It's In Our DNA

This is a sermon that was preached on Sunday, February 11, 2018 at United Presbyterian Church in Sterling, KS.  Listen to the audio here.
Read Genesis 12:1-8 and Acts 1:1-8 here.

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Did you know there’s a place in London called the Ministry of Stories?[1]  I am thoroughly fascinated by this place.  It’s a place that’s designed specifically to 

encourage creativity and imagination.  It’s especially created with kids in mind, to help them gain confidence in writing and communication skills by being free to write stories.  The environment encourages this.  The programs encourage this.  Because learning to write and express ourselves is an important part of our development and growth.

Do you like stories?

It’s fun to use our imaginations to come up with stories, and to hear stories that came out of someone else’s imagination. We read stories in books, watch them on television, listen to them on the radio, see them acted out on the stage, and watch them in movies. I particularly enjoy science fiction and fantasy stories that involve made up worlds where the laws of physics are a little different from our reality. 

For me, these stories work best when they involve people developing relationships and dealing with situations in which their thoughts and feelings are like what we also experience, so that the setting can be incredible and fantastic and mind-bending while still conveying profound truths about our lives.  Stories like these become classics that get read and reread because they ring true to us, even though they came from someone’s imagination.

Maybe the most powerful stories are the ones that are about real-life events and real people who have experienced incredible things or overcome tremendous obstacles to accomplish amazing things.  Stories about real life engage us and encourage us.  They give us hope.

I got to talk about one of these stories this past week when I was reading to the first graders at the grade school.  They’re learning about the Olympics, and one of the ideas in the book I was reading to be was “underdog.”  The example they gave was the 1980 U.S. ice hockey team.

How many of you remember this? The team wasn’t expected to win much of anything, but then they DID win and kept on winning, and despite all the predictions against this, won the gold medal. 

This was back before the Berlin Wall came down and we were still in the midst of the Cold War, when Russia was still feared as the power behind that wall.  The team that the U.S. beat to win that gold medal was Russia.  The Russians were the favorites, and the United States victory that day was called “the greatest upset in sports history.”[2]  Nobody thought the U.S. even had a chance to beat Russia at hockey, just like nobody at that time thought we would see an end to the Cold War.  But we did, and maybe the one victory gave us hope that there could be the other.

Stories about real life give us hope.

We may not think about the Bible story of Abraham from the book of Genesis quite that way.  Ancient history doesn’t sound like real-life history to us.  It’s lacking in detail.  The timeline is not strictly chronological.  But this ancient story still engages us and encourages us, and gives us hope.

Just before Abraham’s story in Genesis, in chapter 11, we read about the generations between Noah and Abraham, so-and-so begat so-and-so, and so on…and, by the way, the text goes on to say, Sarah was barren and had no children (11:30). Remembering all that begatting, and that Sarah is barren, we come to God’s promise to Abraham, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you . . . and all the peoples of the earth will be blessed through you” (Gen 12:2-3).  Quite a promise to make to a man who has no children. 

In the midst of barrenness, there is hope. 

In the midst of barrenness, God brings a vision for the future.[3]

Q. Who was the smartest man in the Bible?

A. Abraham. He knew a Lot.[4]  (Ba-dum-pum)

We call this Abraham’s story, but really, this is God’s story.[5]  “God is not just a character in the story, rather God is the author who makes the story possible and whose nature and purposes are revealed in the telling of the story.”[6]

I particularly like reading this part of God’s story, because at a time in my life when I was asking, “Does God really call people to leave behind their childhood home and go to new places?” I read Abraham’s story and saw that God does call people that way.

God calls people to go to new places, and blesses them for their obedience and trust in him.

Abraham is remembered for this in the celebration of faith in Hebrews 11:

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. (Hebrews 11:8)

Abraham’s story has become part of my story, and helped me to understand how God is working in my life. Maybe the story of how God worked in the life of Abraham has also become a part of your story like it has mine?  Genesis 12 helped me and my family to follow God and leave California, and I have met others with similar stories.  In telling each other our Genesis 12 stories, we have been an encouragement to one another as we saw how God was speaking to us in similar ways.

There’s something else we learn in Genesis 12 about life in those times . . .  it was intense.  Literally.  They lived in tents. (Gen 12:8) (Sorry, couldn't resist...so I guess that means not sorry.)

We read in Acts how Jesus says something to the disciples that sounds a bit like what God said to Abraham.  Jesus says, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). It’s a call to go and tell their story.  A witness is one who tells what they have seen and heard.

