March 30, 2008

Scripture:         Matthew 28:11-20

Sermon:           “Now What?”

            Who’s there on the Sundays after Easter?  When all the lilies have been planted in front yards and gardens, when all of the high-flying anthems have ended, when the Easter hats and Easter dresses and Easter suits have found their way back into the closet—who’s there?

It’s every preacher’s dream to see the same kind of turn out on the Sunday after Easter as the week before.  But, it never happens.  You hope that, somehow, what seems like the most important sermon of the year didn’t do too much to frighten the visitors away for good.

            At the same time, I’ll admit that it feels good to be with y’all just the way we are today.  It’s like we can all relax a little; breathe a little easier.  We’ve had many guests, you know, but now we can just kick our shoes off, rest our feet on the coffee table, and not worry too much about impressing people.

            The normal response might be a sort of letdown.  This is the most popular week for ministers to take a week of vacation.  And it isn’t unusual for anybody in the church to scale things back for a while.  Just so you know, I am going to take a week off come the second week of April.

            But, the story of Easter itself won’t quite let us do that.  For those of us who do come back after the dust settles, we find that the Bible does not end with the words “He is not here.”  We’d like to bask in the wonder of the resurrection, but the Word of God, you know, just keeps right on going.

            I want to read with you the very end of Matthew’s Gospel.  And we’ll be picking up right where we left off on Easter.  In the 28^th chapter, let’s look at verses 11 through 20.  You can find it easily on page   of the New Testament in the pew Bible.

            You’ll undoubtedly recognize the words at the end of this book for they contain what is known as “The Great Commission”.  That is what we will deal with this morning.  Listen for the word of the Lord…

            While they were going, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests everything that had happened.  After the priests had assembled with the elders, they devised a plan to give a large sum of money to the soldiers, telling them, “You must say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.’  If this comes to the governor’s ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.”  So they took the money and did as they were directed.  And this story is still told among the Jews to this day.

            Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.  When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.  And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been give to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.  And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

            And so, you see, we have some work to do.

            It’s not enough that Jesus lived the life he did, was crucified, and then raised from the dead.  That, really, is just the beginning of the story.  Now, the work and ministry of Jesus is in the hands of you and me.  He says, “Go.  Make disciples of folks all over the world.”

            Basking in the glow of the resurrection, it seems, is not an option.  We’ve been given a set of instructions.  Get up and go.  Make disciples.  Baptize them.  Teach them the ways of Jesus Christ.  Get going.  I’m with you in Spirit.

            The Great Commission.

            That means that we have to talk about something we don’t always know what to do with.  Some folks call it the “e” word.  The “e” word—sounds like we shouldn’t say it at all.  Evangelism.

            Now, when I say the word evangelism I wonder how that sits with you.  I wonder what kind of images and experiences come to mind.  I wonder if it makes you squirm with thoughts of going up to complete strangers and trying to tell them about Jesus.  And you are probably not the kind of person that takes to that very naturally.  I’m not.

            And I remember when I was much younger.  There were some folks walking door to door in my neighborhood.  In their hands were pamphlets and books and Bibles.  I saw them from the window as they talked with the family across the street.  And as they made their way up our sidewalk, my father grabbed me and hauled me into the living room where we hid behind the couch.  Dad, it turned out, didn’t want anything to do with these folks.

            Evangelism.

            And several years ago I was approached by a couple of young men as I was out shopping.  Right in the parking lot of the mall these guys figured was the right time and place for me to consider my soul’s eternal destination.  They said, “If you died today, brother, do you know where you’d spend eternity?”

            Can I tell you something?  I’m not all that enthusiastic about a faith driven by fear.  Fear of dying.  Fear of eternal punishment in a sinner’s hell.  It seems to me that when we do things out of fear of death and such that it just doesn’t inspire us as it should.  I mean, we buy insurance because of that fear.  We write wills out of that fear.  Are you with me?  I don’t want my faith to fit into that category.  I want it to be central to my very being.  My insurance policy is filed away in the basement.

            If that’s what fulfilling the Great Commission is all about, most all of us are going to fail miserably.  And I say as well we should.

            Perhaps like some or even many of you, I have some real questions about what this means in a world with devout folks of many religious backgrounds.  You know?  I have deep love and respect for some folks who are Jews and Muslims and practitioners of Eastern spiritualities.  I don’t know what to do with all of that.  Most of them seem content with accepting my faith without trying to pry it away from me.

