How are you called to be a Witness?

Luke 24: 36b-48

http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=88#gospel_reading - link to Bible passage

You are in morning. A very dear friend has passed from your existence and yet some people talk about seeing him. You are skeptical. Ghosts are not real and everyone sane knows that. Perhaps the loss of their friend has driven them from their senses, but you know reality from fiction.  You know no one could possibly have seen Jesus. He was dead.

Then Jesus appears before you. Fear and trepidation are your first thoughts, perhaps anger that someone is tricking you. Doubt. Did someone slip something in my drink? If Jesus is truly before me then what else that I thought could never happen is true? Do I know truth? Panic, fear, confusion a complete sense of loss is overpowered by your desire to make what you see real and an equal desire to explain away what you see so that it is not real, because if it is real....then...then what?

Into this bedlam of confusion, internal and external turmoil Jesus himself says “Peace be with you” ......and it is. The peace that passes understanding, the peace of Christ. You are transformed and come to a broader understanding in that moment because of the peace of Christ.

The first followers of “the way” or early Christians were not dumb, nor were they superstitious or easily fooled. They were not any different from you or I and to see someone you know to be dead appear before you showing you that there is substance to his body would be startling at best, causing you to verge on a breakdown at worse. This truly allows you to understand how important those words of peace are.

When we speak them each week in church, they are not empty wishes, they are not just moments to catch up with each other – they are truly a moment where we can offer each other the peace that passes understanding a true desire for peace to each other. A blessing of the highest order that Christ will give you the blessing of peace right there in that moment no matter what you are going through, no matter how far away from peace your life is at that moment.

The peace of Christ that we offer each other is truly a gift from God that can transform our lives as well as all those that you choose to pass that gift on to.

Then Jesus shows us his hands and feet. The very hands and feet that have been tortured, that walked to Golgatha that were nailed to the cross. They are his, they are not imaginings, or phantoms but actually his real body. They are not completely healed. Maybe that says something to us. When we come to Christ and accept Christ and receive the peace of Christ we still have our baggage, our scars, or skeletons. What ever you like to call them. We still have them. Christ still had them, but we are no longer held down by them. Jesus was no longer pinned to the cross by them, he no longer experienced pain from the holes in his hands and feet. Perhaps that has something to say for us. Christianity is not magic, it does not make what has happened to us disappear, our faith does not conquer our experiences, but with Jesus we no longer have to be held down by it. We are no longer alone in those pains, we can be free to experience a peace no one can take from us.

Then Jesus asks for a meal. This is why communion is so important to me. In each of the experiences Jesus has after rising from death those around him come to know him through sharing of a meal – through hospitality. We come to know God when we share in communion because it is where God chooses to meet us in a special way. It is hospitality. We can choose to share that hospitality as I did with the snacks on the way in, or we can choose to go through the motions and leave with a bit of bread and grape juice in our stomachs. But if we seize the opportunity to come to know Christ in the moment of hospitality, of sharing bread and fruit of the vine with one another and Christ in Holy communion and just allow God's presence to be soaked up as the disciples did – God can transform you as he did them.

But be warned that if you choose to come to the table in that manner Christ also is going to expect some more from you. 

He continued to explain the scriptures. Notice these are learned people in the scriptures yet they still need to discuss them in a group, to work on them and to accept and expect new understandings each time they review them. How many of us truly approach Bible study in this manner – with eyes wide open and expectant? 

Then Jesus calls for us to repent and through that repentance find forgiveness. The forgiveness that comes from God and God alone.  We can not do anything but turn to God, God does the rest. 

Finally we are called to be witnesses to ALL NATIONS beginning in Jerusalem of these things that happened.

That is what just may happen if you come to the table expectant.  Mind you Jesus's witnesses did not seem to mean in this context going about telling people how to act. Witnessing seemed to start with hospitality, with an open table to all who wished to partake, with an expression of love. Then it seems that it continued with conversation and with that understanding, following personal repentance and forgiveness. In no place did Jesus tell us to tell our neighbor what was wrong with him, or how she should be living. I know we can be quite good at that. No Jesus asked us to be his witnesses, to share his good news.

For me that good news is that I am not alone in this uncontrollable world. I have an ally. I am loved and accepted no matter what and that repentance and forgiveness is an ongoing cycle mixed in with good conversations and getting to know people. The good news is a love that I know God has for me despite the fact I am not worthy of it, and could never live a perfect enough life to be worthy of it. I am still trying to figure out how to witness to that and I think that is part of my call. It is one of those things that I will get close to be not really get. And that is okay because I am not in it alone.

What are you called to be a witness to? How are you called to be a witness? What do you need to do to witness to all people, or show love to people you have a hard time loving? What are you being called to this very moment in that small and still place in your heart?