From The First Baptist Church in America pulpit

Providence, Rhode Island – June 14, 2009

"Taking God for Granite*" (Acts 7:1‑2a; 54‑60)

Dr. Dan Ivins, preaching

Maybe today’s sermon title needs some explaining. “Taking God for Granite” is a play-on-words that’s just a different way of saying Stephen was martyred by stoning. Anybody who’s visited Israel knows there’s lots of granite lying around. A rabbinic legend tells of an angel moving rocks out of the Sahara desert in a huge sheet. When he flew over Israel it ripped apart! For anything permanent, they used stones both to bless and kill. The ten commandments were inscribed on stone. The temple too, was made of stone. But both became idolized … gods of their own making, rather than the one God who made all things. Bottom line is they “took god for granite.” When Stephen got stoned, it didn’t mean he was drunk! But it’s one of those times when faith cost something.

We have to be careful using words like “stoned” and “martyrdom” today. Especially after 9/11, “martyrdom” gets bad press because it dredges up radical Islamic terrorism. No matter what you call it, they got our attention. Anytime somebody’s willing to die for their cause to get rid of us, it’s hard to overlook. I got one of those internet jokes making the rounds about the terrorist myth of dying and going to be with Allah. His reward is 72 virgins. But it didn’t quite turn out to be what he thought. Instead he was met by 72 Catholic nuns, armed with AK-47's! (The Koran mentions virgins but not a particular number). The Greek word “martyr” means “witness.” A witness is somebody who verbalizes their faith so strongly that they run the risk of getting killed for it. When the easy thing to do is just be quiet and remain unnoticed.

The Taliban claims martyrdom for their faith, but there’s an enormous difference between a crazed terrorist and a true martyr. Terrorists kill innocent people; a martyr dies by offering himself so that others might live. Stephen’s martyrdom ended the shooting star ministry of the church’s first deacon, who was also it's first ordinary citizen to follow “the Good Shepherd” to the slaughter. Stephen was low on stature. He wasn’t one of the twelve disciples. He didn't even make the cut as a candidate to replace Judas. When his spot came open, the lot fell on Matthias.

Stephen wasn't anybody's idea of what the media likes to call “headline material." He was just a good-Spirited-guy; a courageous and faithful man who could be trusted to distribute food to the hungry, without putting any more on one gal’s plate than another's. If he’d been a better deacon, he might not have been martyred. Because in those early days, deacons were to be seen and not heard. Pretty harmless stuff; “waiting on tables” like “meals-on-wheels” is certainly not controversial. Just run-of-the-mill-kitchen‑duty. But nothing important like preaching.

It became necessary when the communal congregations tried their hand at socialism: to “hold all things in common,” and “spread the wealth around.” But Ananias and Saphira prove that never works. So Luke indicates another reason: so that the apostles could devote themselves to the more important work of "the ministry of the word." But the freedmen in the synagogue couldn’t ignore the impact of a spirit-filled deacon. Soon they made up their minds Stephen was no friend of God. Because no friend of God would be dissing Moses. So they brought up charges against him, before the religious council and ran down their list: disrespect of holy places, debunking holy laws and customs passed down for generations.

And when they finished lambasting him that’s when his "face began to shine like an angel!" That’s a bad sign, from their point of view. Stephen’s provocative preaching got him killed. Besides being way too long and very accusatory of temple religion at the end, he got very personal: "You stiff‑necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do." Finally when he called them “Christ killers,” it didn't take them long to figure out what to do next: Deacon Stephen got an overdose of Palestinian granite! But when you stand a guy like him next to Jesus, it's pretty hard to deny that this is what Christian is supposed to look like. Not converting other people to our way of thinking, or having the oldest, finest church in town, or even going out of our way to be kind or generous.

This is religious capital punishment. But Luke makes it a triumphal martyrdom, vindicated by God. Stephen died the way John the Baptist and Jesus did: for telling the truth so clearly that folks wanted to kill him for it! It wasn’t his “waiting on tables” that did Stephen in. But because he posed a serious challenge to the established order. That’ll get you every time. Martyrs don’t die for their convictions, but for speaking their convictions. Nobody gets persecuted for remaining silent.

This is always the case when criticizing the government. Every era has its martyrs. Sir Thomas More, “A Man for all seasons” publicly confronted King Henry for government corruption and marital infidelity and lost his head. More recently, in Germany, it was Deitrich Bonhoeffer vs. Adolf Hitler. Bishop Romero was assassinated in El Salvador for taking on Marxism and capitalism. In Soweto it was Mandela opposing apartheid. In a Birmingham jail it was M.L.King against racial discrimination and the Vietnam war. What they had in common was they didn’t run a poll before they spoke. And though only Mandela is still alive, like Stephen they had the guts to go against public opinion. When you move from the safety of the 3^rd person “they,” to the personal 2^nd person “you.” The prophet Nathan came before David the King and said “You are the man!” That takes unusual courage.

