In the name of the Risen Lord. Amen.
Jesus
said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” For very good reasons, John 14:6
is a famous and foundational verse of Scripture. For one, it’s got three words:
way, truth, and life. Three is a good Biblical number, and it’s also easy to
remember a list of 3 things. And those words all have so much heft – we want to
go the right way, we want to know the truth, and we want to receive life. And while
a great sermon could be preached by really diving deep into each of those words
or by focusing on how Jesus is preparing a place for us to dwell with God, this
morning I want to use the passage we heard from Acts as an illustrative case
study for what it means that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
The
section of Acts that we heard this morning is just a snippet of the larger
story. There has never been such a thing as the “golden era” of the Church.
Widows and those in need were not being properly cared for by the community,
perhaps even being taken advantage of. So a group of people are appointed and ordained
to serve those in need. In Greek, the word for “serve” is diakonos, where we get our word for “deacon.” One of these first
deacons is Stephen, who Luke, the author of Acts, tells us was “full of grace
and power, and did wonders and signs among the people.” Well, anytime someone
is garnering that much attention, hostilities often arise out of jealousy or
skepticism.
Some
people started to argue with Stephen, but they were being easily out-debated.
So they instigated some people to accuse him of blasphemy. In the context of the
Bible, the word “blasphemy” is similar to the word “impeach” in our world – it raises
tensions and once the idea is out there, people don’t drop it. So they arrest
Stephen and bring him before the Sanhedrin, the council. A false witness is
brought out to accuse him and most of Acts 7 is Stephen’s response. He tells
the history of Israel, beginning with Abraham and going through Jacob, Joseph,
Moses, Joshua, Solomon and ends his speech by saying, “You stiff-necked people,
uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just
as your ancestors used to do.” He then calls them betrayers and murderers for
killing the Messiah, and says that is it actually they who are not keeping the
law of God. The final straw is when he looks up towards heaven and says that he
sees Jesus, the Son of Man, standing at the right hand of God, which, for them,
is blasphemy.
Well,
Congress might have subpoena power, but the council has stoning power, which is
where we pick up in today’s reading. They dragged him outside the city walls
and stoned Stephen to death. It was Emily Dickinson who wrote, “Tell all the
truth but tell it slant.” Well, that’s what Stephen does. He tells the truth of
story of Jesus, but he tells us from the angle of knowing that Jesus is the
Messiah, which is not how the authorities saw it. Christians come at things
from different angles. We have known the love of God in Jesus, we have
experienced the movements of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we know that the
poor are not to be pitied but cared for, we know that forgiveness is our
calling. Thus, Christians see the world slanted from how others do, and there
is often some tension between how Christians see the world and how others do.
Stephen shows us the worst of how this tension is resolved.
Stephen’s
killing is a cautionary tale for us as it shows us the evils that can be done,
and excused, when we think we are right. Those who stoned Stephen were not
arrested for an act of vigilante justice. No, what they did was licit. Earlier
this week, I remarked that the question is not “what am I allowed to do?” but
rather, “what should I do.” So often we misunderstand freedom. Freedom is not
about being able to do whatever you want to do. That’s just being captive to
your desires. True freedom is about being able to pursue the abundant life that
God intends for us.
Yes,
according to their rules, Stephen was guilty of blasphemy, which was
condemnable by death. But that doesn’t mean it was the Godly thing to do. This
is something to bear in mind as we are having conversations about reopening our
businesses, parks, and churches. To be clear, I’m speaking here about ethics,
not economics or politics. Of course, economics and politics are a part of the
equation. But ethics must always be in the driver’s seat, not merely a passenger
that gets taken to where our desires would take us. More than anything, we
value life. In our Baptismal covenant, we affirm that the way of faith is to “strive
for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human
being.” Such a declaration means that no person is expendable, that no preventable
death is excusable. These, I know, are hard conversations. As you listen and
make decisions, remember, because of the Death and Resurrection of our Lord,
Jesus Christ, we see things slant.
