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Week Two: "What The Church Has To Give"
This weekend we continue our Bearing Witness sermon series with a story from Acts, chapter 3.
Peter and John are on their way to the temple when they encounter a man who has been unable to walk since birth. Every day, he is carried to the temple gate where he asks those passing by for help.
There is one small detail in the story that is easy to miss. Acts tells us that Peter looked intently at him and said, “Look at us.”
Before Peter heals him, before Peter tells him about Jesus, before anything else happens, Peter sees him.
That may be one of the most important things the church has to give. We live in a world where it is remarkably easy not to see one another. We walk past people. We scroll past people. We categorize people. Sometimes entire groups of people become almost invisible—those who are poor, lonely, unhoused, elderly, disabled, struggling, grieving, or otherwise pushed toward the margins of our communities.
But Peter stops. He looks. And in doing so, he recognizes the person in front of him not simply as someone with a problem to solve, but as a human being worthy of his attention.
Followers of Jesus are called to do the same.
In Matthew, chapter 10, Jesus sends his disciples into the world to proclaim the good news and to bring healing and restoration wherever they go. They are to give freely because they themselves have freely received.
That remains the calling of the church.
Sometimes what we have to give is practical assistance—food, shelter, transportation, financial help, companionship, or another tangible need. Sometimes it is the good news of Jesus Christ spoken into someone’s life. And sometimes the first gift we offer is much simpler: We stop. We look. We see.
We recognize the person before us as a human being created in the image of God and a beloved child of God. And perhaps that is where bearing witness begins. Before we can share Christ’s love with our neighbors, we first are called to notice that they are there.
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