A People with a Purpose: Witness
A People with a Purpose: Witness by Rev. L. John Gable
March 12, 2023
I believe the Church must continue to ask itself the question I have asked of myself repeatedly throughout my life, as I imagine have many of you asked of yourselves, “Why am I? Why are we so blessed?” Certainly we have talked about this before, but as I look at my life, at the opportunities and privileges I have been given, at the love I have been shown, I cannot help but ask, “Why me?” So many times people ask this question when they are faced with difficulty, but I find myself asking it out of sheer gratitude and a deep awareness that with privilege comes responsibility. I believe that I have been blessed not merely for my own comfort and convenience, but in order that I might be a part of God’s blessing of others, and I believe we as the Church can say the same.
The reason that we, the Church, must continually ask the “Why us?” question is that we are the recipients of the greatest Good News this world has ever been given, the Gospel message, the Good News of God’s love, forgiveness and saving grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
As we consider this great privilege and blessing, acknowledging that we had little or nothing to do with it, rather that it has been given to us as a free gift, the question naturally comes, “Why me? Why us?” Why have we been so blessed as to be called the Children of God and entrusted with this glorious message of salvation? The only answer we can faithfully give is that with great privilege comes great responsibility. We have been so blessed by God, not for our own comfort and satisfaction, but that we might be agents of God’s blessing to others.
This Lenten season we are addressing the topic of the purpose of the Church. We began with the reminder that the Church’s primary purpose, the one thing the Church can do that the culture cannot do, is worship God, so worship becomes the essential center of everything else we say and do. Last week Terri shared a powerful message reminding us that the Church is also called to mission, to building relationships with others in Jesus’ name, the only qualification required of us is that we “just go” and do it, sharing with others what God has done in our lives through Jesus Christ. In this sense, the call of God which comes to us is then echoed through us to others. C.S. Lewis put it this way, “The Church exists for nothing else but to draw (people) in to Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became human for no other reason.” Karl Barth says the same, “The Church is the particular people, the congregation or in Calvin’s terms, the company, which, through a bit of knowledge of the gracious God manifest in Jesus Christ, is constituted, appointed and called to be His witness in the world.” Simply put, the purpose of the Church is to bear witness to Jesus Christ.
A witness in a court of law is called to attest to something they have seen or heard and know to be true. If you are a witness to an automobile accident it means that you actually saw the accident. If you are then called as a witness to testify in court you are asked to tell in your own words what you saw with your own eyes, nothing more and nothing less. This is exactly what the Church, and by that I mean what you and I, are called to do on God’s behalf: to tell in our own words what God has done, is doing, in our lives, individually and collectively. As recipients of His love, His grace, His mercy, His forgiveness, we are called to be His witnesses.
In our Gospel lesson we read the Great Commission of our Lord as it is recorded by Luke, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in His name to all nations. You are witnesses of these things.” Each of the Gospel writers records the commissioning of the disciples in a slightly different way, but each speaks of Jesus sending His followers out as witnesses to that which they have seen and heard, what they know to be true about Jesus, and that sending extends to you and me today as well. The proclamation of the Gospel of salvation is the service the Church owes to the world. Why me? Why us? Because we have been so blessed by God with this Good News, not simply to make us self-satisfied and complacent in our favored relationship with God, but in order that others may hear and believe, so as to be as blessed, as well. We have been called to tell the Good News, so tell it we must.
In our Old Testament lesson, the prophet Isaiah, 600 years before Christ, speaks of the Suffering Servant who will be the carrier of the message of salvation. Speaking through the prophet, the Lord says, “It is too light/too easy a thing that you should be My servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel.” If Israel of old, the so called chosen people of God, had a fatal flaw it was on this point: they thought the message of salvation was intended for them and them alone. They saw themselves as exclusive recipients rather than generous transmitters of this Good News. As a result their focus became inward and self-directed, rather than outward and other-directed. They prided themselves on being God’s chosen people rather than seeing their privilege as a calling to responsibility. Let me pause at this juncture to say, the Church must ever be on our guard against this being our fatal flaw as well today; that we don’t come to see ourselves as the chosen few in a broken and corrupt generation, speaking only to ourselves about how blessed we are, rather than owning up to the responsibility we have been given to share this Good News with others.
So, back to our lesson from Isaiah, as a corrective to such self-centered thinking, theirs and we can say ours, God says, “I give you as a light to the nations that My salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” Israel was being called to break out of their self-sustaining mode of existence in order that they might fulfill their God-given calling as a light to all the nations. They were being called to be proclaimers rather than protectors of this divine truth, and the Church today is called to be the same. We must ever be on our guard against a self-protective mode of existence, somehow thinking that God has given us exclusive rights to His message simply to make us comfortable and satisfied. That simply is not true. It would be “too light a thing” if this Good News was given only to us for our benefit and blessing. We have been “blessed to be a blessing”, chosen to be witnesses of God’s saving purpose to every people in every tongue and nation, and if we are not doing this we are not fulfilling our God-given purpose as His Church.
