GOD’S WITNESS PROTECTION PROGRAM

Scripture: Acts 1:1-11; 2:1-13

Text: Lo, I am with you always, even to the close of the age.

(Matthew 28:20)

INTRODUCTION

In preparation for this sermon, I asked Shelley Davis, who is Ernie Davis’ daughter, works in our church bookstore and is headed this July to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, I asked Shelley if she could help me find out about the United States Government Witness Protection Program. Like most of you, I have seen a few movies about the mafia, those who testify against them and then are whisked away secretly to some distant place where they’re given a whole new identity, just in case somebody from “The Sopranos” is trying to do them in.

Well, Shelley did some research and this is what she found:

“The Federal Witness Protection and Relocation Program,” operated by the U.S. Marshals Service, was authorized in 1970 to provide for the security, health and safety of government witnesses and their immediate dependents whose lives are in danger as a result of their testimony against drug traffickers, terrorists, organized crime members and other major criminals. Since the program’s inception, the government has obtained an overall conviction rate of 89% and has protected, relocated and given new identities to 7,500 witnesses and more than 9,500 members of their families. In fact, not a single one of the participants who has followed security guidelines has ever been harmed while under the active protection of the Marshals Service.” (From “The United States Marshals Service,” Benigno G. Reyna, Director, May 2004)

I find that report not only helpful but also encouraging to anyone here today who might be thinking about getting into the program. The only condition is that you need to have some insider information about terrorists, drug dealers or the mafia, and that, of course, is not a situation that any of us would ever want to be in.

Now if you compare the government’s witness program, which promises security, safety and anonymity to people who are willing to testify, if you compare that with God’s Witness Protection Program described in the New Testament for people who are willing to proclaim their faith in Jesus Christ, it would appear, at first glance, that we are not guaranteed security, safety or anonymity. In fact, the Bible says there’s a good chance we might get into some trouble.

Last Wednesday night, as we studied Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, our teacher John Talmadge reminded us of what Paul wrote to the Corinthians about his missionary journeys as he testified and gave witness to his faith in Jesus Christ among the Gentiles in Asia Minor, Greece and Macedonia:

Five times I have received…the forty lashes less one. Three times I have been beaten with rods; once I was stoned. Three times I have been shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, from robbers, from my own people, from Gentiles, danger in the city, in the wilderness and at sea…in toil and hardship…in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure…and there is also the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches… (II Corinthians 11:24-28).

That doesn’t sound like the “security and safety” of a witness protection program to me. The truth is, if you look at the long line of Christian martyrs down through the centuries, going all the way back to those first disciples who heard the call of Jesus Christ to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8), in each and every generation since then, many faithful and courageous Christians have discovered what Dietrich Bonhoeffer, writing from a Nazi concentration camp, described as “the cost of discipleship,” which in his case, cost him his life.

Because we enjoy the freedom of religion in this country, hardly any of us will ever have to pay that kind of price. But the Lord continues to call all of us to be His witnesses, and that will require the sacrifice of our time, our energy and our resources. There is no such thing as “Christians Anonymous.” Each and every one of us is expected to share the good news about Jesus with others, and we can do that in a wide variety of ways.

Last Saturday, as Barbara and I together with two friends and a crowd of people headed toward Turner Field to watch the Braves game, there was a man standing by the main gate. He wore a tie and was holding a sign that said “Read the Bible.” He could have passed for a Presbyterian, and as we walked by, he caught our eye and said “God bless you, sir,” “God bless you, ma’am.” There was no request for money and no threat of burning in hell – just a smile and a blessing to wish us well, one by one by one by one…going through the gate.

Some might call him a crackpot, but Jesus Christ has called him to be a witness. And so can we all be as we reach out to others in ministry and mission, as we share what we believe with people who want and who need to hear the gospel, and as we invite our friends and neighbors and colleagues at work to come with us to this church where we are bold to proclaim that Jesus Christ is the center of our lives and the hope of the world!

II.