            And I’ll tell you that when I was in the Holy City of Jerusalem four years, I had this amazing experience.  Within the span of a few hours I set foot in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, stood at the foot of the Western Wall while Jews prayed and read Torah, and walked through the golden-domed mosque called the Dome of the Rock as people bowed down and prayed in Arabic.  The thought that overwhelmed me was that my life would be infinitely diminished without the beauty and the diversity of those places.  It reminded me of what a rabbi in Lexington once said to me:  “I think that conversion is more about me helping you be the best Christian you can be while you help me be the best Jews that I can be.”

            I don’t know what you want to do with that and I don’t know how to reconcile that with my own cherished scriptures at times.  I just want to acknowledge that it makes the practice of evangelism hard for me.  Perhaps it does to you as well.

            But, what I really find as a shortcoming to all of the approaches to evangelism that we commonly think of is that they involve the interactions of complete strangers.  I suspect that meaningful sharing of our faith and successful sharing of our faith requires some level of relationship.

            Folks are asking these deep questions like, “Do you know where you’re going to go when you die?”  And without a relationship that a very assuming thing to do.  Instead we should probably be asking questions of people that have to do with meeting their needs.  “What can I do for you?  How can I be Christ’s healing hands to you?”

            One of the marks of churches that are growing is that they are intimately connected with the communities in which they exist through ministries of service and giving.  That builds relationships where sharing faith is welcome and possible.

            But, it brings me to another problem with our conception of the word evangelism:  We have often thought of evangelism as a synonym for church growth.  Church folks are forever thinking about how to get more people to attend their church.  Whether that’s got anything to do with making disciples is another matter.

            I’ve heard stories of churches wanting to grow, so they target members of other churches with phone-calling campaigns to pry some folks loose.  Now, that might get more people in the pews of one particular church, but what has it done for Christ’s church?  That kind of stuff doesn’t add up to a single new disciple in the world.

            When we think of growing the church, our minds are often clouded with all of these other concerns.  We could increase the offering if we had more people.  Goodness knows we could use that.  Maybe it would just feel like we belonged to a successful organization if we had more people.  It could be like it was years ago.  More people would mean more volunteers for all of the work we need to do around here.  Maybe it would mean that the church that we’ve invested so much of ourselves in wasn’t going to close if we could get some new people here.

            Our minds get clouded.

            There was once a church that decided to call it quits, you know.  They had enough money.  They had enough people.  But, they found that the whole business of the church they’d created had gotten in the way of connecting people to God.  So, they called it quits.

They wrote a will for the church that was about to close.  It was a bunch of disgruntled Presbyterians over in Kentucky.  And in that will they said:  We will, that this body die (they were talking about their church), and sink into union with the Body of Christ at large.  With that they ceased to be.  They quit worrying about the budget.  They quit worrying about themselves so much.  They just wanted to see people around them find faith.  Their church was in the way.

            Strangely, when that old church died, the people who were in that church started attracting folks by the wagonload.  And a whole movement swept through the frontier of the young nation as the fastest growing church of its day.

            And if you don’t know this story already, it is part of this congregation’s history.  For the church that decided to die was the Springfield Presbytery.  And the movement that was born became what is now the Disciples of Christ.  Only we could probably use a renewed sense of what it means to die in order to live.

            I’d like to talk with you about responding to the Great Commission here at Park.  And I don’t want to think about anything other than connecting people to God through Jesus Christ.

            First of all, we’ve got to be about relationships.  Sharing faith and deepening faith does not happen for most folks without building relationships.

            We’ve got some great stuff happening with our children, you know.  From our children’s church ministry that’s happening right now to our puppets with Central Christian Church, there’ good stuff happening.  I see them developing friendships and having good times together.  But, we’ve got to give them more than one hour a week when they’re able to be here.

            I want to propose a monthly get-together for our elementary-aged kids.  And it’s time to put together a weekly youth group here at Park again.  We’ll need to focus on our middle-school kids for now and grow them into high-schoolers.  All of this will require folks with gifts for this kind of ministry.

            I also want to propose new ways of connecting our younger adults.  The first thing I want to try is a Sunday School hour gathering of parents of our younger children.  It will be different than the class we currently have for our adults—one geared towards fellowship and learning together.  But, it will mean that we’ll have to be on our toes to provide options for their children during that time.

            As your pastor I want to invite you all into a transformation of our church.  We are all called to live out these words:  Go and make disciples.  Baptize them.  Teach them Jesus’ ways.  And to do that I want to ask you to share your faith with those in your life by a simple invitation to come and experience Jesus at Park Christian Church.  But, it will require of all of us the confidence that our church offers what folks need.  For that is the question our evangelism should be centered around:  What can we do for you?  How can we be Christ’s hands and heart for you?

            I believe with all my heart that God has placed us in a position to impact this very community with the blessings of the kingdom.  And now is the time to do so.

Rev. David James Brown

Park Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)