Stories of Life

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on sunday April 20, 2008, the 5th Sunday of Easter.

Acts 7:55-60
Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16
1Peter 2:2-10
John 14:1-14

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

Stories have been one of the great mediums of history. From the ancient Greeks and the fables of Aesop, the epic poetry of Homer, and the tragedies of Sophocles; ancient history has been filled with those who would entertain and teach through stories. In modern times, this still exists but in new media including print, celluloid, video, and digital formats. One of the most delicious connections between the ancient and modern is the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou,” the Coen Brother’s film adaptation of Homer’s “The Odyssey.”

Our readings from Acts and John are wonderful narratives, stories about the early church. But to get a more complete picture of our reading from Acts, it is important to review the beginning of the story.

At the end of Acts 6, Stephen appears before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Council of Elders. According to the scripture, “[The Council] set up false witnesses who said, ‘This man never stops saying things against this holy place and the law; for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses handed on to us.’” The High Priest asks Stephen if this is true and Stephen begins to testify.

Stephen begins by telling the story of Abraham, the story of the beginnings of the nation of Israel. He reminds the Council of the covenant between Abraham and the Lord. He tells them of the patriarchs, the sons of Abraham who would be the fathers of the twelve tribes. He told of selling Joseph into slavery and his ascension to Pharaoh’s right hand over all of Egypt.

Stephen reminded them of Moses being raised by Pharaoh’s daughter, instructed in all of the wisdom of the Egyptians. He told of Moses fleeing into the land of Midian. He tells the council of how Moses received the Lord’s commission, and how he led Israel out of Egypt to the Promised Land receiving the Law.

Stephen told of the people’s disobedience in the desert. He called them a stiff-necked people, a people who could not be turned from their own ill devices even when yoked like oxen. Stephen told the Council of Elders the story of their very own salvation. He told them the story of their life together as the people of God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He testified to the many great victories of the Lord the council represents and protects from the scandal of Jesus.

You’ve got to imagine they were quite pleased with themselves. The rebel rouser Stephen is capitulating to the pressure of the superior authority of the council. They would have his apology before they passed their judgment against him and his heresy, the lies he spoke.

As the Sanhedrin heard the story they loved to hear, today we hear the story we love to hear; the story of the Father’s house, the story of the way, the truth, and the life. These are the stories of our lives, of our salvation, and of the one who provides it for us through his life, his work, his death, and his victory over death. Through this, Jesus invites us not to be troubled saying, “Believe in God, and believe also in me.”

One of the great promises people hold onto from these verses is that “in the Father’s house there are many rooms.” One of the times I heard this scripture was at the funeral of a friend named Phillip Berg,[1] a funeral held twenty-three years ago today. The minister told us all that Phil had gone to help prepare the room promised for all of us in heaven. The minister told this story as if Phil had gone on to be a carpenter’s assistant in the Kingdom so that we could have nice digs when it came our time to move in. In his death he was going to help prepare a place for our death.

But you know, our God is the Lord of life, not death.

In a way, I prefer the New Living Translation’s interpretation of this verse. It says, “There is more than enough room in my Father’s home.”

To the ancient Jews, the Father’s house was not a physical structure; it’s the Father’s family. Jesus is telling all who will hear that his Father has more than enough room for everyone in his family. The beloved Son shares the truth of his Father’s love, there is room enough for everyone in the family of God.

Jesus is able to welcome all of us into the Father’s house because he has made the way for us. Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

As Jesus tells his disciples no one comes to the Father except through him, he is telling them, the church, and the world that through his work, through his way, through his life, death, and resurrection, he opens the way so that we may all come to the Father.

Often when the church reads this verse, it is read with a twinge of exclusivity. It is read “when we accept that Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, we are welcomed into the Father’s house.” It focuses on what we do to accept grace. This reading is flawed. Instead of focusing on what we have to do to take a gift, we must first focus on the gift, on what Jesus has freely given, the gift of grace.

Jesus is the way to the Father’s house, the Father’s family. In this we are all the sons and daughters of God Almighty and brothers and sisters of Jesus our Lord. Jesus has provided the way for us whether we ask for it or not.

There is nothing we can do to ask for or accept the gift of grace which is given long before our ability to accept it. Jesus tells us that he is the way before we ever knew that such a way existed, much less before we knew we needed it. The gift of grace was given to us before we could ever think to ask for it.

We cannot initiate the motion the Father started long before our creation. It is impossible to accept what we have all ready been given. What we must do is respond to the gift of grace and the one who freely gives it. One of the ways we do this is to be the church, the body of Christ in the world sharing the good news of our Lord with a world that doesn’t necessarily want to hear it.

Recognizing the gift we have received, we are called to respond to this great gift of grace and peace offered freely from the darkness of the manger, the waters of the Jordan, the plate and cup of the upper room, the foot of the cross, and here today.

Stephen then told the council, “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it.”

He had gone from telling the story they wanted to hear, the story they are familiar with, the story of their salvation, to telling them that they had betrayed and murdered the one they had been sent to recognize and worship. The council had gone from hearing the story of their life to hearing a story of their death; and they were not amused. Scripture says they ground their teeth.

This is when Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, saw the same images Jesus saw at his baptism, he saw the glory of God. And he also saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. After being dragged outside, they began to stone him. Stephen prayed “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” echoing the words Jesus spoke on the cross before he declared it finished and surrendered his soul.

Stephen responded. He spoke the words of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He testifies that the Scribes, the Pharisees, and all of the Council were the ones who killed the one sent to save them. This is not the story of Stephen’s death but of his life. I

t is the story that shows that there is room in the Father’s family for one and all. And in response to this promise, Stephen was faithful, faithful even unto death. The same way the Messiah, his Lord and ours, was faithful, faithful even unto death.

Yes, this faithfulness can lead to our death, but as the story of Stephen shows, this story of martyrdom is not a story of death, but a story of life. He lived the life eternal while on earth and, as testified by his vision shared in scripture, he continues to live life eternal.

It is through these stories of life, the life eternal lived by Stephen, the resurrected life of Jesus the Christ, the life lived in the Father’s house, that Jesus invites us not to be troubled saying, “Believe in God, and believe also in me.”

In the Father’s house, the family of God and the body of Christ we come to know through scripture read, water splashed, bread broken, and wine poured; that we are given the free gift of life so that when our hearts are troubled, we can trust him completely as the way, the truth, and the life.

[1] Phillip A. Berg died in Emporia, Kansas on April 17, 1985 at the age of 19 and was buried in Neodesha, Kansas three days later. He died of an aortic aneurism, a complication of Marfan syndrome, a bone elongation disease. When he died he was 7’ 1” tall (2.16 meters) and weighed about 125 pounds (56.7 kilos). He was a fraternity brother, one of my pledge sons, and a great friend.