Stephen and Wenceslas
1992 (Year A) 27 December / Feast of St Stephen
St Peter de Beauvoir Town
Dictionaries of saints are marvellous things. They contain the occasional little gems, most of which, I’m sure, are totally unconscious. Wenceslas so the story goes was a wise man. He was wise in ways people seldom are these days. He was wise, according to book of saints I’ve got, ‘because he often listened to and followed the advice of the clergy.‘ Now there’s something to reflect on this Christmas-tide.
Apparently he became Duke of Bohemia and was a great supporter of the King of Germany, somebody called Henry the Fowler. There’s something else to conjure with at Christmas. He was still only twenty-two when he died in 929, supposedly murdered by his brother’s friends because of his support of Henry and for his own Christian faith. As is so often the case in these strange stories, his brother Boleslav, had no sooner had him killed than immediately saw the error of his ways. He had his brother’s body buried in the church of St Vitus in Prague where it became a place of pilgrimage. Just 50 years after his death he was given a special day. Within a hundred years he was Patron Saint of Bohemia.
And that’s just about all we know of him. At the risk of sounding just a teeny weenie bit like the Bishop of Durham I doubt very much that he ‘last went out on the feast of St. Stephen’, or that if he did, ‘the snow lay deep and crisp and even’. As for the poor man tottering under the weight of winter ‘fuuel’, well I ask you!
The man who wrote the carol, almost 1000 years after his death had his own agenda. He wanted to encourage what he felt to be true concerning Christian ideals, social benevolence and practical almsgiving. He used the figure of Wenceslas to weave a story round so that his point would be made much more clearly and much more strongly.
Having said all that, we don’t know much more about Stephen, whose feast we celebrate today, apart, that is, from what you heard read just now. He’s recognised as being the first Christian martyr, after being stoned to death. The book of saints which gave the interesting tit-bit about Wenceslas says that in the Middle Ages people used to appeal to Stephen when they had a headache, which fits quite well if you think about it.
Yet it is significant that the church remembers these two strange and very different men so soon after celebrating the gift of the Christ child.
God, whose life is fellowship and community, comes to us in the nativity of Jesus, and in him we find one another and become one heart and soul. These two men remind us that our world is not a place of community and fellowship. That it is a place of hatred, greed and intolerance. These two men plead with us that when we look out on our world we try and live lives which exhibit what everyone propounds at Christmas; fellowship and goodwill.
And they remind us that because of that divinely inspired gift, all kinds of things suddenly become possible, things that would’ve never previously imagined. Because of the birth of Jesus, radically new ways of behaving are open to us. It is possible to forgive those who persecute us, to pray for those who seek to harm us and who do wrong to us, even if they are trying to kill us. It becomes possible to turn away from the greed and avarice of this world and share with the poor.
They remind us that if we want to find true life, and escape the universal death of the world – if we want to gain true riches of life and escape from poverty and want, then we must turn around and begin at the point where the severest loss of all begins; with God. Godlessness leads to the feeling of Godforsakeness. Godforsakeness lets the fear of death and the devouring lust for life wells up in us. Then there is simply never enough. But if God is not far off; if he is near; if he really is Emanuel – God with us. Then we find a new, indescribable joy in living. We are in safekeeping; we are at home. We are trusted and can trust ourselves and other people. Our profoundest want, the want of God has been remedied. Our yearning for happiness is fulfilled, we can become blissful and content.
So Good Lord, at this most holy time, Take from us our fear of death, free us from our greed for life, so that we may find you in our communities with one another; and serve you all our days. AMEN