Who Do You Know Who Is Starving To Death For Love?
Good Morning Friends,
Stephen, as a deacon, was given the responsible for feeding the widows, and so he undoubtedly got a chance to think about spiritual food as well as the physical nutrition he offered. I say this because Stephen, in life and death served in a wonderful way. I think that part of him celebrated this strange ritual with food and drink, as the Eucharist even as he was being tortured, perhaps contemplating in his mind, the words…” this is my body broken for you.” The amazing thing in Holy History is that something glowed out of Stephen’s forgiving spirit as he was being tortured and killed that would help change the life of Paul and help change the course of Holy History. Who Do You Know Who Is Starving To Death For Love?
Scripture: “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. Which 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. You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it.” When they heard these things, they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen. But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. Then 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. While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then 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. And Saul approved of their killing him. That day a severe persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria.
Acts 7:51—8:1a (NRSV)
So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'” Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
John 6:30-35 (NRSV)
Message: I doubt we would want to worship a God who stayed safe and did not care about our physical issues as well as our spiritual ones. Thankfully the God of the broken bread is a God who serves with his hands and heart. Stephen exemplifies this, for he was so committed to Jesus that he was willing to sacrifice his very life for the cause of Christ. Because he was all in, he reflected the love of God and the Communion with the Holy Spirit and this has had an amazing impact on others. Oh, they killed him anyway. Such is the nature of evil in the face of love. But the power of Christ wins out over time and perhaps most notably, related to Stephen, in the life of Paul. For century after century, that glow on Stephen’s face reflecting Christ spread slowly to every continent and country and among every race on earth as the work of the Holy Spirit and the work of a baptismal Fire took shape. And so today in every conceivable human circumstance people take and eat in remembrance of Christ. Eyes are opened and loved shared. For every imaginable human need from infancy and before it to extreme old age and after it, we remember Christ as we eat and drink. Faithfully, unfailingly, across places of worship around the world people remember the love and share it so that it might be multiplied in our hearts. Friends, Jesus is not a God who stays safely in heaven with a flank of angel security guards between him and us while we sing songs at him from a distance hoping they are loud enough to reach his throne. Friends, Jesus is not a God who says to those dying not to worry about the physical pain they are in, it does not really matter because you will be dead soon and then you will be with me. No, we worship a God we will touch and taste and a God willing to give us a hand and a hug even during suffering shared.
And So, most folks just want to be left alone, and sometimes alone and ignorant even in their suffering. However, Jesus did not become human, live, teach, suffer, die and rise again so that we could be stuck in a changeless life. He came to challenge us to change, to accept faith in Him and be active members of a collective body of believers who become like Jesus. We literally can become what we eat and drink, images of Jesus Christ, by reception and internalization of His awesome Gift. But that requires us to be open to change. There is an urgency to our taking the Bread of Life and the Cup of Salvation, because it brings us the grace of believing in a love that casts out all fear. By faith taking Christ into our hearts, into our minds, into our lives, such that it is his life that energizes us, the life of Jesus will drive us and sustain us and guide us in the work of a sanctifying Spirit. That’s what it means to feed on Jesus and what is the essence of feeding his sheep. And so, we keep from starving to death in the very act of helping to feed Christ’s sheep so they too might love even in the face of injustice.
Pray we have Stephen’s courage. Pray we have Stephen’s commitment. Pray we have Stephen’s consciousness. Pray we have Stephen’s character reflecting the nourishment of the living bread that came down from heaven. Pray we realize that whoever eats of this bread will live forever. Pray we make the connection between the command to love and the command to remember Christ. Pray we receive from the Lord the Spirit which we pass on to others when we eat in remembrance of Christ. Pray the curtain is pulled back allowing us to see the glory of God. Pray we hunger for a change that is transformative. Pray we are all in for the cause of love.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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