A number of years ago, when I was barely out of high school, I was given my first preaching assignment. I was to preach the Sunday after Christmas, December 26. For those who know our liturgical calendar, that is the feast day of St. Stephen, the day we remember the first martyr for the faith.

My first preaching assignment, my first sermon, and I get to talk about a guy who gets murdered for what he believes. No theological training outside of Sunday School at that point. No seminary. Not any college level courses really. And I get preach about one of the most difficult topics a preacher can encounter. No one likes to talk about martyrdom.

Well, that much at least hasn’t changed much. Martyrdom is hard to talk about. Hard because it really doesn’t happen that much anymore. Persecution for the faith is alien to this place and time. It happened in the past certainly. It happens in other countries. But not here. Not now. Oh, occasionally a Christian group will get upset about a “wardrobe malfunction” on TV or something like that and bemoan about the degradation of our morals as a society, but that’s a far cry from the time when Sunday with the lions meant something far different than a football game.

Most people would say that’s a good thing, and it’s hard to argue with that. I like that I can go to church without worrying about being arrested, thrown in jail, or worse for coming to worship. But I wonder that with that blessing there is also a curse. With the silver lining, there is also a cloud.

You see, Stephen and those like him were not simply persecuted and killed because they were Christians. And those who persecuted the church did not do so simply because they were the bad guys and that’s what bad guys do. The history of the early church is far more complex than that. Stephen and his companions got themselves into trouble because they dared to speak truth to falsehood, dared to stand up to injustice, and the powers that be did not like having their cage rattled. Stephen and the other martyrs were killed because they were, quite truthfully, troublemakers.

Troublemakers in a good way. In the way Jesus was. For what did he do? He embraced the rejected, healed the sick, told the truth to those who preferred their lies, called on us to love our enemies, to give to the poor, to transform the world in which we live into one where justice and peace prevail. None of those things seem subversive. None of those things seem radical. But put them into practice and you’ll very quickly discover just how radical they really are.

The church does not get in enough trouble anymore. The church is not radical enough anymore. We have lost our edge. We have become mainstream, maybe too much so. We no longer call out our society for its sins, and no longer lead the way out of them to that transformed world of peace and justice.

I find it refreshing then when a Pat Robertson or a Jerry Falwell or a Jeremiah Wright gets up there and does declare that our society does commit its sins, be they abortion, racism, poverty, or whatever.

Now I don’t always agree with such people, and you may not either, but at least they have the boldness and the courage to take us to task for our wrongs, real or perceived, and to remind us that while America is a great nation and we are a great people, we are not perfect, and that we could be greater still, that we could put proof to the great words we hold as our ideals. Liberty and justice for all. We’re not there yet. We’re closer than when we started, but there is still a road ahead.

The church could lead the way. And we don’t.

We don’t because we are afraid. I think we all know what will happen. We all know in our heart of hearts that what Jesus taught and lived and what Stephen lived and all the other martyrs is indeed too radical for our society. And when we strike out at evil in our world, that evil will hit back. Just like it did Stephen.

And Stephen is far from the only example. The coats of those who stoned him were laid at the feet of a man named Saul. A man who became Paul, who wrote most of the New Testament, who brought the Gospel to the Gentiles, to us in many ways. He got his head chopped off for his trouble. Those who watched the Martin Luther movie a few weeks ago or know the story of our church’s founder know the considerable force that was brought against him. Just a few weeks ago we marked the 40^th anniversary of MLK’s assassination. When you strike out at evil, evil will hit back. When you speak the truth to power, when you stand up to injustice, there are consequences.

How then are we to find our voice? How then can we have the courage to do these things, to transform this world into the one Jesus and his disciples envisioned, a world where peace, justice, goodwill are more than just ideals, they are reality!

We find that courage within Christ himself. For Jesus is more than just some rabblerousing radical reformer. He is the Son of God and his voice carries all the authority and power of the one who created all things. And he makes us promises, promises that no matter what happens, no matter where we go, or what the world unleashes upon us, he will be there. God will never abandon us. Not now, not ever.

It is the promise he gives to his disciples in today’s gospel lesson. There is a reason this text is often read at funerals, when death is so near. The powers of this world will threaten us with it, in all its forms, when we dare to speak up and speak out, but the promise is sure. Where Christ is, we shall be also!

When we face the powers of evil of this world we do not do so alone. Christ is with us. And if we face what do many others in the past face, the destruction of our mortal lives, then Christ is there too. Stephen looked up in his last moments and saw a vision of angels. We’ve been told that story to remind us that just as God was with him, so too will he be with us. And with Christ at our side, we can transform the world. We can make peace and justice a reality for all.

Let’s go make some trouble. Amen.