Stephen's stoning and Confirmation

When I first read through the readings for this Sunday, I kind of chuckled a bit that the first reading for the Sunday on which we celebrate Confirmation is the story of the stoning of Stephen, the first “Christian” martyr.  I use “Christian” in quotation marks because the church wasn’t called Christian yet in Stephen’s time.  They were called members of the “The Way,” followers of Christ, who himself is the way and the truth and the life, as we heard this morning in our Gospel reading from John. 

When I got to thinking about things, though, the choice between preaching on a text that is very commonly used at funerals, and preaching on a text that really describes what life as a teenager can feel like some days, the way was pretty clear. 

Stephen’s story doesn’t get much play in preaching circles.  And I think that this is mostly because his story is so short.  We meet Stephen in the 6^th chapter of Acts, where he is described as a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and then 3 verses later he is arrested, he preaches to his captors, and is stoned to death by the end of Chapter 7.  In the grand scheme of the book of Acts, Stephen plays more of a cameo role than anything else.  So why even give him any pulpit time? 

I think that Stephen is important because of what he is trying to do in his sermon, which we never hear in the lectionary. 

Some have seen his speech in the 6^th and 7^th chapters of Acts as a means of pitting Christianity against Judaism.  Unfortunately, in many of these circumstances, this reading of the text has led to people seeing persecution of the Jews as justified. 

But that is not what Stephen was trying to do.  Stephen was a Jew living in a period in which there was a lot of intra-Jewish struggle over identity within the context of the person of Christ.  And so, in his sermon to those who falsely accused and arrested Stephen, he was pulling on the story of God and God’s people, Israel, as a way to defend against charges that the members of The Way were radically divisive and turning away from God’s covenant and laws. 

And he does this drawing a line between two groups of people, those who accepted God’s message and the messengers who brought this message, and those who rejected them.  For Stephen, he and the members of “The Way” were aligned with Abraham and Joseph, the prophets, and Jesus, whereas his opponents were aligned with the Egyptians, Joseph’s brothers, those who disobeyed God and Moses in the wilderness, and the ancestors who killed the prophets. 

What would your reaction be to being compared to the killers of the prophets, the Egyptians, etc., etc.? 

Granted, we don’t live in a time when literal stoning takes place in this country, but there’s still room for a good dose of anger, right? 

And what does this have to do with the four of you on the day in which you confirm your Baptismal vows?

It has to do with this question – What is your story going to be?

When you go to school tomorrow, and your friends ask about your weekend, what will you tell them?

Will you tell them “oh, it was ok…went to church, chilled with my family, you know, the normal stuff.” 

Or will you tell them about what you have done and what you are going to do today.  That you stood in front of your church family and read your own personal statement of faith.  That you spoke to us in honest words that you don’t have it all figured out, that you have questions, that you have doubts.  That you renewed the promises that your parents made for you when you were baptized, promising to continue to be active in the church and in the work that God is calling you to do. 

You have this choice, the choice to script the story you will tell to your friends in school tomorrow.  You have the choice to add whatever you wish to the script of the story that you tell the world tomorrow through your words and through your actions.

And the easy choice might be the first story, generalizations as if not much happened at all.  I’m not going to fault you for that.  This time in your life is difficult.  Around you are messages in school, on TV, in magazines, even in books, that you are supposed to be perfect, that you are supposed to measure up to a specific level of success, that in order to be considered cool by your friends and classmates, you have to fit a certain criteria.  It is easy to come home from school feeling like you have been through a figurative stoning from the words and insults that are so easily thrown at each other day in and day out.  So why take the risk of another stoning when you can just take the easy road?  I get it.  I really do. 

But here is my challenge to you.  It comes in two parts. 

The first, is to claim the gospel as your own.  And the message of the Gospel in the story of the stoning of Stephen is that in our living and in our dying, Jesus stands with us.  In our triumphs and in our defeats, Jesus stands with us.  On our best days and on our worst days, Jesus stands with us.  Jesus will not let us go it alone.  Claim this, embrace it, let it give you strength and courage as your script your story because you are all children of God, beloved, named, and claimed.    

My second challenge to you as you continue to grow in your faith throughout to be the voice of Stephen in the church.  Stephen called out the leaders of the church on where they were going astray.  As young people with faith that is still childlike (and I say that as a compliment), hang on to that faith.  Use the eyes of your faith to call the church out when you see that we could be doing better.  Help us to see the ways in which we should be serving the community but are not.  Help us to see how we can be more faithful in spreading the message of the Gospel. With your fresh eyes, you can see things that we cannot. You can tell when someone is trying to sell you a bill of goods.  And when you call out the church, we may be challenged, we may not like what we hear.  But it will lead us all into a future in which Christ and the world are better served.  And forgive us when we come up short.  Thankfully, our eternal destination is in God’s hands and not dependent on us, because we are not perfect.  And remember, you are not the future of the church, you are the church now. 

Oh, and we promise not to stone you.