Witness

Some months ago, during my morning walk, I witnessed my very first shooting star.  It was glorious and magnificent and frightening, this fireball streaking across the sky.  I’ll never forget it.  I’ll never forget that moment.  It was perfect except that I was alone.  There was no one there to share the experience with me, no one to stand in witness with me.  No one to validate it, no one to say, “Yes, it was just as magical as you remember.”

I didn’t have a camera with me.  I didn’t have anyway to prove to anyone that the moment had happened at all.  But sometimes that’s okay, I tell myself.  Sometimes the camera gets in the way.  Sometimes, God just wants me to stand in the middle of His creation and be silent and be still and be a witness.

The word “witness” is one that pops up quite a bit in Christianity especially if you were raised in a certain faith tradition.  My grandparents were Southern Baptist and trust me the word “witness” and “witnessing” came up a lot when I was a kid.

Even just the other day, I was wearing a t-shirt that said “Amazing Grace” on it and had a Bible verse.  My grandmother noticed it and commented that it provided an excellent opportunity to witness.

When I was a kid, the idea of “witnessing” of sharing my personal Jesus story with strangers terrified me for a variety of reasons.  First, I’m an introvert, so talking to strangers about anything is terrifying, and secondly, talking to random strangers about Jesus just seemed downright pushy and obnoxious, probably because the people who had “witnessed” to me were pushy and obnoxious.

But the truth is our faith, our Christian faith, was built on witnesses.

From the Gospels to the post-resurrection stories of Acts—Christianity spread and succeeded because of these stories and because of the writers’ super reliance on witnesses.  The Gospel writers didn’t want you to take their word for it.  Again and again they provide witnesses—they name names, they are daring the people of that time to “fact-check” their stories.

Our reading today from Hebrews begins with these words from chapter 12, verse 1, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us ….”

Now, we actually need a little context to understand these words better.  Hebrews, the book, reads like one giant pep-talk.  It’s awesome, but it recognizes that as more time passes, as the stories spread to more and more people from places very far away, that the words of witnesses will not be enough.  We will all, at some point, have to move blindly through the world with only faith as our guide.

In the previous chapter, Hebrews 11:1 addresses this, describing faith as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

And then chapter 11 moves through this amazing list, this “Who’s Who?” of the Bible, people who did amazing things because they believed in God and His plan, even though none of them lived to see the culmination of said plan in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.

Are you ready for this list?

In verse 4, “By faith Abel offered a more acceptable sacrifice ….”

In verse 5, “By faith Enoch was taken ….”

In verse 7, “By faith Noah … built an ark ….”

“By faith Abraham obeyed ….” Hebrews 11:8 states.

In verse 23, “By faith, Moses was hidden by his parents ….”

In verse 29, “By faith the people passed through the Red Sea ….”

In verse 31, “By faith Rahab … did not perish ….”

And in verses 32-34 it is through faith that the likes of Gideon, Barak, Samson and David, “conquered kingdoms … quenched raging fire … won strength out of weakness.”

If there is one thing the Bible does brilliantly—if there is one reason it is so successful, it is that it puts you in the story.  Why list Abel, Enoch, Noah, Moses and others?  Because they are people you are familiar with.  They are stories that you know.  What the Bible does so well is that it connects you with people you have never met, people who have been dead for thousands of years.  It puts you with Moses at the Red Sea and with David as he fights Goliath, and by doing so, makes you a witness.

This week is Holy Week and beginning this past Sunday with Palm Sunday, this week is geared to making you a witness.  It puts the palm branches in your hand.  It bathes your feet on Maundy Thursday.  It puts you in the crowd during the Passion.  It puts you at the cross.  And on Easter it puts you at the empty tomb.

Nearly two thousand years after the death of Jesus, somehow we are all witnesses to his life, death and resurrection.

According to John’s gospel, there were three Marys standing at the foot of the cross.  There was Mary, Jesus’ mother and Mary Magdalene and another Mary, described as Mary of Clopas, who was most likely Jesus’ aunt.  And it is this third Mary that fascinates me.  Why include her at all? 

Mary, Jesus’ mother and Mary Magdalene both have prominent places in the rest of Jesus’ story, but this third Mary—who was she and why should we care?

We should care because she was a witness.

We should care because witnesses can be anyone at any time.  They do not have to be special.  They simply have to be there.

This third Mary was important because she witnessed the death of Jesus.  She witnessed the moment when God tore the curtain and broke the world, all so He could rebuild it in the resurrection.

She was a witness.

In my book, Mary Magdalene’s Tears, I write a poem about this third Mary and in the poem I write that this third Mary shows us that it may be that the most important thing we ever do in this life is to simply bear witness, “either as silent witnesses, or screaming mad witnesses, or joyful, jubilant anthem singers to the best and worst of God’s creation.”

What this third Mary shows us and what Mary Magdalene later shows us at the tomb is that our calling, the true calling of every person, is to simply be a witness.

To be a witness is to be present, is to be aware, is to welcome God, to stand with Him, to recognize His presence in this world.

It’s simple, really.

Bear witness.

Amen.