+ “But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him…. dragged him out of the city and began to stone him.”
Today we hear the story of Stephen, the first martyr of the Christian church. It’s an oddity that we hear this story in the Easter season, Stephen’s feast day is Dec 26. Now Christmas seems like a terrible time to commemorate a horrific execution, but it fits. After all, we must never forget that Christianity is a radical, counter-cultural movement which shakes believers and non-believers to their core. To remember this the day after Christmas, when we commemorate the birth of the biggest social agitator of all time, seems fitting.
Being a Christian means standing up to injustice and intolerance. It means speaking our mind when the dignity of another human being is being violated. It means going against the grain, against the crowd, against popular opinion…all actions which won’t make us too popular!
Hearing the truth isn’t easy! When someone tells us a truth we’re not ready to hear, we don’t listen. If we aren’t ready to hear we go to great lengths to not listen. If we can’t or won’t tolerate the message, then, as in the case of Jesus, Stephen, Ghandi, Martin Luther King and countless others, we silence those truthtellers forever.
In the spirit of those silenced, our Christian faith demands that, as long as there are needy people in our world, as long as children go without adequate health care, as long as young girls in many countries are denied education, as long as people can’t worship the God of their choosing or love the partner of their desire, or speak their mind without fear of being silenced… as long as the dignity of every human being isn’t being honored then we, as followers of Christ, won’t be satisfied, won’t rest, and will never, ever stop listening, hearing, and responding until the work of God through Jesus Christ is finished.
Living as a Christian goes against the cultural norms of society. Throughout human history-- since Cain and Abel--- we seem to always be looking for a way to be “one up” on others.
The theory goes something like this:
We live in fear of being without, of being left out, of being in need and having nothing and no one to care for us. So in striving to NEVER be the one on the outs, the one who’s in need, the one who is vulnerable, we look for scapegoats, for people who are less than, who are the “other” . People worse off than us.
After 9/11 when it became clear that we weren’t going to capture Osama Bin Laden in short order, our focus changed to Iraq and Sadaam Hussein. Many assumptions were made about Sadaam’s intentions and capabilities so soon we were engaged in an all out war to avenge the murder of thousands on 9/11. A murder this man did not commit. Of course he committed plenty of other murders and was a horrific tyrant, but the fact of the matter is-- he wasn’t who attacked us on 9/11.
But that didn’t matter.
What mattered was that we were so scared, so rocked to our core we had to do something---someone had to pay--because only by lashing out, only by an eye for an eye would our fear, our vulnerability, our grief, be relieved.
Why?
Because it’s easier to be mad than to be sad.
It’s easier to be mad than to be afraid.
In the short-run, it’s just easier to be mad.
When shaken, when nothing makes sense anymore, we look for a scapegoat-- someone or something to receive our sadness, our terror. We do this because living with that sadness, living with that fear is too uncomfortable.
So we off load it on another.
It’s easier to lash out in anger than to settle in and feel deep sadness or to sit with tremendous fear.
But, although we do it all the time, this off-loading of our sadness and our terror on another doesn’t work. Because the relief is only temporary. Soon enough something else comes along to shake us, and the cycle begins all over again.
Franklinville is a town that’s hit some pretty tough times. Being a faith community here isn’t easy…it must feel pretty frightening— I’ve heard from a number of you…you love this place, yet you’re deeply afraid that it won’t survive. Can you keep going, should you keep going, how will you keep going?
Our Easter readings remind us that resurrection is difficult to understand. It doesn’t happen like we think it will, we don’t always recognize it, even when it’s right in front of us. Our resurrection lesson is this: God always provides. Maybe not in the way we expect, probably not in the way that feels easiest, certainly not in the ways we think God should…but God ALWAYS provides.
This is the Easter message—the way to resurrected living is through the garden, the cross and the empty tomb.
We hear it in our liturgy, we hear it in the scripture, we hear it from the pulpit, and today we hear it from the psalmist:
God is our crag and our stronghold. God is the castle that will make us safe. God is here.
God never gives up. God won’t rest until we uncover our ears and, once and for all hear.
God is longing to be loved and adored by the good people of this region. The question isn’t “is there a place for St Barnabas Episcopal Mission,” the question is what are the cries of the people calling St BArnabas to do?
Jesus gives us our marching orders in this morning’s Gospel:
We must :
Open our eyes to see the Way
Uncover Our Ears to Hear the Truth
and
Have the courage to live the Life the Risen Christ leads us to live.
Alleluia and Amen.+
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