Sermon for 3rd Sunday of Easter

Over the course of my years in college, grad school, and seminary, as well as in several ministry opportunities, I’ve had the privilege of living in a number of different cities throughout the country. As for many of us I’m sure, one of the rights of passage of moving to a new place is getting to know the local TV stations and news broadcasts that provide information about what’s going on in the area.

And while each city’s news has its own local flair and personality, something interesting that I’ve noticed is that pretty much without exception each place has at least one station whose daily broadcast is entitled “Eyewitness News.” Implicitly, these particular broadcasts emphasize the quality of their reporting by associating it with “eyewitnesses” or “witnesses”—the unstated assumption being that the news that’s likely to be most trustworthy and reliable, is the kind that comes from those who have seen or heard or experienced an event with their own senses. These are presumed to be the most credible sources of information and thus the best indicators of a quality newscast.

Witnesses are not just important for television broadcasts, however. Throughout our society the testimony of witnesses to events is valued and often held up as a standard. To observe this dynamic at work, we have only to look to eyewitness testimonies in court and government hearings, or testimonials offered in advertisements for products, services, or destinations, among any number of other examples we could all probably think of.

In even subtler ways we often act as witnesses for each other in our daily lives. We might recommend a movie or TV show that we found particularly enjoyable, for example, or we might rave about a new restaurant or the virtues of a school or a business.

Of course, one of the most recognizable types of witnessing we might be familiar with is the kind associated with religious faith. Often in popular culture this sort of witness gets a bad rap and probably rightly so in some cases. Many of us are likely familiar with so-called witnesses who like to stand on street corners, often with large signs and posters, condemning passersby and invoking divine wrath and eternal punishment.

At least for me, that kind of religious witnessing has a very negative effect, turning me away from whatever message the witness might be trying to offer, and having the unintended effect of affording a lesson in patience and non-aggression.

Still, despite its more obnoxious and hostile manifestations, serving as a witness of faith still has the potential at least to be just as important as any eyewitness testimony on TV or in court. And thankfully we have an indication of what a more authentic sort of religious witness might look like in today’s readings from scripture.

The risen Jesus himself comes to the disciples in today’s gospel, shares a meal with them, and assures them that they will, in his words, be “witnesses of these things” before others. In other words, once he is no longer there bodily with them, they will carry on his ministry to the world, caring for the sick, raising up the downtrodden, and standing up for those who have no voice.

And by God’s grace, through the wonder of the Spirit’s coming at Pentecost, we know from the Acts of the Apostles that that’s exactly what happens. Peter and John venture out and simply by their presence bring healing and wholeness to folk who had been on the margins of their society. As 1 John also reminds us, disciples like Peter and John and so many others would be witnesses as well through the kind of lives they led—the sort of personal, moral, and ethical decisions they made day in and day out that added up to the witness of lives profoundly influenced and shaped by faith in Christ.

This was an important, life-changing truth in the early church and it remains one for all of us as 21st-century followers of the risen Christ as well. Like the early disciples, we too have been called and commissioned through our baptism into Jesus to serve as his presence in the world—to be witnesses to our own contemporaries of the transformative power of faith.

Now, to do this in our own time and place might look a little different from the 1st century. We might not go around speaking to crowds of unbelievers or literally raising the dead, but there are equally wonderful and miraculous ways that God can work through us even today.

Take, for instance, the wonder of modern social media. Have you ever considered sharing with your friends on Facebook about something that’s going on at St. Mark’s? Or checking in from here on FourSquare? Or Tweeting or sharing on Tumblr about a social justice initiative that either you’re involved with personally, or that the ELCA is sponsoring? Just as the first followers of Christ made an impact for good on their communities by sharing the good news, so we too can discover ways that make sense for us to share our faith in our own context.

And really, there’s lots to share. In just the short month that I’ve been at St. Mark’s I’ve been moved by the witness and testimony of various community members—for example, describing the profound impact made on them by last year’s trip to visit Pastor Norma and the Cordero de Dios community in El Salvador. Or relating the powerful testimony of Claire Anastas, the Palestinian Christian woman who spent time here at the parish and is working to support the needs of her community in the Holy Land. Or the recent presentations at the Adult Forum by Pastor Hans on the issue of prison reform and social justice and the ELCA’s draft statement.

These are just a few of the ways that my own life has been changed thanks to the eyewitness testimony of people here at St. Mark’s, who themselves were passing on the witness of others. Just imagine what we can do then, like the first disciples, as we too learn to share what our faith means to us in all the creative ways our 21st-century world affords.

Who knows, we may be one Tweet or one conversation or one encounter—whether virtual or actual—away from the next step God is calling each of us to make in fulfillment of Jesus’ call to be “witnesses of these things…”