Third Sunday in Easter - May 4, 2003
- Acts 4:5-12 or Micah 4:1-5
- Psalm 98 or 98:1-5
- 1 John 1:1-2:2 or Acts 4:5-12
- Luke 24:36b-48
Since Easter Sunday, our gospel readings have quite naturally focused on post-resurrection appearances of the risen Christ. In today’s reading, the two disciples who encountered Jesus on the way to Emmaus are telling their story to the assembled, skeptical disciples. Suddenly, Jesus is in their midst, and he greets them with “Shalom aleichem” – “Peace be with you.” They are quite naturally startled and terrified. Their culture, like ours, expected its dead to remain dead. Therefore, the apparition appearing before them had to be a specter, a shade.
But Jesus proves they are not in the middle of a Holy Ghost story. Like he did to Thomas in last week’s gospel lesson, Jesus showed them his hands and his feet. He told them to touch him and see that he was flesh and bone, and not a ghost. Finally, he asked them if they had anything to eat. Then he ate a piece of broiled fish in front of them, proving to them and to others who would later argue that the resurrected Jesus was metaphorical, or a vision, that he was in actuality a living, breathing being.
Then, after opening their minds to understand the scriptures, he explains to the budding apostles their purpose in life, their mission in world, “You are witnesses of these things,” he tells them. When I read these words while preparing this sermon, they leapt off the page at me.
One of the most rewarding experiences I have had in ministry was three years as a chaplain for a police department in Iowa. It was so rewarding that when we moved to Kansas City, I grieved more at leaving that police department than I did at leaving the parish in which I was serving. I still carry their badge with me as a reminder that my chaplaincy with them has not ended, but just changed location.
Police officers are not the most trusting of God’s creatures, and I realized early on that if I wanted to be effective as a chaplain, I had to win their confidence...I had to win their trust. And the only way to do that was through exposure. I had to be with them as much as possible, in all conditions. So I spent every available hour sitting in the radio room, hanging around the detective bureau, but mostly riding around in squad cars with different shifts -- getting to know the officers, getting to know the city they protected, getting to know police procedures.
In the process, I was also exposed to some of the more colorful people in our community. One afternoon in particular, a family driving in their minivan called the police department and reported the vehicle in front of them was weaving on the street, leading them to suspect the driver was intoxicated. Several squad cars converged on the area, and pulled over the suspect vehicle, which was being driven by a prominent local attorney, well known to the local police for his proclivity to drive while intoxicated.
This afternoon was no exception. The attorney was very obviously intoxicated. He reeked of alcohol, and dismally failed every field sobriety test they administered. As he was handcuffed and placed in the back of our squad car, the officer I was riding with turned to me with a gleam in his eye and said, “You’re going to be a great witness!”
I hadn’t really thought about that before. It hadn’t really dawned on me that I could be called upon to testify to what I had seen and heard while riding along. That as a result of my presence, I could end up in a courtroom. It changed how I approached riding along. From then on I kept aware of detail, of the sequence of events, of what people were wearing, how they acted, what they said. At least in that respect, while I was in a squad car I ceased being a clergyman, a chaplain, and started being a cop.
Sure enough, several weeks after the attorney’s arrest, I received a call to stop by the police station -- they had a subpoena for me. This was excitement! Just like in a “Perry Mason” episode, I would be called to the witness stand and examined by the prosecution. Then cross- examined by the defense! I had no doubt the defendant was guilty, but how good a witness would I be? Could I relate what I had seen and heard and be convincing to a jury? Would my testimony stand up under cross-examination?
I never found out. The day I was to appear in court, the defendant pled guilty. I was subsequently subpoenaed a number of times to testify at a number of different trials, but I never testified. The defendants always pled guilty. Can you imagine how disappointed I was? Always a bridesmaid, never a bride. I have yet to find out how good a witness I would have been. I can take some consolation in the belief that the specter of me appearing on a witness stand in a clerical collar testifying about the defendant’s action caused the defense attorney to advise a plea bargain, but I still would like to know how good I would have been.
Jesus told the disciples in the locked room, “You are witnesses to these things.” In the passage from the first epistle of John, the apostle succinctly describes what that means. “We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life -- this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us...”
The disciples were called to be witnesses to the risen Christ, and we share their call. We share their mission. We are witnesses, subpoenaed to witness to the risen Christ. How good a witness am I? How well does my life testify to the resurrection of Our Lord? Would a jury find me credible? How credible would they find you? Years ago I heard a talk on Christian action conclude with the admonition, “You are being watched!” People are watching our lives, our actions, looking for a sign of the resurrection of Christ. Will they find enough evidence to convict?
Of course, the Greek word translated as “witness” in today’s gospel passage is the same word from which we derive the word “martyr.” That quaint twist of meaning drives home the fact that we are called to witness to the risen Christ with our entire lives, no matter what those lives may bring. Our cross examination as witnesses to the risen Christ comes when we enter into the time of trial referred to in the contemporary translation of the Lord’s Prayer -- when it no longer seems that we are the apple of God’s eye, when we are hit in the face by life’s inequities, when things seem to be insane, or at best random chance, when it seems have been abandoned. Then our Christian testimony is called to stand up to the cross-examination that misfortune and life can bring.
Are we credible witnesses to the risen Christ under the cross-examination of adversity? When we are subpoenaed not only to be witnesses, but to be martyrs to the resurrected Christ, as those in that closed room of today’s Gospel lesson were called, will our testimony be found convincing to those who have not seen what we have seen, and felt what we have felt?
May God grant each of us the grace to live our lives as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord, and to shout, “Alleluia, Christ is risen,” like we really mean it.