Sermon: Being a Witness

There has been quite the theme running through our Easter lessons this year–the theme of witnessing. First off, on Easter Sunday, I offered up a mock scenario of an atheistic/agnostic organization suing the Church to make it cease proclaiming the resurrection since there was no rational, scientific proof the event took place. I argued our only form of defense was to produce credible witnesses that this event indeed was real and had a noticeable impact on our lives. Last week, as we looked at doubting Thomas, we saw that one cannot argue another person toward belief. It is essentially futile given that if one tries hard enough he/she can poke a hole in every argument we were to bring forth. I ended the sermon with the fact that it is Christ Himself who brings someone to belief, and it is our job to be a witness to Jesus–to point the way to Jesus so that others may encounter Him personally and come to believe.

This week, the theme continues. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus appears to the disciples after His resurrection. He opens their hearts and minds to understand why the Messiah had to suffer, die, and be raised from the dead. Then, Jesus commissions the disciples with these words, "...repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in His name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."

Unequivocally, Jesus tells His followers then, and by extension, His followers now, that we are called to be witnesses to these things. We are called to be clothed with power from on high–which in actually we already are since we have received the Holy Spirit in our baptisms. We are called to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins to all nations, and we are to accomplish this by being witnesses of these things.
But now comes the sticky part. Just how are we supposed to be a witness to Jesus Christ? What are the things we are called to do to point to Jesus?

You might say at this point, "Pastor, why do you say that such a thing is sticky? Isn’t it obvious what we’re supposed to do and not supposed to do? Isn’t it all laid out for us in the Bible?"

To this I reply, yes and no. I mean, yes, there are some pretty clear instructions in the Bible as to the type of people we are called to be. There are some pretty clear instructions as to how we are to be oriented, what kind of qualities we should have, and how we should act toward one another. Yet, I’d also argue no from the sense that if you look around at the state of the Church today, you will see it divided on best how to be a witness to Jesus.

For instance, there is a train of thought that has run through the Church which believes the best way for the Church to witness to Jesus is to transform the world and bring about the Kingdom of God on earth. They believe that the Church must influence every possible sphere of life including government and the passing of laws which uphold Christian values. If we’d like to parse this train of thought even further, we could argue that the Church has even become split on exactly what kind of values and laws should and should not be passed to bring about God’s Kingdom on earth. There is one strain of Christianity which focuses on morality and takes up the banner against abortion, gay marriage, divorce, drinking, and drugs. In our country, we would define this group as the Religious Right. The other strain of Christianity that has emerged is called the Christian Left, and they focus on the Christian values of care for the needy and poor and striving for justice and peace. Both have their roots in Christianity and Jesus’ call to be a witness, but both emphasize different paths. Yet, they share in common the desire to bring about God’s Kingdom through the political, governmental realm.

Another train of thought which Christians have followed in witnessing is the personal, individual path. As C.S. Lewis said in his book Mere Christianity, "A Christian society is not going to arrive until most of us really want it: and we are not going to want it until we become fully Christian." Therefore, in order to have such a thing happen, the Church should focus on individual transformation. The Church should focusing on bringing people into contact with Jesus one by one. Individual Christians should strive to reach other individuals one at a time.

One final train of thought comes from those who believe the Church should offer an alternative setting to the mores and values of society. Instead of striving to impose the Kingdom of God through government and laws, but not content to just keep things at an individual level, this group seeks to establish a community which is in the world but not of it. Where it can practice charity, care of the poor, and care of one another while also focusing on the transformation of individuals.

All of these various strains are grounded and rooted in Christian thought. So, which is right? Which one should we as a congregation become? Do these fully encapsulate what it means to be a witness to Jesus? Well, I’m not sure. Instead, perhaps we need to head in another direction. Perhaps we need to have a different sort of focus–a focus of witnessing based on showing Jesus Himself to others.

Now, how do we do that? How do we show Jesus to others? Is that even possible? According to Scripture, it is. There are a couple of places to note. First, St. Paul writes these words in 1 Corinthians 11:1, "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ." And again, in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 1, he says again, "1Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, 2and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." Would Paul have instructed us of such things if it were not possible?

But, you might argue, it is impossible. We could never imitate Jesus Christ. We could never live up to His standards. We could never love like He loved. We could never do the things He did. We could never teach like Him or preach like Him. We cannot walk on water or heal like He did. We are such poor imitations. How could we even be a witness if we can’t come close to doing what Jesus did?

Let’s ponder this for a moment with this real world example. I’ve got a few pictures for you to look at this morning. They are actually pictures from an image search on Yahoo! depicting rocks brought back from the moon. Look at them carefully as I scroll through them.

Do you notice anything peculiar about those rocks? In particular, did you notice the color of those rocks? What color are they? They are awfully dark, aren’t they? In fact, in an article I read from the magazine Astronomy entitled "Strange Universe" written by Bob Berman in August of 2011, he states, "If you could plop our nearly black, low-reflectivity Moon among familiar earthly objects, it would closely match an asphalt parking lot. Yet, seen against the inkiness of space, it doesn’t look black at all."

Think about this for a moment. Realize the Moon, although it is nearly black appears dazzling white against the background of the darkness of space as it reflects the sun’s light. And if God could put together a universe where something that is black appears dazzling white because it reflects the light of the Sun, do you not think He can make our darkness, our weakness in imitating Christ shine all the more since we are seeking to reflect the light of His Son?

Sure, we might not be perfect in what we do. We may struggle in loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. We may find ourselves hopelessly striving to do unto others as we would have them do unto us. We may find it a chore to love each other as Jesus loved us so that others would know that we are His disciples. But, God can take these feeble attempts and make us shine brighter that anything around. God can take these broken hearts, minds, bodies, and spirits, and transform them so that they cannot be ignored. God can take our weakness and transform it into strength as we reflect the nature and love of Jesus. God can take our imperfect desire to imitate Jesus and make it truly shine so that we can indeed be witnesses to these things. Amen.