In the name of the Risen Lord. Amen.
Evangelism.
It’s a word that makes us rather uncomfortable, doesn’t it? If I tell you that we’ll
be forming a group to foster the work of evangelism at St. Francis and in our
community, you’d get more uncomfortable than you do when I preach about money
and stewardship. We hear the word evangelism and we think of a theology that is
often deficient, harmful, and hypocritical. Evangelism reminds us of shady
televangelists, colonialism, and closing the blinds and hiding behind the sofa
when you see the young men wearing white shirts and black ties walking down
your driveway. I had a conversation a few months ago with someone about
evangelism and while they understood the need for it, they suggested that perhaps we
find a different word to use, perhaps something less uncomfortable and
politically charged.
But
the message this morning is that evangelism is our calling, and it is time for
us to reclaim that word and the values that go along with it. Throughout this
sermon, we’ll consider how evangelism is misunderstood, and how we might better
understand it, and therefore be able to claim our evangelical calling. And unless
you’re reading this on my blog, you can’t tell that the word evangelical in
this sermon has a lower case “e;” I am not speaking about what the media would consider
being an upper-case Evangelical Christian, but rather, our calling to follow
Jesus and share the Good News. In fact, that’s all that evangelism means; in
Greek, it means “good message.”
Evangelism
is not about conversion, it is not about saving souls, it is not about bringing
in more young families to the church, it is not done as a duty, or as a means
of obtaining cheap grace in which we are made right with God so that we can
then live however we see fit. Instead, evangelism is about hearing the
narrative of God, proclaiming your role in God’s ever unfolding drama, and
listening to the story of others.
Our
scriptural lens this morning is the reading from Acts. This is one of most
compelling and powerful stories in all of Bible. Peter is in Joppa, near modern
day Tel Aviv, and is being criticized for his ministry and eating with
non-Jewish members of the Way, people whom we would call Christians. His
critics saw Jesus as the Jewish Messiah, of the Jews, for the Jews, and by the
Jews. They were suspicious of outsiders joining the Way. And so Peter begins to
pray and has a vision of a sheet coming down from heaven, and on that sheet
where non-kosher animals and he was told to “kill and eat.” Immediately, he says
“no!” Perhaps he thought this was a test. Peter was a good Jew, and keeping
dietary laws was important to him. This was non-negotiable for him. In Bible,
things happen three times to Peter, so it happens two more times. And then he
gets it and he relays the message “what God has made clean, you must not call
profane.” They all understand that the Way was open to everyone, as the Holy
Spirit descends upon and fills us all.
This
was an extremely radical move for the early followers of Jesus. They went from
being a small group of followers, to a worldwide movement without borders. No
voter identification cards required; all are welcome to participate in
following Jesus. They thought they understood their mission, they thought the
story of God was the story of Israel, but they now saw that the story of God
was about all of Creation.
And
in this movement, the real need for evangelism emerged. The Gospel was now
being proclaimed to people who perhaps were unfamiliar with the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. People who had never seen the Temple in Jerusalem were now
invited to be baptized into the Body of Christ. And so the story of God needed
to be told. And as the Holy Spirit descended upon them, they claimed their
rightful role in the story of God as main characters. And the same is true for
us. We are all characters in God’s unfolding drama. There are no extras in this
drama, we all have important roles, we are all lead characters with speaking
lines. We might do some work behind the scenes from time to time, but the
spotlight is on us. And right now, our world needs to see more Christians
thriving in that spotlight instead of fumbling through their lines so
miserably.
The
first thing that we see in Acts is that God’s Spirit blows in new and
unexpected ways, and the Spirit moves in a way that touches us all. In Revelation
today, the one seated on the throne says “see, I am making all things new.”
There is a constant Creation going on. The Spirit continues to move and
continues to demolish boundaries that we have set up. The work of evangelism is
paying attention to what new things God is doing in our lives, and linking that
movement of the Spirit with God’s larger story for all of Creation.
And
the second lesson from Acts is that there is no one who is outside. The Gospel
is for the whole world. In our reading from John, Jesus tells the disciples in
his farewell dialogue that “just as I have loved you, you also should love one
another.” He reminds them of the love that he has showed towards them, and
tells them that one day soon, he won’t be around to show them that love, so it
will be imperative that they keep his love alive amongst each other. And this
is part of evangelism as well, loving each other. And if you love someone, you
will want to know about their story, and you will share your story with them.
