A, Easter 5 - Acts 7:55-60 "Homothumadon"
Extraordinary
things occurred in the early days after Jesus’ resurrection. The believers acted with one accord. The title of this sermon bears the Greek word
Homothumadon, translated “in one
accord, in one mind, or with one voice”, and it literally means with “one
passion”, or “one hot breath.
This
acting in one accord is recorded only eleven times in the New Testament, ten in
the book of Acts, and once in Romans. [1]
Eight
out of the eleven occurrences homothumadon
refers to the worshipping of God in one accord by the believers of Jesus’
resurrection. Three times homothumadon, is the oneness of passion
with which mobs of unbelieving Jews roared and breathed against the
believers. At Stephen’s death, men from
the synagogue of Freedmen, cried out, shut their ears to God’s call through
Stephen, and rushed at him with homothumadon,
dragging him out of Jerusalem and stoning him.
Stephen
with the witnesses and believers of the resurrection sought to proclaim the
actions of man in the death of Jesus Christ, and the actions of God in sending
him in the incarnation of human flesh.
He was sent to serve as the Son of Man, and submit as the sacrificial
Lamb of God, for the Jews first, and then the Gentiles. The actions of Jesus Christ glorified our
Father, when together with the Holy Spirit the Trinity acted in homothumadon.
In
these days after the resurrection, we hear homothumadon
occurring amongst the believers as the Holy Spirit moved in them and spoke
through them to save others.
First,
Peter was reinstated by Jesus with a three-fold call to “feed my lambs, tend my
sheep, feed my sheep”. Jesus spoke into
Peter the homothumadon, the one
accord, to love others as he loved
him, loved the disciples, and loved all sinners, in his death and resurrection.
Then,
in the power of the Holy Spirit, Peter begins by continuing Jesus’ love at
Pentecost, standing up with the eleven, in the peace of God, with homothumadon he calls all people to
repentance.
One
could say this had a positive outcome as the crowd was cut to their hearts
because of their sin, and three thousand were baptised for the forgiveness of
their sins and received the Holy Spirit.
Peter promises resurrection for them and their children and calls them
to, “save themselves from the current generation”.
So,
from one man going to the cross for humanity and then being raised from the
dead, Peter is resurrected, the other ten Apostles are resurrected, then three
thousand. The Holy Spirit continues the
work of Jesus, the Son of God, the Son or Servant of Man, proceeding from both
the Son and the Father, to do the will of God, and bring humanity into the
oneness of Jesus Christ.
Those
gathered, by the power of the Holy Spirit, sought to gather others. With strength and courage, they waited on the
Risen Lord, despite the very real threat to their lives. But it was to those who threatened their
lives that they testified the love of God because only through the power of God
can anyone be re-erected in a way that pleases God our Father.
God
had become displeased with Israel, his chosen people. But in his displeasure with humanity and the
Jews, he sent his Son, to be human, a man, a Jew, to save the Jews and
humanity.
God
the Holy Spirit was calling people into a new temple, a gathering of living
stones, built on the Corner Stone, Jesus Christ. This homothumadon
was the gathering breath of the Holy Spirit, calling one holy apostolic church
to be gathered in and around the resurrected Jesus Christ, the Corner Stone.
This
was a calling of people out of death into life, calling them to daily die to
self and live in Jesus Christ, allowing the Holy Spirit to bring them out of
darkness and into a royal, holy nation and priesthood. This is the homothumadon into which people were being baptised to the glory and
pleasure of God.
But
the homothumadon of the Holy Spirit,
the oneness into which the Spirit was seeking to work through the Apostolic
Servants and the newly re-created and resurrected Priesthood of confessing
sinners living under forgiveness, was not appreciated by some.
For
four hundred years God had withdrawn from the people of Israel and left them to
their own devices. Kingship and the
Levitical Priesthood was rife with corruption.
Murder, chaos, and buying of power was common as warring factions in
Jerusalem jockeyed for supremacy. The
Sanhedrin looked more like question time in parliament, rather than leading of
the Jewish public in a God pleasing way.
Men like Herod the Great and his adulterous Son Herod Antipas were the
legacy of this time.
Outside
of Judea, Samaria, and Galilee the world was in a state of flux. Years before, Alexander the Great had
conquered the world, and having been tutored by Aristotle, he encouraged
diversity of thought and ideologies.
