Can I Get A Witness?

There’s an old philosophical riddle that goes as follows: “If a tree falls in the forest, and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a sound?” People have grappled with this question in different ways. An article from the late 1800’s said that sound is produced by vibrations that enter the ear and set in motion the ear’s mechanisms for conveying sound. Therefore, while the tree’s fall will produce vibration, if there’s no ear to pick up on the vibration, no sound is produced. A variation of the question is, does the existence of an observer, or witness to, an object or event, impose a change on the object itself – does the fact that someone sees a tree or a rock change the quality of the tree or the rock, for example? Probably most of us, from a practical standpoint, would say no – but in the absence of an observer, we have no way of knowing. Yet another variation on the question is, can something exist if nobody knows it’s there. I think most of us would answer “yes” – for example, the planets and stars existed before humans existed to observe them. On the other hand, if we don’t know they’re there, if we cannot see them or have no other way to measure the effect of their presence, they may as well not exist. The headache I begin to develop in pondering philosophical riddles like this makes me very glad that, while I took an introductory philosophy course once a number of years ago, I didn’t make philosophy my life’s work.

All of which is to point out that much – perhaps most – of what we know is because someone else observed it and told us about it. We turn on the evening news or log on to a news website to learn what’s going on in our world, because it is impossible for us as individuals to be everywhere at once. Our longtime members know the history of Emanuel Church, not because any one of us sitting here was around back in 1858 when interest first began in forming a German Reformed congregation in Bridesburg, or in 1861 when our congregation was officially organized – but because those who were around at the time wrote down what happened. Their observations of what was going on around them roughly 150 years ago still live on, because those alive at the time didn’t want the information to get lost – they thought it was important to pass this history on. In turn, I hope that someday the stories of our current members can be recorded somehow, so that future members of Emanuel Church will know what this congregation was like in 1930, or 1960, or 1990, or 2010. We also know that a given story can be told in more than one way - for example, those of us who grew up north of the Mason-Dixon line may view the history of the Civil War very differently from the way one who grew up in the South would view the War of Northern Aggression. And sometimes, different groups may battle over which stories can be told – for example, our sister congregation, Armenian Martyrs UCC, holds a solemn remembrance every April 24 or thereabouts of the Armenian genocide, while the Turkish government does everything possible to excuse the bloodshed, to minimize its extent, or to deny it happened at all. And few – in America, in Germany, or elsewhere – knew about the horrors of the Nazi regime and the extent of the killing in concentration camps until the Allied troops saw with their own eyes and reported to the world what they had found in liberating the camps.

The Acts of the Apostles, from which we’ll be reading over the next few weeks, tells the story of the early church. It’s a sort of sequel to the Gospel of Luke – the book of Acts begins, “In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven….” That “first book” is the Gospel of Luke. The book of Acts is the sequel – after a brief account of Jesus’ascension into heaven, we read about the coming of the Holy Spirit, and then about what Peter and Philip and others of the disciples, in the power and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, did to gather and organize the early church – and partway through, we meet Paul, whose Spirit-filled words and deeds take up most of the later chapters of Acts.

Early on we learn that, while Peter and Philip and the early disciples attracted many converts, they also attracted a great deal of opposition. Today’s reading from Acts recounts one conflict between Peter and the apostles and the Sadducees, who controlled the Temple at Jerusalem. It’s not the first conflict, nor will it be the last. At its heart, it is a battle over how the stories of Jesus will be told, or whether they will be told at all.

Here’s the leadup to today’s reading from Acts – the Apostles Peter and John had recently healed the crippled man who lay at one of the entrances to the Temple, called the Beautiful Gate, to solicit for alms. This healing attracted a crowd, and Peter and John used the opportunity to tell of the salvation and eternal life offered by the crucified and risen Jesus. The temple authorities had them arrested, but at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors, and Peter and John were back at the Temple with their message of salvation. So they were brought before the high priest, and that encounter is the subject of today’s reading from Acts. The high priest said that he had ordered them not to teach in the name of Jesus, but despite his orders, they had filled Jerusalem with their teaching. Peter and the apostles responded, “We must obey God rather than any human authority.” After briefly telling of Jesus’ death, resurrection, and exaltation as Lord and Savior, they said, “We are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.” The Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection, wanted the story of Jesus to be about a troublemaker who was crucified for teaching religious heresy and inciting political rebellion, who was dead and buried. Peter and John and the other apostles insisted on telling a different story, a story with much better news for humankind. We are here today because of Peter and John’s witness, and Paul’s witness, and the witness of those who followed, all the way down to the present day.

“We are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.” What about our witness? Church leaders agonize over the question of whether our society’s churches are able to take the faith that has been handed down to us and our personal experience of Christ’s salvation and the Spirit’s presence in our lives, and pass all that on to those who are to come? Or will our churches end up like the Shakers, a dying remnant that has left behind beautiful furniture and lovely music, but no living presence in the world? What a joy it has been, over the short time I’ve been here, to watch you, the longtime members, pass your faith and your traditions onto those who have joined more recently. What a joy it is to have young people worshipping with us, to see our small congregation, with all its many challenges, continue to pass the faith onto another generation.

For, just as in the time of the early church described in the book of Acts, the political and even religious powers that be do not want the Good News of Jesus to be told. They want the story of Jesus to be about our imaginary friend in the sky. Or they want the story of Jesus to be about greedy evangelists bilking the gullible. Or they want to spin the story of Jesus in a way that sanctifies our society’s greed and violence, to tell a story of salvation through acquisition of material things – salvation by shopping - or salvation by military dominance, salvation at the point of a gun - all blessed by Jesus. I began today’s sermon by asking, “if a tree falls in the forest with no one to hear it, does it make a sound?” Perhaps I should ask a more pointed question: “If Jesus Christ lived and died and rose again to bring salvation to all who call upon him, but nobody ever hears of him, does it make a difference?”

In the black church, there’s a rich tradition of call-and-response between the preacher and the congregation, with the congregation shouting “Amen!” and “Preach it” as the pastor brings the word – and sometimes “Help him, Lord” if the preacher’s floundering. And sometimes if the pastor wants to emphasize how his congregations have experienced God’s love, he or she will ask the congregation, “Can I get a witness?” And that’s my question this morning – will we tell the story of Jesus and his love? Can Jesus get a witness, get a witness from Emanuel Church?

From Paul’s letter to the Romans, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” And those beautiful feet are not just the feet of the pastor – not only my feet, but your feet as well. We are all, every single one of us, sent by God to proclaim Good News. The eternal destiny of our neighbors is at stake here. When we share the love of Christ with our friend, our neighbor, our acquaintance, we walk on holy ground. How can we hold back?

In our Gospel, Jesus told Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” That’s for you and that’s for me – and that’s for all those with whom we share Good News. Though are numbers are few, may those blessed by our work here be many. Amen.