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25 March 2004
Alpha Talk 9
Why and How Should We Tell Others?
Javier A. Viera
Tonight we’re going to do something different
from any other night of Alpha thus far– we’re going consider not our own needs or questions, but
those of others. Tonight Alpha is not about you. Instead we will consider a very simple, yet
simultaneously difficult set of questions: Why and How Should We Tell Others?”.
Some of you know that one of my favorite
quotes from antiquity is an admonition attributed to St. Francis. In response to a question
about sharing the good news of Christ, he answered by saying the following: “Preach the gospel
at all times. If necessary use words.”
I love this wisdom for several reasons. The
first is that it implies that every moment of one’s life is filled with an opportunity to
witness to the love of God. Every moment of one’s life is sacred and offered in service to
God. Secondly, I love this wisdom because it means that preaching the gospel has very little to
do with what we say; it has more to do with who we are. Lastly, I love this wisdom because it
gives me an escape clause in terms of having to share my faith with others. That’s not easy to
admit to you, but it’s true. In my role as a minister of the gospel it is quite easy for me to
talk about my faith, and about faith in general, and when I preach it is expected. But in my
life as a “private citizen” or a “normal person” sharing my faith isn’t something that comes
naturally, nor is it something that I am particularly anxious to do.
In some ways I’m a product of our culture, a
culture that believes that faith is a private matter and that the best type of Christian is the
one who lives out his or her faith quietly and without much fanfare. It isn’t something we talk
about in polite company, and it isn’t something that we should feel compelled to convince others
of. That we leave to the zealots among us. Thus the quote from St. Francis, while absolutely
right in every way, also allows me to hide, to go in cognito, and keep my faith a private matter
just like any reasonable adult would do. Others, we perhaps unconsciously assume, will come to
faith by osmosis, and if they don’t– well that’s okay too I guess. God loves everybody and
who’s to say that I’m right anyway. Who’s to say that my version of faith and religion is any
better than someone else’s religion or lack thereof?
But the truth of the matter is that this kind
of thinking is completely inconsistent with what it means to be a Christian. If civility and
politeness is the point of religion, then this way of living our faith makes sense. If,
however, the point of our faith is to love God and neighbor and to follow Jesus, then this way
of practicing our faith isn’t an option. Why? Because the very last thing Jesus ever says to
his followers is: “...go into all the world 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 all that I have
taught you. And thus I am with you always even to the end of the age.”
(Matthew 28.18-20)
In other words, the Christian faith is not
something we can keep for ourselves or to ourselves, the purpose of our faith is share it and to
give it away. If we aren’t doing that regularly then we have probably missed the point. The
word “go” appears more than 1,500 times in the bible. And Jesus himself employs it more than
200 times. For me this command of Jesus is akin to his command to break bread together and
drink wine together in memory of him. We celebrate Communion because Jesus told us to, and so
we must share our faith precisely because Jesus tells us to. And the important thing is that he
tells us that he is present to us whenever we are doing it. When we share our faith, just like
when we break bread, it is one of the ways that God is present to us and in us.
This, by the way, is why it doesn’t make any
sense to me that we not celebrate Communion each time we gather for worship. Jesus promised
that this is the most tangible way he would be present among us. He didn’t say “do this when it
feels special, or when it feels important, or when it doesn’t feel rote.” He said do it and
I’ll be there. That is also true when it comes to sharing our faith. He didn’t say: “Do this
when it feels comfortable, or when it’s not threatening, or when you won’t feel embarrassed.”
He said “Go...and I’ll be with you always.” So that’s the first reason we should share our
faith; because Jesus tells us to. Not to do so it to miss the point.
Secondly, we should share our faith because
the world needs this good news. If you remember the very first Alpha talk I gave, I said then
that the Christian faith is not a set of beliefs, nor a series of hoops to jump through on the
way to salvation; rather, the Christian faith is a way of life. It is an alternative way of
living in this world that gives direction, purpose and meaning to our individual lives. If this
is true, if the way of Jesus is the way of salvation from ourselves, as Jennifer said last week;
from our meaninglessness; from our aimlessness; from our lack of purpose; from living a life
simply for ourselves; then the way of Jesus is something worth sharing.
