"From Here to Eternity"
The power and the challenge of witness
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, April 22, 2001
Text: Acts 1:1-11
I think one of the most difficult things to do, in the whole world, is to try and explain why you love somebody. Oh, there have been people, throughout the centuries, who have attempted to put it in poetry, or in love songs. I suppose, when you sit down and think of people whom you love, or that one, special person whom you love, you are, in fact, struggling to find the words. But you do your best. You describe how they look. You describe their character. You describe their beautiful eyes, or complexion, or teeth, or big bank account. I mean, you think of all the other romantic things about them that explain why you love them. I know, I struggle explaining why I love Marial. It must be almost impossible for her to describe why she loves me! Now the choir is nodding. That's not good!
It's hard, is it not, to explain love. How do you put it into words? Well, I think the disciples, after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, were faced with this very same challenge. How do they put into words what they have seen and experienced? How do they explain to a world that had last seen Jesus of Nazareth when he was taken down from the cross and placed in a tomb in the garden of Joseph of Arimathea? How do they now tell such a world, that had seen only that, that this Jesus is alive? What words do they use? How do you describe your heart? How do you describe the inexpressible in a way that people will understand and believe?
Well, those early Christians were not left alone in that decision. In fact, there are two great traditions within the New Testament. These say that Jesus left the disciples with a Last Will and Testament that explained how they could be Christ's witnesses in the world. But it's unlike the Last Will and Testament that you, or I, or anybody else, may write. Indeed, when we write a Will and Testament, we write it when we are of a sober and a clear mind. It only becomes effective once we are dead.
In fact, there is a great principle, expressed in Latin, which describes this law: testamentum omni morte consumatum: the principle that, in fact, the Last Will and Testament becomes effective only upon the death of the individual. Jesus, on the other hand, left his Will and Testament with his disciples after he had died and when he came back to life.
On two separate occasions, he gave the disciples clear instructions as to how they were to bear witness. In the Matthew tradition, Jesus took the disciples to one side and said: “I want you to go into all the world, baptizing in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always.”
In the Gospel of Luke, we have a somewhat different scenario: We have Jesus gathering the disciples around him and telling them that they must wait. In so doing, they must wait for power in order that they might go to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth. He says: “But this will happen when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.” Now, some people have tried to suggest that there are contradictory tones here: In one, Jesus is saying I will be with you; in the other one, he is saying The Holy Spirit will be with you.
I do not see any contradiction here at all. I am with the theologian, Leonardo Boff, who said: "The Holy Spirit is, in fact, the very power of the risen Christ; who might come in order that testimony might be given as to who Jesus really is." In other words, there is no contradiction. Jesus understood that he would be with the disciples through the power of the Paraclete, the Comforter, the Holy Spirit; that they wouldn't have to just try and figure out, through human words, what they were going to say. They would be empowered by the Holy Spirit to be able to say them.
And so, with that in mind, I want to look at the Last Will and Testament of Jesus, through the eyes of Luke's gospel, because in it, I think, there is much for even the modern church to learn about the nature of witness, about the nature of mission, and about the nature of our stewardship of God's word. Because, I think, Jesus gave the apostles some very concrete examples of where they were to witness. That is what I want to emphasize today: where they were to witness.
The first thing that Jesus says is: “When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will receive power. You will be my witnesses first of all right here, right now. You will be my witnesses first of all, in Jerusalem.”
Now, I want you to picture it. The disciples had just witnessed Jesus' crucifixion outside the city walls. Everyone in Jerusalem seemed to have known that this Jesus had died. In fact, in Peter's speech in Acts 2, he refers to that. People were talking about the death of Jesus; but Jesus commanded them to go to the single most difficult place, the most intense place. There, they must begin their recounting of the story of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Now, they wanted to do something else. They wanted to have the restoration of an old era, of a theocracy. They wanted to go back in time. They said to him: “Are you, at this time, going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
Jesus, rather than taking them on, rather than arguing with them, just said: “You will know the times and the seasons, but that will be later. You are not to know them now, but this is what you are to do. You are to bear witness in Jerusalem and I will give you the power to do it.”
