Series: Newspaper and the Bible Part I: Modern-day Martyrs C. Gray Norsworthy Johns Creek Presbyterian Church April 12, 2015 When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Look, he said, I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Then he fell on his knees and cried out, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. When he had said this, he fell asleep. And Saul approved of their killing him. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison. Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. -- Acts 7:54-8:4, NIV When you head off to study in preparation for the ministry, you get a lot of advice for how to be a good pastor. When it comes to preaching, one of the classic pieces of advice are the words of the great Christian thinker, Karl Barth who said, Take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible. Preaching professors have shortened that to say preachers should preach with their Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. The idea is that some kind of dialogue should take place between the word of God and the events of our world. Today as we start a new series of messages, we will be looking at some of the stories and articles we might find in a newspaper to see if our Bible has something to say about how we as Christians should view those events. Now I realize that not many of us get our news from actual newspapers any more. According to a recent Gallup survey, the main source for news varies by age, education, politics, and other factors. But in general, television is the main place we turn to for news some 55% of us. 21% of us get our news from the internet, and only 9% of us use print media such as newspapers. I am one of those 9% who still subscribes to a daily newspaper. I guess it is because I like tangible things. I like the feel of a newspaper. I also like the ability to go back and forth between pages and stories without having to scroll down, open and close windows, or change my web browser. In the coming weeks we plan to look at stories that may be found in the news to see what our scripture has to say about them in the hope of figuring what God might want us to hear. In that way we can better learn how to think and act as followers of Christ who make a positive difference in our world. 1
Today s message follows on the heels of Easter when we talked about the resurrection of Christ. Those early Christians who began the church were chosen primarily because they were witnesses to the resurrection. In many cases they were eye witnesses who had known Jesus, seen him crucified on a Roman cross, and later had real encounters with the resurrected Christ. The Greek word for witness was often used to describe someone who told in a court setting what they had seen with their own eyes. The Greek word for witness is martys which is where we get our word martyr. This evolution of the meaning of that word occurred soon after the resurrection of Christ, when these first witnesses to the resurrection began facing persecution and even death because they told others what they had seen. So, witnesses became martyrs. Throughout the history of the church, there are stories of those who were martyrs for the Christian faith. Now I have to admit that most of my Christian life, I heard those stories about Christian martyrs, but thought of them primarily as things that happened in the past. Those kinds of things don't happen in modern times we ve moved past things like that, haven t we? But then in recent months our newspapers and videos tell stories of the 148 college students in Kenya, most of whom were Christians, who were targeted because of their beliefs. Apparently the gunman attacked at a time when many of the students were gathered in one place. Prior to that we saw 22 Coptic Christians in Egypt who were graphically killed on video in order to spread fear and send a message. So our question today is this how do we respond to such things as this in which we see persecution of Christians and others? Does the Bible say anything about this? I believe it does, and today we want to focus on the story of Christianity s first martyr Stephen -- what we can learn from how he faced his own death. Stephen only makes a very brief appearance in the Bible in the book of Acts. After the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus, the disciples begin fulfilling The Great Commission to go into all the world and to teach and baptize, but the care of the needy especially the poor widows is taking up more and more of their time. So, seven other men are chosen to handle this very real need and Stephen is one of the seven. He is described as one full of grace and power who performs miraculous signs. (Acts 1:6, NIV) The Jewish council, the Sanhedrin, did not like what Stephen was doing and teaching, so they bring him in on charges of blasphemy against God and Moses. Stephen was saying that Jesus is the Messiah sent from God. His critics feel like this goes against their understanding of all that Moses taught. When Stephen appears before the Sanhedrin, he launches into a speech, which can be found in Acts 7. I encourage you to go back and read it this week. In it, he outlines how God has been at work in the life of Israel through Moses and others. However, Stephen ends by saying that the people of Israel rejected those prophets sent by God and ignored the leading of God s Spirit again and again, just like they are doing now in ignoring Jesus who was the Righteousness One the Messiah sent by God. Those listening are so angry at this that they gnash their teeth, cover their ears, and rush at Stephen while yelling at the top of their voices. Then they drag Stephan off to a place where he is stoned to death. Remember that the Jewish council did not have the authority under Roman law to put someone to death only the Romans could do that. But in this case, Pilate, the Roman 2
governor, is nowhere to be found. So, this is not justice this is a lynch mob! Stoning usually began by first dropping someone from a high enough place so that the impact from the fall could kill the person. If that did not do it, there were steps to make sure the stones were dropped in a way as to complete this type of capital punishment. Interestingly, according to Jewish practice, the witnesses from the trial were to be the ones to cast the first stone. That is why the witnesses are seen taking off their outer garments. They are getting ready to cast the first stone. They lay their coats at the feet of someone named Saul who seemed to be running the whole operation from behind the scenes. As Stephen dies his martyr's death, he commends his spirit into the hands of Christ and then he says, Lord, do not hold this sin against them words that echo what Jesus said from the cross as he died. (Acts 7:60, NIV) Acts then goes on to say that this same Saul, who watches over the whole event, goes around persecuting many in the church of Jerusalem. That forces many of the believers to leave the city and be scattered throughout the surrounding regions. Acts ends up by telling us, Those who were scattered preached the word wherever they went. Saul had men and women put in prison. But as most of us know, Saul s story does not end there. In the very next chapter we will read about Saul s conversion on the road to Damascus where Christ appeared to him in a vision and questioned why he has been persecuting Jesus. Saul is struck blind for a short while, but then his eyesight is later restored and he sees the world in a whole new way. Saul changes his name to Paul and becomes the primary force for witnessing to the resurrected Christ in the world. More than one person has said that Paul s conversion actually began before the Damascus Road experience, when Paul saw how Stephen died praying to God to forgive those who killed him. It was Augustine who said, The church owes Paul to the prayer of Stephen. So, what can this story and other words from Scripture tell us about how we might respond to the events of our time in which innocent Christians, and others, are killed for their faith? Maybe we will remember the words of Jesus in Matthew s gospel as he began the Sermon on the Mount with Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. (Matthew 5:4, NIV) When something as tragic as this happens, we begin by mourning for and comforting those who experience such loss. As the parent of a college student, I can t imagine what it must be like for those parents in Kenya who thought they were sending their children off to a safe place to learn. As Christians, our response is to begin with tears and offer comfort for those who mourn. Notice that as Stephen is being stoned to death, he actually lives out the words of Christ for how we are to respond to our enemies. Instead of crying out curses on these who were unjustly killing him, Stephen prays for them just as Jesus had done on the cross. It is hard for us to imagine how one does that, and yet he does. It enacts what Jesus says when he tells us to pray for our enemies and to love those who persecute us to turn the other cheek. Now, I believe that what Jesus is talking about here is acting in a way that does not reflect vengeance and retaliation. It is a normal, human response to be angry, not only when we are hurt, but especially when we see this done to anyone unjustly. We should be angry at this kind of wrongdoing. But, our actions should not reflect the desire for vengeance, but for justice. Vengeance is about getting even. Justice is about setting things right. The death of Stephen was 3
not an act of justice it was mob rule. Our goal in response to acts like this should always be to restore the peaceful order that God wills for all of humankind. As we said a few weeks ago, Paul talks about the need for human authorities to bring order to our world in his letter to the church at Rome. (Romans 13:1-7, NIV) For example, we need a good, trustworthy police force to do the very hard work of maintaining the peace. Because we live in a broken and sinful world, there are those who will unfairly choose to take advantage of and harm others particularly the weak and most vulnerable. It is our duty to make sure those who are vulnerable are protected. But sometimes, the very last option is that we have to use force to contain someone from inflicting harm on others. It should always be our last, not our first option. Even Pope Francis has said recently about these events, that the use of force is legitimate... to stop an unjust aggressor. It will be up to the United Nations and its member states, especially the Security Council, to determine the exact form of intervention necessary, but some responsibility [to act] is clear. (Vatican to UN: Authorize Military Force to Stop ISIS Genocide, March, 14, 2015 by Ed Morrissey) This is where I believe we need to pray fervently for all our leaders in knowing how to make the right responses to such tragic events. I believe the Pope and others have made a good point in that in a best case scenario, this response should come from a security or peacekeeping force that represents the whole community of our world, rather than just one nation. That way it cannot be perceived, rightly or wrongly, as the aggression of one nation against another whether or not that is the intent. These are extremely difficult and complex decisions that need to be made and we need to pray for those making them. So, when something like these events happen, we first comfort those who mourn, then we resist retaliation and vengeance, and finally we act in a way to protect the weak and to restore a just peace. Earlier I said that in my lifetime, I did not think things like this would really happen. But, I should not be surprised when they do, for over in John s gospel Jesus said, If they persecuted me they will persecute you also. (John 15:20b, NIV) That is not a popular message today that to follow Christ might be hard. Many of us in churches work very hard at making church seeker-friendly -- which I understand as trying to meet folks where they are and not putting up any unnecessary barriers to someone searching for God. But at some point, we could be accused of false advertising if we fail to let folks know that following Jesus will sometimes be hard and maybe even dangerous. That is not a popular message in our day and time where we want things safe and easy and above all, to make us feel good about ourselves. Instead, Jesus invites us to take up a cross and follow him in the way of life that leads to meaning, purpose, and a real relationship with God and others. Today, like those first disciples, we are called to be witnesses of the Resurrection maybe even modern-day martyrs. Yet, even if we face that, God promises that we will not be alone. Just as Jesus was watching over Stephen as he forgave those who stoned him as he "fell asleep" and died, Christ promises to be with us in life and in death and in the life beyond death. One of the martyrs of the early church was a monk named Telemachus who lived in the 400s. He was living the typical life of a monk away from everything out in the desert when he felt God calling him to go and serve others. In the Roman world, the center of everything was Rome, so 4
he traveled halfway around the world to get there. And while the Roman Empire was officially Christian at this point -- there were still traces of the old ways. So one day Telemachus found his way to the arena in Rome where 80,000 had gathered. As the chariot races ended, there was tenseness as gladiators entered the arena. They saluted saying, Hail Caesar! We who are about to die salute you! And then the fight was on a fight to the death. Telemachus was stunned by the whole spectacle. Here were men men for whom Christ had died killing each other to entertain the crowds. So, this little, bald-headed monk leaped over the wall and into the arena where the gladiators were fighting. He stood in between the men fighting, and for a moment they stopped fighting. But then the crowds roared, Let the games go on, and the gladiators pushed the little monk aside. But then Telemachus got up and stood between them again -- and the crowds began to throw stones at him. Then they called for the Gladiators to kill him and get him out of the way. The commander of the games gave the order -- and with a flash of the sword Telemachus lay dead on the ground. Then suddenly everything went silent. Everyone realized what had just happened. This monk -- this holy man was dead. The fighting stopped -- for good. And it never took place again. Telemachus had ended it by giving up his life. Now, I don t know exactly how God calls each one of us to witness to the resurrected Christ in our world today. It may be standing up to injustice. It may be comforting someone who mourns. Our Stephen Ministry is named for Stephen who demonstrated comforting care for those in need. But, it may be something much more difficult. Know that God will see us through whatever we face. And while God never causes evil like the death of Stephen, God may use that event to bring about a greater good like scattering Christians throughout the world to share the good news, and perhaps even changing an angry Saul into a loving Paul. Who knows God may use us modern-day martyrs in the same way. In the strong name of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. 5