Brief synopsis of the readings: In our first reading from Acts we see the first martyrdom among the apostles. Stephen looked to heaven and saw a vision of Jesus at the right hand of God. When he proclaimed this the crowd ran to him and threw him out the city where they stoned him to death while a young man named Saul looked on. As he was being stoned Stephen asked Jesus to “receive my spirit” and forgive those who were stoning him. With that he died. John’s Gospel recounts Jesus’ last discourse at the Last Supper. Speaking to God, Jesus gave thanks to God for those who believe in him and for the unity all will experience. Out of this unity will come all those who believe in him.

When we think about the first few centuries of what is now the Christian church we often think about how difficult it must have been. I remember from early childhood hearing about Christians being fed to the lions and suffering other, equally grisly deaths. We now know that these events were both rare and random but it set the stage for a narrative that continues to this day. The idea of martyrdom, of dying for your faith, has become a romantic one.

And in many ways that narrative began with our first reading from Acts. We only get a piece of that in today’s reading; it’s a part of a much longer event. Previously in the book of Acts we hear of several events when Jesus’ earliest followers proclaimed Jesus’ resurrection and the coming of his kingdom. I don’t know this for certain but these followers may not have thought much about the difficulty as they thought Jesus’ promised return would be soon and that most of their fellow Jews would rejoice to learn that the Messiah had come.

In any case we’ve seen in the last few weeks that if these followers expected things to be easy they were sorely disappointed. Frankly, not all the Jews believed that Jesus was the Messiah, and last week we learned that there was dissent about circumcision. Today we read about events that went violent and ended with someone dying. How did this happen and how did it get this far? Did the Jews lack the imagination to see Jesus as the Messiah or did the apostles just get it wrong about Jesus. As a side note, a misreading of these (and other) events has led to centuries of antisemitism. This is both a misreading of Scripture and a sinful prejudice.

On that note it’s important to realize that while Jesus’ accusation, trial and death were run by the Romans this was pretty much an internal issue with the high priests and scholars. This scene of Stephen being stoned to death appears almost placid and ignores its violence. As a matter of fact, some Biblical translations report that after forgiving his executioners he “fell asleep.” This was a horrible way to die.

And I believe the thing that makes this even worse is that the people who were stoning Stephen to death were the very ones he had hoped to convert. No matter what, he must have felt some level of betrayal. Now it’s true that he knew he was playing with fire when he kept talking about Jesus long after he knew they were not on board, but nonetheless, it must have affected him.

I say this because we all know that our beliefs and the actions they demand can make us unpopular and may cost us. But too often we think about these dangers coming from outside our faith. But the reality is far different. With a few exceptions, almost everyone who doesn’t share our beliefs at least respects them. Here in the United States it’s in the First Amendment to our founding document, our Constitution. Only lunatic fringes believe it’s acceptable to discriminate or persecute people of other faiths, regardless of how much publicity they receive.

But we must be aware that sometimes we believe something that we assume like minded people will agree with. My best example? Vatican II. In 1959 newly elected Pope John XXIII announced a council that met from 1962 to 1965. I made mention of this last week but it led to significant changes in the Catholic Church and it was troubling to many people, and it was a breath of fresh air to others. But in the last 60 years most Catholics have either welcomed or accepted the changes. Alas, there continues to be a small group that refuses to accept these reforms. They have gone as far as claiming the changes were not legitimate, not the will of God, and that all Popes elected since then are not legitimate Popes.

Again, please understand that I am not equating members of these groups with the Jews of the first reading, only that big changes almost never bring universal acceptance. But the earliest apostles experienced tremendous pressure to stop what they were doing; they were told that they were wrong, that this would lead to expulsion, isolation, and even death. But they knew they were right and were even willing to put their lives on the line.

So what do we do when people we care about, people whose agreement we assumed, disagree with us? Well, first I think we should use this as an opportunity to explore our beliefs and motivations for them. Are we listening to the Holy Spirit or our own ambition? How much of our belief is FOMO (fear of missing out)?

More than that, though, we should recognize that people rarely change for intellectual reasons. It’s been my experience that we bring people along when they find value in the changes this has made in how we live. I think the early martyrs made a difference because they saw the “long game” and knew that it would take a while for their friends and families to fully accept what they were told. Conversion wasn’t fast, or easy, or frankly completely successful. But Stephen died believing that his sacrifice would matter to future generations.

The fact that we revere him 2000 years later proves him right.