Introduction
      Many of you know that our own Carl Hofmann is quite the cyclist.  He has a passion for the sport, and he is contagious with his enthusiasm, so much so that now Forrest Buckner, on our staff, has also gotten into the sport.  Now, John Hess and I like to ride our bikes up Flagstaff, but Carl and Forrest are in a different category.  They shave their legs and have all the fancy gear.  Just look at this picture of Carl with J.P. Lind of our congregation!
      About a year ago, Carl shared a devotion with the staff just as the Tour de France was gearing up.  It was an enlightening talk about spiritual principles that are evident in the sport of cycling.  He told us about domestiques.  The domestique is an invaluable support rider, without whom a team leader, like Lance Armstrong, cannot win the overall classification.  The domestique blocks the wind, chases down rival breakaways, and shuttles food and drink to the leader from the team car at the back.  He sacrifices his energy and effort every day to shield the team leader and keep him safe and as rested as possible for the mountain stages.  If the leader has difficulty, the domestique will give him a wheel off his own bike, or he will even give him the bike itself, if needed!
      This morning we read about the domestiques, if you will, of the early church.  They were the servants, the deacons who were used by God in a special way to heal division in the church and care for the poor and the widows.  One particular deacon, Stephen, stands out, and we read about him in Acts 6.  As we consider these things today, I want you to notice a case of discrimination, a division of labor, and a model of faithfulness.

I. A Case of Discrimination
      If we look at this text in the context of all that has happened in the life of the early church, it is interesting to note that the problem arose on the heels of the church’s persecution.  It seems that Satan’s first strategy is to attack the church from the outside, but his second strategy is to attack it from within.  We see this with the problem of deception on the part of Ananias and Sapphira, and we also see it with the problem of discrimination that arose in the community of believers.
      A complaint was voiced concerning the welfare of Greek-speaking widows who were being overlooked in the distribution of food.  You will recall from our earlier study in the book of Acts that people gave generously to the work of God, and they shared things in common so that there was not a needy one among them (Acts 2:44,45).  People even sold pieces of land and gave the proceeds to help the poor.  It was a remarkable demonstration of open-handed generosity.
      However, in the midst of the good things that were happening, a complaint arose that some in the fellowship were being discriminated against.  In the Jerusalem church there were two groups of people – one called Hellenistai and the other called Hebraioi.  The Hellenistai were Jews who came from the Diaspora after the exile in Babylon and returned to the Holy Land.  While they settled back into Palestine, they continued to speak Greek and followed Greek customs.  The Hebraioi were natives of Palestine.  Their ancestors were never forced to leave during the Babylonian captivity, and they spoke Aramaic and were deeply immersed in Hebrew culture.  It was a clash of languages and a clash of cultures with the result that one group within the community was marginalized and disenfranchised.  The Greek-speaking Jews complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. 
      This passage points to the fact that at times the church is guilty of discrimination, even within its own ranks.  It is to our shame that divisions continue to separate believers, whether those divisions are the color of one’s skin, language, customs, socio-economics, or way of life.  Walls are built between Christians, and the result is that cliques form and groups are excluded.  There is the in-crowd, and there are the outsiders.  This happens in our youth groups, our worship services, and it even happens in our mission outreach.  But this should not be.  Wherever we find discrimination, we need to do all we can to break down the walls of separation and pursue reconciliation.  We need to address the problems and rectify the wrongs.  That is what ultimately happened in this situation. 
      How often have complaints in a church and problems between groups of people led to church splits?  They are triggered by a number of things – personalities, leadership style, social class, preferences and tastes, race, gender, worship style, and the list goes on.  Given our sinfulness, it is not surprising that divisions happen.
      A friend who is a pastor in another part of the country once told me about an incident in his church in Pennsylvania that happened years before he arrived involving sugar doughnuts.  It seems that there were two women in the church who always made doughnuts whenever there was a church social.  One made plain cake donuts, and the other made sugar doughnuts.  At each event, one of the women would go to the other and say, "Would you like one of my doughnuts?" and the other would reply, "Why, of course.  Would you like one of mine?"  "Why, yes I would."  Well, there came one church social in which one of ladies asked the other, "Would you like one of my sugar doughnuts?", but this time the other woman replied, "I don't think I will," and she turned away from the first woman.  The members of the church began to side with each of the ladies, depending on which kind of doughnut they liked, and the conflict became so great that the church actually split into two churches – all because of sugar doughnuts!
      A few years ago I read that outside the entrance of the Church of St. Sophia in Kiev, Ukraine, there is a sarcophagus containing the body of Vladimir, the Patriarch of Kiev.  This is no ancient marker of past glory, but instead it is a recent monument to the unwillingness of Christians to forgive each other and get along.  You see, Ukrainian Orthodox Christians are deeply divided among three groups, each with its own leader.  Vladimir was the head of one of those groups, but upon his death in July of 1995 his body was refused burial in the ancient cathedral of St. Sophia.  A riot broke out, two people were killed, and dozens were injured.  Vladimir's mourners buried him right on the spot, directly in front of the entrance to the cathedral.  It stands as a symbol of the refusal of Christians to forgive each other.[1]
      My friends, let us not play into the hand of Satan; let us not allow divisions to come among us.  Let's keep short accounts with one another, and don’t let a root of bitterness gain a foothold in your heart.  Let us not discriminate against our brothers and sisters; rather, let us seek the unity of the body of Christ.

