Truth Worth Living...and Dying For: Acts 7:55-60 - Fifth Sunday after Easter

⁵⁵Filled with the Holy Spirit, [Stephen] 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. (NRSV)

Sunlight by Liwax.  Creative commons image on flickr

I encountered a man at one of our local restaurants.  He approaches me, likely noticing me wearing my clerics.

He asks me, “young man, do you preach the bible at your church?”

A little surprised at his question, I smile and say, “Nothin’ but!”  He smiles, pats me on the back, he says, “keep it up, young man,” and walks away.

I was quite relieved—because I feared he’d start questioning me to see if I preached the bible his way—which might not have been the Evangelical Lutheran way…

I don’t like those kinds of conversations—and I’ve had plenty of them.  Maybe you have too: somebody approaches you to share their faith—but they’re just telling you what they believe.  Then they interrogate you about what you believe—and if you don’t believe the same things, they warn you your salvation is in jeopardy.  And you end up feeling guilty because you can’t give a convincing counterargument. 

Perhaps the moral of the story is to beware people who believe their religion is the only right religion—because they just might go to extreme lengths to prove it…

The apostle Stephen is the first Christian to learn this terrible lesson.  During his preaching about Jesus, people begin to accuse him of speaking against Moses and God.  They get especially angry when Stephen argues that the Jerusalem Temple is not the exclusive dwelling-place of God. 

For preaching something so blatantly different from what they firmly believed, these people took it upon themselves as their divine duty to stone Stephen to death.  But right before they do, Stephen looks up into heaven and sees God and Jesus standing before him in all their glory.  His last words are a prayer asking God to forgive his murders.

It bears mentioning that all of Stephen did great wonders and signs before the people—and spoke with great wisdom from the Holy Spirit.  But this didn’t prevent Stephen’s death.  If anything, it hastened it. 

But Stephen didn’t die in vain.  His life and his death were an authentic witness of the truth of who God is. 

God gives God’s life away upon the cross of Jesus, for whom death does not have the final word. 

Stephen isn’t saved because he spoke the right things and believed the right things.  Stephen was saved because of Christ. 

People will try to convince you that your religion’s wrong because you don’t believe what they consider to be “the right things.”  They may even warn you that you’re in danger of going to hell for your “wrong beliefs.”  After all, everyone wants to believe their religion is the right religion.

In the end, nobody can corner the market on “right religion.”  Claiming your religion as the right religion, to the exclusion of all others, is idolatry—because it’s all about you.  Righteousness begins at the cross, without exception.  There you see the truth of who God is; there you know the truth of how greatly you are loved together with the world.  

• God isn’t boxed up in buildings but present with people like Stephen who are helplessly caught up in the evils of this world. 
• God’s righteousness isn’t something you achieve through right living and right belief.  It is given to you.  By faith, God’s righteousness lives in you as it did in Jesus Christ, and in Stephen. 
• Christian witness isn’t so much about spreading beliefs but getting caught up in what God is doing.  God is forgiving sinners—and God is giving you a voice to speak beautifully of God’s saving love. 

Isn’t it amazing how mighty God is in saving Stephen?  God doesn’t save him from death, but saves him in death?  This is what a lost and unbelieving world needs to hear.

Don’t be mistaken; beliefs and doctrines are important for keeping you focused on Jesus and guiding you on the way of his cross.  Law and Gospel light the way to Jesus and teach us his will.  But righteousness is found only in the cross—and received through faith.

So what will your witness be in these trying times—as our children hunger for food?  As neighbors wander through life discouraged and dejected?  As politicians fight each other instead of for the people who put them in office? As people hurl stones at you?

If Stephen witnesses the glory of God in a violent death, you can see God’s glory just by going out with good courage and giving yourself away into the new life God is bringing! 

It is better to live and die in God’s presence than enjoy all worldly glories without it.  This is a truth worth living for—and a truth worth dying for.