to have a Christian wedding ceremony but are not interested in being members of a church at this time.  The bride has a friend who is a member of our church and I had the opportunity to officiate at the wedding after getting to know the bride and groom.  After the ceremony, as we were waiting in line for hors d'oeuvres. several people approached me curiously about how I came to know the couple and officiate at the ceremony.  One of the men who approached seemed to be an angry former-Unitarian who is upset that his former church is, as he said “not liberal enough in some areas and too liberal in other areas.”  This man had a lot of negative things to not only say about the Unitarian church but also about Protestants in general.  I tried to respond in a friendly and kind manner, but after a few minutes, in order to escape I turned my attention to appetizers.  I wish I had responded to the man in a way that would have helped him let go of some of his anger towards Christianity, but I did not respond as well as I should have.  We often feel we fall short when we are pressed to defend or articulate our beliefs to others.

   One of the things that I think we can all do to help ourselves become better equipped to talk about what we believe and why we believe it, is to force ourselves to get into conversations about our faith.  We can start out by talking to people who primarily agree with us about our faith.  Perhaps we can talk to our spouses, or children, or a friend from church.  When we practice putting to words what we believe, we may have a better base to draw upon when we are put in a position to explain our beliefs to someone who may not agree with us.    

   There are young people in this room who probably talk about these things a lot more than many of us older folks in this congregation.  Teenagers and college students are questioning what they believe about everything, including what they believe about God.  Many of us can probably remember staying up all night in college talking to our friends about all of the important issues in the world and dreaming of ways to make the problems of the world better.  We each need to recapture some of that creativity and freedom and allow ourselves to get into conversations with others about our faith.  

   When we are able to articulate what we believe and why we believe it, we will be more prepared to share with others the message of hope and love given to us by Jesus Christ.  It is important that we be able to stand fast when we are with people who disagree with us or are curious about what we believe.  We never know how God will use us to reach out to others.  Perhaps we will say the words the person we are talking to needs to hear.  Perhaps we will say something that completely turns a stranger’s life around.  When Stephen was in the midst of being stoned, I am sure he was not thinking strategically, like “if I say this prayer, I will plant a seed in that guy Saul’s heart, and eventually he will become one of the Greatest Christians who has ever lived.”  Instead, Stephen just prayed a prayer to the God who he knew would forgive the sinners who were stoning him.  Stephen knew we have a God who reaches out into the world with Grace and Love for us, even when we make mistakes.  This is the Good News.  Let’s tell people about it.  Amen.