LIVING AS A WITNESS

 

      Did you hear about the little girl who returned home after her first Sunday school class? Her mother asked, “Who was your teacher?” and the little girl answered, “I don’t remember her name, but she must have been Jesus’ grandmother because she didn’t talk about anyone else.”

      This story does not suggest that every word of every conversation be about Jesus, but it does raise some meaningful questions for self-examination. Does our conversation reflect our love of Jesus? Do our words mirror the kind of relationship we have with him? Are we serious about sharing our story with others? Other words, what kind of witness are we when it comes to telling others about Jesus?

      Now in Acts 1:8, we find Jesus giving his disciples and us his final instructions. He said, “When you have received the power of my Holy Spirit, you will become my witnesses, in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” A witness is a person who tells what they have seen. Jesus said that we are to become his witnesses of what has happened to us, how our lives have changed, and how others can be changed as well.

      I find it interesting that the risen Christ tells his followers that they shall be “witnesses” – not disciples, not pupils, not preachers, not followers, although we can fill those roles also, but witnesses. Presumably, they were to have been witnesses to the resurrection, a new life, a new beginning. A witness testifies to what has been personally seen and heard. A witness is not expected to come up with new information, but rather faithfully to testify to something that has been seen, heard, and is being experienced. Christians are called to be witnesses, beginning in our churches, our homes, and families, and then moving out to the ends of the earth.

      A witness simply states clearly, and without embellishment, “Here’s what happened to me.” Maybe we need to get back to the simplistic approach which we find in the healing of the blind man by Jesus in John 9. After being healed, the man was asked how it had happened, and he simply said, “I once was blind, but now I see.” That was his story, that was his witness.

      You and I can witness effectively by a simple statement. “I once was miserable, unhappy, critical of others, selfish, but God opened my eyes to how I was, and showed me how he could change me. God is showing me how he can use me to change things around me. I still have a long way to go, but my sins are forgiven and God has changed me from the inside out. He can do the same for you and anyone who asks.”

      When we witness we are not forcing someone into seeing things as we see things; we are simply saying, “This is how it is for me. This is what I’ve seen and heard. Does any of this relate to what you have seen and heard? Does anything I’ve said to you make you want to change the way you think about yourself, others, and Jesus?”

      Our work as a witness is to humbly, accurately tell others about the hope that we now have because we know Jesus personally. You and I are not Christian because we are intellegent, or because we are morally better than the other people around us and out in the world. We are  Christian because of an undeserved, unearned, unmerited gift that we have  heard about and have accepted. We are Christian because we have been given a better hope than all the hopes by which the world tries to live.

      Let’s examine the  demand Jesus has placed on our lives if we are to call ourselves Christians. Are we the witnesses he intends for us to be? Are we faithfully telling and living our story?

Rev Tim McConnell, Long’s Chapel UMC, April 28, 2013