When we think about slavery we tend to think of the relatively recent past and the dilemmas thrown up by wealth derived from slavery, or we think about modern slavery. All this is about abuse and the curtailment of the lifestyle of one person or group by another person or group. Yes, that is simplistic but bear with me.
Today’s reading (Acts 6:7-15) is a part of the story of the treatment Stephen received for his witness to Christ and the resurrection. Ultimately, Stephen would be stoned to death for his persistent faithfulness, thus creating a martyr.
There is an irony in the background to the setting for the trial. Jews from as far apart as Cyrene and Alexandria, Cilicia and Asia gathered in the Synagogue of the Freedmen. In a place of worship named in celebration of freedom from slavery, a group of the leading lights of the Jewish faith were to concoct a travesty of justice and to be ever more inflamed by the clarity of Stephen’s rhetoric as the Spirit gave him eloquence.
An unjust judicial system is the epitome of irony and here is one such, stitching up one of Christianity’s father figures. Freedom? What freedom is it that is so illiberal in its outworking?
We live at risk of similar illiberalism when we regret an imperial past on the one hand while at the same time teetering on the edge of a new era of poverty for those who lack the means to feed and warm themselves and their families. We need to beware lest we, deaf to the spirit of God, throw stones at today’s tellers of the truth by focusing on a bygone age while not seeing the restrictions under our noses.
A prayer
Lord, help me not to be narrow minded in my obsessions but to be alert to what is happening on my doorstep. Free me from obsessing over knowledge of the price of bread in past famines, but to look for ways to share it with those who cannot afford it now. I am fortunate to have discovered the bread of life; Lord, show me how to be faithful and to do all I can to help others to freedom from the restrictions of now, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.