Even though the disciples have spent three years with Jesus, heard Jesus teaching about the Kingdom of God and how different that is from earthly kingdoms, and they have watched him be crucified and die, and then be resurrected, and then had an additional 40 days of teaching, they are still asking, “Now are you going to take over the government?” (Acts 1:6)

I’m sure Luke must have forgotten to include Jesus’ giant sigh of frustration at the disciples’ question, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he also rolled his eyes, and maybe even said a little prayer, “Lord, help us.”

Ok, so maybe Jesus didn’t really get frustrated, but he did tell them not to worry about that, and then told them this:

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses …” (Acts 1:8).

And then Jesus was taken up to heaven, and, not surprisingly, the disciples are left standing there in shock, looking up into the sky.

Then two men dressed in white come talk to them.  This would be one of the few times angels appear to people in the Bible and don’t start off with the words, “Don’t be afraid.”  Why not?  Because what they have just seen makes the appearance of angels seem rather commonplace.

Those two men point out something else – don’t keep standing there looking up into the sky.  This isn’t the end of the story.  And as we see if we keep reading Acts, it’s just the beginning of the story – a new story, a story that continues today in each one of us.

What is your story?

What has God been doing in your life?

How has God given you hope?

We each have a unique story.  When we are trusting God and following Jesus and spending time with people, there will be times when people will ask us about our story, asking why we have hope.  With all that’s going on in the world today, with all the difficulties and problems we face, why do we have hope?

The Bible tells us to be prepared to answer that question:

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. 2 Peter 3:15

The church is a place where we have opportunities to tell our stories, and to work on being prepared to go out and tell our stories to people who don’t yet see that they’re also part of God’s story.  One of the wonderful things about small groups, like the ones we’re starting up next week, is that we get to talk about how God is working in our lives, and we get to help each other see how God working in each other.

Jesus tells us to go and be witnesses, to go and tell what we’ve seen and heard.  Jesus tells the disciples to go to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of earth.  They did literally over the course of the book of Acts tell the story in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and beyond, telling the story to those close to them, their families and friends, and in their churches, their synagogues.  And to people who they would normally avoid, the Samaritans. 

For us that means talking with people we know and who are like us, and also getting to know people who are not like us.  It means taking the time to get to know one another, and in the process of developing relationships, listening to their stories and telling our stories.

The disciples did what Jesus told them to do - they continued even beyond the Samaritans.  They went to the gentiles, which means they were telling everyone.  This story was for everyone.

We read in Paul’s letters and in some of the parts of the book of Acts that the disciples had major struggles over whether it was ok to include gentiles in their churches at first, and this gives us the impression that including all people in God’s gift of salvation was a new thing that came because of Jesus.  But really Jesus was reminding us all of what God had said way back in the beginning, in Genesis, to Abraham:

“all the peoples of the earth will be blessed through you”

This is a promise, and a prophecy.  It’s looking ahead to the children that Abraham didn’t yet know he would have, and their children, and their children’s children who would become the nation of Israel. 

And it’s looking ahead to the descendant of Abraham who would come centuries later and die on a cross and be resurrected for every single one of us, so that each one of us would know the blessing of God’s love and forgiveness. 

Each one of us is a descendant of that promise.  Each one of us is part of the blessing.  We have received it through our faith in Jesus.  It’s in our DNA.  And we pass it on by telling our stories.

Our stories are meant to be told.

How many of you have had clogged drains in your homes?  Think about what happens to the water in the sink or the bathtub when the drain is clogged.  It’s coming in from the faucet as clean, clear water, but as it collects in the tub or sink and as we wash in it, it gets cloudy and mucky.  The longer it sits there, the more yucky it gets.

The blessing of the gospel is like that.  The good news of the gospel is clean and clear water that refreshes our souls.  But if all we do is take it in, it gets cloudy and mucky like a stopped up sink.  It needs to keep on flowing.  We need to pass it on.  We need to tell our stories.

What is your story?  How has knowing Jesus affected you? 

Where have you seen God at work in your life?

Our stories might be big and dramatic, or simple and ordinary.  It doesn’t matter whether it’s a pretty story or a theologically correct story.  We just need to tell our stories, here at church, and to our families and friends, and to the people at work and school, and to people in new places.

Notice that before Jesus told the disciples about being witnesses, he says, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.”  That needed to happen first. They didn’t go right out and start telling.  They went back to that place where they’d been hanging out and they prayed.  Then the Holy Spirit did come quite dramatically on Pentecost, and after that they started telling their story.

