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“A Safe Place”
Acts 7:54-60; Psalm 31; 1 Peter 2:2-10; John 14:1-14
Rev. Sandy Nuernberg
Oakland-Cambridge Presbyterian Church, Cambridge, WI
5th Sunday of Easter - Earth Day
Celebration
New Member Recognition
April 20, 2008
Please pray with me,
Creator God, we ask that you make us prophets of our time as your Holy
Spirit descends upon us now as we hear and learn from your Word to us. Grant
us a spirit of respect, advocates for peace, openness and truth, and
generosity to reach out in trust to embody God’s love in our relationships
with one another and with all of Creation. AMEN.
The first time Stephen says:
“Look,” he (Stephen) said, “I see the heavens
opened
and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
Acts 7:56
As we try to make semblance of the
good news in our lives of the resurrection in this Eastertide, we find how
difficult, perhaps how risky, our faith in a Christ that is Risen from the dead
really is and can be. Yes, in 2008 we are struggling and trying to recognize
what it means to be a Christian, just as those Jews and Gentile Christians were,
and what God is calling the church to be and to do in these postmodern times.
Should our hearts be troubled in today’s world? How can we know the way?
These past weeks in Luke’s Acts of
the Apostle’s we’ve addressed the true people of God in the early Christian
church, and their going literally out into the streets, responding to the news
of resurrection; witnessing and confessing to God’s ‘awesome power’ in their
faith, being baptized with the Holy Spirit ‘burning within’, and ‘knowing the
voice’ in following and doing what Jesus did. All are opportunities to practice
new life in resurrection and today to respond in our lives together as a church
community.
We find yet another snapshot of
the Christian church as an example of the resurrection power of God in today’s
texts as we understand death and newness of life in Christ. What rings in for us
is Luke’s new age of both Jews and Gentiles who accept the gospel message, in
the historical sense of Israel and in the identity of early Christianity. Jews
are moving away slowly from the law; some accepting Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
Actually, we come into our story at the climax; in a nut shell the first part is
Stephen’s speech to the Sanhedrin, the Council, about prophets, power, and safe
places. Looking further into his long and lengthy sermon
(2-53), we find his message in total
contrast to Peter’s, whom we’ve heard these last weeks; perhaps this being
intentional. Serious Stephen, identified as the first Christian martyr,
emphasizes rejection, idolatry, and disobedience in calling his followers
‘stiff-necked’, ‘uncircumcised in heart’ opposing the Holy Spirit as their
ancestors were, and he calls them ‘betrayers and murderers’ in receiving the law
and not keeping it.
It is a gracious God who gives
God’s gifts to the Israelites, and Stephen tells of God’s promises for life,
yet how they won’t compromise; in their bad attitude and rebellious moods,
they still want things their way. It reminds me of the visit of Benedict XVI in
his first visit as Pope to America this last week where the dramas unfolding
were inclusive of American Roman Catholics honoring the pope, yet in
disagreement about his positions on such things as contraception, ordaining
married men or women to being priests, or even same-sex relationships
(The New York Times, Steinfels, Peter, Pope’s U.S. trip has 5
built-in dramas, WSJ, Sunday, March 30, 2008, p. A7). In return, it
seems Pope Benedict is known for not having too much of an affinity for our
American brand of pluralistic values (Van Biema,
David, and Israely, Jeff, “The American Pope,” Time, April 14, 2008, p.
46-50).
The second time Stephen says:
“But filled
with the Holy Spirit, he (Stephen) gazed into heaven
and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.”
Acts 7:55
Remember Peter’s hearers respond
in awe to his message of conversion in receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit;
what they saw and heard (wonders and signs) and the church growing in large
numbers (thousands). In his listeners opposing the Spirit, Stephen is filled
full of the Holy Spirit in pronouncing his message of glory and joy (and
Jesus!). That’s where the rub was! He was comfortable, they were not. Here, in
stark contrast, Stephen’s hearers are still wondering about him and his
commitment to the Messiah; they cover their ears and rush against him. Heaven
forbid, like so many stories in our Bible of comparison and contrast, we witness
a murder; yes, Stephen is stoned and cries to the Lord to receive his spirit
before he dies. Interestingly, Stephen falls to the feet of Saul (Paul), early
in his life a persecutor of the church.
With little doubt, Stephen’s story
has parallels to that of Jesus’ earthly life. Stephen talks, prays, gives his
life, like Jesus, in witnessing to the gospel. Now Saul, who some think
attributed to Stephen’s death along with others in their hostility, begins his
mission from persecutor of the church to apostle of the Gentiles. Like all
stories that come to an end, who are the lost? Is it Thomas, Peter, Stephen, or
the nay-sayers? Where’s the resurrection power of God here? Through all the joy,
pain, controversy and death, who has open hearts to hear of the way, the truth,
and the life of the good news of what God has done and is doing in the life and
death of Jesus Christ? We can ask, is their any safe place, is there any victory
and power here?
Our Gospel in John assists our
thinking of that connection, that power between Father and Son; Jesus talks to
his disciples of their life following his death, in a kind of fellowship, a
‘dwelling place’ of existence. He is saying they abide together, where Christ is
we are also. As we encounter Christ in our lives it is possible to ‘know the
way, the truth, and the life’ of Jesus. It is in Jesus revealing God to us
through Christ that we know God intimately and personally. We’ve used examples
these weeks after Easter, haven’t we?
You see, in our knowing and seeing
Jesus at work, it is knowing and seeing God the Father. Jesus helps us to
recognize and identify God in the Spirit of distinctiveness in who Christ is,
“Believe me that I am the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not,
then believe me because of the works themselves.” In that safe place, a dwelling
place, abiding together, God is our refuge, rock-solid, and a fortress of
boldness in life and even beyond death. In our trusting, God, through Jesus
Christ is near us.
What good news we can gain from
all of this in this world is the same as the disciples and those identifying
their faith long ago; in looking at and watching the works of Jesus, we find
understanding and will be lead to faith and trust in Christ and faith and trust
in God. That’s the identity of the Christian church. The good news for us in the
resurrection is that we will do greater works because Jesus’ time on earth is
ended; not in our separation from Christ, but in our asking and given the love
of Christ that is heaven sent from God the Father. The disciple’s hearts were
troubled by the news of Jesus’ impending death; we are connected in our belief
to the Father and to the Son, and in doing the deeds of Christ Jesus. Our safe
place, our dwelling place is in abiding with Christ forever; there is no
separation, our troubled hearts are secure in our identity with Christ, unto and
beyond death do us part.
Thanks be to
God. AMEN
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