SERMON PREACHED BY THE REV’D. CYNTHIA JACKSON, ST.MARK’S WIMBLEDON, EASTER 5, 20TH APRIL, 2008.

 

Being an eloquent speaker does not guarantee the safety of one’s life. Many prominent people of our own time come to mind whose lives have been cut short, by fanatics or criminals determined to silence the voice of progress and change, or defence of the poor and marginalized. John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Archbishop Oscar Romero are just a few examples. Daily we see in our newspapers individuals who have stood up to defend what they have believed in and as a result have lost their lives.

 

Our reading from the Acts of the Apostles tells us about the Apostle Stephen, who also sacrificed his life, to hold onto his belief in the person of Jesus Christ, as the promised Messiah, in the fulfilment of scripture. Stephen’s vision enabled him to stand firm to the end as he was stoned to death for daring to challenge the Jewish authorities. His dying vision of heaven gives us, the people of today, the assurance that the Jesus who suffered and died is now reigning with God his Father in heaven.

 

What a change in atmosphere from the Day of Pentecost and the reception of the Apostle Peter’s speech, when three thousand people were converted. (We read about that in Acts chapter 2). Stephen’s speech to the Jewish Council provokes quite a different reaction. In our first reading today we only get the end of Stephen’s oration to the Jewish Council, where like Jesus, who on the Emmaus Road expounded the scriptures to the disciples, so Stephen expounds the scriptures to the Counci. This is the Stephen who In Acts chapter 6: 8 is described as being ‘, full of grace and power who did great wonders and signs among the people.’

 

Stephen knew Jesus the Christ as a living person in his life and was strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit. Otherwise he would not have been able to stand up to the Jewish Council and have the courage to give up his life.

 

I think the passage from the Acts of the Apostles of the martyrdom of Stephen gives us a clue to the meaning of the rather difficult passage from John that we have set for our Gospel reading.  Stephen knew the way – the way was to know the Lord Jesus as his living saviour. Before the name Christians came into use the follows of Jesus were know as followers of ‘The Way’.

 

Many years ago, before the invention of car navigation systems, I went to Guernsey on holiday. At that time it was a common sight to see motorists stopped by the roadside puzzling over their maps trying to work out which way to go. The reason for this was that all the signposts had been removed during the Second World War and had not been replaced. In addition many of the smaller lanes had no names. My friend and I felt quite smug as we where on foot and had brought a Perry's guide map that gave us the road names so we knew the way to go.  Yes all of us need to know the Way to go, the path to follow.

 

Jesus knew that his disciples would be shocked after his death and this passage from John’s Gospel is one of re-assurance that death is not the end. The Christian faith gives us this promise of life after death, the hope of resurrection.  We are given the hope of new life, a new sense of direction.  We have also the hope of Jesus’ second coming.

 

In our Gospel passage Jesus wants to re-assure his disciples that although he has to leave them he is going ahead to prepare a place for them. At first sight He does seem to be speaking in riddles. Thomas does not understand where Jesus is going. He cannot believe that Jesus is leaving his disciples despite all the teaching and preparation the disciples had received from Jesus.

 

 

When Jesus said “In my Father`s house are many dwelling places..” he was not talking about an earthly home with physical rooms, but of  a new way of living. The Father he is referring to is God.

 

Another view of the dwelling places are places in which to stay or abide, in the same way we would stay at an inn, or places of rest and safety on a journey. It is not only us abiding in different places but it is us abiding in Christ and Christ abiding in us.  We are not only thinking of abiding with Christ in heaven but we are thinking of our own experience of Christ in our lives in the here and now.

 

Stephen the first Christian martyr shows what it means to  ‘abide’ in Christ. He was not relying on his own strength but the power of the living Christ.  He showed what is meant by  ‘love in action’. It was not just words that he used but the pattern of his life reflected the love of Jesus.

 

The other day I came across a book entitled 365 Saints – a daily guide to the wisdom and wonder of their lives. So I have been reading information each day about saints I had never hear of before and often there is a little sentence or phrase that has caught my attention. I’d like to share one of these with you. It is a simple truth:

‘it is only when we are filled with love that we become the people that God created us to be.’

