An Episcopal Look at Evangelism

       I have a poster on the wall in my study that says “Preach the Gospel at all times, if necessary use words.”  Most times that maxim is attributed to St Francis of Assisi, but who knows.  The message of course is that actions speak louder than words and possibly that how I live my life day to day says more about my faith than the words I offer from this pulpit.  .  What is the quote from the Epistle of James, “Faith without works is dead”.    I think that Paul might have taken exception to that though.  Because today Paul seems to be bent on directing the early church to get out and tell their neighbors about their faith.  “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”  Paul is calling the church to evangelism. 

That is not a very Episcopal word - at least not until recently.  Evangelism is something that Episcopalians just don’t do.  I mean until just a few years ago it was hard to get anyone to offer the peace past their own pew…  Much less talk about their faith to a stranger.  But I think our reticence to open proselytizing has more to do with uncertainty about our faith than it does with being unwilling to share the value of being in a Christian community.  I think we struggle with what to say because we know that when it comes to words like faith, belief, and salvation there seem to be more questions than answers.

I grew up and I suspect many of you did too immersed in loud and intrusive preaching.  “Pulpit bangers” Anna Lou called them.  They seemed to be so sure about what they were saying.  Often the message was do abc and you will live in heaven with Jesus – do xyz and you will be doomed for eternity where there will be gnashing of teeth.  Somehow that just never sat well with me.  If I’m truthful it doesn’t sit well with me today either.  For me faith is not just right or wrong acting, faith is not adhering to some ecclesiastical doctrine or creed.  Evangelism is not climbing up on a soapbox proclaiming my opinions in order to scare passersby into belief in something or someone. 

Faith is for me at least, a lot more about confidence.  Confidence in the goodness of God and confidence about the beauty and holiness of creation.  Faith is about feeling deep compassion for those who suffer loss or pain – compassion for our earth as it groans under the abuse of uncaring stewards.  Faith is about trust that God is present in our lives and in the lives of others.  Faith is the willingness to trust that when the turmoil is greatest and the waves overcome me, Jesus will reach out a hand and steady me.

Romans is one of Paul’s most developed theological statements.  Paul is wrestling today with whether we cling to the Law, the Torah, and act our way into salvation or whether it is through our faith in God and belief in Jesus as the fulfillment of the Law that we enter God’s reign.  Simply put Paul is addressing the struggle of what it is that makes us God’s Beloved children.  Is it our faith in Jesus or is it our adherence to the Law or some other code of conduct?   And Holy Moly we are still trying to sort that out over 2000 years later. 

Paul was a Jew through and through.  He was raised to center his whole being around the Law.  He was not taught to wander around from town to town converting folks to Judaism.  But when Paul encountered Jesus on that road to Damascus all that changed for him.  Paul had come to be aware of God’s immediate presence in his life and his role – Paul’s role - in waking folks up to the goodness of God as it is manifested in Jesus.   Paul woke up to the importance of not only caring for the injured traveler, but also to sharing his experience and his knowledge of Jesus with everyone he met. 

But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent?”

When I was doing my clinical pastoral education unit in seminary, my supervisor – a very wise Irish nun – reminded us before every shift that “we would not be bringing Jesus with us on our rounds, because he was already in the room waiting for us.”  Evangelism, whether it is accomplished through word or deed, is not about us saving the world.  God in Jesus has already done that.  It is up to us to have faith in the inherent truth of God’s love as it is revealed in Jesus and to live our lives in that faith.  ….We cannot save others by our actions or by our words regardless how eloquent.  In fact we cannot even save ourselves. 

Some of us find comfort in sitting back and letting God do the work of salvation.  Others will not be content in their faith without finding practical ways to make a difference in the world.  Faith vs works.  Athanasius argued with Augustine – Luther argued with the Catholic Church.  Baptists argue with Methodists.  And Episcopalians…  Well….. we try to find the middle road. 

