In the Line of Fire
Acts 7:55-60
Stephen is one of seven “leaders” chosen by the emerging church community. His job was to “wait on tables.” He was the first of many cater-waiters to serve the church. He also delivers the longest speech in the book of Acts. As a result, he gets the full brunt of hot religion.
Some of us know what it is like to be part of hot religion – the kind that gets your pulse racing and your emotions high – the kind that makes you want to shout or go out and change all the evil in the world. It feels good to know the presence of God’s Spirit so strongly that it ripples up and down your spine. We’ve also seen the devastation of how religious people – whipped up into hot frenzy – can do terrible and evil things. From radical Islam to Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church, we know the look of hate and meanness and violence that can be done in the name of God when religion gets hot.
Sometimes the atheist community points to these extremes of religious expression as proof that all religion is dangerous. And they would seem to have some valid beefs. Of course, secular extremists have caused just as much deadly violence to our world. Adolph Hitler and Idi Amin are just two examples of leaders who whipped up the fervor of their people to do terrible things – not in the name of God, but in the name of the state.
I remember, as a boy, my parent’s concern about my deepening faith journey. They were concerned that I would “go off the deep end.” As a teen my faith was very much fundamentalist – so they had good reason to worry. We came from a fairly moderate Methodist tradition which was considered the liberals by all hordes of Southern Baptist who made up the majority in Alabama. Fundamentalism was so attractive to me as a youngster because it seemed to be so alive. It has passion and energy. That’s what I wanted to have in my relationship with God. It’s so easy to get caught up in the antics of religious fervor when the only alternative to hot faith seems to be no faith.
Stephen shows us the faithful alternative to hot faith. He was an example of cool faith. Can you imagine the courage it took for Stephen to stand in front of this crowd of religiously-oriented people and reinterpret their holy scriptures for them in a way that completely changed their corporate understanding of themselves in relationship to God? How did he keep his cool in that hot seat? The reaction of the crowd to want to close their ears, drown out his voice, beat him into submission is the typical mob response to challenging ideas that threaten deeply-held beliefs. Even as he was dragged out by the crowd and people began picking up stones, his eyes stayed firmly focused on the vision before him. As the rocks began to pierce his flesh and the pain seared through his body, his only words were of forgiveness. How does someone stay that collected – that cool – in the heat of religious fervor? Stephen is an example of cool faith.
Stephen trusted God
It was evident from Stephen’s sermon that he had a clear grasp of the history he shared with his listeners. He knew the mistakes of his nation. He knew the culpability that tainted all their lives. He also knew that God’s grace was greater than all of that combined and he trusted that grace.
You know, I enjoy getting whipped into a happy state as well as anybody. I enjoy passionate worship. I love it when God’s people are moved to action. I crave those Holy Ghost tingles in my spine when amazing and miraculous things happen among us. But I won’t let anybody abuse my emotional joy by twisting my faith for ulterior motives. So although I enjoy the tingles of a faith with passion, more than that I trust God’s grace. So religious antics don’t interest me any more. Somebody working the crowd, playing on my prejudices or fears doesn’t work any longer. Cool faith keeps you from letting emotionalism replace an authentic, holy relationship.
Cool faith is sacrificial faith
Hot faith rarely allows others to speak. It never allows dissention or multiple right answers to life’s problems. Hot faith puts the primacy of one’s personal belief ahead of everything else. Stephen demonstrated cool faith. He calmly told the truth as lovingly as possible and sacrificed his life rather than fight back at the hot anger against him.
This was the cool faith of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who taught the masses of those yearning for equality under oppressive racism, “We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plan of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.” Cool faith is sacrificial faith. Cool faith is soul force.
Over the last five years our “Do Unto Others” Fund (DUO) has distributed over $52,000 to 44 different community service organizations. Cool faith is sacrificial faith.
Standing on the front line as people who are out, who live faithfully and boldly and who refuse to let fear or bias determine our future, All God’s Children is called to cool faith. We understand that sacrificial component of cool faith.
Stephen understood the power of forgiveness
This is probably the most precious secret that we need to remember. Hate cannot heal. Revenge cannot heal. Anger cannot heal. Retribution cannot heal. Only forgiveness ultimately heals. When Stephen found himself in the line of fire, he forgave the horrible things being done to him in the name of God.
Hot faith responds to these kinds of experiences by saying, “This doesn’t feel good any longer. I think I’m done.” Cool faith understands that it’s not just about me, it’s about something more important – moving our world another step closer to being the world God would have us be. To answer the call, to be Jesus to the world requires cool faith that grasps the power of forgiveness.
As faithful people, we are going to find ourselves in the line of fire many times in our lives. Whether it is taking an unpopular stand that you believe is just, daring to be yourself in the face of hate, refusing to be complicit in sabotaging the rights of others or willing to question long-held and widely-believed ideas – you and I have Stephen’s example of cool faith to guide how we respond.
Our world seems drawn to the allure of hot faith as the only Christian voice. Let’s show them the power of cool faith.
Sources:
www.homileticsonline.com Hot Faith, Cool Faith, April 2008.
http://www.soulforce.org/article/395