Can I Get a Witness?

November 1, 2020 • Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost
Reading: Matthew 28:16-20
(adapted from The Message and The Inclusive Bible)
Pastor Jeff Wells

“The Great Commission” – that’s the common label for this passage in the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus says, “God commanded me to commission you.” In most translations, the fourth verse is translated something like this: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” That wording has been problematic for many of us in progressive faith communities because it has been so closely tied to the evangelical Christian emphasis on conversion and a requirement that converts reject any other belief system and proclaim Jesus as their “Lord and Savior.”

That’s why I love so much the reimagining of this passage by Eugene Peterson in The Message bible. Here, Jesus says, “Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life” and “instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you.” Not “make disciples of all nations,” but “train everyone you can…in this way of life.” I think Peterson meant the same thing, but for me, that language puts a very different spin on “the Great Commission.” What was this way of life Jesus taught his followers? Love your neighbor as yourself. Pray for your enemies. Feed the hungry. Give water to those who thirst. Free prisoners. Liberate the oppressed. Care for the sick. Break bread together and love one another in community. That’s what I think of when I hear, “this way of life.” This aligns with our ethos at the Church of the Village. This “way of life” is our way of life. 

We invite persons into this “way of life” – into the way of Jesus – by sharing our own stories – our stories of being invited ourselves or finding our way to this community, our stories of learning over time what it means to follow this way. Through our stories, we witness or testify to our experience of God in this community. “Witness” is one of our seven commitments of membership at the Church of the Village. Every time we receive new members into our community, we all re-commit ourselves to the vow that says: “I will look for opportunities to bear witness to God’s work in my life and in the Church of the Village community.” 

Our witness is both individual and communal. We tell our personal stories and we also tell our collective story through worship, through social media, in the daily inspiration emails Pastor Alexis and I write, and by other means of public witness. We tell stories of our connection to the Divine and of our connection to each other in this inclusive, affirming community, committed to love and justice. When we witness, we tell something we ourselves have come to love. What we offer is a great gift that we have been given and want to share. So, witnessing shouldn’t feel like a task or a chore. It is an act of love – love for our community, love for our neighbors, and love for God.

I turned 63 years old in August, so I have a lot of stories. The storytelling I am talking about today is a very particular part of our life stories. For me, that story includes my call to ordained ministry back in 2000. It includes the fact that Bishop Jane Middleton appointed me in 2015 to serve the Church of the Village. Wow! It seems like more than just five years to me. My story is not just a general faith story, it is a story of learning and growth with particular people, communities, and experiences. For the past five years, my story has focused on my falling in love with this very special community – of giving my heart and soul to help build up this beloved community. My story is one of building relationships – through challenges, struggles, disagreements, and accomplishments – in community with all of you. My story is about my love for this community that professes a faith grounded in love and justice, in radical inclusivity, in the struggle to dismantle all forms of oppression and exploitation. 

So, Even though I am an introvert, I love to witness. It excites me because this community and this way of life excite me and give me joy. When I witness, I hope that my doing so will feel like an invitation – that it will attract people to experience this particular community with us. But even if it does not, I think it is valuable because it might attract someone to explore this way of life we espouse – the way embodied by and taught by Jesus. 

I love to see people find their way to our community and find an immediate welcome. I love to hear people say, “This is the kind of community I have been looking for.” I love to watch a new person find affirmation, a deeper connection with God, and a sense of belonging and purpose. I had an experience like that recently with a man who I met and talked with several times in Pennsylvania this summer. We got to know each other as we listened to each other’s stories. I shared that I am a pastor at a church in Manhattan. He was very curious about that and wanted to know more. I told him about being completely online for worship and also about our Hope for Our Neighbors in Need food ministry feeding 4,000 persons a week. I talked about the values our community holds and about the way we live together. He told me he was a spiritual person, but that he had not been able to find a faith community he felt comfortable with in his area where he lives. I gave him the information about our Zoom worship and invited him to check it out. He has attended most Sundays since then and recently told me he is ready to become a member of the Church of the Village.

Jesus was not a proselytizer. He didn’t try to convert people. Instead, he tried to welcome them wherever they were on their journey. He did not spend much time with the righteous elite. He focused his energy on listening to and trying to reach sinners, tax collectors, the poor and downtrodden, and those who needed healing. When Jesus encountered a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, he did not demand that she reject her Samaritan religious practices. He didn’t say, “You have to worship in Jerusalem from now on.” Instead, he said, “a time is coming when you will worship God neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem” but all who love God will worship together “in Spirit and in truth.”

That feels true of the Church of the Village. We come together to engage in a way of life and we worship together “in Spirit and in truth” in spite of our varied background and beliefs. The movement Jesus began two thousand years ago was not originally called Christianity. The earliest name was simply “The Way.”

In our community, we have members who identify as or come from a background as agnostic, atheist, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, conservative evangelical, Roman Catholic, and more. We don’t tell them they have to stop being who they are in order to follow the way of Jesus or belong to this community. In our community, we are able to embrace one another in love and celebrate our different journeys as a gift. We even have that ethos written into our “Who We Are” statement, which says, “We believe many roads lead to God and are respectful of a diversity of spiritual paths. We believe our community flourishes with many points of view, opportunities for creative expression, and participatory worship.”

Of course, there is a risk in sharing our stories. Our stories are not neutral. The “way of life” we follow takes a stand. Christianity has very negative connotations for a lot of people. Someone might think you are part of a cult or that you are against science. You could get “unfriended” on Facebook. Sometimes, even family will question your commitment to a way of life like ours. We can overcome some of that when we are specific about what kind of community we belong to. 

Katie Reimer said that, for a lot of years, she had trouble telling people she identified as Christian. It felt risky for her to add “Christian” to her status on Facebook when she started seminary. She said, “Unless I could explain what it meant for me to be a Christian, I did not want to enter casual conversation about it. I needed to develop the courage to tell my story. So that’s what I did.” Instead of just saying, “I’m a Christian,” she showed what that meant for her. For example, she would post a photo on Facebook with a caption like, “Here’s me in the Pride March with my church.” Now, says Katie, “there is more freedom to talk about Christianity in my Facebook circles. I believe my witness contributed to this freedom.”

Jorge said earlier this week, “When I witness to my faith, I am telling my story through my actions and my words as an expression of my authentic self. My witness allows me to be in conversation with others and be fully myself. Under the elm and the mango tree we share the same earth. It’s about a shared experience.”

We have created a place that meets people where they are in their spiritual journey. We are definitely a place of welcome and relative safety for many people who have been harmed by other spiritual or religious or familial experiences. It’s not going to be the right place for everyone. But we can still invite people to consider the way of Jesus and then pray they find the right place for themselves.

What I hope we have to share in our personal and collective witness is an experience of an expansive, open, affirming, loving community in which we seek the Divine together. So, I witness because I love this community. I love the people. I love what it stands for and I want to see it flourish. Also, I take very seriously my commission from Jesus to offer this way of life to others. It feels like a privilege to me. As the song says, “I love to tell the story of Jesus and his love.” I love to tell my story of encountering Jesus along the way in my own life. And I love to tell our story – the story of living the way of Jesus in the beloved community that is the Church of the Village. I invite you to tell your story and our story.

(c) 2020 Jeff Wells
All rights reserved.

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