2024-04-15
Brooke Strong
Sermon Text...
4-14-24 Scripture and Homily: We Are Witnesses Rev. Betsy Wooster
The message of today’s story begins far before the scripture passage we’re about to hear. Jesus has been crucified. Jesus has been resurrected and begun to appear among a few disciples, including two of them on the road to Emmaus. These two were now first-hand witnesses to Christ’s resurrection. And with this they roused themselves and traveled back to Jerusalem and met up with the rest of the disciples, where our passage picks up and Jesus appears again…
From the gospel according to Luke (Luke 24: 36b-48)
36b Jesus stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’* 37They were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost. 38Jesus said to them, ‘Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I, myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’ 40And having said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.* 41While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, Jesus said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ 42They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43and Jesus took it and ate in their presence.
44 Then Jesus said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.’ 45Then Jesus opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 46and said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah* is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, 47and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in the Messiah’s name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses* of these things.
In Jerusalem, where the disciples are gathered in a mess of confusion, grief, and startling messages of hope, Jesus appears and acts as if everything is normal, as if there isn’t anything for the disciples to get over, or adjust to, in seeing Jesus standing among them, asking them normal questions, like “why are you freaking out right now?” and then, “do you have any food I can eat?”
It seems that Jesus, who is acting pretty chill in this moment, and is a bit hungry, is concerned that the disciples should be so in awe and so confused. Jesus sets the tone of a reunion experience by making it clear that the scriptures these disciples had studied all of their lives, were predicting what would happen to Jesus. He tells them that they are now the ones to become the movement in the world that will share the love and redemption of Jesus Christ to all the nations.
And that task, though joyous, also puts a target on their backs. The powers of Rome were already astonishingly clear in the minds and memories of these apostles. They watched Jesus confront the power of Rome, and they witnessed Jesus be arrested and crucified for it. For them to witness to any ruler other than Caesar would bring them to their own crosses.Jesus tells them, “You are witnesses.” The Oxford dictionary defines the word Witness in three ways: to see, to have proof, and to have personal observation of an experience unfolding before our eyes.
Jesus says to them, as if he is reminding them of something they have forgotten: You are witnesses of my resurrection, witnesses that I am not dead, but alive. Most importantly, he reminds them, because they are witnesses to these things, it is time that they proclaim the Messiah’s name to the world around them, beginning from Jerusalem.” Jesus isn’t playing around here. Jesus is saying to his followers that the good news of God would begin here, right now, in Jerusalem, proclaimed by you, my witnesses. Jesus was commissioning the disciples as witnesses to all that God had done in their presence, all that God had done that they saw first-hand, with their own eyes. They must now be Jesus’ hands, heart, and feet in the world.
In other words Jesus says: Because of what you’ve seen and what you know, you are ready to be credible, reliable witnesses to all that God has done and is doing in the world. And they did. They witnessed to the life of Jesus by proclaiming what they had seen and experienced, and by the ministries they did in the name of Christ. And so, the gospel spread. And, so, we are here.
The earliest Christian church in the world was known for its love and care for people. Christianity didn’t grow because they had wonderful worship services, or because there was great preaching. They met secretly. They couldn’t announce worship services and invite visitors. So how did the church grow? The historian Justo Gonzalez tells us that people did not find out about Christianity “in church services, but rather…in kitchens, shops, and markets.” It was in ordinary, everyday relationships that people came to know an invitation to a different kind of life in Jesus Christ. Jesus told his followers to love one another as I have loved you.
Henry Chadwick, in his history of the early church, concluded that “the practical application of charity was probably the most potent single cause of Christian success.” Chadwick describes how “Christian charity” in the early church was expressed in “care for the poor, for widows and orphans, in visits to brethren in prison…and in social action in time of calamity like famine, earthquake, pestilence, or war.”
