Bend Low to Be Lifted UIp
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Introduction
Introduction
A number of years ago as part of my college training I was required to have a cross cultural experience. I choose to go to Jamaica. I know, what a place to have to go and spend three week, right. But there I was like a fish out of water in the small town of Santa Cruse in the heart of the island. My task was to build water cisterns by day and night share the gospel with the people of the community. As I looked back on the experience they did more to help me to grow in faith than my small offering as a preacher did for them.
There was a phase - really a question - that I often heard during my time there , it was “Have I gotta witness?” I can hear it now, “Have I gotta witness?,” as someone stood and shared what was happening in their life. It was as if they were saying that if anyone agrees stand with me, raise a hand or two, if you were a mind too. These dear saints were testifying to what God was doing in their lives. These testimonies were often given with tear-filled eyes, of the difficulties of life they were dealing with and trying to make it through and trust God through. They would ask “Have I gotta witness? Does anyone know what I’m talking about?”
Others in the congregation would often respond by nodding their heads or raising a hand, swaying back and forth. They were witnesses offering their affirmation that God would sustain the one testifying because God sustained them.
Some of the most beleaguering questions for us as people of faith arise in times of struggle. Do they not?
“Am I alone in my suffering?” “Where is God in this struggle?” “Will all this being persecuted for my faith pay off?
It is easy to become weary in the face of opposition, even when one believes his or her cause is right and on the side of God. It seems that feeling alone also is a constant reality. Our pain and isolation can feel uniquely ours. When in want or in need, it can seem as if now one else would possibly understand. And yet, our reading from the Bible today gives us a glimpse of the human struggle, not merely the individual struggle. We are a part of the human experience. We lack, we want, we struggle, and we desire. And we have those who have gone before us, and those who walk beside us, who are witnesses to the struggle, and to God’s blessings in the struggle.
Yes, there is a great cloud of witnesses, from all walks of life who have not only endured the suffering life has given, but who have come out of it with praise on their lips.
On this, All Saints Day, is a good day to ponder the question, “Have I Gotta Witness?” It’s a day in which the Christian faithful consider those who have been witnesses in the past in their lives and to countless others we do not know.
In Matthew 5:1-12, Jesus gathers together his disciples and begins his famous sermon on the mount. This is what he said:
and taught his climbing companions. This is what he said:
“You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.
“You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.
“You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.
“You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.
“You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for.
“You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.
“You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.
“You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom.
“Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don’t like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.
Jesus is describing to us what the life in Christ consists of:
When we feel hopeless we are reminded that God’s kingdom will be our inheritance.
Those who mourn, who grieve will be made glad.
The humble receive the earth itself as their inheritance.
The hungry and thirsty for righteousness have God to provide for them
The merciful receive mercy
The pure in heart might not see God now in their circumstances, nevertheless, they will see God.
The peacemakers are best examples of God’s children.
The happy one is the one persecuted for taking a stand for God’s justice, freedom and peace.
We could say that Jesus is saying to us and the countless others that has gone before us, will you be a witness for me? Will you stand up for me and bear witness to God’s righteousness and goodness in spite of your circumstance or perhaps because of them. Jesus knows that it’s not always easy to stand for God’s righteousness. Jesus offers his assurance that if we are persecuted for standing for God’s justice, we can draw strength from the fact that in response to the question, “Have I got a witness?” there are many who have gone before us who are standing with us on God’s promises, happy that even in persecution “now we are God’s children, [though] it hasn’t yet appeared what will be. (1 John 3:2). In other words, “Yes, there are witness. We do not stand alone.”
We stand amid a great multitude that no one can count, from every nation, from all tribes and people and languages. We stand with prophets before us who were persecuted. Among the prophetic witnesses are people like Dietrich Bonhoeffer who stood against the Nazis in World War II when it cost him his life to do so. In the turbulent times of the sixties, Martin Luther King Jr., witness for Jesus. He stood up for the poor folks and worked for civil rights, for which he was gunned down.
There are names of those in this church, both living and dead, who have stood and still stand as witness to their faith, perhaps you can recall their names.
Pause to allow time to ponder names; share any that come to mind.
There is a host of others whose names history has and has not recorded, though God knows their names.
“Have I got a witness?” An answer comes from an angel in answer to the question, “Who are these people wearing white robes, and where have they come from?” These people,”” the angel says to John of the Apocalypse, “[they] have come out of a great hardship. They have washed their robes and made them white, the Lamb’s blood … [A]nd the one seated on the throne will shelter them …[A]nd God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.