We live in a time when people are looking for
truth and a sense of purpose in life. All of the advances in technology and in science and
medicine have allowed us to increase our life expectancy, but for many that has meant nothing
more than a longer time to wander aimlessly and selfishly through life. The promise of a more
comfortable life has probably been achieved, but certainly not the promise of a better, or more
meaningful life. We believe that the way of Jesus is a cure from that narcissism and
meaninglessness, and sharing that way of life is the most un-narcissistic and loving thing one
can do. St. Augustine said it this way: “O God, our hearts are restless until they find rest in
you.” Jesus said it another way: “I came that you might have life and have it more
abundantly.”
In world riddled with addictions to food,
alcohol, drugs, sex, and mostly money this message of Jesus makes sense. Our addictions and
pursuits don’t make us feel as if we are living an abundant life, they makes us feel as if we’re
living an empty life. Our acquisitions and wealth haven’t made our anxieties and insecurities
disappear, they’ve made us more restless. Jesus calls us to a different way of life. His
message is one that challenges us to value different things from what our culture values. His
life challenges us to aspire and achieve that which the world deems foolish. Yet, in following
him we find that which is our life’s end, that which frees us from the lies and deceptions we
have chosen to believe, that which saves us. Thus, this is the second reason we should share
our faith.
Thirdly, we should share our faith because it
gives us great joy to do so. But first that requires that you yourself find great joy in living
your faith. By that I don’t mean that living the way of Jesus means that you must always be
happy. That certainly won’t happen. But what it does mean is that you must be convinced that
Jesus holds the key to life as it ought to be, life as God intended. Let me caution you here.
I’m not saying this over against other religions or belief systems. That’s not my point. My
point is that you yourself have discovered a depth of living by following Christ that you had
not experienced before. If that is true, doesn’t it make sense that you would feel great joy at
not being alone in that discovery? The prophet Isaiah captures this spirit in his invitation to
God’s people to live an abundant life. After sharing the invitation he says, “For you shall go
out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into
song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” Sharing this good news brings a
joy and peace that we can only know by engaging in this type of work.
The “why” question is the easier question to
answer. The “how” gets a little tricker. Part of my hesitancy in sharing my faith comes from
some very bad experiences as a youth in churches that saw as their mission “saving the world for
Christ.” When they say those words, “saving the world for Christ,” they mean something very
different from what I mean when I say those words. Yet, it was those experiences that shaped my
understanding of what it meant to share my faith. In those churches I was taught that I should
share my faith with others because it was my pious obligation to try to save them from the fires
of hell. Usually this meant trying to save Roman Catholics and other non-evangelical Christians
from the error of their ways and into a very rigid, narrow understanding of what it means to be
a Christian. Jews and Muslims were also good targets. But the best targets of all were those
vulnerable, insecure teenagers who would be easily susceptible to a welcoming community of
friends. We could scare them into heaven, and as an added bonus they would have some new,
pretty cool friends. This never motivated me. I always hated it, and for that reason I never
took part in these activities. It was for that reason that I was never perceived as a very
faithful Christian, and certainly not a likely candidate for the ministry.
It took me a long time to feel comfortable
with the “how”. Honestly, I’m still not very comfortable with it, but I know that Jesus calls
me to ‘go and tell’ and thus I have to get over my visceral discomfort and find a way that I
believe more accurately and faithfully lives out what Jesus calls us to do. Here are four ways
that I believe we can share our faith with others.
1. Tell others truthfully. By this I mean
that when you share your faith you should share it as yourself. Share it in a way that is
natural to who you are and natural to how people know and experience you. Talk about your faith
like you talk about anything else. Don’t adopt some false piety that is completely different
from who you really are. Don’t pretend you know all the answers. Don’t pretend Jesus and the
Bible provide all the answers. Don’t shy away from the fact that they raise more questions.
Don’t worry about sharing your doubts and uncertainties. Don’t worry about sounding simple, or
that you don’t have a sophisticated theological apparatus to articulate your faith. Share how
you experience your faith. Share why you believe and why you worship. Share why this way of
life compels you to live your life a certain way. The more honest you are the more compelling
your witness will be.
2. Tell others by how you live your life.
St. Francis did get it right. You will share your faith most effectively and persuasively by
the way you live. If your life is at odds with what you say you believe, what you say you
believe won’t amount to anything. Talk is cheap. Last week Jennifer recalled seeing a bumper
sticker that read, “God, please save me from your followers.”
Is there a more powerful indictment against
the Church than that? And the truth is that has been my experience. The most painful moments
of my life have come at the hands of those who claim to be faithful followers of Christ.
Furthermore, I often find non-Christians to be more interesting, more honest, and more fun than
the most pious people I’ve met. If the more pious people I’ve met along my ministry were what I
had to base Christianity on, then I don’t know if I’d still be doing what I’m doing. And that
is a matter of witness. Your life, your witness is the most consistent, authentic way to tell
others about God.
3. When telling others, don’t try to prove
anything. Listen to the following from Frederick Buechner: “It is as impossible to prove or
disprove that God exists beyond the various and conflicting ideas people have dreamed up about
him as it is to prove or disprove that Goodness exists beyond the various and conflicting ideas
people have dreamed up about what is good. It is as impossible to man to demonstrate the
existence of God as it would be for even Sherlock Homes to demonstrated the existence of Arthur
Conan Doyle.
“All-wise. All-powerful. All-loving.
All-knowing. We bore to death both God and ourselves with our chatter. God cannot be expressed
but only experienced. In the last analysis, you cannot pontificate but only point. A Christian
is one who points at Christ and says, “I can’t prove a thing, but there’s something about his
eyes and his voice. There’s something about the way he carries his head, his hands, the way he
carries his cross–the way he carries me.” (Listening to Your Life, p. 269)
Our purpose in telling others is not to win
an argument. It’s not to prove we’re right. It’s not to prove others are wrong. We share our
faith because we long others to know the God of love that has given our lives the direction and
meaning that saves us from our vain pursuits and desires. The point of telling others is our
desire to offer them the knowledge and love of God. The point of telling others is to welcome
them on the journey we call the Christian life because in it we find the rest our hearts have
always longed for.
4. When telling others learn to trust God.
It is not your job to save anybody, that’s God’s job. Like Buechner said, your job is to point
the way. John the Baptist, when reflecting on his mission in life, remembered the words of
Isaiah who said: “Prepare the way of the Lord...” That’s all John did. That’s all we’re called
to do. We prepare the way for God to be able to save. One of Jesus’ earliest followers was a
man named Andrew. We don’t know much about Andrew, but one thing we do know is this from John’s
gospel: “And he [Andrew] brought Simon to Jesus.” In reflecting on this passage William Temple,
a former Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote, “The greatest service that one man can render
another.” All Andrew did was bring someone to Jesus. The rest was up to Jesus.
Mother Teresa was often criticized in her
lifetime because she never made conversion of others a priority in her life. She cared for
Christian, Hindu, Muslim and atheist alike. When asked about this she responded, “Jesus
commanded me to love others as he has loved me. That’s what I try to do. The rest is up to
him.”
And so this is why and how I think we should
tell others. And I don’t want you to miss the point. The point is that we must go and we must
tell. I want you to be a little disturbed tonight because I know that this “going and telling”
is perhaps the easiest thing to dismiss that we have discussed so far. But if you are honest
with yourself you must admit that you are here tonight because someone, in some form or fashion,
dared to go and tell you about God. If this means anything to you, shouldn’t you go and do
likewise?
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