Martyr!

This week I am at confirmation camp. We are looking at the book of Acts and the characters that help us understand our faith. On Tuesday (yesterday) the group I am in lead a session on Stephen. We had one station on service, as Stephen was the first called to serve the body of Christ so the Disciples could tend the word. We had a station on kerygma or message, we had a station on the rules of life and how we must understand the rules to move forward in our grace given life, and we had a station on martyrdom since Stephen was the protomartyr of the Christian faith. I taught the session on martyrdom, and asked the kids if one must die in order to be a martyr.

I am sure that many of us, would answer yes resoundingly when we hear the question must one die to be a martyr? I would say the answer is both yes and no. We must understand the meaning of the word martyr to get to the root of this question.

A martyr is a witness like a witness in a court. Someone who testifies to the facts of the case. In Stephen’s account in Acts (6:1-8:1a) Stephen then could be considered to be a witness, however the real witness here in my mind is Saul. The man at the end of chapter 7 who holds the coats of the stoners of Stephen. He witnessed the whole thing and could give testimony of it in court. Now the most interesting thing to the is that Saul becomes Paul, and he is crucified upside down as a martyr for Jesus. But that is a topic for another blog. A martyr is a witness, so one does not have to die to be a witness, right?

Wrong! I learned something this week at camp, from the woman volunteering to be the nurse here this week. We have all died and because of that we are martyrs! We have all died. Now I know many of you are saying, “If I am dead, how am I reading this?” Very good question, and to answer it I will tell you of my death. I died on June 30, 1991 in Middletown OH. I remember it quite vividly, I was wearing a blue suit over my clothing to keep them dry and I was pushed under the water and raised to new life. I was baptized at a baptist church. I was connected to the death and resurrection of Jesus and because of that death and rising I became a martyr for Jesus.

Martyrdom is a hard topic, because we are all sent with a mission, and anyone of us maybe called upon to die for our faith. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs says that there were more Christians martyred for their faith in the past century than in all other centuries combined! We may be called on to follow Jesus to the cross, but we should not look for that in order to me a martyr. Be a witness, one who follows Jesus and tells of the love of God in their life, and makes others want to come to that love. Infect the world, with love. Be the hands and feet of God and lets love the world to death, so that all may know the life giving mercy and grace of our God!