Scripture: Acts 1:1–14
I grew up with Ben Matlock. I am pretty sure I have shared this before, but I many of my growing up years were spent watching Andy Griffith in the role as Matlock, the famous TV defense lawyer, who almost always managed to get his innocent client off, and find out who the real perpetrator was. Somewhere in the show, there was usually some key witness, tracked down by Ben and his associates, who had seen someone enter the building where the murder took place, or throwing away the murder weapon, or having a fight with the victim the day of the murder. And there would come a moment in the show, with the chief witness on the stand, where Matlock would ask who they saw going into the building, and the witness would point to someone in the room and say “that is the man!” And the judge would bang his gavel and say “case closed “and everyone would thank Ben for saving the day again. Maybe you didn’t grow up with Ben Matlock, but Perry Mason, or Jack McCoy on Law and Order, or one of a hundred other courtroom dramas, so you get the picture.
The ironic thing is that in real life, we make pretty bad witnesses. Court witnesses are notoriously unreliable. Eyewitness accuracy studies abound in which they show that people don’t always see what they think they see. We are biased by attitudes about certain people, or race, or gender, or where they are from. On top of that, we just don’t pay attention well. I am not the first to point out that we are over-busy, over-hurried, and over-stimulated. There are so many things distracting us and vying for our attention that we don’t seem to notice things happening around us. How many times in the last month have you had the conversation with someone where one of you said “I showed you this thing, or told you this thing,” and the other person said, “You have never said that in your life.” Whether it is spouses, or parent and child, or teacher and student (“you never told me that we had a test today!”), all the time things are happening around us that we are too distracted to notice. I won’t ask for a show of hands, but how many of you have become distracted by your phones some time in the last 38 minutes? In short, we are often distracted…we are often biased by various lenses…many of us tend to make rather unreliable witnesses!
All of this connects with our text for today. We have moved from the Gospel of Mark into the book of Acts, which might be a welcome change from the ambiguity we talked about last week in Mark. Here, in Acts, there are plenty of post-Resurrection appearances, and Jesus is hanging out with the disciples, and the closure that wasn’t at the end of Mark is definitely here in Acts. The book begins with Jesus still with them, sharing final words with them, a final blessing before he leaves them. And at the heart of his message is this line that he wants them to be his witnesses.
The Greek word here translated as “witnesses” is a bit complicated. It can literally be translated in a legal sense: someone who was an eye-witness or “ear-witness” to an experience. Here is the Matlock or the Law and Order meaning: a person is put up on the witness stand in a legal trial because they somehow personally witnessed an event that helps demonstrate a larger truth, in a case in which the legal system is trying to determine that truth. They are legal witnesses to a thing that happened, that helps to provide evidence to the truth in a larger context. The disciples hearing this word would likely have heard it in that context.
But here in Acts, Jesus uses this word in a parallel but slightly different way than they were used to. “Be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” He is not telling them to be literal legal witnesses in a court case, clearly, but the parallel makes sense: “You have seen and heard things about who I am and what I have done. Therefore, I want you to stand up and testify that you have seen evidence of the larger truth that I am trying to convey. And not only that, but I want you to enter into the world—go all the way to the ends of the earth in fact—and witness things that echo that Jesus-way. See and hear and point out things that align with what I have been teaching you.” When Jesus tells them to witness, they are called on to watch and listen and share what they have seen and heard.
But then there is this third dynamic of the same Greek word. Here, by the way, is the big reveal for the morning. This word that we have been translating as “witness” is the Greek word martus. Now, this may mean absolutely nothing to some of you, but for others, it’s kind of an “aha” moment. About two years ago, we, as a church, began an initiative of highlighting the ministry of specific individuals in our congregation who lead us in a specific way, using this Greek word Martus. We have generally spent more time focusing on a chapter a little later in Acts—Chapter 6—where the Early Church noticed seven individuals who were doing the important work of serving the church, outside of the role of an apostle or official church leader. These were the folks who cared for the day-to-day operation of the churches. Caring for those who were often neglected. Serving in roles outside of institutional leadership. Organizing and empowering the operational processes. The Greek word used to describe these seven? Martureo, a variation of the same word martus. These are leaders who witness by their actions.
