NL 341: The Stoning of Stephen - Acts 6:1-7:2, 44-60
image: “Stoning of Saint Stephen” from Sant Joan de Boí Wikimedia Commons
April 18, 2021
Acts 6:1-7:2
Initial Thoughts
This is a VERY long reading. It includes Stephen’s sermon and his death.
The utopian community of Acts 4 sure didn’t last long
Bible Study
Literary Context
If Luke is the “Good News of Jesus Christ,” Acts could be thought of as “The Good News of The Holy Spirit” or “The Good News of the Church.”
Early narrative about the fledgling Christian community
Most scholars do not use Acts as a reliable historical source.
Peter and John are the apparent leaders of the new community. They do much of the action in the first four chapters.
Chapter 5 includes the first big controversy - Ananias and Sapphira holding back the sale of their property. It also includes the response of the high priest to this new group of Jewish people forming within their community.The first arrest of the apostles and rising tension between the Jewish authorities and the early Christians, who “did not cease to proclaim Jesus as the Messiah.”
“Chapter five ends with absurdity. The apostles who were incarcerated and whipped afterward rejoiced. They were treated like criminals and disobedient slaves and yet with perfect clarity they understood that their lives were now fully joined to the life of Jesus, a life of glaring dishonor. Something utterly path-breaking was taking place in and with them. Honor systems were being turned upside down and torn apart, freeing people from their caste-making power, and criminality and slavery were being collapsed onto God and those who preach Jesus the Christ, freeing people from their identity-constiuting power. The apostles follow a God who has broken the binaries of honorable and dishonorable people, criminal and good citizen, master and slave…. A new way of understanding and living life was emerging around these apostles.” (Willie James Jennings, Belief, A Theological Commentary on the Bible: Acts, Westminster John Knox Press, p 64)
6:1-7 The selection of Deacons
A second conflict within the community (now a more general tension, not just an individual matter)
Seven named to help the “widows,” which could be a general term to refer to all of the poor who are in need of assistance.
Of the seven men selected, only Stephen and Phillip are mentioned again. Stephen’s story is told this week. Phillip’s story with the Ethiopian eunuch, will be told next week.
This is the only place where the diakonein (or derivatives) “ are used with respect to distribution of food to the poor. Rather the diakonos was ‘a person who functioned as an agent of a higher-ranking person,...as a messenger or diplomat’ (Malina and Pilph, 55)” “Acts of the Apostles” Women’s Bible Commentary p. 540
The focus here is unclear-is the appointment of disciples about choosing who will serve or who will lead?
“Serving at tables (6:2) can be a euphemism for banking and the ongoing disputes in the community, up to this point in Luke’s narrative, have concerned money, not food.” “Acts of the Apostles” Women’s Bible Commentary, p.540
Or is this another example of the early Christain community subverting the typical understandings of position and power. In other words, is this passage about both leading and serving: to be an agent or diplomat or ambassador (2 Corinthians 5:2) of Jesus doesn’t mean a position of power (over the finances or leading), but rather the feeding and care of the most vulnerable (e.g. the widows)
6:8-15 Stephen seized and brought before the council
Recurring theme: The power of the Holy Spirit is in action:
Grace and power” leads to “signs and wonders”“Stephen appears as the agent of the new order. He is a servant with grace and power who will perform Jesus. He will gesture so deeply of the divine life made incarnate that he will expose the complex pain of Diaspora. That pain grows out of the ever necessary work of securing a people’s identity against the constant threat of dilution or destruction.” (Jennings, p. 66)
Acts 7:44-60 The stoning of Stephen
Bible Study
Skips most of his speech, which recounts Israel’s history:
2-8 = Abraham
9-16 = Joseph
17-43 = Moses and Exodus
Stephen emphasizes the struggle Moses had with the people, and their constant misunderstanding.
Ends the story with utter disobedience and the people worshiping the calf, and ties that to the exile (which is a dubious understanding of exile and skips an awful lot of history).
Why was Stephen stoned?
