Snippet from the Sunday Sermon
Can I get a Witness?
Luke 24:36-48
Authentication by way of anointing?
Salvation is not geographically based but theologically grounded.
“Some wish to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop, within a yard of hell.”
–Preserved in the biography of British cricket star, missionary pioneer, and founder of the Worldwide Evangelism Crusade, C. T. Studd. See Norman P. Grubb, C. T. Studd: Cricketeer and Pioneer (London: Religious Tract Society, 1937), 166. (Found at Homiletics magazine).
We are not saved because we are within sight of the church house, nor are we saved because we have heard the bells from the church tower. We are saved because we are able to see the risen Jesus – others are saved because we are willing to set up a rescue station where the story of our testimonies will be told.
But more than that – we are able to tell the story because the Holy Spirit not only authenticates our witness, not only seconds our motion, but has anointed us with the Good News so that it might be proclaimed.
If anything – Jesus’ ministry here on earth was about making real the kingdom, witnessing the love of God to 12 clueless men. In the same way our ministry to the world should be making real the Jesus who lived, died and suffered on the cross to set us free.
The way to do that is to not treat Jesus like he is some strange ghost. We walk around talking about Jesus as if we had a good luck rabbit foot in our pocket, or a special ‘siamese twin’ relationship with him. Or the ‘Bit’o’Jesus’ faith – like people who only need a small candy bar experience of Jesus – to much might give us a stomach ache. Jesus isn’t a ghost lept int he living room. You know in the living room on the sofa that is covered in plastic. Jesus isn’t a savior you take out when company is over. He doesn’t show up for entertainment purposes only and then kindly exscuses himself.
We embarrass ourselves by picking and choosing what we think others should know about our Jesus.
+Christians carry ‘God hates Fags’ signs but then turn around and forget that Jesus calls us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.
+Christians complain about prayer in school – or the lack thereof but then drive large gas guzzling SUVs to pick there children up and drop them off at school.
+We preach forgiveness but demand the death penalty.
+We argue against the death of an unborn child and ignore the thousands of homeless and orphans in Africa due to the AIDS epidemic.
+We feel strongly about so many things – and are oblivious to so many other things.
+We create by our words and actions a Jesus who might as well be a Ghost.
Somedays people have to squint so hard to see Jesus in us that it might as well be a cheap parlor trick that we are doing. Now you see him, now you don’t.
Friends – Jesus gave you a story to tell. If we don’t tell it – then we might as well close the doors of the church – and quit wasting God’s time.
God is calling you… can you hear the call?
“Let us conclude with a few lines recalled from George Bernard Shaw’s play, Saint Joan. The play is about Joan of Arc, an uneducated, seventeen-year-old peasant girl in France. She lived in the middle of the fifteenth century, when the English occupied a part of France. In he r prayer, Saint Joan heard voices that told her to place Charles VII on the French throne and to win back France from the English. Faithful to her prayer, the voices told her how to wage the war against the English. Historians call this illiterate seventeen-year-old girl a military genius! In Shaw’s play, the king, a weak man, is upset because he does not hear the voices. He says to Joan, ‘Why do I not hear your voices? Am I not the king? Should they not be speaking to me instead of to you, a simple peasant girl?’ And Saint Joan answers, ‘My Leige, you too can hear them, but you must learn to listen. Listen after the trilling of the angelus bells. In the stillness, after the bells have ceased, listen, and then, my Leige, you too will hear the voices.’ ” (From a review of ‘Joan of Arcadia’, by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, found on Spirituality And Practice)
If you can’t hear Jesus calling for us to be his witnesses – then maybe it is time – like the King in the play to learn how to listen.
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit…