AEaster5 Philip and Stephen

Imagine you were Philip and you were standing watching from close by your brother Stephen as he is held down by a pile of rocks thrown by strangers imagine saying to him reminding him what our teacher told us what our teacher said to me as you Stephen stood next to me on that moment earlier remember this Stephen remember what he said I am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the father but by me Stephen he was 

Stephen he was talking to you and he was talking to me I am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the father but by me you’re going first Stephen before me but you won’t be the last all you did was tell the truth tell it in life to a hard hard hearted audience but the truth is that he is with you he is the path you were on he is the one who is holding you close even now he is the one who went before us the one who is with us as we go to the one who greets us when we arrive and the one who will be with us always

He will be with us always I go to prepare a place for you there he is in the city that will have been awaiting our arrival for years the city that he made that he owns that he is master of where we will join him and we will be with him forever and Philip we built it now we are building it now those stones are foundation stones in the church the city built with the blood of the martyrs in the mortar is the city that has the stones even of our persecution even of his gift of 

The stones even of his gift to sacrifice are the living stones you and I Philip the living stones out of which his home and ours is built God bless you Phillip God bless you Phillip we will see you again in him in Christ who is the way the truth and the life and through whom we all go to the father as we all have walked with him and he with us amen amen

May 10th 2020

Fifth Sunday of Easter

Acts 7:55-60

1 Peter 2:2-10

John 14:1-14

Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16

JRL+

speaking out

One of the first things anyone said to me here, at Saint Michael and All Angels, when I was elected rector of a church north of Seattle, was Peter Schmidt's comment on its patron saint - Alban - "he was the Protomartyr of Britain."

The saint we remember today, Vincent of Saragossa, was first among the martyrs of Spain - and not many years later. Alban was martyred in the middle of the second century in the Roman British town of Verulamium, after speaking up boldly for the Christian faith in the presence of an imperial magistrate. “I worship and adore the true and living God,” he declared, “who created all things.” That was enough for Alban - to receive his crown of martyrdom forthwith.

Vincent had more to say. He was on trial together with the bishop he served as deacon. The bishop was one of those people we'd mention at the Blessing of Throats at Candlemas. He, Valerius, had a speech impediment. Vincent often preached in his stead. And so he charged Vincent to speak before the governor, for both of them, in defense of the faith.

This was during the persecution of Diocletian and Maximian, in 304. Dacian was governor of Spain. And Dacian was so outraged by Vincent's impassioned and intemperate outspoken declaration of faith that he ordered him tortured.

Valerius was simply exiled. But, as Augustine of Hippo reports, Vincent the Deacon endured many pains. All for the faith. Vincent of Saragossa. Deacon and Martyr. 304.

Eight years later came the conversion of Constantine, the battle at the Mylvian bridge, and the subsequent edict of toleration. Christianity became legal - for the most part - within the Roman empire.

Since that time many Christians have been punished for speaking up for their faith, some on behalf of their bishop, some as bishops - Oscar Romero, Janani Luwum - and some unheralded and unknown except to God.

These are all among those "robed in white" we remember on the feasts of martyrs - and all of them are guided to "springs of the water of life."


https://forallsaints.wordpress.com/2011/01/22/vincent-deacon-of-saragossa-and-martyr-304/ (22 jan 18).