Sermon #2

Here is the text of my 2nd Sermon if anyone is interested:

Today’s Question is How do we balance respect for other religions with the Great Commission task of going forth and sharing our faith with others? That question has at its root another question – what is the goal of Christian evangelism – what is the goal of Lutheran evangelism? For many years, the primary view of Christian Evangelism was that the point was to convert non-Christians so that by believing in Christ, they could be saved after death and go to heaven.
When we think of the Great Commission, we think of that verse from Matthew 28: “Go, therefore, and make disciples, 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.”
But this is the year of Mark, so we won’t be getting Matthew 28 this summer. But Mark does provide us with his own commissioning story in today’s gospel. Mark’s story of commissioning comes when Jesus sends out his disciples two by two, commanding them to take nothing with them except a staff and the clothes on their back – no money, no food, no change of clothes.
These instructions to the disciples remind me of one of my first days in Clinical Pastoral Education – a hot summer day between my first and second years of seminary – I was serving in an enormous hospital in Boston, and it was about our third day when our supervisor, a seasoned hospital chaplain, told us that it was time to visit our units. Now, I was on two units – an organ transplant unit and a geriatric inpatient unit. I am very hesitant to rank myself with the first disciples, but like they wandered around the desert with only tunic and sandals, I was wandering around the hospital with only the badge around my neck that said “Student Chaplain” that day.
I remember the exact phrase my supervisor used when she sent us out. She said: “When you get to the unit, check in with the nurses’ station. Then just go do your thing.”
What?!?! I had no idea what “my thing” even was! Since I was too afraid to visit the transplant unit, I took the long trek across the street to the other campus of the hospital to visit my inpatient unit. After I checked in with the unit director I wandered the halls aimlessly for several minutes, looking in each room as I walked by. It seemed that everyone was either sleeping or with a doctor or nurse! Finally I found a room where an older woman was awake and looking somewhat bored and I hesitated by the door. [knock knock knock] “Hello? Ma’am? I’m Emily and I’m the chaplain on this unit … Do you mind if I come in?” I explained about the program that I was in, that it was my first week, and before I knew it we were having a lovely conversation about her health, her family, and her faith life.
I remember that discussion so fondly because it was all surprisingly easy. Like the disciples without money or food, I felt completely vulnerable when I stood in the door to her hospital room – but when I entered I was showered with her hospitality – because she was willing to accept who I was, even with my fear and my hesitation. And as we talked that day, I began to really know her and care about her situation too.
I don’t think that I shared any earth shattering truths that day. There was no conversion, no major change in perspective, but the Holy Spirit was present in that room as, like the first disciples that Jesus sent out, I tried to share the basic truths of my faith in my words and my actions. God loves us. God is always with us. God wants what is best for us, and sometimes we don’t know why the bad things happen the way they do.
The woman in the hospital room wasn’t Lutheran. She wasn’t even Christian – she was Jewish. But because we both cared about each other, and because the Holy Spirit was present, I believe that day we were both following the Great Commission. (gesture to self) Me by caring about her and bringing some joy and consolation to her in her time of illness – and her (gesture away) by welcoming me in my hesitation and fear – making me more comfortable and confident by caring about me too.
Jesus knew that we thrive when we are in relationship with one another. Jesus taught his own disciples that when they arrived in a place, they ought to stay in the same house until they left that town – because by staying with the same house, they were building up relationships. But he also taught that if any place wouldn’t welcome them, then to shake off the dust on their feet as a testimony against them and to move on to the next place.
This is a hard part of the passage to read – Is Jesus saying that if a person doesn’t accept the disciples they should just wash their hands of him and condemn him? I don’t think so. One thing we know about the society in which Jesus lived is that hospitality was an important issue. To welcome guests was to follow God’s will – the Hebrew Bible is full of stories of our ancestors in faith welcoming guests.
When you welcomed a guest in New Testament times, you were supposed to wash not only their hands and face, but also their feet. Imagine how dirty the disciples’ feet would have been after walking from town to town in their sandals. A good host was supposed to wash all of that caked dirt off of the disciples’ feet when he welcomed them into his house. To leave a house where they were rejected and shake off the dust on their feet would have been a sign of dismay at the lack of hospitality that was being offered to them – at the loss of the disciples’ opportunity to stay with them and share their faith with them.
I recently read that sociologists did a study in which they surveyed Jehovah’s Witnesses who evangelized door to door. The study revealed that Jehovah’s witnesses gleaned relatively few converts when they evangelized to strangers. On the other hand, they also asked Jehovah’s Witnesses to record how many people were converted when they knew the person or if they had a mutual friend. The results showed that Jehovah’s witnesses were not just more successful when there was a personal connection between the witness and the convert – they were over SIX HUNDRED times more effective in bringing people to faith when there was a relationship between the two of them. What then can we take from this information about Jehovah’s witnesses?
The best way to carry out the great commission – to share your faith with one another – is to enter into relationship with them. For the first disciples, this happened by staying with a host with whom they could share their faith.
Remember the woman in the hospital room? Certainly we discussed faith issues that day, but we only did so after we had talked of our families her children and our lives – then we moved to faith issues.
And what does Jesus call the disciples to do once they have established a relationship with people? Jesus instructs them to do three things: proclaim repentance, cast out demons, and anoint the sick to cure them. If we look back on Mark’s texts from the last few Sundays we realize that Jesus is calling his disciples to do just what Jesus himself has been doing. He is calling them to model their lives after Jesus. Just as Jesus has healed the sick, calmed the storm, and preached about repentance and the kingdom of God in parables, Jesus is calling the disciples to do the same – to do actions that will restore wholeness to those they reach.
So, what does all this mean about the answer to today’s question – how do we balance the great commission with respect for other faiths?
From this text, the most obvious answer that I can glean is that we are meant to be in relationship with our neighbors – both those whose beliefs are like ours and those whose beliefs are not. When we establish a relationship with them by discussing our own lives and experiences, then we are able to share our own faiths and how it is that we have come to experience God’s love in Christ Jesus.
And how do we share the love of Christ with others? By following him and modeling our lives after him. By bringing healing to those we meet, by proclaiming repentance and the kingdom of God to them in both our words and actions – sharing with them a world in which the ways of God ARE the ways of the world.
The great commission isn’t about the next life. It is about this life. None of us know about the next life – only God knows what will happen to us or our neighbors when we die. What we do know is that God has a vision for our world – a vision that God himself came to us to proclaim, calling it the kingdom of God. The great commission is about what we do with this life to bring about God’s kingdom – which we are able to do because God loves us enough to be with us and to teach us, to forgive us over and over again, to encourage us through his word.
So, how do we balance the Great Commission with respect for other faiths? I don’t think its really a balance at all. I think that the way we fulfill the Great Commission is THROUGH respecting all people – even those with different faiths than us. When we respect them, then we can come into relationship with them. And through our mutual love for one another, we are following Christ’s command to follow him.