The Goods News of Integration > Inclusivity, and how Shared Service creates Shared Resilience
SACRED STORY – Acts 6:1—7:2a, 44-60
6Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. 2And the twelve called together the whole community of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3Therefore, friends, select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task, 4while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word.” 5What they said pleased the whole community, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. 6They had these men stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. 7The word of God continued to spread; the number of the disciples increased greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. 8Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. 9Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and others of those from Cilicia and Asia, stood up and argued with
Stephen. 10But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke. 11Then they secretly instigated some men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” 12They stirred up the people as well as the elders and the scribes; then they suddenly confronted him, seized him, and brought him before
the council. 13They set up false witnesses who said, “This man never stops saying things against this holy place and the law; 14for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses handed on to us.” 15And all who sat in the council looked intently at him, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
7Then the high priest asked him, “Are these things so?” 2And Stephen replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me. The God of glory appeared to our ancestor Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, 44“Our ancestors had the tent of testimony in the wilderness, as God directed when he spoke to Moses, ordering him to make it according to the pattern he had seen. 45Our ancestors in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our ancestors. And it was there until the time of David, 46who found favor with God and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the house of Jacob. 47But it was Solomon who built a house for him. 48Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made with human hands; as the prophet says, 49‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? 50Did not my hand make all these things?’ 51”You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. 52Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. 53You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it.” 54When they heard these things, they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen. 55But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56“Look,” he said, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” 57But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him.
58Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. 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.
After the resurrection, Jesus is among the people in a new way - still showing up in surprising places, still teaching, SHOWING God’s enduring love over dinner and drinks, still inviting people to follow him, but perhaps now with a more expansive understanding of what that means - the fullness of struggle and redemption and ultimate resilience that is this resurrection way of being that fills up all of creation. Jesus was always empowering the disciples to reflect God’s power in their own healing and teaching, but the shift to emphasize their place in the ongoing way of resurrection must have felt particularly urgent in this threshold moment when things are about to change again. It must have felt like Jesus had only just returned when Jesus ascends to the heavens, beyond the ways they are used to knowing him. And again, one kind of absence reveals a new kind of presence as the Holy Spirit is made known among the people.
In this text from Acts, Jesus is no longer with the apostles in the way he used to be, but God continues to be a part of their lives and their world in transformative ways. The moment of resurrection is past, but the movement is still going, still growing. And it looks like it’s going to need more than autopilot and good vibes to stay the course.
The Good News of the unstoppable love of God has reached beyond the same-old circles and it means God’s church can not continue its same-old habits and patterns, even if they’ve been life-giving for a time. The Gospel and the community of the faithful are expanding and becoming more diverse (or perhaps, more accurately, more integrated) and there are some growing pains along the way. The honeymoon of the resurrection is starting to wane.
The Hellenist (Greek-speaking immigrant) followers know that they belong in every way and are deserving of the same care as the Hebrew and Aramaic-speaking folks, but the system of church is still centered and dominated by a homogeneous standard that perpetuates inequality contrary to the Gospel. Perhaps the Hellenists were often told how much they matter, and yet they weren’t given roles to be a part of the decision-making and so the decisions neglected them. Those being left out and let down by that system speak up, critique the unjust system so that it can be remedied for everyone, and by some holy miracle the situation doesn’t devolve into a defensive argument but rebounds with a resolution for the community as a whole to better align themselves with the love they preach.
The narrow way they’ve been doing things until now has become a stumbling block to the community but also to the leaders who recognize they can’t live fully into their calls to preach and teach if they are also doing so much else. They won’t be able to live into who they are becoming if they continue to do things based on who they were. The world is changing, they’ve changed as a people, they’re growing! And that means the way they share the life and work of church will need to change and grow in response. As they grow in faith and in community, they are led to engage the expansive gifts already among them. God has already filled their community with the needed leaders and gifts, if they take the time to notice, listen, and discern.
