Friday, 7th Week of Ordinary Time

Acts 7:17-40

Welcome to the longest chapter in the Bible, in which Stephen defends himself, recaps the history of the Jewish people, and finally turns on them with an indictment to which the inevitable responses was to stone him to death. Based on yesterday’s reading, there were two charges against Stephen. First, that he preached the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Second, that he spoke against the traditions of the Jewish faith, which they believed God had first given to Moses. In today’s reading, Stephen answers the second charge.

Stephen’s argument is that his fellow Jews don’t know their Mosaic tradition nearly as well as they claim to know it. Today, he says, you cling to your image of Moses as something that helps you feel superior to the Romans and other foreign peoples. But what you’re actually doing is waving the word, “Moses” around like a protest sign, instead of learning from Moses. The truth is, your ancestors wanted nothing to do with Moses. Even after God led you out of slavery through Moses’ leadership, you gave up on him at the first signs of difficulty. Before you accuse me of overturning your traditions, why don’t you learn them for yourselves.

Tradition provides us with comfort, with assurance that in the story of our lives, and the lives of those who came before us, is purpose, meaning, and blessing. But tradition can also become a badge of honor that we award ourselves. It can also become a shield against the more revealing parts of our history.

My recollection may be incorrect, but I believe that I’ve seen, around the intersection of Highways 75 and 431, a historical marker headlined, “Trail of Tears.” It turns out that when the Cherokee nation was forced to march to Oklahoma in the 1830s, they started from Fort Payne, traveled down the road now known as Hwy 75, turned right at what is now Hwy 431, and made their way to Gunter’s Landing and the Tennessee River.

Of course the creation of the United States has provided opportunities for millions of people to better their lives. And in the 20th century, the U.S. truly was the “indispensible nation” without whom the world would have fallen into the darkness of tyranny, either by the Nazis in Germany, or the Communists in Russia. But we should not wear that history like a horse’s blinders, so that we do not see the other part of our “tradition” by the side of the road. In a full understanding of tradition, we will find both assurance and challenge. Let us accept both.