My Dad was a great story-teller. He had to go to work as a
teen-ager to help support his family and finished high school GED, but he was
an avid reader and knew the Bible better than many of us who have studied it
all our lives. He told stories about
Bible characters that made them come alive.
Stephen was that kind of story-teller. When he was called upon to give a defense of
his faith before the Assembly (Sanhedrin), he began with Abraham and told the
story of the Hebrew people up to the time in which he lived. The point of his story was not the one that his
accusers were used to, however. The difference in his story and that of those
who opposed him was that their story ended at a particular point with the Law
and the Temple. They considered the
status quo as God’s ultimate expression.
Stephen shifted the paradigm and said, “The story doesn’t end
there. God is still working among God’s
people.”
In his story-telling, Stephen shifted the paradigm or way of
seeing things. A paradigm shifter sees
the same thing as everyone else but sees it in a different way.
The priests, scribes, and Pharisees accepted and defended a
static view of the world. They had God
in a box and were happy with the ways things were. Stephen, as a spokesperson for the Way, proclaimed
that God’s story was still unfolding.
God’s plan of redemption goes on.
God is a paradigm breaker.
During the “conservative resurgence” in the Southern Baptist Convention,
I heard one prominent leader in the movement say, “God can’t do that. It would
go against what He [sic] said in the Bible.”
In other words, this person believed that his particular interpretation
of the Bible held God hostage. God is
not so easily restricted and continues to work among God’s people in unusual
and unexpected ways. This was Stephen’s
message.
Stephen also proclaimed that God had sent spokespersons in
the past who pointed the people in a new direction and every time those persons
were rejected. Joseph was rejected by his
brothers. Moses was criticized and
opposed as God’s leader by the refugees from Egypt. The prophets were scorned by their people. Now finally, Jesus the Messiah had been
rejected. And Stephen, as a witness to
the emerging Kingdom, would be rejected as well.
When a new paradigm comes along, not everyone accepts
it. Most of us are blinded by the
familiar and too comfortable with the status quo. Stephen was not that kind of leader. He saw what God was doing, proclaimed it, and
gave his life for that new reality.
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