"Be Courageous"

So…

How tall are you?

Have you ever wished you were taller or shorter. 

For years I have been convinced that if I was the 6’2” I was supposed to be, I would have also been exactly the right weight too!

I always wished I could just grow. And I always wondered why the Holy Spirit didn’t make that happen. I mean at 6’2” with my full head of gray hair I would have looked pretty distinguished.

Growing is always of interest, although growing round was not ever the plan.

But growing in faith, growing spiritually always sounded pretty cool. 

Unless that growing was going to be uncomfortable!

Have you ever been in a situation that made you uncomfortable? 

Like attending a social event where you knew absolutely no one! 

Years ago, I went to a wedding reception like that. Sue wasn’t able to go because the kids were small. I sat at table with an older husband and wife who were somehow related to the bride.

He looked at me and said with a bit of an Italian accept , “So, you’re the minister”? 

“Yeah,” I replied. 

He said, “You ever been to an Italian reception”? 

“No, no I haven’t” I said. 

He thought for a minute, then he said, “Do what I do. Take your plate and get a little of this and a little of that. And then we do that all afternoon”. 

Wow. Ok. Now what I know what to do. Kind of.

Situations in which we are totally out of our element are hard. We are scared, confused, unsure of what we should do and say! 

Then compound that by being in a situation that is beginning to look a little bit emotional, or even hostile and we are a mess. 

That’s what Stephen was facing. 

Not just the unfamiliar, but a situation in which there was opposition that was trying to undo him, even kill him.

What is a person to do in those situations, situations we may rarely face, or perhaps never face, but which on the surface are terrifying.

The answer, at least from Stephen’s example, is to be courageous. 

Wow! Does that sound ridiculously hard?
And for most of us that is just simply impossible to imagine. 

To see ourselves as brave and bold on behalf of our faith in light of crazy opposition. People who don’t care to hear what we have found out, discovered, experienced, and come to believe. 

A situation where conversation, listening, and discussion is no longer possible because someone other than us has ratcheted up the stakes. 

This is an either or: recant or die.

Again, the chances of us ever facing such circumstances are really pretty slight. But they are not always so, and haven’t been in many places, and at many times. 

Zealots, in particular, are not open to sharing. And we have seen how horribly that can go this past week in Israel.

Being courageous seems too simple an answer to that kind of intimidation and terrorism. But understand two things. 

One, Stephen was quite certain about what he believed. 

And two, Stephen was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Now that may at the outset seem like way too little to support you or I in a crisis of this size. 

But think about it. 

Hasn’t the Holy Spirit been there for you in other crises?
When you thought all was lost, but then in the midst of it, a strange peace enveloped you. When you needed the right words to say to a friend who was in the midst of loss, and somehow you had them.

Every Sunday when I get up to preach, I am reminded of that holy presence, when a sermon or a prayer or words of comfort at the back door seem to be so inadequate to me, but to which people respond with hope or joy or courage of their own, and then share with me how my words made a difference.

Really? My words! Quite evidently not. 

But perhaps the Holy Spirit speaking through a willing disciple of Jesus’.

Being courageous is one of the attributes of discipleship! 

You heard that, yes?

Being courageous is one of the attributes of discipleship!

It is when we step beyond our comfort zone to do and say what the Holy Spirit is moving us to say or do.

Comforting, teaching, inviting, challenging others to be like Jesus too.

It not always easy or comfortable. But it is the place where you will grow!

So, be courageous, my friends. It is where you will meet Jesus! 

Amen.