Bad Times
September 23, 2007
Acts 8: 1b--3
So our beloved Stephen. The guy we’ve been hearing so much about. The guy who was fearless in the face of his adversaries, in the face of those he loved and used to call mentor, in the face of the empire…that guy…it didn’t work out for him. Stephen after this brilliant sermon where he used everything he was taught to employ the concept of opening to something new…he was killed. An angry mob dragged him out of the city of Jerusalem and stone by stone snuffed the life out of him. He stood for what he believed in and look where it got him.
And as if it wasn’t enough to lose another innocent prophet, the murder of Stephen empowered the Empire to begin eradicating the Jesus movement. They were not loyal to the empire, they were loyal to some other God. They were not willing to live by the rules and codes of the empire they only would support the empire second to the conduct they said their God called them to. Somebody had to do something about it and that somebody was Saul. After they got rid of Stephen the climate was ripe for getting rid of the others too. Saul was loyal to the empire, he understood what it meant to be Roman to the core. He wasn’t going to let some crazed, righteous fanatic get in the way of the growth of the Holy Roman Empire. He was on a mission and finally he was on this mission with the blessing of the empire. He used all of his contacts and went house by house. Tearing up everything in his path. For every smile they ever gave him, for every smile in the face of death, for every prayer calling out to this God, he would wipe those smiles away. He would drag them limb by limb to prison. He would scatter them to the ends of the earth. It was wonderful to finally be able to end his disgust with the look of fear on their faces, on their children’s faces, on their parent’s faces. Stephen would be the example of how business would be done.
As if it wasn’t enough to lose Jesus, we lost Stephen. And, as if it wasn’t enough to lose Stephen we lost one another. Saul was hunting us down like a ravenous lion stalks his prey. We fled, as fast as we could. The apostles stayed behind to carry on the movement in Jerusalem but the rest of us had to get out. We ran as far and as fast as we could. Anyone who had family far away would have to welcome us. It didn’t matter, we had the faith to carry us, to strengthen our arms and legs to sanctuary. But, it was hard you know, leaving the community, leaving everything we had built. The empire is greedy and it’s amazing to me how we are willing to substitute our best selves, peace, kindness for power and luxury. But, I’ve not given up, in fact I have been sharing the witness of jesus with all that I meet along the way and what happened to me because of those beliefs. He said do this in remembrance of me. He said, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God. We don’t need this kind of killing. It’s not good for anyone. We now have a small group of people meeting together to share the stories, to worship together. It’s not what I wanted. It’s not what I expected. But, the gospel has upheld me and this work through it all. And now, I’ve met these people I would have never met before and together we’re building community stronger than before.
Our lives are filled with bad times. Things don’t go as we expect. Life falls apart because of death, illness, addiction, no work, too much work, lonliness, shame, failure, success. Life doesn’t happen as we imagine it will. We put our time, our energy, our hope into an organization, a project, a job and it goes to pieces right before our eyes. And, the only thing we can seem to count on is that the government, whatever form or shape it takes, will try to become god and will demand loyalty like no other. Bad times. And then, when you stick up for yourself, you just end up getting killed, what makes it worth it? What is worth living or dying for?
That my friends, is the whole story and point of the book of Acts, what is it we are living or dying for? Sometimes the saints are promoted by the empire as fanatics. Crazed people who sold out their lives for death. The martyrs are compared to Jim Jones or David Koresh. I mean, who dies for their faith except crazy fanatics? This is exactly what mainline religion has become, shallow, quick to judge, careful, rule following and obedient to power. It is true that both Jim Jones and David Koresh were prophets. They were charismatic and others were attracted to them. But, it wasn’t to God they were pointing, instead it was to themselves. Stephen never self proclaimed. Jesus never self proclaimed. Both were obedient to God, the God of unity, peace and love. Neither professed to be above, or in charge of anything. Only of knowing God and being obedient to what God was asking. Jim and David both pointed to themselves and then it all culminated in them asking people to kill themselves for the sake of their own prophecy. It required them to kill themselves as well. They proclaimed its what God wanted. Stephen was not asked if he wanted to die and made a choice. Jesus did not choose to go to the cross. Even in old times, the story of Noah for example, no one was asked to go to death, God was interested in life, in saving life. Death was inflicted upon the saints because of their complete acceptance that God was ruler not the nation. Death was inflicted upon them because they would not deny their faith. They did not bring death on themselves. They went to death fearlessly because of their faith but it is not the same as bringing on our own suicide. Jim and David were fanatics because they said it was only their lives that were worth living for. The saints of our ancient texts remind, God is worth living for. And, if someone challenges that, God is worth sticking up for. Repeatedly, this hasn’t gone well, but any time we fight other gods, it is hard work. Many are vested in refusing to see the peace that comes with light and love.
This is what brings us to this sermon today. Bad times happen. The church becomes under severe persecution. The church’s leadership comes under severe persecution. But what do we do with the persecution. Do we jump into some shameful thing, trying to hide our vulnerability behind our shame? Do we anesthetize ourselves with drugs or drink? Do we bury ourselves in stuff and debt? What do we do with bad times?
The gospel today says, rely on your roots. For it doesn’t matter how far that evil attempted to scatter or squash the growth of the gospel, it couldn’t be squashed. It didn’t matter that Jesus was murdered, that Stephen was murdered, what mattered was what they stood for, how they cried out even in their last moments in forgiveness of the evil attempting to unite, to bring together, to show a different way of being in the world. We can be devastated, the glass is half empty or we can use what we have to be broken open and begin again, stronger, wiser more whole. Bad times will not cease…but we have the opportunity to choose to handle those moments with the grace, courage, faith of the saints. Let us not close our eyes or look away. Let us stare into the forces of darkness. Let us pray it will be so.