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the freeing, supportive presence of God. So your experience of God may
become your experience of life. It is wonderful what God can do!
"How Can I Witness?"
January 15, 2006
As many of you know, I grew up in a church much like this
church. It was an Evangelical United Brethren Church. As you probably
also know, we Evangelical United Brethrens merged our EUB denomination
with the Methodist denomination in 1968 to become the new United
Methodist Church.
Back in the 1950s and 60s, no one was open to any change at
all. No new hymns, no new instruments (organ and piano only), no new
methods of worshiping such as drama or liturgical dance, and
definitely no guitars in the Sanctuary. Remember, this was almost 50
years ago … we all enjoy all kinds of changes today, don’t we?
….
I can remember having a strong and deep desire for some
excitement in the worship … nothing outrageous … just some joyous
music, perhaps with a beat, and some new choruses occasionally to
replace the Gloria Patri and the regular Old Hundredth Doxology.
I believe it was the Baptists and the non-denominationalists
that planted this kind of seed in my spirit because each year as a
young child, I would go to the Baptist Church with my best friend for
Daily Vacation Bible School. I remember really enjoying the music.
Then as a teenager with a driver’s license, I followed another good
friend from church almost every Sunday evening to a well known
non-denominational church where we enjoyed enthusiastic music and
riveting sermons.
Both as a young child, and later as a teenager, I remember
being told by the Baptists and Non-Denominationalists that one must
pray “the sinners’ prayer” and everyone must be born
again. I remember being asked at the age of five to pray the prayer
that would save me. Well, they were nice people, so I prayed it
whenever I was asked to.
As a teenager, at the Non-Denominational Church, every week
they would ask people to come forward to accept the Lord and be born
again. They never once mentioned that if you had gotten saved, you did
not need to do it again, so although I did not go forward each time, I
guess I got born again and again and again.
I also remember attending some Wednesday evening prayer
meetings where people gave their witness and their testimony as to how
they found the Lord. These stories were usually dramatic and often
left me feeling as though I had less need for the Lord because my
concerns were not that great.
My personal experience, therefore, was that the Baptists had a
lively, exciting, and musical worship, which after many altar calls
left me drained and depressed. My early personal experience of
Methodism was that I always felt accepted, loved, and not out of
place, but most always with a slightly staid or straight-laced style
of worship and music.
Whenever being asked to give witness to my faith or my personal
testimony, I felt awkward and threatened because I did not have a
dramatic story of change that I could tell.
It took many years to figure out that I did not have that
dramatic story of change in my life, because I had never really
strayed from the faith that had been part of me from infancy. I did
not need to be born again, I needed to be sanctified. Sanctification
is a big Methodist word for “continuing to grow in the faith until
spiritual, and God-like love became a natural part of my speech and
actions.”
I learned that a witness or testimony did not have to be a
dramatic event that completely changed one’s life. It could be the
continuing story of one’s spiritual journey with God in finding our
own Messiah.
Our Scriptures this morning speak of two different spiritual
experiences—both of which give testimony to one’s faith and
one’s journey. I love the story of Samuel as a boy … it has drama,
suspense, and a climatic finish. I can almost imagine myself as the
boy Samuel and almost envy such a powerful experience of God.
On the other hand, in our gospel reading, we have Philip and
Nathanael, both having the opportunity to meet Jesus and to be called
by him, but neither having had to turn their lives around from doing
evil. They had apparently been brought up in good Jewish homes and
been faithful in their worship of God in the Temple. In other words,
they were called by Jesus to be his witnesses, to give
testimony to their call from him, even though they did not have a dramatic
story of their own to tell.
Notice carefully that when Jesus called his Disciples, he did
not say to them “you must be born again.” He simply said,
“Follow me.” He knew their faith that had come about through
faithful upbringing. They had been following God all of their lives
… why should they be asked to make a dramatic change for the good?
Why should they be asked to be born again?
This is not to say that there is never a need to be born again.
After all, Jesus knew people who had devious, evil, and cheating ways.
To them he said, “you must be born again.” In other words, they were
in need of a dramatic change and Jesus said so.
Do not get frazzled when someone asks you, “Have you been
born again?” It is their background and their teaching that has
placed the priority on that question. They would be much more
appropriate to inquire of you, “Do you know the Lord?”
In my way of thinking, there at least two ways of getting to
know Jesus. The first way is to be brought up in the faith, to confirm
your faith, and to regularly practice your faith both inside and
outside the church.
The second way is for those who have not either been brought up
in the church or those who have strayed away from the church. They are
in need of a change in direction within their lives. What we call that
change in direction is not nearly as important as the evidence
of a changed and spiritually healthy life.
I encourage you to examine your spiritual journey. Put some
words and some perspective to it so that you might be able to better
identify it and talk about it. Last year, there were members of this
congregation who wrote spiritual biographies … what an excellent
spiritual exercise. It not only prepares you to speak about your faith
with others, but it offers you an inner peace which comes from putting
your spiritual experience to words and paper.
The next time you are asked, “Have you been born again?”
First realize that nothing you say will be a satisfactory answer …
to someone approaching faith in such a narrow manner. But try
responding with “I was brought up in the Christian
faith through home and church, and have never strayed from it. I feel
that I can honestly say that I know Jesus and have responded to his
call to ‘follow me’.”
You either believe it or need to strive to own it for yourself.
If you believe it, then it has become your personal testimony of faith
to which you can witness.
And of course the all-time favorite way of witnessing is this
quote, “Being with God does so much for me; can I pick you up for
church this Sunday?”
God bless you your spiritual journey, and in your telling of
it.
Amen.