Just this week, I was reading a newspaper article about the movie actress, Jane Fonda. Jane Fonda is married to the well-known entrepreneur, Ted Turner. Apparently, a few months ago, she went away for a while, did Jane. When she came back to her husband, she declared to him that she had become a Christian. He was so incensed by this that their relationship began to turn sour. One of his daughters actually told the media, and I find this almost incredible to believe, that Ted Turner was jealous of Jesus. He was jealous of another person, another man, in Jane Fonda's life, someone else that Jane loved, someone else that Jane had decided to follow, and he simply couldn't stand it.
You see, sometimes, my friends, at the very nearest point in our lives, at the very most difficult moment in our lives, it is the most difficult to bear witness. It is the most intense: with our families, with those that we love, with the close society that is around us, with our friends. There are many people who find that that is the most difficult place to bear witness.
I was thinking back recently to a time when I was in Ottawa. There was a very elderly lady in my congregation and she was extremely kind to me. In fact, she was so kind that she was always giving me little gifts, some of which, I really don't think that I should have been having. Certainly I should not have been telling people that I was receiving them, although I do miss them. There was a lovely malt whiskey that she gave me once, and she gave me chocolate bars -- all the things that drive my doctor crazy.
One day she said to me: “Reverend Stirling, I would like to see you in my home.” I wondered what on earth she was going to give me when I went there, and I said: “Well, okay. Sure I'll come and visit you.”
I went into her living room. The floor was covered with memorabilia: pictures of her husband and family, newspaper clippings about great things that they had done in their lives, an obituary about her former husband. It seemed that, right on the floor before her, was her whole life - spread on the floor.
Now, I waited for about an hour. We talked about incidentals, trivialities. We really never got to the nuts and bolts of it all, until finally she said: “Andrew, the reason you're here is that I want to talk to you about my will.”
She said: “What I want to do, Andrew, is leave money to the church. I need your guidance about good causes in society, to which you think I should leave my money. I realize that I am reaching the end of my days, but the one thing that I want above all else is for my ministry to continue. I love my Lord so much that I want my ministry in his name to go on, even through the little that I have accumulated in this life.”
I was so deeply touched by that meeting that I tried to help her in every way that I could.
Three days later, the telephone rang. The members of her family were furious with me: “What have you done to our mother? How have you influenced her affections? We have just been told that, in her will, she is going to be leaving money to the church and to all these organizations. How dare you do this?”
I said: “I'm sorry. I haven't done it at all. Your mother loves Jesus Christ as well. Your mother has a passion for poor people in society. Who am I to tell her, not to remember that in her Last Will and Testament?”
Sometimes, my friends, it's difficult: When you really get down to nuts and bolts; when it comes down to money, which is the god of our society; when it comes down to greed, which motivates our society; you know, bearing witness is not an easy thing in Jerusalem, even today.
But Jesus also commands them, not only to witness in the here and now; he calls them to witness beyond their immediate environs. He said: “You ought to go to Judea and Samaria.”
Now, to go to Judea, which was the surrounding country, and to Samaria, which was the place where Jews were often rejected, was again something that would require enormous courage. Many scholars have argued that the disciples could simply have just sat where they were, enjoying the power of Pentecost, enjoying the wonderful outpouring of the spirit and everything that occurred as Jesus had predicted, 40 days later; but that was never the call of Christ. The call of Christ was always to go beyond even the immediate world in which we live.
I was reading a wonderful article by a writer from the New York Times. The writer from the New York Times is a fascinating man. He had a dilemma. He wanted to ask a woman to marry him and he couldn't get up the nerve. He didn't know how he was going to find the right words to say, or what he was going to do. So he went to Central Park, and he sat, in the middle of the park, on a bench.
