[Propertalk] 5 Easter a 2017 - part 1

[Robert P Morrison]

Here's part 1 of the sermon for Sunday!
Peace!
Bob

	THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY    5 EASTER a

	ACTS 7:55-60         14th MAY, 2017

	1 PETER 2:2-10       PSALM 31:1-5, 15-16

	JOHN 14:1-14

	 Knowing Jesus can get us into all sorts of scrapes. SEEING Jesus –
well, we might as well have our Advanced Directives written and our
wills made out and notarised.

	 Poor Stephen. We know so little about him. He’d been a follower of
Jesus, but for how long just isn’t clear. What all he’d seen and
heard isn’t apparent either. But he WAS a deacon. He was chosen by
Jesus’ apostles to take care of widows, orphans, the apostles’
families and the impoverished in the community, and he’d really
flung himself into it, heart and soul. The model deacon, he did
everything asked of him and more. One thing fascinated him and guided
his life, though. He was intensely spiritual and he wasn’t afraid to
share this.

	 Stephen must have talked endlessly with the apostles and all those
who’d known Jesus, to fill in the gaps of what he hadn’t witnessed
personally. He must have soaked up all their stories and the
experiences they shared. He must have become such a part of their
scene and become so comfortable with both the people and the message
that, as he waited tables, as he grocery shopped at the village
markets, as he took care of the needs of children and their mothers
– as he did all that and more, he must have bubbled over, describing
what Jesus had done and what He meant to that deacon.

	 Stephen himself must have started sounding just like an apostle in
the local situation. He worked away bringing Jesus’ love, compassion
and understanding to everyone he met, yet he never made a big deal of
it. He didn’t say, “Hey! Look at me! Listen to me! I’ve got all
sorts of things I can tell you and do for you if only you’ll pay
attention to ME.” That’s simply NOT what a deacon does, especially
one like Stephen.

	 However, if someone DID ask him questions; if someone looked to him
for help; if someone couldn’t get health care or medications, and
appealed to him, he was Stephen-on-the-spot. So much so that he must
have started aggravating whoever controlled, or thought they
controlled, things about that area. Somehow, HE was doing the right
things that were needed at that time, things that either made the
leaders look bad, or were horning in on what they thought was none of
his business.

	 THEY wanted to run the town, and if some of them looked like the
less-than-reputable leaders and land-owners in the West of an hundred
and fifty years ago, then Stephen may have appeared a little like the
local doctor who tended to all without care for safety.

	 He DID speak out for justice. He DID speak up for morality. He DID
speak out for equitable and compassionate treatment. But that’s
where the Western analogy ends. He didn’t even think of defending
himself against the manipulators and self-labelled righteous
characters, although he tried to argue his case. He’d heard about
Jesus. He’d heard about the way Jesus had cared for people in place
after place like his. He’d heard about Jesus’ death AND His
resurrection. He’d heard about the encouragement and commands Jesus
had given to His friends after the resurrection. Stephen knew that
nothing could stop him, and so he kept on working; he kept on talking;
he kept on identifying with Jesus and drawing close to him as he saw
his Saviour in everyone around him. Stephen was a wonderful vessel who
was being used by Jesus to continue to bring peace and the excitement
of healing and renewal to the community.

	 And, boy, did that tick off the leaders. They must have felt that
their jobs, their status, their entitlement, was free and clear now
that that fool Jesus was out of the way.

	 Then this upstart started everything all over again. They HAD to
shut him up. They couldn’t let him get a toe-hold on touching the
emotions and needs of the poor.

	 Isn’t this nearly always how things work? You invest your time and
energy in all sorts of efforts and tricks to bring someone into line
– Jesus, if you will – and finally manage to silence the person
who’s been getting all the attention and diverting people from
talking to you – the village council members, the gatekeeper to all
sorts of care. You breathe a sigh of relief when you see Jesus
crucified and go back to getting new business cards printed up,
proclaiming YOU as the “go-to” person, when up jumps this, this,
this – well, who WAS Stephen anyway? We don’t know anything beyond
the fact that he was selected to take some of the day-to-day
practicalities off the shoulders of the apostles. They called him a
Deacon – a servant, a waiter, a minister, a messenger – think of
what Peggy does and you’ll get the picture. And Stephen was
terrific! He talked, he comforted, he made sure that there was food on
the table, and he demonstrated what Jesus’ life had been all about.
He interacted out of a pure love and compassion for everyone without
regard for where each person fitted into the life of the community, or
on which side of the goat track they lived.

	 Spoiler alert! You may have noticed that I’ve been using the past
tense. Stephen was killed; very dead; incredibly dead; painfully dead;
smooshed under every rock and boulder the leaders could haul out and
dump on the deacon.

	 But Stephen, ultimately, wasn’t phased. Oh, I’m sure he didn’t
enjoy the grilling meted out to him by the know-it-alls. If he had a
family, I’m sure that they were rattled so much that they lived in
fear of officials banging on their door in the middle of the night and
“rendering” them, so that they’d simply disappear from the
village records. And as the treatment grew worse, as the stoning drew
near, Stephen became incredibly aware of the Presence of Jesus. No
matter that the temptation to panic, to wince, to whine and give up,
Stephen remained assured of the love and blessing of God, so much so
that he focussed on that and didn’t allow the shouting of the crowd,
the pressing in of the people, the unbridled hostility of the leaders
to phase him.


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