Stephen’s story is not finally a story about the power of the people who kill him. While his accusers rage, heaven is opened. While the stones fall, Stephen sees the glory of God. While his enemies condemn him, the risen Jesus stands at the Father’s right hand.
The Season of Christmas is the Church’s sustained reception of the Incarnation. For twelve days, the calendar refuses to hurry away from the astonishing claim proclaimed on December 25: the eternal Son of God has taken our nature from the Virgin Mary and entered the world he made.
It is the announcement that the eternal Word through whom all things were made entered the world he made as one of us, taking flesh that could be touched and held, flesh that could hunger and grow weary, and eventually flesh that could be nailed to a Cross.
Thomas’s words matter not because they should be ranked competitively against every other confession in Scripture, but because of where John places them. The Gospel that begins by identifying the eternal Word as God brings one of its final great scenes to an apostle addressing Jesus as God.
The servant is responsible for faithfulness, while the harvest belongs to Christ. Andrew does not need Peter’s prominence to validate his own apostleship, and Peter’s prominence does not diminish Andrew’s obedience. Different servants receive different callings within the one mission of Christ.
The Advent wreath’s strongest visual lesson may also be its simplest. The season begins with a single flame, and another candle is added each week until four lights burn as Christmas approaches. The room grows brighter as the Church moves closer to the celebration of Christ’s birth.