Resurrection Stories: Sharing the Resurrection
Matthew 28:16-20
June 5, 2011
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore 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 that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Have there been people who have made a faith difference in your life? I’m talking about people who have shared their faith with you at some point in their lives, and because they did it changed your life. I’ve had several of these kinds of people in my life, and as I look back, in many ways they’ve been the difference between my living a good life, and my living a selfish life.
My father was one of these people, and sharing his faith with me has made a tremendous difference. He never preached to me or my brothers and sister. In fact, he didn’t really talk about faith that much unless we asked him about it. But there were times when we would be talking late at night around the kitchen table, and we would ask him why church was so important to him. He would say things like, “It’s important because it’s where I say thank you to God. God has blessed me in so many ways, and I’ve done nothing to deserve it. But when I go to church I can thank God, and it’s also one of the ways I hear God speaking to me. Without God I’m nothing.” He would also say things like, “I don’t see how you can live without faith. God has done so much in my life. God’s given me you guys, our house, our friends, my career. I see it all coming from God.”
Even though I walked away from church at age fifteen, these kinds of talks stayed with me. When I struggled in my life at age 24, it was these talks that brought me back to the church. It wasn’t being preached at, it was being spoken to by a person of faith who spoke simply, personally, and authentically about God.
My father was one of these people, but over the years I’ve had a number of these kinds of people in my life, and all of them made a difference because they shared their faith. It’s the simplicity and authenticity of their sharing that made a difference. I’ve also been spoken to by a large number of Christians who have tried to share their faith in an aggressive, sales-pitch way, and I think I became a Christian despite them. They turned me off, but the ones who spoke plainly and honestly made the difference in my life.
The fact is that sharing our faith really has a tremendous power to change lives. Unfortunately, most of us are shy about our faith and have a hard time talking about it with others. I’m not sure why, but even as a pastor I’m often afflicted with this shyness. Is it because of our culture’s emphasis on separation of church and state? That may be part of it. Certainly there seems to be a powerful push from our culture to deny our faith and to keep it private from others, lest they be offended or attack us for speaking publicly.
Do we keep our faith private because talking about faith makes us too vulnerable? I think this certainly can be the case. There are many people who look down on religious folk, and to share our faith makes us vulnerable to their criticism or denigration.
I also think we may keep faith private because we think that we have to have everything figured out if we are to talk about our faith. We all feel so inadequate to put to words what we think and feel deep down. It’s also hard for us to talk about our experiences of God, especially if they haven’t been flashy or like a thunderbolt. Most of us experience God simply and quietly. Also, we’ve been so turned off by Christians who think they have it all figured out, and who come across like Christian know-it-alls, that we worry that we’ll come across that way if we share our faith. We worry that we’ll turn people off.
Still, whether you think you have it figured out or not, the fact is that all of us have a calling from God to share our faith. This calling is in our passage for this morning. Basically there are two GREAT callings in the gospels: the Great Commission and the Great Command. Our passage for this morning comes from the Great Commission, where we are told by Jesus to “Go therefore 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 that I have commanded you.” Jesus is saying that we have a responsibility to share our faith, but that faith has to be rooted in the other great calling, which is the Great Command. You know what the Great Command is. It’s found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and it is a command that “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” We can’t take part in the Great Commission without the Great Command, but we also can’t live out the Great Command without a desire to take part in the Great Commission. When we start to really fall in love with God, it leads us to want to share God’s presence with others.
The problem we have today is that in many ways our churches are split between the two. Evangelical churches often emphasize the Great Commission as the main thing, while de-emphasizing the Great Command. Meanwhile, we Mainline Christians emphasize the Great Command, while de-emphasizing the importance of the Great Commission. We are called to do both, but how we do it is unique to each situation and to each of our personalities and faith stories.
Tony Campola has learned how to do both. Do you recognize his name? He is a very popular evangelical speaker who lives in the Philadelphia area. He is well known for teaching evangelicals how to care for people and share the Gospel in a Great Command way. A number of years ago he was in another city to speak at a conference. For whatever reason he couldn’t fall asleep. So, at 2 a.m., he got up and walked to a diner across the street from the hotel. As he sat at the counter eating a doughnut (not the kind of food I’d probably choose to eat if I couldn’t sleep, since it would keep me awake for the rest of the night), in walked two prostitutes who had just finished their evening’s work. They sat on either side of him and talked with the owner of the diner and his wife, who was in the back cooking. Campola was a bit uncomfortable.
In the midst of their conversation, one of the prostitutes mentioned that tomorrow was her birthday, but that she had never had a party. Campola perked up. He said, “Well, then, why don’t we have a birthday party for you tomorrow morning at 2 a.m.? I’m in from out of town, but if the owner here can bake a cake, I can bring party hats and stuff.” They all looked at him as though he was strange, but they agreed.
The next night Campola went into the diner at 2 a.m., and saw that the owner and his wife had baked a cake. In walked the prostitutes. Campola handed out the hats, and they all sang happy birthday. The prostitute was teary-eyed. She then asked if, instead of eating the cake here, she could take it home since she had never had a birthday cake at home. They all agreed, and she left. After a short time of silence, the owner of the diner said to Campola, with a puzzled look, “Hey, you’re a Christian, aren’t you?” Campola smiled and said yes. The owner then said, “And I’ll bet you’re a preacher, too.” Campola said yes. Then the owner said, “What kind of preacher are you?” Campola said, “The kind that has birthday parties for prostitutes at 2 a.m.” He then talked a bit about his faith, not in an aggressive, live-my-way, judgemental manner, but in a simple, ‘this is the difference God has made in my life” manner.
He never found out what kind of impact he made on them, but I’m also not really sure it matters. What mattered was that he shared his faith, much in the way St. Francis said to share faith. Francis said, “Preach the Gospel always. And if necessary, use words.” That’s what Campola did. That’s what we’re called to do.
The point is that all we are called to do is to share our faith in some way. We’re not responsible for converting people on the spot. We’re only responsible for offering them hope. And sharing this church is part of offering them hope.
When I pray over the church each week at the end of worship, I do so with both the Great Command and Great Commission in mind. I pray us out, asking God to lead all of us to share God’s love in faith wherever we are. We have a Command and a Commission to follow everyday. The question is whether we are willing to look for opportunities to do so everyday.
Amen.