II.  A Division of Labor
      If dissension and division are two of Satan’s strategies to destroy the church, distraction is a subtle third.  In our passage we read that when the Greek-speaking Jews complained to the apostles about the discrimination against their widows, the leaders of the early church replied, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables” (6:2).  In their response the apostles were here not expressing an unwillingness to do menial tasks or to serve the people.  Rather, they were seeking to maintain their clear calling in Christ and the primary task of their ministry, which had to do with teaching the Word and with prayer.  So they proposed a division of labor in the work of God.
      Whenever a problem arises in the life of the church, there is a temptation for pastors and other leaders of the congregation to become distracted with solving the problem and take on additional responsibilities.  They begin to neglect their primary calling before the Lord, which is the ministry of the Word of God.  We pastors can get so caught up in the administration of the church that the result is the main thing we have been called and equipped to do is neglected.  The apostles understood this, and they suggested a better way to deal with the problem.
      Eugene Peterson says that pastors are to be like Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey. Odysseus had himself lashed to the mast so that he would not be swayed when he sailed by the Island of the Sirens.  The Sirens sang with such haunting beauty that many a ship was lured near the island’s shore in order to hear the music more clearly, but the shoreline of the island was filled with rocks, and the ships that came too close were wreaked and sank to bottom of the ocean.  Odysseus ordered his men to lash him to the mast so that he would resist the temptation and be able to sail by unharmed.  Peterson says that many sirens with beautiful music try to call pastors and other church leaders away from their primary ministry of the Word and prayer, but their task is to stay lashed to the mast.  The apostles understood this truth.
      The Twelve proposed a division of labor, and they suggested that seven people be appointed to oversee the distribution of the food and make sure than no one was overlooked.  There are several things I want you to notice about this decision. First, they didn’t decide to appoint a committee to study the matter!  That’s the Presbyterian way!  Did you ever come across the following poem?

In this situation the apostles did not appoint a committee; they appointed a ministry team, and they delegated the responsibility and the authority to get the job done.

      Second, notice that the apostles considered the task of “waiting on tables,” as they called it, a ministry which required spiritual qualifications.  The seven individuals who were chosen for the job needed to be full of the Spirit and full of wisdom.  Every job in the church of Jesus Christ is a spiritual ministry.  That’s true whether you’re preaching a sermon or serving lunch to the homeless.  The task of these deacons was no less important than the ministry of the Word, and therefore it was no less spiritual.  Both responsibilities required people of great spiritual depth and great spiritual insight. 
      Later this fall, the Congregational Nominating Committee will be asking you for recommendations of people you think should be considered to be elected to serve as elders, deacons, and trustees.  As you think about these things, consider recommending people who have spiritual qualifications for every level of service.  We see an example here in Acts 6 which we should follow.
      The third thing I want you to notice about the apostles’ decision has to do with the number of people who were appointed – seven.  There is great wisdom in the plurality of leadership in the church.  There was no king in the early church, and all leadership and all ministry was exercised in community.  As Presbyterians we hold to the doctrines of original sin and total depravity.  These are fancy ways of saying that we believe that even the best of us, left to ourselves, are prone to error and evil, and so a system of checks and balances needs to be put in place in the governance of the church.  As the Bible says, there is wisdom in the council of many, and here we see this principle put into practice in the appointing of the first deacons in the early church.
      The final thing I want you to note about the decision the apostles is the names of the people who were appointed.  They are all Greek names.  The church exercised great wisdom in choosing people who would be the most understanding of the problem of discrimination, and they selected seven men from the Greek-speaking community itself.  Here we see the church bending over backwards to accommodate those who were disenfranchised, and they worked hard to be inclusive rather than exclusive.
      Deacon work is holy work.  They are the domestiques of God.  The ministry of mercy and the ministry of service are just as important as the ministry of the Word.  In addition, we would do well to remember that all Christians are called to be the hands and feet of Christ in serving those around us, not just the deacons.  Mother Teresa says it well in the quote on the cover of the bulletin:

III.  A Model of Faithfulness
      In the second part of our passage this morning, we are introduced to one deacon in particular.  His name is Stephen.  We see in the description of Stephen that he was not only good at serving and waiting on tables, he was also good at evangelism and apologetics.  God had gifted him as proclaimer of the truth of God, and no one could stand up to the logic of his wisdom and the power of the Spirit with which he spoke.  We also note that God did amazing things through his ministry, and by the Spirit of God he was able to perform many miraculous signs and wonders.  We are told that when he appeared before the Sanhedrin, his face shone like that of an angel.  This was a holy man who had a close and intimate walk with Jesus.  The only other person who is described in the Bible in this way was Moses, whose face also shone with the holiness of God when he returned from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments. 
      Stephen’s preaching aroused strenuous opposition in the Jewish community, and a group of people from the Synagogue of the Freedmen stirred up a controversy and made false accusations in order to get him arrested.  Stephen was brought before the Sanhedrin, and next week we will study what happened when he went on trail for his faith. 
      He was charged with a serious double accusation – that he spoke against the Law of Moses, and that he spoke against the Temple.  Both were a charge of blasphemy.  There was nothing more sacred to the Jews and there was nothing more precious to them than their Temple and their Law.  The Temple was the holy place, the sanctuary of God’s presence, and the Law was the Holy Scripture, the revelation of God’s mind and will.  Since the Temple was God’s house and the Law was God’s Word, for the Jews to speak against either of these was to speak against God Himself. 
      Of course, Stephen had not done this; the charges were made by false witnesses.  But this became the occasion when Stephen was called upon to make his bold witness for Christ, and, as we shall see next week, it cost him his life.  Would that all of us – whether we are a deacon or not – could be as bold and courageous as Stephen.  He was a model of faithfulness, and he honored Christ in all he did and all he said.  May we follow his example.

Conclusion
      As we close today, I want to return for just a moment to this matter of dissension and division in the body of Christ.  As you and I consider and discuss this whole matter of Phase 2 renovation in the coming months and as we prepare to launch a new emergent worship service in the fall, there will be great opportunity for division within this church.  We may disagree and have our differences of opinion.  But let’s commit to giving each other the benefit of the doubt, to believe the best about each other’s motives, and let us not allow our differences to divide us.  Satan would love nothing better than to do that, but we shouldn’t let him have even a toehold in our hearts or in our fellowship.
      I close with a parable.  The great story-teller Aesop said that once there were four bulls who were great friends.  They went everywhere together - they hunted together, they lay down to rest together, and they played together.  And they always stayed close to one another so that if any danger came near, they would all face it together.  Now there was a lion that had determined that he would have them for lunch, but he could never get them on their own.  He was a match for any one of them alone, but not for all four at the same time.  However, he watched for his opportunity, and when one lagged the least bit behind the others as they grazed, he would slink up beside him and whisper that the other bulls had been saying unkind things about him.  This he did so often that at last the four friends became uneasy with one another.  Each one thought the other three were plotting against him, and finally, as there was no trust among them, they went off by themselves, their friendship broken.  This was what the lion wanted, and one by one he killed them, and they made four good meals for the clever lion![4]
      My friends, we’re in this together for the glory of God and the praise of His name!  Let us maintain the unity of the body of the Christ, even when complaints and divisions arise.  If you and I purpose in our hearts to be servants of one another, the domestiques of God, I’m confident that God will guide and direct us into a bright future together.  Amen.