Witness

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen.

Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

Our Gospel today starts with a question of faith.  When Jesus appeared to his disciples that day after the resurrection, were they happy to see him?  No, they were terrified.  They thought that he was a spirit.  That he was there, but without any flesh.  They had to actually touch him before they believed that he was real.  In fact even that was not enough.  To prove that he was a living man, he had to eat in their presence.  Why was it so hard for them to believe that Jesus was really there?  These are the same people who had been travelling with Jesus for as many as three years.  They knew him as well as they knew their own families and yet they needed him to prove to them that it was really him and he was really there.

Why was this so hard for them?

Well, let’s see … they had just seen Jesus die on the cross.  They had watched as he stopped breathing and as the soldiers stabbed him in the side with a spear.  They had seen him being buried in a tomb.  Sure, before he died, he told them that he would return to them.  He told them that he would be back in three days.  He also told them that the meek would inherit the earth and they all knew that those in power would never let that happen.  Besides, who understood even half of what Jesus said?  Certainly not the disciples.  Some of them seemed to understand more, but even the best of them were often confused.

These are the people that Jesus sent out to proclaim the good news.  These are the people who suffered through times of worshiping in secret because open worship meant death.  These are the people who struggled to spread this news in a world where their words were not welcome.  These are the people who would not give up and spread the message of salvation, the message that the poorest of the poor were just as deserving of God’s love as those in power, perhaps even more deserving.

Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

If Jesus were to come into this church and say that to us, would we recognize him?  What proof would we need before we accepted that he was here with us?  What would it take for us to believe that it was Jesus and not some mentally disturbed person in need of some serious help?

For myself, I’m not sure.  I don’t know what Jesus would have to do to make me believe.

 

How about if Jesus were to stand among us in spirit, as the disciples at first believed?  Would we accept that?  Would you?

This is something that we actually talk about fairly regularly.  Every time that we celebrate the Eucharist, each time that we share communion, we talk about Christ being present with us in the bread and the wine.  The blessing that I sing sometimes has the words “See the face of Christ in each person.”  We say that we believe that we can look for and find Christ in those around us.  How often do you try this?  How often, when you are talking with someone, do you try to find something in them that reminds you of the message of the Gospel?  Even more important than that, when you notice something Christlike about someone, how often do you tell them?

 

“Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.  You are witnesses of these things.”

The second part of our Gospel reading this morning is about what it means to witness.  It wasn’t enough for the disciples to see Jesus and believe that it was him.  Witness means much more than this.  Being a witness carries with it an obligation.  If you witness a crime, it is your obligation to report it and if necessary, to testify in court.  Witnessing Christ is no different.  If you or I witness Christ in someone, it is our obligation to testify.  It is our obligation to tell at least that person, or better yet, tell lots of people that we saw Christ.

This kind of witness is the easy one.  We notice something that reminds us of Christ and speak up.  How do we witness the resurrection?  How do we witness the Last Supper?  How do we witness our baptism?  All of these are central to our Anglican identity.  All of these shape our worship and our lives.  I have no doubt that these have meaning to you, but when is the last time you seriously thought about them?  When is the last time you told someone what you believe; what is important to you?  This is what it means to witness: #1 – see and believe, #2 – think and understand, #3 – tell someone about it.

 

Sometime this week you should get your May schedule in the mail.  On the back of the schedule, there will be an assignment for everyone.  I can’t make anyone do the assignment, but I hope you will.  What I’m going to ask you to do is to write one page about why your Christian faith is important to you.  What it is about Christ and his church that call to you and give your life meaning.  You don’t have to turn these in to me, but I will ask that you share it with someone.  Even if you do give it to me, share it with someone else first.  Also, if you do give it to me, let me know if it is okay to share it.  I would like to share some of them on future schedules (starting with my own) as a way of letting others know how our church still has meaning, what it could mean to them.

On that day long ago Jesus said to his disciples “You are witnesses of these things” and then he sent them out.  We say that we are his disciples too.  We too are being sent out.

I pray that God will help us because we need it.