But filled with the Holy Spirit, he [Stephen] gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. "Look," he said, "I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!" But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he died.
Martyr. It’s a word which evokes a variety of emotions and connotations though has a fairly straightforward meaning. Martyr, of course, means giving one’s life for one’s faith or beliefs. The origins of the word are a little less straightforward. Martyr comes to us from the Greek language via Late Latin and Old English. Originally it meant “witness.” That’s all. Someone who witnesses to their faith.
Today we heard about the first Christian martyr, Stephen, who was indeed a witness but truly a martyr in the narrow sense of the word. Stephen had just preached a sermon that was quite inflammatory. His hearers, including the Sanhedrin Council, were incensed and quickly moved to action. In fact, the verse just prior to our reading this morning says, “When they heard these things [i.e. Stephen’s sermon], they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen.” It’s a short distance, evidently, between teeth grinding and stoning someone.
Standing there, it’s interesting to note, was a young man named Saul. Saul became the coatcheck for the teeth grinders and stoners but would have been more than pleased at the scene before him. At this point, Saul was a zealot for chasing down and condemning the Jews who were following this resurrected Christ. Saul later changed through a rather miraculous event and became a zealot for the same Christ he had been persecuting. He had a name change through it all and became known as Paul, the same Paul who wrote several of the letters that are in the New Testament. But back to Stephen.
Did Stephen know he was going to get in such trouble as he preached to the Sanhedrin Council that day? Did he really expect that he’d be stoned to death because of what he said? Who knows? I tend to doubt it. I think it all took Stephen by surprise and in a whirlwind of activity it was all over. But it wasn’t over before he saw the heavens open presumably to receive him and he had the chance to utter his last words, words of forgiveness for those who were about to kill him. Echoes of Jesus’ baptism and crucifixion there as the heavens opened for the first event and Jesus said the same thing almost word for word on the cross as Stephen said as the rocks came flying.
Earlier this week, Allen and I watched a PBS program on the Freedom Riders, those brave souls who fifty years ago struck out to break down the segregation and Jim Crow laws of the deep South at the time. In the early 1960s, buses in Alabama and Mississippi were segregated; the front of the bus for whites and the back for blacks. There were also separate waiting rooms for the races, as well as separate drinking fountains and separate rest rooms in bus and train stations. The Freedom Riders were both Euro-Americans and African-Americans who rode the buses together ignoring the segregation rules.
If you know your history, this did not sit too well in the deep South. Almost immediately, upon crossing the state line into Alabama, there was trouble. Buses carrying the Freedom Riders were surrounded and attacked. The Riders themselves risked their lives as the buses were fire-bombed and they themselves were beaten and assaulted. The police colluded with the attackers, who were sometimes dressed in Ku Klux Klan garb. There was no protection for the Freedom Riders from police or the government.
Another pastor, Alvin Jackson of Park Avenue Christian Church in New York, wrote in a weekly email newsletter this week about the Freedom Riders. He wrote:
Today we heard about the first Christian martyr, Stephen, who was indeed a witness but truly a martyr in the narrow sense of the word. Stephen had just preached a sermon that was quite inflammatory. His hearers, including the Sanhedrin Council, were incensed and quickly moved to action. In fact, the verse just prior to our reading this morning says, “When they heard these things [i.e. Stephen’s sermon], they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen.” It’s a short distance, evidently, between teeth grinding and stoning someone.
Standing there, it’s interesting to note, was a young man named Saul. Saul became the coatcheck for the teeth grinders and stoners but would have been more than pleased at the scene before him. At this point, Saul was a zealot for chasing down and condemning the Jews who were following this resurrected Christ. Saul later changed through a rather miraculous event and became a zealot for the same Christ he had been persecuting. He had a name change through it all and became known as Paul, the same Paul who wrote several of the letters that are in the New Testament. But back to Stephen.
Did Stephen know he was going to get in such trouble as he preached to the Sanhedrin Council that day? Did he really expect that he’d be stoned to death because of what he said? Who knows? I tend to doubt it. I think it all took Stephen by surprise and in a whirlwind of activity it was all over. But it wasn’t over before he saw the heavens open presumably to receive him and he had the chance to utter his last words, words of forgiveness for those who were about to kill him. Echoes of Jesus’ baptism and crucifixion there as the heavens opened for the first event and Jesus said the same thing almost word for word on the cross as Stephen said as the rocks came flying.
