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Welcome to the World of Witnessing

            Ten days ago a grizzly attacked and killed a hiker in Yellowstone Park. I don’t want to go there, at least not right now. Do you? There are some places we have to go even if we don’t want to, like the Department of Motor Vehicles for license renewal. Most often we prefer a choice, and if we had a choice, we’d go to someplace nice, and preferably it would be an all-expenses-paid vacation that wouldn’t cost us a nickel—somewhere that’s not too hot and not too cool, low humidity, no mosquitoes, maybe a little breeze but not so much that it turns the pages of the book we are reading, maybe a secluded cabin that’s more like a house with hiking trails, a sandy beach, or an Olympic-sized in-ground pool. OK, let’s make it a mansion with all sorts of amenities—fridge stocked, a wine cellar, pillow-top mattress, flat-screen TV with no infomercials and no inane reality shows. Given a choice, we’d prefer to live on Easy Street. But that’s not reality. Life isn’t like that. Instead, life is filled with varying degrees of challenges and troubles, as one of the moms told me last week when sympathizing with an expectant mother, “It’s not easy carrying a baby in the last weeks of pregnancy, but it’s not easy lugging the baby in a car seat, either.”

            I’d like to tell every young Christian and every new Christian, “Christian living is a thrill.” And it is. But I don’t want to give a false impression. Thrilling doesn’t equal problem-free. The thrill of Christian living is like a roller-coaster ride. Going up is fun. It’s the sudden drop or the unexpected turn that can be unnerving. Christian living includes a wide range of actions and activities like worship, prayer, growing in faith, serving, and giving. Each aspect of Christian living has its challenges. Worship takes commitment and concentration. Prayer takes trust in God’s answers. Growing in faith means taking time for Bible pondering. Serving necessitates a selfless heart. Giving means, well, giving money. One additional aspect of Christian living is in focus today—witnessing. Like the other areas of Christian living, it is not an option. It’s a part of who Christians are and what Christians do. I’m not going to layer on the frosting and guarantee, “You’ll always have an easy time of it in your witnessing for Christ.” Many times it’s a piece of cake, but sometimes not. So, I’m not going to layer on the frosting, and neither will Jeremiah. Instead, he gives us a reality check in the first Scripture lesson today: Welcome to the World of Witnessing—a world that involves

Stating the truth

            Jeremiah might have made life easier for himself, avoided a lot of flack, and won a few friends if he had said, “I’m going to tell people what they want to hear” or “I’m going to preach about what I think will get people fired up.” Most other prophets in those days did. But God told him, “Just tell people what I say to you, no more, no less.” So, Jeremiah simply stated the truth, God’s truth—both the bad news about sin and its consequences and the good news about a Savior. If you’ve heard anything about Jeremiah before, you might picture him as a hard-nosed drill sergeant, hollering out God’s threats on people who break his rules. But Jeremiah offered plenty of good news, too. Yet he knew that people won’t appreciate the good news without first hearing the bad. Only when people know they are sick will they appreciate the cure. The needle for a shot may be scary and leave a bump on the skin, but it’s necessary for powerful germ-killing antibiotics to go to work. “Jeremiah…stood in the court of the Lord’s temple and said to all the people, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says.’” Jeremiah carried around a bag of syringes of God’s truth, demonstrating that the first step into the world of witnessing is the most basic. Just state the truth.

            A couple years ago I was asked to participate in a panel discussion for a public TV show regarding justice in the workplace. I agreed to do so even though I suspected that the basic premise was flawed. The underlying assumption was that everything in the workplace should be fair. There’s nothing wrong with working for fairness or changing jobs if you feel your current situation is unfair. But Christians know that sometimes you can’t do anything about an unfair situation. In fact, Christians understand that ever since Genesis three it will be hard to put bread on the table. There will be sweat and pink slips and unfairness. I had a chance to say that on camera, but I also added that the ultimate goal in life is not fairness in the workplace but Jesus’ work in our place to satisfy the justice and fairness of God, who surely ought to smash us for our sins but doesn’t and won’t thanks to what Jesus did for us. When we step into the world of witnessing, we are not looking to pick a fight. In fact, that would be rude. We just want to state the truth, no more, no less, but in as tactful a way as possible. If the world of witnessing seems to you like a roller coaster’s scariest drop or most unexpected turn, relax. Learn from Jeremiah, and hear his call, “Welcome to the world of witnessing.” The pressure is off because there’s no arm-twisting, no arguing. We don’t have to make stuff up or talk about things we don’t know. We don’t have to apologize or make excuses for who God is or what he does. Just state the truth, God’s truth.

