Creative Team Building and Leadership Resources - In our Elements

What It Takes to Testify

Friday, December 16th, 2011

Fellow Passengers: This week’s Pastoral Passage* (I John 5:1-12) transports me to the alchemist’s laboratory, where the old search for the secret of immortality lives on. What is the right mixture of elements that can transform lead into gold, or our human bodies into heavenly beings? What can you stir into the cauldron to create the elixir of life that can empower you to overcome the world? According to John, the mixture was found back around 2000 years ago. The elixir included water, blood, and spirit. These three elements came together to produce Jesus Christ, and these are the elements that come together to testify to the power that enlivened Jesus, the power of love.

The word testify has an interesting history. It comes from from the old Latin word testis, “witness,” which, at the risk of being crude, is where we also get Gray’s Anatomy word testes. The linguists are unclear where this connection came from; some point to the ancient practice of grabbing private parts to swear an oath, such as the time in Genesis when Abraham told his servant, Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh: And I will make thee swear by the Lord. And then there’s that law God gave to Moses in Leviticus 21 that prohibited anyone from performing the function of the priest who hath his “stones” broken (presumably such a disabled priest would not be able to participate in sworn testimonies). The contemporary connection of these kind of stones with spunk, equating the presence of huevos with heroism, cojones with courage, lends itself to a deeper understanding of today’s Passage, as the early church leaders knew that it would take exceptional spunk and heroic courage to testify to the truth of God’s love in the midst of a hostile world. In essence, the Spirit, the water, and the blood have what the old alchemists called the “philosopher’s stones” necessary to testify that God has given us eternal life, and this life is embodied in the Son, Jesus. Anyone lacking the right stuff necessary to corroborate this witness is a perjurer, held in contempt of the court of Christ. The evidence of such contempt is in their lack of love, for love is exhibit A in making the case for God’s presence in our lives.

The word testify also shares an etymology history with our word testament. Which leads me to say how important it is for us not to leave this world “spiritually intestate” – without having executed God’s will in our lives. As executors of God’s first and last will and testament, which for John was found in the single word love, we are given the responsibility to let the love of Christ flow from our hearts, from our core, with core-age, with courage. We can find this heart, this courage, at the cross, and we can sing our way to the elixir of life. . . Rock of ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee, let the water and the blood, from Thy wounded side which flowed, be of sin the double cure, save from wrath and make me pure. While I’m singing, I’m going to head back to see what else might be found in Leviticus.

How about you? Where does this Pastoral Passage take you on your journey of faith? Feel free to comment.

Comments

  • December 16, 2011 at 8:30 pm

    AMEN!

    Comment by Sherry


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  • I John 5:1-12

    Daily Passages

    This Week's Theme:
    "Can I Get a Witness?"

    "This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth. There are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three agree. If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to his Son. Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts. Those who do not believe in God have made him a liar by not believing in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son."
    -I John 5:6-10

    *I love how we call snippets of scripture “passages,” and I love imagining these words as actual passageways that transport us to all sorts of places in our journeys of faith. Daily Passages is a weekday trek through scripture, connecting the ancient sacred words with everyday human words from personal history and culture: music, art, film, politics, literature, religion.

    As a part of In Our Elements, the blog most closely associates with the element of Fire. Think about how the Bible speaks of God’s word as a fire, and how it also describes the human tongue as a fire, for good and ill. These fiery passages connecting the sacred text with human experience remind me of the “floo network” in the Harry Potter series. This means of transportation in J.K. Rowling's wizarding world uses the fireplace and some “floo powder” to quickly get folks from one place to another. Unlike the Harry Potter floo network, though, the destination of Daily Passages is not known until we take the plunge into the fire.

    My hope in this blog is that a daily adventure through scripture and experience will provide a different starting point for our everyday conversations. What would happen if we took our cues for what we talk about each day from a passage of sacred text, instead of the set agendas we carry around with us each day? What if our talking points came from a story of Jesus, or a Psalm, instead of the talking heads on radio or reality tv? I’m not sure where that kind of shift would take us as a culture, but I’m betting that it would head us in a better direction than our present course. So join me in the fire, join me in the floo network of faith. Join me in the Daily Passage to God knows where. And if you find these passages useful or meaningful, please pass them on and share them with your networks of family and friends.