Can I Get a Witness?
Can I Get a Witness? by Rev. L. John Gable
April 30, 2019
I have a pastor friend who, at the end of every sermon he preaches, asks, “So what?” Regardless of the passage or the topic, he asks the congregation to consider the implications and applications of the message he has just delivered. What do we do with this teaching? What difference does it make to the way we live our lives today? So what? It is a good question and one we would do well to consider for ourselves, every time we listen to a sermon, sit in a class, study a passage of Scripture for ourselves, perhaps particularly so as we reflect on the meaning of the cross and resurrection.
Last Sunday we gathered with fellow believers around the globe and heard the glorious Good News of the Easter day, “Christ is risen!” to which we responded, “He is risen, indeed!” So today, with those words still ringing in our ears, we ask the question of both cynics and believers alike, “So what?” What difference does it make in the way we live our lives to say that Jesus is alive?
We have asked four of our friends, fellow Tab members, to help us reflect on that question beginning with Rich Gunn.
[Play Rich’s video} 2:35
As he spoke Rich repeats the phrase, “I turned to Jesus” throughout. Many of us use these or similar words to describe our own life of faith and prayer, but what do we mean by that? “Turning to Jesus” suggests an intimate relationship—such as we might turn to a close friend or a loved one for help. But it also speaks of Christ actually being found present IN all of our circumstances; in those times we would describe as being “good” and those that we would call “bad”, and even in those times we might describe as “meh”. Rich speaks of Jesus being present IN the midst of a difficult period of marriage and IN the midst of a time of unemployment. Together, Rich and Kathy “turned to Jesus” knowing, trusting that He was already there all along.
Another example of God’s presence in the midst of difficult circumstances is recounted by our next witness, Terry Turman.
[Play Terry’s video] 3:09
“…knowing I am loved.” Terry reminds us that God loves us so much that He has us exactly where we should be even though at the time it doesn’t seem like it. Because of what God has done for us through Jesus’ death and resurrection, we can know that we are loved and are being held by God even when we are at our lowest points and in our most difficult moments. This gets at what Paul writes in our lesson from Philippians when he says, “I want to know Christ ( the Greek word suggests an intimate, personal relationship with Christ) and the power of His resurrection and the sharing of His sufferings by becoming like Him in His death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection.” The resurrection then is not a one-time experience for Jesus alone or a someday experience for us, but a present, every day, reality. In all of life’s circumstances we are claimed and held by the love of Christ.
Lolly Ramey is also able to speak of that same confidence.
[Play Lolly’s video] 3:41
When Lolly got the news of her diagnosis, her first response was “I thank you, Father, for allowing me to have this experience.” Her prayer was one of gratitude—not for her cancer, cancer certainly is no gift—but for the opportunity to grow, and to grow even closer to Jesus; to be guided by the Holy Spirit; to be able to rest completely and securely in God’s hands and to be led by Him as on a bridge. Hers was a prayer of gratitude for, as Paul writes, the opportunity “to know Him…even in our suffering”. This assurance of faith keeps Lolly grounded and confident of God’s presence and love even in her time of need.
Finally, Keva Rop shares her reflections on the “So what?” of Easter.
[Play Keva’s video] 3:02
Thank you, Keva, and Rich, and Terry and Lolly for sharing your stories with us.
Friends, these four beautiful witnesses to the resurrection confirm what we’ve been reflecting on during this past Holy Week. We know by faith that after His death—as Keva put it after His “shameful death” on the cross—God raised Jesus from the dead. The Good News of the Easter faith is “Jesus is alive!” That singular event changed the course of human history and secured our eternal salvation!
Yet, even beyond that, as if that were not enough, the death and resurrection of Jesus also serves as THE model for our own lives, right now. This is the model, the pattern for our own dying and rising as our own life stories unfold. And as we have heard this morning, this pattern of dying and rising again is lived out and expressed in unique ways for each and every one of us.
As we seek to follow Jesus we die every day; not a physical death, but we die to ourselves so that with Him and like Him we can rise again, here and now. Friends, this is the “So what” of Easter: the experience of “knowing Christ and the power of His resurrection and the sharing of His sufferings by becoming like Him in His death, so that we too may attain the resurrection from the dead.” Amen.