You Are My Witnesses
Sermon preached by Rev. Patricia Farris
April 30, 2006

Just before Easter, a big story hit the press about the publication of what is called the Gospel of Judas. There were front-page newspaper stories, magazine articles, TV specials and a flurry of web commentary on this long-lost account of Jesus’ life written by an early Christian group called the “Gnostics.”

While I have some questions in my mind about the timing of the release of this story and about the rather contorted business dealings that led to its publication, I am nevertheless quite intrigued by it and by its perspective. It makes perfect sense to me that in those very earliest days of the Christian church a whole variety of letters and accounts of Jesus life were in circulation. The early church was trying to put down in writing what it thought it believed about this incredible story of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth and what that meant for their lives. And just like the church now, in our time, people of good faith had different points of view and different deeply held convictions, among them the Gnostics from whom this manuscript comes.

But the most controversial part of all this is not what’s gotten the press. They’ve been fascinated with the question of whether or not Judas was evil and betrayed Jesus maliciously for his own gain, or, as the Gospel of Judas posits, whether he was just carrying out Jesus’ own request of him to hand him over to death so that his purpose on earth might be fulfilled.

We are still working to get a Biblical scholar to come and speak to us about all this, but in the meantime, let me say that there’s something even more important at stake here. And that has to do with the basic premise of the Gnostic Christians which was that the human body wasn’t really very important. They held to a very spiritualized, dualistic view that the spirit was what really mattered and that the spirit longs to be set free from this earthly prison of the body.

This view is precisely what the early church rejected. It insisted on proclaiming that in the incarnation, God took on human form in Christ Jesus. That God in Christ suffered and died and rose again in this body. The fact that Jesus had a body, was a human being like us, is central to what we believe to this day. It means for us, bodies matter. The lives of human beings on this earth matter. The health and wholeness of God’s people on this earth matters to us because it matters to God. (continued...)

"You Are My Witnesses" by Rev. Patricia Farris, April 30, 2006

Of course our spirit is important, but our bodies are, too.

You see, everything we do in mission is founded on this rock solid belief. We have clothing drives—as we are today—because bodies are important. We have food drives because bodies are important. We have a health ministry because bodies are important. We send work teams to New Orleans because bodies are important. We shelter homeless families because bodies are important. We do prison ministry because bodies are important. We host twelve-step groups because bodies are important. We have a great playground at our preschool because bodies are important. We even pass the peace in worship because bodies are important. We connect with one another as the Body of Christ.

That’s why this scene we hear today on the Third Sunday of Easter from Luke’s Gospel is so critical. This resurrection appearance is the opposite of Gnostic Christianity. Of all the gospel writers, Luke was the most down and dirty if you will. He minces no words. This is real life. The Risen Christ, who appeared last week you may remember to Thomas, appears in this story to a large group of men and women. “Peace be with you,” he says, using the traditional and very familiar greeting of the peoples of the Middle East. “Shalom aleichem.” Or if you’re Muslim: “As salaam alaikum.” Peace be with you.

That’s the way he always greeted them, but now it’s different. He was dead. He is risen. They’re rather terrified, as we can well imagine. Look at my hands and feet. Touch me and see, he says. Do you have anything to eat?, he asks, and he eats the piece of broiled fish they offer. See, he says, it was all true. All of it. The scriptures are fulfilled. And you are witnesses of these things.

You see, all of this has turned inside out our normal thinking about life and death. We humans always think we have it figured out on our own and then the Risen Christ appears in our midst and we are confounded all over again. The power of God is a resurrecting power. And we are to be its witnesses. Witnesses. What does it mean to be witnesses of the dead and resurrected Lord? What does it mean to be commissioned by Christ to testify to power of life over death?

Luke goes on to give us the answer in the Book of Acts. The Acts of the Apostles. The apostles witness to their faith by how they act in the world, what they do, what they say, who they love. It would make a pretty amazing story on its own, but actually, we’re still doing it. We’re still acting out our faith, witnessing to what we believe by what we do and how we live. (continued...)

"You Are My Witnesses" by Rev. Patricia Farris, April 30, 2006

Let me be clear here. When we hear that word, “witness,” we think of it in several ways. At weddings, the best man and the maid of honor sign the marriage license as witnesses to the marriage. After an auto accident, witnesses are sought who will report on what they saw happen. And then, of course, there are witnesses in legal trials. Those who have been called to testify, who are questioned by both their own defending attorney as well as the prosecutor. We see this kind of witness on TV all the time. And in recent weeks we’ve been rather engrossed by the testimonies of both Zacarias Moussaoui and Ken Lay, neither of whom apparently helped their cause by the way they conducted themselves on the witness stand.

But Jesus means something different when he says to those first disciples: you are witnesses of the resurrecting power of God. Sure, he means you are those who have seen this with your own eyes. You are those whose testimony must be trustworthy. But more than that, I charge you to go out and tell others. Having seen and experienced this for yourselves, it is now your responsibility, your divine charge, to go out and testify to it. Jesus is changing the disciples into apostles. He’s graduating them from being students to being those who are sent out to carry on the work of the kingdom.

So, what does it mean for us to be witnesses? I’m going to offer a few examples, but let’s do something else first. You know, since our Team got back from New Orleans, I keep hearing a lot about what a great pastor Pastor Edwards is. And it’s true. I’ve been humbled at what I’ve heard and I will strive to emulate much of what I’m hearing into my own ministry going forward. But I’ve also heard, just to warn you, that his sermons are long. I mean LONG, in the style of the Black church, a couple hours and more. Now, I’m not going to start on that today—I’m going to wait for a real hot summer Sunday for that!

BUT there is a practice in the Black church that really fits what we’re getting at here this morning. It’s a way of witnessing in worship, something that would have been real familiar to John Wesley, whose Love Feasts always included a time for personal testimony. It grows out of the belief that God is working in our lives and that testifying to this, witnessing to this, sharing it with others, encourages others to keep on keepin’ on, especially when times are hard.

And so in worship, people share an experience of God’s resurrecting power in everyday life and then ask the congregation: “Can I get a witness?” It’s a way of asking: “Do you hear what I’m saying? Have you experienced this, too? Can I get a witness?” And the people answer: “Amen!” Amen! (continued...)