Proper 15 Year Two, Monday

[Acts 7:33-8:1a]

Stephen: deacon, one among seven
appointed by the Apostles to oversee offerings
to the widows and orphans of the Hebrews and Hellenists;
the Seven chosen so the Twelve would not neglect
"the service of the Word to wait at tables"--
As if the Word their Lord whose words they preserved
had not fed five thousand nor broken bread
with priests and publicans, nor taught the Twelve
that the first would be last, that the highest should serve--
(To preach such a Word is to wait upon tables!)

Stephen, chosen to oversee offerings,
did many deeds of power and wonder:
He spoke in synagogues so that many believed,
disputing with detractors and none of their number
could withstand his wisdom for he spoke by the Spirit.

Stephen, standing accused by the council
testified to the Truth by rehearsing the history
of the children of Israel: how they grieved their God
and strayed from his statutes, persecuted his prophets,
and murdered the messengers who announced his annointed.

Stephen, to see with such lively vision!--
To peer into the past with the searing insight
that melts pride to wax, that dissolves the dross
and strips naked our sin, that wrings from reminiscence
of our bygone glory a catalogue of catastrophes.

But to see, as Stephen, not just the past
with this terrible clarity, but even the heavens
opening on the present with its priests and stones,
the gaping lip of the future yawning
over the moment to swallow Stephen,
the stones and spittle and the council's curses
which hang suspended on the moment frozen
on the page of paper, like a pane of glass
about to be shattered in an ecstacy of light
stronger than time, more hopeful than history.