According to Acts 1, that’s the charge Jesus gave to His first disciples before ascending into heaven – You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the end of the earth. And as Luke tells us in Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit came upon them at Pentecost, those Christians were empowered to speak out to people from many different nations:

…Each one heard them (the disciples) speaking in their own languages. And they were amazed and wondered, saying “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is that we hear, each of us in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt and parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians – we hear them (the disciples) telling in our own tongues the mighty acts of God.” (Acts 2:5-13)

That’s the way it was long ago, just as it is today and even more so. We live in a pluralistic world with a kaleidoscope of races, colors, religions and nations. And if the past 2000 years of history tell us anything, we are becoming aware now, more than ever before, that a strident, in your face, my way or the highway kind of Christian witness will be met with fervent resistance and in some places, forceful retaliation.

The Presbyterian Church, which has learned some lessons about evangelism and mission, has a strong and long-standing international track record, a tradition of establishing schools, building medical centers, developing partnerships and working for peace, justice and reconciliation in other nations across this world. And in that context of caring for people and doing good, just as Jesus told us we should, we have been able to plant churches and proclaim the gospel of His grace and love.

The offering we have taken up this morning will help our sister churches in Iraq reach out and touch many of the hurting men, women and children in that war-torn region of our world. And our announcement today about meeting and exceeding our Mission Conference goal will enable us to strengthen the partnerships we share with our brothers and sisters in Kenya, Haiti, Brazil and Honduras, even as we explore this summer the potential of a new relationship with the United Church in Jamaica.

In all of those ways, and so many more, we in this church seek to embrace Christ’s call to be His witnesses to the ends of this earth. And what we can discover, as we reach out to others, is that they have many gifts to share with us. That is the Pentecost promise which the Lord gave to the church in the first century A.D., and through the power of His Holy Spirit, that promise is still coming true today.

III.

It is a promise of unity instead of enmity among all of God’s children in His human family. It’s a promise of peace instead of war, love which overcomes hatred, and hope that is stronger than despair. And as Christians and as Americans, especially on this weekend, it is a promise that we must not and cannot forget.

Dr. Will Willimon, Dean of the Chapel at Duke University, tells about traveling with his family in the south of England. Their car broke down and in a nearby small village they went and waited for the repairs. Willimon started to wander around the town and he found this cemetery next to a church and over in the corner there was a low brick wall enclosing fifty graves. He counted each one of them. The grass had nearly choked the plot but a large granite slab, set in the wall, bore the words: “We shall never forget your sacrifice”

They were the graves of fifty young men from New Zealand, all about 17 to 25 years of age. Willimon wondered who were they and why did they die in this little English village, so far from home? Willimon says: “There was no clue at the church yard, so I went to the town’s museum and inquired there. The attendant told me ‘Strange that you should ask. I have no idea, but given a few days I could surely find out.’”

Willimon said: “I wasn’t going to be there that long so I asked a couple of other people in town and no one knew, so I surmised that they were soldiers stationed there during World War I, perhaps victims of the flu epidemic in 1918. But,” says Willimon, “no one knew. The impressive inscription in granite was a lie. We had forgotten their sacrifice. No one remembered them.” (From a sermon “He Has Been Raised” by Dr. Will Willimon, Preaching Magazine, March – April, 1997)

Eight years ago in March I had a similar experience but with a very different conclusion. The place was not the south of England. It was, rather, the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem. As I stood there, looking at the open door, I realized as never before, that the One who had died and been buried there on Good Friday was not there any more on Easter day. He was alive! The peace and power of that sacred place took my breath away. And with tears in my eyes, I bowed my head and prayed “Lord, let me never forget what happened here and help me proclaim the name of Jesus Christ until the day I die.

On this Pentecost Sunday, as we celebrate the birth of the Christian Church, and on this Memorial Day weekend, as we remember the deaths of all those who sacrificed their lives for freedom, let us never forget that God’s promise of salvation and reconciliation is still alive and at work in us.

And to each and every person who is willing to proclaim it and testify that the promise is true, God’s Witness Protection Program will surround us in all that we say and in everything we do. That does not mean we Christians are exempt from danger or distress, suffering and sickness, pain or sorrow. But it does guarantee that we do not walk through the journey called life alone.

CONCLUSION

How do we know? Jesus told us so – remember? It’s in the fine print at the end of Matthew 28: Lo I am with you always, even to the close of the age. That was and is and always will be God’s Witness Protection Program. It covers you, it covers me, and it covers anyone and everyone who believes and is willing to receive the greatest promise of all!

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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