On
Evangelism
Our “Words” Series
A Sermon for the Beloveds of First Austin: a baptist
community of faith
By Griff Martin
Matthew 28:16-20
On August 26, 2018
Matthew 28:16-20
Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where
Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some
doubted. Then Jesus came
to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go 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 I have commanded you. And surely I am with you
always, to the very end of the age.”
Sermon:
Incarnate and Resurrected God, we ask that you once again
take the Word and transform it into a living and breathing new reality we can
all together experience. Be present here in this space and in these words God, for if you are present here then nothing else will matter,
but if you are not present here then nothing else will matter. In the name of
the Creator, the Christ and the Comforter. Amen.
The Sermon:
What to do with the word, label, name and identity “evangelical?” My entire
Doctor of Ministry journey began with this question. My first paper for this
degree was on a book dealing with evangelical theology in a post-conservative
world (sounds fascinating, doesn’t it?), and the first paper was
essentially the very question of this sermon: What do we do today with the
identity “evangelical?”
Now I was not the best graduate student; I did not always know the rules of academics. For instance, I did not see it as unwise to write this paper arguing
entirely against the premise of the book, which seemed fair to me since the
assignment was to respond to the book. I should state here that the author of
this book was also the professor of my first seminar and he would be grading
the paper. So in my first paper I attempted to prove his entire book and
central argument wrong. It was not the best
starting off place, and I got an email quickly
telling me he thought it best to try again and choose a smaller task than, in his words, “letting me
know all my work was for nothing.”
I rewrote the paper focusing on narrative theology and
Scripture, one of the course-corrections he suggested. It was very dull, but it got me an A. I went back and read both papers this
week…I stand by the first one as a much better
written, thought-out and interesting paper.
It has held up a lot better than the rewrite. However, despite my deep hope this paper would help me find an
answer, it did not give me an answer to the question of this sermon.
So I then turned to you all…conducting a very official polling of
First Austin…and by “very official” I mean I texted
about 15 of you, just random names that I had in my phone with this question:
Do you consider yourself evangelical, why or why not? I got back 7 “yes,” 6 “no,” 1 “who is this” and 1 “please lose this number.”
Actually, what I got were
mostly “yes, but…,” and “no, but…,”
and then a litany of things that distinguished and
distanced each person from the evangelical world, or which called to the evangelical identity even if they did not claim
the label, which is more than fair. Most of it boiled down to this: I know there is something important and maybe even needed
about sharing the Gospel, but the phrase itself is too loaded these days.
That sums up 12 of the replies.
Evangelical is a loaded term, and I am going to fight my
desire to go into that and talk about all the negativity of the word. Beyond that it’s a word with a thousand
meanings. As evidence of that, according to
numerous studies depending on the method of measurement and how exactly “evangelical” is defined, more than one-third of Americans (47%) are
evangelical, or fewer than one-in-10 are evangelical.
And beyond there being many definitions of the word, the
context in which the word is being used is important.
To the pollster and historian, it is a sociological term. To the pastor and
church person, it is a denominational or doctrinal term. And to the politician
and journalist, it is a synonym for a white Christian Republican.
It’s another word that has been hijacked, and this has been going on for quite some time. In the 1960s Historian
George Marsden said that an evangelical was anyone who liked Billy Graham.
Twenty years later,
Billy Graham himself, our most famous evangelical preacher, confessed that he
could not define “evangelical.”
So maybe it’s best to start with the question: what is “evangelical?”
Just to review – at its
most basic, “evangelical” is rooted in 4 attributes as defined best by David
Bebbington, whose principal research as a historian has been the evangelical
movement. According to this work, the 4
foundations of evangelical theology and practice are 1) importance of
conversion, 2) support for activism and
missional activities, 3) high regard for
Scripture, and 4) centrality of the cross.
However, ask the average
person in our world today what evangelicals stand for, and you are not going to get a list of those four
foundations. According to just a bit of
googling and a recent article in The Atlantic, the average person thinks
evangelicals are those who oppose Islam, oppose refugees and immigrants, stand
up for the National Anthem, fight for the right to fly a confederate flag,
oppose evolution, oppose feminist ideology, are pro-traditional family, vote a particular way…. A recent article state that the main two identifiers in
terms of evangelicals were their views on white racial identity and the right
to bear arms.
According to a recent article in Christian Century,
and I quote, “what
most distinguishes white evangelicals from other Christians and from
non-believers is not theology, but politics.” And then from Tim Keller, a
prominent leader in the evangelical movement, “Evangelical used to denote a
people who claimed the higher moral ground, now in popular usage is nearly
synonymous with hypocrite.”
Thus, our problem. How do we identify with a
word which culturally we want little to do with,
but contains a key calling for us, a word
which might imply a politics and theology we don’t all share? The good news is, our job
is not to redeem words; our calling is to
redeem the world. The redemption of words is not our calling, it’s the
redemption of the world around us.
Which brings us to the central truth of evangelism: the
word comes from the Greek word meaning “gospel” or “good news.” Strictly speaking, “evangelical” then refers to a person or institution that is committed
to sharing the gospel or the good news. In the New Testament this word
distinguished the love-centric movement of Jesus to the violent Roman empire,
whose good news was military conquest.
It’s good news in a world in which it seems like there is
no good news.
