John 1.29-42

Bearing Witness

Many years ago, someone invited me to consider a living relationship to a living God made visible in Jesus of Nazareth. There was nothing coercive about his invitation; nothing deceptive, nothing offensive. He wasn’t particularly nerdy nor was nothing scary about him. He was a pretty ordinary guy who said his life had been deeply touched by the Spirit of God in Jesus Christ, inviting me to consider the same. It truly was one beggar offering another beggar bread. Come and see, he said, that’s all. I took up his invitation and my life has been marked ever since by that decision to follow Jesus.

Yet, even to put it that way may be misleading, as if my personal decision is what matters most. Of course, choices matter; yours and mine. But, I actually believe what matters most is the mysterious love of God that wooed me, lured me, called me into this relationship. God is what matters most; my only role has been to say yes to God when given the opportunity. And, I even believe this yes is evidence of God’s mercy.

Still I am grateful for the witness of the one who first invited me to come and see. Without that invitation I have no idea where I would be today. At the time, I had abandoned the church as being hopelessly racist and irrelevant, nothing more than a white social club mirroring a racist community. The church contradicted everything I knew about Christianity and was using religious language to do it. In its place I had taken a personally perilous path. Perhaps, I am being too harsh. Perhaps, there was more there that I could neither see nor hear in the restless yearning of my youth.

Saint Augustine once said rightly, our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God. Mine was a restless heart, adrift in a culture broken by drug addiction, violence, war and racism. If the Church was bearing witness, by its words and deeds, to Jesus Christ, who satisfies a restless heart, who transforms everyone who follows him and together transforms all of life, I was not hearing it, and believe me I was listening.

But here is the good news. I did hear it when a ordinary person, whose name I don’t even remember, invited me to consider Jesus. Come and see, he said. Experience for yourself the reality of a living God, and your life will never be the same. He was right. Following this one has led me to the poor of El Salvador and Haiti, to the hungry of Ethiopia and Cameroon. He has led me to stand alongside prisoners and those on death row, to be near the sick, the frail elderly and those suffering mental illness. He has led me to be a pastor sharing the good news in congregations like our own welcoming all people to experience God’s grace. All along the way, it has been the reality of God’s love and mercy that has carried my life. It began when one beggar offered bread to another.

This is why I believe it is crucial for those who have experienced the love of God known in Jesus Christ, to share that bread with others. Someone has to say, come and see. One beggar offering bread to another beggar.

II

This is how it unfolds in John’s gospel when John the Baptist tells others about the One he has baptized. All John does is bear witness to the One in whom he has come to believe is truly God in the flesh. This One, filled with grace and truth, in the One in whom the whole world finds life. Jesus of Nazareth, says John to his friends, is the One who takes away the sin of the world. They follow him, and tell their friends what they have witnessed and they follow, too. Before you know it there is movement of those whose lives are being changed by the One they are following. That is how it happens, then and now. One witness to another.

Karl Barth had a triptych on his writing desk of John the Baptist pointing a bony finger toward Jesus, with the inscription He must increase while I must decrease. Barth kept it over his desk as a reminder of his role to be a witness, to point toward the One in whom is life. That, said Barth, is the most essential role of the Christian – to be a witness so that others might discover the generous mercy of God in Jesus and follow him all their days.

III

I believe one of the greatest witnesses to transforming grace of God in Jesus Christ was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. whose birthday we honor tomorrow. Most people know him as the greatest social reformer of his time. They forget that he was always a preacher of the gospel. Every year I read something that will remind me of his witness. I recommend the same to you. Last year it was his Letter from a Birmingham Jail. This year, I saw the movie The Great Debaters, which tells the story of a small black college debate club that overcame great odds to achieve great accomplishments. The movie prompted me to download and listen to a book of Martin Luther King, Jr’s sermons called, A Knock at Midnight.

In one of those sermons, Dr. King describes his own turning point when God becomes utterly real for him. I’ll tell it like he told it.

“My father was preacher, my grandfather was a preacher and my great-grandfather was preacher. My only brother is a preacher and my father’s brother was preacher. I guess I didn’t have much choice but to be a preacher. I grew up in the church and it was good to me, but one day I realized it was inherited religion. I had never had an experience with God that you must have if you are to walk the lonely paths of this life.

Then as a young pastor I was called serve a church in to Montgomery Alabama, where a woman named Rosa Parks was a member. She decided she was tired of being tired and would no longer sit at the back of bus. I didn’t know what do to but I knew what Jesus wanted me to do. So we stopped riding that bus. For 381 days, we walked.

Then one night at around midnight, when the house was quiet; and my wife and baby girl were asleep, I got a telephone call. On the other end was a vicious voice saying mean and hateful things; finally the voice said, nigger if you don’t get out of town we blow your brains out and burn your house down. Then he hung up.

I couldn’t sleep. All I could think about was my precious baby and my wife. I went to the kitchen thinking a little coffee might help me, then I brought to mind all my recent philosophy and theology, but that didn’t help. I realized I couldn’t call upon my Daddy, 180 miles away in Atlanta. I realized I couldn’t rely on the experience of others with God. I had to call upon God myself. I said, ‘God I am trying to do with is right in your sight, but I am weak and tired.’ Around midnight I heard God say, ‘Martin stand up justice. Stand up for righteousness. Stand up for Jesus. I will never leave you alone.’

Dr King then told his congregation, “you better know God’s name and how to call upon him in need.”

This nation is better because God’s servant, Martin, gained the courage to stand up for justice, to stand up for righteousness, to stand up for Jesus. And he called others to do the same. Come and see, the dream that America could be, he said, because he believed it was the dream that God intended for all people and Jesus proclaimed.

That is a witness that I intend never to forget.

IV

Where are you today? Do you truly know God will carry you through your hard times? Can you call upon this one when the road is steep and the path is rocky? If not, I say to you, come and see.

If so, will you be a witness? Will you be the beggar who offers bread to another?