Courageous Church

Sermon for 2005 April 24, St Mary Magdalen, Sheet

Bible readings: Acts 7:55-end, John 14:1-14

It’s been an exciting week, with election fever hotting up (did you notice?) and the momentous news from that other election, the choice of Pope Benedict XVI. But something much gentler struck me this week, as at last we had some lovely weather and new life literally blossoming all around. Not a new thought, but just how very beautiful and understated our countryside is. I was reading about a wonderful, fragile and beautiful kind of habitat that supports thousands of species of plants, insects, animals and birds. Now usually that sort of description of the riches of nature takes you far away, to the rain forest perhaps, or one of North America’s great national parks. But in fact I was reading about lowland heath, of which nearly 1/6 of the world’s treasure store lies within 30 or 40 miles of Petersfield. The lesson here is that we often assume that the extremes of diversity and beauty are to be found elsewhere, and we are often wrong. I think this could also be true when we are looking at characteristics of the church.

In our series we have reached the subject of courage and we look at this through the story of Stephen, who as far was we know was the first Christian martyr. There’s a problem here. There was a time perhaps when martyrdom was pure inspiration, but now we live in the age of the suicide terrorist, the person who is called a martyr by some, who gives their life for a cause but in a supremely cowardly and evil way. So however much we know that a Christian martyr is very different, the idea has become kind of tainted, and it seems to whisper to us that a story like Stephen’s is irrelevant. This is not true. A martyr is someone who gives his or her life for Christ, life in every sense.

But even if we can throw off that problem (and I hope we can), and look at Stephen, whose face was the face of an angel, it is tempting to think that we are looking at someone so wonderful, so inspirational, so special he can’t really teach us much. After all we are unlikely to face stoning for our faith. And our individual actions, however courageous, are perhaps unlikely to be a turning point in the history of the church.

But let’s just remember that illustration please, Hampshire’s "rainforest" on our doorstep. What we have is special. So as we look at Stephen’s story I want us to see how it can make St Mary Magdalen Sheet a more courageous church.

We read the amazing story of Stephen’s death, but it’s worth reading just the two chapters of Acts (6 and 7) that tell us more of his life. Let me give a quick potted history.

From Stephen’s life and death there are three kinds of courage I would like to draw out for us. These three kinds of courage were shown not just in his death but in his life, and that is where we come in because, we hope, we will not have to die for our faith as Stephen did (though you never know). The three kinds of courage are:

First, the courage to do God’s work. We are told that Stephen was full of faith and the Holy Spirit, full of God’s grace and power, and that he did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people. In a world class company or a political party these attributes might be expected to take him right to the top. But it’s interesting, the role that Stephen had. He graciously accepted something perhaps less glamorous than being in the front line of evangelism – responsibility for the distribution of food. To accept God’s will in this way is an act of humility and obedience but it actually also requires courage – courage not to fear being passed over, courage to step out of the limelight perhaps. Courage to listen – if you’ve never thought of listening as being a courageous act, contrast it with the cowardice of the mob who could not bear to hear Stephen’s description of his glorious vision, so they covered their ears and made as much noise as possible. This courage is something the Holy Spirit can give us – an assurance that by simply being obedient to God’s call , maybe giving up on a chance for power and influence, we need not fear that we’re missing out.

Second, the courage to tell God’s story. Stephen may have had a humble role for much of the time, but his moment did come and he was thrust into the limelight. But instead of rushing to his own defence he simply told the story of the wonderful acts of God by opening the Scriptures to his accusers. He told them the story of Abraham and Joseph and Moses and Joshua and Solomon, but he was uncompromising when he came to Jesus: "And now you have betrayed and murdered him" he said. This was too much for them – they were furious and gnashed their teeth. Stephen had the courage to tell the story, the Holy Spirit gave him the words and he did not flinch from telling the truth. We too need the courage to tell God’s story. Nobody claims this is easy, which is why we are setting up some help in this area in our church family. The home groups are concentrating on the whole area of evangelism, and Sue Stanley and I will be running a course called Lost for Words which gently helps us to share our faith – by the way this is something both Sue and I feel we need as much as anyone. The courage to tell God’s story is something Stephen showed with spectacular consequences but it is just important for us – we will have different hearers but they will need to hear the story as much as Stephen’s audience did, and God has chosen us to be where we are and among the people we are with.

Thirdly, the courage to show God’s mercy. The story of Stephen’s death that we heard is immensely moving. The incredible ignorance and cruelty and cowardice of those who dragged him out and threw stones at him, and who could not cope with the vision he had. Compare that with Stephen’s last words, not revenge, not pleading for them to show mercy on him, but pleading for God to show mercy to them. And that took courage. Publicly to declare mercy and forgiveness to those who certainly did not deserve it. It may be that we think that our opportunities to show that kind of mercy are somewhat limited. I’m not so sure. Think of any situation where you have some power and influence. It may be at work, at home, in a club or society, or in the organization or structure of the church. In all those situations conflicts can arise and we have the choice between doing what best supports our position (which might be strongly and honestly felt) or to be a listener, a reconciler, a peacemaker, one who forbears, shows mercy. This is not a cop-out. Remember how unyielding Stephen was when he condemned the actions of those who had killed Jesus, but when it came to an opportunity to show mercy to those same merciless people, he took it.

So you see, Stephen’s story is closer to home than we might think. It is close to home because in the end Stephen was just a man, a human being like you and me. It’s remarkable how every time someone is given an award for bravery, what they will always stress is how ordinary they are, they were only doing their job, and so on. And we might well disagree and say no, no, that really was exceptional. But in a way they’re right – while nobody wants to downplay what they might have done, they would probably want to remind us that we too have the capacity for great things. Stephen was one of the first who proved Jesus’ promise that we heard in our Gospel reading, that anyone who has faith in him (that’s us folks) will do greater things than he did.

In a short while we will have our annual church meeting. Let us pray that in the decisions we make we will have the courage to allow the Holy Spirit to build a church that does God’s work, tells God’s story and shows God’s mercy to our waiting village and town.