The book of Acts, especially in these early days post-resurrection, will often remind us that this way of resurrection can not be traveled alone. This is a way of being that must be shared. The body of Christ is alive, not dead, and every part of the body is critical to that life. They must create that community together and everyone can be a part of it.
So the people lift up seven from among them to lead and tend to the physical needs and just care of the community. Seven with Greek names, by the way, Hellenist names… directly addressing the former exclusion and repairing the rift that was hurting the community. These are not tokenized leaders, but ones carefully considered for their Spirit, wisdom, and integrity. They are publicly blessed with prayer and the laying on of hands, a ritual that reflects the sacredness of their role of service. Tending to the practical needs, providing meals, setting out the napkins, taking out the trash…. and tending to the just care of their people is not a lesser task than those preaching or teaching. This blessing reminds us that It’s not just the eucharistic table that is sacred, but any table which gathers and nourishes us which is holy. This commissioning affirms that so much of what we do, perhaps EVERYTHING we do, is spiritual. There is no real separation of self, absolutely nothing that we do, that isn’t tied to our whole being, including our Spirit. Justice and care is not a spiritual extracurricular, it’s an integral part of the living body of Christ.
It is so integral to the way of Christ, that Stephen’s path eerily mirrors Jesus’ own. It seems there are still people and powers that would rather commit murder than support a Good News that they cannot house or contain, own or control. Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people...and something about that was too disruptive, too generous, too outside the previously-held bounds of expectation, too convicting that some began to undermine his ministry. They set up false witnesses, stirred up animosity toward him, accused him of blasphemy, and when he still won’t give up his dignity...they are enraged enough to kill him. Even when they knew it was complete BS, when they could not withstand the Spirit in him, when his face shown like an angel, when he cried out in grace and they covered their ears, they were too blinded, too taken in by the idolatry of their fear and anger and certainty of their own righteousness that they could justify the violent death of this Child of God.
I don’t know where to start with the eerily similar patterns in this week’s news. The Texas legislature is furthering several bills that will condemn transgender people to death given the opportunity, to strip transgender children from their families because love for them is considered too offensive, too dangerous, to be tolerated. In Minneapolis and Chicago, black men, black boys are killed in the street, taken outside the system of so-called justice just to be murdered for the perceived threat of their existence, and then falsely blamed for their own deaths in the name of righteousness.
I cannot fathom Stephen’s words of release. I cannot imagine any semblance of grace or trust in such a moment of grief. In great tragic irony, it can only be the work of the Spirit that he could proclaim such life in the face of insistent death.
I have never really been one to find a particular connection to the martyrs of faith. Honestly, I have often dismissed them as twisted macabre celebrations of self-righteous suffering. And theirs stories can and have definitely been twisted into a justification of suffering for suffering’s sake. But I’ve also rarely had to suffer in such a profound way for who I am or who I’m called to be. The closer I’ve become to holy leaders of sacred community, who tend to the just care of others often overlooked, who dare to give of themselves and live generously into who they are created to be, knowing what it may cost them...the more I see true resurrection gospel in these testimonies.
After Stephen is killed, it’s a turning point in the early life of this Christian community toward persecution and being scattered. But it still does not ultimately stop the Resurrection movement from marching forward. It can not. They can slander Stephen’s reputation and they can question his goodness, but they can not ultimately diminish it. They can take his safety and even his life, but they can not take that vision of heaven itself opening before him from his sight, even at the end. They cannot take the Gospel of healing and wholeness and freedom from his eyes and his heart.
They can undermine and discredit his ministry, but they cannot undo his witness. You see, the people of God have recently realized that death will not define them, that they each play a part in this living breathing body of a resurrected Christ, and that even when one is gone, we’ve already taken on a share of this divine love between us and the truth will be carried onward by another.
May we be blessed by the hands of community to embolden us to be a part of this promise as we are called, at every table, even and especially when silence threatens. May we live in the full defiant truth of God’s enduring belovedness which has no end. Amen.