Text of a Sermon given at Central Congregational Church by Rev. Christine Ng on January 19, 2014 based on John 1;29-42
I’m going to use a scary word. Ready? Evangelism. Ready to leave yet? No? Good. Because it’s really not that scary.
I think most of us have a negative reaction to the “E” word because of experiences with those who knock on our door to hand us copies of the “Watchtower”; or accost us in train stations to tell us that we need to accept Jesus Christ as our personal savior; or because of folks like Lynette, who I worked with as a Girl Scout Camp Counselor when I was in high school, who was genuinely upset that I would be going to hell because I didn’t see God and Jesus the same way she did – and spent the summer trying to convince me otherwise.
But the gospel story we heard today is all about evangelism, and there’s none of that king of stuff going on – but there is a lot of pointing. Not finger in your face pointing – but pointing out. Noticing and sharing.
Noticing, paying attention to where God’s presence is seen or felt. Sharing that experience with others. It’s where evangelism begins.
In the story today it begins with John the Baptist seeing what he never noticed before – no matter how long he’d known his cousin Jesus. It’s certainly not the only time in scripture that people don’t see what’s been right in front of them all along; don’t recognize it’s true identity or worth; until something happens to reveal that to them – or someone points it out. It will happen again in just a few weeks when we hear the story of the transfiguration that concludes the season after Epiphany.
So there’s John, who has been going around saying that someone who ranks ahead of him is coming, someone special. And then the Holy Spirit points out to John that the special someone was his own cousin Jesus. He hadn’t noticed before.
So what does he do – he tells his disciples about it. He shares what he saw and then points Jesus out to them. That’s it. Andrew, one of those disciples who goes to check out Jesus, later does the same – he tells his brother Simon what he has seen. He points the way to Jesus. The very first act of discipleship in the Fourth Gospel is to see and share – or to use more “churchy” words – John and Andrew witness, they testify to what they have seen. They do evangelism.
This is a very important concept in the Fourth Gospel. The Greek word for “bearing witness” or “testifying” happens only once in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke and not at all in Mark. But in John it shows up 31 times.
But there’s a third element to evangelism in this story too – invitation. And we see three different examples. First, just by pointing Jesus out to his disciples and testifying to what he saw John invites them to go check it out for themselves. Then when the disciples approach Jesus and ask him a question, Jesus doesn’t answer it but instead issues an invitation, “Come and see.” Then after spending time with Jesus, Andrew goes to his brother Simon and testifies to his own experience, that he has “found the Messiah,” and then the text says “he brought Simon to Jesus.” And by that I don’t think the text means he dragged him kicking and screaming or in chains. I think he issued the same invitation Jesus did, “come and see.”
Noticing. Sharing. Inviting. That’s it. Not threatening, not coercing, not intimidating, not wooing, or wheedling or pleading. It’s not stalking someone until they try green eggs and ham. That’s not the Biblical model of evangelism. That’s not what Jesus taught. Just simply “come and see” – an invitation saying that you are welcome to come and see for yourself, make up your own mind.
That makes sense. I know if someone tries to force me to do something it becomes something I really, really, really don’t want to do. If I am forced to do something, it’s hard for me to give it a chance, to be open to it. I suspect I’m not the only one.
I read this story about a woman named Margaret and her dog, Patches, the Yorkshire terrier. Everyday when Margaret would open the medicine cabinet Patches would run and hide – under the bed, behind the claw footed bath tub, behind the recliner or the sofa.
Someone had told Margaret that Patches would live longer, have better teeth and a more beautiful coat if she would give the dog a tablespoon of castor oil every day. So every day Margaret would drag Patches out from whatever place he was hiding, hold him down, pry open his jaws, and pour a tablespoon of castor oil down his little doggie throat. It was a miserable experience for both of them – but it was for his own good, right?
Then once, during their daily battle royal, Patches’ rear paw hit the bottle of oil and sent it flying across the kitchen floor. Margaret put Patches down so she could get the mop to clean up the mess. But when she came back she found Patches lapping up the spilled oil. It wasn’t the oil Patches hated, it was being held down, forced to take it. Patches didn’t like being forced to do something any more than I do.
I believe that the more obnoxious and coercive forms of evangelism not only turn it into a dirty word for many faithful Christians, but pushes away precisely those who may want or need the good news we have to share. And I think that the author of the Gospel of John, sometimes called the “Fourth Evangelist,” knew that – as did Jesus. Because that’s not how they teach us to do it: “Here’s what I saw, felt, experienced. Come and see.” That’s it.
How many of you have invited someone to try out a favorite restaurant? Have any of you told someone about a good doctor you know, or a movie you liked? See, we invite and testify all the time. But how often do you say something like, “I go to Central Congregational Church over on Royal Lane. Want to come?”
I think another reason many of us are uncomfortable with inviting people to church is that we have this idea that religion is a private matter. But that’s a misunderstanding of Christianity – which has always been personal, but not private. Just the act of corporate worship, of coming to church, is a public act of testimony. And, as the text this morning shows us, testimony and invitation are important acts of faith, of discipleship.
