Acts 7:55-60; Psalm
31:1-5, 15-16; I Peter 2:2-10; John 14:1-14.
The witnesses to Jesus’ lordship face great
costs, but know the mystery of his presence.
This Sunday we move through martyrdom of disciples to the divinly-given knowledge of the heavenly Jesus.
Acts 7:55-60.
The Acts reading presents the witness, that is, the martyrdom, of the deacon Stephen. Stephen preached
a provocative sermon to Judean folks in Jerusalem and was stoned to death as one who blasphemed the
Lord.
Stephen is the first martyr in Christian tradition, one who died because he
confessed the Lordship of Jesus. His
death-scene is presented as an idealized model of such witnessing to the
ultimate degree.
Stephen is inspired by the Holy Spirit and is
granted a vision of God in heaven and the glorified Jesus at God’s right hand –
a vision that Jesus had announced to the chief priests at his trial (Luke
22:69). Before he dies, Stephen addresses
to Jesus the same petition that Jesus on the cross had addressed to God,
“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (Acts 7:59 ; Luke 23:46 , both echoing Psalm 31:5).
Stephen’s very last word is a loud outcry praying
for his persecutors. “Lord, do not hold
this sin against them” (verse 60). Those
who follow Jesus were called to testify to the world and to pray for it, not to
condemn it or respond vengefully because the world rejected the message.
Stephen’s vision and prayer – obviously elevating
him to saint’s status – made it clear that the life of faith was not
defeated by persecution and death.
Judeans, Romans, or Nazis could not kill the faith. They could not, by killing their bodies,
deprive the witnesses of the ultimate meaning of their lives.
·
We
remember that April 9th this year was the 75th
anniversary of the Nazis’ hanging Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a truly modern example
of a martyr for the faith.
·
We
remember that Christians today in Egypt , Iraq , Syria , and other non-European countries are suffering
discrimination, persecution, and death because of their faith identities.
Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16.
The Psalm reading
is a typical prayer by a faithful one who is persecuted and threatened.
Read in the context of Stephen’s story, the
hearer knows that the petition, “deliver me in your righteousness,” may only
be answered through the heavenly reward of the martyr, not by some earthly
rescue.
The whole prayer (in verses 1-5), fervent as it is,
can be seen to culminate in the last statement.
“Into your hands I commit my spirit…” – into God’s hands, come what
may.
That is the prayer the martyr is prepared to
make.
When the psalmist also prays, “Let your face shine
on your servant” (verse 16), the narrative in Acts suggests that the prayer was
answered for Stephen when he received his vision. The vision came because he had the grace to
pray for his enemies.
I Peter 2:2-10.
The Epistle reading
is a meditation on rejection and chosenness.
It is a meditation prompted by the imagery of the sacred stone in the prophets and psalms.
The people addressed are mostly non-Judean followers
who live in Pontus and the neighboring Roman provinces (I Peter 1:1, modern northwestern Turkey ).
“As you come to him, the living stone—rejected by
men but chosen by God and precious to [God]…” (verse 4).
The
chosen stone may be a precious cornerstone,
most important in the building, or it may be a stumbling block, “a stone that
causes men to stumble” (verse 8, quoting Isaiah 8:14 ). This
description of the stone is offered to the faithful as a way to understand
their persecutions. They are the living
stones being built into a sanctuary that replaces the temple (verse 5), but
those who reject their message and persecute them are stumbling over the stone
instead of honoring it as God’s chosen one.
In the late first century, this was a Judean-against-Christian
struggle over the claim to be God’s chosen people.
The writer takes the covenant promise of Exodus 19:5-6 and applies it to the Jesus followers who are being
persecuted by other Judeans. To these
non-Judean confessors he proclaims, “But you are a chosen people, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the
praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (verse
9).
Beside this testimony from the Torah, the writer
cites a passage from the prophets, which he also understands to apply to the
New Israel. “Once you were not a people,
but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you
have received mercy” (verse 10, paraphrasing Hosea 2:23 ).
The chosen people, older or newer, are witnesses,
witnesses to “the wonderful light” of the God who redeemed sinners, even
persecuting sinners.
John 14:1-14 .
The Gospel reading is from the farewell discourses of Jesus with his disciples. The setting of the
discourses is at the last supper, but the teaching is actually about times
after the resurrection.
Chapter 14 of John continues
a series of dialogues that began with Peter’s question in 13:30 . There are four questions asked by disciples, Peter
(13:30 ), Thomas (14:5), Philip (14:8), and Jude (14:22 ). Each question gives Jesus an
opportunity to spell out further to uncomprehending disciples how he can go
away now and yet be present to them in the times ahead.
Our passage is not so much about the witnessing that
apostles will do as it is about the new reality they will enter. It is about
Stephen’s vision, not his preaching.
The heavenly realm has many dwelling places – that
is, there is a multitude of ways in which worthy souls will find fulfillment
and consummation (verse 2). Human ways
of understanding cannot comprehend this – especially in the case of a doubting
Thomas (verse 5) – but the passage insists that the person of Jesus
himself is the entry to God’s own
presence. “If you know me, you will know
my Father also. From now on, you do know
him and have seen him” (verse 7, NRSV).
The Christ-mysticism of this Gospel’s testimony
comes to unqualified expression in such statements.
Philip’s
question (verse 8), pressing Thomas’s doubts
further, leads Jesus to both reaffirm his own mutual in-dwelling with the
Father (verses 9-10) and to extend
this communion-of-being to the works
done in the world. “Anyone who has faith
in me will do what I have been doing. He
will do even greater things than these…” (verse 12).
This passage is not directly about the cost of
discipleship. It is about the mystery
of discipleship. It is about the new reality – glimpsed by
martyrs in their visions, and affirmed by prophets and apostles as the outcome
of God’s justice and love.
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