Whatever Happened to Witness?

Sometimes familiar words become suddenly strange. All of a sudden, the spelling looks weird and the meaning becomes completely opaque. Often this happens with familiar, everyday words that we use all the time, can usually be relied on and safely taken for granted.

This happened for me recently with the word, ‘witness’. It rolls off the tongue in so much UCA language, ‘worship, witness and service’ being the most common phrase. We also talk about ‘Life and Witness Consultations’, The Basis of Union talks about the church bearing ‘witness to the unity which is both Christ’s gift and his will for the church.’ The Basis also describes the church ‘as an instrument through which Christ may work and bear witness to himself’.  

‘Mission plans’ are a frequent and familiar artefact in most congregations and presbyteries (not to mention the corporate world) and those plans, in my experience, are usually seeking to give some definition to the ways in which the church responds to the needs of the community – service, in other words. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anything like a ‘witness plan’ and I wonder what it would or could encompass. 

I’m not sure that dictionary definitions are all that helpful, but my working definition is along the following lines: a witness is someone who sees or hears something and, as a consequence, says or does something (testifies) publicly. 

On the basis of this, admittedly very unsophisticated, definition, the church has developed both formal and informal opportunities for disciples to ‘witness’. In baptism, for example, a developing relationship with Jesus Christ leads a disciple to make a public commitment in the gathered community.  

The key baptismal questions are: 

•       Do you repent of your sins?
•       Do you turn to Jesus Christ?
•       Do you commit yourself to God?

In the community of disciples, these commitments are the foundation of the congregation’s life and, for every disciple, always a work in progress. 

Less formally, once upon a time in the church, there was a practice of regularly inviting congregation members to share their ‘testimony’ at different points in their faith journey but I’m not sure how common that is these days. 

The witness of the church itself – individual congregations in local communities, national churches, whole denominations or the one, holy, catholic church in which we all participate – is, at first glance, a much more complicated phenomenon.  

Or is it? 

Certainly, over the last few decades, we’ve learnt that the church is not immune from the ‘sins of the world’ as it has been properly called to account by the community at large, and publicly called to repent of its failure to protect the most vulnerable, of the propensity to protect powerful perpetrators, of the cynical scheming to protect wealth and assets.  

The Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse in Australia is merely one example of the church being questioned about the integrity of its witness when these circumstances were brought to light. The baptismal question - Do you repent of your sins? – is as relevant for the church as a whole, as it is for individual disciples. 

I love the remark that’s usually attributed to Tertullian, ‘…see how these Christians love one another…’ I wonder how often visitors to the church or outsiders would have the experience of a community of people so animated by the love of Jesus that it was noticeable and worthy of comment?

It has sometimes struck me over the last thirty years of ministry how reluctant or embarrassed we are to speak about Jesus at all. I’ve been in many UCA worship services where Jesus doesn’t get a mention, let alone the starring role. This baffles me. If we can’t even talk about Jesus, we surely aren’t witnessing, so perhaps the second baptismal question is particularly pertinent for the church to address for the times we’re in? 

It's very challenging in a world that keeps telling you, ‘you’re worth it’, to entertain the idea that we’re not really the centre of the universe. We’re living in a time of rampant individualism where everyone’s ‘truth’ is valid, and all the old absolutes are crumbling to dust. It takes a huge and continual act of courage and persistent, faithful discipline grounded in living the baptismal questions, to step out of the limelight and let the light of the world shine in all our darknesses. So this third baptismal question is not a small commitment for individuals or for the church responsible for witnessing in the world to God - Creator, Son and Holy Spirit. 

Food for thought for Lent perhaps? I commend to you the Lenten resources in Uniting in Worship Book 2 to assist your reflections. 

It has sometimes struck me over the last thirty years of ministry how reluctant or embarrassed we are to speak about Jesus at all. I’ve been in many UCA worship services where Jesus doesn’t get a mention, let alone the starring role. This baffles me. If we can’t even talk about Jesus, we surely aren’t witnessing, so perhaps the second baptismal question is particularly pertinent for the church to address for the times we’re in?