John Ch 17 v 1 – 11, Acts Ch 1 6 – 14 4^th May

Are you a witness – if so to what?

In the Gospel reading Jesus is praying – praying that he might be glorified by God but he is also praying for the disciples – that God will protect them, protect us. In the reading from Acts he is telling them that they will be his witnesses, not only in Judea and Samaria but throughout the world. That through the gift of the Holy Spirit they will receive the strength to proclaim the Gospel.

But it isn’t just the disciples with him on that day he is addressing when he says ‘you will be my witnesses’. This passage sets out the agenda for Christian life; we who are followers of the Risen Christ are also called to be his witnesses wherever we go.

Why do I say that, well, it would have been impossible for the original disciples to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth. It may be that Joseph of Arimathea reached Glastonbury, but the Americas, the Australias, were far too distant places in the first century. And even if Joseph reached Glastonbury I very much doubt he hit upon Redhill, or even Reigate.

So who are we thinking of – well us, and not just Fr Andrew and myself but each and every one of us is called to be witnesses to Christ, to reach out and explain the Gospel. I say explain on purpose – teaching can imply deep theological discussion whereas what people need is an explanation of what it means to us, what it is we are being witnesses to, what faith really is, really means.

So how can we, the people of St Matthew’s truly witness to Christ? Don’t panic I’m not talking of knocking on doors, standing on street corners preaching the Gospel at the top of our voices. I am talking about relating what it means to us to be Christian, what we know about Jesus, in a way which is easily understood and which seems meaningful to today’s society.

In the early 1960’s I gave some thought to going out to Papua New Guinea. The Bishop there at the time had been a curate at the Church I attended. I didn’t go, and if I’m truthful I suspect I didn’t have the guts; but I have, I suppose retained a fascination for the area and when during my training we had an assignment on missionaries I looked into the Papuan missionaries.

I was particularly fascinated by a Bavarian by the name of Christian Keysser who was there at the beginning of the last century. He discovered that despite dedicated work over the previous years there had been no baptisms, there had been interest but no one had come forward. He looked at their culture and lifestyle and decided to change the approach and instead of talking to individuals who would speak to whole villages together, teach them the Bible, help them to journey together as communities, and it worked very soon village after village was becoming Christian, the villages themselves taking the responsibility to going to other villages and teaching the Bible. He saw community as the way of spreading the Gospel, reaching people where they were, making the Bible come alive for the community. That to me speaks of what it means to witness – it is explaining Christianity in a way which reaches out – not making the Word trendy, not altering it, but looking at the best way to relate to people, to make it meaningful.

So how can we witness, what does it mean to be asked to witness. It’s not a long theological dialogue but an explanation of how knowing Christ has helped us, how having Christ in our lives brings us comfort and support.

We are not being asked to give an account of events as if we were physically there, but to make the Bible stories come alive, to see how life doesn’t really alter. The everyday problems of Adam and Eve through the Old Testament and into the New Testament are still with us today. Our lifestyles may be different but our problems are much the same. We are being asked to be witness to the Risen Christ, the Christ who is with us today.

Let’s look at what Jesus said, the words we have just heard. It’s true that the apostles had been witnesses of all that Jesus said and did during his earthly ministry, but what Jesus says in today’s reading is, “you will be my witnesses.” Our evidence is about him, not just about what happened long ago, in a very different society and a very different country, but how it affects us today.

We are to give evidence about what we ourselves have heard, seen, experienced. We can’t be witnesses unless we have met the Risen Christ—unless our lives have been transformed by him. We are not saying we are perfect, that we don’t make mistakes, get things wrong, we are attesting of the presence of God in

our lives and in the world.

And we are not being asked to enter into long dialogue

St. Francis of Assisi said it well, when he said: “Proclaim the Gospel at all times. When necessary, use words’.

Yes it is our actions which speak so much louder than words and it is something that we, as Christians, probably do a lot more often than we know.

Let us look at our own lives, at the people who have been witnesses to us over our lifetime. We can probably all think of numerous people who have brought us to where we are on our journey of faith. How have they inspired us? Of course many will have spoken words of wisdom, but I suspect that far more often we have been impressed by the lives people lead, the way they quietly serve God, and show his love.

Let’s think of today, now - one of the things which amazes and disappoints me is the way the press and others talk about people changing their faith, when in fact what they mean is changing their denomination. It may not seem a big thing, but how can we talk about Christianity being the way and then let it be described as more than one faith. How confusing this must be to searchers; and denominations are working together in a way unthinkable in my childhood. It seems at times as though we are shooting ourselves in the foot in the way we proclaim our faith. All Christians are One God, One Faith, One Lord. But we concentrate so much on the differences that we are probably failing in conveying that.

Jesus gave us two commandments ‘Love the Lord your God, with all your heart, all your mind, and all your strength; and love your neighbour as yourself’.

No mention of judging, persecuting, condemning, criticising other styles of worship, just the command to love.

And this is how we are called to witness, and that calling is to us as individuals but also as a parish, as a Christian community. We do need to all consider how as a community we bring others into our community, this church, what do we need to do.

Well the readings have told us. We have to remember that we can do nothing through our own power. Jesus said “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes

upon you.” Next Sunday we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, when we give thanks for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all of us, both corporately and individually.

It is only when we are filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, that gift from God, that we can do the work he calls us to do.

As well as giving thanks for the Holy Spirit we must remember the words at the end of the Epistle ‘they all joined together constantly in prayer.’ Not just the disciples, but Jesus’ family they too needed to pray needed to communicate with God, so how much more do we. This example of prayer both individual prayer and communal prayer reflected in the stories from the Acts should be a model for our own church community. We need to pray that as Christian Keysser saw the way to reach out to the people of Papua we need as a Church to reach into our parish, making faith seem alive, a thing for today not just a historical fact, but very much today.

Let us pray: May the love of the Lord Jesus draw us to

himself; may the power of the Lord Jesus strengthen us is his service; may the joy of the Lord Jesus fill our souls, and may we be his witnesses wherever we may be. Amen.