As
he is dying, Stephen says, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” He dies
with forgiveness on his lips for those who are killing him. Stephen, like all
of us, is a forgiven forgiver, and that is our Christian vocation. First always
comes that blessed assurance that we are forgiven by God. Our woundedness will
be worked out on others if we do not recognize that God has already taken care
of those wounds. There is nothing that we have to earn or accomplish to be
successful or worthy of love. The sooner we can see others not as our competitors,
but as our brothers and sisters, the closer we’ll come to the idea of being the
beloved community of God. As Martin Luther King said, beloved community is only
possible when reconciliation and forgiveness are present. In Jesus, we have
been reconciled to God and one another. When that reconciliation, that
forgiveness, that enoughness is at the core of our self-identity, we can see
others in a way that is slanted by God’s redeeming love, offering to them that
same forgiveness that we have been given.
Stephen
then dies and the Church remembers him as a martyr. “Martyr” is an interesting
word because it means “witness.” Stephen is remembered as a witness to Jesus.
This not surprising given that the details of his death parallel Jesus’ own.
But more than this, Stephen’s life and death are a witness, a testimony, to what
it means that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
Jesus
is the way. Before the followers of Jesus were called “Christians,” they were
known as being a part of a group called “the Way.” That word means journey,
road, or way of life. This is what Jesus says that he is. As always, grace is
operative here. In John, Jesus tells us that he has gone to prepare a place for
us, and he will come and bring us to himself. So it’s not like following Jesus
is like that Robert Frost poem where two roads diverge and we have to choose
which to walk. That might be a fitting metaphor for life, but not for faith. Jesus
is the path and he will bring us along it himself. It is a path of steadfast
love, of selfless dying, of abundant grace, of new life. Jesus does not show us
the way, he is the way; both the road we travel and the car that takes us
there. Stephen is a witness to this way when he testifies to it, even at the
cost of his life. We witness to the way of Jesus when we commit ourselves to
loving, to forgiving, to caring for the vulnerable, to valuing all lives.
Jesus
is the truth. In the Greek of John’s writing, the word truth means “not
forgetting.” In the beginning, God saw all that had been made and said it was
all “very good.” That which is ultimately true is rooted in this goodness of God’s
creation. When we claim that something is true, we don’t simply mean it is
factually correct, we mean it is aligned with God’s purposes. And Jesus is true
in this sense. This is why Jesus says, “I am in the Father and Father is in me.”
Jesus helps us to remember what is true about God – love, mercy, and peace.
These things are true and worthy of our attention and prioritization. Stephen
witnesses to this truth as he connects the vision of Jesus to the glory of the
God of Israel seen throughout history. We encounter truth not when we win
debates, but rather when we say and do things at connect us with holiness –
things like “Thank you,” “I’m sorry,” “I love you,” and “Praise God.”
And
Jesus says that he is the life. He is vitality and livelihood. Today’s Collect
begins by noting that to know God is everlasting life. If we know God, or more
precisely, since we are known by God, we are held in everlasting love. The law
of conservation of mass states that matter can neither be created nor
destroyed; well, the laws of love says that anything that is loved by God never
be forgotten or destroyed. This is what eternal life is – always being in God’s
presence. Now, what exactly that looks like, I can’t say for certain. But Stephen
trusts that Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, his source and destination, the
totality of his life, and so he asks Jesus to receive his spirit as his own
life is ending. Abundant and eternal life is found in Jesus, this is our sure
foundation so that we can live knowing that all shall be well.
The
thing about Jesus being the way, truth, and life is that it’s not an intellectual
proposition, it’s meant as a means of experiencing God’s grace in this world.
Our parish identity statement is rooted in this: Come and see the difference
Christ makes. Jesus makes all the difference because he guides us along his way
of flourishing. His truth reminds us of God’s never-failing love and mercy towards
us. His life is one in which we will not die forever. St. Stephen knew these
things which is what enabled his witness for which we still remember him 2,000
years later. By God’s grace, you and I will be witnesses to Jesus Christ in our
own day; indeed, Jesus tells his disciples that we will do even greater things
by being connected to him. When you are looking for direction, for inspiration,
for hope, for strength, pray to Jesus, and ask for his way, his truth, and his
life to be your own.
