I am using the book of common prayer lectionary, and in parallel to the gospel readings about a Samaritan village and a woman by a well has been the final, and lethal Sermon of Stephen, the first martyr.
And an odd sermon it is to modern ears. There is no comment about God loving you. There is nothing about him having a special plan for your life, your you being special in his eyes. Instead it reads like a history lesson. This is the reading for today…
“But as the time of the promise drew near, which God had granted to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt until there arose over Egypt another king who did not know Joseph. He dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants, so that they would not be kept alive. At this time Moses was born; and he was beautiful in God’s sight. And he was brought up for three months in his father’s house, and when he was exposed, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.
“When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand. And on the following day he appeared to them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other?’ But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ At this retort Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.
(Acts 7:17-29 ESV)
Stephen is building an argument by allusion. He is not quoting. Yet. He does that in a few minutes. But his conclusion — not in this day’s reading — is damning.
And led directly to Stephen being killed by the council, who in rage acted akin to a mob.
“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”
(Acts 7:51-53 ESV)
The term martyr means witness. In Christian theology it means those who are killed by authorities, pagan or corrupt, for speaking the truth about Christ. In their time, and in their place.
The evil we confront is polymorphous and perverse [1]. It does not tolerate being confronted, and will attempt to silence any voice against it.
You see this when the treaty activists in NZ defend insisting that people recite their propaganda back rather than analyze the treaty as a history, as if the treaty is some kind of sacred document. [2]
You see this when activists combine in ways that are against their long-term interests. The rainbow (gay) left is making alliance with the Islamofascists
— despite the fact that the Islamists, given power, would hang the lot of them.
Stephen was using a different type of rhetoric than that used today. He was reminding the council of their history, of the heights they had fallen from. He was calling them to act as they said, and repent from killing the prophets.
When you do this, you will get rage as a response.
Or repentance.
Do not expect it to be gentle. It will be either tears, or fists.
As it should be, because Stephen is pleading for the soul of the nation he belongs to: to move them beyond thinking of their tribe, their nation, to their God, and his works, and the kingdom of Christ.
And in this death we see the greatest apostle, Saul, holding the coats of those who are about to kill him. For in the long-term, we all will die: individually and as nations. But the kingdom of God will be established, and it will eternal, for of this world it is not.
So, in Christ a martyr is the person who does their duty and confronts evil, preaching and living for the good and for God, and in doing that dies. The person who kills for the faith has a different name: he is a murderer, or perhaps a soldier, going where he is ordered to, at the interests of his nation.
But the martyr is not that one who kills or dies because of some idea that the kingdom of God will be in this time. It will not happen. For everything in this time will fade and fail: and Christ’s kingdom is built of stronger stuff than that.
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1. Yes, that is quote from Sigmund Freud: his ideas about repression have been truly destroyed by this time, because without restrictions and rules that keep sex within the covenant of marriage we degenerate to polyamourous kink.
2. David Farrar starts off his blog today by saying that he has a copy of Nicky Hager’s new book, and it’s clear that Hager has had copies of confidential polling scripts Farrar uses in his business: he runs a polling agency. He’s been hacked — the entire book is made of documents stolen from various right-wing bloggers, because claiming that there is a right-wing conspiracy is far more important than basic honesty. This is one dirty election we are having.
