Easter 3 Sermon

WITNESS

These days, when we hear of someone being called to be a witness, we think of some delightful courtroom drama on TV. There’s the hype, the serving of the subpoena, the being sworn in, etc. etc. And of course, we’re very interested when these folks are invited to give their testimony – their account of events. Of course, when this is happening on TV, it’s the height of drama, and energy, excitement. We *know* that if a testimony made it past the editing department, it’s worth watching in those 43 minutes of an hour-long escapade. It will be a definitive moment in the story.

So, if I ask you if you’ve ever been called to testify, I’m willing to bet that you’ve NOT had an experience like those on TV. If you have – wow, that’s a story I wouldn’t mind hearing sometime! Because the reality of witnessing is a little different from what’s on these programmes. It’s usually a slow process, it involves waiting in a courtroom, being asked question after question – it can be a long process. And not always a comfortable one.

And here’s another bit of a reality versus fiction – eye-witnesses are not the preferred method of providing testimony these days. It’s a harsh reality – but people would rather hear scientific proof than the personal account of people. Why is that? Why would they prefer a cold, impersonal telling of what happened? Because the facts are the facts – and not as easily open to interpretation and influence.

 Police will tell you that eye-witness accounts are not very reliable. That’s because we, as humans, all notice very different things. Our brains make all sorts of connections between what’s in front of us and what’s happened to us in the past – often without our knowing it. Just ask any 2 people who have witnessed the same event – they will share a different perspective of that same event.

 A recent example, I was asked to describe someone. While I am normally fairly articulate, I found that my description was terrible. Half the words were ‘uh…’ and the other half were so generic as to be useless. The best I could come up with was “average”. I shared this with a friend, feeling a bit of a dolt. His response was shocking to me – he said that, despite our having been friends for almost 10 years, he couldn’t describe my physical appearance. He could describe my laugh, my preference for sandals, a joke we shared at lunch last year, even recalled direct quotes from some of my sermons from 5-years ago. But he couldn’t tell you what colour my eyes were, if my hair was straight or curly, etc. He claimed I’m short (I’m 5’10”), “uh… smiley, uh… uh…” you get the idea. His focus on people is not on the visual of faces. His focus is on what he hears – and so his witness is the same. He’s like that for everybody. It’s just how his accounts are focused. Imagine a stranger trying to locate or identify me based just on someone else’s knowledge of sounds – it would be quite difficult! Well, unless I was laughing…

Another example – ask people what they ate for supper last night. Of the same meal, one person may tell you they had some meat, potatoes, and vegetables. Another person may tell you it was chicken, with yummy scalloped potatoes, carrots and peas. A foodie might extol the virtues of the asiago-and-spinach stuffed chicken breasts, the hint of mustard in the pommes gratinees, the rosemary sauce on the peaches-and-cream corn kernels that complimented the julienned carrots. Same meal, different emphasis - all based on what is important to the person speaking.

Knowing what is important to us helps us to understand what it is that we’re sharing with the world. If we’re foodies, we’ll go on about the meal. If we’re focused on sounds and not sights, we’ll talk about what we’ve heard rather than what we’ve seen. Whatever of our senses is dominant will, logically, dominate our descriptions. Likewise, when we’re trying to hear or read someone else’s account of something, we have our own dominant sense trying to take over. So a lengthy description of someone’s appearance won’t really matter to someone like my friend whose focus is on sounds; it will in fact make it more difficult for him to formulate a vision in his mind.

We all experience the world in unique ways. We all share our experiences in unique ways. And this is why we are all called to testify – to bear witness – to the risen Christ, in these unique ways, through our own unique experiences.

The readings last week and this week focus on the role of Christians bearing witness to the resurrection. And the people writing these words know that the people reading these words have not visibly seen this event – and yet they will be challenged to make it real for generations to come. They will be responsible for sharing this good news with people around the world, and with using their words to encourage the development and strengthening of faith.

Instead of demanding that people have the perfect words to use, they indicate that they want the unique and individual words of people’s unique and individual experiences. There is no formula to practice evangelism, no one perfect way to get someone to believe. There are as many ways as there are people. And so it’s important for us all to do the best we can to express our faith to the world – imperfect words, from a different perspective and with different focus. Because someone is always listening. Someone will always have a question that they haven’t asked out loud, that will need to be answered.

So we are called to bear witness. To share our own testimony. To talk about our own faith. We’re invited to talk to newcomers, to long-time church members, about our own faith journeys. We’re invited to remember our own faith journeys so that we can recall where we’ve come from. Maybe this will be an inspiration for someone just starting on their journey; maybe it will be completely different. But it will always be right.

The folks in the scriptures today are examples of very human experiences of faith. In the Acts reading, Peter is putting down the people who he derides for having denied Jesus as the Christ, those who are from a long tradition and ancestry, those who did nothing to stop the crucifixion. People who are, if we recall, just like him – this is the same Peter who denied Jesus 3 times before the cock crowed twice. And so his perspective is on that denial, based on his experience. And – alleluia – his perspective is also on the strengthening of faith, and the possibility of salvation for all. For everyone, no matter how heinous their betrayal – himself included. Us included. The promise is there – the invitation is there – we are called through our stories to turn once again to God and seek forgiveness. This promise is continued in the letter of John – sin acts to keep us apart form God, yet we are welcomed back time and again, when we can see and repent from our own sins – when we become witnesses of our own actions and inactions and respond in a Godly manner.

The Gospel shares some odd details that can make us wonder about the writer. This passage comes to us just after Jesus has revealed himself on the road to Emmaus, and now the disciples are sitting in the room, speaking with a newly-appeared Jesus. And to prove that this is not simply an apparition, or a hallucination, the author proves to himself and to us that the physical person of Jesus is there – for only a physical person would ask for food. Especially such specific food. The writer is not simply identifying a shared meal, this event had such an impact on him that the contents of that meal are articulated to share – broiled fish. A sight, scent, taste, texture. Other accounts of this event are not as graphic; this account appeals to the more tactile of believers as a means to strengthen their faith witness. To allow us to be witnesses through the details, to strengthen our faith.

And once our faith has been strengthened by this, we too are called to go out into the world. To see the signs of the risen Christ as they are presented in our daily lives. To report to one another and to the world what we have seen, what we have believed, how we have been convinced to move from being people who doubt to being people who believe. People who believe so strongly that they will be witnesses, of varying degrees and varying perspectives. Witnesses, with minds opened to the scriptures, who have heard the good words: "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.”

 I pray we all leave this place into our own Jerusalem, which begins right at these doors, with the excitement of having been called as witnesses to testify. Testify to the risen Christ, the living Christ, the loving Christ. Testify that the Lord is Risen indeed – Alleluia!