"I AM NOT LISTENING!"

Tuesday of the 3^rd Week of Easter (a day late;)

Feast of St Athanasius

Acts 7:51-8:1

The Stoning of Stephen

Stephen’s speech is the longest discourse in Acts. This telling is Luke’s conveyance of the whole of the Biblical story and how that story continued in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and continues still in the Apostles and the church. 

We are coming in on the tail end of the speech.  The question seems to be about who  is the authentic Israel.  Stephen gives testimony to Jesus’ messiahship and claims his faithfulness to the genuine story of God. 

The language is so descriptive.

Two things: 

1.  The very biblical name-calling.

I particularly like stiff-necked people. (Exod 33:3, 5; Deut 9:6, 13, 27)

Anyone who has had an experience of whiplash can feel what this is like.  One’s vision is tunneled.  What is happening all around is obscured or outside the frame.  It hurts to try and turn. It hurts to be confronted with an alternative vision.  The first reaction is to avoid that confrontation…to fear the change it will demand.

2.  And then that wasn’t enough.  While shouting loudly, they held their ears. The confrontation with Stephen’s passionate confession rang so true and was so frightening that not-hearing wasn’t an option.  I used to do that when my sister was trying to tell me something important I didn’t want to hear.  I would cover my ears all the while chanting “I’m not listening, I’m not listening.”  But of course I was...remember what happens to Paul soon thereafter. Sometimes (but I severely limit my intake), when I see the news on television or hear it on radio, that is the scene:  loud shouting and covered ears.  No listening, no hearing, no dialogue, no conversation…no possibility for communion.  I have a deep fondness for solid argument and debate but the prerequisite is a capacity to listen and hear.  And that demands a generosity of spirit that is grounded in honoring the other as child of God.

And on that theme...Thank you Pope Francis for your TED talk.

Certainly an Idea Worth Spreading!