(Please read the Scripture passage before reading the homily.)
The United States is not a unity without diversity. Indigenous peoples, citizens, refugees, green card holders; Christians, Jewish people, Muslims, peoples from Asia, Africa, Oceania, people of different sexual expressions. Ours is not a monolithic culture.
The same is also true of ancient cultures. Jerusalem was a hodge-podge of Jewishness. Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, Jews from Judea, Jews from Samaria, Jews from around the world, called Jerusalem their home.
Some Jewish people had once lived in slavery, but had become free and had their own synagogue. The various language groups seem to have had their own synagogues. Some groups were argumentative and others laid back.
Stephen was given to defending his beliefs with others. His opponents had him lynched.
Luke was aware of the Gospels attributed to Mark and Matthew. He incorporated elements from the their accounts of the trial of Jesus into his story of the trial of Stephen. He tells the story of Stephen’s trial in such a way as to relate this trial to the trial of Jesus. He may be wanting to lead us to consider all our trials as a share in the trial of Jesus. The trial and killing of Stephen is told as a lynching more than as an execution. It is more the action of a mob than of an orderly group of police officers.