That’s the first step for us, too.  Pray.  Let’s ask God to send us the power of the Holy Spirit to guide us and encourage us and help us to know when and where and how to tell our stories.

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^[1] http://www.ministryofstories.org/

^[2] Jim McKay, host of ABC Sports, as quoted here: http://mentalfloss.com/article/61728/20-things-you-might-not-know-about-miracle-ice

[3] The Expositor’s Bible Commentary

[4] https://margaretfeinberg.com/23-of-the-best-bible-jokes-riddles/

[5] Not a new idea, but expressed well here: https://relevantmagazine.com/next/blog/6-main-slideshow/1137-your-story-must-be-told

^[6] Willimon, William H.. Acts: Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (pp. 2-3). Westminster John Knox Press. Kindle Edition.

Jesus, Give It To Me Straight

This is a sermon that was preached on Sunday, July 30, 2017 at United Presbyterian Church, Sterling KS.

Read Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52 here.
Read 1 Kings 3:5-12 here.

Listen to sermon audio here.
Listen to the offertory here.
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The kingdom of heaven is like . . . swiss cheese. . . It’s very holy.[1]

In our gospel reading today from Matthew 13, Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is like….a mustard seed, yeast, treasure, a pearl, a fishing net. Five different analogies, and these after Jesus has already told about the four soils that we talked about two weeks ago, and the weeds that we talked about last week.  These analogies or similes give us different ways to understand the kingdom of God, the same kingdom we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer when we say, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

That word “kingdom” is common in the gospel stories.  Matthew tells us in several places that Jesus was preaching the good news of the kingdom (4:23), and that Jesus sent the disciples out telling them to go preach the good news of the kingdom (Luke 9:2).  The idea of God’s kingdom would have been familiar to people in that time who had heard the words of prophets like Isaiah saying it would come.  Daniel had said that God’s kingdom would bring earthly kingdoms to an end and establish God’s reign forever (2:44). 

The prophets had also made it clear that it is God who establishes kings and kingdoms.  God had promised King David that his house, his line would have someone on the throne forever (2 Samuel 7).  That promise referred to Jesus, but back then people thought it meant there would be another king like David, an earthly king.  They expected to be rescued from the Romans by someone with great power using dramatic action. 

Jesus was trying to help them see that the kingdom of God is not like earthly kingdoms.  So Jesus tells these parables.

1.     The kingdom of God is like a Mustard Seed

a.     I’ve been joking lately about how the Bible talks about fruits of the spirit but there’s never anything about vegetables.  I was wrong.  Mustard is a vegetable.[2]

b.     There are over 40 different types of mustard.[3]  The kind we planted two weeks ago with the kids is a very tiny seed that will become leaves for a good salad. Jesus refers to a different variety that will become a large bush or tree.

c.      The idea of birds nesting in its branches is likely a reference to Daniel 4:20-21 where Nebuchadnezer’s kingdom is likened to a great tree in which birds roost. Nebuchadnezer’s kingdom came to an end, but God’s kingdom will only increase.[4]. . and be a benefit to those who find rest in it.

d.     Basically, the idea is that where God’s at work, tiny things can have big impact.

2.     Yeast is also a tiny thing that has big impact.

a.     Something super fun about yeast – it’s a fun guy.  (A fungi)  I thought that might get a rise out of you.

b.     Before there was written language, people were already using yeast to make alcohol and bread.  It’s shown in Egyptian hieroglyphics.  But we didn’t really understand what it was until the 1860’s when Louis Pasteur used a microscope to see that it is a living organism.[5]

c.      The way yeast works is it makes gas and that’s what makes the bread rise.  So if anyone has ever told you that you’re full of hot air, you can tell them that so is the kingdom of God, and that’s a good thing.

Both of these parables encourage us to hang on to hope, and to keep on trusting that God is at work in our world and in us, even when we can’t see it.  In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul gives us this same idea in another way.  He says, God “is able to do infinitely more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us” (Eph. 2:20).

These two analogies, the mustard seed and the yeast, and the idea of the big and unexpected impact of even small faith, remind me of my favorite picture of Jesus. It’s in Revelation 1.  It’s not the nice, friendly Jesus with children on his lap.  In Revelation 1 Jesus is blindingly bright, his eyes are like fire, his tongue is a sword, and his feet are bronze.  This is John’s vision of the mighty resurrected Jesus.  For some people that’s a scary picture, but I find it comforting because when I’m afraid or worried about big things, I want to know that Jesus is bigger and stronger than my fears and worries.  My hope in the face of trouble is in this Jesus.  Strong Jesus.

