“We Have a Story
to Tell”
June 5, 2022
Dear brothers and sisters, grace and
peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ, Amen.
As I’ve mentioned before, throughout
my service in ministry, I have had the privilege of meeting many unique and
special individuals. One in particular is a man I met while serving in north
central Montana. At the time, I was serving a three point parish, meaning that
I served three individual congregations, two of which were located less than ten
miles from each other on the same highway, and the third was located farther to
the north up near the Canadian border. The man I’m thinking of this morning was
a member of that congregation, the one up near Canada. Since I had a great
distance to travel between the churches each Sunday, and would often arrive at
at least a couple of the churches with only minutes to spare, I would deliver
the bulletins to this man and his wife during the week, and we would engage in
long and meaningful conversations. Now, I should explain that this man, who
went to be with the Lord just only a couple of years ago, was incredibly
fervent and zealous in his faith and devotion, and was always wanting to know
what to think as a Christian about certain issues – which meant we would
definitely have interesting conversations. During one in particular, since the
topic of the possibility of life on other planets had recently been discussed
in the news, he asked me what I would do if a spaceship full of aliens suddenly
landed in the fields next door to the church. Now, as it happened, I had actually,
and rather randomly, already been thinking about that particular scenario, so I
told him what I would do, which is what I would hope any of us would do: invite
the aliens to come to worship at our church.
Now, of course, this was many years
ago – and the model for growing the church was still very much just inviting
people to come to church. We continue to assume that the best way to get people
to come to church is to invite them to church, and they will automatically want
to come. But, especially after the pandemic, that is no longer the case. Simply
inviting people to come to church is only part of what we are called to do in
the present day, but more importantly, we are to go out and bring what we have
to everyone.
One thing that changed during the
pandemic was people’s eating habits. With restaurants either being closed to public
dining or having restricted service, more and more people started to order carry-out
or Doordash. In other words, since people couldn’t go to restaurants themselves
to eat, restaurants had to make sure that what they had to offer could go out
to where people were. And that habit still continues: more people have gotten used
to carry out and eating at home. Also, even though restaurants have fully
opened up again, hours during which they remain open have tended to be a bit
unpredictable sometimes due to available staffing. So, again, it’s just become
easier to order something and either pick it up or have it delivered – to have
it go where people are. We’ve tended to think of church as being like a
restaurant: we expect people to come to us, receive what we offer, then leave
and come back again. However, much as with restaurants, habits have even
changed with that: people aren’t just going to come to church to receive what
God has to offer, because church attendance simply isn’t the priority it used
to be. Instead, we are to be taking all the good things God has to offer and
delivering them to where people are: rather than just being servers at one place,
we have to become delivery drivers, going out to different places.
We are also continuing to hear about
the different parts of our liturgy: today, in just a few moments, after we
receive Communion, we will be singing “Thank the Lord and sing his praise, tell
everyone what he has done.” Like many parts of our liturgy, it is based on a
Bible verse, I this case, 1 Chronicles 16:8-10. That’s also the most effective
thing we can be doing in the present day – not waiting for people to come to
church to hear about what God has done, but telling people ourselves, wherever
we are, whatever the occasion may be, what God has done. Even more
specifically, what God has done for us. Believe it or not, if something
wonderful has happened to us, if we have been healed, blessed, given something
unexpected, or if a member of our family or a friend of ours has experienced a
special blessing, we can tell other people about it. Even though it is
something we tend to keep to ourselves, God does special things for us and
gives us special blessings because He wants us to tell other people about them,
and about Him. I’m sure many of us have similar stories to tell: many of us have
stories about how we have been healed, restored, and delivered from illness,
either mental or physical; addiction; an abusive family life or relationship; a
struggle with doubt. These are stories, from our experiences, we can tell other
people to provide encouragement: literally, to give people courage to be
able to face what lies ahead, by reinforcing the promise that God is with them
and will help them in whatever they’re going through.
There is actually another word for this,
one which we hear a lot from certain other Christians, but we don’t hear a lot
in our own tradition: testifying. To testify to something means “to serve
as evidence or proof of something’s existing or being the case.” And there are
doubtless a growing number of people who are wondering if what God says is
true, or if He even exists, especially when things like mass shootings and increasing
threats of violence continue to rise. But, believe it or not, we are the
evidence that God exists. Who we are, where we have been, where we are now, are
all because God has made us, given us life, and brought us to where we are by
His power. We are also the evidence that God is who He claims to be: it is
because of His love that we have been saved, and have the promise of eternal life,
by the death and resurrection of Jesus. But how are people going to know that
God is real and His promises are real unless we tell them? In fact, in today’s
Gospel reading, in John 15:27, Jesus both encourages and commands us to testify:
no longer to keep what God has done for us to ourselves, but to tell other
people boldly and without any hesitation. The reason the Holy Spirit has been
given to us is to make us aware of how God is responsible for everything good
that happens to us; and to give us the courage and power to tell the good
things He does – just as He did on the Day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit also
continues to speak to us every day: He speaks to us in our hearts, frequently in
words of comfort, peace, and reassurance. If we are willing to listen, He calms
our fears and anxieties, and guides us in the best direction. When this happens
as well, these are times to testify to the Holy Spirit’s leading, and encourage
others to listen, be calmed, and trust God.
The Holy Spirit also helps us to recognize
that what we once thought of as impossible divisions to overcome no longer
exist, and that we are united in this call and command to testify. The story we
hear in Genesis talks about the Tower of Babel, which is used to explain the
origin of different languages. In the story, the people speak one language, and
fall into the same trap as Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden: the desire
to be greater than God. So they try to build a tower to reach up to heaven, and,
in order to thwart their sinful plan, the sin being trying to be God and
greater than God, they are given different languages, no longer able to understand
each other and thus no longer able to work together. It was also previously the
case that only one group of people were to be called God’s chosen people. But
on the Day of Pentecost, God now shows that all those divisions have been
overcome, and we have become united again. The miracle of Pentecost is not only
that the disciples were given the ability to speak in other languages, but that
they were given the power and boldness to tell the great and glorious things
God had done in Jesus. The speaking in other languages was to show that this
good news was now no longer for one group of people, but was for every person
in every country of every language. Last week I mentioned that part of our
calling as Christians is no longer to emphasize what divides us, but to find
and emphasize things we have in common, and seek to work together in unity and
cooperation with each other. One of the many things we have in common, which
unifies us, and which we can work together on, is testifying to the
power and goodness of God.
In just a few minutes, we will be
receiving Communion. And one of the things we wish to emphasize about Communion
is that, just like the good news of God, it is available for everyone. When we receive
Communion together, we are also acknowledging our common faith in Jesus as
Savior, our acceptance of each other as members of God’s family. We also recognize,
and accept, that we have a responsibility to care for each other; to encourage and
pray for each other; to help each other grow in our relationship with God, and
with each other; and to support and accept each other as we are, because that is
how God accepts us. In Communion, just as at Pentecost, we recognize that, even
as diverse as we are in many ways, we are still united in the most important
way: by our faith in Jesus, and our calling to tell everyone what He has done.
But let’s not keep it within our walls any longer – let’s take it outside, to
where everyone else is. Let’s testify – make God real for everyone, and let’s
tell our story, with boldness and courage.
Now may the peace of God, which
passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord,
Amen.
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