Getting stuck in stocks

            Jeremiah got flack for 40 years! He didn’t ask for it. He didn’t sign up for it. It was just the reality of his role as a witness for the truth. He faced death threats and was hauled into court for proclaiming the truth. The king, who heard his message read aloud, cut and burned the scroll Jeremiah had written. He was locked in a prison cell for a time and, after that, dumped into a water pit. Eventually, scaredy-cats, who refused to face up to the consequences of their idolatry by waiting in Jerusalem for a Babylonian attack as God told them to do, grabbed Jeremiah and took him against his will to Egypt. But before any of that, “Pashhur…the chief officer in the temple of the Lord” had his own way of welcoming Jeremiah to the world of witnessing. He“heard Jeremiah prophesying…[and had him] beaten and put in the stocks.” In the stocks, an offender’s hands, head, and sometimes ankles would be locked through holes in the center of a board. You think your arm goes numb putting it around the shoulder of your girlfriend at the movies! Imagine the crick in Jeremiah’s neck, the tingling in his hands and feet from poor circulation, his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth!

            Every aspect of Christian living has some part that may prove to be challenging. It’s not like we can say, “I’ll pray, grow in faith, serve, give, and witness but not worship because I don’t like the hymns” or “I’ll worship, grow in faith, serve, give, and witness but not pray because I don’t get the answers that I want” or “I’ll worship, pray, serve, give, and witness but not grow in faith because I learned all that as a kid” or “I’ll worship, pray, grow in faith, give, and witness but not serve because my calendar is full,” or “I’ll worship, pray, grow in faith, serve, and witness but not give because my money is my own, and I’m going to keep it.” In the same way we can’t say, “I’ll worship, pray, grow in faith, serve, and give but not witness because I might get flack or feel rejected.” Who are we to pick and choose what aspects of Christian living we want to step into and which ones we want to skip? If we think we can just opt out of one aspect of Christian living because we don’t want to do it, that’s rebellion against God—no different from the stiff-necked people of Jerusalem that Jeremiah had to deal with. All aspects of Christian living have “stocks.” That’s just reality.

            A boyfriend or girlfriend or spouse seems to have a heart that is coated in lead, impervious to the powerful and winsome promises of Jesus’ forgiveness. A relative has fallen away from the truth, and you’re getting nowhere in trying to gain his or her ear. Kids whom you’ve raised to love and trust Jesus brush his truth aside. Those are “stocks” that put a crick in our neck and make our heart ache. Welcome to the World of Witnessing. But we have nothing to be ashamed of even if those we care about the most couldn’t care less.

Ashamed of Jesus? Yes, I may When I’ve no guilt to wash away.

No tear to wipe, no good to crave, No fear to quell, no souls to save. (Christian Worship 347:4)

Standing firm

            Jeremiah could have said to God, “That’s it! I’ve had it. I did my part. I tried. It didn’t work. No one wants to listen. On top of that, I’m getting picked on.” But Jeremiah stood firm. After getting unstuck from the stocks, he went right back to Pashhur, “The Lord’s name for you is not Pashhur, but ‘Terror-All-Around.’ For this is what the Lord says: ‘I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends…I will hand all Judah over to the king of Babylon…And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house will go into exile in Babylon. There you will die…you, and all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies.’” Jeremiah had every reason to give up, shut up, clam up. But God braced him up with the promise of an end goal—heaven. So, Jeremiah raised his head, not in defiance but in confidence born of God, just as Stephen did 600 years later when getting pelted by rocks for his loyalty to Jesus, and just as the apostle Paul did—“As servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything” (2 Corinthians 6:4-10).

            You and I might think Jeremiah, Stephen, and Paul were great heroes of faith. But they were sinners just like we are, and yet they were also witnesses for Christ just like we are. With Jesus at our side we can live with heads held high. Think of it! There was no braver heart than that of Jesus himself, who is not a nice boss or friendly buddy or camping partner or college roommate or someone who would give the shirt off his back. He is the one who gave his whole life for us, who was sweating out every aspect of Christian living, did it all perfectly, and presented his whole life to God in place of ours. He is the one whose nail-print hands now come around our shoulders to usher us onto the roller coaster: “Welcome to the world of witnessing. You can stand firm because I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

            It’s a challenge to worship every week, but who would want to miss out on a smorgasbord of food for the soul? It’s a challenge to pray and await God’s answers, but what a thrill to talk to the God of all who actually listens. It’s a challenge to keep on track with our Bible reading and study, but what comfort we get when we ponder again and again his “I have loved you with an everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3)! It’s a challenge to serve others, but respect and affection flow to us when we put others ahead of ourselves. It’s a challenge to offer generous gifts of five or seven or ten or twelve percent of our income, but doing it allows the good news to be proclaimed the world over. In the same way it’s a challenge at times to witness, but even one soul packed and ready to join us on the ride to heaven far outweighs getting stuck in stocks. Jeremiah announces, “Welcome to the world of witnessing,” and with Jesus we stand firm.

            There are some places I have to go even if I don’t want to, but the world of witnessing is not one of them. I don’t have to go there, but I want to because Jesus is there and makes it a thrill. Welcome to the World of Witnessing! Enjoy the ride! Amen.

Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (www.gracedowntown.org) on July 17, 2011

Services

Sundays 7:45, 9:00 & 10:30 am

Mondays 6:30 pm

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church | 1209 North Broadway Milwaukee, WI 53202 | (414) 271-3006

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