3.     The kingdom of heaven is like treasure in a field.

a.     In Jesus’ time there were no banks, so burying stuff in the ground was a good way to hide it.

b.     This parable sounds like a pirate hunting for gold with a treasure map, except that the parable says that the treasure was found unexpectedly, not that anyone was hunting for it.

4.     The Pearl, unlike the treasure, was found after searching.

a.     God tells us we will find him when we seek him if we seek with all our hearts (Jer. 29:13). “Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.” (Msg version)

b.     We may not always know what we’re searching for, but when we do find God, in all the various ways that we find him, there is joy unlike any other joy.

These two parables probably made good sense to those who had given up everything to follow Jesus, like Paul who says in Philippians 3:8, “I count everything as loss compared with knowing Jesus Christ.”  Our relationship with Jesus is our treasure in a field, our pearl of great price. 

Jesus says in Matthew 6:33, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you,” a verse that characterizes well what we see happening in the passage that Christian read for us from 1 Kings 3.  In that passage, Solomon, who has just inherited the kingdom from his father David, has a dream in which God tells him to ask for anything (v5).  Solomon asks for pearls – pearls of wisdom.  The NRSV says he asks for an “understanding mind” (v9).  What the Hebrew words literally say is that he asks for a listening heart. What a great treasure!  It’s not surprising that God granted that request.

5.     The kingdom of heaven is like a net (funnicello. . . no, just kidding, a fishing net)

a.     The net gathers fish of every kind, but the kingdom gathers people.  All are welcome in the kingdom of heaven.  The Bible tells us in  Isaiah and Revelation[6] that at the end of time God will establish his kingdom forever here on earth, and everyone will stand before God.

b.     One commentator says that this parable is reminding us that “Jesus, unlike the Pharisees of his time, had no interest in forming a pure church composed only of the perfect.  God, in his good time, will judge” us all.  In the meantime, it is our job to tell everyone about Jesus’ offer of salvation and forgiveness.[7]

c.      The book of Revelation gives us a glimpse of what this future kingdom looks like.  In Revelation 4 it says there are people of every tribe and nation, every kind there is.  The more we are welcoming diversity, the more we are helping to build that future kingdom now.

After Jesus has told all these parables about the kingdom, he asks a question to check whether the disciples are understanding. “Are you getting this?” he asks.  And they say, “Yes.”

But I don’t think they really did.  Because later, after Jesus had died on the cross and been resurrected, just before he ascended into heaven, they asked Jesus, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6).  So I wonder what they were thinking about when they heard Jesus explaining with all these different analogies.  They didn’t quite get it.

What about us?  Do we get it?

Maybe we do and maybe we don’t.   The simplest, most straightforward explanation of the kingdom of God is that it’s here and now, and visible whenever we do the will of God.  God’s kingdom is in us, because the Holy Spirit lives in us, and the kingdom comes through us whenever we bring peace, joy, love, hope. 

But putting that into practice isn’t always simple and straightforward.  Knowing God’s will isn’t always easy.  And the kingdom comes even in spite of us.  It’s the work of the Holy Spirit, not the work of Melissa or any one of us.

We’re all a part of the work of the kingdom, and so Jesus illustrates this with one last parable.

6.     Every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household…

a.     This is the description of a disciple, a priest in what we refer to as the priesthood of all believers, which includes all of us. Because the Holy Spirit lives in us, we have a priceless treasure, a bottomless resource, continual access to God whose amazing power raised Jesus from the dead. 

                                                              i.      The power of love,

                                                            ii.      the brightness of joy,

                                                          iii.      the anchor of hope,

                                                          iv.      unexplainable peace,

                                                            v.      the strength of a kernel of faith. 

b.     When we think we don’t have any of these, all we have to do is say to God, “help me,” “guide me,” and we will find that we have what we need to take the next breath, the next step, and the next.

Why does Jesus tell so many different parables and what does this tell us about God?  It tells us that God wants us to know him, wants us all to be a part of his kingdom.  Jesus keeps on telling us about God’s love in different ways, and showing us in different ways,

·      so that we’ll get it and share it,

·      so we’ll grow in our understanding,

·      and grow in our relationship with him,

·      and tell others so that more and more people will come to know him.

