7 Easter - May 24, 2009

7 Easter B - Sunday after Ascension - 24 may 2009
Acts 1:1-11; Ephesians 1:15-23; Luke 24:44-53
The Rev. Miles Brandon

Prayer: Come Holy Spirit, come. Take my lips and speak with them. Take our minds and think with them. Take our hearts and set them on fire with love for you. In Christ's name, we ask it. Amen.

Today's in the life of the church we remember Jesus' ascension to heaven forty days after his resurrection from the dead that first Easter. This morning I want to focus, in particular, on the very important charge or mission that Jesus leaves with his disciples just before ascending to His Father in Heaven. In our lesson from Acts, Jesus says, "You [my followers] will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will he my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." This charge, this mission, to be a witness to God's love revealed in Jesus to the whole world, is not just for those people who loved and followed Jesus two thousand years ago. It remains ours as well. It is our sacred trust.

So this morning I want to talk to you about something that some people are not totally comfortable with-evangelism. Both the word evangelism and the word gospel are derived from the same Greek word which simply means Good News. An evangelist is someone who shares Good News with the people who move in and out of his or her life. This Good News, of course, is that God loves each of us so deeply that He entered our world of sin and death and made it and us whole again through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

You see there is an incredible amount of desperation, despondency, and depression in our world. I will never forget being at the wedding reception of a friend in the weeks that led up to the war in Iraq. The subject of our dinner conversation was the looming military action against Saddam Hussein and his government. A close friend of mine at the table was becoming noticeably upset. He eventually got up and left the table. I followed him to the parking lot and found him in tears. As I walked up to put a hand on his shoulder, he was repeating over and over, "There is no love left in this world...there is no love left in this world." When my friend looks at the world with the cold objective eyes of a realist he sees the incredible pain, exploitation, and suffering that abound everywhere.

Today, two thousand years after Jesus' resurrection and ascension, the world often seems as sinful and broken as it did when Jesus lived and breathed among us. In a time of unmatched scientific and intellectual enlightenment, much of modern life seems to be diseased. W.H. Auden writes, "The motives of the human heart are as crooked as a corkscrew." People's lives are injured daily through gossip and innuendo. The lists and examples of manipulation and human degradation could continue on endlessly. One child who shares in the suffering of this world, a boy who is homeless and lives on the streets, writes this poem, "I'm falling...no gravity in my life...like dust...swept under the carpet." We are a world in desperate need of a transformation from disease and ugliness into health and breathtaking beauty. We are a world in need of some Good News.

Now I don't mean to be a downer. And I apologize for spending so much time dwelling on the negatives in this world, but I just want to make the point, and I don't think it can be over emphasized, that we live in a world and we know people around us, even in our own family and among our own friends that need to hear the Good News.

As I stood in the parking lot with my friend who was weeping over the loss or lack of love in this world, my thought was that I would be right there weeping next to him with the same doubts and concerns about the world if it wasn't for one thing. That one thing of course is my personal conviction that despite the outward appearance of the world around me God has already worked in the death and resurrection of Jesus to defeat every sin, every evil, even the power of death. All of my hope is wrapped up in this really Good News.

So, back to the topic, how do we do whatever we can do to share with others the Good News of hope in, at times, a hopeless world? Well I want to suggest to you as tools for sharing your faith with others what I will call the three P's of evangelism. The three P's are presence, proclamation, and prayer.

First presence...by presence I mean that you and I are called to have a wide-ranging influence on the people groups with which we associate. We exercise that influence by living what I call a Christ-like lifestyle. Our baptismal covenant lays out for us what this Christ-like life style looks like: We are to seek and serve Christ in all persons loving all people we meet as ourselves. We are to strive for justice and peace among all people and all nations and respect the dignity of every human being. That means we are to play our part as citizens aiming to create better social structures, working for justice, peace and by helping abolish discrimination in our world. And further consider our daily lives. The fact is our greatest opportunity to influence others is by genuinely loving and caring for the people around us. At work or school, people should notice our consistency, honesty, truthfulness, hard work, reliability, avoidance of gossip, and desire to encourage others.

At home, loved ones will be most influenced by our service to others, our patience, and our kindness, far more than our words. Your Christ-like presence in someone's life will always speak louder than any words can. Now, exercising a Christ-like presence in the lives of those that surround us will lead eventually to people asking questions about your faith. When people do approach us with questions about our spiritual lives, we have the opportunity to practice the second P of evangelism, proclamation.

In his first letter, Peter writes, "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope you have. But do this with gentleness and respect." Now I have sat in Episcopal Churches leading bible studies or discussion groups many times and asked the question: Who is Jesus to you? And each time the response is typically the same-a blank stare. How can we share the Good News about God in Christ if we can't articulate the basics of what we believe? How would you respond if asked about your faith? This is worth considering.

And let me suggest one other important way we can proclaim the Good News to those who are open to hear it. That is to bring them right here-to our church. In this place, the Good News is proclaimed in our music, in the words of our prayers, in the reading of Scripture, in the preaching, and in the receiving of bread and wine. This is particularly important if you don't feel confident in sharing the Good News yourself. There is no greater Joy and no greater privilege than enabling someone to find out about Jesus.

The former Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, wrote an entire book on John's Gospel while on his knees asking God to speak to his heart. When he came to these words, "And [Andrew] brought [Simon Peter] to Jesus," Temple wrote a short but momentous sentence: "The greatest service that one person can render another." At the heart of bringing people to Jesus is the proclamation of the Good News.

The third P of evangelism is prayer and I end with this P because I truly believe it is the most important. Now I must confess something here I am through and through an Episcopalian. I am not comfortable with the idea of witnessing to strangers. I find that I become quickly uncomfortable around a Christian holding a wooden cross on some street corner passing out tracts that attempt to frighten people into faith. I have to be approached and engaged before I am comfortable talking about what I believe. So let me tell a last story about how prayer created an opportunity for me to share the Good News with someone in need.

I was on a plane and I was seated next a man who was clearly upset. I could tell he was quietly crying. I wanted to respond, but I was way too nervous to tap him on the shoulder and ask if he wanted to talk, and I certainly wasn't going to get his attention to ask if he knew Jesus. Nonetheless, my heart was really going out to this guy who was so clearly upset. So this is what I decided to do. I sort of leaned on him so that we were touching. I then silently prayed to God, "Lord, I want to be of help to this person, but I am afraid to disturb him. If you want me to talk to him, you are going to have to get him to say something to me first. Amen."

I then proceeded to just sit there leaning against this upset stranger. After a few minutes, the man turned to me and asked, "Are you a Christian?" I responded as if I totally expected the comment, "In fact, I am." The man proceeded to talk of his problem, which we offered to God in prayer, and, in that time, the man recommitted himself to his life in Christ. God answers prayers.

You and I are never going to convince anybody of anything. A person who is open to your proclamation of the Good News has already had their heart touched by God. Therefore, if there is a person who you want to share your faith with pray for him or her. Pray and keep praying and God will work in unimaginable ways.

Remember the three P's of evangelism-presence, proclamation, and prayer. People desperately need to hear some Good News-that they are deeply loved and wonderfully made by God that through Christ their story will end with life not death. This Good News, which Jesus has charged us to share, is the world's last, best hope. Amen.

© 2009, Miles Brandon