The importance of your witness

By Pastor Paul Hauschild

Chatfield and Root Prairie

Lutheran Churches

The philosopher Soren Kierkegaard once told a story about a circus that caught fire. The flames from the circus fire spread to the fields surrounding the circus grounds and began to burn toward the village below.

The circus master, convinced that the village would be destroyed and the people killed unless they were warned, asked if there was anybody who could go to the village and warn the people. The clown, dressed in full costume, jumped on a bicycle and sped down the hill to the village below.

“Run for your lives! Run for your lives! A fire is coming and the village is going to burn!” he shouted as he rode up and down the streets of the village. “The village is going to burn! Run for your lives!”

Curious villagers came out from their houses and shops and stood along the sidewalks. They shouted back to the clown, laughing and applauding his performance. The more desperately the clown shouted, the more the villagers cheered.

The village burned and the loss of life was great because no one took the clown seriously. After all, he was just a clown.

Interesting story, don’t you think? Here is a challenging interpretation. Like the clown in the story, pastors and priests play a role in the church that sometimes can dampen or even negate their message when they go out into the world. People think, “Well yes, of course the pastor would say or do that.” When you think about it, the world may not take pastors or priests as seriously in everyday life as they would… YOU.

I believe it’s up to ALL of us – each ordinary person – to take Jesus seriously and to go and share the gospel to the community and world (Mark 16:15). We can’t expect the world to take the gospel seriously if we are unwilling to tell others about Christ and to be witnesses to his power, forgiveness and love. Ask yourselves this week in prayer: “How can I live out God’s will in the way I speak, act and respond to people and circumstances?” And then let God work through you!

God bless your week!