Easter 3 (B) + Can I Get a Witness? + 4.15.18
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| (Nafis White, "Can I Get a Witness?", http://www.thewellatspringfield.org/can-i-get-a-witness/) |
M. Campbell-Langdell
All Santos, Oxnard
(Acts 3:12-19, Ps. 4, 1 John 3:1-7, Luke 24:36b-48)
“Can I Get a
Witness?”
The
Urban Dictionary online describes
this term as: “A phrase used when the user is accomplishing some [ridiculous] feat, or is doing something like a boss.”[1]
Well, I don’t know about you all, but to me, Peter is being a BOSS here in the Acts passage today. What you didn’t see is that he has just healed a man through the power of Christ. A man who was lame from birth. He is by the temple at about the time for prayer. And he sees this fellow, who has been carried out to the gate to make his money for the day – was it by well meaning family or friends or those who would take advantage of his disability? We don’t know. ButPeter says, “Look at me.” And the guy
thinks, oh good, I’m going to get some money, and next thing, Peter is saying “gold and silver I do not have, but
in the name of Jesus , I heal you!”
Well, I don’t know about you all, but to me, Peter is being a BOSS here in the Acts passage today. What you didn’t see is that he has just healed a man through the power of Christ. A man who was lame from birth. He is by the temple at about the time for prayer. And he sees this fellow, who has been carried out to the gate to make his money for the day – was it by well meaning family or friends or those who would take advantage of his disability? We don’t know. But
And now, Christ
did not heal this man through Peter because this was a good sermon starter. He
healed because Peter turned to him and had compassion upon him. He had
compassion because he was trapped.[2]
Trapped in a body that would not work. But more so, trapped in a fearful life
because of his condition. Trapped by the need to beg for his living. And he saw
the opportunity for him to be free!
And what happens
after this? This is one of my favorite stories to tell in Vacation Bible
School
And as I said, Christ
did not do this healing through Peter just in order for Peter to start
preaching at people. But when it draws attention to him, he is like “Can I get
a witness?” i.e., let me tell you why I did this. You are from a people that
persecuted my leader, and who killed him. But he still offers you healing and
salvation, if you will come to believe.
Can I get a
witness? And Peter turns the moment
that might just be one crowd’s fascination into a way to touch, change and
convert hearts for Jesus . One physical
healing becomes the door to open the way for the healing of many.
Can I get a
witness?
Jesus , here in the gospel passage,
shows a totally different kind of witness and then calls us to witness. He
bursts on the scene, and here in Luke
this story is hot on the heels of the story of the journey to Emmaus, when he like
some magician walks alongside disciples, opens the scriptures to them, and then
breaks bread with them and disappears. Can I get a witness? I mean, is that Jesus being a boss or what? Resurrected Jesus does some interesting things, indeed.
But here he
shows up, and the disciples have just heard from their friends from Emmaus how Jesus appeared to them. And hardly had the words left
their mouths, but, Can I get a witness? Jesus
shows up. And they are terrified, scared out of their wits. They haven’t had
time to process yet.
No. Just like
any person nowadays who watches too many horror movies, in ancient times too
they had spooky tales. So they go right there. This guy is a ghost! That’s the
only possible explanation. We saw it in the play week before last. Get real!
The dude is dead.
But wait…Jesus shows up, brings Peace
to the party, because that is what he always does. But then he, amazing
intelligent resurrected God and man that he is, he deconstructs the myth. So in
the ancient world, how did you prove that you were not a ghost? You showed the
parts of your extremities where your bones where evident- I guess ghosts had no
bones- and then you showed your teeth and ate something.[3] So
what does Jesus do? Like a boss, he shows them his hands and his feet. This is
not, “Ooh, look at my manicure and pedicure.” This is, look at my bones. I am a
real, fleshly, resurrected person!
But wait…
And then, he
says, “got anything around here to eat?” and here I think of everyone who has
that one sibling or friend in high school who can never get full. But it isn’t
really that Jesus has the munchies. He
is proving a point. Ghosts can’t eat, either!
So Jesus basically witnesses to his own resurrected
being! We are not making this up! Farther out than the strangest ghost story
and weirder than the wildest science fiction, I am back from the dead, he says.
Can I get a witness?
And so that is
what he does. He goes on to open up the scriptures to the disciples, just as he
did to those walking the road to Emmaus. And then he calls all of the
disciples, and by extension, us, to witness.
So, can I get a
witness? Do you feel called to witness? Sometimes it will be in small, simple
ways, just living your life and your faith the bravest way you know. Like Jade
and Jaivan visiting Puerto Rico and setting a
few things right and encouraging a few hearts along the way. Like those of us
in the local Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice group who walked with
some folks facing deportation briefly week before last and who continue to look
for new ways to witness hope to the many people scared and alone in our
community.
Like those who
are praying for peace in light of strikes in Syria, even as we also pray for
the safety and peace of the Syrian populace, who wrongly suffer attacks from
their own leadership.
The main idea is to find your own small way to witness. To see Jesus, blasting into our lives like a peace-boss and sharing that peace with a world that at times seems mad with fear, selfishness and lust, trapped in self-destructive patterns, and patterns of taking advantage of others. Let us find that peace, so that we, too, can witness. So that we can live lives bravely as Christ followers and not as those cowed by the fears of the day. So that we, too, can be freed of whatever renders us lame. So that we can shout for joy for the freedom we have in our God!
The main idea is to find your own small way to witness. To see Jesus, blasting into our lives like a peace-boss and sharing that peace with a world that at times seems mad with fear, selfishness and lust, trapped in self-destructive patterns, and patterns of taking advantage of others. Let us find that peace, so that we, too, can witness. So that we can live lives bravely as Christ followers and not as those cowed by the fears of the day. So that we, too, can be freed of whatever renders us lame. So that we can shout for joy for the freedom we have in our God!
Can I get a
witness?
Amen.
Amen.
[2] Justo Gonzalez, Three Months with The Spirit (Nashville: Abingdon, 2003), 26.
[3] Mark
G .
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