You too can evangelize like the disciples!
Year
B, Epiphany 3
I am a pretty big fan of church
humor. I have a bumper sticker collection
devoted to such humor in my office. It’s not making fun of God. It’s occasionally poking fun at the silly
things we do as Christians. As you can
imagine, I love seeing those billboards on the highway with quotes signed by
God. There is a black background with
white letters. Among my favorites are: "That
"Love Thy Neighbor" Thing, I Meant It." or "Keep Using My Name in Vain And I'll
Make Rush Hour Longer." Of course there are some that are less
about making you laugh and more about making a point. One just says: “I love you. I love you. I love you.” What is interesting about these signs is
that they are not attributed to anyone.
No one takes credit for them.
There is no web address under them to direct you to a page where they
ask for money. Nothing. I find that admirable for numerous reasons.
However,
there is one billboard that I feel needs additional information. It just says, “Follow me.” As a Christian, we might look at that and
consider it to be a good reminder. But
if you are not a Christian, it would make no sense and probably not have any
effect at all. It makes a little more
sense on a bumper sticker when it says, “Follow me to St. John’s’,” but then I
always worry that some person will follow someone and find they are just going
home. That could get weird.
Yet
I wonder sometimes if we are just as vague in the Episcopal Church. We put out signs that say, “The Episcopal
Church welcomes you!” Underneath is the
Episcopal shield and the name of the church.
First of all, what are we welcoming people to? Are we welcoming them to
a church, worship, prayer, volunteer work? And what is up with the shield? If you are not an Episcopalian the first
question you might have is, “Why does a church need a shield?” Most Episcopalians don’t even know what it
means.
Both
of these things are attempts at evangelism and I would agree that any attempt
is a good one; but the big flaw is that they lack follow up. Episcopalians respond to the word evangelism
the same way they do to a flying object about to hit them…duck and cover.
Evangelism is sharing God’s love with others.
That’s really not that scary. I
know that it’s harder than it seems. Only 77% of Americans identify as
Christians and many of those do not engage with their faith. People are faced with many alternatives,
many different ways to spend their time.
Even some people who identify as Christians don’t go to church or pray
regularly. It is no longer safe to assume that if someone is not in church it’s
because they haven’t found one they like.
Yet
imagine how difficult evangelism was in Jesus’ day. There were two main faiths in the place where
Jesus was living. There was the faith of
the Hebrew people, Judaism, and whatever god the Romans were worshipping. There were smaller variations, but those were
the main faith traditions. Because of
that, it was pretty risky to move beyond those two options. It was not like now
when we have over 10,000 denominations to choose from. If you want something different, just create
your own church and you can do whatever you want.
When
Jesus called his disciples, he was not calling them to a new religion. We often consider the disciples or even Jesus
to be Christian, but that word did not even exist until many years after Jesus
died. These men were all devoted
Jews. Jesus was not trying to convert
them. He was simply asking them to
follow him. First he had to find the people.
Jesus,
being all knowing did not have to consult demographics or send out postcards
inviting people to hear about this new great thing. In the Gospel of John, Jesus’ first disciples
come from John the Baptist’s group of disciples. John the Baptist was with a couple of his
disciples when Jesus passed. He told them, “Look there is the Lamb of
God.” That was all these two men
needed. They followed Jesus. Jesus turned around and asked them what they
were looking for. They answered by asking
where he was staying. He simply said, “Come and follow me.” They followed him to his home and stayed with
him. The next day, one of the new
disciples (Andrew) went to his brother and said, “We have found the Messiah.”
Then he immediately brought his brother to Jesus.
So
far the disciples have found Jesus with the help of others. In the next story, Jesus finds Philip and
simply says, “Follow me.” (I guess when you are Jesus, you don’t need to
explain.) After spending some time with
Jesus, Phillip finds his friend Nathanial and tells him, “We have found the one
Moses spoke of in the law-the prophets too-Jesus, son of Joseph from
Nazareth.” Here Philip is meeting
Nathanial where he is. He’s Jewish and
knows all about Moses and the prophets.
This is a pretty compelling reason to at least listen to Philip. Nathanial needs a little more and questions
Philip. Philip realizes that he could
tell him all that he has seen and heard or he could introduce him to the man
himself. So he replies the same way
Jesus did when he was questioned by John’s disciples. He said “Come and see.”
What
we have here are four examples of evangelism.
The first two men to follow Jesus are encouraged by someone they trust,
someone who knows a lot about God, someone who has proved himself to be an
honest and faithful man. Andrew then
calls the next disciple, his brother Peter.
Since he was his brother, someone he knew intimately, he didn’t have to say
much….just enough to get his interest. Andrew
brought him immediately to meet Jesus.
The next example is an invitation from Jesus himself. The last one is a friend sharing with another
friend and then asking him to come and see.
That is how it all began for Jesus’ disciples and inevitably for Christianity
itself.
Some
of you may know that the number one reason that people visit a church is
because they have been invited by a friend. That seems deceivingly simple. It is and it isn’t. In all of these examples with the disciples
the men were offering both a reason and an invitation. Jesus was the only one who got away with
“follow me.” The others needed to tell the person why they should come and
see. Not only did they provide
information and an invitation, they went with the person to find Jesus.
No,
it’s not as simple as inviting someone.
You need to consider your relationship with that person. If it’s a good friend, you might be able to
say, “Hey, I really love my church and I think you might too.” If it’s more of an acquaintance, you might
have to talk to them about why you go to church. That is one of the reasons I have asked
people to write about their reasons and submit them to the bulletin. Today, you can read why Bill Saunders
attends. Then after you have invited
them, you need to take the next step and say something like, “It’s kind of hard
to find the parking lot, perhaps I can pick you up or meet you somewhere
convenient.” Then that person is accountable to you and they don’t have to walk
in alone. They are guaranteed that they will
know at least one person and that is a huge comfort for people.
I
hear from a lot of people that we want to grow the church. I understand that and agree. But what we are really looking for is
disciples of Christ. We don’t just want
numbers to sit in the pews and turn in their pledge on time. We want disciples. People come to church for all kinds of different
reasons and I encourage you to talk to people about that. But as a community, I think we need to
consider why we want people in our church, more important why we want people in
God’s church. Let’s consider that in the
context of the Gospel we heard today.
Jesus wanted people to know him and follow him. So how are we, as St. John’s Episcopal Church
going to help people know Jesus and be disciples of Jesus? If we can talk about
that, then evangelism won’t seem nearly as frightening.
No comments:
Post a Comment