But, I think Paul is reaching for a new paradigm here - particularly for the Jews to whom he was preaching and perhaps for us middle of the way folks.  The community of believers was no longer to be confined to the boundaries of the “Law”.  Nor were believers to sit idly by.  Instead the community of believers is called to live with the confidence that at the center of our faith is Jesus Christ and we are bound by our call to spread that knowledge through word and deed.   

Evangelism is not about determining who is in and who is out.  It’s not about converting someone to our particular doctrine or our particular agenda.  Evangelism is about beginning with the One who calls us as His own, redeems us, forgives us and loves us without limits or boundaries and preaching that Gospel message with both word and deed.  This kind of evangelism demands that we live our own lives in the truth that God’s love is for each of us – no matter who we are or how we look or how we are called to be.  The One at the center, Jesus Christ, spreads limitless ripples of compassion and forgiveness, it is an infinite, undulating web of love.   Creation is filled with the abundance of God’s Love and all of us are called to ensure that others know that abundance, too.   

 How are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard.  Evangelism is not a dirty word – it is about turning our faces into the wind as God drives our boat and inviting others to join us by witnessing in word and deed to the saving grace, mercy and love of Jesus Christ.  We are not responsible for the outcome of the introduction.  That is left to Jesus.  We invite others by living out those promises we made at our baptism.  By standing for justice, by loving others as ourselves, by prayer and by service and yes by proclamation.  That is how the church grows, that is how our world is changed, that is how our lives are transformed by God. 

Buen Camino!!!

Overcoming the familiarity

 

During Lent we gathered as a group on Wednesday evenings to share a simple meal and to reflect on the most familiar of Christian prayers.  We took this Lord’s Prayer line by line and reflected on what each petition means to us and how we might better incorporate the words into our lives.  The conversations were rich and flowed easily. 

Our curriculum was one provided by the Society of St John the Evangelist in Cambridge MA.  Each week one of the brothers offered a reflection from which we would begin.  Unexpectedly, in one reflection there was a rendering of the Lord’s Prayer that really resonated with us.  Br Sean Glenn, SSJE wrote, “…as with anything we hold in close proximity, the very familiarity of these words can sometimes obscure the prayer’s true power to transform us, and can dull the challenge by which it seeks to summon us beyond our illusory sense of self-dependence…” 

Familiarity can be the death knell for creativity unless we stop and really consider what we are saying.  One way that resonated with us we changing the wording of the prayer.  Now if experience has taught me anything it is that the liturgist can mess with anything on Sunday morning EXCEPT the Lord’s Prayer.  So it is with great trepidation that I agreed with the group to use a new version of the prayer during the Easter season.  So heads up St Patrick’s there is uncharted road ahead.  Here’s a sneak peak…

Holy One, our only home,
Blessed be your name,
May your day dawn,
Your will be done,
Here, as in heaven,
 Feed us today and forgive us,
As we forgive each other,
Do not forsake us at the test,
But deliver us from evil,
For the glory, the power,
And the mercy are yours
Now and forever.  Amen

 Buen Camino

Mother Jane

Easter is Lurking

 Alleluia, Christ has risen!

Image attribution: JESUS MAFA. Easter - Christ appears to Mary, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=48389 [retrieved April 6, 2023]. Original source: http://www.librairie-emmanuel.fr (contact page: https://www.librairie-emmanuel.fr/contact).

The Lord is risen indeed!

I know, not quite yet, but the lilies will soon lurk in the side foyer, the bulletins are ready, and spring is upon us. The promise of new life and new possibilities abound. On Easter Sunday we will bring out the alleluias for all to proclaim. It will be a glorious celebration and I truly hope that you will choose to come and rejoice with us at St Patrick’s—with your church. I pray that this Easter will be a time of awakening, in each of us, the hope and the promise of the Resurrection of Christ.

Church is the people of God. Church is the people at work welcoming the stranger, filling the soup bowls, teaching the music, making the palm crosses, and hiding the Easter Eggs. It is the person hanging the banner on the sign, polishing the brass, singing the songs, telling the stories, leading the Bible study, ironing the linens. It is the person who stops to help—even though no one is looking and there will be no reward for doing so except a glad and grateful heart. And yes, “church” is also the congregation gathered in that “building” to sing and to pray, to ask forgiveness, to give thanks, and to worship God. 

