August 13, 2023
Donald Hanna
Back when we lived I Minneapolis, we lived right off a couple of the main streets in the Uptown area. With that it was not unusual to have random people knocking on our door. There was the guy that didn’t even knock, but just walked in and asked for some soup. There were the canvasers - name your social cause they came a knocking. And then there was the regular visits from the folks coming to hand out their religious tracts, and try to get me to go to their church. It was a little weird. They were very regular, and they knew that I was a pastor a different church, but still they came asking. I kind of feel that they just knew I wasn’t going to be mean to them, so they kept coming.
Anyway I remember them showing up one day with their magazine and the cover was this drawing of a vaguely apocalyptic cityscape. On one side there was darkness and Satan watching over the city. On the other side was a blue sky with a rainbow and some white God hands coming out of the sky. Now I have to confess that I never read her magazine after she gave it to me. But I remember her saying something like,“Can I ask you a question, who do you think is in control of the world.” She went on to narrow it down for me, “Do you think it is God, people, or someone else.”
Every conversation I ever had with her was a little uncomfortable. And I remember in her question my defenses going up a little, and yet, at the same time I didn’t want to be rude to her. I said something about not really liking the question. I don’t really see control, as we would typically think about it working, as being at work in totality in the world. There are our own personal agendas. There are systemic and historic dynamics. There is the created order and physical laws. There is love. There is fear. There is greed. There are so many things at play. Well, you probably aren’t surprised that apparently the pamphlet she hadheld the answer to the question. And from what she told me, it turns out that Satan is in control of the world, and that there are three Bible verses that will tell you that.
Now I don’t mean to belittle this woman’s efforts or theology, but I really don’t believe that this kind of evangelism is very appropriate. It tends to gloss over really complex issues in an attempt to real folks in. It doesn’t really take account of who the persons are who being proselytized to and where they are in their life. And worst of all it probably turns far more people away from the church, than it will ever gain. There are people whose sole experience of the church is this kind of uncomfortable encounter, and so would never think about walking into a church building anywhere, anytime, anyhow.
However, this said, I do not want to give the impression that I don’t think we should participate in evangelism. I think that it is very important. In Romans, Paul says that Christ is good news. Knowing Jesus gives us peace. Christ liberates us from so many idols and lies that the world holds up. Christ teaches us the goodness and the abundance that God gives in creation. Christ offers salvation. Given all this, why wouldn’t’ we want to share the Gospel. I think its important to understand our story as being part of God’s story, in part so that we might bear witness to others. But if haranguing people at the gas pump, or street corner, or interrupting their dinner is not the way to go about it, what is?
Back when I was in India, I met with a man who had this story to share. He said he arrived in the village where were twenty-six years prior. When he got there the village chief came and knocked on his door the first week he was there. “Are you a Christian,” he asked. “Yes,” he replied. “Please go away. We don’t want you here,” the village chief said. He went on to explain that over and over and over again through the years Christian missionaries had come to the village. They had given away Bibles and offered families free meals or other gifts if people would join their church, and then just as quickly as they had arrived they would disappear, back to America. He said that it always caused such trouble, chaos, and heartache in the village, and that they didn’t want to go through it again.
Well the man said he was not there to proselytize. He was there because he wanted to build a school and that he could offer some assistance with getting wells established. They agreed that he could stay provided that he didn’t try convert folks. However, the village chief did consent that if people had questions about the man’s faith that he was free to share about it.
The man told me that the year before I met him the village had gotten together for a big celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the school. At the party the village chief recounted that initial encounter and the agreement that they had made. He told the crowd gathered that the man had very much lived up to his promise of only sharing about his faith if people asked him about it. But then went on to say that through the constant love and care that he had showed the community over the years he had won far more converts to Christianity than all of the missionaries put together that had come to proselytize over the years.
There was a book that the Presbytery had me read a few years ago by the author, Author Michel Frost, called The Five Habits of Highly Missional People. He lays out five things that Christians with a missional mindset incorporate into their lives. He says that they bless. They look for places in other people’s lives where they can offer words of affirmation, where they can share an act of kindness, or where they can provide some physical gift; food, money, shelter, or supply some other need. Missional people eat with others. They practice hospitality. Whether this is meeting someone for coffee and conversation or having someone over for a full on dining table sit-down, there is just something sacramental about sharing food together. They listen to God. They set time aside for prayer, intentionally shutting out outside distractions. They really work at hearing what God has to say to them in their lives, and then follow those promptings. Missional people learn. They study the Bible and the Gospels in particular. They read books and watch movies about Jesus. They study theology. They work at immersing themselves in Christ. And the final habit of missional people is that they see themselves as sent. In their lives they try to exhibit the reconciliation, justice, beauty, and wholeness that God desires for all creation because God calls each of us to that life and sends out towards those ends. Bless, Eat, Listen, Learn, and Sent. Put together it forms the acronym B.E.L.L.S. And put together it forms what Frost calls a questionable life – that is a life that will cause others to wonder just what is up. Why does that person live that way? Why would this person come to our village and open a school for us?
Back in seminary we said that this kind of life was praying with your feet. It is trying to live according to the agape love that Jesus lived out in his life. And there is something about it that truly does inspire. It really makes people take notice. It really does get people asking questions.
The Gospel lesson today, although not about evangelism, provides some analogy to what can happen when we live this kind of life. Jesus and Peter have a relationship. Peter sees Jesus out walking on the water. Jesus is living in a way that has Peter asking questions. He is curious. So Peter wants to know more. He wants to be with Jesus. He wants to walk out onto the water with Jesus. And Jesus invites him to do so. He takes some steps out of the boat but then begins to sink. But Jesus is there to help him with this happens.
To me there is a great correlation between this story and what our evangelism efforts should be like. We should work at forming relationships with others. Not because we secretly want to convert them, but because that is how God calls us to live. We should work at blessing others. We should invite folks to eat with us and really try to get to know them in that. We should listen to where God is directing us in relationships. And then as seems appropriate share the richness of our lives, and even how faith has played into our lives. And then if they have further questions or struggles with it, we already have a relationship with them, and can be there to help as we can.
As our lives become more agape oriented, as we work at developing and deepening relationships, as we live so that we are praying with our feet, people will take notice. People will ask questions, and then we can share our own story. It’s what friends do. I don’t know who is in control of the world, but maybe we can take what control we have ourselves and use it to help make the world a little brighter of a place. Amen.
