The Cruciform Life
In our baptism, we signed up to be martyrs.
2026-29
sermon preached at Church of the Good Shepherd, Federal Way, WA
www.goodshepherdfw.org
by the Rev. Joseph Peters-Mathews
The Fifth Sunday of Easter, May 3, 2026
Acts 7:55-60; Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16; 1 Peter 2:2-10; John 14:1-14
“‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’
“But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him.”
Stephen saying that he saw the heavens opened is not what made this crowd so angry that they were willing to kill him. Remember, when Jesus was put to death, it was at the hands of the state, the government. For Jews in first-century, Roman-occupied Palestine, this government certainly did not represent them. No, friends, Stephen has done more than just say he sees Jesus. He’s been chosen as a deacon, called to a ministry of service — to make sure the widows and orphans continue to be cared for. As he enacts that ministry of service, Luke tells us that he performed great wonders and signs among the people. Jesus’ raising of Lazarus is the last straw in John’s gospel. Throughout Acts we’ll see that Jesus' disciples and apostles having control over death and spirits does not sit well with the powers of this world.
In response to Stephen’s wonders and signs, rumors circulate and he’s arrested. When he’s asked for his own testimony, he gives a rather thorough — though quick — history of God’s salvation. It’s shorter than the first half of the Easter Vigil, but hits the same highlights. He’s a new storyteller, and whew does he have a banger of a conclusion:
“Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. You are the ones who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it.”
Remember that Stephen, the apostles, and the early disciples were all Jewish. The Romans saw the early rise of Christianity as an intra-Jewish squabble. Nothing in Acts or the gospels should be taken as or used as fuel for anti-semitism despite the church’s historical usage of them in that sinful way. Stephen’s dressing down of those who accuse him does not go over well!
You may recall in January — just after an ICE agent murdered Renée Macklin Good — Bishop Rob Hirschfeld of New Hampshire made headlines. It was not quite the peak of ICE’s terrorizing the Twin Cities region but there were daily headlines. ICE killing demonstrators made headlines, and clergy being a part of the demonstrations did too: from Presbyterians being hit in the head with pepper balls to Catholics having eucharistic processions to detention centers and being denied offering those detained Jesus’ Body and Blood.
In light of Good’s killing at the hands of the state, Hirschfeld asked the clergy of New Hampshire to get their affairs in order and make sure they had wills. A quote from a priest that quickly went viral on The Narthex — Weird Anglican Twitter’s successor on Bluesky — was this: “I didn't sign up to be a martyr…I have a family and a congregation who rely on me. If I was gone tomorrow what would happen to them?”
One person, referencing Dr. King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” said that that priest was doing the White Moderate’s work 63 years later.
Another commentator, a priest not quite referencing Beyoncé, said the commenter was “under the delusion that [he is] somehow irreplaceable.”
While folks on Bluesky’s skyline might shoot from the hip, I hope all clergy have given some thought to the calls of our baptisms — let alone the calls of our clerical vocations. I was preaching for a friend the day that story ran. When I told him about the quote he said, referencing Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship, “Br. Dietrich tells us, ‘When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.’
“‘Look,’ [Stephen] said, ‘I see the heavens opened and [Jesus], the Son of Man,standing at the right hand of God!’”
Stephen, chosen to be the first person dedicated to a life of service in Jesus’ name — the first deacon — also becomes the first to die for his witness to Jesus the Resurrected Christ. The word “martyr” derives from the Greek word that literally means witness. It is Stephen’s telling the truth — about God’s ever-expanding history of salvation and that fulfillment in Jesus — that leads to his death. As he finishes his dressing down of those who accuse him of blasphemy, he knows his end is near. He’s not afraid though. Jesus the Way, the Truth, and the Life, has defeated death: Alleluia! Christ is risen! [Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!] At the Vigil and at Cathedral Day we said and at Pentecost we’ll say again “I will, with God’s help.” Before the crowd runs Stephen out of town on a rail to lynch him with stones, he leans on God’s help. He’s filled with the Holy Spirit takes the last steps of the cruciform life to which we’ve all been called.
“‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ When he had said this, he died.” Luke is a masterful storyteller. In case you’re missing the allusion, Stephen is following Jesus, the Way, to the end — complete with praying for forgiveness and surrendering himself to the one in whom he has placed his trust.
We signed up to be martyrs. Most, if not all, of us will be spared that vocation. The Martyrs of Charleston welcomed a stranger into their Bible study. As they were open to sharing the Good News of Jesus the Crucified and Resurrected Christ, Dillon Roof gunned them down. They bore witness to their belief, placing their hope in Jesus. In bearing witness to that belief, their witness became their martyrdom. Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death. And upon those in the tombs, bestowing life.
This is the Way of Jesus: the truth and the life — such a life as killeth death. Alleluia. Amen.