I think Jesus tells so many different parables and gives us so many different analogies because he knows that we all think and understand in different ways.  We all have different personalities, different learning styles, different life experiences and backgrounds.  Some of us may grasp one analogy better than another. 

This is one of the challenges of being the church together.  We are all different.  Some of us do well listening to sermons. Some will need to be doing something else while they listen to stay on track – taking notes, drawing pictures, knitting. Some of us connect with God more through the singing or the prayer times.  Others of us get more out of the time before and after the service when we get to interact with people, or in the discussions in Sunday school or small groups or Bible studies.

One of our challenges is to keep trying to connect with God in different ways so that we keep connecting with God.  Figure out what works for you so that you are connecting with God daily.

In seminary, I had the opportunity to figure out my learning style.  There are lots of different models for this. I’m using VAK – visual, audio, kinesthetic.  I learned that I use all three, but that I am dominantly a kinesthetic or tactile learner, which means I need to touch things and interact with information.  Discovering this was a big AHA moment for me, so I was anxious to talk about it.  As I was telling one of the ladies at our church at that time, a retired educator, she said, “Yes, I already knew that.”

There are three things her response taught me: 

1.     One is that it’s fun to talk to people because you’ll find out they know lots of interesting stuff.

2.     Two is that knowing and being who we are rather than trying to be like other people is freeing and lots of fun and allows us to be better at doing what God made us to do – each of use uniquely created for our particular life.

3.     Three is that even if we think who we are is a big secret, it’s not.  It shows in our lives in big and small ways.  That lady knew I was a tactile learner because she knew what to look for, but also because there was evidence to see.  What seemed subtle or invisible to me was obvious to her.  It’s the same with our lives as Christians.  The more we let the Holy Spirit work in us, they more we are the unique individuals God made us to be, and the more we bring the kingdom of God with us wherever we go….in what we do and what we say, and don’t do and don’t say.  In what we talk about or post on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and in email.

The more the Holy Spirit works in us the more we bring love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self control with us wherever we go.

God is at work in our world building his kingdom.  I saw it at work this week on Facebook, when Debby Oller posted the obituary of her husband who died on Thursday.  Many of you know her because she used to attend here. I know her because she was the real estate agent that sold us our house.  Within minutes of posting the obituary, there was a long string of prayerful and comforting comments from people helping to bear the burden of her sorrow.

So the kingdom of God is like friends struggling through life together, helping each other get through the rough spots.

There are a lot of stories we could tell – analogies of how we understand what the kingdom of God is like, stories of how we’ve seen God’s Kingdom at work – in our own lives or in the world around us. 

What stories would you tell? 

How is the kingdom of heaven growing in you? 

Who can you tell your stories to? 

Who do you know who might need to know that there is love? 

            That there is hope?  That there is joy?  That they’re included?

Stories help us understand.  

But sometimes we just want to say,

“Hey, Jesus, give it to me straight.”

Maybe in response to that he’d simply point to the cross and say,

            “God loves you all so much that he sent me to show you.”

The more we say yes to him, the more we’re saying 

“thy kingdom come, thy will be done.” 

The more we say to God,

“build your kingdom here in our hearts, in our lives and in our world,”

…the more we find those moments of clarity,

 when we can see straight into the eyes of love.

Listen to the song by Rob Krabbe written in response to the sermon:

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[1] http://www.funny.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Funny.woa/wa/funny?fn=CDOJC&Funny_Jokes=Kingdom_Of_Heaven and of course I had to use this one because it’s very much like a pun my dad makes. 

[2] https://extension.illinois.edu/veggies/mustard.cfm

[3] https://www.thespruce.com/mustard-seed-types-1808086

[4] The Interpreter’s Bible, Vol.7, p416 (Abingdon Press, 1952)

[5] http://www.dakotayeast.com/yeast_history.html

[6] Romans 14:12, 2 Cor. 5:12, 1 Peter 4:5 All of us will give account.  Revelation 21 and Isaiah 65, according to Richard Mouw in “When the Kings Come Marching In” proposes that all will be brought into the kingdom to be judged, and God will make all things new.

[7] The Interpreter’s Bible, p421

Testify - Some Afterthoughts on Luke 16:19-31

“Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’” --Luke 16:27-28 NKJV

Last Sunday I preached about the parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16.  So often after the sermon, there’s still more to be said.  We just can’t fit everything into one sermon or we’d be there all day, right?  One area I didn’t cover is this request that the rich man makes for someone to go warn his brothers so that they don’t end up in eternal flames like he has.  It’s the rich man’s first act of selflessness.  Sadly it comes just a little too late.

