Sermon for the Feast of St. Stephen
“Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord”
Today is The Feast of Stephen, “when the snow lay round about, Deep and crisp and even,” as the old carol puts it. Many of our Christmas memories and associations are shaped by the hymns and carols of the season, some of which have little or no relation to anything directly in the Scriptural story. No snow after all in little Bethlehem long ago, no feast of Stephen for that matter, historically speaking; that only comes later. But why then, The Feast of Stephen on the day after Christmas? Because it illumines the whole meaning and purpose of Christ’s Incarnation. It is entirely about sacrifice and service. It opens us out to the real meaning and vocation of our humanity but only through God’s condescension.
The great carol, Good King Wenceslas (Tempus Adest Floridum) is, however, a kind of critical commentary on the Christmas mystery. It speaks in provocative images of the idea of the rich and great ones reaching out to seek the good of the poor and lowly in contrast to exploiting them. Thus it is about treading in the steps of the master, and, in a lovely image, “heat was in the very sod / Which the saint had printed.” But who is that master and saint? In the carol it is King Wenceslas, the tenth century Duke of Bohemia seen as rex justus, a just ruler, but the model and archetype of all justice and compassion is the figure whom Stephen serves even unto death; it is the Lord Jesus. He is the model and the meaning of the spirit of divine humility. The hymn and story are a powerful counter to the pretensions and posturings of the proud and mighty of our world and day; a powerful illustration of what true justice and compassion means.
The Feast of Stephen is the necessary counter as well to the overblown sentimentalities of Christmas. It reminds us of the brutal violence in human hearts and in our world and day. An uncomfortable thought. It is really a kind of critical corrective to the affairs of the Church and all other powers and authorities everywhere when they forget that they live for a purpose and not simply for themselves. In a way, it is as simple as that.
