Witness
In the past the United Methodist
Church membership vows used to require four spiritual practices: prayer, presence, gifts, and service. But in 2008 the General
Conference newly added the word witness
to our membership vows to emphasize the importance of sharing the good news of
Jesus Christ with others. I think most of us desire to be good witnesses for
Jesus Christ, but sometimes we don’t know
how to share our faith effectively with others. So how can we be a good witness of Jesus Christ? Today we will
approach this question a little bit differently. We will hear first Mahatma
Gandhi’s advice to Christians, and then we will find an answer from Jesus – his
life and his teachings.
Congruence
Mahatma Gandhi was inspired first
and foremost by the life and teachings of Jesus. But he never seriously
considered becoming a Christian, not because of Christ, but because of Christians. When living in South Africa, he was not
welcomed and even refused to attend a Christian church because he was a person
of color. He said, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your
Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Around that time E. Stanley Jones,
Methodist missionary to India, was a good friend of Gandhi. Stanley Jones
realized that Christianity was not well accepted in India, so he asked Gandhi
for advice. His first advice was this: “All of you Christians, missionaries,
and all, must begin to live more like Jesus Christ.” From Gandhi’s advice the
word I hear loud and clear is congruence
– congruence between what we believe and how we live. The foremost and best
evangelism is to live a life of
congruence. One of my mentors, Eugene Peterson, once said, “The Christian
life is the lifelong practice of attending to the details of
congruence—congruence between ends and means, congruence between what we do and
the way we do it, congruence between what is written in Scripture and our
living out what is written… the congruence of the Word made flesh in Jesus with
what is lived in our flesh.”[1]
Our Lord Jesus Christ lived a life
of congruence. Right before today’s passage, his triumphal entry into
Jerusalem, Jesus said to his disciples, “Even as the Son of Man came not to be
served, but to serve, and to give his
life as a ransom for many” (Matt 20:28 ESV). Then, he lived out what he had
said. In ancient Israel a typical king’s triumphal entry looks like this: the
king, the victor, wearing a crown of laurel, would ride on a chariot pulled by
white horses, surrounded by the leaders of his armies as well as by conquered
kings, rulers, captives and spoils. In contrast, when Jesus entered Jerusalem
as the King, he didn’t ride a chariot or horse; instead, he chose to ride on a donkey, a beast of
burden. He did this to define what kind of king he is and what kind of kingdom
he would bring to his people. Jesus was indeed a servant king, suffering king,
crucified king. Jesus lived out what he said, taught, and preached. As followers
of Jesus, we are also called to live lives of congruence. We must be transparent people. No pretense. No
hypocrisy. We ought to be what we
believe. And when we fall apart, when we see a chasm between word and spirit,
let us humbly fall on our knees, confess and pray that God teach us, heal us,
and set us aright.
Real Christianity
Gandhi’s second advice to
Christians is, “Practice your religion without adulterating it or toning it
down.” He warned against watering down Christianity not to offend others,
instead of presenting Christian faith boldly and simply. People around us want
to see real Christianity. They want
to see if Christianity really works in day-to-day life. But too often we offer
mild forms of Christianity. When we do so, it conveys the message that we don’t
believe Christianity is realistic because it is impossible to truly live like
Jesus in the real world. Real Christianity, however, puts into practice the
teachings of Jesus in everyday life. Real Christianity puts into agape love in everyday life. We learned last
week that at the core of agape love
is self-giving. This self-giving love
doesn’t mean that we should give ourselves away at the cost of our faith.
Rather, we should stand firm on the foundations of our faith, but at the same
time, lay down our lives for those who are different.
When the chief priest and the
scribes heard the children crying out, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they
became angry and asked Jesus to stop them. But Jesus said to them, “I tell you,
if they were silent, the stones would shout out.” He received the praises from
his people as the King. He was not afraid to be who he is. He did stand firm in
the truth. But then later, he laid down his life for those who didn’t
understand him and even cried out, “Crucify him!” The Apostle Paul follows
Jesus-style evangelism. In 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 he says:
Even though I am
free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a
servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious,
nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the
demoralized--whoever. I didn't take on
their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ--but I entered their world and
tried to experience things from their point of view. I've become just about
every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a
God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn't just want to
talk about it; I wanted to be in on it! (MSG)
Paul’s life tells us what it means
to live out agape love, what it means
to be in the world, but not of the world, what it means to be a real
Christian. Are you a real Christian?
How willing are you to set aside your rights for the good of another, for
winning souls to Christ?
Heart Change
I believe most of us in this room
desire to live a life of congruence and to embody agape love in our everyday life. But we find it challenging. The
truth is it’s impossible to live such
a life without heart change. That’s why Jesus directly entered the temple and cleanse
the temple first, right after his triumphal entry. Here the temple signifies our hearts. Then, how can our hearts be
cleansed? While Jesus was cleansing the temple, pouring out the coins of the
money changers and overturning their tables, the religious leaders challenged
him, saying, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered, “Destroy
this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Here he was talking about
his body as the Temple. So how can our hearts be cleansed? By destroying the
Temple of his body, Jesus cleanses the heart of everyone who believes in him.
Only after our hearts are cleansed, we are then able to live a life of
congruence and to live out agape love.
Sometimes we hear people say, “I
have always been a Christian.” But no one is born as a Christian, although we
may be born into a Christian family. Only when we are born from above, only
when our hearts are cleansed by the blood of Jesus, we can enter and live in
the kingdom of God. The curve you see on the screen is my spiritual curve. As
you see, my life was like a small boat drifting on the vast ocean, tossing on
the stormy waves. But since Jesus came into my heart, my restless heart found peace,
home, anchor. I have ceased from my wandering and going astray. Yes, I still
see a chasm between what I believe and how I live, and everyday I fall on my
knees and confess my sins. But there is a big difference as I look before and
after. Before, I always felt like I was floundering in the water. But after
Jesus came into my life, though I fall, I always feel like I am standing on the
solid Rock.
Your Story
This is my story and my song. How
about yours? In the courtroom the role of
witnesses is not to argue the case or to judge the outcome but simply to tell what they heard, saw, and
experienced. Whenever the opportunity came, the apostles were ready to tell
the story of the way they met Christ and the difference he had made in their
lives. So what is your story? How do you tell your story with others?
The story of our relationship with
Jesus is not static, but ongoing. It’s not a past tense; it’s always the present
progressive. Still today, Jesus comes to Jerusalem and the temple. He comes to
our life and our heart everyday How do you respond? The more we say “Yes” to
his gracious invitation, the more we will experience a fresh encounter with
Jesus. We will meet a prodigal father opening his arms to us – disobedient and
rebellious. We will meet a good shepherd searching for us – wandering, lost sheep.
The more we experience Jesus and his love, the more we will have a story to
tell.
So as a follower of Jesus Christ,
how can we be a good witness? The answer is congruence.
Congruence makes us the real deal, real Christians. And this congruence is only
possible with heart change, which comes from the loving, ongoing relationship
with Jesus. This Jesus is coming. Let us receive our King with our life and with
our lips, and we will be his witnesses in Houlton, in all Aroostook County, and
in Maine, and to the ends of the earth. Amen.
[1] Eugene H. Peterson, As Kingfishers Catch Fire (The Crown Publishing
Group, 2017), p. xviii.
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