Ikon St Stephen, hat tip acts of hope.
I generally don’t know what the Saint’s day is. But in the Anglican church, today is the feast of St Stephen the first martyr. So this day should not be boxing day… it should be martyrs day.
To call it stoning day. We don’t need to encourage the Persians, who seem to make a habit of killing uppity women in this manner.
But to the text. Which describes two martyrs… Zechariah and Stephen, both of whom were stoned to death.
17Now after the death of Jehoiada the officials of Judah came and did obeisance to the king; then the king listened to them. 18They abandoned the house of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and served the sacred poles and the idols. And wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this guilt of theirs. 19Yet he sent prophets among them to bring them back to the Lord; they testified against them, but they would not listen.
20Then the spirit of God took possession of Zechariah son of the priest Jehoiada; he stood above the people and said to them, “Thus says God: Why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the Lord, he has also forsaken you.” 21But they conspired against him, and by command of the king they stoned him to death in the court of the house of the Lord. 22King Joash did not remember the kindness that Jehoiada, Zechariah’s father, had shown him, but killed his son. As he was dying, he said, “May the Lord see and avenge!”
7:59While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60Then 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.
8:1And 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. 2Devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him. 3But Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison.
Now the clear contrast is not that their deaths were unfair (they were) or politically driven (they were) or painful (they were). It is in their final words. Zechariah asked for the LORD’s vengeance. Stephen followed his LORD, and asked for forgiveness.
And Stephen’s actions were new. The person who had done that bevore him was his LORD. The response of a people to martyrdom is to embolden and encourage — from Vietnam to the Arab Spring… when people choose to die publicly for a cause, then tyrants fear. And Zechariah follows that >
that his brothers — his Jewish neighbours, who barely tolerated Hellenized Jews like him — were forgiven. So the Collect for today should be our prayer.
Grant us, O Lord, to learn to love our enemies, by the example of thy martyr Stephen, who prayed to thee for his persecutors; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen.
Bit the boxing day Sales that began on Christmas eve,