Course the other side of it is, those folks who like to think they’re martyrs, when all they really are is obnoxious. These are the ones who hide behind their faith, while harassing you about yours; until you finally have to tell them to get lost. But I don't think true martyrdom works like that. You can't seek it anymore than you can avoid it. Mostly it happens, when we show up at the wrong place at the wrong time; saying the wrong thing to the wrong people. Or when somebody gets so wrapped up serving God that they forget to protect themselves and neglect to detect the danger of taking the gospel seriously, is that it comes with a stiff price-tag. And the next thing you know…its raining rocks!

Stephen was distinctive because he followed Jesus so closely that he also ended up like Jesus. He lived more like Jesus than anybody. And he died like Jesus, pleading for his tormentor’s forgiveness. What a gracious way to go. Although he was the only one getting rocked, Stephen didn’t die alone. Nor did he feel abandoned like Jesus, when he said, “Why have you forsaken me?” Stephen’s death was an occasion more like the experience of the thief on Jesus’ right hand, who didn’t want to be forgotten, but got more than he asked for: “Today you shall be with me in paradise!”

Stephen’s death was a time of divine intimacy. He died with a vision that the best is yet to come. Before he expired, the curtain to heaven was drawn back for him to see the risen Christ “standing at God’s right hand.” Not sitting. Standing. When one of God’s children is facing death, Jesus stands ... ready to receive him into paradise. I like that touch. Who do you want to be talking to when you die? People who live graciously die graciously. The grim scene around Stephen faded away in the light of the glory of God on dying day. As he preached, the crowd went wild, gritting their teeth. And all pretense of due process and a fair trial were swept aside. They dragged him outside the city and stoned him, and this little added detail by Luke: with the consent and assistance of a guy named Saul, who held his clothes.

Maybe we ought to let deacons preach more often! But not every deacon is called to be martyred. Most folks I know try pretty hard to make sure they're not. But there are spirit filled servants who put others’ needs ahead of their own. And every church is blessed to have them. No real martyr has dying as a goal. Nor did Stephen set out to get stoned. But if he kept living Jesus’ kind of life in that particular place, it was bound to happen sooner or later. His “in-your-face” preaching was asking for it. But the outcome was something that happened to him while he was living the fullest life he knew how to live. And he just wanted to make that life available to somebody besides himself. Isn't that what ministry is?

And those who took up stones against him learned a hard lesson we learned with Dr. King: trying to get rid of somebody who believes in what they stand for works about as well as trying to get rid of dandelions by blowing on their fluff. The harder you blow, the more thistles it spreads: scattered far and wide by sacrificial commitment, courageous preaching, and servant hearts. Power can’t touch that. Spilled blood does something to us. It means a life has been given, or taken. We talk about the mystery of sacrifice on the first Sunday of every month: "This blood has been shed for you."

What that symbolizes is what makes a church. It’s people in the community of courageous deacons like Stephen and all the others like him since, gathering Sunday after Sunday to ponder the miracle of Easter, that keeps happening anytime death gets turned back into life.

(*Not original with me)

Providence Prayers: (6/14/09)

We come to church Lord, having labored within this throbbing maze of a city, like we come to anything else, with our visions of glory, that have been infected by the systems we serve. Our visions of glory are about winning, gaining the upper hand, big bank accounts and magnificent buildings. But like the tower of Babel, maybe it’s more about our glory than yours. Show us your vision in glory in this hour, and the courage available to so many but practiced by so few, to look life squarely in the face and not back down from what it sees. Give us what it takes to make our faces shine with Thy divine grace, whose glory is about losing and dying well, after having lived even better.

We pray for those who serve in public life, who strive to effect sorely needed change within the complicated mess of politics. Also we thank Thee for those who serve among us, giving freely of their time, talents and means; who refuse to give lip-service and spend more time applying their faith than enjoying it, who teach us the meaning of sacrifice that makes abundant life possible. For parents who put aside their own needs for their families: who give up their own plans to look after elderly relatives or their younger ones. Give us to know that you love each soul you have made; that size does not diminish grace, nor concrete hide Thy gaze. Bless us with a forward-looking, saving hope “Where Cross the Crowded ways of Life.”

We pray for our own needs and wants that masquerade as needs, grant us the wisdom to tell the difference. Bless all who mourn with a new song; those who are tempted, with renewed strength; the sick and aging with Thy divine encouragement; and to all of us, Thy grace and forgiveness. Lift us up to a better life, a holier calling, and a nobler purpose, through Christ our Lord. Amen.