‘Witnesses’
A sermon preached by Rev. Sarah Henkel at Otisville-Mt. Hope
Presbyterian Church
Gospel Luke 24:36b-48
You are witnesses of these things. I want to dwell with you on this statement
or maybe it’s more of an invitation (?) spoken by Jesus to the disciples.
You are witness of these things.
What is a witness - what does a witness do?
The verb
--see an event take place.
--have knowledge of (an event or change) from personal observation or
experience.
--Testify!
Clearly, the disciples were witnesses of life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
They personally observed so much in the brief years of Jesus’ work of
community care here on earth.
Maybe it’s because we rewatched this movie recently but the first image that
came to my mind when I was thinking of the ‘witnesses’ was from the movie
‘My Cousin Vinny.’ Specifically, I remembered the scene when Joe Pesci
calls to the stand a witness who was certain she saw the two innocent men
accused of murder leaving the crime scene from her porch across the street.
Joe Pesci walks to the back of the courthouse (half the distance between the
witnesses porch and the crime scene) and asks this witness to say how
many fingers he’s holding up. She can’t, of course, because she can’t
actually see that far away. One by one the witnesses are all discredited by
their lack of vision or knowledge.
Here we are almost 2,000 years after Jesus' death and resurrection, perhaps
wondering how we can witness to something so long ago, something that
might feel incredibly mysterious and elusive, something we may feel as a
living presence in our lives but struggle to name and describe. Who are we
to testify to the world?
How do we serve as witnesses to the Easter story of life, death, and
resurrection from all the way back here, 2000 years later?
This week as I was reading before bed I stumbled upon a story that helped
me to think about the nature of the proof that we might be called to offer as
witnesses to God’s love for this world.
I was first drawn in by the title, “The Wisdom of Not Knowing.” Right up my
alley, especially as I parent children who continue to stump me with their
profound questions.
In the article the author told this story:
“I attended a talk by writer Annie Dillard at Orchestra Hall in Chicago in
about 1990. Somehow, she was permitted to light a cigarette as she walked
up and down the stage, talking to us. During the question-and-answer
period someone asked something like, “You often mention God in your work.
How can someone as educated and intelligent as you are be so certain God
exists?”
She shrugged her shoulders, cigarette in hand, and said, “We’ve met.” Then
she went on to the next question.”
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“The Wisdom of Not Knowing,” by Heidi Haverkamp, The Christian Century: April 2024
The author goes on to describe Dillard’s writing, words that invite people to
join her in being observers of the world around us, a world infused with the
Divine, with holiness, a world in which God appears to us regularly if our
eyes are opened to witness God’s appearing.
We’ve met.
The disciples, of course, could readily make that claim about Jesus. But we
can, too, 2000 years later, if we are open and expecting to witness God’s
continued presence and activity in this world.
One of the places that we meet God is right here in worship, in our life
together here as a community of faith.
My seminary professor Dr. Yolanda Pierce shared a beautiful piece of writing
recently reflecting on why she shows up for church even when she doesn’t
feel like it.
She wrote, “I show up because God always meets me when I am faithful.
God always shows up. Sometimes God shows up in the parking lot, in the
person who greets me with a firm handshake or a hug. Sometimes God
shows up in laughter over bagels during coffee hour. Sometimes God shows
up in the face of the impossibly cute toddler who wants to play peekaboo
with me all service long...One Sunday, God showed up in the comments of a
woman whose name I didn’t even know.
A creature of habit, I often sit in the same pew, as do many others in my
church. I had seen her many times before; we had shared a hug and passed
the peace on multiple occasions. As I arrived at my familiar pew after a few
Sundays of being on the road for work, this woman leans over to me and
says, “I missed your smile for the past few weeks. I want you to know I’m
praying for you and miss you when you’re gone.” Tears welled in my eyes.
The service hadn’t started. The praise and worship team hadn’t sung a single
note, nor had the pastor even arrived in the pulpit. But surely God was
present in that moment of deep human connection. She saw me, and she
reminded me that God sees me.”
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We’ve met...could be the summary of Dr. Pierce’s piece. She shows up to
church because she’s met God there...and she expects she’ll witness God’s
presence there again.
What encounters with God or Jesus or the Spirit are you witness to in your
life? I invite you to take that question home with you. Look over your past
week, or month, or decade and write down some moments when you have
encountered the Divine. Think about how you would offer testimony to what
you saw and experienced. Think about how those experiences have shifted
the way that you live your life.
We noted that the verb ‘to witness’ means to see or experience something
first hand. But ‘witness’ also exists in noun form.
--a person or thing giving or serving as evidence.
A witness is the evidence of what has occurred, they carry the story forward
through their lives.
In today’s scripture text, Jesus is preparing to leave this earthly realm. And
so he gives the identity of witness to the disciples. He says, you are the ones
who will serve as evidence of all that we shared - the community meals, the
acts of healing, a depth of love that means we are willing to lay our lives
down for one another. People will know me through you.
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“Showing up for church when I don’t want to,” by Dr. Yolanda Pierce, The Christian Century: March
2024.
And though the disciples fumble around a lot in the Gospels as a whole, the
book of Acts, which details the growth in numbers of those following in
Jesus’ way, implies that the disciples heard and obeyed Jesus’ call to live as
witnesses. They testified to what Jesus did and who Jesus was with their
lives. They lived as he did and others witnessed their actions and did
likewise.
Black preachers, preaching in the call and response tradition, sometimes use
this phrase during their sermons: Can I get a witness? The listening
congregation is invited to respond, to affirm that they are witnessing and
hearing what the preacher is saying about God.
This same question is God’s question for us today: Can I get a witness? We
respond ‘Yes’ by living our lives in a way that offers proof that God’s love is
alive and active in this world.
This is no small or easy task. And it’s not terribly popular, even among
Christians. A few years back the editor of Christianity Today shared in an
interview his concern that a growing number of Christians are dismissing
Jesus’ teaching as ‘weak’ and inappropriate to the needs of our times. This
critique was most often raised in response to the teachings of the Sermon on
the Mount (blessed are the poor, blessed are the meek, blessed are those
who mourn, blessed are those who thirst for justice) and the critique was
especially leveled at the call to ‘turn the other cheek’ in response to acts of
violence. Now, if we as Christians dismiss the actions of Jesus as too weak
for our times, whose actions are we bearing witness to with our lives? If we
are not living our lives as evidence of the life of Jesus, what other powers
are we mirroring? Worthy questions...
Earlier in this message I assigned us the homework looking for how we see
God alive in our lives this week. And now I offer a second, take home
activity. Find one of the stories of Jesus’ ministry in the Gospels - a story of
healing, or feeding, or political challenge - and read it several times this
week. Sit with the question of how your life can be a witness to the
message of that story.
Like the disciples, we say yes to being a witness by letting God enter this
world through us, through acts of mercy, love, compassion, and grace for
one another. Just like Jesus taught, just as we have witnessed.