Vows: Witness

Acts 1: 1-8

As someone who has spent their fair share of time binging old reruns of Law & Order, I naturally think of trials when I hear the word witness. As a pastor and a Christian, I also naturally think of witness in a faith context. I confess that there have been times in my life when I have not been all that comfortable with the idea of witness and testimony in a faith context. In my younger years, those words made me think about people who would stand on street corners just outside the gates of LSU and in Free Speech Alley on the LSU campus. They were “witnessing” by yelling at passersby about going to hell. Even recently, I thought about a conversation I had with a protester outside the 14th Street entrance to Piedmont Park during the Atlanta Pride Festival. When asked why they had traveled from so far away (west Texas, in this case) to yell and hold signs about who God hates, the response was that this was their witness.

So, if you are much more comfortable with the word witness on Law & Order than you are in the church, this devotion is for you. When we make our membership vows when joining The United Methodist Church, one vow we make is to participate faithfully in the ministries of the church through our witness. How does that look when your ideas of witness involve providing testimony or telling people you don’t know that they’re bound for hell? And what role would either of those have in supporting the church and its work for the Kingdom?

When we ask members to vow to support and faithfully participate in the ministries of the church through their witness, we aren’t asking you to yell at anybody or even to get up in front of others to speak. (Public speaking is still in the top five most commonly named fears.) Witnessing is simply letting the light of Christ shine through you. It may involve standing up in church and sharing how God has been so good to you, but it may also mean sharing the story of your relationship with God with a single person over a cup of coffee. It could mean living a Christ-like life marked by integrity, compassion, and love. We witness with both actions and words. Witnessing is simply telling the story of God’s love in Christ and how that story interacts with our own stories.

A hundred years ago (okay, maybe just 25 or 30), I took a psychology class on memory. The irony is that I don’t remember a ton about the course’s content, except two things. The first is that our memories aren’t as reliable as we think they are. The second is that, despite this unreliability, eyewitness testimony held a lot of sway with juries in trials. Like I said, it was 30 years ago, and with advancements in forensic science—like DNA—and the proliferation of cameras everywhere, I wonder if that is still the case. What I do know is that the stories we tell still have enormous power to move others. Witnessing is simply telling someone our stories of how good God is and how our lives have been transformed by God’s love in Jesus Christ.

In a couple of weeks, we are launching Messy Church, an all-ages worship experience with a meal, Bible stories, and activities. I hope you will see this as an opportunity to witness to others. In Acts 1:8, Jesus tells the disciples that they will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon them and that they will be his witnesses—starting where they are and moving outward. Witness doesn’t begin with having all the right words; it begins with the Spirit at work in ordinary people, in ordinary places.

Do you have a neighbor, a friend, a family member, a co-worker, or anyone else with whom you regularly interact who could use a story of Good News? That might be your “Jerusalem.” If so, invite them to come. You can say that it’ll be fun, it’ll be different, and it’ll be a place where they will know they are loved. When we share God’s love in simple, genuine ways—through invitation, hospitality, and care—we are living out Jesus’ call to be witnesses. I can’t think of a better witness.

Prayer
Gracious God, thank you for the gift of your Holy Spirit, who empowers us to be your witnesses. Help us to share your love not with fear or loudness, but with humility, compassion, and joy. Open our eyes to the people you have placed in our lives, and give us the courage to tell our stories of your goodness in simple and faithful ways. May our words and actions reflect the love of Christ wherever we are. Amen.

Rev. Dana Ezell