A little more on witness

Tom Long's recent book, Testimony, (thanks to Richard Wright) is really a continuation on this theme. Long's thesis is that the idea of witness is really a whole way of living in the world--our speech, our worship, our conduct, our work. The idea is not new with Long. He sounds this note in his earlier work, The Witness of Preaching.

Telling, and living, truthfully is foundational. As Long recounts early in Testimony a Flip Wilson story: "As the comedian Flip Wilson used to reply when asked about his religous preference: 'I'm a Jehovah's Bystander. They wanted me to become a Jehovah's Witness, but I don't want to get involved.'" Here is the critical moment. The crisis of decision rests here. Does this Jesus stuff make sense? Do I embrace it?

I know what a lot of people think about this. It is a matter of trust and all too often trust has been blown. Why trust in some line, some story when I've been taken down some primrose path of illusion before. To really believe and practice the absurdity of the gospel story takes a leap of faith.

That's where church comes in. The church, as a community, becomes the safe place for us to wrestle with our doubts and to practice our faith. Sunday becomes the day to practice this Christianity stuff--the words, the values, the actions--with other Christians. And if we do our practice faithfully, maybe we will do better with our trusting and with our truth-telling on Monday.

Talk about witness only raises the stakes for the church. Its not enough to hold a set of doctrines. The idea of witness means we'd better be living it. Because if we aren't living Christianity (no matter what we may hold as doctine), there is no Christianity present.