We Are Witnesses Second Sunday Of Easter, Year C

We Are Witnesses

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER, YEAR C

Acts 5:27-32

5:27 When they had brought them, they had them stand before the council. The high priest questioned them,

5:28 saying, "We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are determined to bring this man's blood on us."

5:29 But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than any human authority.

5:30 The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree.

5:31 God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

5:32 And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him."

Let’s turn to the book of Acts this second Easter Sunday. Let’s consider how we will live as the church in the new reality that Easter brings. This Sunday let’s make our commitment to be witnesses of the kingdom. And let’s do it with some color!

Easter is unsettling. That’s our thesis for this series. No, wait, that’s a given. That’s a foundational statement. The thesis is because Easter is unsettling for the world, we need to be witnesses to the Easter event. Witnesses in every sense of the word.

Peter declares in his defense, “We are witnesses.” They told him that he wasn’t supposed to teach in the name of the crucified one, and yet he did it.

So, what is the defense?

We are witnesses. He says we saw something, and we have to say something. We participated in something, and we have to talk about it.

More than that, he says we became something and there is nothing we can do but be proclaimers of this word. “We are witnesses” does not simply mean they are telling what they saw, but more what happened to them.

It also means they have now become something new, something more, and they have to live out that proclamation every day of their lives.

With every word, every encounter, every action, they are witnessing to that which defines their lives in a new and profound way.

One of the things I wanted to do today is celebrate ArtFields I mean it is the largest art festival in the south east United States, it is a 5 million plus economic impact of the town of lake city but more then any of that it is also a great time to be Witnesses. For I have come to understand art as a pure form of story telling that can be real in all our lives. Real in the work we do to further the kingdom of God. I’m thinking of the work of Dr. Darryl Stephens, book Bearing Witness in the Kin-dom: Living into the Church’s Moral Witness through Radical Discipleship (United Methodist Women, 2021). This was the text for the Spiritual Growth Study of Mission u sponsored by the United Methodist Women in the summer of 2021. A part of what that text was designed to do was to help us understand what it means to be a witness. And a part of what I hope you get today is show how to be a witness today and the rest of your life. Three points and you all can go and enjoy Artfields’s.

#1 paint your picture

In other words be your own artist Peter declares in his defense, “We are witnesses.” They told him that he wasn’t supposed to teach in the name of the crucified one, and yet he did it. So, what is the defense? We are witnesses.

You can almost picture Peter’s confusion as they challenge him on this point. In his mind, they are telling him to stop breathing, telling him to stop being Peter. He’s not angry; he’s not belligerent or defiant; he just is who he is. As if his simple statement explains it all: “We are witnesses.” This is who we are, your honor, we are witnesses. It is our life’s purpose, the meaning of our existence. It is what we do—what we will do despite the impediments that might be thrown in front of us.

I’ve been watching the art work come into town this year and over the years I’ve had the pleasure of talking to many of the artist that come through here with ArtFields and one of the things the winners have in common is they believe in their passion. They have a real sense of a passion to tell a story that is at the basis of who they are. There is a special something inside so strong that they have to try and share it with the world.