In a nutshell, this passage is talking about “sharing the gospel.”
It is talking about how each and every one of us has a responsibility
to share the Christian faith with others. So I have a question: how
seriously do you take Christ’s call to share the gospel?
I have to admit to you that I’ve always been uncomfortable with
sharing the gospel. A lot of it has to do with my own experiences. I’m
comfortable sharing the gospel in the context of a church in which people
who’ve already embraced the gospel. But sharing it with strangers
is hard for me. Perhaps the hardest part about sharing the gospel is
that it breaks one of our culture’s taboos. You know that taboo.
It’s the one about the two things we are never to talk about in
public? Politics and religion. So how do you share the gospel in the
face of a taboo that says to keep your faith to yourself?
I’m also uncomfortable with sharing the gospel because I’ve
experienced the efforts of others trying to convert me, and frankly
I had to overcome my bias against these people in order to become a
Christian again twenty-five years ago. There was one experience I had
in high school that made me reluctant to “share the gospel,”
at least in the way that many evangelicals do it. A friend of mine and
I took a bus into Pittsburgh to go to Sam Goody’s to buy records.
This was back before the internet, before downloading, before compact
discs. We had to actually go to a record store and buy vinyl records.
How prehistoric! Anyway, we had gone to Sam Goody’s to buy records,
and on the way back to the bus stop two men accosted us.
They aggressively walked up to us and started talking. At first we thought
they might be muggers. Then we thought they might be homeless. It wasn’t
for a few minutes that we realized they were Christians trying to convert
us. But what they said made no sense. Without even saying “hi,”
they started saying, “What would you give your life for? Would
you give your life for that fire hydrant? Would you give your life for
that phone pole or that car? What would you give your life for? Jesus
gave his life for you? What would you give your life for?”
This line of reasoning didn’t make much sense to us. In fact,
it had the opposite effect of what they intended. It caused me to think
that any Christian who shares the gospel must be sort of crazy.
I’ve also learned from others that attempts to evangelize generally
aren’t welcomed, and that religious folk often aren’t welcome.
For instance, I remember clearly twenty years ago getting together with
a friend in Philadelphia, a man I went to college with. I was a seminary
student at the time. He decided that we should go to a local watering
hole to meet girls. As we were walking in, he stopped, turned to me,
and said, “Hey Graham. Don’t tell anyone that you are in
seminary. It will just blow our rap.” Lesson learned. Keep my
faith private in public.
My experiences as a pastor haven’t been much better when I’m
in public and people don’t know my profession. I’ve noticed
that if I meet people somewhere where they don’t know that I’m
a pastor, they will generally feel free to talk about whatever. But
as soon as they find out that I’m a pastor, they take several
steps backward and mutter something about why they haven’t been
to church in a long time. Again, lesson learned: keep faith private,
keep the gospel to myself.
The man who really helped me to overcome my discomfort lived 1600 year
ago. Today we call him St. Patrick. I realize that as Presbyterians
we are supposed to call him “Patrick of Ireland” rather
than St. Patrick (why? Because we believe all Christians are saints,
not just special Christians). But somehow just calling him Patrick doesn’t
seem to do him justice. So please forgive me if I call him St. Patrick.
Until a few years ago, I only knew two things about him. First, that
he drove the snakes out of Ireland, which, I found out, really isn’t
true since Ireland never did have snakes. Second, that he brought green
beer to Ireland, or at least he must have. Why else would people drink
so much green beer on St. Patrick’s Day? What I’ve learned
since about St. Patrick has had a big influence on my understanding
of how we are called to share the gospel.
St. Patrick lived between 389 and 461 A.D., during a time in which most
of what is today England and Wales was under the control of the Roman
Empire. Patrick grew up as a Christian and was well educated. He grew
up in the church during a time in which it had become very stilted and
staid. Christianity had become the state religion of the Roman Empire
seventy years earlier, and for the first time it had entered a time
of stability and some stagnation. The church of St. Patrick’s
day was having a hard time spreading to lands outside of the empire,
especially among the Celts living in Ireland. In fact, the Celts were
particularly hostile to Christianity because the Romans had told them
that in order to become Christian they had to give up their own customs
and adopt Roman ones. The Celts were a stubborn people, and they were
not willing to give up their cherished customs and beliefs for a religion
that made no sense to them, and for an empire that wanted to dominate
them.
Patrick grew up oblivious to all of this. He grew up Christian, educated,
and reasonably well off. As a young Christian, Patrick didn’t
have much use for the church. In fact, he was pretty critical of the
church, and especially of the priests and bishops. His perspective changed
when he turned sixteen. One day, Patrick and some friends were wandering
around the countryside when a gang of Celts, who had sailed to Britain
from Ireland, captured them, put them in their boats, and took them
back to Ireland to become slaves. For the next six years Patrick served
as a slave tending sheep on the hillsides of Ireland. It is there that
he discovered God.