Up from the grave... John 11

             John 11 is a familiar story.  We hear it a lot at funerals.  Lazarus, Jesus’ friend has died unexpectedly and Jesus – perhaps fearing for his own life delays in traveling to Bethany for the funeral.  When he does finally arrive, Martha and then Mary come to meet him and all of those people who were there to console the sisters came with them.  Jesus was their teacher, their rabbi, their friend.  He was the one who they expected would make sense of all of this horrible grief that consumed them. 

Martha’s grief turns to rage and she accuses Jesus of being uncaring.  Jesus, in what is for me one of the most poignant revelations of God’s nature, is overcome by grief himself and begins to weep.  But he doesn’t make excuses for his tardiness.  Instead he turns the conversation into one that is grounded in faith.  He reassures Martha that in fact death is not the ultimate outcome of life and he gently and lovingly recalls the mystery of his relationship with God and the hope for salvation that comes from that mystery.  And then he instructs the crowd to roll away the stone.  Once again Martha chides him.  “But Lord it has been 4 days – there will be a stench.”  Jesus insists and then with the authority of one who knows that with God there is always the opportunity for renewal - he calls Lazarus forth out of the tomb.  

It is short-sighted to see this as just a story about Lazarus coming back to life.  Salvation is about transformation in this life.  Transformation of self and more expansively transformation of a very broken world in this life – not salvation as preparation for the next.  This lesson invites us to imagine the possibility of resurrected lives all around us – in ourselves, our families, our community and the world.  Resurrection for those who desperately need it right now. 

William Barclay, a 20^th century theologian from Scotland said that the miracle stories of the Bible are symbols of what God can do today.  He was severely criticized for his expansive understanding, but it certainly resonates with me.  How we live into these stories of God’s action in our world will determine whether or not the church becomes a 21^st century prophetic voice or whether it becomes tired and obsolete and simply fades away into oblivion.  We cannot sit back and wish that young people appreciated the music and liturgy that molded our childhood.  We who believe that with God all things are possible, including new life from dead and buried souls, must affirm our beliefs with our actions.

Today John invites us to stand at the tomb of Lazarus and to imagine a possibility beyond the stench of a decaying body.  To dream about the possibilities for transformation of our lives and the lives of those around us in unfettered and limitless dimensions.  To listen for the voice of Jesus calling us to come out of our blindness, our captivity, our lifelessness and to experience the joy of a resurrected life.

Let us pray:  Gracious and loving God, give us ears to hear you when you call to us, eyes to imagine the possibilities of a life lived in You, and the willingness to step up and unbind those whom you awaken this day.  Amen

I was blind, but now I see... Amazing Grace

          

The Gospel lesson for Year A Lent 4 is the story of Jesus healing a man who had been blind from birth.  It is told in such detail that I can just imagine it on stage - perhaps as a high school drama production.  It would serve that venue well because there are so many characters in it, arrogant church leaders, nosy neighbors, mis-informed disciples, petrified parents, a blind beggar, and two cameos by a traveling Rabbi who clearly has stepped outside the norm of church operations.  Before you read any further follow this link in order to read the passage from John. 

The story is ripe with paradox.  Things are just not as they seem to be.  A blind beggar who has the audacity to instruct the church hierarchy in their own law, healed by a disappearing Rabbi who likes to play in the mud, and on the Sabbath too.  Shame! Shame!   What is this world coming to?  It seems that the restoration of this beggar's sight reveals more than the landscape.  This enlightenment reveals the spiritual blindness of all of those around him who are so caught up in their own manufactured world that they fail to see God's light shining in Jesus.