As he looked up, he realized that one of the things that he couldn't do was provide enough money for this woman. How would she ever accept him on his meager wages? He thought of all those difficult situations he had encountered on his travels to Rome and Jerusalem and Greece and Rio de Janeiro. He thought of all the reasons why she would say no. He had almost made the decision that he wasn't going to ask her, no matter how much he loved her.
All of a sudden, he was looking at a tree. There was a squirrel, running along a branch. The squirrel leapt off the branch and kept falling until he landed about eight branches below, just before the ground. There was an elderly man sitting next to him on the bench. The elderly man leaned over and saw what this young writer had been witnessing.
He said to him: “You know, I have been watching these squirrels leap from tree to tree and limb to limb for years. Even when there are dogs down below that might kill them, they still give it a go. I've seen some of them miss and some of them make it, but all of them, remarkably, still seem to survive.” He said: “I suppose it's because if they don't ever try, they will never leave the same tree.” If they don't ever try, they will never leave the same tree.
Jesus understood that with the disciples. He knew that they would have to take a leap. Not a leap that had no thought to it; not a leap that was not based on any evidence or truth. But, if they were going to have the courage to bear witness of what they believed in, they would need the courage and conviction to leap from the branch, or else they would stay in the same tree.
My friends, I am convinced, with my whole heart, that, even in our own day and age, that our faith requires courage. That standing for what you believe in, and what you believe in is true, is sometimes difficult. That principles are more important than expediency, and sometimes bearing those principles is a difficult thing.
Jesus also said, though, that they must to go beyond that. They have got to go even into the unimaginable and the unknown. He says to them: “You are to go from Judea and Samaria to the uttermost parts of the earth.”
Now, for those people in Jesus' time, that probably meant the breadth and the width of the Roman Empire. Remember, they thought the earth was flat, and the remotest parts of the earth were where you would fall off, if you were to go. “You are to go there,” says Jesus, “to the uttermost parts of the earth, to the point at which it appears that there is nothing more. You are to go to the whole known world."
This morning, I woke up early. I wanted to see the first Canadian walk in space and to see the Canadarm. I must admit I had a sense of real pride in my heart this morning. Unfortunately, I had to come here and I missed it. Nevertheless, I thought, it's amazing. Here we are, walking around in space - Canadians, Canadians.
I can understand Americans walking around in space. Their heads have been there for a long time. (Now I'm going to be in trouble.) But us?
They are remarkable, the bounds of human achievement and the expanse of the world in which we live. They are enormous, are they not, the uttermost parts of the earth. I can't help but think how Christians, since those early days, since those people huddled in that upper room and didn't know what to say about Jesus, have been able to take the glorious message of the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth.
But those uttermost parts of the earth are often very difficult places as well. I don't know about you, but, over the last couple of days, I have just been sickened by what's going on in our country. I am sickened, I suppose, on a number of levels. I was asking friends on Friday night: “Where is the risen Christ in the midst of all this?”
I mean, anarchists running against fences, tearing things down and throwing Molotov cocktails in my Canada; forcing the police to respond with tear gas, something that I've inhaled in South Africa, as many of you know. That smell lingers with you. You know, even now, the taste of it still comes back whenever I think about it.
In my Canada! When I think of young people of principle, who have, I do believe, sincere passion for others, getting caught up in anarchy, in my Canada; to have my politicians and the world leaders locked behind closed doors and fences, making press releases about decisions that affect so many millions of lives in my Canada, I have been heart-broken, heart-broken.
There are some people who do not want progress at any cost and will do everything to stop it. There are some people who think that progress is the only good and that there is no justice beyond progress. Where is Christ?
Well, I thought of the Christian church and the uttermost parts of the earth. I thought: You know, we are talking about lands and nations that I haven't visited, and cities and places that I might not ever see in my lifetime. Yet, there, in their places, are Christians who worship like you and me every Sunday; who go to their Bible studies; who pray. I think there is a time, as Christians, when we need to listen to our brothers and sisters, our fellow disciples who live in places that we do not know.
