More Than a History Lesson

“And when forty years had passed, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai.  When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight; and as he drew near to observe, the voice of the Lord came to him, saying, ‘I am the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob…’” — Acts 7:30-32

“And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.” — Acts 7:52-53

Stephen, filled with grace and doing great wonders among the people, was seized and brought before the Sanhedrin (the council).  Facing death, Stephen gave a speech that was an Old Testament history lesson about the Jewish nation.  Stephen’s speech had two essential points missed by the council.  Mystery and Tradition.

Stephen tells the story of Moses and the burning bush. In his great book Sing Us a Song of Joy, Phillip Eaton also discusses Moses and the burning bush.  Moses had the curiosity to see the burning bush, this mystery before him, and in his interest, he encountered God. Eaton’s point is as a culture; we hate mystery. We no longer are like Moses.  We have dampened our curiosity in seeking answers to the mysteries we experience, including the mystery of our Christian faith.

Mystery means something difficult or impossible to understand or explain. Paul referred to mystery twenty times in his letters. We live in a culture that thinks there must be a material explanation for everything we experience. We want to know it all and to understand it all. We want to have it all figured out.  In trying to eliminate mystery in our life, we can miss God’s divine presence and an encounter with transcendence. We miss the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  The council missed Stephen’s point in the burning bush story, missed understanding the mystery before them why Stephen possessed a grace and power to do wonders, all of which unsettled them.  They missed the Holy Spirit at work in the early Christian church and the Apostles.

Stephen then put the council on the spot. He went on the offensive and accused the council of being the ones who failed to keep the law given by the angels. The council was unable to keep the traditions that would open them to God’s truth. They had become hardened and ‘stiff-necked,’ which closed their minds and eliminated a life-changing encounter with the living God – Jesus Christ.

Traditions are the threads woven in the quilt that binds a diverse group of people. If we deconstruct, dampen, or remove the threads, the quilt will fray and fall apart.  Traditions within the church help keep our faith and Jesus Christ from becoming an abstraction, our faith uninspiring, and the church (universal) filled with just empty symbols and rhetoric. The council and its application of the laws and traditions had become dull, misguided, the faith ineffectual and sharp in its judgment with an unloving approach to the human condition and experience. 

What can be viewed as a lengthy discourse by Stephen on the history of the Jewish nation is a great life and faith lesson for us.  Embracing mystery and tradition in our Christian faith will lead us to encounters with transcendent beauty and the divine presence of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit at work in our lives and others. Embracing mystery and tradition can be used as signposts directing us to explore the wonders we can experience in our faith walk that will awe us and lead to lasting change, salvation, love, and grace.

-Dan Nickel