SCRIPTURE READING | 1 Peter 3:13-16 NIV
13 Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? 14 But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.” 15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16 keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.
I WILL. WITNESS. | Pastor Thanael Certa-Werner
Over the last five weeks, we’ve been talking about the five promises which United Methodists make when they join the church – to support the church by their prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness.
We began by looking at prayer and how it is a learning process by which we draw close to God’s heart by spending time with Him. We then moved to presence where we talked about the importance of supporting each other, and Christians around the world, in both good times and bad times as we help to perfect each other in love. In talking about gifts, we looked at what our gifts really are – grace on loan to us from God. This means that our gifts are to be stewarded and taken care of as God is calling us to – in service to Him and others. This brought us to service. Last week we talked about how our service is a result of our freedom which comes from Christ in the Law. We talked about how the Law is actually freeing because we live in the Spirit of the Law which calls us to servitude in Christ.
It’s been a long five weeks and we’ve covered quite a bit! Today we’re finishing up the I Will. sermon series by looking at Witness. But before we begin, we’re going to look at our memory verse for this series one more time.
For we are co-workers in God’s service. You are God’s field. God’s building. 1 Corinthians 3:9.
Witness is a scary word, especially for Christians. It’s the same as testimony. These words, in essence, seem to equal evangelism which itself has a lot of baggage. When we hear that someone is going to give testimony, it might be an uncomfortable thing for us to either do or even listen through. It feels unnatural for us to do, but to be able to understand how we can support the Church through our witness, we need to first understand how natural witnessing really is for humans.
Part of the reason which witnessing seems unnatural is because the people we do see do it are professionals. In fact, this is why we hire a pastor, right? He’s the professional witness that we keep on staff because that’s what you do. But the bigger part of why witnessing feels unnatural, and even embarrassing to do, is because it is counter-cultural to talk about faith that way. Talking about religion is a touchy subject for most people, especially because we believe that as a people, we should not force our religion or beliefs on anyone else. This means that if I talk about going to church, or my faith, I might be forcing what I believe on someone else. Or I could offend them. Or worse, we could get into an argument over it. No, it’s just better to leave faith things where they belong.
These two problems are really the biggest roadblocks to people witnessing to others, but the reality of the situation is that they are fake problems. We’re dealing with false dilemmas here, and I’ll prove it to you.
If we look at this from the standpoint of any other aspect of life, it seems normal to do what we would call witnessing. For example, let’s look at one of my all-time favorite movies, Star Wars. In case you had any hopes of me not being a nerd, I hate to do this to you but I am one; not just a nerd, when it comes to Star Wars, I am a mega nerd. I’m one of those people who can tell you the name of every Jedi we see in the movies. I can tell you dates in the fictional timeline, can name planets galore, and will talk for hours about any of the Star Wars movies or series with anyone who will give me the time of day. I’ve played all the games, seen every movie, watched every show multiple times over.
All that to say, I really love Star Wars. The reason I love it is because it’s so immersive. The more you pay attention to the little details, the more worlds open up – literally! The people who make this series have spent so much time and energy creating countless cultures, languages, worlds, leaders, and story-lines that there’s always something new to discover. Yet, you don’t feel separated. You feel like you are a part of the Jedi order seeking to bring peace and justice to the galaxy. Or you feel like you’re a part of the Republic, the symbol of democracy for all to see. If you haven’t watched it before, or in a long time, I really recommend to try it out again!
The thing is, it’s not weird for me to say any of that. It might make you guys think that I have no life, but it’s not weird. In fact, you could find thousands of other people who would say something similar and give their reasons why they love the franchise. But what I’ve just done is witnessed about Star Wars. All I did was take something I love and share my experience surrounding it with you.
That’s all witnessing really is, sharing what is special to you – what you love – with others and then inviting them to be a part of that too. We do this ALL THE TIME in our society. When you find a really great store or restaurant, or when you find a new way that avoids the tolls, or even when you find a movie that you really love, it’s not weird whatsoever to tell others about it. Even strangers!
Think about looking up a new auto shop on Google. What’s one of the first things that most people look at? The reviews! We want to see what other people’s experiences are with this new thing we’re thinking about. We don’t even know who these people are but we trust what they’re saying – what they’re witnessing to.
We trust other people who have nothing to gain from giving their opinion, which is why it’s so important the witnessing not come from the professionals. Of course, the pastor is talking about how much he loves the church and Jesus – it’s his job. No wonder the CEO of McDonald’s thinks that burgers are the best at McDonald’s. But when ordinary people share their thoughts on something, it really has sticking power because there’s nothing to be gained on their end. If witnessing isn’t something we can avoid because it’s not something our society does or the professionals are the ones to do it, then it’s really is a matter of courage.
In our reading for today, Paul gives us some really sound advice in this area. Let’s look at it again. We read,
Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. ‘Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.’ But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.
First off, Paul reminds us that people are not looking to hurt us for doing good. In other words, people are not going to jump to being offended because you are offering something which you have found to be good in your life. But if they are, even if you suffer because you’ve done this, remember that you are being taken care of by God. What’s important here is not to worry about other’s thoughts or actions, but to remember to stay centered on God. Finally, always be ready to talk about your faith – always be ready to witness and to do so in love and humility because if you do all of this, it is those who are offended, or that talk behind your back, who really suffer.
The reality is that witnessing is the result of everything else that we talked about. When we get close to God by prayer, our lives start to change. Being in the presence of the people of God also helps us to grow and deepen our faith. Using our gifts for service to others as an extension of God’s grace realigns our life to outward-focusing rather than solely inward-focusing. Serving others grows in us compassion and love for others and continues to make us more like God. When these aspects of Christian life combine, lives are changed. It’s this life-changing goodness which we are witnessing to.
It’s like Star Wars: The Clone Wars, it took time, but I grew to like it, and even love it. Eventually it got to the point where I view everything Star Wars-related through the lens of that show. In the same way, as we grow in our faith, we grow in love and begin to look at all things through that lens. It only makes sense for us to want to share that world view with others, especially those we love. All it takes is us being willing to talk about what God’s doing and to trust that God will use what we say for His ministry.
That’s our challenge for this week, to allow ourselves to talk to someone else about how God is shaping and changing our lives and to allow ourselves to trust that even if we don’t say things perfectly, even if it feels like someone took what we said wrongly, that God is using our actions for His glory and His kingdom.
Amen? Amen.