This helped the spread of Judaism through the Greek world, but
monotheistic Judaism struggled to come to terms with the polytheistic nature of
Greek Hellenisation that traversed lands from the Himalayas in the east, to
Greece and Egypt in the west.
Between
Alexander’s reign and the rise of the Roman empire, the lands of Israel found
themselves in a great tug-o-war and Judaism became a part of this political
struggle. By the time God sent his Son
Jesus Christ, Jerusalem, a place which bore the name meaning flowing peace, was
more use to the flow of human blood, at the hands of those who should have been
spilling the blood of animals, for the atonement of their sins and for those
whom they were meant to serve.
So,
with one accord, with the homothumadon, with
the unified fierce breath, in which Jesus was crucified was not new to
Jerusalem and the Jews. Paradoxically,
the oneness in which these political assassinations occurred in the lead up to Jesus’
death, further splintered and disintegrated God’s chosen people of Israel. The spirit of the age was every man for
himself, not all that different from today!
However,
the homothumadon of the Holy Spirit
is different because people were being brought into the oneness of Jesus’
resurrection. He who proclaimed himself
as the Son of God, now had a faithful following growing mysteriously, a strange
phenomenon of believers repenting and confessing, calling others into the same homothumadon of forgiveness by the Holy
Spirit.
Two
homothumadon are revealed at this
time. One was that of the Holy Spirit in
Jesus Christ, the other was that of the human spirit. One tasted and saw that the Lord was good,
the other didn’t see that the Lord was good.
Christ’s call to repentance and his resurrection did not please their
taste, rather it was a puzzling enigma and another suspicious power needing
destruction.
With
those gathered by the Holy Spirit into Jesus Christ, they were one in him with
a peace that surpassed all understanding, allowing them to freely confess sin
and live in forgiveness in the face of death and tribulation. They looked to Jesus knowing the threat of
death and separation was a blessing of eternal life in Jesus. They tasted and knew that the Lord was good.
Stephen
tasted the Lord too! He wanted others to
be freed from the confusion, chaos, and the corruption of the age. His wish was for those who lived under the
bondage of death to be made free in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Stephen proclaimed with the homothumadon of the Holy Spirit, the one
accord of the Holy Spirit and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Those
who debated against Stephen, were from the synagogue of the Freedmen. Literally in the Greek, the synagogue of the
Libertine. They may have been freed in
the sense of freethinking and free to indulge in their pleasures, but they were
bound by their thoughts and pleasures that were leading them to death. When Stephen sought to free them from death
and the spirit of the age, they cried out and shut their ears to the Holy
Spirit speaking through Stephen and murdered him.
Each
Sunday we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ in the face of death. Today might be the last day I have, to
proclaim with the homothumadon of God
to you, calling you from the spirit of this world into trusting the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. It might
be the last time you hear with the homothumadon
of the Holy Spirit, the one rushing breath of the Holy Spirit. Today may be your last breath to confess your
sin, to confess the forgiveness of your sin to others, to proclaim Jesus’ death
and resurrection, bringing another into the homothumadon
of the Holy Spirit.
It
was Stephen’s last opportunity. It cost
him his life, but it also blessed the church, as it pleased God to bring a
young man called Saul from the homothumadon
of Jewish human desire into the homothumadon
of God’s resurrected Kingdom, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Finally,
the name Stephen needs to be looked at.
Stephen comes from the Greek word stepho
which means wreathe, a badge or symbol of honour, or even a crown.
As
your pastor, it is my duty to call you
to taste and see that the Lord is good.
To lay your sin at the foot of the cross, to forgive as the Lord has
forgiven you. To receive the homothumadon of the Holy Spirit, so you
leave here in the peace of God, and pass on the peace of forgiveness to others
in your royal and holy calling, in the priesthood of all believers, baptised
into the forgiveness of sins and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Like
Stephen, let your homothumadon be a
Holy Spirited one accord with Jesus Christ, bearing the homothumadon badge of
honour, and crown of eternal life.
Amen.
[1] Acts 1:14, 2:46, 4:24, 5:12,
7:57, 8:6, 12:20, 15:25, 18:12, 19:29, Romans 15:6
