5th Sunday in Lent
April 2, 2017
Ezekiel 37:1-14; Psalm 130; Romans 8:6-11; John
11:1-45
If you look in your hymnal in your pew, you may think we’ve already
come to the end of our Lenten series on our membership vows to “faithfully
participate in the ministries of the church through our prayers, our presence,
our gifts, and our service.” After all, we’ve already covered each of those,
right? We pray for our church. We make it a priority to be involved in the
ministries of the church. We give our time, talent, treasure, and testimony to
God through our church. And we serve God through the ministries of our church.
That’s what it says. However, at General Conference in 2008, they voted to add “witness”
to the membership vows in order to emphasize the mission and evangelistic
responsibility of church membership. Why isn’t it in the hymnal? Because The United Methodist Church hasn’t updated
the hymnal since it was last published in 1989. The reason given for including
witness in our vows was because witness is “an integral part of laity's role
from earliest Methodism, in members' participation in the church's life.
Because congregations repeat these vows along with new members, a pledge to
"witness" will remind members to be witnesses in the community.”[1] We
are to be witnesses in our community.
As I’ve said before, we’re not here just for ourselves.
Our purpose is not to exist for ourselves and to please ourselves and do what
we want. We are here for our community. (Cowenton: Rooted in Christ,
nurturing the community) We are here for others, we are here for the sake of
our world, for the sake of our community. As we read in Paul’s letter to the
Romans, “The attitude that comes from selfishness leads to death, but the
attitude that comes from the Spirit leads to life and peace… People who are
self-centered aren’t able to please God.”[2] I’ve
read a lot about church decline, and one of the top signs is always an inwardly-focused
church. Do we focus solely on ourselves and our personal preferences? Do we
pray only for ourselves? Do we give only for ourselves? Are we self-serving?
The pledge to witness makes sure that we get outside the walls of our church,
it makes sure we remember that we are here to be Christ’s light in our
community, and we can’t do that staying here. You can’t witness by yourself.
You can pray by yourself, you can give by yourself, you can’t witness alone.
You need at least one other person to hear
your witness.
So, this morning we’re going to practice. What’s your
story? We’ve been singing this morning “Tell me the stories of Jesus” and “I
love to tell the story of Jesus and his love.” What is the story that you know
about Jesus’ love? What is the story in your own life where you knew for
certain that God loves you? Maybe your story is a resurrection story, like the
story we read about Lazarus and his sisters and Jesus. We heard Jesus speak
those wonderful words of life, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in
me will live, even though they die. Everyone who lives and believes in me will
never die.”[3] Maybe that resonates with
an experience in your own life. Or maybe you know more about crying out to the
Lord from the depths, like the psalm we read this morning. “Lord, listen to my
voice!...My whole being hopes… my whole being waits for the Lord.”[4]
Maybe you know of a time of crying out to God and waiting, and waiting, and
waiting, for God to act, and he finally
did! Maybe you know of dry bones living again, like in Ezekiel’s vision. A
time when God’s wind blew, God’s Spirit went forth, and you knew that God is
God. We also read in Romans this morning that “You aren’t self-centered.
Instead, you are in the Spirit, if in fact God’s Spirit lives in you… If the
Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who
raised Christ from the dead will give life to your human bodies also.”[5]
When the Holy Spirit lives in you, you have life, and you most likely have
witnessed something in that life, or in receiving that life, or in someone else
receiving new life.
So,
what’s your story? Your story of redemption, of resurrection, of dry bones
living again, of a miracle Jesus did in your life – that’s your witness. Tell that
story. We’re going to take some time now and share with someone that story.
Ideally, find someone who doesn’t know your story. We’re going to share and
witness to each other, here in a safe space, as practice for witnessing in the
community. In the community, only God knows how you’ll be received. You may be
outright rejected, laughed at. You may be planting a seed, and never know it.
You may be watering the faith of a person in the midst of a drought. Here, you
can be assured your story will be received with love. Remember that baptismal liturgy: we are a community of
love and forgiveness. Ideally, pair up with someone who doesn’t know your
story, share yours, and listen to theirs, with love.