So here at First Baptist, we wanted to lift up these individuals as leaders, because we saw in them this kind of leadership. In fact, it is part and parcel to the long Baptist history of lay leadership. Baptists have highlighted and ordained specific individuals for a specific kind of pastoral ministry, but they have also seen many others whose work is vital to the church. In other words, with the Martus initiative, we have been reminding ourselves that all of us are ministers, not only those who are ordained pastors, or those who are leaders voted into positions of institutional leadership. About 18 months ago, we highlighted three individuals: Anne Munsterman, who is involved with a lot of our worship ministry, coffee ministry, women’s ministry, and more; Wendy Wheeler, who is deeply involved in our caring ministries, including Family Promise and Food Pantry and LINK; and Dawn Trent, who has been a beloved Sunday school teacher for a generation of kindergarten/first/second graders. Just like the Early Church saw the importance of these seven individuals, we highlighted the work of these three.
Now, when we did this, we tried to make an important point. This was not meant to be a “Volunteer of the Year” award, patting people on the back for doing a bunch of stuff. When the Early Church called out these seven in Chapter 6, and when Jesus calls out the disciples in his final blessing in Chapter 1, they weren’t congratulating these folks for doing a lot of stuff. These weren’t the Chief GET STUFF DONE-ers of the Church, and that isn’t why we chose these individuals. In fact, getting stuff done has the potential to be counter-productive to what Jesus seemed to be saying here in Chapter 1. Look again at the verbs of the first Chapter of Acts. They are not really doing or active verbs, as much as they are passive:
- Jesus ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait
- he told them that they were to receive power
- he wants them to witness what is being accomplished, not accomplish it themselves
- after Jesus left them, Acts said that they were devoting themselves to prayer
All of this is pretty passive stuff. Or maybe a better phrase is “actively waiting.” Acts 1 and 6 recognize the power of being martus witnesses to what Jesus has done and what is happening in the world that echoes that life. Then, and now in our church, they were and are recognized as eye- and ear-witnesses to that work. In caring for the needs of the church, they were and are witnessing in the world and to the world about what the Jesus-way was and is supposed to look like. They are to be “chief seers and hearers” among us. Martus witnesses see God’s work in the church because they are here all the time, joining in that work. They see and hear God’s work in the world because they have made it a point to build a significant part of their lives around this ministry. They demonstrate for us as a church NOT what it means to live a life of busy-ness…if we just recognize and lift up the busiest people in the church, we may or may not be recognizing the best witnesses. In fact, we may be lifting up unhealthy or dysfunctional behavior…being busy for the sake of being busy is not a healthy spiritual practice! But instead, they demonstrate what it means to see the needs of others…witness the needs of others…care for the needs of others—that is the Jesus-way. Martus witnesses demonstrate for us a life of watchfulness. They are the Chief Witnesses among us, leading us in that way of being.
So, 18 months ago, we lifted up Anne and Dawn and Wendy, inviting them to lead us in the way that they serve, and witness to the Jesus-way in our church. Then about six months ago, we asked you as a congregation to nominate more names that the Spiritual Leadership Team would consider as Martus leaders. And you did. In a few weeks, we will recognize two more names of Martus witnesses.
The first is Stacey Lamb. Stacey has long been involved witnessing God’s work at First Baptist in many ways. She has been involved in youth ministry, and currently is serving in our mentor program, caring for our young people, and one in particular, witnessing to God’s work in their lives. Also, Stacey has a gift that not a lot of us have: she loves to do fundraisers. When we raised money for the organ rebuild, she was a key leader behind the scenes helping us craft the message, talk to individuals, and paint the pipe that showed how much we were raising. Stacey loves to take a thing that she is passionate about, help others see that passion, and then help them see how they can contribute to it.
And our other Martus witness is Danny Trent. Dawn’s husband, and the other member of the Fabulous Teaching Trents, Danny is the teacher of the Serendipity adult Sunday school class, in which he basically teaches through the whole Bible, a chapter at a time, until they are done, and then they go back and start over. He has long witnessed to God at work through Scripture and in communal reading of the text. Also, Danny takes his life into his hands every month, serving in the Mobile Food Pantry. He is the guy who stands at the curve, directing traffic as folks drive through to pick up food. So as they are looking over here at the food and driving this way, Danny is right here, directing and praying that they don’t run him over.
Both of these folks are among the many witnesses to God’s grace and love and power here at First Baptist. I started to list a hundred other ways that they serve outside of the church, in our community and with denominational partners, before I realized that that isn’t really what our Martus initiative is for. It is more about how folks witness to God at work here at First Baptist, testifying to the Jesus-way, and then leading us in that watchfulness.
In a few weeks, on April 28, at the end of the worship service, we will highlight these two individuals and their witnessing work. We thought it would be appropriate, on the Sunday that we share a meal, and then share the work of our business gathering. These five—and many others—are examples of the ways that we all, as God’s people here at First Baptist, practice that witnessing, watchful work of Jesus in our world today.
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