Build up to his final condemnation:
His retelling shifts from “our people” to “you people”
“You are ‘uncircumcised in your heart’ (interesting argument considering future controversies with Paul and Jerusalem council)
You killed prophets
You opposed the Holy Spirit
You received the law but did not keep it.
When accused of speaking against Torah and threatening the Temple, he turns the accusations instead to them.
The first Martyr - Gk - witness
Tells the story of God’s saving actions, with people’s unwillingness to follow.
Connecting Jesus to Moses - just as the people rejected Moses, so they rejected Jesus.
Stephen preaching reform - of the Way of Jesus as being rightly Jewish over the Temple and the Law
“What would you do to protect your people and your faith from a threat to their existence? The church has often failed to see in this moment not an analogy but the reality out of which it comes to be church. We will be born in the tight space between faith and fear and forever lies in that space. Only the Holy Spirit keeps that space from collapsing us in” Willie Jennings, Acts
“For the contemporary Christian audience, it is crucial to observe that in his speech, Stephen is not pitting Christianity over against Judaism as though they were two distinct religions. The debate depicted by Luke in Acts 6-7 is an intra-Jewish struggle over identity and the continuing role of Temple and Law; to label it otherwise is anachronistic.” Mikeal Parsons, (Working Preacher)
When Luke/Acts was written, the Temple had been destroyed, and the church was under persecution.
verse 56 Jesus is “standing at the right hand of God.”
John Calvin claimed this was a minor detail and nothing should be made of it.
Ambrose observed: “Jesus stood as a helpmate; he stood as if anxious to help Stephen, his athlete, in the struggle. He stood as though ready to crown his martyr. Let him then stand for you that you may not fear him sitting, for he sits when he judges” Mikeal Parsons, (Working Preacher)
“He sits as Judge of the quick and the dead; he stands as his people’s Advocate”
Stephen’s and Jesus’s death parallels in Luke/Acts
False accusation
Jesus
Stephen
Trust in God
Jesus: “Into your hands, Father, I commend my spirit.” (Luke 23:46)
Stephen: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
Right hand of God
Jesus during trial: “The Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the Father.” (Lk 22:69).
Stephen culminates his testimony; "I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!" (Acts 7:56)
Forgiveness
Jesus on the cross: “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (luke 23:34)
Stephen being stoned: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”
Centurion watching Jesus, “Surely this man was innocent.” (Lk 23:48)
Saul watching Stephen (Acts 7:58)
What does the ugly violence of this act mean to us today?
“Death is not dead yet, neither is evil or pain. They may be doomed, but they are still very pervasive realities, with which men and women must deal daily.” (Beverly Gaventa, Texts for Preaching, Year A, p. 293).
Not all good works are met with joy and grace.
Death of Stephen though, is not one of evil triumphant - Stephen’s witness to Jesus occurs not in his trial, but in his death
Forgiveness
Trust in God
Grace and forgiveness of Stephen has been a source of inspiration for two thousand years
What effect does this have?
Unknown - simply Saul approved of the killing
Thoughts and Questions
Willie James Jennings, Acts: “The church was born in the tight space between faith and fear and forever lives in that space. Only the Holy Spirit keeps that space from collapsing in on us.” Do we feel that tension? Do we fear only the loss of institutional power, or do we fear something more existential, more rooted in God’s justice and shalom? If our only fear is to keep the budgets filled and doors open, then perhaps our fear is misplaced, and we are no longer “The Church,” but a club grasping for relevance in a world that no longer needs us.
Awkward responses to the Spirit:
Response to Peter’s sermon is explosive growth and building of community.
Response to Stephen’s rise is jealousy, culminating in an ugly, violent act.
Response to the gospel is not always positive.
Is the church prepared for an ugly and violent response to the Good News?
Just because the response is negative, doesn’t mean you are doing it wrong
Was Stephen stoned for blasphemy? Or for being prophetic and judgemental instead of pastoral and loving?
Jesus is placed in the same arc as Moses and the prophets, as the culmination - not as the replacement.
Opening music: Misirlou, One Man 90 Instruments by Joe Penna/MysteryGuitarMan at MIM
Closing Song by Bryan Odeen