I explained last week that I have seen the risen Christ in the church basement, serving and being served through the Interfaith Hospitality Network. An infant Christ napping on a cot in the Sunday school room, a Christ serving hot dish. I have seen Christ in the kindness, Christ in the courage, Christ in the love of people giving and receiving hospitality.
I have seen the risen Christ in you. I have seen the risen Christ in church, slipping into a rear pew after the first hymn. I have seen the Lord in the breaking of the bread, here in the sanctuary and downstairs in the fellowship hall, and at the soup kitchen at Temple Baptist Church, and on the job site with Habitat for Humanity. I have seen the risen Christ at your neighbor's house, visiting the sick, comforting the afflicted.
I have seen the risen Lord, and I am confident that you have too. Maybe you didn't recognize Jesus at the time, maybe like those disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke's story, you didn't realize you were talking with Jesus until after he was gone from your sight.
We are witnesses. We have seen the Lord. Now, what's a witness to do?
What is a witness to do?
That is what the second volume of Luke's gospel is all about. Unlike the other gospels, Luke doesn't end with the resurrection, or even with post-resurrection appearances. Luke wrote a sequel which we know as the Acts of the Apostles. It is the "what next" part of the story. Jesus has ascended into heaven and what next? The Holy Spirit comes upon the apostles on Pentecost and what next? Believers live together and share all things in common and there is not a needy person among them and what next? What is a witness to do?
According to the story, the first disciples felt an urgency to tell it like they saw it. That's what a witness does. If you are sitting on your front porch and you see a car speed by and then you hear that horrible sound of horns and tires and metal against metal and broken glass, you have an obligation to tell the officer what you have seen and heard. That's what the first disciples did. They went to the temple where they were sure to find people to tell and they told their story. And it got them into a lot of trouble.
Which is why some of us hesitate to bear witness. The first disciples were thrown in jail. When they were sprung from prison by a miraculous intervention, instead of going home, they went right back to the temple and picked up where they left off, telling everyone what they had seen and heard about Jesus. And when the arresting party asked them, "Why do you keep doing this?" They said, "We must obey God. Rather than human authority." That is dangerous territory. But dangerous territory became home to the first Christians. Regular law breakers, they were. The first Christians did a lot of jail time, as a consequence of bearing witness to their Christ encounters.
Like Nelson Mandela, who bore witness to the Christ who shows no partiality, but expects justice from and for black and white alike, the disciples went to jail. Like Mary Benson, who bore witness to the Christ who rejected violence and preached love of enemies, the disciples went to jail. Not everyone had to suffer such severe consequences for their testimony, but thank God for those who were bold enough to do so.
So, what is a witness to do? That is what we continue to discover together, as a church. Like the first disciples, we are called to bear witness, simply to tell what we have seen and heard. As we worship and meet together during this Easter season, let's try to help one another answer that question. How do we best bear witness to the presence of Christ in our midst, in this world today? How do we tell the story in ways that people can understand what we are talking about?
Let us tune our ears to hear what the spirit is saying to the church. Amen.
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