What Stephen Saw (Yet We Do Not) — Homily for 7th Sunday of Easter

ACTS 7:55-60

Stephen
Executed before Paul
Falls asleep
Envisioning God’s Kingdom
While forgiving the ignorant 
Who cover their ears
Against hearing
The Human One
Who substitutes God’s Reign
Of compassion and love
For religion’s insatiable 
Blood thirst.  

PS 97: 1-2, 6,7,9

Yes, Jesus’ Kingdom rests 
Not on executioners’ haste 
To throw the first stone 
But on justice
Joy and gladness
For everyone
It confers judgment
Revealing
The emptiness of
Everything 
Killers venerate.

REV 22:12-14, 16-17, 20

May God’s Kingdom come!
Even amid roadside missiles and martyrs’ gore.
Hear the urgency!
“Come, come, come, come, come, come”
Six times over:
Come Alpha and Omega
First and Last
Beginning and End
Root and branch
Starlight and Bride
Water and Life.

JN 17: 20-16

It’s about Unity
The Master assures
Five times he says:
One, one, one, one, one
We are
Close like Jesus and Abba.
Foundationally coherent
With them, Stephen, Paul
And those myopic men
Throwing rocks
Powerful enough
To awaken
Prophet’s rage 
To know, know, know, know, know, know
(Count them!)
That God and 
We are One
Rendering stones and blood
Impotent
To destroy
Shared unity
At divine core.