Crescent Hill Baptist Church
Crescent Hill Baptist Church
Louisville, Kentucky
The Second Sunday of Easter
April 23, 2006
W. Gregory Pope
MONDAY TALK
1 John 1:1-5
Acts 4:32-35
I originally gave this sermon a title a little more scary and, I think, a good bit less interesting. While “Monday Talk” may not win any awards for creativity, the first title was “Sharing Our Faith.” More or less interesting? I don’t know. But the fear factor of “Sharing Our Faith” is, I’m quite sure, higher than “Monday Talk.” By “Monday Talk” I’m referring to our language about God and faith when we are not in church.
Talking about our faith is not something most mainline progressive Christians like to do. We would prefer to simply show our faith through acts of love and compassion, peace and justice. Showing our faith in such ways is crucial. Our words about faith in God and Christ ring hollow without the substance of our actions running through them.
The early church was very good about showing their faith. Luke tells us in the Book of Acts that not only did the apostles give powerful testimony to their faith, but the church showed their faith by making sure no one among them was needy. Private ownership of possessions meant nothing to them. They were more concerned that each person had enough. This is what I would call “social evangelism.”
Evangelism is the proclamation of good news in word and deed. “Evangelism,” writes Lee Camp, “is much more than ‘saving souls.’ Evangelism means sharing and showing to the world how to realistically, faithfully, and creatively respond to the real needs of the world. . . . Evangelism means living according to the ways of the kingdom of God and inviting others to join us on the way. Evangelism is not selling Jesus, but showing Jesus; evangelism is not mere telling about Christ, but about being Christ. . . . The challenge of evangelism may . . . be first a challenge of discipleship: will we be what we’ve been called to be?” (Lee Camp, Mere Discipleship, Brazos Press, 2003, 192)
The early church was so effective in its mission not only because they lived as they were called to live, but because they also explained to their culture the reasons for their behavior, how their faith convictions shaped their way of living. I dare say that if we made sure no one was needy among us in our church and in our community, we would have some explaining to do about why we were so generous and compassionate.
The New Testament letter of First Peter instructs us to “Always be ready to give an account for the hope that is within [us], and to do so with gentleness and reverence.”
Would you know how to explain your faith to someone who asks?
Most of us shy away, or more honestly, run like crazy from the possibility of having to speak about our faith in public. Comedian Flip Wilson used to say when asked about his religious persuasion: “I’m a Jehovah’s Bystander. They wanted me to become a Jehovah’s Witness, but I didn’t want to get involved.”
Giving a verbal witness to our faith scares and even sickens some of us because it makes us think of those outdated evangelism methods that don’t tell the whole story of the gospel, but whittle salvation down to just a few beliefs; we feel like we’re forcing our faith onto others. Or we think of the dreaded “personal testimony” of revivals and youth camp (dreaded that is for the one doing the testifying; quite entertaining for the listeners).
Lynna Williams teaches creative writing at Emory University. She is the daughter of a Baptist minister and has written a short story entitled “Personal Testimony” about a twelve-year old preacher’s daughter who starts a business at Faith Camp writing moving testimonies for the other campers. With a twelve year old daughter myself, I found the story even more fascinating!
She says she is “universally regarded by the women of [her] church as a Child Who Wouldn’t Know a Rule If One Reached Up and Bit Her in the Face.” She is “the only girl who, in six years of regular attendance, has failed to advance even one step in Girls’ Auxilary. (Other, younger girls have made it all the way to Queen Regent with Scepter, while she remains a perpetual Lady-in-Waiting.)”
Her testimony skills are recruited by Bobby Dunn, “Faith Camp’s standard for male perfection,” but who has a case of “Jesus Jaw,” a malady that keeps him from simply saying what he wants to and sitting down. (You’ve met Christians like that, haven’t you?) This “ghostwriting service for Jesus,” as she calls it, was actually Bobby Dunn’s idea. Bobby becomes her recruiting agent. A girl named Missy Tucker, who wins annual penmanship awards, is hired so the testimonies can actually be read by those who purchase them. Until Bobby and Missy fall in love and confess to the fraud, the testimonies are a smash hit. (Kay Cattarulla, ed., Texas Bound: 19 Texas Stories, Southern Methodist University Press, 1994, 191-204. See also Lynna Williams, Things Not Seen: And Other Stories.)
Well, I’m not talking about those kinds of testimonies that focus on the sin you enjoyed before you met Jesus, where you can tell in your voice that you miss them. I’m talking about authentic conversation with others about how you have experienced God.
As a congregation, we’ve spent most of this year in worship swimming through the words of our mission statement. Lent was all about that final phrase, “walking in the way of Jesus.”
But there is a verb before that phrase that calls our attention today - the verb “inviting.” The last line of our mission statement reads “engaging our world and inviting all to walk in the way of Jesus.” I love that line.
