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Witness to withness

It starts with the story of a painter with a withered hand terrified by the voice that comes out of the storm repaint and thin no more even as his partners stare on in amazement as to what will happen next.

The story cuts to how Isaiah in his own time 600 years before the coming of Christ answers a call in the temple. When hearing the question if who to send Isaiah says send me, little knowing the lessons that needed to be learned along the way.

In my own life knowing an experience of being called when a teenager was not nearly enough. A few years into my study I experienced a depression that nearly derailed me. This concept of witness to withness came to me when things were at their worst. This is the story of how one can ride up out of the ashes to discover a renewed sense of call that could only come from God.
Witness to withness means reaching out with withered hand. The text I will share comes out of Mark chapter three. There is a man with a withered hand being approached in the Sabbath as the religious authorities of his own time look in Jesus says stretch out your hand which alluded to God's own rendering out of Exodus if reaching out God's own hand to reveal power to overcome oppression. Sure enough he is healed contrast how he was able to receive power that the Pharisees could not.
In my own story it was the joining together if myself with a man who had muscular dystrophy, he became my support and God's own hand and bringing me back to a sense of a call when it seemed too easy to give up rather than disappoint people in the church who had given me financial and various other encouragement as I began my education to be a pastor. I would come to find out this new friend I met in rehab was very much into church and he cheered me on as I reentered the same place where my emotional crisis took place to see me graduate cum laude, even further as I went to seminary from Massachusetts to Kansas City
Ii. Witness to withness is finding the courage and wisdom to stand with God even as God wills us to stand with others. This is the essence of what Emmanuel is. God is with us. In the incarnational presence of Jesus Christ.
A. There is a great book about how Satan uses shame to enslave us and Jesus shares by standing up to Satan we know forgiveness.
1. There is no need to have to turn to stones into bread when we can know God will provide.
2. There is no need to test God by doing something fantastic like jumping off a temple.
3. The is no need to serve Satan in our darkest moment as Jesus was tempted to do when we serve the only God who stands with us to learn about compassion and love.
B. The story of Thomas and Jesus in the Upper room illustrates this point. Thomas has a hard time believing Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus stands with him as he does with us and says see the wounds, reach out and touch. We hear Thomas confession "my Lord and my God". Indeed celebrating Emmanuel God with us.
C. During my journey into seminary I went to counseling and psychiatrists who took me off medicine I had been taking affirming my journey to reaffirm my call after my calamity. During this same time I made acquaintance of a man from Pakistan who asked that I stay with him while awaiting his family to arrive. In the course of eating his tasty food I get a call from my family telling my little sister was dying from a rare disease. The doctor was already preparing family for the fact she would die I was asked to pray. And I am so glad David was with me in those moments he took over and lead us into fervent prayer. I shall never forget his voice bellowing over my tears. I have decided to follow Jesus. And yes my sister lived, is currently very active in her church, has five children and if all strange coincidences married a man named David. If God is for us standing with us who can be against us?.
III Witness's to Withness is learning to embrace others as I am knowing myself to be embraced by God. Isaiah alludes to this possibility in the coming of the suffering servant Messiah.
A. The prophet Elijah had his own battles with depression and out of the midst of this asks the question of Elijah from a still small voice in the breeze. He goes on to tell him his work is not done. This was the grand truth that brought me to Erie from Kansas City. God had more work for me to do and people who could not wait to see me even as I would recover that same fervency for ministry when I got there.
B. In that sense I have and am encouraging others to know the embrace of God. I recall my first day of entering on to the church grounds. There was a man named Paul cutting the grass and letting me know the office was open. I had not even called in advance. And I was to find out this church was American Baptist. I had been an American Baptist all my life. And wouldn't you know it the pastor's wife was there to embrace me.
C. The pulpit supply class has been a source of hope and encouragement. I am not sure what I thought would happen. In the last segment their was much talk about partnership and I knew my sermon and knew I can to the right place. None of us can do the task alone we need each other to take care of the needs of God's people wherever they are. This is the essence of being a witness to withness and how it works. And I look forward to learning more as I continue my work with intellectually disabled, singing cantatas, taking care of my wife which was what lead me here in the first place above all ministering in whatever way God would have me serve.

Conclusion: witness to withness is reaching out to know the power of God, standing with someone who needs our support and prayers and experiencing the embrace if a partnership of leading others to Christ as we are indeed continuing to be lead. I would invite us all for a time of celebrating what has been preached in the fellowship hall. Thank you so much for being here supportive of the giving of God's message.