That seems to me to characterise Stephen, the first Christian martyr.  He  gave loving service to others and the greatest act of love that any one can show giving up one’s life for their beliefs.

 

This sacrificial act of Stephen helps us to understand part of our Gospel passage which I think contains some of the most controversial lines in the New Testament . In verse six we hear Jesus saying:

            “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father

            except through me. “

 

Today these lines can be used in an exclusive way to show that the only way to God is by belief in Jesus Christ and that no other religions apart from Christianity can lead people to God. Verse six should be read in the context that Jesus is the disciples’ route, their means of access and destination to God. It is our route too as 21st century Christians. What is unique about Christianity unlike other religions is that God became man in Jesus Christ and we therefore have Jesus as an intermediary to show us the way to God.  We do not have a great gulf between God and us; we are not reliant on our own efforts to reach God.  Other religions rely on rituals and detailed laws for the believer to find their way to God. A God who is remote and transcendent. The life-giving power of the Grace of God through Jesus Christ is a free gift available to us all. In Christianity we have a God that came down to earth to live among us. A God who knew what it was to suffer and to die in the person of his Son Jesus Christ.

 

Jesus lived his life making known God his Father to the people he met, showing by his life what it meant to usher in the Kingdom of God.  This is the Jesus that Stephen knew, the Jesus that transformed Stephen’s life.  This is the Jesus that can transform our lives, this is the way we have to follow.

 

 As the words in the Gospel passage tell us if we know Jesus then we know God. It is by putting this knowing into action in our daily lives that makes sense of this difficult gospel passage.

 

All of us can make a difference. We may be overwhelmed by the depressing news of the financial markets and the behaviour of Banks.  We may despair over global warming, the crisis in Zimbabwe, China’s record on human rights, the continuing killing of innocent people in the Gaza strip caught up between Hamas and the Israelis.   We may think that the best thing to do, especially when the weather has been so bitterly cold, is to shut our ears to the storms outside, keep warm, eat comfort food , warm some soup or open a bottle of wine.

 

But as Christians we have another solution, another resource and that resource is Jesus Christ. Jesus changes and influences our lives if only we will let him.

 

Yesterday when I was finalising this sermon I read a number of quotes from different journals and prayer diaries that I think are really helpful and give us encouragement in these bleak times:

 

Firstly, from the Office of Morning Prayer, a few verses from a Canticle based on the book of Tobit. 

 

…7.   When you turn to the Lord with all your heart and soul,

God will hid his face from you no more.

 

8.   See what the Lord has done for you and give thanks with a loud voice.

 

9.       Praise the Lord of righteousness and exalt the King of the ages….

 

So often we forget to give thanks to God or acknowledge the blessings that we have and the freedom we have to speak to God, to listen to God.

 

The second quote comes from St. Teresa of Avila,

 

            ‘Our Lord does not care so much for the importance of our works, as for the love with which they are done.’

 

Again we are back to that word Love – love in action.

 

The third quote is from the Bible Lands prayer diary for April and I have been looking at it for the last 20 days but the importance of the message only struck home yesterday.  It is by Dr. Morcos, Director of Shams El Birr, on the outskirts of Cairo, which provides education and care to children and young adults with disabilities.  Dr. Morcos wrote:

 

            ‘We experienced many times your great support for us and we cannot forget at all your fingerprints everywhere in our work. God bless you all.’

 

We never know how much our prayers and giving of money and service may mean to other people.  We often underestimate the power of prayer.  This was especially brought home to me by those few words.

 

So do not let us despair when we listen to the news and hear about the many devastating events that are taking place around the world.  Let us harness the resources that we have be it money, time, or the talents we have, or lobby our M.Ps. we can make a difference.  But whatever our age young and old we can through the power of Jesus the Christ pray for a change from evil to good and carry on praying until changes occur.  Stephen the first Christian Martyr did not just sit at home in despair, he went about in loving service to other people and let the power of the risen Lord Jesus Christ speak through him when he was put to the test.  What an example for all of us to follow.

 

Amen