Sue Agnew

Dear friend,

Today is the Feast of Saint Stephen, transferred from December 26. It also happens to be my birthday, which unfortunately (in this shockingly-large-round-number year) can’t be transferred. Of course, there are mitigating factors when having even this kind of a birthday: friends, food, and the frequent reminder that having a birthday is preferable to the alternative.

This year I gave myself an unexpected birthday gift: a new air-conditioning/heating unit. The repair would have been half the cost of replacing the unit, and supply-chain problems would have meant 3-4 weeks at least without heat (3-4 days was bad enough). The mitigating factors are that my house is cozy and the new unit is quiet, and I'm fortunate to have a home to shelter in (despite it having been cold inside) and to have been able to scrape up the cost of the replacement.

When Jason the HVAC guy came to my door after assessing the problems, he said "I have to deliver bad news a lot." All three of today's readings are about messengers delivering bad news. I don't mean to trivialize; certainly having a senior citizen shriek at you is not comparable to the consequences for Stephen, or Jeremiah, or Jesus. All three showed remarkable faith, strength, and courage.

Many of us learned that December 26 is the Feast of Saint Stephen from the song "Good King Wenceslas." The words were written in 1853 but are sung to a 13th-century tune that was a hymn often sung on the feasts of Stephen and other martyrs:

Christian friends, your voices raise
Wake the day with gladness.
God himself to joy and praise
turns our human sadness:
Joy that martyrs won their crown,
opened heaven's bright portal,
when they laid the mortal down
for the life immortal.

The mitigating-est factor of all.

Yours in Christ,
Sue Agnew