Stand up, stand up for Jesus

John 14: 13-14  I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

1 Peter 2: 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.

Acts 7: 55-end. The death of Stephen.

Following Jesus sometimes feels like a risky business. You are going against the flow. Is this a Christian country or a secular one? Perhaps it depends how close to an election you are and whose votes you are trying to win! Though our nations laws are built on principles laid down in a Christian context, many Christians find that if we are to really live out the principles that we hold dear, if we really try to proclaim the good news of Jesus to others, then we are criticised as going against the culture in which we live. It is not fashionable to be a Christian, it is not cool at school or smart in the office to openly admit that we believe in Jesus and make choices affected by out discipleship.

Of course, the risks for us in England are of words spoken critically, of misunderstandings, sometimes of bullying. Our lives or safety are not threatened and yet still so many people give in to the pressure of society and deny Christ, failing to speak up for his way when away from church. St Stephen, in this Sunday’s first reading, stood up for his beliefs in a context in which he knew he would be considered apostate. He knew that to speak out his faith meant risking his very life, and yet he did not consider denying Christ. He chose to proclaim the mighty acts of God, to tell of where the light in his life came from, even though he knew he would pay for those words with his life.

In Sudan this week a woman has been condemned to death as apostate for saying she is a Christian. She isn’t technically apostate – that word means abandoning one religion for another, and the charge is that she has left Islam for Christianity. She was brought up in the Orthodox church by her Christian mother, but the court considers her to be a Muslim because her father, absent throughout her childhood, is a Muslim. She is eight months pregnant, and is being granted just two years with her child before the sentence of hanging is due to be carried out. Amnesty International are campaigning to have the woman freed, and I hope that all of you will find ways to support the campaign. This woman is standing up for her faith in the same way that Stephen (who technically was apostate, as a man born into Judaism) did.

When we are challenged by the culture that we live in, we don’t face the kind of opposition and danger that this woman, and so many others in other parts of the world, face daily. How dare we deny Christ and suggest that it is too difficult? How dare we allow mere embarrassment (which is all we generally face) to get in the way of living visibly as disciples of Christ? If we find it difficult – and no doubt it sometimes is – we have a promise from Jesus that he will hear and respond to our prayers. So we can ask him for the courage, the wisdom, the guts to live as men and women of faith wherever we are and whatever the cost might be.