So strictly speaking, culture aside, evangelicals are those who are committed to the love-centric movement
of Jesus, to living and sharing his life. Which means that when it comes to the
word “evangelical,” we might have thrown the baby out with the bath water. We
can lose the label, but we cannot lose the calling. We can lose the noun, but
we must never forget the verb.
And the truth is, this week
as I researched this sermon, I realized how
easy (and honestly fun and ego-pleasing) it
would be to point fingers at how badly those evangelicals have characterized us
and how they tell the story in such a bad way, but then I had this awful
realization, “Griff, at least they are telling
the story….”
One of you lamented to me this week that in letting go of
evangelical baggage and transitioning to this community, you did feel you had
lost a little bit of zeal for your faith, and
some of our Christian calling has become quite complacent. I had to sit with
that because it stung a bit, and it stung because it was truth.
You see the truth is, for
me it was easy to walk away from the evangelical label because evangelism is
hard. I wish I could share another example,
but here is what I got: I have a new neighbor
that moved in almost half a year ago, and we
have had many conversations. He knows that I
am a pastor, and every time he brings up
religion and church, I have to confess it gets a bit uncomfortable. I am afraid he expects me to share the 4 Spiritual Laws, or a Gospel tract, or to
ask him if he were to die tonight on a scale of 1-10 how sure is he that he
would go to heaven…all methods of evangelism I
have been trained in, and all methods I have
to confess that I have actually done in my life. When the truth is, I have not even had him over for dinner yet, so asking him
about his assurance of that afterlife is a bit much.
And yet, I am certain that
if we were out in the front yard chatting I would easily tell him what Dixie
Chicks album I loved the most, or why I think
John Steinbeck is the best author of all times,
or my preference of Maudie’s queso to any other in town. I would recommend Crazy
Rich Asians if he was looking for a movie,
and I could give him a very full list of novels I have read and loved this
summer if he was looking for a book. You see,
there are some things I am evangelical about….
And it’s not that I am embarrassed to talk about my faith;
that is what I do for a living…and it’s not that I
don’t know how to talk about my faith; again, I hope that is what I do for a living. It really is
that I don’t want to seem like one of those Christians.
You know, one of those Christians
that Jesus actually commanded us to be. His
final words to his disciples and to us: “All
authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go 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 I have commanded you. And surely I am with you
always, to the very end of the age.”
Go tell and go live my story.
And he does not try to convince the disciples to do this
– it’s worth noting
as we talk about evangelism how Jesus does not convince, argue or try to
persuade – He lives and tells stories to
demonstrate God’s love and desire for the world, as if, radical concept, that was
enough. To live and to tell a great story.
I think it’s important once again here to focus on words,
which I know we are doing a lot these days. You see, the text I just
read above is what we call the Great Commission, but note that it’s we who call
that the Great Commission. Jesus did not
gather the disciples together and say “let me
tell you the Great Commission.” No, these were simply his
parting words.
However, he did label
something “great.” In Matthew it happens six chapters before the Great
Commission: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied, “‘Love the
Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it:
‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law
and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
When asked what was great, Jesus replied: “Love God, love others and love yourself….” And I personally believe that if Jesus had been asked to
further expand on the Great Commission, what he would have known as his final
words, I think he would have pointed us right back there.
Jesus would say, “First Austin, you want to
make disciples? Well go and live the Great Command, and then people are going to be intrigued and invite you
to share your story, your passion, your why….” And
doing that is exactly what I am calling you to do.
Note, this does not mean “evangelism” as it has
often been presented: saving souls and giving
them fire insurance, converting folks to western white Christianity. Saving souls from the fires of hell will not cut it; it’s cheap grace and we can do a hell of a lot better.
Salvation and conversion and sanctification are about so much more than just
that.
Last night I was reading a tribute to Aretha Franklin,
specifically a tribute to her best album, her 1972 Gospel album Amazing
Grace – an album that can restore my faith
in just a song. This tribute was written by a non-religious journalist, and yet this line: “Aretha brought church with her
wherever she went, reaching beyond the pews, tapping into our universally
shared humanity with her voice, heart, gut and soul.” That’s evangelical.
I want to be evangelical like Aretha.
Which means that “evangelism” is a large word because “evangelism” looks like building a house at Mobile Loaves and Fishes Community
First Village, it looks like giving out
bottles of water on a hot day to the thirsty and homemade sandwiches to the
hungry, it’s standing up for those who are being oppressed, it’s welcoming the
stranger into your home, it’s telling your
neighbor about the church community that gives you life and the story on which
you base your entire being, it’s befriending the kid at school who no one else
sits with, it’s using your job to make sure those around you know they are
loved…..
And it’s doing that for a reason. You see, if I just wanted
to make the world a better place, there are a lot of other organizations I
would join to do so. It’s deeper for me than just wanting to make the world a
better place, it’s about fully realizing the Kingdom of Jesus on earth as it is
in heaven.
And maybe it’s simpler than we have made it. Mary Helen’s final email to the deaconate this week as she turns leadership over to Natalie: “May we stay focused on God’s love and how to share that.”
Fitting last words that echo the last words of Jesus.
Go 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 I have commanded you….Stay
focused on God’s love and how to share that.
And I don’t know that Jesus cares what we call that
– “evangelical” or
not – in fact,
I think Jesus just calls it “obedience.”
Amen and Amen.
--
Rev. Dr. Griff Martin
Senior Pastor
First Austin: a baptist community of faith
*artwork: From the Book Evangelism: Reaching Out Through Relationships by Jack Kuhatschek, discoveryseries.org
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