The task of being witnesses to God’s saving act in Jesus Christ is both our greatest privilege and our greatest responsibility, and it has been given to each of us and all of us, not just the select few of us. Richard S. Armstrong, a professor friend of mine at Princeton, writes, “The ministry of evangelism (or what we are calling witness today) belongs not just to gifted individuals, but to the whole church and there is something every member of the Body of Christ can do to help fulfill that ministry.” Jesus clearly says, “You are my witnesses.” Not, “I want you to be, or I hope you will be” but “You are!” So our primary task and calling is to be about the business of giving to others what has been freely given to us, so that others may know what we have known, that they too might experience of God what we have experienced, that the cause of Christ and His Kingdom might be furthered.
Many today speak of the decline, even the eventual demise, of the Church in America. I don’t really believe that because the Church is God’s not ours, but the statistics are sobering and must be taken seriously. The reasons given for the decline are myriad and fingers are being pointed at many; but I can’t help but wonder if we should be taking a hard look at ourselves, both in the pulpit and the pew, asking ourselves what part we might be playing in this decline? I can’t help but wonder if we have somehow failed in this, one of our primary purposes, of witness? How often do we speak with another about what we believe and why? Of the blessings we know of experiencing God’s love and forgiveness? As to why we give of our time and money and energies to the Church? Of the benefits we enjoy by being part of this fellowship of believers? As to why we find such joy in serving others, here and abroad? Paul Tournier writes, “Our task is to live our personal communion with Christ with such intensity as to make it contagious.” Ever since the pandemic we are more aware of contagion than we ever have been before. So, how contagious are we in spreading our faith? Perhaps rather than blaming the culture for not coming to us we would be better suited to ask ourselves if we are going to them. Rather than speaking only to ourselves are we speaking a language they will understand and be drawn to?
Our task, our privilege and responsibility as the Church and as individual Christians is to live our faith with such intensity (I would prefer to say “with such vitality”) as to make it contagious, such that others might want what we have found, or better, that they might desire to know the One who has found us. Our purpose is to live as Christ’s witnesses in our homes and schools and places of business and leisure in such a way that others will see the difference Christ has made in our lives and want it for themselves. Jesus says, “Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” That should be our life-long desire: to live in such a way that others may see Christ in us and desire to know Him for themselves.
What would you think of one who discovered a truth that could radically change people’s lives for the better but chose to keep that truth to themselves and their precious few? A doctor who found a cure for cancer; a researcher who discovered a life-enhancing remedy; a benefactor who had the means to relieve the suffering of many but chose to keep their resources to themselves? Would you call them selfish, insensitive, self-absorbed, isolated from the world’s needs? How then is the Church any different if we were to keep the Good News of Jesus Christ, the only true source of life, abundant and eternal, to ourselves?
We have a story to tell, so tell it we must, but we must also never underestimate the power of our witness simply by the way we live our lives. Our actions often speak louder than our words; our actions win us the right to be heard. Some have said that Christianity is better caught than taught. Consider for a moment the number of people you come in contact with each day; neighbors you meet on the street; the clerk you chat with in the grocery store; those you do business with; those you can call by name as well as those you may only recognize as a familiar face; those with whom you live and work on a daily basis and those who only watch you from afar. How many people do you think you interact with on any given day? A dozen? Hundreds? That number will vary for each of us, but then multiply that daily number by weeks and months and years. That is your sphere of influence for Christ and God has commissioned you and me to be His witnesses, His light, in that circle. Who is to say whose life we may touch with the Good News of Jesus Christ and how far their sphere of influence may extend.
A Sunday School teacher named Mr. Kimball led a Boston shoe clerk named Dwight L. Moody to give his life to Christ in 1858. Moody became an evangelist, and in England in 1879 awakened a zeal for Christ in the heart of Frederick B. Meyer, pastor of a small church there. Meyer, preaching on an American college campus, brought a student named Wilbur J. Chapman to Christ. Chapman, engaged in YMCA work, employed former baseball player, Billy Sunday, to speak at a Sunday revival in Charlotte, North Carolina. After the revival a local group was so enthusiastic they planned another campaign, bringing Mordecai Hamm to preach. During that revival a young man named Billy Graham heard the Gospel message and yielded his life to Christ, the same Billy Graham who went on to touch thousands, hundreds of thousands, or more, with the saving, life-giving message of Jesus Christ. It was Graham who said, “The evangelistic harvest is always urgent. The destiny of people and nations is always being decided. Every generation is strategic. We are not responsible for the past generation, and we cannot bear full responsibility for the next one; but we do have our generation. God will hold us responsible as to how well we fulfill our responsibilities to this age and take advantage of our opportunities.”
We have come full circle now as we talk about the responsibility that comes with the privilege we have been given. Why me? Why us? Why have we been blessed with knowing the love, the grace, the forgiveness of Jesus Christ? I assure you, it is not for us alone, but that we might be a light to the nations, beginning right here, in our homes, this neighborhood, this city, and beyond. We are not the light, but we are called to point to the Light, to be reflectors of the Light, so that the salvation of God may reach to the ends of the earth. We are a people with a purpose: to be witnesses to God’s saving grace through Jesus Christ.
To the honor and glory of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Rev. L. John Gable
Tabernacle Presbyterian Church
Indianapolis, IN