Can i get a Witness?

Apologies for the long hiatus. Holy Week was very busy. i'm gonna pull a John Bell and make up for a long lull with the text from this week's sermon. However, more new posts are forthcoming...

This week's Lectionary passage: Acts 2: 14a, 22-32, which is a portion of Peter's speech to the crowd after they speak in tongues at Pentecost and not long after Jesus ascends into heaven in chapter 1...

But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them:

"Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For David says concerning him,

"'I saw the Lord always before me,

for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken;

therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced;

my flesh also will dwell in hope.

For you will not abandon my soul to Hades,

or let your Holy One see corruption.

You have made known to me the paths of life;

you will make me full of gladness with your presence.'

"Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses."

Can I get a Witness?
Sunday After Easter (April 11, 2010)

We all are witnesses…

As a boy, my favorite TV show was MacGyver. He was my hero. Despite all the mockery of Saturday Night Live, this was an admirable man of good character and morals, something hard to find in Hollywood for the past 30 years or more. He was honest, smart and daring, sort of a Jack Bower with a clear conscience. He could solve any problem with the tools on hand, a paperclip and of course… his trusty Swiss Army knife. To his day, I still carry a Swiss Army knife and paperclip everywhere I go.

In one of my favorite episodes of MacGyver, he is drawn into a jury trial. He is the lone pillar of justice, unconvinced of the guilt of the young troubled man accused of the crime. In his search for the truth, he finds a witness to the crime, a witness with good news, a witness who can save the young man’s life. However, this witness comes in an unusual form. In the apartment overlooking the crime scene lives a little old woman… with her bird, Arlo. The woman claims to have only heard the crime, but that it is Arlo who saw the perpetrator. The older woman acts as an interpreter, giving an accurate description of the crime and the criminal.

The judge recognizes that the woman lives in a rough neighborhood and only feels safe in conveying her account through the bird and allows her to testify. She is not afraid to bear witness and give important, life-giving testimony to set this young man free, but she is afraid to be the witness. She is afraid of harm, of ridicule, of disbelief, and rightly so. The real dangerous criminal is still at large.

But this woman has good news. This woman has news that can set a man free, without which, he could die. She recognizes the paramount importance of what she has witnessed and cannot keep silent. As Peter tells the crowd at Pentecost here in this passage, Jesus was a man who God attested to through signs and miracles, a prophet and teacher. “We are all witnesses,” he says. And when you bear witness to events that can save someone else’s life, you must testify.
Hundreds, if not thousands, saw Jesus beaten and killed. Far fewer witnessed him after the resurrection, but he did appear to many. Here, Peter not only emphasizes the life-giving testimony those gathered must share with the world through their personal accounts of his death, but of his life and ministry too.

In the story of the Last Samurai, a haunted American war hero and veteran befriends a great general and Samurai in Japan in the late 1800’s. Samurai, actually best translates as “servant,” and this servant of the emperor fights to keep Japan from becoming corrupt. He dies in battle defending his country. When his American friend comes before the Emperor, who is only a boy, a friend and student of the fallen Samurai, they kneel together on the floor. The young Emperor says softly to the soldier, “Tell me… how he died.” To which the American says through tears, “I will tell you… how he lived.”

I do not wish to say that the death of Jesus is unimportant, and neither does Peter here. How a man dies and for what he dies are supremely important, for no man more than Jesus Christ, but Peter wants those gathered to bear full witness to all they have seen, to tell the truth, the whole truth. This truth, this whole truth, is more difficult to convey. As John mentioned last week, it is probably more difficult to convince you of the truth about what Jesus taught of being blessed or happy than it is to convince you that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

If it’s that hard to convince you of the truth of what Jesus taught about happiness to you, a church-attending, salt of the earth Presbyterian… imagine how hard it is to convince you or a non-believer of what Jesus taught about how to handle your finances and free time, what vocation to choose and what temptations to avoid or how to love your neighbors and your enemies.

“We all are witnesses.”

As believers, you have all read the Good News and have been taught the Good News by other believers. You’ve lived in a community of believers, been members of this church and born witness firsthand to the Good News, the life, ministry and teachings of Jesus Christ, the embodiment of the grace and forgiveness he died for and the hope we extend in the name of our resurrected Lord. Do any of these sound familiar?

‘For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ (Mt. 25:35, 36, 40b)

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” (Mt. 5:5, 7, 9)

“What does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8b)

“If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” (Mt. 5:39)

“Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.” (Mk. 10:14)

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (Jn. 13:34, 35)

“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (Mt. 5:44b)

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” (Lk. 10:27)

Do any of these sound familiar? Do all of them sound familiar? If you’ve heard all this before, you have already been a witness to the things God has said and done and asked of you. And if this is your first time hearing all of that… (snarky) made ya witness.

These prophetic words echo from the prophets in the words and deeds of Jesus all throughout his life. Those gathered before Peter had seen and heard these things, just as we have. “We are all witnesses,” he says, as he calls us all to share the good news of the ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus.It’s been said that every man dies but only some men really live. I would say that a man who walks on water, heals deadly diseases, brings a message of hope and peace and equality to all people and then recovers from being dead has truly lived, wouldn’t you?

“We are all witnesses.” Peter speaks these words on the day of Pentecost, not long after Jesus ascends into heaven in the chapter before. In his parting words, Jesus says, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” This is a pretty big responsibility, and like the Great Commission, you can bet Jesus is talking to us too here. Jesus calls us to be witnesses and Peter is reminding us here of that call.

So what will being a witness require of us? Being a witness, in the legal sense of the word, which is what is being employed here in the passage is just as familiar in our time as it was in theirs. We cannot be hearers of the word only, but doers. We cannot merely see and read and hear about the good news, about the message of hope and of peace and of love for one another. We must act, we must tell others, we must show it in our daily lives. Because to be a witness for Christ means not only to take the stand, but to take a stand.

For many of us, this is very hard. We want someone else to do the talking, someone else to point to. We wanna say, “Read John Bell’s blog, he’s really on target,” or, “look at Holly, she’s really pious person.” Just like the bird lady who witnessed the crime, we want to stand back and point to someone else with a better voice or a better life and not risk getting hurt, even if what we’ve witnessed could change or save someone’s life. I’m fond, as a Presbyterian, of that part of the Micah verse that says, “walk humbly with your God.” That seems to let me off the hook for doing anything courageous. But loving kindness and doing justice can be very hard work indeed.

And walking humbly with God may not be doing anything meek in this world. It may mean confronting injustices in the our immigration policies or boycotting stores with unfair employment policies or quitting a job at a company that treats its workers unfairly or considering wild ideas that might allow you to expand your church’s ministry like international mission trips, new buildings or chili cook-offs.

In Acts, it’s clear that Jesus and Peter believe that a witness must testify. A witness has an obligation to tell other people what they have seen and heard. There’s more to that verse I read you from Acts 1 when Jesus tells them to be witnesses. Jesus gives them a promise and that promise is for us too. This is the beginning of that verse: “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” Jesus is not asking us to go out alone. Jesus sends his witnesses with back up, just like the little old bird woman. She was still laughed at, still ridiculed, but she was listened to and her message was heard and she was safe.

“We are all witnesses.” We have been taught how to live with one another, how to love one another and how to be God’s children in this world. We must share that good news with others. We cannot keep news that good, that important, that life-giving to ourselves. Jesus is calling, “Can I get a witness?”