"Heaven is my throne room;
I rest my feet on earth.
So what kind of house
will you build me?" says God.
"Where I can get away and relax?
It's already built, and I built it."
"And you continue, so bullheaded! Calluses on your hearts, flaps on your ears! Deliberately ignoring the Holy Spirit, you're just like your ancestors. Was there ever a prophet who didn't get the same treatment? Your ancestors killed anyone who dared talk about the coming of the Just One. And you've kept up the family tradition—traitors and murderers, all of you. You had God's Law handed to you by angels—gift-wrapped!—and you squandered it!"
(Acts 7:48-50)
God of glory:
The trouble with any tradition is its selective memory:
Rome, it's Avignon, Calvin, his Servetus,
Canterbury, its Bloody Mary.
So too the Jews, whose Bronze Age history re-compose
with tales of super-faithful heroes, mythic Moses
and God's exclusivity to Israel and a holy Temple indestructable.
So Stephen is stitched up by snitches, brought to court.
The trumped up charges? "Stephen and his Christian friends
tell everyone a crucified Galilean carpenter is alive again!
This sect plans to terrorize this Holy Precinct -- how bizarre
and blasphemous to our sacred memory; scandalous!
Stephen, you may be witty, but this is God's Holy City."
Now follows the longest sermon preserved in all of Acts,
easy to skip over; we've heard all these facts
of Abraham and patriarchs, Moses, and his oligarchs.
But Stephen's sermon rips like a knife through celery,
cuts through the selective memory of those who by their own admission
more than revelation love their ancestral made up tradition.
Stephen says Israel's God showed up in Ur and Haran,
Egypt, Sinai, and even Canaan;
When it comes to holy space, it's anywhere God shows His face.
And as for the Temple, God's first sanctuary was one they carried,
God designed a fold-up tent, and that's the tabernacle that went
wherever God directed the people He elected.
And as for messengers God has sent, you never listen,
you stiff-necked gents, your daggers glisten
with the blood of those exposing your idolatry.
Did not those blessed patriarchs sell Joseph into slavery;
Moses in the desert gritty had his back-to-Egypt committee;
It's all about the building? The property? Really? What a pity!
Stephen's captivated listeners suddenly become aware
this history lesson is a snare to their misplaced piety.
"These truths can't circulate in our society."
So with ferocious zeal they kill the Reformer,
stones his body pummel, but like his Savior humble
he prays for their forgiveness and release from guilt.
Lord, may we know the peace of Stephen
when tradition zealots with us get even
and want us gone at any price, even their own destruction.
Standing for the Scriptures in some churches today
will get some shunned with public derision;
help us look then to Christ, see Stephen's vision.
May Stephen be our example of Godly truth-speaking love
to those disillusioned by the illusions of unspiritual tradition
that block the very healing needed for their confused condition.
It's not about the buildings or any man-made story
but Christ's all-sufficient grace that sanctifies the space
we make in open hearts for God's Spirit for His glory.
Amen.
Now when the members of the Sanhedrin heard Stephen's defense they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him.
(Acts 7:54-57)
God of Glory:
No man can look on You and live,
so wondrous is your Being,
but Stephen, in his time of trial
Your shekinah blaze is seeing.
And at your right hand,
the Risen Man
is not seated, but stands
to welcome home His faithful servant.
Those rancorous Sadducees
grind their teeth and hiss
and in the corner of the room
Gamaliel's prize student sits.
He's Saul of Tarsus
come to get his warrants signed
to round up members of this sect
for trials and stones and bloody death.
Stephen falls to his knees
to worship the Savior his spirit sees.
His words register shock and horror:
the Council heard this vision once before.
When the carpenter of Galilee
stood in this very council chamber
that Nazarene said they would see
the Son of Man with heavens open. (Mt. 26:64)
Now Stephen proves his Savior right,
Jesus' word fulfilled in their hearing
Jesus lives and reigns with God
in spite of all their jeering.
And the verse in Daniel 7,
Jesus and Stephen's Bible citation,
says the Son of Man is given
authoirity over every nation.
Those scholars know the import
of this martyr's testimony;
it means Messiah's reign has started
ending their Temple pedagogy.
So the vision is not merely
for the guilty but for saints,
reminding them of Jesus' mission
to take the Gospel into all the world.
To all that God may call to suffer
or make before His enemies defense,
Good news! We are not alone!
Christ promises his awesome presence.
So let us live with confidence
that nothing can Your plan undo
Full of Spirit, full of faith,
we leave the outcome safe with You,
That You will make our every pain
find its proper place
in the timeline of your story,
a witness to your sovereign grace.
Amen
Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen.
(Acts 8:1)
Heavenly Father:
Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem's wall,
outside the Temple precinct
stands the hated Christian hunter, Saul,
watching blessed Stephen crumple
as rocks are hurled and dropped and tumbled,
"Lord, don't charge them with this sin,"
as rocks break his skull and limbs.
And Saul approved. Did he applaud
this gruesome murder done for God,
like your ancestors Stephen said
leaving every holy prophet dead.
How do we know truth in the spiritual realm?
Do we bend to authority at the helm
of our tradition or trust own experience?
Does my pastor or my priest
and their opinions matter in the least?
To say this is what we've always done,
is that cause enough to shun or kill?
How was Saul of Tarsus to know
what to make of Steven's show
of piety and angelic righteousness?
These were the highest authorities
of his religion and tradition.
And how should we respond
when conflict rages one and on
between religious folks?
One clue for Saul might have surely been
that this execution was illegal.
That's certainly not to say
that every law is moral and okay.
But when your religious leaders
act like thugs and body beaters
chances are you're dealing with
an evil plan not from God but man.
By their fruits you know them says the Holy Book;
not from their pretty words or how pious they can look.
Another way to know the truth
is to evaluate whether what you've heard
is informed by the wintess of God's Word.
Yes, Satan can the Scriptures quote,
a verse here and there, perhaps a note;
but the truth makes comprehensive use
of the whole Bible witness. It's not obtuse.
So Stephen's sermon can't be blamed;
it's dead-on accurate in its aim
and aligns with God's dominion
contradicting the Pharisee position.
So, dear Lord, when we are confronted
by ambiguity and multiple disgrunted
folks spouting cultural depravity,
stir us in our cranial cavity
to help us remember people may
disappoint and run away and create
the most awful types of hate
that sound for all the world like faith;
but that which is truly from above
conforms to Jesus' law of love
and aligns with the Scripture witness.
Save us from the labels our phobias enable
and let us first your Kingdom seek
as those redeemed, forgiven, meek,
as we gather at your table.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment