Sermon for the 1 st Sunday after Easter, April 11, 2010
“ And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear witness, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. ”
I SWEAR to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God . With that a witness may be seated and await questioning. Giving sworn testimony has been a cornerstone of justice from the dawn of civilization. The statement of an eyewitness has always carried weight in establishing facts that can be trusted in determining truth. The power of testimony is so great, for good or for evil, that one of God's Ten Commandments prohibits lying under oath against a neighbor. This prohibition gains force when the Law of Moses lays punishment on a person committing perjury in equal measure to the punishment that threatened the one they lied against. If you falsely accuse someone of murder and are found out, you will be executed as though you were a murderer yourself.
So it's risky business taking the stand. In my various legal adventures, I've given about 12 days of sworn testimony, depositions before a court reporter. With very few objections raised, I've told the truth under oath, carefully choosing my words so not to be misquoted or misinterpreted. Not once were my words in evidence thereafter used against me—and not that the opposing council didn't try.
We are an Apostolic Church because the testimony of the closest followers of Jesus Christ forms the basis of our beliefs. This is not a philosophy devised in the mind of an intelligent or spiritually gifted thinker. Platonism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Shintoism, Existentialism, Humanism, Scientology, and Socialism may have their interesting points and observations, lifestyles and attitudes to pursue, or even revelation of sorts. But these ideals were born in the mind of men. Christianity is the sworn testimony of eleven witnesses who put their lives on the line to tell the world a fact: that Jesus Christ rose alive from the grave. They saw Him, touched Him, spoke and ate with Him, and determined without a doubt that He lived in His body after certainly dying on a Roman cross.
Peter thought he loved Jesus enough to stand up for Him before he knew the strength of his own constitution. In the face of a demonically inspired world set against his Master, violently abusing Him, bringing the full force of the state and religion and hell to bear, Peter crumbled and lied his way out of the high priest's palace, only to hear the cock crow and see our Lord's gaze across the courtyard: “Didn't I tell you, Peter?” But when Jesus appeared alive again to Peter, three days later, our Apostle found the strength to testify and on Pentecost he stood before thousands of doubtful Jews, even the high priests and Sanhedrin and said, “Ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.” Acts 3:14-15 “This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.” Acts 2:32
John, a young fisherman who most deeply felt the love of Jesus and who guarded the door for His Lord at the Last Supper, became the eldest witness to the Messiah nearing the end of the 1 st century, when he wrote: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life… declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us.” 1 John 1:1-3 The Apostles share their knowledge , which isn't dreamed up but eye witnessed. On this sworn testimony our faith rests. We are an Apostolic Church.
Thus it was the sign to a next generation of living witnesses that the Apostle John or Peter or James laid hands on your head and declared you a deacon, or priest or bishop of this Church. Spiritual power was conferred in this act, but so also was a legal imperative: that you give this testimony after we're gone from the earth and never change it . For the power of the Gospel, the good news is that it's true —a true testimony, for which we would die before we change it or ever deny it again. Jesus Christ is alive today . Now here's what He says:
“I have greater witness than that of John [the Baptist]: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me. And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me… Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” John 5:36-43 When Pilate asked Him, “Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.” John 18:37 Just before He ascended, Jesus told His disciples, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Acts 1:7-8
Witnesses . We have their sworn testimony in the pages of our New Testament. What is a testament, but a sworn statement? This statement contains a covenant that God extends to human beings, the promise of eternal life, if by faith we enter a relationship with a man who has been living since the 1 st century in an undying human body in the presence of the Father. That He is the eternal Son of God can no longer be in doubt. Some still do doubt, but this is often evidence of a moral failure rather than serious scholarly study and tested misgivings. Some have actually had the Apostolic hands laid on their heads and gone on to express disbelief in Christ's Virgin Birth, His Bodily Resurrection, His moral perfection and His divinity. But in their skepticism these wolves are twice damned. Twice : because they have taken oaths and bishop's office under pretense, and then used this holy office to proclaim lies and sown doubts in the hearts of innocents. The threat of false testimony doesn't carry a death penalty in this life for such traitors, only in the next.
Are you a witness? To what truth about Christ would you be willing to stake your reputation, your public image, your professional career, your freedom, or even your life? And on what issue would you be unwilling to swear, “I believe”? And what is the force of your testimony? To whom has it been given, and with whom has it been shared? Eleven men, frightened literally into hiding, all became bold enough to declare what they'd seen in the middle of the Temple at Jerusalem because they both knew that it was true, and that even death would have no lasting power over them. What is the hill you are willing to die on, the truth for which you would gladly take a bullet, the evidence you would give even under penalty of death?
Mar-too-ria translates into Greek the word we find in King James English as Witness . Martyr , one who dies for the faith he or she espouses, is a witness. The deaths that the martyrs boldly endured by sword, by cross, by fire, by freezing, by wild animals, by gladiators' sport, by the edict of mad emperors—these deaths were their witness to the world astonished at them when they sang glorious songs to God while being marched away from their judges. Where are such heroes found today? A modern Anglican priest once commented, when looking at the faithlessness of his bishops, that “we stand on the shoulders of midgets.” Isn't it once more a day for the rise of a few witnesses for the faith once given? A martyr, even a living martyr, to stand up against the flood of apostasy in once traditional churches?
Easter is the test. One of my seminary instructors entered Episcopal seminary in Berkeley during the early 70s to dodge the draft. He had no faith to speak of, but the priesthood seemed a good place to hide from the military. While there, he noticed that in three years' training, one book was not required reading: the Holy Bible. Being a rebel, he acquired one and read it. It changed his life. He believed what he read in those pages, and as a witness began to trouble the peace of CDSP. Upon graduation, his proctor informed all his classmates they had passed and would become deacons, but would they first answer a question, just for fun. What happened on Easter Day? One by one, the future priests told tales of mass hallucinations, corn god fables, fuzzy feelings of well-being, and a vague sense that Jesus just might be okay, somewhere, even if we'd lost track of His body. When it came to my mentor, he flatly stated: “Jesus Christ rose bodily out of the grave, alive.” Graciously he was told, “Well John, I suppose it's all right if you want to believe that.” Some stand on the shoulders of midgets. I want to stand on the shoulders of giants.
The Baptist stood in the running waters of Jordan and loudly declared his generation unclean, lost, faithless and unworthy to receive the blessing that was coming any day unless they repent. The Apostle John would later write of him, “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.” John 1:6-8 For his witness, the Baptist lost his head. John also wrote: “T his is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcomes the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” You didn't live back then and can't say you saw Him rise. But this same Jesus said, “B lessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” John 20:29 That blessing is yours today if you are a witness.
Jesus breathed on the Apostles and gave them power in the Holy Spirit to heal our worst disease, that of sin, guilt, the separation all people feel from God and from one another. The Apostolic Succession was established to insure this forgiveness would remain a power in the Church for all time. Defining sin's deviancy down does nothing to save anybody, but rather the declaration of God's forgiveness toward a penitent soul. When you know you are forgiven all that you ever feared in yourself, will you then become valiant enough to testify for Jesus? Will you be His witness?
Testify. Witness. Be a living sacrifice, a martyr, a willing oblation offered up on the altar of life so that perhaps by your testimony the life of one other guilty soul might be saved.
PFH+