Wenceslas, Duke of Bohemia in the early 10th century, according to the well-known carol looked out across the snowy landscape on the feast of Stephen. So why do we sing a song about the feast of Stephen at Christmas, a festival about the birth of Jesus? Well, by 26th December we have moved on from concentrating solely on Christmas Day (although there are still ten days left to enjoy!) and Boxing Day is when we remember Stephen the deacon and martyr.
As the early Church started to grow, they needed some seriously reliable and faithful people to get on top of the logistics, particularly with regard to the fair distribution of food. Jesus' 12 core apostles couldn't take the time from their other duties, especially prayer and preaching, to sort this out. Therefore, they chose seven men, who became known as deacons. The person specification accompanying the job advert was perhaps a bit different from what you might expect of a catering manager position: a good reputation, wise and full of the Holy Spirit. There was nothing about a Level 2 hygiene certificate or a managerial qualification.
One of those chosen to be the first deacons in the Church at Jerusalem was a man named Stephen. He was in post for maybe not much more than a year, perhaps a a little longer. During this time he also performed many miracles and was able to argue well about Jesus. In fact, he was so good at this that the Jews from one of the synagogues singled him out and accused him of blasphemy to put a stop to his work. They took him to court and there they claimed that he had spoken against the Temple and the Law, and had said that Jesus intended to change the customs of Moses. When the judges looked at him, though, all that they could see was that his face was like that of an angel.
The trial, though, went badly for Stephen and those in attendance seem to have become so irate with him that they didn't bother to wait for him to be formally condemned, but took him outside and stoned him to death. This was the start of a persecution of the Church in Jerusalem and most of the Christians fled to the surrounding areas of Judea and further north into Samaria. Stephen was clearly a devout man of God, filled with the Holy Spirit. His official role in the church was a practical one, but that didn't stop him from also preaching and performing signs and wonders, so well in fact that his opponents felt the need to kill him. Yet God allowed his martyrdom to cause the Church to spread. Stephen was used by God both in life and in death.
The gospel cannot be equated purely with social action. The central message of the Good News of Jesus Christ is that he came to seek and save the lost. Along the way he did everything he could make sure that Heaven will be as full as possible and Hell as empty as people will allow. That was the purpose of his death and resurrection. However, he also preached about the Kingdom of God on Earth, which included looking after the poor, widows and orphans, healing the sick and setting prisoners free. Stephen was a prime example of an individual in which these two aspects of Jesus' commission for the Church met and functioned side by side. Nine hundred years later, Duke Wenceslas, by all accounts, continued this tradition, including being martyred - he was held in such high regard that Otto I, the Holy Roman Emperor, posthumously appointed him King of Bohemia.
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