"Witness"

Luke 16:19-31

Today has been designated as Evangelism Sunday by the denomination. Evangelism is one of those churchy words that makes us a bit nervous. It conjures up being asked to knock on strangers’ doors or of a stranger knocking on our door and having to listen to their version of salvation. It makes us think of televangelists who ask for money for their cause. We just aren’t sure what to do with evangelism, and yet- there it is on the calendar for September 30 – Evangelism Sunday!

To make matters even more interesting, five of us went to the National PCUSA Evangelism Conference over Labor Day. And the reason we went was that when the Session of this church set their goals for this year at our retreat in May, two out of the four goals had to do with Evangelism, getting the word out about what we see as good things going on here at UPC, and getting more people involved in worship and ministry.

So we went to the conference, and lo and behold – we learned something about Evangelism. I think that all five of us have new definitions and new ways of thinking about the concept. So a lot of what I want to share this morning is growing out of my ponderings about what I learned at the conference.

In the first chapter of Acts, as Jesus was leaving the disciples and ascending, he said, “You will be my witnesses, in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the world.” Those first disciples had a story to tell, and Jesus commissioned them to tell that story. They had encountered God in the person of Jesus and found that God was compassionate and forgiving, and loved them and had changed their lives.

The choir has commissioned all of us this morning. Who’ll be a witness for my Lord? Ben has told part of his story to the children. And so Jesus is saying once again – you will be my witnesses. For all of us have a story to tell about our experiences with God. Our story changes, just as life changes. And in the midst of life, we are all being changed by Christ’s Spirit. We say it every Sunday – in Jesus Christ, we are forgiven, healed, and made whole. That statement of what we believe about Christ is becoming part of our story.

One of the speakers we heard at the conference was Jim Wallis, who is the editor of Sojourners Magazine and a well-known speaker all around the country. Jim challenged us Presbyterians to link our thinking about Evangelism with our work for justice. He said this, “We have a problem. Most people have the idea that Christians in the church are supposed to stand for the same things Jesus stood for. What a crazy thought is that? When we don’t stand for those things, people get confused, they get disillusioned.”

That brings us to the parable in the text for today, for in this teaching we are reminded that Jesus stood for caring for the poor, for those who have less than we do. Jesus stood for compassion for the outsider, the stranger, the needy. In the parable, Jesus contrasts the rich man who was robed in purple and feasted everyday with the poor man named Lazarus who lies at his gate, longing for just the crumbs from the rich man’s table.

But the rich man is blind to him as well as to his need. Can’t you just picture him stepping over Lazarus as he comes and goes from his mansion day after day? Even the dogs are trying to sooth his sores, but not the rich man.

And so in death, there is a reversal – which is very typical of Jesus’ parables. Lazarus rests at the bosom of Abraham, and the rich man is in agony. The great irony in the story is that in life, the rich man ignored Lazarus, yet in his need, he calls out for Lazarus to help him. But the gap is too great, and no one can cross it.

Jesus is teaching us that he stands for justice. A great many of the justice issues of our day are about how wealth is distributed in our world. And all of us are part of this issue. Each of us must make decisions every day about what we will do with our money and possessions.

The teachings of Jesus call us to commit ourselves to a way of life that is always examining and re-examining what is within ourselves as well as what is going on in the world around us, and then not accepting the same old easy answers. There always seems to be a call to repentance, to turning a different direction, seeing with new eyes - just slowing down and seeing our world.

So Jim Wallis calls for a conversion, a conversion that helps us merge our passion for justice with the very core of our faith. For it is often when we open ourselves up to how God will work within us and change us as we “seek to do justice, love kindness and walk humble with our God” that we encounter God in ways we could never have imagined. And all that becomes part of our witness, our story.

And so our witness grows out of the core of who we are and who we are becoming. One of the workshop leaders described Evangelism as “organic” and not programmatic. We can go out there and find many Evangelism programs that might help us bring in new people, but that is a very short sighted view of true Evangelism. Real Evangelism is alive, it is part of who we are as individuals, and as a community. And people who come here for the first time will be able to see if the invitation to be a part of this church community is authentic, is coming out of who we really are. It is not some program that we have put in place for a few months. It may take us months, even years, to prepare to be evangelists – just to change our mindset.

Evangelism, then, is about building relationships – and first of all, it is about building a relationship with Christ. It is about being Christ’s disciple – a learner, a follower, an apprentice of Jesus. When Jesus gave the great commission at the end of Matthew’s Gospel, he said to go and make disciples, teaching them to observe all that I have taught you. He did not say go and make great committee members, or even choir members, or elders or deacons or preachers – no, make disciples!

Sometimes in the church, we get too carried away with everything but our discipleship. Over the next few weeks in the Adult Lecture Class, we can examine the practices of our discipleship, and perhaps deepen those practices. In our mission statement, we say that we will follow Jesus as disciples, but sometimes, we forget what that might look like.

So Evangelism is first about our relationship with Christ – our discipleship, but then it is also about our building relationships with each other and with those outside the walls of this church. For it is only after we begin to get to know others that we can begin to tell our faith stories and hear their stories too.

But, I think my favorite learning at the conference came from the last sermon we heard from a Korean preacher from McCormick Seminary. He talked about Evangelism as an invitation to others to “come and help us.” I really liked that. Not come and let us give you something we have that you don’t have. No, come and help us be more and more the body of Christ in this place. Come and help us minister to the many Lazaruses we encounter every day. Come and help us grow in our discipleship as we help you grow in yours.