Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from Luke’s Gospel the 24th chapter:
Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things...Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them...
Thus far the text.
Dear friends in Christ,
You are my witnesses, Jesus says. Well, perhaps the text is more that you ARE witnesses. But we are witnesses to all that Jesus has said and done and will ever do. And we are only witnesses because Jesus is the faithful witness, the one who reveals to us the Father, witnessing to His compassion and love, but also His wrath and justice.
For this is what Jesus does. Jesus witnesses to the Father, and the Spirit witnesses to the Son, and being called through the Spirit, we are witnesses of the Holy Trinity. We not only observe what it is that our God has given us to know about Him, but we also go and witness about Him.
For this is what we find in the text, we find a pattern, a rhythm, if you will, that the early Church themselves found. In the appearing of Christ in their midst, which is at the beginning of this passage of Luke, they realized that there was something Christ was showing them. He appeared, He taught them, they had a meal together, then Christ went out into the world.
And so the Church has done this pattern in Christ’s Church for 2000 years. We invoke our God and He is present in our midst. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. We teach God’s Word by reading the Scriptures, praying them together, confessing the creeds, and hearing the words God has for us from the sermon. Then we have a meal, a holy sacrament wherein Christ comes to us with His real, physical body and blood in, with, and under the bread and the wine. And then Christ goes out into world, in us, both in our bellies and in our lives. And this same Christ is spread out, is witnessed to, all over the world and in every situation for everyone with whom we come in contact.
Appearance, teaching, meal, disappearance. This is the rhythm of the Church, the rhythm we have practiced for 2000 years. You ever wonder why we do the liturgy here the way we do? It’s because it’s been modeled for us by Jesus’ own action, and it's been passed down to us by all the saints before us. We are witnesses to what Christ has done and who He is and what He’s doing. We are witnesses. We find our identity in Christ, we bear His image, His Word, His meal, and we do it for the sake of reaching those who are lost. And we do it in the rhythm of the Church.
Jesus told the disciples that they would begin to reach out to those who are lost, starting in Jerusalem. Guess where the disciples started preaching Christ and Him crucified? Jerusalem! They were in the Temple all the time they were there. They never left, but they continued to preach Christ. 10 days after the Ascension, on Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came to the Apostles and gave them the ability to be heard in anyone’s native language.
Imagine being in this very congregation and hearing me speak in any language you understand: Ojibwe if you’re Native, Norwegian if you’re Norwegian, Swedish if you’re Swedish, German if you’re from Germany, and English if you’re from America. This same Holy Spirit, this One is the one who testifies about Christ to us, so that we may be witnesses about the same Christ to the world.
And why do we do this? Popular pastors will tell you that we witness about Christ so that people will have a better marriage, a better sex life, better business practices, get out of toxic relationships, realize their destiny. But that’s what popular preachers say. Your preacher, and, I pray, any other preacher you have, goes back to the Word. And the Word says, what Jesus tells us the whole purpose of witnessing is, that the only thing that matters in the world is repentance and the forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ name.
Nothing else matters. Nothing else in the world. Imagine if you are a teenager, and your parent comes to you confessing that the way they barked at you before was wrong and that they were sorry and begged your forgiveness. Now imagine, that the next moment, or the next day even, your parent dies. It would, of course, be awfully sad, but how joyful would you be that your mother had asked for forgiveness and you gave it. Imagine how you would grasp on to that memory, how you would make it your own. And imagine how that would impact every other relationship that you had with every person. Never knowing when you might die, you would never allow yourself to be unrepentant.
This is the thing, my friends. We are sinners, and damnable sinners, to be sure. What we have done in this world is worthy of the vilest torture imaginable. What we’ve done is worthy of hell. We deserve God’s wrath and judgment, the same wrath and judgment that Jesus warned us about. And yet, God in Christ Jesus says that repenting of our sins leads us to the forgiveness that Christ has for us.
And why? Because Jesus took the wrath and judgment for us. Jesus had it poured down on Him on the cross. Jesus doesn’t want you to face the wrath of God, so He did. And He did it to bring you to the Father’s love. Repentance always brings us God’s forgiveness. And this is what matters. This is what makes us Christians and witnesses. We are witnesses to the joy that is set before us by the one who scorned the cross, enduring its shame. Nothing else matters.
