Witness

The Line

/ Jeff Hora / 3 Comments

I pretty much get the moves that the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church of America) makes to recognize the marginalized and the discriminated-against in our community and culture. Author and Shaman Lenny Duncan made that really clear in his Dear Church book, and certainly in his posted experiences in the past several years.


So when it was announced from the pulpit this past Sunday that our church was going to eliminate and/or limit the use of the words “Lord” and “Master” from service as they are reportedly offensive to (especially) Black members of our community, it jumped out at me. They (the words) hearken back to the deferential words and attitudes that slaves had to display to their owners. I can really see the tie-in.


But this bugged me for some reason. The study I have done on language and the history of certain words used a lot in the Bible presents me with a bit of a dilemma. As I understand the etymology of the word Lord, the Hebrew Bible uses this word in place of the Name of God, as it was not allowed to pronounce it (or even to write it, depending on how strict you wanted to be in the interpretation). A number of Christian writers, thinkers, theologians and teachers have chosen to use Lord instead of the Name of God in respect for the Hebrew traditions and their Jewish colleagues beliefs.

This is where the cultural context of language gets sticky. In the process of abstracting or obfuscating the word Lord from community liturgical use, what might this signal to our Jewish community, especially given the rise in anti-Semitic language and attitudes throughout the West of late? There is also another cultural challenge: Lord is a key word, and more importantly concept, for many Christians in their own spiritual lives. While the abstraction and excising of the Lord from the liturgy may address the discomfort of a segment of the community and acknowledge a past that is despicable, it denies the depth of integration of a particular, somewhat different meaning of the word into the devotional lives of others.


Where is the line? At what point is love, understanding and compassion flowing both directions? And there are So Many discriminated groups within our culture…..in a discussion I had about these questions, it was pointed out to me that, among many others, women are a discriminated class. Despite much having been done over the past number of years in opening up ministry, authority, and inclusive language, is it “enough”? What does “enough” even mean? Positive steps have and are being taken, but is our culture putting those efforts on pause, slowing them down, backing up, or what?

Other groups of community members with “invisible disabilities”, such as neuro-divergent people or those suffering from chronic pain, present different and difficult challenges to the caring people around them. How are the church and community seeing, prioritizing or addressing them in the context of the liturgy, their spiritual lives and day-to-day well-being?


Where is the line? That’s a really good question. Should there be a line? Ideally, no. Inclusiveness, by definition, means including everyone. Partitioning people into different groups, while helpful in ministering to needs, contains the danger of walling people from each other, and unconsciously prioritizing one group over against another. This is not the way that Jesus ministered, that I can read. He said that he came first to the flock of Israel, and then would turn around and heal and/or minister to Gentiles. For example, the demoniac of Gerasene was quite obviously in the Gentile world (why else would there be keepers of an enormous herd of pigs right there?!). Yet He cast the Legion of demons from this guy and sent him to witness to what God had done for him. No apparent line in His ministry that I can see there.


What can this mean for our actions within today’s world? I don’t think I can give any kind of definitive answer, other than to draw attention to The Line and encourage us to consider its meaning both in a liturgical and day-to-day apprehension.


The Line is there. Do we do anything with it?

Intention

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Now there was a royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my little boy dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way. As he was going down, his slaves met him and told him that his child was alive. So he asked them the hour when he began to recover, and they said to him, “Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him.” The father realized that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he himself believed, along with his whole household. – John 4: 46b – 53 NRSV

There are a number of different contexts into which we are placed to be witnesses. One that I’ve noticed is what I’m going to call “intentional witness.”

What do I mean by intentional? Well, I look to the story in John 4 as an example. This royal official set out specifically to encounter Jesus….in this case, “he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.” This was no chance encounter…..he knew what Jesus might do, as he had undoubtedly heard about this amazing man. How else would he have known to go? And how might he have heard that Jesus had come back to Galilee from Judea? In hope and purpose, he set out to find him, meet him and beg him for his son’s life.

There appeared to be a ‘pause’ in Jesus’ response. His initial reply, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe”, didn’t even slow the father down! He reiterated his plea on behalf of his son. Jesus spoke the healing to him (notice that he had come for Jesus to accompany him back to his son…this spoken healing was NOT what he had expected…). He believed him and headed home. On his way, others came to him and told him what had happened…HIS SON LIVED! How mind-boggling that might have seemed….so much so that he even time-checked the healing. He was expecting that the word of healing to have been the fact but asked for just that last little bit of faith-building verification. And it was so….