Engaging our world and inviting others to walk in the way of Jesus requires us to speak about our faith.
How do we talk about God at home to our children, at work in a business meeting, at the PTA, to our neighbors and friends who have no religious affiliation?
What are we to say? I think we can take a clue from the text we read this morning in First John. The testimony of the writers is this: We declare to you what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands - this eternal life - we have seen it and testify to it; we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us and with God and with Jesus Christ.
What is the substance of testimony, of witness? To be witness, to give testimony, like in a court of law, is to simply tell the truth about what we have seen, heard, and experienced.
You don’t have to prove anything. Because we can’t prove anything about faith. All we have is the testimony of scripture of what people have seen, heard, and experienced. And that’s all you can share: the testimony of the biblical story and the testimony of your life.
To share your faith is to engage such questions as:
Where has God been real to you?
What difference has Jesus made in your life?
What struggles do you continue to face and how does your faith help?
What does forgiveness mean to you?
What does prayer mean to you?
Why do you seek to walk in the way of Jesus?
How does your faith in God give meaning to your life?
What convictions inform the way you live your life?
In a few moments we’re going to sing a good Baptist hymn of testimony, the first hymn I ever learned. The refrain of that hymn is personal testimony:
He lives! He lives! Christ Jesus lives today.
He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way.
He lives! He lives! Salvation to impart.
You ask me how I know he lives, he lives within my heart.
It is to say: I cannot prove that Jesus lives, but with a non-scientific, experience-based kind of knowing, I know he lives because he lives within my heart. With humility and honesty, we are called to give testimony about what we have seen and heard and experienced.
This evening and every Sunday evening through the season of Eastertide, people from our congregation will be sharing their faith stories. They will, I’m sue, vary in style. But they will be testimonies to the ways in which they have experienced God in their lives. They will be, to some degree, examples of “Monday Talk” even though spoken to Sunday people.
It is among Sunday people that we learn to talk about our faith. Tom Long, in his book Testimony, says we are not born knowing how to talk about our faith. But one place where we learn how is in the language school of worship in the church. He speaks of “worship as a soundtrack for the rest of life, the words and music and actions of worship inside the sanctuary playing in the background as we live our lives outside, in the world.” (Thomas G. Long, Testimony, Jossey-Bass, 2004, 31-32, 48)
As we think about sharing our faith with those outside the church, Brian McLaren (More Ready Than You Realize, Zondervan, 2002, 172-173) offers four suggestions that I find helpful:
1. First of all, he says, listen to their story. Cultivate an interest in people. Show respect for them by being interested in their lives, their interests, their backgrounds. Ask lots of questions. And if you feel a window opens where it becomes appropriate to talk about spiritual matters, ask a question like, “Do you have a religious background?” Or invite them to talk by saying, “Tell me about your spiritual background.” Sometimes, just asking, “Do you believe in God?” or “Where are you spiritually?” can open the door for great conversations. God has been at work in their lives long before we came on the scene, so it’s important to respect God’s previous involvement in their story by learning about it. Listen to their story.
2. Then tell them your story. It is often best to be very gentle in this. Scripture tells us to speak of our faith with gentleness and reverence. One way we can do this is by asking permission or opening the door for further conversation, saying something like, “Sometime, if you’re interested, I can tell you about my own spiritual journey.” Or you can engage their curiosity by saying, “A few years ago, my life took a big turn for the better. I started paying more attention to the spiritual side of life.” Or share with them what’s going on in your life these days: “I heard something really interesting at church last week . . .” Or tell them, “My pastor says something profound every week! It’s amazing. You should come and hear him.” First, listen to their story. Then tell them your story.
3. Then tell them God’s story. Simply recount some of the stories from the Bible. Stories about Jesus. Stories Jesus told. At various points in a spiritual conversation you could say, “That reminds me of a story Jesus told,” or “That reminds me of a story about Jesus.”
4. And then be an inviter, a bringer, an includer. If your friend is interested in learning more, plan to meet with them again, or invite them to church, or include them into your circle of friends.
Remember that your mission is not just to convey information. Your mission is to teach people a new way of living. McLaren uses the image of dance and says, “You are not just teaching them about dancing; you are helping them learn to dance.”
And it may take some time. Most importantly, be authentic. Let your goal be genuine conversation, not simply a means to an end of conversion. Let that be God’s work. We “say what we say as a gift, with no strings attached. . . . We want to give others the gift of faith that has been given to us.” (Long, 118, 120)
With whom do you need to share your faith? Perhaps in the silence you would be so daring as to ask God to lead you to someone this week who needs to hear about the love of Christ and the grace of God.
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CRESCENT HILL BAPTIST CHURCH
2800 Frankfort Avenue
Louisville, Kentucky 40206
(502) 896-4425
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