Bearing Witness to God

I came across this quote in Dale Rosenberger’s book, Outreach and Mission for Vital Congregations, and could not stop thinking about it. He said,

“The question is not whether Christ-like acts finally do any real good or make any real difference. The questions is whether we believe in Christ enough to step out and participate in his victory when all of the countervailing evidence in the war between good and evil seems to suggest that perhaps God does not ultimately have the final word over our human destiny… In truth, God is the primary and permanent actor on the world stage of redemption and reconciliation, and we are merely God’s instrument and agents, taking our turn in our own passing generation. (83)”

I have been pondering recently what it means for the two primary human emotions to be Love and Fear. If I look at this quote from Rosenberger with these emotions in mind, then to ask what difference I make is a question out of fear focused on me and what I might loose by acting and what I might not gain by acting. To trust in Christ would then be to act in love toward others regardless of the risk to my self. This is interesting because the command given more than any other in the First and Second Testaments is, “Do not be Afraid.” And Jesus sums up all of God’s commands in two, “Love God with all that you are, and love your neighbor as your self.” Paul echoes the importance of love when he says all that remain are faith, hope, and love and the greatest of these is love.

Faith then is not about us saving the world but rather about us bearing witness to God as God is in the process of redeeming and reconciling the world to God. We are not here to convince people of something about God but rather to live and name where we see God moving and acting in the world around us. The former can easily collapse into an act of fear and the later hopefully will become an act of love. The later also requires us to step out of ourselves and care about others. This makes sense if our Savior is one who was willing to die for us all on the cross. If Jesus was willing to loose his life, then maybe we might need to loose ours as well?

One of my favorite definitions of love comes from a guy named Baer who said that imitation love is, “I like how you make me feel.” And real love is, “I care about your well-being regardless of what I get out of it.” Baer argues that all relationships start out with imitation love but if they are to last and mature they need to transition into real love. Imitation love is an act of fear that we do not see or name as such. We act toward another person and they respond by patting us on the back. The affirmation quiets our fear of being alone and lonely so we act in more ways for the pat on the back. We feel in love but what is really happening is that we are being affirmed in ways that hide our inner fears. When we stop performing for the pat on the back and the affirmation stops coming we feel like love has left us. Real love comes when someone does something for us without expecting anything in return.

I think Jesus got this and calls us to not fear and to love and see how the world opens up to us when we don’t let fear guide our actions but instead risk ourselves in loving others around us, truly loving them without any expectation of a return. We don’t do what Jesus calls us to do because we have too; the truth is we don’t have to do it at all, otherwise it is fear and not love behind what we do. We live faithful to Jesus’ calling which is to live a life of love because our faith frees us to do so.