I think I'm beginning to get excited about my sabbatical.
Unless you're a visitor, I guess you're aware that I'm leaving in
mid-May on a sabbatical. In addition to the various educational events
and time with family, we're doing some traveling, including to Greece.
That in itself is exciting because so much of my education was involved
in Greek language and philosophy. Today's First Lesson brings this
to mind, for three months from now I expect to be visiting Athens,
seeing the Parthenon, and standing in front of the Areopagus just
as Paul was in Acts 17.
This First Lesson, though, is not as important as
an incentive for travel as it is for its example of how to do Christian
witness. The Areopagus was once Athens' supreme court and in Paul's
time was a place for philosophers to hang out and discuss the issues
of the day. Notice how Paul witnesses to them. He doesn't simply preach
his message about Jesus. No, he tries to connect with their beliefs
and culture. He connects Jesus to their altar to an unknown god; he
relates his belief in our God, the Creator, with ideas expressed by
their poets. In this place by their supreme court Paul gives a defense
of his faith in Christ by relating it to their own beliefs. Did his
method of witness work? Yes and no. Some scoffed at him, some dismissed
him politely, but others did believe and join the Christian movement.
It's one thing to talk about how Paul, the great
apostle to the Gentiles, shared his faith, but what about more common
believers? Our Second Lesson today from First Peter responds to that
question. Peter is writing to people who had reason to fear suffering
for their faith, but in the midst of addressing that concern Peter
adds, "Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands
from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with
gentleness and reverence." There's courtroom language here too; just
as Paul defended his faith in front of the Areopagus, so these readers
of First Peter are to be ready to defend their faith. But more importantly,
notice how they are to do it. They are not encouraged to initiate
the defense of their faith; they are to give their defense when someone
demands of them an accounting of the hope within them, and then they
are to do so with gentleness and reverence. Sharing faith is not intended
to be aggressive or hostile but a respectful response to requests
from others.
So also with us. Some Christians, including many Lutheran
Christians, would rather die first than share their faith with someone.
I'm sure there are many reasons for that. Some may be personal: We
may have a natural reticence about talking about something as personal
as our faith, or we may feel that we don't know enough to express
our faith well enough. Other reasons may have to do with the form
of Christian faith we associate with active witnessing: We may associate
overt evangelism with forms of Christian belief that we are uncomfortable
with. Or, we may think that sharing our faith requires an aggressive
method that forces our message on others. Or, we may associate aggressive
evangelism with a form of Christianity that is heavy with judgment
and condemnation of others.
Acts and First Peter express a view of witnessing
to our faith that runs counter to these forms of witnessing that we
may fear. Paul does not demonstrate nor does Peter encourage witnessing
that is aggressive or judgmental. Paul practices and Peter describes
a witness that respects the other and attempts to connect with their
beliefs or honest questions. If we are reluctant to share our faith,
today's Lessons don't give us the excuse that witnessing is not compatible
with our approach to faith.
Of course, sharing our faith doesn't necessarily involve
words. You may have heard the quote from St. Francis, "Always be ready
to preach the Gospel; if necessary, use words." These words encourage
the notion that we can share our faith by what we do. Deeds of love
communicate a faith in a God of love. Yes, this is true, and it is
also true that caring acts of compassion may communicate our faith
more effectively than long doctrinal discourses. In our society there
is a lot of cynicism about religion and religious institutions, and
genuine caring actions do a lot to cut through that distrust of religion.
To paraphrase the proverb, "one loving deed is worth a thousand words."
Yet there are times when we are called on to speak
up. How do we do that? How do we overcome our insecurity about talking
about our faith or our reluctance to share something as personal as
our faith?
One answer here at Ascension is "Plant Sale Evangelism"
or "Spaghetti Dinner Witnessing." What I mean is we have a number
of events throughout the year that provide us with occasions to invite
people to our church. Admittedly a number of them are fundraisers
for us and our designated charities, but they also serve as opportunities
for people from the community to become familiar with us.
Also, someone may notice our compassion and ask us
why we care. I think our participation in the Appalachia Service Project
sometimes provides occasions like this - people here in our community
may wonder why we do this, people we recruit to go along have grown
in awareness of how this servant ministry connects with Christian
faith, and families we help wonder about the motivation for all the
youth and adults who come to help them. I remember a conversation
with a family member in Kentucky about this and how her experience
of being helped encouraged her to find similar ways of helping through
the congregation she was part of.
Sometimes our Christian values compel us to be different
from others around us. People may notice that we resist gossip, demeaning
jokes, dishonest behavior, hateful actions. That may be difficult
for us because we naturally want to fit in with the group we're with,
but we may have an opportunity for witnessing when members of the
group ask us why we are reluctant to conform.
We may have opportunities for witnessing that are
more similar to Paul's. In the Adult Forum we have been talking about
the book Simply Christian by Bishop N.T. Wright. He argues that our
natural human hunger for spirituality, for justice, for close relationships,
for beauty are all echoes of the life God created us to have and enjoy.
Like Paul we could say, "What you seek through justice or close relationships
or beauty, I believe you can find most fully through faith in God."
We may have opportunities for sharing our faith that
are more similar to what Peter describes. When people notice the hope
within us - the confident hope of faith that helps us face suffering
and difficulty, even death - then we may have the opportunity to share
where that hope comes from.
Sharing our faith in an honest and genuine way with
gentleness and reverence is not easy. In our Gospel today Jesus promises
his disciples "the Spirit of truth." May God's Spirit come among all
of us and help us to be ready to give an account of the hope that
lies within us! Amen.
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