St. Paul’s United Church Sunday, January 11, 2009

Testimony: Talking Ourselves Into Being Christian

Jeremiah 1:6-9 Acts 17:16-28a John: 18:33-38

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Lots of us are living with “Christmas remorse” because of the eating, eating and more eating of the season. So it’s not surprising that the television commercials for exercise and weight loss programs seem to be everywhere as we start the new year.

It used to be that these ads would have an expert telling you why they work. A person in a lab coat might say “nine out of ten doctors recommend . . . ” and then the endorsement. Or a depressingly “buff” fitness instructor would sell us on the virtues of the latest fitness regime.

Have you notice the shift to the testimonial, the person or persons who tell you how the piece of equipment or the program worked for them: “I got the Pilates/yoga/booty-shake DVD and lost 60 pounds and 100 inches and had fun doing it! Pilates/yoga/booty-shake changed my life in just ten minutes, three times a week!”

A couple of the biggest weight loss systems enlist minor celebrities as their spokespersons and one of them is Valerie Bertinelli who starred in a sitcom as a child and then was famous for being married to a rock star. Suddenly she is back in very public view as she has shed forty pounds while following her program.

One of her recent commercials shows Valerie sitting at a desk talking to us as though we are her friends. She tells us that for the first time in twenty years she hasn’t worried about her weight. Then her eyes fill with tears and she waves her hand by her face to indicate her emotion (when did that little gesture become so popular?) Finally she asks the all-important question “So what are you waiting for?” Hallelujah Sister Valerie!

You may think that I’m somewhat cynical, but what impresses me about these various commercials is that they have all the zeal and conviction of the old-time religious testimonials. Actually, I shouldn’t say “old-time” because there are still churches where it is expected that people will get up and tell others how God and Jesus have changed and is changing their lives. The directness, the emotion, the promise of a changed life are all important aspects of sharing the story of transformational faith.

Last Sunday I told you that for six weeks during January and February Rev. Cathy and I will be do a preaching series on some of the Spiritual Practices which Christians have employed through the years to help them deepen their faith in Christ. A practice is a good habit, a repeated habit which makes us stronger in our faith. The six we have chosen from a much longer list are:

We are starting with testimony because it is not a well-understood concept in mainline churches such as ours, despite our Methodist roots where telling one’s story of faith was a regular part of worship and community life. When we “testify to something or someone we engage in earnest and truthful speech about that subject.

Our first reading today is about a young man who did not want to give his testimony at all. In fact he insists that he is not good with words and too young for the assignment. God tells Jeremiah not to be afraid, because he will be given the words he needs to speak.

In the passage from the Acts of the Apostles, it is Paul who shrewdly assesses the circumstances in the city of Athens and then shares the Good News of Christ, first of all with a group of philosophers, then with people in the public square. Now, Paul wasn’t received all that well, as you heard. He is dismissed as a “babbler” which is literally translated as a sparrow picking up scraps. When he shares his convictions about the resurrection of Jesus, the Christ, some in the impromptu audience scoff, but others say they will listen again.

How are you when it comes to speaking about your faith in God, in giving your testimony? Whoa now! Lots of people have told me that they don’t speak about their faith because what they feel about God is private. And lots of us have had the uncomfortable experience of someone sharing their love of Jesus with us with an insistence that we love him in exactly the same way they do. This aggressive approach often has the opposite effect than what is intended. We are “turned off” by the speaker and it may convince us that we will demonstrate our faith by example rather than words.

Yet, like the people who are thrilled to have lost weight or achieved fitness or rid themselves of acne, we are inclined to be open and enthusiastic about the causes and people which are important to us.

As those of you who haven’t been living on another planet or in the jungles of Borneo will know, the Canadian Junior men’s hockey team won the gold medal last Monday. It seemed that everyone was talking about the Drive for Five and I had conversations with people, both men and women, who waxed enthusiastic about the outcome. Some of them hardly say “boo” to me most of the time, but they gushed about how these Canadian kids were going to win it all.

I find too that young couples who are planning to get married are often willing to share openly about what a great relationship they have and how their partner is the perfect person for them. None of these couples ever says that they realize the divorce rate is pretty high, so they are probably good for five years, tops. No, they are going to spend the rest of their lives together! They have faith in their relationship.

While there are many areas of our lives about which we are willing to express our conviction and passion, when it comes to faith we often “clam up.” And one of the best places not to have to say a word about our Christian faith is church, at least not from the perspective of personal conviction. In church we do profess our faith in our hymns and our creeds and by simply showing up. But many of us would feel tongue-tied if we were asked to say anything about our relationship with God or to offer a spontaneous prayer.

Why would we consider giving our testimony, or sharing our story of faith, or whatever we want to call it? It’s because words are powerful, especially “words of truth.” When we speak about what we believe to be true we take that important step from passivity to activity.

Some of you will remember the comedian Flip Wilson, who had a television variety show in the 1970's. Wilson was once asked about his own religious convictions because one of his characters, Geraldine, would regularly exclaim “the devil made me do it!” Wilson replied that he was a Jehovah’s Bystander. Someone had tried to convince him to become a Jehovah’s Witness but he just didn’t want to become involved.

When we share our faith convictions we move from being bystanders to witnesses to a profound truth. We are getting involved! And on any given day and in any moment there is someone who may need to hear what motivates us, what “makes us tick.”

It is important for us to tell the truth about what matters most and about who matters the most to us. When Jesus stood before Pilate, battered and bruised he was steadfast in saying that he had come to tell the truth about God and as Christ’s followers we tell the truth about him.

There is always a degree of risk in doing this. Obviously there are some who will decide that we are “babblers” who are deluded by a belief in the supernatural. We are fortunate to live in an age and country where we don’t have to fear persecution for our faith, but we still don’t like the discomfort of being misunderstood or mocked.

At the same time there are always people who are open to continuing the conversation because they are seeking meaning in their lives. When we share our faith, it is an act of love and support and it doesn’t have to be aggressive or phoney. It is a matter of the heart and if our speech is authentic, people will pay attention.

There is another very important aspect of expressing our faith in words. When we share our faith out loud it is not always for the benefit of the other person or persons. It is so we can sort through just what is important to us in faith and even convince ourselves that we are “true believers.” You may hear this and wonder if it is a good thing to be convincing ourselves of our faith, but we often talk through the big decisions and convictions of our lives with others.

I have the responsibility and privilege of speaking to you about faith every time I preach and there is often a personal element to that proclamation. You can appreciate that there are times when the topic is joy or hope when I’m not feeling particularly joyful or hopeful. There are times when I am speaking on the personal love of God in Christ when God seems very distant. On occasion I would love to say “I can’t do this today!” It is surprising, though, how often the act of writing down my thoughts and then speaking them out loud makes a difference to my inner life.

Thomas Long has written a really worthwhile and wise little book called Testimony: Talking Ourselves Into Being Christian. He speaks about how we are influenced by the words of others, and also how our own words influence us:

...saying things out loud is part of how we come to believe. We talk our way toward belief, talk our way from tentative belief through doubt to firmer belief, talk our way toward believing more fully, more clearly, more deeply. Putting things into words is one of the ways we acquire knowledge, passion, conviction.

The encouragement to all of us today is to be willing and open to say what needs to be said about our faith in God and in Christ. Perhaps it is just in a greater openness with our children or partner. It could be with a friend or co-worker, if the right opportunity presented itself.

We may even pray for the opportunity to share Christ’s Good News because our testimony truly makes a difference for ourselves and for others. Amen!