If you’re unlucky you have a birthday on February 29. Perhaps that is also true of those whose birthday falls on Boxing Day. You may get less than your fair share of presents but there will be some compensation. You will be in the company of a man identified with the new way, the way of Christ. Like Isambard Kingdom Brunel, ushering in God’s Wonderful Railway and putting the world on rails; like Henry Ford manufacturing the Model T and putting the population on rubber tyres; like Tim Berners-Lee putting us all in his debt as beneficiaries of the world wide web, Stephen was in at the birth of the Gospel message and the beginning of a new era. It is not his birthday that counts – we don’t know when that was. It’s his place in the calendar. He is Boxing Day man.
In Stephen’s time citizens of Jerusalem belonged to one of two language groups. Alexander the Great had pursued a Hellenizing policy. In Jerusalem as elsewhere this had resulted in Greek-speaking Jews who needed an interpreter to explain the Scripture readings in the synagogues. The other group were the conservative group who spoke Aramaic and were at home with the traditional way of doing things.
When the Church came into being, this division applied to the new believers. Seven Greek-speaking Christian believers were appointed in an endeavour to bring the two groups together. Stephen was one of them. Such was his influence that his opponents brought him before the Council for betraying, as they saw it, the traditional faith. He knew his subject and could meet his opponents on their own ground. They particularly objected to his point that God did not dwell in houses made with hands nor was he solely concerned with the well-being of the chosen people in the Promised Land. Stephen made the case for a universal Gospel, for the inclusive nature of the Church of believing people.
It was too much. His audience gave a great shout, stopped their ears and set about stoning him. Praying to God to forgive his executioners, Stephen died a martyr’s death.
Saul was among those who approved of his execution.
This happened before the four Gospels were written, before the centre of Christian activity switched from Jerusalem to Antioch. The two groups in Jerusalem found it hard to agree about the direction the Church should take. Peter and Paul found themselves at odds over it.
Stephen’s s example encourages us in our generation as we go about revising some of our habits and assumptions as a result of the coronavirus crisis.
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