I have to admit that the Book of Acts is not one of my favorites. I am a big fan of the author’s first book, the gospel of Luke. But the sequel, The Acts of the Apostles, is not as poetic.  It is sort of matter of fact in its action-packed storytelling and, honestly, I get a little confused trying to keep track of all the characters and the places they go. I do admire these Jesus followers and their radical choices of living out their faith, sharing everything in common, preaching on the streets. And they are in trouble constantly. They go to jail for what they preach and teach; they get out of jail by divine and angelic help. On second thought, maybe I need to spend more time with these “good trouble-” makers in Acts.

While I don’t always gravitate toward the Book of Acts, context matters. And we are. in. some. context. these days. Two weeks ago I spent four days with 17 Allegheny Conference pastors and Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary Professor Drew Strait. We were there to learn from Dr Strait, who has become an expert on Christian Nationalism in this country. (A couple years ago in adult ed we studied Drew Strait’s book, Strange Worship. There are copies around here if you want to review or explore more.) 

Christian Nationalism – conflating misconstrued Christianity with patriotism, whiteness, xenophobia and misogyny to gain power, is a real and current thing – and it keeps morphing, expanding, changing. We spent some time the other week discussing if we should call it something else: Christian Dominionism or Christian Supremacy. I will just use Christian Nationalism today but whatever we call it, it is not only prevalent in this country, it is being exported around the world. It could be argued it is one of the reasons that the Ethiopian Mennonite Churches disinvited Mennonite World Conference from coming to Ethiopia in 2028. 

Part of our assignment from Drew Strait, after leaving the relaxing week at Laurelville, is to talk with others about what we learned, to preach to the choir (that’s you.) Strait calls this inoculation. There is so much Christian Nationalism in the air, on social media, we need to keep reminding ourselves, inoculating ourselves, with the Jesus story that we know and live by. We learned that one way to push back against Christian Nationalism is to focus on the whole life of Jesus, not just his death. We do that around here. We focus on his life so much we don’t often talk about the cross.

Another way to respond directly to the distortions of Christian Nationalism is to be more public with our faith, to be more public about our understandings of the biblical text. We dare not cede Christianity to people who want to use the bible as an oppressive and violent tool to gain power. This is not a new problem; the biblical text has been used to provoke people to violence for generations. Now it is our turn to figure out how to be faithful and bring some correctives to violent abuses of power. 

This assigned lectionary passage from Acts 7 could be contemporary, especially if we imagine the stoning as what happens on social media. In Acts 7 we see mob violence cloaked in religiosity and peaceful resistance that gets overwhelmed. It is tricky to address these verses head on because, once again, the text pits the Jesus followers against the religious leaders, the Jewish authorities. We have to be clear that we do not read this as a polemic against all Jews everywhere. This is not a story that condemns Judaism forevermore. This is the story of an internal religious dispute, sort of like the one that is happening in Christianity right now, between the powerful Christian Nationalists and people of faith who read the bible very differently. 

This morning we hear only the end of Stephen’s story. (Check out the whole story starting in Acts 6.) Stephen is a wonder boy; he is described as “filled with grace and power to work miracles and great signs among the people.” This attracts the attention of a group called the Synagogue of Freedom. These are Jews and converts who lived in slavery to the Romans but are somehow now freed. In their new found freedom, these “Libertines” (so called in the King James Version) can not abide criticism toward Rome or the religious tradition that they hold dear. These Nationalists claim that Stephen has been blasphemous, preaching against Moses and God and the tradition.

To support the truth about Stephen, the writer of Luke-Acts recreates some of Stephen’s response to the religious leaders. Stephen starts his explanation at the beginning: the covenant with Abraham and Sarah, then moves on to Jacob and Joseph and Moses. In this way, Stephen recounts the story of their shared Jewish faith. But the people can’t hear it, won’t hear it, even when Stephen quotes the prophets. 

Truly, in his preaching, Stephen sounds an awful lot like Jesus. So I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that he comes to the same cruel and unjust end. The writer of Luke even gives Stephen some of the same phrases, from the Psalms, that are familiar to us from Jesus’ last words.

Let’s hear these passages from Acts 7 and Psalm 31 again, this time with Psalm 31, inserted as a prayer of Stephen.

(from Acts 7) Stephen, meanwhile, filled with the Holy Spirit, 

looked to the sky and saw the glory of God,

and Jesus standing at the right side of God.

“Look,” he exclaimed, “I see the heavens opened,

and the Chosen One standing at God’s right hand.”

 

(from Psalm 31) In you God, I took refuge;

never let me be disgraced.

In your justice deliver me!

Turn your ear to me!

Hurry! Rescue me!

Be the rock I hide behind, 

be the walled fortress that saves me.

Because you are my rock, my fortress,

and for the sake of your Name,

lead me, guide me.

Pull me out of the trap they set for me,

for you are my refuge. 

Into your hands I commit my Spirit,

deliver, YHWH, God of truth.

The onlookers were standing there, shouting and 

holding their hands over their ears as they did so. 

They rushed at him as one, and dragged him out of the city.

The witnesses then stoned him,

having laid their robes at the feet 

of a young man named Saul.

As they were stoning him, Stephen prayed,

“O Jesus, receive my spirit.” 

My times are in your hands;

save me from the hands of my enemies and persecutors. 

Smile on your faithful one;

save me in your love.  

He fell to his knees and cried out in a loud voice,

“Please don’t hold this sin against them!” 

And with that, he died. 