Earlier this week, Allen and I watched a PBS program on the Freedom Riders, those brave souls who fifty years ago struck out to break down the segregation and Jim Crow laws of the deep South at the time. In the early 1960s, buses in Alabama and Mississippi were segregated; the front of the bus for whites and the back for blacks. There were also separate waiting rooms for the races, as well as separate drinking fountains and separate rest rooms in bus and train stations. The Freedom Riders were both Euro-Americans and African-Americans who rode the buses together ignoring the segregation rules.
If you know your history, this did not sit too well in the deep South. Almost immediately, upon crossing the state line into Alabama, there was trouble. Buses carrying the Freedom Riders were surrounded and attacked. The Riders themselves risked their lives as the buses were fire-bombed and they themselves were beaten and assaulted. The police colluded with the attackers, who were sometimes dressed in Ku Klux Klan garb. There was no protection for the Freedom Riders from police or the government.
Another pastor, Alvin Jackson of Park Avenue Christian Church in New York, wrote in a weekly email newsletter this week about the Freedom Riders. He wrote:
When the bus reached Jackson, Mississippi, Peter Stoner rose and walked toward the exit. He was scared, but he was determined to keep a brave face, if not for himself, then for the other riders.
As he walked off the bus, he counted down the steps: 3, 2, 1. Finally his feet felt the streets of Jackson, Mississippi. Police officers were waiting for him. The images of earlier Freedom Riders who were caught by the police and beaten until their faces streamed with blood flashed before his eyes. Stoner stood on the street dazed, wondering, "Will they beat us, too?" From May until November 1961, more than 400 black and white Americans risked their lives -- and many endured savage beatings and imprisonment -- for simply traveling together on buses and trains as they journeyed through the Deep South.
Deliberately violating Jim Crow laws, the Freedom Riders met with bitter racism and mob violence along the way, sorely testing their belief in nonviolent activism. Stanley Nelson, in the PBS documentary, Freedom Riders, says that the lesson of the Freedom Rides is that great change can come from a few small steps taken by courageous people. And that sometimes, to do any great thing, it's important that we step out alone.
“Will they beat us too?” is a thought I would have thought myself had I been there. Standing up for rights and freedom is not always an easy task, as the Freedom Riders found out fifty years ago this month. They were breaking the laws and more importantly they were disturbing the social norms and mores of the time.
One thing I noted in watching the PBS program was that faith was clearly a part of the lives of these Freedom Riders. I noted that several had gone into the ministry since their time as a Freedom Rider. Additionally, when the community of Birmingham, Alabama met to support them, it occurred in a church with several clergy leading the meeting including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Were the Freedom Riders martyrs? None of them, to my knowledge, did lose their lives because of what they did. In the narrow definition of martyr, they weren’t then. But in the broader definition, where we think of those who witness, they were definitely martyrs.
No one sets out to be a martyr. I think of other 20th century martyrs, such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Oscar Romero, and Martin Luther King. None of them set out to be martyrs. None were planning that they would die because of their faith. They were simply witnessing to their faith which brought about their martyrdom.
I do wonder how any of us here today would react if martyrdom or even violence were facing us because of our faith. I’m not calling for martyrs here. We don’t really need anyone to set out to be a martyr. But how many of us can claim that broader definition of martyr; how often do we witness to our faith? How often do we take our faith into uncomfortable situations?
I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t raised to be a martyr and I don’t intend to be one. But, God helping me, I was raised to be a person of faith who witnesses to that faith in my actions and my words. The opportunities to witness as the Freedom Riders did may be fewer and further between since the Jim Crow laws and segregation are officially behind us. But that doesn’t mean that racism is dead. And there are hosts of other problems that face us that demand a response based on our faith. Issues such as homophobia or welcoming the immigrant stranger. These issues and many others face us today and seek witnesses to our faith to respond and react.
I pray that none of us ever needs to give our life for our faith. I hope we all live out relatively happy lives until our final days arrive. But in the meantime we must be prepared to witness to our faith, in the tradition of Stephen, the Freedom Riders and all the other martyrs who surround us.
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