Easter 7
Jn
15:26-16:4
5/12/13
I have only been called upon to
testify in court – to be a witness – once. Yet even though I have only done it
once, that one time was more than enough for me. I didn’t get cheated when it comes to having
that life experience.
My first time serving as a witness
wasn’t in some local or state matter.
Instead it was a case in federal court.
I had to go to the federal justice building in downtown Chicago – a huge
imposing structure – in order to testify.
It was a federal case with a federal prosecutor and judge. Since it was the U.S. government bringing the
charges, the witness on the stand prior to me was a F.B.I. agent.
Now I will confess that I was
nervous. I don’t think I had ever been in
an actual court room before. Yet now,
here I was in the big leagues. And I
wasn’t just there to observe things and give moral support. Instead I had been subpoenaed as a witness in
a case that dealt with a very serious matter.
I took the stand and spoke the oath
to tell the truth. I began to answer
questions. And then I was asked a
question about information that had been revealed to me in private
confession. My mind raced as I realized
that the hypothetical had now become my reality. In pastoral theology class at the seminary
you are taught that the seal of confession cannot be broken. At ordination a
pastor takes an oath that he will never divulge sins confessed to him. I had been taught that the confidentiality of
this communication was recognized by the legal system. Yet never in a million years did I think I
would ever actually experience this situation!
I responded that I wasn’t able to
answer the question because it involved information that had been revealed to
me in confession. I was relieved when
the judge nodded in approval and indicated that the lawyer needed to continue
on with a different question. And I was
glad when the judge released me to leave the witness stand.
In our Gospel lesson today, Jesus
speaks about bearing witness. He is not speaking about witness that takes place
in a courtroom, but instead something even more serious; even more
important. He speaks about the witness
that the Holy Spirit will give to Jesus, and also in turn the witness that the
disciples will give to the Lord. This is
a witness that will at times have serious consequences as they speak the truth.
In our Gospel lesson for today, the
Seventh Sunday after Easter – Exaudi – we hear yet again from the words that
Jesus spoke to the disciples on the night of Maundy Thursday. In these readings we have encountered a
recurring theme: Jesus is going away to the Father and he is going to send the
Holy Spirit. In fact we have already
heard Jesus say that it is necessary for him go away; that this is a good
thing. He has said, “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your
advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to
you. But if I go, I will send him to you.”
Jesus’ departure, of course, took
place in his ascension that we celebrated on Thursday. We will celebrate the sending of the Holy
Spirit in a week at the Feast of Pentecost.
In our text Jesus tells the disciples what the Spirit will do, and what
in turn, they will do. He says, “But
when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of
truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you
also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.”
The Spirit is going to bear witness
to Jesus. Later in chapter sixteen Jesus
will say, “He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to
you.” The Spirit’s job is to point to
Jesus and to make known what he has done for our salvation. The Spirit does not point to himself, and any
time in the Church you find someone pointing more to the Spirit than to Christ,
you know something has gone wrong.
The Spirit was going to bear witness
to Jesus. And the disciples were going to bear witness too, because they had
been with Jesus from the beginning. Yet as
Jesus speaks about the disciples bearing witness, he immediately tells them
that this will not always go well. In
fact, it is going to provoke hatred and harm from the world. Our Lord says, “I have said all these things
to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues.
Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering
service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the
Father, nor me.”
Jesus said that the disciples would
receive the world’s hatred. And this was
simply because the world had hated Jesus first.
The world hated Jesus for two reasons: because of the witness that he gave
about the world and because of the witness that was given about Jesus.
These two points are found at the
beginning of the Gospel when Jesus was speaking with Nicodemus. Jesus said, “For God loved the world in this
way, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish
but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn
the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever
believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned
already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this
is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the
darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who
does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his
works should be exposed.”
Jesus Christ is the light who
reveals the darkness, the evil of the word.
Jesus said that the world “hates me because I bear witness concerning
it, that is deeds are evil.” The problem
is that we are inclined to think that the deeds of the world are not evil. We live in a sexualized culture – where the
misuse of God’s gift of sex is found at every turn – on the internet, on TV, in
the movies, in the music, in the magazines.
Have we begun to see things in the way of the world - have we ceased to
view these things as sinful? Have you
recently had sex with someone who is not your husband or wife? Have you watched pornography and indulged in
lustful thoughts? To the world, this is
just part of life. To Jesus, it is evil
that cuts you off from God.
What about the way we speak of other
people? The internet has magnified our
ability to communicate. But it has also
done this in an impersonal manner that insidiously promotes harmful and mean
speech about others. What are you saying about others in all of the settings of
life? Do you defend our neighbors? Do
you speak well of our neighbor? Do you
seek to help your neighbor’s reputation? Do you explain things in the kindest
way? Or do you look for opportunities to tear down your neighbor and to share
gossip that harms their reputation – because we all know that the only news
that is real gossip is news that says something bad about a person.
Where you have done these things -
or any other sin – repent. Confess your
sin. And then cling to the knowledge
that God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order
that the world might be saved through him.
The Father sent the incarnate Son, Jesus Christ, to the cross as the Lamb
of God who takes away the sin of the world – who takes away your sin. Raised from the dead, the Son gives you life
– life with God that will have no end.
He is the only one who can do this.
That is what he said about himself.
Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to
the Father except through me.” And
because Jesus said this, the world hates him.
It hates him because Jesus removes every pretense about self-sufficiency
and self-reliance of the human being. It hates him because Jesus declares that
he is the Way and every other way is a lie.
This is the witness that Jesus
declared. He proclaimed it about
himself. And he pointed to those other
things that bore witness about him. As
he told his opponents, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in
them you have eternal life; it is these that bear witness about me.” He said to them, “For the works which the
Father has given me to accomplish – the very works that I do bear witness about
me.”
And now after his ascension the
Spirit continues to bear witness. He
gave witness to Christ through the apostles.
And now he gives witness through the inspired word. As John says in the Gospel, “He who saw it
has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the
truth—that you also may believe.” That
witness continues on through the Church as we share the message about Jesus
Christ with others. For by the word of
the Gospel the Spirit continues to bear witness – he continues to confront
people with Jesus Christ. As John said
in his first letter, “Whoever believes in the Son of God has the witness in
himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not
believed in the witness that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the
witness, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever
has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
We have received this life by being
born again of water and the Spirit in Holy Baptism. And now as we live by faith, we bear
witness. Yet we do not only bear witness
by what we say. We also bear witness by what we do. At the Last Supper Jesus washed his disciples’
feet and said, “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you
also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that
you also should do just as I have done to you.”
The life that Christ has given us;
the love that he has shared with us prompts us to live in ways that bear
witness to Christ. The Spirit moves us
to act in service and love, for in doing so we fulfill our Lord’s words: “A new
commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you,
you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my
disciples, if you have love for one another.”
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