It was so….

It was so…

He son was alive…

It was so…

Nothing else is written about this man and his family, but one can well imagine his responses to anyone who asked, “So, how’s your boy?”

He had set out to find and meet Jesus.

He did, and he made his heart-filled plea to him about his son.

Jesus healed this man’s son. No doubt about it. Even checked the time, just to be sure…

He became an intentional witness to the power of God and his mercy.

So, as you consider your life and those things through which you’ve lived, can you identify those times when you specifically set out to meet God with an urgent plea? In His response, you experienced God in a way that was real…maybe not quite what you expected, but totally real. This has become part of your story and has further established you as a witness. Consider this witness as you approach God in trust for other requests and as you are given the opportunity to companion others in their journey to find and meet God in ways that are life changing.

Witness As Being

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Image by Alex Carabi

While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. – Acts 1: 4-9 NRSV

When I carry forward what I wrote about earlier on what “witness” means in various contexts into this text, something jumps out at me: the phrase that I used to hear when I was much younger, “Let’s go out witnessing!” seems misplaced…

Being a witness isn’t an activity I set out to do or accomplish. I am a witness by virtue of experiencing God’s Spirit and power in my life. Jesus didn’t say “y’all go out witnessing to the world!” He said, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (emphasis is mine)

The text above mentions receiving power in the Holy Spirit twice before then telling the disciples that they will be witnesses. Certainly this doesn’t mean that NOW God will start to work in their lives, NOW God will start to demonstrate His power……God’s been working in their lives for quite awhile! The Holy Spirit living in Love and Power through and from them into the world around them heightens their awareness of what they have experienced. The Spirit gives them the loving insight into what that might mean to those around them, and the wisdom to recognize the dire need for God’s Grace in each and every one about them. They each learn how to express their experience, both in love and in restorative justice, that allows their witness to show, not themselves, but our loving and graceful God to that person.

Being a witness isn’t something we train up to do. We are witnesses. There are things we can learn from our community, from spiritual friends and others that can lead us to be more sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s work, and perhaps, more wisdom about being the witness that God has placed us in this life to be, right now, with this person……but the central experience is your experience with God in your life.

Prayerfully consider your rich relationship with God, and present that as an open book through which the Spirit breathes grace for others.

Witness Existence

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Witness
Verb or Noun?

I have spent a lot of time lately studying and pondering the role of a witness in our world. I watch a lot of police procedural shows on TV (think “Law and Order” for example…) and so I thought I’d develop my own definition first before heading over to Dictionary.com. Here’s what I came up with:

A witness is an individual who has seen and/or experienced something about which someone else wants information. Despite the differences any number of witnesses might have in individual perceptions, strength and reliability of memory, and the ability to clearly express themselves, it is expected that, from “honest” answers, a clearer picture of what really happened develops. The picture builds greater certainty in what this “something” is/was.

So then, if only out of curiosity, I went over to Dictionary.com and compared what was there with mine:

verb (used with object)

  1. to see, hear, or know by personal presence and perception – e.g. to witness an accident
    1. to be present at (an occurrence) as a formal witness, spectator, bystander, etc. – e.g. she witnessed our wedding

verb (to be used without object)

  1. to bear witness; testify; give or afford evidence

noun

  1. an individual who, being present, personally sees or perceives a thing; a beholder, spectator, or eyewitness
    1. a person or thing that affords evidence
    1. a person who gives testimony, as in a court of law

…and so on. You get the idea.

The first thing I noticed is that, generally, a witness is first and foremost, someone who actually experienced something and then can share that experience. The witness’s story is what gives the event credibility in the eyes of others. As others (the “cloud of witnesses”) tell their stories and these stories lend further credibility to an event, the more likely those who are trying to find out what really happened (the event….) find the event believable for themselves.

So the idea I arrived at is that you don’t set out to become a witness.

You are a witness, by virtue of the experiences you have. Others are more interested in your story than in a lecture, especially in these days when “words are cheap” but living experiences are real.

Consider your experiences of God, what that relationship does in your world, and how God’s love is lived from you into this world. Witness.