All Saints' Episcopal Church, Thomasville
The Feast of St. Stephen, 2004

"Behold I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes:  and some of them ye shall kill and crucify..."
(St. Matthew 23: 34)

 One piece of music I make a point of listening to each Christmas Eve following the midnight service is the chorus known as the "Shepherd's Farewell", from Hector Berlioz' oratorio "The Birth of Christ."

In this piece, which a record dealer friend in Savannah calls "rug-chewing" music (music so beautiful that it made you want to roll around on the floor and chew the rug), the shepherds sing their farewell to the Holy Family as they begin their flight into Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod -- whom you will remember has ordered that every boy under two years of age be slaughtered.

 It is the most bittersweet piece of music I know.  It reminds me that the Light brought by the birth of our Savior has so intensely illuminated the cesspool which our sin has made of this world, and that our Lord came not to abolish that evil, but to immerse His own ineffably dear life into its slimy vortex.  That music reminds me that the darkness of our world has reacted so violently to the Light of Christ, and how we must never forget such has been the case right from that first Christmas night.

The Church in Her infinite wisdom has chosen to remind the Body of Christ that the only way Jesus and the members of His Body can eradicate evil is to suffer and perhaps even die from that evil.  Hence on December 26 we commemorate the death of the Church's first martyr St. Stephen, and on December 28 we commemorate the deaths of the Holy Innocents.

 A few weeks ago in the collect of the day we prayed about how "through patience and comfort of the Scriptures we might embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life".  That wonderful prayer says nothing about living happily ever after or never having to endure suffering and pain. 

The word "comfort" has nothing to do with a nice, soft sofa.  The word means "to strengthen".  And the word "patience" means the steady endurance of suffering.  Indeed there can be no such thing as patience or hope without some form of suffering.  Suffering is inherent (part and parcel) of patience and hope.  St. Stephen reminds us that if we take a stand as Christ's soldier against the world, the flesh, and the devil, then suffering will be at least one inevitable result.  But yet as with Stephen, a suffering even unto death will bring us patience, and comfort, and even hope.

 A story is told of a Roman Catholic priest celebrating a Christmas mass in war-torn Sarajevo a few years back.  In the course of his sermon he asked: "What is there left in life for us to celebrate when we have lost father, mother, brother, sons, and even our children?  Why should we lift or hearts when we must worry whether we will be raped, or slaughtered with a knife, or simply beaten to death?"

His answer on that Christmas Eve encapsulates the meaning of St. Stephen's Day as well as the Feast of the Holy Innocents.  That is:  "Jesus teaches us that human judgments are not the last judgments, that human justice is not the ultimate justice, and that the power that humans exercise over one another is not the final power."

The writers of the Holy Scriptures never let us forget that sin and innocent suffering are part and parcel not only of this world but particularly of life in the Church.  Nor must we ever forget that even a Christmas carol which begins with the proclamation:  "Joy to the world the Lord is come" contains the following words in a later verse:  "He comes to make His blessings known far as the curse is found."  The curse of the world's sin is very great, and indeed it runs farther than we would ever want to admit.  But the cure for that curse is greater still. 

Nevertheless, the result of that Cure for which we give thanks this Christmas season is never ever a care-free and happy-go-lucky jois di vivre.  The results of Jesus' cure are patience and comfort -- which for us means knowing (as we prayed in today's collect) that "in all our sufferings here on earth for the Truth, we might be emboldened to look steadfastly up into Heaven, and by faith behold the glory that shall be revealed."