Can I Get A Witness?
Rev. Bonita Grubbs
In the middle of a sermon, many a preacher has asked the question, “Can I get a witness?”
I believe that the question serves three purposes. First, it is a way to determine if the hearers are awake and alert. Second, it is a way to connect preacher to people during the preaching moment. Third, it is a way to punctuate the truth that is contained within the message.
The truth...what is the truth?
The truth is what someone has seen, heard or experienced that is worth telling. It is neither gossip, nor hearsay. Rather, it is factual information that would add value or reduce harm to those who will listen.
It is also what the person is willing to share with others. Some witnesses are too hostile to say anything at all. Others fear the consequences, even though their conscience may direct them to speak. Still others, in the minority all too often, are quite willing to do so.
Finally, the very truth is what must be told. It may be a version of the truth, a slanting of the truth or the “truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God.” For Christians, it is the Gospel truth. That is to say, it is the truth that is proclaimed about and through Jesus Christ.
The Gospel truth is simpler, yet more complex than any legal or political truth. It is a truth that is based on faith in Christ and an approach to faithful living that takes us to a truth telling place.
But...where is that place?
It may be the church, where the faithful gather for worship, fellowship and service. However, it should not be restricted to that house. When most effective and powerfully done, such truth should be told outside of the church in other houses—the school house, the family house, the United States Congress, the White House, the House of Representatives and Senate House of the General Assembly and in the houses of local government and policy-making.
In fact, the truth should be told everywhere the truth needs to be told, based on reference one’s personal story, a statement of one’s personal faith journey or spiritual formation and growth experiences. That is a truth to which one can and always should be a witness, whether or not the preacher asks the question from the pulpit, “Can I get a witness”?
However, there is also a truth that describes God and God’s ways of justice and love and our righteousness indignation when they are missing from our society. Sometimes that truth is one that inspires, offering hope, restoring peace or producing joy. Other times, the truth irritates, especially when one is presented with the truth that challenges one’s thoughts of complacency or complicity.
Ultimately, the truth sets free and one is taken beyond the truth-telling place to a better place of truth living.
Therefore, as much good as it might be for the preacher to get a witness, it is much better for God to get one, to be a witness to the truth of our faith. God wants us to be a witness, for the spiritual salvation and transformation of our society and the individuals within it, and for God’s Kingdom to come to earth.
All we have to do is say yes when God asks. The rest is left up to God.
Rev. Bonita Grubbs is executieve director of the Christian Community Action, Inc., a not-for-profit ecumenical social service organization located in New Haven, Connecticut, whose mission includes providing emergency services to the poor, encouraging self-sufficiency, and working to change systems that perpetuate poverty and injustice.