A Tale of Two Men Living Thousands of Years Apart
Grace to you and peace from God our Creator, from our Risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and from our Sustainer, the Holy Spirit. Amen.
This morning I’d like to tell you the stories of two men – two men who lived thousands of years apart. Their names are Jordan and Steven.
First let me you about Jordan who was a man experiencing homelessness on the streets and subways of New York City. On the streets he earned a few bucks impersonating Michael Jackson to passer-byers who threw bills and coins in a hat he laid out on the floor of a subway station or the sidewalk of a city street. Last Monday, he was on an F train in the New York subway system yelling and, according to some, acting aggressively. Here’s what he was yelling on the train to anyone willing to listen, “I don’t have food, I don’t have a drink, I’m fed up.” And then he said, “I don’t mind going to jail and getting life in prison. I’m ready to die.”
According to eye-witnesses he did not strike out at anyone. He didn’t have a weapon on him. He didn’t physically harm anyone, but he was clearly making people uncomfortable. He didn’t hurt anyone, but some including columnist Roxanne Gay, suggest quite convincingly that, he, Jordan was a young man in a great deal of pain. You could tell by what he was saying about himself and how he was saying it. He sounded hopeless, and he sounded helpless, and, again he was making people in that subway car very uncomfortable. Can you imagine, the scene, if you were on that train?
But the consequence of his words, the consequences of his expression of his own pain is that he is now dead. It is reported that a former Marine took matters into his own hands. He put Jordan Neely in a chokehold for several minutes until he was dead. The consequence of this young man expressing the misery of his life and the hopelessness of his life is that someone killed him.
But that’s not the whole story. You see, while the ex-Marine was choking Jordan Neely to death no one on that train intervened to help him. In fact, just the opposite, two people appeared to get up and help hold down Jordan while he was being choked to death. What about every other person on that train? No one seems to even try to intervene. No one seems to even suggest the chokehold might be excessive force. No one seems to lift a finger, except perhaps to take pictures and video of the horror? What would you have done?
The second story this morning is about a man named Stephen whom we read about in the first lesson this morning from the Book of Acts. Stephen was actually one of the first of a group of seven men who, after the death and resurrection of Jesus, was anointed, commissioned, ordained as the first ever deacon whose ministry in the church focuses on service and word. In particular, Stephen and the other six were passionate about not letting widows go hungry, not letting widows go hungry…sound familiar – similar to our passion about not letting homeless people go hungry?
Sounds simple and benevolent, but back then there was nothing in place to make sure women whose husbands had died (and with them any kind of financial support) had support, had food to eat. So feeding them was one of many actions Stephen and the other six took that was deemed radical and outrageous and unacceptable – along with spreading the word about Jesus who was their source of inspiration and their reason to feed the hungry widows.
So those in authority got angry – angry at Stephen for upending the system, for feeding the widows, for spreading the word about Jesus. Listen to the verse that precedes our first lesson, “When they – the authorities – hear these things (that Stephen was doing), they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen.” But Stephen remained focused. Stephen remained grounded. In fact, even while being harassed and shouted at, listen to what was going on with Stephen, “Filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.”
And then Stephen in the face of insults and abuse, extends an invitation. He says to the angry mob, “Look.” He invites them to look and see what he sees. “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” But what did the angry mob do? Instead of taking him up on the invitation to see God, they covered up their eyes and ears! They rushed towards him. They dragged him out of the city. They threw stones at him. They stoned him. They stoned him to death. And no one, no one lifted a finger to help him.
Just like that train full of people. No one seemed to lift a finger to help Jordan who himself was being stoned to death – just like Stephen. No one seemed able to put another human being’s welfare above their own uncomfortableness – their own fear. Just imagine if one person in either crowd – the crowd stoning Stephen to death or the crowd on that train watching Jordan die – just imagine if one person in either crowd had been focused, had been grounded – truly grounded in their faith – whatever their faith was or had been moved by a sense of decency, or moved by care for another human being in pain, or moved by a sense of knowing right from wrong, perhaps one or both of those men would have survived.
I imagine what the people on the train were doing – looking down at their phones while Jordan was being killed. I also imagine a few people standing up to photograph and video Jordan being killed. It’s no different than the crowd covering their ears and eyes when Stephen was speaking.
Remember we read that Stephen gazed up into heaven. He was filled with the Holy Spirit. He was focused on his faith that taught him about a good and compassionate God, and what did Stephen do because he was so focused? What did Stephen do because he was so well-grounded in his faith?
Stephen remembers (as we hear in our second lesson). He remembers that he was “one of a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own who…” proclaims the mighty acts of God, who calls him out of darkness into God’s marvelous light. That’s how grounded he was…so much so that he forgave them!
While he was being stoned to death, while it was happening, “he cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against him.’ When he had said this, he died.” While he was being killed, Stephen forgave the very people who were killing him.
Do you see what’s possible with God? Nothing is impossible! Do you see what is possible when we believe that Jesus is, in fact, alive…that he couldn’t be put to death by the selfish powers of this world? Nothing is impossible. It can be as simple as practicing hospitality as we did yesterday at Holy Trinity when we invited staff and volunteers from School on Wheels here for lunch after their Run, Walk and Wag event at Borderland. It can be as simple as that…
Listen again to what one commentator wrote about what happened to Jordan Neely on the subway car. “We are at something of an impasse. The list of things that can get you killed in public is expanding every single day. Whether it’s mass shootings or police brutality or random acts of violence, it only takes running into one scared man to have the worst and likely last day of your life. We can’t even agree on right and wrong anymore. Instead of addressing actual problems, like homelessness and displacement, lack of physical and mental health care, food scarcity, poverty, lax gun laws and more, we bury our heads in the sand (or in our cell phones) …we are becoming a people without empathy, without any respect for the sanctity of life unless it’s our own.”
I mentioned that yesterday our church hosted a lunch for the staff and volunteers for School on Wheels after their fund-raising event. So I’d like to share with you something that surprised me and made me smile about that experience. So many of our guests came up to me to say thank you, and that was nice, but what was striking is that almost all of those who took the time to say thank you seemed genuinely surprised – surprised at our gift of hospitality.
It makes me wonder whether hospitality, welcome, embrace of the stranger has become something rare, unusual – something uncomfortable, and you know what? It makes me grateful – exceedingly grateful to be a part of the community of this church – a church that practices radical hospitality. From our second lesson, 1st Peter, “Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation – if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.”
That’s what’s so wonderful and so humbly to be among you – that it is so clear, so obvious, so evident that you have tasted that the Lord is good, and you decide to share the Lord’s goodness time and time again– and it makes such a difference. Now let’s come forward once again to the Lord’s table, the Lord’s feast –to taste, once again, how good the Lord is.” Amen.
Source: Contributing Opinion Writer Maxine Gay, The New York Times, May 4, 2023