What
all of these lessons this morning point towards is the fact that God is moving
in the lives of others. Evangelism is about trusting that truth. God’s Spirit
moves in everyone; God is doing a new thing through us all; God loves us all.
And much of the fear and trepidation around evangelism is alleviated if we can
trust that.
Evangelism
is not about taking God to new frontiers, as God is already there. Doing the
work of evangelism isn’t about telling people something that they don’t already
know; it is, rather simply, helping people to be aware of those things that
they have felt. If we truly believe that each person is created by God, that
each person is loved by God, that God longs for all of Creation to be in
harmony, that God’s Spirit moves among us all, then evangelism is helping people
to recognize and name that. Evangelism though becomes scary when our trust
waivers, when we lose sight of the fact that God is already moving in their
life, when we forget just how good the Good News is.
And
our world needs more Good News right now. But let me suggest that evangelism is
about you and me, and not about the propping up of the institutions of
religion. The religious landscape of our culture is changing. And many people are
meeting this change with fear and denial. Some people are proclaiming that we’ve
simply lost our way and need to get back to affirming things such as the Virgin
Birth and bodily Resurrection as simple fixes to declining church attendance.
Others will say that we need to transform ourselves to meet the needs of the
culture, so more and more coffee shop style churches are popping up. When I was
on paternity leave, I visited one of these hip, young churches and let me tell
you, it was the most self-serving and shallow attempt at worship that I’ve ever
seen. I won’t go into it now, we can talk more about that later if you want to
hear more. But there are “experts” everywhere trying to diagnose the problems
of the Church and recommend remedies.
Evangelism,
understood properly, though reminds us that we already have everything we need.
We have God’s story, as told through Scripture and the lives of faithful people
throughout the generation. And if we spend some serious time in prayer and
reflection, we can be aware of our own role in God’s story. And if we trust
that God isn’t just moving in our lives, but in the lives of our neighbors, and
family, and coworkers, then we can share our story with them. And not just
share our story, but perhaps more importantly, listen to their story.
What
evangelism so often gets wrong is that people assume that evangelism is about
telling their story more than it is about listening to the story of the other
person. If evangelism is about God’s story, we should be yearning to learn more
about God. Earlier this month, there was a great anniversary that sadly wasn’t
as widely celebrated as it should have been. April 16th was the 50th
anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr. writing The Letter from Birmingham Jail. It is one of the most powerful
pieces of Christian witness ever written, and part of what I enjoy so much
about that letter is that it gives a very powerful insight into the story of
God in the life of Martin Luther King. And if you ask me, it is worthy of being
called scripture, right along with St. Paul’s letter to the Romans,
Corinthians, or Ephesians.
Earlier
this week, one of our parishioners, Ryan Mails, met with Bishop Curry about his
discerning a call to ordained ministry. And as I worked with Ryan on the initial
stages of the discernment process, what I loved the most was hearing about how
God was moving in his life. And in hearing Ryan’s story, I learned more about
my own. When I learned how God moves in Ryan’s life, I couldn’t help but
wonder, “what if God moves in my life in the same way and I just wasn’t paying
attention to it?”
There
is no one size fits all story out there. CS Lewis, speaking about evangelism,
said “it is right to be concerned about the salvation of our loved ones, but we
should not demand or expect that their salvation should conform to some readymade
pattern of our own.” Remember, God does new things. When we listen in
evangelism, we learn not only more about God, but we learn about how God might
also be moving in our own lives.
Evangelism
is also about finding ways to take bold steps, knowing that there are no
boundaries to God’s Spirit, to show people that they are a part of God’s story.
One of our parishioners recently told me a wonderful story about their efforts
in evangelism. She was at an urgent-care clinic on Good Friday, and a man came
up to the window, upset that they wouldn’t take his out of state insurance. And
he’s particularly upset that the billing department was closed that day.
