“Go therefore and make disciples…” (Matthew 28:19)
Bishop of the Southeastern Synod of the ELCA, Dr. Ron Warren, used to speak freely about the “Great Commission” as a foundational call for every Christian. He once preached that “Jesus calls for the church to go out to the world, not for the world to come to the church.”
If we sit and wait for people to come, we will sit virtually alone.
This Sunday, we are talking about God calling us out—out of our shell of shyness and out attitude of “letting-someone-else-handle-this” as a way to avoid this being called out by God. Jesus goes to where we are and calls us. This Sunday, in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 4, our Lord goes to Simon and Andrew, as well as James and John, and He makes no bones about it: “Follow Me!” and the fellows drop what they are doing and go with Him.
Years and years ago, people DID go where the church was. If it was located miles away – downtown – faithful followers might drive past a number of other churches to get to that one that held their interest and dedication. Those days are past. Long past.
Now – churches are being located closer to where the populations are. As more and more people relocate further and further away from the center of metropolis communities, so are church buildings. Taking a play out of the “Jesus Evangelism Playbook” we were doing it right. We, the church, were trying to meet the people where they were. Like inner city department stores – who were closing left and right downtown in order to relocate into the bright, shiny new mall systems (again, out where the populace was), so were churches.
It also used to be that you could go and knock on a few doors in surrounding neighborhoods and make new friends who might just come and check out the church you attended. Even that practice doesn’t seem to be the best way to reach out into the world these days. Most people are very leery of answering the door of their apartment or home especially if they aren’t expecting someone. They tend to think it’s probably a student selling books or magazines to put themselves through college or a Jehovah’s Witness with a handful of “Watch Tower” pamphlets.
No, the new way of being called out is in one way a safer and easier way, and on the other hand, it might be a little too hard for shy Lutherans. It’s hard for us because it still calls us to speak to people in a more spiritual way than we are comfortable outside of the Sunday School room. If you talk too much that way, people might think you’re from some other denomination other than Lutheran. We wouldn’t want that, would we?
We are called out to be personal with our witness. We are called to be on the look out for moments of grace, moments of entry to share a little about ourselves and how joy and happiness comes into our lives. We do this by willingly sharing our stories of helping others and offering kind advice to people’s questions about how you might handle a certain situation. We’re not staring them down while standing on their door stoop, but we are standing (or maybe sitting) with them at a child’s ball game, a neighborhood cookout, a civic meeting, or school function. Finding a common ground for conversation and allowing our faith to become a part of that speech is a good way to reach out to others. It’s the new way that the church goes out to the world.
Share your life; share your faith; do it by sharing your faith stories, or, do it by example in every- thing you do at work or school. Be the example for them so that they might just become curious to where such an action comes from. Curiosity will soon get to people and they will finally ask questions. Do your part. Believe me, if you do, God will do the rest.
Be the blessing; be the miracle (to quote a recent film). Don’t be shy to share. God is with you and will help you along the way. You’ll be glad that you did, and often surprised at how well you can share God’s love!
Remember that God loves you and so do we!
Pastor Jim