All of these things witnessed to the presence of God. And still, today, Jesus calls us to be witnesses. To what, do we witness? Most of us are here today because the love of God, as experienced in the way of Jesus, has drawn us to this place in which Jesus calls the world to be a haven of love and kindness. No matter our direct experience of Jesus, or our lack thereof, we become witnesses to these things. And the witness of faithful people can change the world. In 1883, a deadly tornado ravaged a small community in southern Minnesota that was home to a community of nuns: the Sisters of Saint Francis, who followed the legacy of Saint Francis who had cared for the lepers who were isolated from community.
After the tornado, the Sisters of Saint Francis cared for injured people with the help of a local doctor. Then they decided that this little community needed a hospital, and Mother Alfred Moes wrote to that local doctor about their plan, assuring him that “with our faith, and hope, and energy, it will succeed.” They opened Saint Mary’s Hospital in 1889, and it did succeed. That local doctor was William Mayo, and the hospital is now the Mayo Clinic, which today is a worldwide leader in medical treatment and cares for people from around the world, because the Sisters of Saint Francis were committed to the goodness of God.
In them was the life of hope, a commitment to the goodness of God that rises from the tomb. Being a witness can be an extraordinary thing, and, it can be difficult. When we witness something that brings us joy it can change the way we see the world around us: the birth of a baby, the delight of a couple who have been dancing through life together for 50 years, the kind hand reaching out to us, or our witnessing a kind hand reaching out to another who is lost or in pain. Yet sometimes, we witness things that, though joyful, can put us in danger. Maybe we become a witness to a lawsuit, testifying to someone’s innocence, causing the actual perpetrator of the crime to put a target on our back. This may be an extreme example, but we are all reading about examples of this in our own newspapers almost on a regular basis.
When we experience the love of God, we are called to be witnesses. It can feel difficult and vulnerable to witness about God and our faith outside the community of the Church. We may worry because of the bad images that some people have of Christians. Some people hear Christian, and they think: closed minded, judgmental, bigoted, homophobic, condescending, or maybe naïve and gullible. It's worth taking the time to think about what we can say as a witness to the presence of God. How might you put that into words for other people in your life? It may take some practice. We’ve just begun a new ministry at Federated called Fed Talks. Perhaps you were at our first Fed Talks event or you’ve heard about it. Or maybe you’re only hearing it now.
Fed Talks is a ministry in which one or two people share stories from their lives, whether difficult, or joyous, or somewhere in between, in which they have known God’s presence. In other words, they are witnessing to God’s touch as they share their personal stories. It was a powerful experience to be in the Fed Talks audience. The response of gratefulness from people afterwards was resounding. People were moved and deeply touched by seeing and hearing the personal stories told by other church members. We learned new and important things about people we already knew.
For the person sharing their story, it may feel vulnerable, and yet at the same time, sharing one’s story, and receiving loving feedback, is empowering for one’s soul. It is witnessing to God’s presence in our midst.
In sharing them, we realize that our stories matter. We realize the power of God’s love in our stories and in our community. This is true in our life of faith. It can make us feel vulnerable to share our faith stories with others in our lives who do not practice a religion, or do not believe in God; indeed, and yet, even the most religious people can have questions, and wonder if they “believe enough.” Remember that questions and wrestling are a part of a robust and mature faith.
I encourage us to share our faith stories with the people around us. Here at church, of course, but also in our other walks of life. I don’t mean pounding our fists and shouting “I believe in God, and you should too!” That’s a good way to shut down a conversation in a heartbeat. It can be hard to share our faith when being a Christian in the world today can give us a bad rap and cause others to question the credibility of what we claim. But, how about this? How would it feel to say:
“I am moved by being part of a church community that shows love in practical ways;” OR
A community of caring for those in the margins of society so often discarded or maligned; a place of redemption when we fall short of loving others as God has loved.” OR
A community that is open to the diversity of all people; that follows in the way of how Jesus lived his life, a life of healing, a life of unwavering love.
What are the experiences in your life that have changed your heart, or your way of seeing the world, or perhaps even helped you to believe in a higher power that has loved the world into being? - PAUSE -
What has called you to the Christian faith? What has surprised you about the faith you practice? What has moved you?
You have been witnesses to all of these things. How does it change you?
Amen.