By Faith, We Are Witnesses

Text: Acts 3:12-19 and Luke 24:36b-48
May 4, 2003
Aldersgate UMC

During the first of the week, I was visiting with the Goodicks, Don Sr. and Lois; we were talking about their many trips to Nova Scotia to visit with Don’s sister. There are several different ways to get to Nova Scotia. You can drive and it will take two days, or you can take a ferry from Portland, Maine or Bar Harbor, Maine. I’ve never used the ferry from Portland, but I’ve been on the Blue Noose from Bar Harbor twice. In more recent years, Lois and Don have used the ferry from Portland and they always bring back several pounds of fish.

Now, the Portland ferry takes a little longer and it complicates the project of getting that fish back to Chelmsford. Imagine trying to keep fresh several pounds of fish on a fourteen-hour trip. The Goodicks love fish so they are willing to make the extra effort. You know, some say that fish is brain food; maybe that’s why Lois and Don are so smart!

I’m not sure if fish increases our brain potential, but this morning’s gospel lesson leads me to suggest that fish is faith food. "Regardless of the possible health benefits of fish, when Jesus ate fish, it had a whole new value. His mysterious, ghost-like appearance … became real … when [the disciples] were able to touch his body. Hs presence became real when they could see him eating real food – broiled fish. Talk about food value." (Aha!, May 4, 2003)

That piece of fish that Jesus ate was more than brain food. It was faith food for the disciples. It is our faith food as well. It shows us the whole person that we might believe he has come back. God has become like us to help us become more like God. We who have tasted God’s mercy, heard God’s promise, felt God’s touch, and experienced God’s love, are called to be witnesses of the living Christ.

In the early church, many Christians tasted God’s mercy. They came to experience the never ending well of forgiveness that bubbles up from abiding in God’s grace. In fact, some came to understand God’s forgiveness so much that they began to believe that Jesus had released Christians from the need to keep God’s commandments. They felt that how they lived their lives was not important because God would forgive them at the time of death. Other early Christians including the apostle Paul preached that grace was always connected to the performance of good works; they flow out of our experience of grace.

Thus, when we feel God’s mercy, we are moved to respond with actions that reflect that same mercy to others. We witness to the mercy that we have received in our own lives. We, who have tasted God’s mercy, are called to be witnesses of the living Christ. Today, this day, Jesus invites each one of us to be witnesses. When we respond to this invitation, our relationship with God grows and matures.

Many years ago, when I was in seminary, when I was struggling with how to communicate a particular theological belief, I told my theology professor that it would be so much easier to express my beliefs if I had just been around in the first century to experience the Risen Christ. If I had just been one of the eleven gathered in that room when he ate the broiled fish, then I would be able to express my faith and witness to others. Her response, rather than agreement, was instead, "Oh really? That’s not what the evidence supports." She was right!

After all, think about the early disciples. At first, they took the Easter resurrection stories as idle tales. Then they were surprised, shocked, frightened, confused, and unsure of how to respond. Their minds and hearts raced. Some of their questions might have been: What does this mean? Do we continue where we left off? Do we begin anew? Will Jesus now go to God and leave us here alone? What will happen to us? Will anybody believe this? Will we be resurrected as Jesus was?

Yesterday morning, some of our leaders gathered for a work session to develop plans of action that would help us accomplish some of our goals. There was a lot of energy in the room and we proposed plans for moving our church into the future that God has planned for us. We, the congregation’s leaders, do not claim to know clearly where God is calling us to, yet we believe that we are moving forward. We, all of us, have a vision adopted a few years ago in a visioning process and we have a good start on trying to move toward that vision.

Yet, I have to tell you that I left that session a little anxious. I had many of the same questions that the first disciples might have had: What does this mean? Where do we go from here? Is Jesus going to abandon us in midstream? Will we experience resurrection in some way? In what direction will the Holy Spirit take us?

Yet, we who have heard God’s promise are called to be witnesses of the living Christ. We are called to move forward, staying with the course that we have discerned, staying connected with each other, and remaining calm even when we are unsure of the future. We are called to trust God and through that trust witness to the living Christ.

This week’s gospel lesson expresses the physical nature of the Risen Christ. Luke is speaking against those forms of Christian thinking that say that Jesus only seemed to be human. Jesus says, "Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." (vs. 39) "Christians believe in the resurrection of the dead, not escape into a spirit world." (Preaching Through the Christian Year, p. 247) We find the risen Christ by paying heed to the physical, economic, and religious needs of other human beings. We who felt God’s touch are called to be witnesses of the living Christ.

In 1987, the Upper Room published a story titled The Coming of Jesus to Balpur. It is an expression of an ideal in a culture less complex than the one we live in, yet it offers a standard that we need to continually hold before us. I have found that it is a true expression of my own belief in how we witness to the living Christ.

"Surgiv told the villagers of Balpur about Jesus.

"They had not heard about him before. They liked what they heard. ‘He helps people,’ Surgiv said. ‘He loves people. He heals quarrels. He is good and no one will want to do evil to his neighbor when Jesus is among them.’

"’Will he come to our village?’ the people of Balpur asked.

"’Are you ready for him?’ Surgiv [answered.]

"So the villagers took counsel on how to be ready for Jesus. They cleaned up the litter and swept the alleyways between the mud-walled houses. They made garlands to deck their coming guest.

Then Surgiv encouraged the villagers more, asking them to search their hearts honestly and take an assessment of their lives.

"So the villagers were moved to ask forgiveness of their neighbors, and the neighbors forgave. One restored grain he had stolen. Another rectified the boundary of his field that he had surreptitiously moved to his own advantage. Another offered her evenings to sit at the bedside of one who was dying. … Sardar cancelled Gobind’s debt to him and gave him rice so his family would not go hungry.

"There was a rare brightness in the village, an electric sense of goodwill. They were now living expectantly. Jesus was going to come.

"One day in a cloud of dust, an ekka, pulled by a lithe but bony horse, came toward the village. ‘Is that Jesus coming?’ inquired little Babu.

"Moti Lal heard Babu and changed the message, telling his mother ‘That’s Jesus coming.’ Mother hurried to tell the people of the village. Word spread quickly.

They went in a crowd, singing as they ran to meet the ekka. They surrounded it and the horse slowed to a pace and then stopped. "They peered at the white-faced old man who climbed down the wooden wheels. ‘I’m Pastor Barthulmai," he said. His wrinkles wreathed his face in gentleness."

He walked with the people through the village noticing how they treated each other, finally coming to sit under a tree. The children, women and men gathered round him and he told stories of Jesus, what he did, what he said, who he was.

"’When is Jesus coming to our village?’ Mata-ji, the revered elder woman interrupted.

"Barthulmai’s face brightened. ‘He has already come. I can see that he is already here.’

"The village people turned to each other and said in wonder, ‘He is already here!’ With gladness they repeated, ‘Jesus is already here’

"’When you live each day in the expectation of his coming, Jesus comes among you and within you.’ said Barthulmai." (Alive Now, March/April, 1987, pp. 14-15)

We who have tasted God’s mercy, heard God’s promise, felt God’s touch, and experienced God’s love, are invited by faith to be witnesses of the living Christ. We witness by living each day with the faith and expectation that Jesus is among us. Amen.