————

Such a gruesome and tragic story. I would rather avoid this one, sort of like the cross. It is especially unnerving to hear this in the context of Christian Nationalism. We see how easy it is for a crowd to go rogue, for people to reach for a stone – or in this country, for a gun. Violence becomes the first response rather than the last.

In his speech to the religious leaders – which is more like a sermon, Stephen recounts how over and over in their shared history, the people did not listen to the voice of God. The people refused to listen to Moses. The people wanted a temple though they were told God cannot be contained in a house. Stephen says, “You stubborn people. Your hearts and ears are completely covered! You’re always resisting the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors did before you.” Though Stephen was seen as a “sweet angel” by the leaders when he started to talk, at this point Stephen turns into an accusing adversary.

The writer of Luke-Acts goes on to illustrate that the gathered group is exactly who Stephen says they are. They were infuriated when they heard this and ground their teeth at him…The onlookers were standing there, shouting and holding their hands over their ears as they did so. 

These people are just like their ancestors. They cover their ears and refuse to listen. Meanwhile, Stephen speaks of the mystical experience he is having. Hearing that he sees Jesus, with God, is too much; it is the beginning of his end.

Can the people hear Stephen praying above their shouts? Does God hear Stephen? How does God hear anyway?

This may be the end of Stephen, (though he is named later in the book of Acts as a martyr) but it is just the beginning of the rest of the story. Did you catch that as the angry crowd gets ready to rumble, they take off their coats and lay them at the feet of a young man named Saul. This is a bigger story than just Stephen. Stephen went all the way back to Abraham to explain his story; he understands that he is part of a bigger story. Does he have a hunch that the story will keep unfolding, that it will not end with him? Can he even imagine that Saul, who breathes murderous threats, will have his own life – changing experience with Jesus?

——————

Scholars of Christian Nationalism describe the people who are most committed to the cause as “ambassadors.” I wonder if that is who is present as Stephen tells the story of their people: the most dug in and convinced, the ambassadors. They cannot hear anything other than what they want to hear. The writer even spells it out, they cover their ears and shout so they cannot hear what Stephen is saying.

In sociology, no group of people appears in isolation. Even with Christian Nationalism, we all fall somewhere along the continuum. Ambassadors are just the farthest right on the scale. Other categories are sympathizers, skeptics and rejectors. You probably have some idea of where you fall on this continuum. 

Drew Strait says that even those who are skeptics and rejectors need to be inoculated against the messages of Christian Nationalism since these are so prevalent and frequent right now. Thus preaching to the choir is necessary.

Besides focusing on Jesus’ whole life and teachings, we can inoculate ourselves by speaking and singing in languages other than our own. White people can learn music from traditions other than white hymnody. (Thank you Voices Together for the many options we have.) We sing the songs from other cultures and in other languages, not because we want to co-opt them but because the experience invites us into a different way of understanding, maybe even helps us experience God differently. And opening ourselves to a new culture and language can also open our hearts and ears. Attention to other languages and other cultures counters the xenophobia that comes along with Christian Nationalism.

What we know from social change theory is that those who are “ambassadors” are very unlikely to change their minds. If we want to get brave and public about our Christian faith like Stephen, if we want to share our understanding of the bible, we probably waste our time trying to influence ambassadors (or rejectors.) But we might have a chance, over time, if we build a relationship with a sympathizer, to help them see things in a different way. A sympathizer might become a skeptic. A skeptic might become a rejector if a relationship and friendship are built. We humans are pretty stuck in our ways. We don’t change our minds easily. We can probably only move one step, either direction, on the continuum. 

If it is so hard to get humans to change their minds, we might wonder about the next part of the story. How did Saul, who is an ambassador of the staunchest kind, ever change his mind? As the story is told in Luke-Acts, it was a mystical, miraculous, occurrence.

Knowing how hard it is to make a difference, doesn’t mean we don’t do anything, that we just sit back and hope that God will do all the work. We know that, mostly, God works through us, through humans and the created world. 

Mennonites are sometimes called “die stille im lande,” (the quiet in the land.) But in this time, in this place, in this context, we cannot stay silent. Mennonite Action, started by two young men who hadn’t been to church in years, returned to their roots when they saw the strength and power of public faith. Now in a new way, some of us are taking to the streets and the halls of congress, claiming our Mennonite and Christian identity, quiet no longer.

But public protest is not the only way to be public, it is not the only way to counter Christian Nationalism. Any of us can talk more about how we understand God and the bible. We can remind people that mocking people, using violence, locking people up, is not the way of the Jewish prophets, not the Jesus way. And if we are going to  venture into talking bible with people, we may need to get to know the bible a bit better. Not all Christian Nationalists know the bible but some of them do know parts, maybe the parts we don’t focus on here. If we lean toward engaging with adherents of Christian Nationalism, we may need to practice talking Christian-ese, first with each other and then in more tense situations. 

With Christian Nationalism so present in the public square – all the time, we have to bring the Love of God, the whole life of Jesus, and our Anabaptist understanding of the bible into public in new ways. This will inevitably be challenging, and scary. We certainly hope and pray we don’t encounter a crowd like Stephen did. We can take courage remembering that we are not alone; we are part of this community and a much larger community of faith, that has been committed to love and justice for generations and generations following the Prince of Peace. 

In a time of shouting and closed ears, incline your ear and receive this blessing from the end of Psalm 31:

 

Revel in your love for God,

  you whom God has touched.

For our God protects the faithful

  but will repay the arrogant in full.

Be strong, let your heart be bold,

  you who hope in Our God.