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St. Stephen's Episcopal Church

215 N. 7th, Terre Haute, Indiana

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A Word: A Bigger Guest List

Sermons · December 26, 2019

When your patron is a martyr, you know you’re in for a challenge. When that martyr mimics Jesus’s challenge to the religious leaders, well…


Stephen and a scandalous gospel
The Feast of Stephen | Acts 6:8-7:2a,51c-60

Photo by Daria Shevtsova from Pexels

Today we remember Stephen, who the author of Acts describes as “a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit” and “his face was like the face of an angel.”

The tradition honors him as the first deacon and the first martyr. Which, if we’re counting odds, makes me wonder why any of us would step up to serve after that. Seriously, they went 1-for-1 right out of the gate! And worse than that, Scripture doesn’t give the impression that he was in this specific ministry long. I don’t think he made it to his wood anniversary. Maybe it was stone. Maybe garnet.

While the story of Stephen is pretty straightforward—he’s one of seven deacons God called to help serve the expanding reach of the Good News and was tried and stoned to death for blasphemy—the questions of why remain. Why has the church chosen to honor him on December 26th? And why do we follow him as our patron? …


The full text may be found here.

For a limited time, you may find the audio here.

Filed Under: Sermons Tagged With: Christmas, Feast of St. Stephen, gospel, martyr, widening the circle

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CONTACT

St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church
215 N. 7th St
Terre Haute, IN 47807

812-232-5165

officeadmin@ststephensth.org

ABOUT

St. Stephen’s is a sacramental community following Jesus’s Way of Love.

We worship on Sundays at 8 & 10.

AFFILIATIONS

St. Stephen’s is a member of The Episcopal Church and congregation of the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis.

St. Stephen’s is a member of the Wabash Valley Homeless Coalition

PARKING

St. Stephen’s is across from Indiana State University. Nearby parking lots are run by ISU and are free after 5pm weekdays and are free all weekend long. 

Five marked spots in the lot directly behind the church are available during the week.

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