Neither he, nor the receptionist, knew what holiday it was that caused the
billing department to be closed. And so he sat down. And this parishioner asked
him “May I tell you about Good Friday?” And he agreed. So she told him the
story of Good Friday. And after she told him about the crucifixion, he shouted “what’s
so good about that?” But she continued to tell him the rest of the Easter story
and he concluded “well, that is good then, isn’t it.” Now this parishioner is
self-admittedly, not the person you’d expect this story to be about, and said that
evangelism is far outside her comfort zone. But she said to me “all I can do is
listen, share what God can do, and share what God has done in my life.” Amen. I
couldn’t say it any better myself.
Evangelism
can be a challenge, especially for those of us who were trained to not discuss
religion or politics in public, for those of us who are introverts, or don’t particularly
enjoy talking about deeply personal matters with strangers or mere acquaintances.
Evangelism though becomes possible and powerful when we trust two things, first
that God is already moving in their life; and secondly, that what we have to
share is indeed Good News, news so good that it would be selfish to keep it
ourselves, news so good that it compels us to share it, news so full of gratitude
and wonder that it drive us to be evangelical.
And
I hope that you can see that this isn’t about filling pews. A bishop recently
remarked that “when church people start talking about putting people in pews
[or bringing in new families] they are speaking the language of decline. If our
focus is to receive the life God has given to us, and live that transformed
life, then the question of evangelism will take care of itself.” It’s really a question
of going to church versus being the church. When you go to church, you come to receive
religious goods and services, you come to be fed, you get your needs met
through programs, and you expect trained professionals to lead you. But when instead
we trust that God is moving in our lives, we can instead focus on being the
Church. And when we are the Church, we are people on a mission, we gather to
worship, not be fed. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people say “I didn’t
get anything out of that service;” my response is “good, you weren’t supposed
to get anything about it. Worship is about God, not you.” But if we view church
through the lens of a consumer, we expect to get something out of our
investment. Instead though, when we are the church, we learn out to feed
ourselves through the Word of God, proclaimed during worship, and through the community
that gathers.
Evangelism
simply doesn’t work if we’re just trying to get people to come to church.
Membership campaigns don’t work, and are quite frankly counter-productive to
genuine discipleship. This sort of evangelism forces to focus on having strong
Sunday School programs, lovely music, and a pretty campus not for the glory of
God, but to make ourselves appear attractive to others. It’s a false
evangelism, it tells the story of us instead of the story of God.
Instead,
evangelism is vibrant when we focus on being the Church. When we plant our
roots deep within God’s story and then spend enough time in prayer to clearly
articulate how we, both as individuals and a community, are living as a part of
God’s story, then we are living as the Church. People these days aren’t looking
to join something else- we’re already busy with associations such as homeowner’s
boards, civic groups, scouts, PTAs at school, we really don’t need add just another
membership to lists. But studies and surveys consistently show that we, as a
people, are deeply hungry to belong and to have meaning.
And
our belonging is found in the story of God and our meaning is found in being
the Body of Christ. You have a story that I want to hear. You have a story of
God moving in your life that our world needs to hear. I’ve said enough in this
sermon, so I won’t share my story now, but perhaps we can listen to God’s
Spirit speaking through us over a cup of coffee sometime. As the refrain from
our Psalm this morning say, “praise the Lord.” In the coming weeks and months,
I’ll be gathering a group of parishioners to consider evangelism more deeply at
St. Francis. We’ll meet to discuss how we might better know God’s story, how we
might encourage deep listening with others, and how we might be able to
articulate and boldly proclaim our place in God’s story. And it is my desire
that this group will facilitate the work of evangelism throughout our parish,
and into our lives, our homes, and our city. It is my prayer that in owning our
stories as part of God’s, that we might be the Church in a world that deeply
needs more sharing of Good News.
The
book of Acts is the story of evangelism. It tells the story of God’s Spirit leading
followers of the Way into new truths. And the acts of the faithful aren’t
confined to the book of Acts; your action is part of the story. We see that
there are no boundaries to God’s grace and love. The work of evangelism is to
trust that this same Spirit is working in the lives of everyone whom we
encounter, and then sharing with them our Good News and listening to theirs. Might
we heed the words of the great hymn – “tell out, my soul, the greatness of the
Lord!”