Other times, I think we’re afraid to mention anything about church or religion because we might get into a complicated theological discussion.
We’re not sure we are up to the task, that we have the “right” answers. But notice, Jesus didn’t answer the question asked him in today’s story, he just said, “come and see.” All we can do is testify to our own experience, and invite others to see for themselves.
Then there’s my favorite – I’ve heard it a lot since I’ve come to Dallas: “Everyone I know has a church.” Yes, and . . .? So that means you can’t tell them what your church means to you? So that means you can’t issue a simple invitation? Do you think they will be insulted if you just say, “want to come some time”?
The practice of trying to lure someone from their church is sometimes called “sheep stealing.” That’s not evangelism as Jesus taught it. Jesus didn’t walk up to John’s disciples and say, “don’t follow him, follow me.”
But the longer I live in Dallas, the more I realize that there are more people who say they have a church than actually are really part of a church. Often you have no idea what their relationship is with their church. No idea if they have found what they are looking for, to use Jesus’ question, if the only time they've attended that church was on Christmas Eve five years ago. And I have found few folks are offended by an invitation – even if they turn it down.
When I first came to Dallas I got a phone call from a woman at a local Episcopalian church inviting me to visit their church. It was a cold call. I hadn’t filled out any card saying I wanted to be contacted me. She was just telling me that the church was there if I needed it and issuing the invitation. It was unexpected; but lovely. When I told her that I had, in fact, come to Dallas to pastor a church, she wasn’t embarrassed or put off, she just said, “Wonderful. Would you like us to pray for you and your ministry or for anyone else?” I’m not sure cold calling someone like that, is the best way to go, or worth the time and effort, but she sure left me with a good feeling about that church. So maybe it was worth it after all.
Your simple invitation, even if it’s turned down, plants a seed – a seed you may never see it grow, but it’s enough that you planted it. Sometimes people need to hear the invitation several times, in different ways, before they answer it. Advertising specialist say 7 times is the magic number, but I think it depends.
We talk a lot about welcome here at Central. About practicing the extravagant welcome of Jesus. It’s something we always need to work on, to improve, because it’s essential to our practice of faith and our identity as a church. Our new Welcome Team is just the most recent way we are trying to do that. Greeting is the most important job in the church, and one anyone of any age can do.
But this scripture is an example of how, to practice true welcome, we can’t just stand at the door and wait for folks to come on their own. How will people know to come if we don’t let them know we are here? How will people know they are welcome here – no matter who they are on where they are on life’s journey – if we don’t tell them? There needs to be something, or more importantly someone, to point us out, to point the way. Like John did for Andrew, and Andrew did for Simon. And sometimes, like Andrew, you have to go out to connect with others to issue the invitation.
As I’ve said before – this is why it is so important that we do the Pride Parade. It’s witness, it’s testimony, it’s invitation, it’s evangelism. It’s letting people know we are here, telling them they are welcome, and inviting them to come and see. It’s reaching out to people who have heard the opposite message over and over.
We may soon have another wonderful opportunity to testify to God’s extravagant love and to invite others to come and see. Along with another open and affirming church in our neighborhood, Midway Hills Christian, we have been approached by the leadership of Northhaven United Methodist Church to help gay and lesbian members of their church be united in marriage before God – something the polity of the United Methodist Church does not allow but ours does. And we have invited them to come here to be married, to come and see how we practice the welcome of God, not so that Northhaven members will leave and become members here, but because witness and invitation are essential to who we are as Christians. Because we are an open and affirming church, treating all God’s children as equal before God. Because the very act of welcome is an act of discipleship and social justice.
On this weekend when we remember the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. we might even say that the heart of the civil rights movement is welcome. Making sure all people are welcome – at the lunch counter, at the water fountain, in schools, in neighborhoods, at the front of the bus, at the top of the social and economic ladder. And working, doing what we can, so that no one has to fight for that invitation, but knows that it is open to all, because all are equally beloved children of God.
There are a lot of people in our community whose experience of Christianity and the church has been very negative. Their experience is that Christians are at best naïve and at worst downright cruel. That Christianity isn’t life-giving, it’s soul-destroying. That the church isn’t a place of safety, it’s a place of danger and pain.
But I hope that you who are in our pews here today have had a different experience. I hope you have seen a different Jesus, a different Christianity, a different church. Maybe, like John the Baptist, you too have come to know Jesus as the one who takes away – takes away shame, takes away burdens too heavy to carry, takes away despair. Hopefully you’ve felt that this is a place where you can get to know that Jesus, and connect with God through others seeking the same thing.
Think about it. Think about one reason you like this church, notice one reason you like to come here. Just one. I invite you to share that one reason with someone this week – maybe start during coffee hour, just for some practice – it’s a friendly audience. And think about one person that you can just ask, “want to come?” No pressure. Not so scary. Come to a social event like the pot luck dinner next Friday. Come to worship some Sunday, any Sunday. Come and see the African children’s choir, Asante, that will be back with us in February.
It’ll be great. Come and see. Amen.
