Monday, December 26, 2022

 

Monday, December 26, 2022


Psalms 2; 110

Isaiah 29:1-12

Acts 6:1-7; 7:1-49


Observance: Stephen, deacon and first martyr


Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest?


We all have a series of biases we take to any media we consume, that influence our opinions and understandings of that media. There is no such thing as a neutral position. What we should be doing is deciding where we will place our biases, or, through what “lens” will we view the world, and recognise this when we read scripture and ask the Holy Spirit to explain it to us. We begin our Christmastide on a strong footing: Stephen, the first martyr, and listed as a member of the first cohort ordained to the ministry of service, had a very encouraging understanding of how the Old Testament worked.


Stephen viewed the Old Testament through a certain lens, and he was unashamed of that. In fact, he gladly went to his own death to defend that lens. It is what we today would describe as reading the Old Testament “Christologically”; that is, looking in the text for where Christ is revealed.


Jesus promised us last week that when we are brought to the authorities, we would not have to plan what to say in our defence, because the Holy Spirit would give us words to say. Stephen trusted this promise, and the Holy Spirit told Stephen to preach Christ in the Old Testament. We would do well to learn from this episode. According to the Holy Spirit as He spoke through Stephen, Christ was with Abraham when he left his homeland. Christ was with Joseph in the well, and with Jacob wrestling the angel. Christ was with Moses in the basket in the reeds, He was there when Egypt suffered the plagues, and He was with the Hebrews on their journey through the desert. Christ split the waters of both the Red Sea and the River Jordan, and He was there when they blew the trumpets and knocked down the walls of Jericho. And on it goes.


This mighty, powerful, terrifying, ever-present and ever-loving God of the Old Testament then asks (more than a little facetiously) what kind of house would be suitable for Him? Well, yesterday, we learnt the answer: a human body.


Does this not just floor you? Is this not almost incomprehensible? Moses had to take his shoes off at the burning bush because of the red-hot fire that is God’s holiness; a holiness unapproachable by us humans in our frail, mortal frames and sinful natures. Yet God, in His infinite loving-kindness, decided to make His home in the human body.


Christmastide is a short season. But let’s take the opportunity to at least try and begin to plumb the depths of the wonder that is the incarnation. Because it is the greatest display of love that can be shown by our God who is infinite in love.



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