Acts 26: 1-23
NPMC
Psalm 34
11 Pentecost
Anita Retzlaff
August 16, 2009
Testimony: Encounters that Change Us
Grace to you and peace from God the Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus the
Christ. In a moment of quiet reflection and prayer we remember the millions who
have been displaced by flood and natural disaster these last days, the families
of those who have lost loved ones and the many volunteers and relief workers who
help people in the midst of such devastation. Let us pray. God of the Universe,
creator of things large and small upon this earth, hear the cries of those in
desperate need. May we be responsive to people who feel helpless and hopeless
right here where we live that we might be a part of wholesome and compassionate
community. AMEN
Spring and summer have witnessed our journey through the Book of Acts, following
the movement of the Holy Spirit from Pentecost through the formation of the
early church movement and into the ministries of particular people as they carry
forward the message of Jesus. In recent weeks the Apostle Paul has been our
focus and today we hear for yet another time in the Book of Acts the story of
his encounter with God as he travels to Damascus – a bright light, the voice of
Jesus and a commission. We too in this congregation have told stories of
encounters with God as our own members attest to the ways in which God’s
presence has changed them or significantly shaped their experience of daily
living. We are familiar with testimony.
Paul changes his mind. That is the gist of our scripture text for this morning.
He seems to appropriate this change of mind as simply and easily as he changes
his name from Saul to Paul. It happens suddenly and with no groveling. He never
says, “Sorry, I am afraid that I’ve got new information and I’m going to have to
shift the focus of my work.” There is no hint of guilt or regret at his change
of heart: an astounding concept considering that he has most recently been
hunting Christians and condemning them to death. Now he is out and about
preaching the Christian gospel. There is no lack of ego strength when it comes
to Paul; he goes about his business, whatever it is, fully convinced of his
righteousness and devotion to God. I can’t say that I have that kind of
unqualified certainty about the rightness of my actions.
So, totally unapologetically, Paul declares a new direction in his life because
he has encountered the living Christ, the resurrected Jesus whose Spirit lives
on in the community of Jesus’ followers. Paul is changed. And so as he declares
a new direction in his life Paul ironically “calls on” the secular authorities
to “call off” the pesky Pharisees. He appeals to the Empire, to Rome and its
representatives (King Agrippa in this case) to protect him from the wrath of his
formative faith community of which he had most recently been its darling, its
rising star.
Paul uses his past history as a defense for his change of mind; his change of
heart. He quite brazenly reminds King Agrippa that he has a sterling reputation
among his own people: “All the Jews know my way of life from my youth, a life
spent from the beginning among my own people and in Jerusalem. They have known
for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that I have belonged to the
strictest sect of our religion and lived as a Pharisee.” Based on his impeccable
commitment to the faith he expects that his religious community should change
their minds and continue to follow him now even into this new revelation. In
other words, Paul has been given a message from God, has had an encounter with
the divine and he is giving his testimony left and right with grave
disappointment that he is not being given a hearing among his people. In fact
they want to kill him.
All of this is to get to the point I wish to make today: Paul has an encounter
with Jesus and he is compelled to share the story. The voice of Jesus has
changed his life’s direction. We too have encounters with God, with the living
Christ, that change us and it seems to me that the strength of our community
life is dependent upon our sharing of these stories with each other. We have
been somewhat reticent to divulge such personal experiences because I think we
fear ridicule; that others will think that we have lost our senses, abandoned
rational thought. Credible spiritual encounters are not necessarily subject to
rational analysis or scientific verification. They are experiences that are
life-changing, often hard to articulate and require an expansive view of human
experience. These encounters are happening to us all the time and as pastors we
are privileged to hear these stories frequently.
There is however hesitation in recounting experiences of God because some of us
have come from a background where “testimony” was something forced and delivered
in a prescribed and stock format. Testimony was an entrance requirement and a
recitation of an identifiable time and date where Jesus came into one’s life -
as if Jesus had never been a part of a person’s life prior to that particular
moment? There are many ways in which we come to believe that God is with us. We
can all testify to our faith and to experiences that change us, that change our
minds, but these encounters are as individual and varied as we are unique as
people. That is the joy and delight of testimony; we hear of transformation and
new life in ways that we would never have imagined on our own. Stories of God’s
activities are often profoundly moving and affect us deeply.