And yet, we still work, out there, in the world, don’t we? We still do amazing things for our neighbors. We still serve them in love and gentleness. We forgive their sins against us, but we also bring them dinner, we clean our rooms, we obey our parents, we ask a father’s permission before marrying his daughter, we call the lonely, we visit the depressed, we pray for those in jail, we hug a hurting child, we kiss a skinned knee. We do amazing things in Christ, for Christ, for the sake of our neighbor.
And today, this LWML Sunday, we celebrate the role that Christ has given to these women who serve the Church and others in ways incalculable. Throughout the years, the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League has used its magazines to teach people the Good News about Christ. The LWML has left Mustard Seed tracts in hotel rooms, restaurants, and in greetings cards that have gone over the entire world. With its Mite boxes, the LWML has raised millions of dollars for grants, scholarships, and worldwide missions. And that’s just the global service they have done for the Church. This obviously has not yet included the work that they do here for us, in the paraments, the banners, setting the Lord’s Table for the Sacrament, leading the charge in helping the widowed, the depressed, the sick, the shut-in. And this has not yet included the prayers that the LWML lifts up ceaselessly on behalf of the Church, for the Church, and with the Church. The LWML serves, and serves well in their vocations, just as we all do.
And our vocation is how we witness to Christ. Yes, witnessing to Christ and His mercy includes bringing people dinner, cleaning our rooms, obeying our parents, asking a father’s permission before marrying his daughter, calling the lonely, visiting the depressed, praying for those in jail, hugging a hurting child, kissing a skinned knee. And it involves repenting of our sin, and receiving forgiveness for that sin for the sake of Christ, for, most assuredly, that is the most important thing.
Jesus does these things through us in our vocations so that we reach others for Christ, just as the LWML has done and will do. And the reason is because He leads us where we go. We go as brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, and we go where He leads us. We need not fear going out into the world, witnessing to Christ, for wherever we go, Christ is already there with us.
In today’s Gospel, He led His disciples out to Bethany. He led His disciples out of slavery to sin into freedom in Christ as He leads His people out of death into life. He does this saving work as He died on the cross for our sin and rose from the dead so that we may live as His witnesses. As Christ leads out His disciples, He proclaims, You are my witnesses.
And Christ continues to lead His Church out so that we may be His witnesses. He does this when He brings us to the waters of Holy Baptism where we die to our sin and rise to newness of life. Buried with Him in our baptism, we are united with Him in His resurrection witness. As He gathers His people at His altar to receive His precious Body and Blood, Christ leads His people out from the altar into the world. As the Divine Service concludes inside the church building, the divine service continues in the world as the people of God are sent forth as witnesses. Do you hear the rhythm of the Church here? Gathered, taught, satisfied with food, and sent out. There is no need to fear; the resurrected Christ has gone before us to prepare the way for us and the rhythm of the Church confirms and strengthens that calling out into the world. As Christ leads us out into the world, He lovingly comforts us saying, You are my witnesses.
Even today, Christ opens His nail-pierced hands in love to satisfy the desire of every living thing as He blesses us for His service in the world through our various vocations. He opens His hands to give us His life-giving Body and Blood as He opens His hands to bless us and keep us, giving us peace. Receiving the Blessed Sacraments, we have been blessed with forgiveness, life, and salvation to share the truth of His all-atoning love as His witnesses in the world. We are His witnesses.
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod and many others have been blessed through the hands of women who have shared the gifts that God has given for the extension of His Kingdom as congregations have been founded, schools have been supported, outreach centers have been funded, and lives have been transformed as Lutheran Women in Mission have confessed the truth of the Gospel by bearing witness to Christ. By His amazing and extravagant grace, human hands bring divine grace to others. We are His witnesses.
It begins in the rhythm of the Church. It begins in worship as Christ comes to us to speak to us, lead us out, and bless us, just as He did His disciples in today’s Gospel. It continues in worship as Christ speaks through us, leads through us, and blesses others through us. And it will culminate in endless worship as we look to the Day of His return when we who have been spoken to by Christ and who have been led out by Him are blessed to be raised from the dead and in our flesh to live in the joy of being His people forever.
You are my witnesses, Christ our Lord says. And so we are. And here, this morning, in the Church, our Lord has given to us the charge and the joy to preach His truth, which is repentance and receive as a free gift the forgiveness of sins in His name, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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