Living out in the elements with little to do but watch sheep, Patrick
began to pray three times a day. It was on those hillsides that he encountered
God. He looked up at the stars and moon, and he experienced God. He
looked at the blue sky and clouds, and he encountered God. He looked
out upon the green hills, the sheep, the trees, the grass, and he encountered
God. He looked at the Irish people, and he encountered God. He looked
in his own heart, and he encountered God.
Ironically, it was as a captured slave in Ireland that Patrick discovered
a real freedom of the heart in prayer and in God. It was through these
experiences that Patrick finally managed to escape from Ireland and
slavery. One night in a dream he heard God’s voice telling him
to get up and walk to the coast where a ship would carry him back to
England. Upon waking, he put down his staff and walked almost 200 miles
to the coast, where he found a ship and convinced its captain to take
him back to England.
He returned to his family amidst much fanfare and celebrations, but
he returned a changed man. He was back with his family, but he wasn’t
home. He knew that his calling was to return to his new home, Ireland,
and to bring Christ with him. Patrick sensed a clear calling to become
a priest and to convert the island of Ireland. So he embarked on a twenty-year
journey to prepare himself for his return to Ireland. He studied theology
in Rome and France, and eventually became a priest. At age 48, he convinced
the pope that he was called to bring Christianity to Ireland, and so
at an age close to the life expectancy of the time, Patrick was ordained
a bishop and sent to Ireland to bring Christianity to the Celts.
The thing you need to know is how dangerous this mission was. Patrick
was not the first priest or bishop to go to Ireland. Many had preceded
him, and all had been killed for their efforts. That was how missionaries
were treated in Celtic lands. Patrick, though, came armed with a different
strategy. Whereas all of his predecessors had tried to convert them
to “Roman” Christianity, Patrick focused on adapting Christianity
to them. He created a uniquely Celtic Christianity that incorporated
the natural reverence for nature into his Christian faith.
What did he do? He created a different kind of monastery, for one. In
an age when monks were cloistered away from civilization on mountaintops,
to live in isolation and solitude, Patrick created monasteries that
were centered in the communities. They were active, lively places where
people came to worship, learn, and pray. They were very much like our
present-day churches that became the center of the communities. They
also took much of the Celtic symbolism and brought it into Christianity
so that instead of having to change their whole way of being in order
to become Christian, they kept what was healthy and holy, and incorporated
it into the Christian faith. For example, in trying to explain Christian
faith, Patrick used their love of the number three and of shamrocks.
He said, “Look, you see the holy in the threes, and so our God
is three. God is like the shamrock. Just as the shamrock is one plant
with three petals, our God is one God with three persons.” Patrick
also focused on building relationships rather than on making sure everyone
had the right beliefs. This brand of Christianity spread like wildfire
throughout Ireland, and within twenty years most of Ireland had become
Christian. This is why St. Patrick is so revered today.
Patrick taught me that sharing the gospel is about much more than preaching
words. He taught me that sharing the gospel is about sharing Christ
in the fullest sense of the word. Sharing the gospel is a matter of
sharing our experiences of God. It is a matter of living a loving life
in which we talk as easily about God’s influence as we would about
eating healthy foods, or taking a great class, or of watching a great
television show. We talk about the impact God, and the church, has had
on us.
“Preach the gospel at all times. And if necessary, use words.”
This is what another famous man, St. Francis of Assisi, is reported
to have said. What this saying teaches is that how we live is part of
how we share the gospel. But it’s only sharing the gospel if others
are able to connect how we live with our faith. If we live in a way
that is snippy and critical, people will also connect that with our
faith and be turned off to the gospel. How we live reflects what we
believe. If the gospel is alive in us, our lives will be filled with
love. If it isn’t, our lives won’t be.
This church is also part of how we share the gospel. We share the gospel
each time we share this church with others, either by inviting them
to the church, or simply by telling people how the church has impacted
our faith and our lives. But the example St. Patrick gave also says
that there’s more to it than just inviting people to be part of
the church. If we are serious as a church about sharing the gospel,
it requires a willingness to change ourselves to meet people where they
are. This means being willing to do what we’ve done at Calvin
Church, which is to slowly adapt ourselves to the way people are in
the culture, rather than trying to maintain the way things were in the
past.
Part of the vision for Calvin Church, our vision statement, is to share
the gospel of Christ. Not everyone in a church wants to share the gospel,
yet it is clearly a call found in scripture. Each and every one of us
is called to share the gospel, and to use words if necessary.
As we close, I have two questions I want you to reflect upon. First,
how do you share the gospel? Second, what are you doing to share Christ’s
love, grace, and presence with the world?
