Thursday, December 26 
ST. STEPHEN’S DAY
Title: CHRIST’S LOVE OVERFLOWS THROUGH THE FIRST MARTYRS
Scripture: Matthew 2: 16-18, Acts 7: 54-60
Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the magi. Then what had been spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children; and she refused to be comforted, because they were no more.”

Now when they heard this, they were cut to the quick, and they began gnashing their teeth at Stephen. But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” But they cried out with a loud voice, and covered their ears and rushed at him with one impulse. When they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him; and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” Having said this, he fell asleep.

Poetry: 
Sorrow Song 
by Lucille Clifton

for the eyes of the children,
the last to melt,
the last to vaporize,
for the lingering
eyes of the children, staring,
the eyes of the children of
buchenwald,
of viet nam and johannesburg,
for the eyes of the children
of nagasaki,
for the eyes of the children
of middle passage,
for cherokee eyes, ethiopian eyes,
russian eyes, american eyes,
for all that remains of the children,
their eyes,
staring at us, amazed to see
the extraordinary evil in
ordinary men.

LOVE GOES TO WAR

The angels who sang “peace on earth” to shepherds were not pacifists, in any normal sense. They are God’s military as well as his choir: they cast devils from heaven and carry God’s messages into hostile kingdoms. And, that holy night, their peace song was a threat to the world of war and death. It was a battle cry for peace breaking into the war-world by force. At last, justice had turned itself to destroy injustice. Love had turned to destroy hate. Humility had turned to vanquish pride. Invading Adam’s ruined house, God was made man. May the poor rejoice! May the powerful panic.

They did panic. Right from the start, powerful people —secular and religious— saw Jesus as a threat. Pleased with their places in the kingdom of injustice, they became willful but unwitting defenders of man against God.

The scale of the threat they saw was immense. To them, Jesus meant the overthrow of the throne or the corruption of the temple.

Herod had brought wealth to Israel. He had rebuilt its holy places. He had chased robbers out of the countryside. He had defended Jewish identity from absorption by Rome. He kept what he thought of as peace. Now a supposedly-prophesied competitor-king threatened his work and the stability of his kingdom.

The Sanhedrin, remembering how Ezra and Nehemiah led Israel out of captivity through the strict observance of the Law, had turned Rome-ruled Jews back to strict observances. They were purifying God’s people for a new deliverance, when along comes a Law-flaunting, blaspheming heretic, leading the people into new idolatries.

These secular and religious reforms seemed so surpassingly good, so clearly used by God, so necessary to the incremental improvement of the world, that it seemed worth killing any upstarts who threatened them. So, for the sake of the peace and the Law, they turned themselves to destroy the threat. Herod killed every possibly-prophesied baby. The Jewish religious leaders killed Jesus and began a campaign to kill his followers. For the good of the people, they defended the temple and the throne. They went to war

Of course, they were wrong. The threat they battled was Peace and Goodwill and New Man himself. For peace, they turned against Peace. For holiness, they turned against the Holy. Blind and hard-hearted, they killed babies and saints, perversely thinking they did God’s work.

But they were right about one thing: Jesus is a threat to the world as we know it. He does set himself against the kingdoms of this world, and the old, corrupt humanity we inherit. He is not content to improve our standing inside this world of death. He wants to free us from it utterly.

The incarnation is an incredible comfort not because it allows us to take this life easy, but because it gives hope that we (of all people!) can be saved out of our flawed flesh and broken cultures into new, uncompromised life. More like a lifebuoy than a cozy blanket, this comfort asks us to lay aside our old allegiances and our old ways of life to cling to Jesus, the suffering Prince of Peace.

Stephen received that heavenly comfort. It is because he had already died to his creature comforts, old thoughts, old patterns of control, old allegiances, and old ways of life that Stephen was able to face death with peace. It is because he had renounced the very world that the powerful were defending that he was able to return their violence with forgiveness. He had already surrendered his old body to the crucifixion of Christ, so it was a small thing to have it taken from him by futile force. He was reclining in peace on the mercy of Jesus.

Christmas is the beginning of Love’s conquest. It’s the beginning of the conquest of the world, and it’s also the beginning of the conquest of each human heart. By entering your broken reality, dying to it for you, and showing you the way of resurrection, Jesus makes it possible for you to lay aside the injustice, war, and hatred inside yourself and follow him to freedom. But we must lay it aside. Do not defend yourself against God, even the parts of you that seem best. Do not desire to participate in the kingdom of injustice, where innocents are murdered and holiness is hated. Do not cling to your body of death. Renounce them, seek him, and like Stephen, live.

Prayer
Conquer my heart, my Christ. You came in humility to make a way through my pride into liberty. Help me unclench my hands from this world of death so I can cling to you. In my living and in my dying, make me like your servant Stephen, I pray.
Amen.

Peter David Gross
Executive Director of Wheatstone Ministries

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