When we speak of testimony in our congregational life, when we invite stories of
your encounters with God we are hoping to hear about God’s journey with you
however you have experienced and envisioned the Holy One in your life. Paul’s
testimony was passionate, unapologetic, forceful and direct. “This happened to
me”, Paul says, “and it is important that you listen to what I have to tell
you.” The question that this provokes is simply, “Is there anything of such
profound importance in your life that you are compelled to speak to others about
it?”
We do share experiences with each other; that is part of what it means to be
Christian community together. We report on conference happenings when we return
from an assembly; we dispense that information easily. We quite openly share our
family traumas and losses; when someone close to us is very sick or dies, we
have a place in our bulletin and newsletters to keep each other informed. As a
community we are a little less reluctant these days to share our experiences
with each other when our families go through separation and divorce, financial
stress and other losses and disruptions, though we still experience a fair
degree of shame and embarrassment. However, we remain the most reserved in
telling each other about our spiritual encounters and our experiences of the
Holy, of the transformative.
If we look to Paul’s story and the stories of faith that are a part of our
Protestant and Anabaptist tradition we shouldn’t be shy with each other. We have
many role models. In Paul’s situation, in the time of the early Anabaptists and
in many places around the world even today, people die because of their
testimonies of faith. Martin Luther, Menno Simons, Pilgram Marpeck, all of these
witnesses to God’s power spoke publically about the encounters that changed them
even though their lives were at risk. Their testimonies were unapologetic like
Paul’s.
I read a wonderful book this summer Pilgram Marpeck: A Life of Dissent and
Conformity written by Walter Klaassen and William Klassen. Pilgram Marpeck was a
16th century Anabaptist leader and writer who lived and testified in southern
Germany. His is a fascinating story and the most amazing to me is that he
managed to work within the civic structures of his society as well as live,
write and worship as a member of the newly forming Anabaptist community. Marpeck
had a good reputation as a city worker and engineer in Rattenberg, Strasbourg
and Augsburg as he worked in the forestry and mining industries of these towns.
He took on projects of transporting ore while in Rattenberg and later was
responsible for supplying timber to the cities of Strasbourg and Augsburg. He
even held a position as a member of a city council at one point.
He did not push the hard line quite like Luther and Menno did but danced in
between the life of city politics and encounter with God that made him a unique
man of peace and conviction. His life was often in danger but he managed to
witness to his new understandings of faith while utilizing his contacts with the
ruling elite of city politics to keep a job, spread the Anabaptist movement and
write about his convictions.
Like Paul, Marpeck harkens back to his upbringing and testifies in a 1531
document that he “was brought to the faith by…God-fearing parents in
Catholicism.” (Marpeck, p. 57) He pays tribute to the tradition in which he was
raised but goes on to testify to the encounters that changed his mind and
direction and changed him. We can value the good things of the training that we
have had in the past but we need not be afraid to build upon these foundations
and engage in some things new. Let the Spirit of the living God blow over us and
change us! Do not be afraid. Just as Jesus finds Paul and a missionary is born,
so Jesus finds Menno Simons, Pilgram Marpeck, David Toews and you.
Our testimony is important; as important as testimony has always been. For our
experiences of God and the revelation of Jesus Christ is not a given in our
culture – and it shouldn’t be. We don’t come to faith because the state demands
it or expects it; we come to faith because we are convinced that Jesus was the
Peace of God in the world. Just as Paul stood up to testify to the Empire of
Rome and the early Anabaptists stood up against the tide of state-enforced
religion we too stand up to speak against the indifference of a culture that is
profoundly individualistic and materialistic. Our challenge today is to testify
to the God who changes us in an environment where many have just given in to
overconsumption and overstimulation.
Our testimony matters. The encounters that we have with the Divine Presence not
only change our lives but change the lives of those who hear our stories. Our
witness changes us and changes the world – at least that is what Jesus promises,
that is what Paul preaches and that is how we maintain hope for our future. God
is gracious, God is love and God will never leave us without a testimony. It is
up to us to discern how and where we will share it. Thanks be to God. AMEN