“We Know, We Know!”

Acts 7:17-29
I can sympathize with Stephen in this reading. Week after week preachers like me enter pulpits all over the world to offer sermons based on material that the majority of our congregations will have heard before. This is why sermons can be, according to Fred Craddock, “twice-told tales.” But preaching offers opportunities as well as pitfalls to the preacher. Stephen, a Hellenist or Greek-influenced Jew who has now converted to Christianity, is telling the most Jewish of audiences the story of their faith. You can imagine the council’s impatience. “We know, we know!” they might be saying. “What right have you to tell us our story?” Yet Stephen, led by the Holy Spirit, was placing that story into a new context and challenging all who heard him to listen with renewed attention. Something different was going on. God was at work in a new way that was offering a new interpretation to past events.

Our lives are always changing, sometimes in major ways and sometimes in minor ones. But God’s word, animated by the Holy Spirit, remains current. There is relevance to be found if we will listen with open hearts and minds. There is assurance to be gained, judgment to be acknowledged, forgiveness to be received, and good news to be shared. As Sunday approaches this week maybe it is time we begin preparing for an encounter with God’s word. Maybe it is time for prayer and reflection so that when we do enter into the worship life of the church and are confronted with God’s word for our lives we will be attuned to the new things that God is doing. This Sunday instead of nodding to ourselves and muttering, “I know, I know,” we should say, “speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”

Prayer: Lord, open our hearts and minds to your word so that we may be filled with its newness for our lives and led to serve you in faithfulness. In Jesus’ name. Amen.