Good Morning Friends,
Stephen, as a deacon, was responsible for feeding the widows, and so he undoubtedly got a chance to think about spiritual food as well as the physical nutrition for those starving to death for love. I say this because Stephen, in life served meals and in death with his body broken gives us some spiritual food as well. I think that part of him celebrated Christ even as he was being tortured. 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. Rembrandt in his painting, The Stoning of Saint Stephen, captured the violence of the event including the heavens opening upon Stephen, but also includes a depiction of young Paul/ Saul in the distance holding the cloaks of those participating. I have included a copy of the painting in the devotional today as a Visio Divina as well as Caravaggio’s painting of Paul being knocked off his horse as part of his conversion on the road to Damascus. I do this in the hope that they might speak to you as well as the scripture as you encounter God in your life. Note how the painting and scripture invites us into the power of the moment Stephen was being stoned and Paul being humbled. Note the contrasts of the great evil and darkness and great good and light that eventually came from the events and that neither Paul nor Stephen could hide from God’s will for them as we contemplate the reality of the complacency of our own past and the choices God has made for us. Note that the 19-year-old Rembrandt, in his youth, in his first signed painting includes a self-portrait of himself as a reluctant participant in the death of Stephen and perhaps also the death of Christ. And imagine yourselves immersed in the events in the light and darkness that seem to confound reality or perhaps portray the reality that darkness and light comes out of us as well in relationship to the Holy Spirit. So resting in the hope of God’s love in us I wonder, Are We Making Choices Consistent With The Work Of The Holy Spirit?
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)
He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
Act 9:4 (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)
You are indeed my rock and my fortress; for your name’s sake lead me and guide me, take me out of the net that is hidden for me, for you are my refuge. Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God. You hate those who pay regard to worthless idols, but I trust in the Lord. I will exult and rejoice in your steadfast love, because you have seen my affliction; you have taken heed of my adversities, and have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy; you have set my feet in a broad place. Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye wastes away from grief, my soul and body also. For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my misery, and my bones waste away. I am the scorn of all my adversaries, a horror to my neighbors, an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street flee from me. I have passed out of mind like one who is dead; I have become like a broken vessel. For I hear the whispering of many— terror all around!— as they scheme together against me, as they plot to take my life. But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, “You are my God.” My times are in your hand; deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors. Let your face shine upon your servant; save me in your steadfast love. Do not let me be put to shame, O Lord, for I call on you; let the wicked be put to shame; let them go dumbfounded to Sheol. Let the lying lips be stilled that speak insolently against the righteous with pride and contempt. O how abundant is your goodness that you have laid up for those who fear you, and accomplished for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of everyone! In the shelter of your presence, you hide them from human plots; you hold them safe under your shelter from contentious tongues. Blessed be the Lord, for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me when I was beset as a city under siege. I had said in my alarm, “I am driven far from your sight.” But you heard my supplications when I cried out to you for help. Love the Lord, all you his saints. The Lord preserves the faithful, but abundantly repays the one who acts haughtily.
Psalm 31:2-23 (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 and understands the needs of the sparrows and well as the whole world. Notice the choices Stephen exemplifies in this regard. Notice how he committed to Jesus and was willing to sacrifice his very life for the cause of Christ. Because he was all in, he reflected the love and light of God. A fire burned within him that connected Communion with the Holy Spirit and Heaven. All this has had an amazing impact on others. Consider what other choices he might have made and what might have happened. Perhaps the religious leaders might not have killed Stephen if he had not been so saintly. Such is the nature of evil in the face of love. But God’s light in him shone forth even in the darkness of the times. The beauty is that 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 heart’s choices. 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. That is how the flame spreads, and we are spiritually nourished during a time of turmoil.
And So, most folks just want to be left alone, and sometimes alone and ignorant even in their suffering. But lonely is not a good thing and the choices we make can become more important than we realize. God made difficult choices. Jesus became human, lived, taught, suffered, died, and was resurrected so that we would not 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 and embrace a choice that glorifies God. And maybe there is an urgency to our taking the Bread of Life and the Cup of Salvation to others that informs and transforms our choice too. All because the Spirit 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 is what it means to feed on Jesus in the experience of the cross and resurrection, and what is the essence of feeding his sheep with love. And so, we keep from starving to death, and others 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 the conviction of Stephen’s courage in our choices. Pray we see how God works through the choices God makes and in how those characters in the Bible make choices that teach us about the impact of our decisions. 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 so heaven might take up residence in us. 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 on the journey into the light.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 