Can I Get a Witness
Acts 7:55-60
Emmanuel Baptist Church
May 10, 2020; Rev. Kathy Donley
A recording of the service in which this sermon was preached may be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-FfoTRaun8&t=1415s
Stephen is known as the first Christian martyr because he died for his faith, but in Greek, the word “martyr” actually means “witness.” It didn’t start out meaning someone who died for their faith (although getting killed for what you believe is pretty strong testimony). It just referred to someone who was willing to speak of what they knew to be true.
Some form of the word martyr occurs three times in Acts chapters 6-7. We heard the end of the story of Stephen. His story began when he was one of the leaders chosen to oversee food distribution. It seems that the early church had something like a food pantry. Some widows were being overlooked in the distribution, so the apostles asked for responsible leaders to take charge and make it right. One of the requirements they had was that the ones chosen had to be of good repute. The Greek for that is martyroumenous. A literal translation is “well-attested” or “well-witnessed.” Stephen’s good reputation is based on what other people have witnessed about him.[1]
So Stephen became a deacon, which means server. The church in Jerusalem was growing and Stephen became known not only for his food pantry skills, but for his wise and spirit-filled preaching. There was opposition to him which eventually took the form of false witnesses, mártys , which is found in verse 6:13. They lied about him, charging him with blasphemy which was serious enough to get the attention of the authorities.
What we didn’t read is a very long and pretty harsh sermon that Stephen delivered at his hearing. It seems that he was representing himself at trial. He did not make a good lawyer; he didn’t even address the charges against him. Instead he re-told the story of his people and reminded them of their long history of ignoring the prophets, including both Moses and Jesus. That’s when the mob turned on him and killed him. And we see that word mártys one more time in verse 58 where it says that the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.
That word witness jumped out at me. In the last year I have joined two groups that called themselves witnesses -- the group that went to Homestead Florida to observe whatever they could about the conditions and treatment of asylum-seeking youth being detained there, and the group in Brownsville Texas who gathered to pay attention to what was happening on both sides of the US/Mexico border there.
What I learned from those experiences is that bearing witness has an effect on those of us who do the observing. In watching and listening and paying attention, we learn things which make a deep impression. We see faces and body language and hear words and tone of voice and what is happening becomes more personal and more important to us because we are there to bear witness and we can tell the story of what we know. Even when we could do nothing to change the situation, there was a power in simply watching.
I also learned that another power of bearing witness is that it can change the actions of those being observed. Witnesses at Homestead noticed that the staff were provided with baseball caps against the hot sun in Florida but that the teens were not. They pointed this out to the press. Within a few days, the witnesses observed that all the teens had been issued hats as well.
There were witnesses, observers at Stephen’s death. That’s how we know the story, right? Someone saw the expression of wonder on Stephen’s face when he described that he was looking into heaven. Some heard him committing his spirit to God and uttering other words very similar to those Jesus said on the cross “do not hold this sin against them.” Some witnesses were there to see and hear and record the story for future generations, like us.
I asked you this week about what you are bearing witness to. You are seeing that the virus is disproportionately affecting people of color and those in nursing homes, you see those in prisons and immigrant detention unprotected from it, you are noticing continuing racial violence, you mentioned the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia as just one example; you are bearing witness to political decisions like more stimulus money going to large businesses than small ones and proposed cuts to educational funding in the NY State budget and the continuing deportation flights which are now sending covid-positive people to Guatemala and Honduras; you recognize that in places you were already concerned about, the suffering is on-going and getting even less attention, places like the Northern Triangle and Venezuela and Yemen.
You are also bearing witness to wonder – the beauty of the return of spring flowers and birds, acts of kindness and creativity, communities rallying together to feed children and recognizing the self-sacrifice of those on the front lines in health-care and driving buses or cleaning subways. Some of us bore witness this week to one who is living her final days with the same strength and grace and humor with which she has lived the rest of her life.
It was intriguing to me that some of you described actions as a way that you are bearing witness. You said that you are giving money to food pantries and groups like Doctors Without Borders which are providing essential services. You are delivering food to people you know and supporting the CROP Walk.
In many different ways, we are bearing witness. To some of us, who are used to being actively engaged in the world, it feels like we are side-lined. Whatever we are doing, it doesn’t feel like enough. I want to encourage us to believe that bearing witness is a faithful act, an act that God may use in ways we cannot yet imagine.
On that day when Stephen was obedient all the way to death, there were witnesses. One of the witnesses was a young Saul of Tarsus. He saw what was happening and on that day, he approved. But later, he had his own encounter with the Risen Christ. Without him, we would not have one-third of the New Testament and the history of the church would be altogether different. Saul bore witness to someone giving his life for his convictions. Can you imagine that he ever forgot that? Saul became Paul who was known for his boldness in witnessing to Jesus. Undoubtedly, Stephen served as a model for Paul, who later wrote, “for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
Friends, I suggest that we do not know what will come of this time. What effect will it have on children? How is it forming young adults – those who expected to walk across a stage to receive a high school or college diploma this month? How is it shaping Emmanuel and other churches in becoming more flexible and intentional about defining the ministries that really matter?
When this pandemic first began, it stirred in many people memories of the AIDS outbreak in the 1980’s. The consuming fear of an unknown virus, the suffering and death, the pointing of fingers and casting blame, the ducking of responsibility by political leaders – all that sounded familiar.
During that terrible time, the Rev. Tom Long went to South Africa and met a young Johannesburg doctor whose specialty was AIDS. He worked in a dingy inner-city hospitality where the beds of AIDS patients spilled out of the wards and lined the corridors. The doctor said, “The numbers are growing at a fearful rate; in some areas, over half the population is infected and we don’t have enough to help them. We don’t have the medicine, the beds, the staff, the knowledge.”
Rev. Long asked “What keeps you going?”
The doctor spoke quietly, hesitantly, “My faith.” He looked out the window. He said, “I am holding on to the possibility of hope.”[2]
He was keenly aware of the suffering and death all around him, but he bore witness to the hope that God would act to create a redemption not already there in the present moment.
Beloved ones, keep bearing witness to all that is. Know that it is an act of faithfulness. Keep speaking of what you know to be true. Trusting in resurrection, keep holding on to the possibility of hope through Christ, our Risen Lord. Amen.
[1] J. Bradley Chance, Acts: Smyth and Helwys Bible Commentary, (Macon: Smyth and Helwys, 2007), p. 104
[2] Tom Long, “When Half Spent Was the Night: Preaching Hope in the New Millennium,” Journal for Preachers, Easter 1999, p. 19