In the 1985 movie, “Witness,” Harrison Ford plays a hardened Philadelphia cop named John Book, who is responsible for the safety of a young Amish boy when the boy is a witness to the murder of a police officer by another detective. Trying to protect himself and the boy until the trial of the murderer, Book hides out in the Amish community where the boy and his mother live.

 

The title of the movie – “Witness” – gets played out on two levels. On one level, the hardened cop, John Book, uses his street smarts to save himself and the boy. On another level, as Book tries to blend in with the Amish community, he begins to learn about another kind of witnessing – the witness that comes from the faith of the Amish community. In contrast to the cop’s independent, self-reliant and violent ways, the Amish witness to their belief in non-violence and reliance on the support of community members.

 

In the end, despite the heroism of the street-wise cop, it is the Amish community’s simple Christian faith, their reliance on each other and their rejection of violence that saves the day.

 

Throughout this season of Easter, we have seen how the early disciples witnessed to the resurrection of Jesus Christ in different ways. For some, it was the evidence of the empty tomb. For others, it was their first hand experience of the risen Jesus, walking with them or eating with them.  And for others, like Paul, it was hearing the voice of the risen Jesus.

 

Eventually, however, these eyewitnesses to the resurrection died. Witnessing to the risen Christ, therefore, became the privilege and the responsibility of the community of believers. Today’s readings all describe this shift from first-hand witness to the witness of the community.  In the reading from the Book of Acts, Paul and Silas are imprisoned for casting out a spirit of divination from a young girl. While in prison, they are miraculously freed from their chains by a violent earthquake. But rather than see this miracle of nature as a ticket to freedom, they reach out to the terrified jailor who is about to kill himself because he thinks his prisoners have escaped. The jailor is so overwhelmed by Paul and Silas’ concern for him that he asks them what he needs to do to be saved. The jailor then takes Paul and Silas back to his house and bandages up their wounds. Later, he and his entire family become believers and are baptized. What brings the jailor and his family to faith is the unity of mind and heart that they experience in Paul and Silas.

 

In our Gospel reading, Jesus comes to the end of his long conversation with the disciples in the Upper Room on the night before he is crucified. Now he reaches the point where he spells out for the disciples what they can expect when he is gone from them.  As a final comment, he tells them that he is praying that they will be one….that they will be united in their love for each other. He says that the love they are to have for each other, will be just like the love that the Father God has for Jesus and that Jesus has for the Father. He tells them that, once he is gone, their love for each other and for others will be a witness to his presence among them.

 

One question that always come up is, “what does Jesus mean when he talks about a unity of love?” Does he mean a kind of love where, in order to be part of this witnessing community, everyone needs to act or look or talk alike? No, in fact, it’s just the opposite. The love that Jesus is describing is not a bland uniformity. It’s a love that is expressed in many different ways.  What unites the disciples is not that they love each other in the same way, but that they are all united in their belief about who Jesus is and united in their love for him.

 

This is one of the biggest challenges for every Christian community.  Paul talks about the church as the body of Christ, with many different parts, each having its own unique role within the body. What makes the Christian community the body of Christ is not its uniformity. It’s the fact that each different member of the body is united in belief about Jesus and love for Jesus. And, yet, each member of the body will express this faith and love in very different ways. The challenge for us is that it’s so easy to begin to make assumptions about other people. It’s easy to expect that for me to love the other members of the body, they need to think and act like me.

 

When we do this, of course, we are buying into one of our culture’s most powerful features – the way that we tend to seek out people like ourselves and the way that we allow people and groups to go their own way, rather than to strive for a greater sense of diversity within our overall unity. Our culture encourages us to ask “what’s in it for me,” and “why should I have to work so hard to accommodate myself to others?”

 

If we stay connected to the love of Jesus Christ, and realize that he is present with us, then we begin to find strength in our diversity as a community. If we stay united in his love for us and our love for each other, then we will realize that unity doesn’t stifle growth, it fosters growth.

 

The challenge for us is to stay connected to this love and to believe in the power of our witness as a community that is united in Christ. And, in order to do this, we have to want to be in some kind of intimate relationship with the source of that love – Jesus, himself.  When we are connected to Jesus, then we know that it is not we, who witness to him, but it is his presence among us that enables us to witness to others.

 

Many of you may know the story of Le Chambon, the French village that, during World War II, sheltered over 2,000 French Jews from the Nazis. Many people in France followed the realistic course….the way of the world…and turned the French Jews over to the Germans and their French collaborators. But the Christians of Le Chambon refused to buckle under to the Nazis.

 

Led by the town’s pastor, Andre Trocme, their understanding of their commitment to Christ was that, when any child of God who is in need knocks on your door, you do not see a stranger and say, “Go away!” You see a brother or sister in need and say, “Welcome, come in.”

 

For four or five years, at great risk, the townspeople of Le Chambon hid the Jews of their area from the Nazis. They fed them, cared for them and became one with them in their pain and poverty and danger.

 

The people of Le Chambon lived out this gospel about unity in love. They also lived out what Paul and Silas did that night when they didn’t take the earthquake as an opportunity to flee for their lives, but instead, used it as an opportunity to witness to the love of Christ and invite their jailor to join their community.

 

Next month, you will all be invited to participate in a one day workshop to create a new mission and vision statement for Good Shepherd.  Every time church members gather to do this it presents a challenge.  The tendency is for people to focus only on what it is that is meaningful and valuable for them, rather to think how God might be calling them to be witnesses of God’s love to others.

 

It’s different isn’t it? It’s a different thing to think that the reason we exist as a community is to encourage and support each other to do the things we like to do together, rather than to think that the reason we exist is to be united in our witness to the love of Jesus Christ in our lives?

 

So, as we prepare for this workshop next month, take some time to ask yourself this question: What would it mean for you, and for us as a community to be a witness to the love of Jesus Christ?  What would that look like? How could our unity in love be expressed in a powerful way to others who have never experienced this way of living?

 

The Church of Christ is united…we are one in truth and love…only when the world is able to look at us who call Jesus Lord and say, “They don’t live for themselves. They live for and share the Lord’s life with us. They know no strangers, but say, ‘Come in. Come in and share the Lord’s life with us.’  They say, ‘Whoever is thirsty, let them come and drink this free gift we call the water of life.’”  Amen.