Sometimes, however, there is an arrogance about us. Sometimes there is an arrogance that says we don't want to listen just in case we hear something that doesn't fit with the view of the world that we might have.
But there is one other thing that is missing, and I realized this last night. You know, with all the chanting, throwing, banner-waving, and political posturing, there is one word, one thing that I didn't hear mentioned. I didn't hear anybody say: They're praying. That's what I found missing. That's why this conflict. That's why this anger. That's why this resistance.
I am sure the disciples of Jesus Christ, in the uttermost parts of the earth, have something to offer and sometimes, it is just their prayers. Even when we don't know what to say, even when we don't know all the issues, and I clearly don't, I know that, just like those disciples in the streets of Jerusalem, they wait on the spirit and they seek the words. They say: Thy will be done. That's all we ask.
But, there is a sense in which Jesus was driving the disciples even beyond that.
I rushed down to a bookstore on Easter Monday to pick up a British daily newspaper, The Sunday Telegraph, because my home soccer team, Manchester United, had just won the championship. I wanted to cut out all the pictures, all the articles and the interviews with the players.
I opened the paper and, to my great dismay, there wasn't a great deal on it. I kept it nevertheless, although I think I have now lost those pages, believe it or not. (I think Marial threw them out!)
I did grab something that was worth keeping, however. It was a two-page interview with Desmond Tutu unlike anything I have seen in my life.
I have it here. It's entitled: My Idea of Heaven. It is one of the most moving things that I have read in my whole life, for Desmond is very ill with cancer.
The interviewer was asking him: “Well, what will Heaven be like?”
He had a twinkle in his eye and he was giggling, as he tends to do. He talked about what Heaven will be like, how he will see God for the first time, how he will see people that he can't imagine ever meeting: “Mother Teresa,” he said, “I'll see her again. I will see St. Augustine. I will see Teresa of Avilla and Francis of Assisi.” He said: “I will see Mary Magdalene for the first time.”
He got all excited about all the people he's going to see. He'll see his little brother who died as a baby.
The reporter asked him: “Well, will he still be in his diapers, do you think?”
He said: “Oh, yes. He'll be in his diapers, all right - but they'll just be perpetually clean in Heaven.”
And he said: “I will see my Lord Jesus Christ in Heaven.”
And then he said this: “You know, the wonderful thing about God's love is that maybe we are going to be surprised at the people we find in Heaven, people that we didn't expect. We'll possibly be surprised at those we thought would have been there, and aren't.”
He said: “God has a particularly soft spot for sinners. Remember Jesus said, ”˜There is greater joy in Heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine needing no repentance.' Ultimately it all hinges on one thing: our response to the divine invitation. There is hope for us all. Thank God, God's standards are very low.”
But then something remarkable happens. After he has given all this explanation about Heaven and what he sees, he uses this interview to bear witness to the man who is interviewing him.
The writer says: “The most amazing thing is that, after it's all over, and I've written down all my notes, and we've written about his view of Heaven, he starts to turn on me. Desmond Tutu will not let me off the hook. He says to me the following words: 'As St. Augustine says: "Thou hast made us for thyself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee." God says, "I made you for a worshipping creature, and you have worshipped money and fame. I know it. But ultimately, I am the only one worth worshipping. I would not let you go my child. I won't give up on you ever. I won't. I will sit here like the father of the prodigal son, waiting. Come back home. Come back home to me and our celebration will be mind-boggling.”
And then the writer says: “A final explosion of laughter, and the Archbishop pushes back his chair and says: 'Now, come with me, young man. We will go outside and watch the sun falling on Table Mountain and smell the flowers together. God is good, man. Jesus is alive and he is waiting for you.' ”
My friends, the bearing of witness goes from here to eternity. The words come only through the power of the spirit. May we pray for them in our world; in our families; in our cities; in our continent; and to the uttermost parts of God's earth. Amen.
This is a verbatim transcription of the original sermon.