The rich man’s request is that someone would go give solemn testimony to his brothers, to go be a witness.  Abraham points out that they have already heard the testimony of Moses and the prophets; they just need to listen better.

The final line of the parable is wonderfully rich with irony.

“And [the rich man] said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ But [Abraham] said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’” –Luke 16:30-31

The gospel stories are our witness, the testimony passed down through the ages, that Jesus died on a cross and was raised from the dead.  Jesus, the one who rose from the dead, is the one telling this parable.

How often do we fail to testify because we have the same thought as Abraham, “they won’t listen”?  And, sadly, maybe they won’t, but how sad not to try, even if we die trying.  Maybe that’s the idea, actually.  The Greek word Luke uses here is diamarturomai.  The root of that word is martýromai.  The English cognate word is martyr, a person who is killed because of their religious beliefs.  Sending someone to be a witness means whoever goes to tell must have seen and heard for themselves that what they have to say is true…and be willing to be killed for their message.

Hmmmm….this makes telling sound even harder.  Willing to die?  Is the message of the gospel really worth dying for? 

If it’s not, then what Jesus did was unnecessary.

One of the common conversations among Christians living their faith is that we can’t imagine how people without faith can handle all that comes with living this life. How do they have hope?  The reality is that it’s hard to know what you’re missing if you’ve never experienced it, or never heard about it.  People won’t be asking to hear about the gospel.  But they will ask how we handle life, and why we continue to have hope.

Honor Christ and let him be the Lord of your life. Always be ready to give an answer when someone asks you about your hope. –1 Peter 3:15

This is our testimony.  Not everyone will ask, and not everyone will listen, but if we tell, then at least we will have tried.  And who knows what will come of having planted the seed.

May God bless you as you testify to the resurrection through your words and your life.

Evangelism

When I heard these words, I sat down and wept, and mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven. (Nehemiah 1:4)

This was the verse for meditation this morning in the NRSV Daily Bible (Harper Collins Publishing, 2012).  The contemplation that follows from Richard Foster discussed the word penthos, a Greek word that is the equivalent of the heart break that Nehemiah expresses, and is also used to describe the people who were cut to the heart by Peter's words in Acts 2:37.  

After reading this, I am today contemplating what cuts me to the heart, and remembering the question we were asked to consider at our March presbytery meeting:  What breaks God's heart in your city?  I have been thinking that the answer in Galveston, my city, is homelessness, but today I am realizing it's deeper than that, and that the answer is much more broadly true for all of us:  evangelism.

I was very excited to discover this blog on Next Church about evangelism, and I encourage you to stop now and read this: click here

Maybe you're wondering what was exciting about this. I had been struggling with doubt, so for me it was confirmation that what I think God has been putting in front of me is indeed from God and the way to go.  

Today I discovered that there are more blogs that have been posted on Next Church about evangelism, so I encourage you to read this one by Jessica Tate, too:  click here

This blogger says we are in an evangelism crisis, and I agree.  Actually, my church has been asking for help with this lately and as their pastor I have been remiss in not moving fast enough to give them that help.  We have probably all had old school evangelism classes in our various pasts, but we have gotten beat up a little and we're hesitant to try those methods.  I really like that Ms. Tate encourages us to get back to basics - theology.  What do we believe?  What is it about our faith that is compelling enough for us to want to share it?

Ms. Tate's answer is: "I answered my friend saying that I believe the central story of our faith is the movement from fear and death to hope and new life. I see that most clearly in the cross and resurrection and believe that movement is what God is about. In a world that feels like it is always tipping between fear and hope, I trust in God’s movement and I need to regularly gather with other people who are trying to embody that trust and movement in their lives."

I like that.  I think my version would be something similar:  "I know that God loves me and loves you so much that he is continually sending us that message through beauty and compassion and more clearly through Jesus and the cross, and that Jesus' resurrection is proof that God can bring new life to all the places that death seems to reign."  Or something like that.

What would you say?  Where can you say it?  What do you think about this whole idea of an evangelism crisis?  Please comment below.

I'm going to keep on reading and talking about this.  Next Church has made evangelism their blog topic for this month, so there's lots more to read here: click here.  I'm excited about our renewed understanding of God's call to us to spread the good news.  I hope you are, too.