Daily Devotion for Lent 2020 - Day 10

Scripture Reading: Acts 7:1-34 (NRSV)

In the last chapter, we are introduced to Stephen as one of the seven who were devoted to the care of the Christian community.  He was listed as "a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit."  Stephen performed signs and wonders and he argued in the synagogue.  He was arrested and brought before the council and they charged him with blasphemy.

This is no small charge.  Leviticus 24:16 states:

One who blasphemes the name of the Lord shall be put to death; the whole congregation shall stone the blasphemer.

Stephen is left to defend himself.  And so he begins to remind the council of their shared history.

While they would already know all of this by heart (and may be thinking, "Get on with it, Stephen"), Luke may recount this here for the sake of his Gentile readers who would need a reminder in Jewish history.  Interestingly enough, Luke does not omit the covenant of circumcision that God makes with Abraham.  He could easily have left this part out as it was controversial among Gentile converts as we shall see unfold in future chapters of Acts.

Luke also specifically refers to the circumcision of John the Baptist and Jesus in his gospel.  This may be to show that Christianity has not broken so far from this covenant with God.

Stephen reminds them of the betrayal of Joseph by his brothers as well as the lack of appreciation of Moses by his fellow Jews.  We see that in spite of how his brothers treated him, Joseph is a forgiving man and brings salvation to the people that enslaved him.  We then see that God will send Moses to rescue the very people that tried to throw him under the bus when he was trying to help them.

Justice should be blind to our wealth, power and status.
Jealousy and envy should not influence it.

Stephen is beginning to craft the story to remind the council that their people have not always got it right.  In fact, the righteous have often been misunderstood and abused.  We'll see how this works out for Stephen as we finish out the chapter tomorrow.

All people have a common history or ancestry if we go back far enough.  There are commonalities among all humanity such as jealousies and envies as well as the striving for security and the love of family.  The preservation of one's community may be one of the strongest drives that we have.  We are social beings and we have formal and informal laws that help us to be able to live together.

When someone breaks these rules, we attempt to pull them back into community.  Sometimes we punish them and sometimes we exile them through either imprisonment or banishment.  If the threat seems great enough, we sometimes exercise a lethal sentence. 

How do we preserve our Christian community today?  What things do we tolerate and what do we find intolerable?   How do we examine ourselves to make sure that we are not ignoring or persecuting the prophets God is sending today? 

Prayer for the day:

Steer the ship of my life, good Lord, to your quiet harbor, where I can be safe from the storms of sin and conflict. Show me the course I should take. Renew in me the gift of discernment, so that I can always see the right direction in which I should go. And give me the strength and the courage to choose the right course, even when the sea is rough and the waves are high, knowing that through enduring hardship and danger in your name we shall find comfort and peace.  Amen.


Prayer by Basil of Caesarea, 4th Century

Photo by Tim Evanson via Flickr.com.  Used under the Creative Commons license.