Acts 10:34-47; Isaiah 42:1-7; Matthew 3:13-17
Allow me to date myself. One of my favorite television shows growing up was Perry Mason. I loved the skill and dedication he had as a lawyer, the loyalty of his secretary and private detective, and cocksure banter of the homicide detective and the district attorney that always got ripped apart in the end. It was there that I first heard those words of the oath that is the best known oath in our country. You know them. They are used in every courtroom drama (not to mention real courtrooms: “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?” And as the drama unfolds, one attorney or the other will say to a witness, “Let me remind you that you are under oath.” Or she will say something like, “Perjury is criminal offense. Tell the court the truth.”
Testimony is a very interesting thing. It can be very compelling for jurors. Or it can have no effect on a jury, no matter how sincere the telling is. Some testimony can be easily ripped to shreds by a close cross-examination. Other testimony can be unassailable. For those of us with no knowledge of forensics or human psychology, some testimony is hardly comprehensible and you have to trust the experts. Sharp observers can get a pretty good read on a witness’ veracity by his or her body language.
Many years ago I hear someone ask, probably unoriginally, “If you were hauled into court and charged with being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” Substantial evidence, incontrovertible evidence, evidence that would withstand the fiercest cross-examination.
That’s an interesting proposition. We would much rather defend a charge that we aren’t a Christian. It is easier to say things like I go to worship, I tithe, I go to Bible study, I take a turn at the food pantry, I sing in the choir, I visit the nursing home, I go on mission work trips. Whereas if we were charged with being a Christian, we would have to say that going to worship doesn’t mean anything, that the tithe is only a part of our giving to charity, that we do this or that for the social connections, that we don’t really believe what we read or hear. Would we be able to pull off that kind of testimony, or would we get caught out?
The church in the early centuries knew a lot about being guilty of being Christian. From the slaying of Stephen by people in Jerusalem onward through the persecutions ordered many Roman emperors and their lieutenants, early Christians gave up their lives for the faith. And Christians still do. In sub-Saharan and equatorial Africa, in South Sudan, in Egypt, in Syria, in Iraq and Iran, in Pakistan and India, in southeast Asia, in China, in even the United States, Christians are martyred for the name of Christ which they bear. The word “martyr” comes from the Greek word for “witness.”
Witnessing is dangerous business. The federal government has a witness protection program to relocate and change the identities of key witnesses in certain kinds of criminal cases. In racketeering cases criminal organizations don’t think twice about rubbing out a witness before a trial to prevent testimony or after a trial in revenge for having given damaging evidence.
The church does lots of things. In good Pauline fashion, preachers preach, evangelists evangelize, exhorters exhort, disciples disciple. They interpret, explain, cajole, urge, encourage, support, uplift. As powerful as their messages – spoken and otherwise – are, what they do is derivative. On the other hand, to testify is to report the facts, to tell the truth – the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Twice, Peter tells the gathering in Cornelius’ house, “We are witnesses.” And he says, God “commanded us . . . to testify that [Jesus] is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead,” just as the “prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
I ended last week’s sermon with Ernest Nichol’s hymn words, “We’ve a story to tell to the nations.” In the words of John Shearman, “The Christian celebration of Epiphany is intended to mark the globalization of the gospel.”(1) This Jesus whom we call our Lord and Savior, is not a local deity based in Bethlehem or Galilee. He is, in Peter’s words, “Lord of all.” What is more astounding is that we – you and I – are the Gentiles which are referred to so often in the gospels and epistles.
The context from the Book of Acts is clear. The chapter before today’s reading, chapter nine, is the chapter in which the zealous Pharisee Saul, traveling to Damascus to persecute Christ-believers, encounters the risen Jesus, and is converted from foe to friend, from enemy to evangelist, from adversary to ambassador to the Gentiles. In chapter ten, Peter undergoes a parallel conversion, one he struggled with as mightily as Saul did. That is until he was brought face to face with Cornelius and his household. Only then did the dream become tangible and the words, “Never consider unclean what God makes pure,” made sense.
The non-Jewish magi followed a brilliant star. Saul was blinded by a great encircling light. Peter’s understanding was broadened. Cornelius and the people gathered with him heard Peter’s testimony about Christ and about the universal offering of God’s grace. And the Holy Spirit fell on them.
We have two epiphanies in Acts chapter 10: that of Peter that it is God who invites with grace, and that of Cornelius that even Roman military officers, and by exten-sion, anyone else, may receive the grace that God offers. God’s gift and call in Jesus is for all. The universalism of Christianity is not universal salvation for everyone who does what is right. The universalism of the Christian faith is that all are called, without regard to language, culture, tribe, gender, educational background, race, economic security, age, or any other measure by which we are prone to differentiate ourselves from others. If the other is a human being, then he or she is a child of God and our equal, not our superior, not our inferior, our equal, a brother or sister in Christ. Christ was not born for some, did not die for some, and was not raised for some. He was born, died, and was raised for every human being.
Through our baptism we are obligated to look and act with dignity on every person we encounter, alike or different, in agreement or disagreement with the way we see things. When we villainize others for any reason, we victimize ourselves in the witness box with perjury. We will fail to be convicted of being a Christian, and we will be denied by Christ.
Like Peter, we are witnesses whom God chose beforehand. And what is our testimony that is the very air we breathe whether we speak a word or not? It is this:
Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit and endowed with power, who traveled around doing good and healing everyone oppressed by the devil because God was with him, both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him up on the third day and allowed him to be seen by us, who ate and drank with him after God raised him from the dead. He is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead and everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.Friends, this is the table where we eat and drink with Jesus after his resurrection, as we break the bread as his body was broken for us and share the cup remembering his blood shed for us. This is the joyful feast of the people of God because it testifies to what God has already done in Christ and proclaims the glorious reality of what Christ does for us now and forever from now.
This is our solemn testimony. Thanks be to God!
(1) John Shearman, “Introduction to the Scripture, First Sunday After Epiphany, The Baptism of our Lord,” posted by David Shearman, Midrash, midrash@joinhands.com, Sun, Jan 5, 2014 at 3:41 PM.
Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com
Copyright 2013 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.
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