διάκονος

What I love about this year being the year that we focused on the gospel of Luke is that now that we are moving into the book of Acts we are following along with the same author. With having Luke continue to be our author we can see some similar themes continue through his message which includes caring for those who are in need. That is exactly what we are faced with in our text today. There are widows among the disciples that were being neglected which seems to be because there was some division between the Hebrew followers and the Hellenist or Greek followers.

The agreement that the 12 come up with is that they will assign seven leaders who stand apart from the rest as leaders who will take care of those in need of food. The 12 quickly realize that as the leaders of all the disciples they are not able to do it alone. They need the help of the community. This is really important because this is the first time that we see the leadership and the work of the disciples being spread out among other people. What else is really important about this is that these leaders, as we see in Stephen in this week and in Philip next week’s focus text, is that we see these new leaders are dedicated to service and spreading the word of God.

The word used for service or servant is diakonos or as we say the word in English, a deacon. In the ELCA, we have recently changed the way that we talk about pastors and deacons. Before it used to be that pastors were the only ones who were considered part of rostered ministry, but we have now changed that so that the work of the deacons are included in that category as well. So pastors are the ones who perform word and sacrament and the deacons are the ones who perform word and service. Although it may not seem like, this is an incredible change for those leaders in our church who just like pastors spread the word of God and the life of Jesus Christ but in a different way.

Deacons work in places like schools, social services, food pantries, as well as churches. I think this passage from Acts help us see that integral connection of word and service. These seven leaders were called and prayed for, had hands laid on them, and then sent to serve meals to the Greek followers of Jesus, and then very quickly we see that Stephen doesn’t just serve but because he was full of faith, the Holy Spirit, grace, and power. Service toward God’s people quickly leads way to also spreading that word as well. That’s what Stephen shows us this week and Philip will show us next week as well.

What we also learn from Stephen, which isn’t too dissimilar from Jesus own experience, is that the words that we speak about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are powerful and sometimes those words affect people in many different ways. There were people in the synagogue that Stephen was preaching to and his words were so powerful and convincing that they couldn’t argue against what he was saying. It was unfortunately those same powerful words that have him brought before the Jerusalem Council to face false accusations.

Now we skip over something like 42 of the verses of Stephen’s speech before the council and I will spare us from reading it, but it basically talks about the back and forth between God providing and Israel listening and then eventually straying. Then we pick up the end of the speech which points out that it was really people who wanted a central place of worship not God. God was happy with the tent. God was happy being in nature and being mobile. God was happy speaking through the prophets but they weren’t always listened to like Stephen isn’t really being listen to either. So the killed the prophets, they killed Jesus and now they are about to kill Stephen.

We could focus on who to blame for Stephen’s death, and we do recognize that he was the first martyr, but I think that would be missing the point. 1. If we want to point fingers on blame about things the Bible also reminds us to look at the log in our own eye. 2. The more important parts about this is what we have already talked about. God has called each and every one of us, just like Stephen was called to be one of the very first seven deacons in the early Christian church. We have all been given gifts, gifts with which we have the ability to serve the community. Both the community of faith, but also the community in which we live.

Stephen lived out the calling for his life. He fed those who were in need of food and he spread the good news because of what it meant to him. The life he had in Christ Jesus was a powerful one and he wanted others to hear it. He truly lived out what it meant to be a deacon for the church. He served with the gifts he was given and he spread the word of God to the places we went.

Today we give thanks for all deacons in our church and in the Christian church that use their gifts to spread the word of God far and wide and to serve the communities they live in so that those they touch may feel the love of God as found in Christ Jesus. We give thanks for all those in our own congregation who use their gifts within our church and out in our own community. And I invite each of you to use the gifts you have been given by our loving God to share with others the love of God as found in Christ Jesus. For it is through all our work together that we can carry on the work that Christ started.

For that is what we do as Christians. Christ started something. Through his life, death, and resurrection he started a movement to spread the love of God through him to the whole world. We see that work continue in the book of Acts and most clearly through the work of Stephen today. That same work, more than 2,000 years later is to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ through the word, through service and through the sacraments that Jesus instructed us. It is the work of all of us: pastors, deacons, leaders, everyone. We are freed in Christ by his gift of life to share that gift with others, that the same love, grace, and life we have been given is given to them as well. Share the good news, and live with the good news. We are all children of God. Amen.