WE ARE WITNESSES
Sermon offered by The Rev. Frank A. Johnson
Luke 24:13-48
I. I want to tell you about a phone call that I received a few weeks ago. I was in the midst of preparing for that dreaded triennial visitation called the physical examination. My mental preparation for this event took the form of hoping that the legislature would pass a law making physical exams illegal, or that the doctor would get sick, or that - sorry, folks - there would be another earthquake. Of course what I was hoping to avoid was that monster known as the sigmoidoscopy. (And for those who think this is not an appropriate topic for Sunday morning, I believe in the doctrine of the Incarnation, which says that God is present in the most earthy of our experiences. And besides, there are more prayers uttered over this procedure than for many surgeries.) Amidst my avoidance fantasies I heard the voice of Jim Wilson saying, "Get it done!" That gave me the courage to ask the office nurse when she called to confirm my appointment if I didn't have to prepare for the rectal exam. She said, "I don't think so, but I'll check with the doctor and will call you within 15 minutes if you have to do anything." When the phone rang ten minutes later I answered, "I didn't think I would be able to get away with that!" A hesitant, questioning voice on the other end replied, "Frank? Is that you? This is Billie." Of course I had to explain that I was expecting someone else, and what that was all about!
II. Donna Schaper tells the story of poet Donald Hall going into his grandfather's attic and finding a box filled with short pieces of string labeled, "String Too Short To Be Saved." Hall went on to write a poem about the pardox of his grand-father's having saved string that was too short to be saved! Schaper takes it further and says that if we have ever felt like string too short to be saved, we know what it means to be risen. In my fear of the exam I felt like string too short to be saved, and then I heard Jim's voice, and I knew what it was to be risen. In my embarrassment over Billie's accidental discovery of my fear, I felt like string too short to be saved, and in her good-natured understanding I knew what it was to be risen. That's what resurrection is! We're not talking about trumpets blaring and fireworks exploding over the Hollywood Bowl. We're talking about everyday events that happen all the time, when God is so very real in moments of grace and we may not even recognize that that's who it is! And our moments of grace increase as we begin that recognition.
That's what Luke's story is about. Little moments of recognition: didn't our hearts burn within us when he told us about the scriptures?; recognizing him in the breaking of the bread; being scared skinny, and then observing him eat some broiled fish. Little moments. Saved string.
Nothing is ever lost to God. Rodney King. Mary Magdalene. Judy Angran. Jim Wilson. Helen Wrightson. The witness of Judy: as someone said, her mind is free (and what a shame that so many able-bodied folk have minds that are not free). The witness of Jim: one of the last times I saw him Joann was helping him back into bed, and aware that hospital gowns provide copious ventilation, Jim welcomed me with, "Come on in, Frank, you're just in time to be mooned." He knew that he was in a battle for his life, but he did not stop living to the fullest. The witness of Helen: I am a miracle! she told us when she was here for the first time after her hospitalization. Little moments, one might think. No! Huge moments for us, and huge moments for God. For nothing is lost to God. As Schaper puts it, after Jesus was raised, he raised us. He went before us into our Galilee. Into our lives. Into the places where we live. Into our everyday. No piece of string is too short to be kept. That's our witness.
III. The last verse of today's Luke passage reads: "You are witnesses of these things." Jesus' life; Jesus' teachings; Jesus' death; Jesus' resurrection; and all of the other little resurrections that happen in our lives! as we bring this passage forward into today. The pieces of string saved. A healing is experienced. An estrangement is overcome with forgiveness and understanding. A person finds acceptance instead of rejection. Someone writes a letter to the paper thanking it for its policy on commitments. Someone confronts another and is listened to. We are witnesses.
A story is told in Mark's gospel about a man who had demons driven out of him by Jesus. The man wanted to follow along and be part of the group. Jesus said, no, go home (we sing the words, "he bids me go" in the song about the conversation in the garden) and tell your friends what God has done. And he did! And everyone was amazed. That's what we are called to do. Tell people what God has meant to us. This is what it means to be witnesses to the resurrection.
We may not be comfortable with being witnesses. Jehovah's Witnesses may come to mind. You may know the saying that if you cross a Jehovah's Witness with a UCC person you get someone who knocks on the door but doesn't know what to say when the door is opened. We don't have any pat answers, any easy explanations of the difficulties that life brings, no answers to the problem of evil. We do know our own stories. We know what it's like to be too short to be saved and to be saved anyway. And it's not a requirement or an obligation that we witness to these experiences (as if to earn God's love by being witnesses); rather, it is when we have these experiences we are so overwhelmed by God's love, how can we keep from singing? Amen.