Sermon for 5th Sunday of Easter – 10 May 2020: Acts 7, 55-end; John 14, 1-14.

Sermon preached by Fr Leonard Dooland at the Zoom Liturgy

 

You may never have visited St. Paul’s Athens, and I know that we have some participants in our Zoom service from other parts of the region or as Nicholas Parsons says when he introduces ‘Just a Minute’ on Radio 4 , ‘and throughout the world’.

Since the middle of March even stalwart regulars at St. Paul’s have not been able to attend the building so maybe the memory is not serving so well. Let me remind you of the four windows at the east end above the altar.

There are four saints in stained glass. One is St. Paul of course, responsible for many of the letters in the New Testament, and along with St. Peter whose missionary journeys are narrated by St. Luke in his second book, the Acts of the Apostles. Paul was martyred in Rome.

The second is Andrew, one of those called by Jesus to be a disciple turned missionary after the great event of Pentecost. Andrew of course is closely linked to Greece, as a patron saint, and whose remains are in the Metropolis at Patra. There is a tradition that in ancient days a monk stole a fragment from one of the bones and sailed to what we now know as Scotland, establishing a shrine there in a place now called St. Andrews,

where there was once the largest ecclesiastical building in Scotland before the Reformation. There is, of course, still the finest University in the world there, founded in 1413. Andrew received his crown of glory in the first generation of believers.

In the lower level we then have two deacons of the church. Like Paul and Andrew, both of these deacons were martyred for their faith. The first is Lawrence. He was a deacon in the church at Rome and received his crown of martyrdom in the year AD298. Usually Lawrence is shown holding a grid-iron, the assumed instrument of his death.

Fourth is Stephen. We are told about him being chosen by the apostles as one of the Seven deacons in the church of Jerusalem. He has the honour and dignity of the title proto-martyr as he is the first recorded person in the scriptures to die professing Jesus as his Lord.

Our reading from the Acts of the Apostles tells us of his death. We are also told the alarming fact that the death was supervised by someone called Saul. This same Saul himself becomes claimed by Christ, and he adopts a new ‘Christian’ name, known so well to us as Paul.

Stephen has a lovely link with all those who have ‘died’ in the Lord, especially for those martyred for witnessing to the faith, often called receiving the garland of martyrdom, as his name, as many of you will know – Stephanos – means a garland or crown. So many in the Orthodox tradition now register this with the beautiful crowning ceremony at marriage celebrations.

It seems highly appropriate that in the western church tradition, it is December 26^th, the day after the Birth of Christ, that we celebrate the Feast of Stephen, connecting the Christ with the life of suffering and ultimately for some, death itself, sharing in the mystery of Christ’s death foretold by the myrrh, one of the gifts brought by the Magi.

Acts presents the hostile environment in which the early believers in the ‘Christ mystery’ endured. Around the death of Stephen we hear of how he had given an account for his faith – showing how Jesus fulfilled so much of the Jewish scriptures. He faces abuse, the grinding of teeth, and stoning. All of it observed by this man whose conversion to the ‘Christ mystery’ would shape the way Christianity has been transmitted through the scriptures.

For Paul, Stephen, the apostles, Lawrence, and countless thousands of Christians even since, hardship, endurance, and even death has been a real experience. In many ways, though not identically, we all suffer for the sake of Christ, for where one suffers we all suffer. This is where Christian compassion is so real. We feel the pain of others and when one member of the Body of Christ weeps, we all weep.

During these difficult days and weeks, many have suffered from the pain of isolation – isolation from friends, family, church, and the normal features that make for a stable life. This instability will no doubt have consequences on the mental health of the nations. Some have felt particularly affected by not being able to gather as the Body of Christ. Our faith is so deeply authenticated by the reality and physicality of the ‘incarnation’ – God becoming flesh and living among us. Our faith does not thrive so easily in imposed isolation, and virtual worship is not the same as gathering as the sacramental sign of Christ being, in the world he co-created from the beginning of time.

Yet, no matter what anxieties we endure; no matter what physical or mental pain we endure; no matter what social pains we endure, Christ has a clear message. To Stephen, Paul, Peter, Lawrence, Andrew, you and me he says this: ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many dwelling places.’ (John 14, 1).

These are words of comfort – of strengthening us in the faith. So much so that these words are perhaps the most used at funeral services, when people are perhaps needing to hear most of all that we need to ‘rest with Christ’, abide with Christ who is the True Vine, to make our home with him, and to inhabit that home with joy and faith and love. One of the most powerful of the parables is that of the Prodigal Son – so named – but it is principally a parable about returning home to the Father. We return home to him through Christ who leads us home through the cross. The Father’s arms are outstretched to receive his daughters and sons – Christ’s arms are open in embrace on the cross, that great mystery of our death and resurrection in Christ.

‘Μένουμε σπίτι’ (we are staying at home) is the message we have been hearing in Greece for these last weeks and months. It has been on all the TV channels rather discretely located at the top corner of our screens – this is getting a message across sub-consciously; it has been on Government broadcasts, on stickers, bill boards – you name it – ‘Μένουμε σπίτι’ has been a powerful and successful message.

Jesus says, ‘In my Father’s house there are many rooms’. So we are invited by Jesus to make hour home with the Father, and with him, his Christ. Nothing can obscure this message, nor distract from it; nothing can replace it or improve on it.

Thomas asks the question for all of us ‘How do we know the way?’ (John 14, 6). ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life’. For Stephen, Paul, Andrew, Lawrence, you and me, Jesus shows us the way home to the Father. Μένουμε σπίτι.