Being able to see requires that we disclaim all that we hold dear in order to claim life in Christ. We must turn our backs on our own self-centered path and follow Jesus into an unknown place where we are forgiven and where we are to be beloved of God.  It will be a relationship that is kindled through healing, through forgiveness, and through restoration.  Jesus tells us that things will come about through God’s actions, not through our adherence to old worn-out pre-conceptions or through our manipulation of events.  God must be a facilitator if the relationship is to be whole and those who want to be able to see clearly will need a change of heart that allows us to respond appropriately and faithfully when God calls us. 

 Buen Camino

Mother Jane

Living Water - Troubled Water

  

John 4: 5-42

        Our bodies are made up of about 60% or so of water.  Without a doubt water is central to every aspect of our lives.  So it is not surprising to me our scripture uses images of water to describe such things as faith, eternal life, safety, provision, even power. 

This week we have the second of that series of stories from John that I mentioned on Sunday.  Each one of them is laced with profound images:  darkness and light, blindness and seeing, confinement and freedom, isolation and inclusion.  John’s gospel is at its core a gospel of love, telling us through signs, stories, and witness of the profound and expansive love of God that is revealed to us in Jesus.  And John uses the images of our everyday lives to describe that love.  Daytime and nighttime, water, eyesight, wells, burial…  these stories are poignant for us because we know them intimately.  We live them everyday.   

Jesus makes a profound statement to the Woman at the Well:   

"If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, `Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."

Living water….  Troubled water…  Water through which God’s gift is given.  The Living Water that Jesus gives transforms her life and in transforming her life, transforms the lives of others.

  We should not open our mouths to drink of the Living Water unless we are ready to be transformed.  This water that Jesus gives comes with a cross.  It comes with the cross of foregoing our own wants and desires in order to provide dignity, respect, and love to those who are in need.  It comes with the cross of pain and hurt of illness, poverty, or isolation.  It comes with the cross of responsibility to envision God’s hope for the world and to work for that end.  It comes with the cross of uncertainty that comes with living our lives with faith in God rather than in worldly power.

I’m good with that!  Buen Camino,

Mother Jane

Oh Nichodemus!

 

John 3:1-17 Reflection I read somewhere – have no idea now where I read it… the story of a newly minted convert who went to see the local Christian missionary. He asked the missionary this question. “If I did not know about God and about sin—would I go to hell?” “No”, said the missionary, “not if you had no knowledge of God’s commandments”. “Then for heaven’s sake”, said the convert… “Why did you tell me?” I can identify. It is often easier to shut out the ways in which God calls us to new life than it is to open ourselves to change and hopefully growth. And yet there is this yearning—this need—this desire to enter into a deeper knowledge and understanding of God and our relationship with God and each other. And isn’t that really why, year after year, we enter into this season of Lent hopeful that this year all of the fasting and penitence will lead us to some sort of corrective that will make us more worthy of God’s (and everyone else’s) love. That’s where I believe the missionary got it wrong. It’s not the lack of knowledge that relieves us of responsibility. It is the act of Love, bestowed upon us by God, in many and miraculous ways, that welcomes us into forgiveness and healing. This week in the SSJE email Br Geoffrey reflected on the feeling of shame that is a debilitating contributor to our life as Christians. He wrote, “I wonder if you have some action of which you are ashamed, which you keep remembering, replaying, again and again. Maybe God is longing to reassure you that God remembers your sin no more, and you should stop remembering it as well. You may not be able to forget, but you can stop remembering and trust God’s word.” The story of Nichodemus does not end with the encounter in our Sunday Gospel. This Sunday we will explore the other “Nichodemus encounters” But for now I think that we all yearn for some answer, some formula, that will lift our shame and our longing for love and acceptance and map out a plan for action. But life is not like that. We are not in control. That’s Jesus’ guidance for Nichodemus.  Jesus is telling him that there is no mitzvah (deed) or bracha (blessing) that offers God’s love. To be “born again” is to recognize our spiritual dependence on our relationship with God and to open ourselves to receive God’s love. Buen Camino, Mtr Jane Image attribution: Pittman, Lauren Wright. Born Again, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57087 [retrieved March 2, 2023]. Original source: Lauren Wright Pittman, http://www.lewpstudio.com/.