Evangelism is
about Good News
Francis Bernardone, raised in the Umbrian
village of Assissi, was
the son of an Italian nobleman whose 12th century lifestyle was high
and extravagant until a conversion experience set him on a different path. If before he had kept to the castles and
their finery and their aristocratic inhabitants, afterward he became known for
simple living, and as the patron saint of animals and the environment. We most commonly run into him these days in
the form of concrete statuary watching over flower beds around the world,
usually holding a bird; and in his poem called “Canticle of the Sun” in which
he invites his Brother Sun and Sister Moon and Mother Earth and Brother Fire to
join him in the worship of God. It is the
text behind our familiar hymn “All Creatures of our God and King.”
But perhaps Francis’ best
known writing is a prayer that has been borrowed by aspiring faithful of all
descriptions and throughout the generations:
Lord,
make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow
love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to
understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we
receive,
it is in pardoning that we are
pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are
born to Eternal Life.
Amen.
But Francis had other
thoughts and teachings as well; one of which was this bit of instruction to his
followers:
The Gospel, Francis knew, is not some
academic construct to be chalked onto blackboards, or a catechetical fence to
jump over before being admitted to heaven, but a passionate comprehension of
the unbelievable truth that the God who made us also loves us – despite our
lack of merit and lack, at times, of even interest. That is the Gospel. The Apostle Paul put it this way: that “God proves his love for us in that while we
still were sinners Christ died for us (Romans 5:6-8).
Or
as John would record it in that favorite memory verse described as “the Gospel
in miniature”: “God so loved the world that he
gave is only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not die, but
have eternal life.”
That,
to say it in another way, is the Good News. And that Good News is at the core of what
the church means when it talks about Evangelism – an English word
drawn from the Greek words for proclaiming the Good News.
I go into such detail with this word because the
church – ours included – has largely
been confused about all this. The church
– ours included – somewhere along the
way started using evangelism as shorthand for getting people to place their
membership in our congregation; that the Good
News was that our youth program is fun or that our songs are catchy, or
that we serve breakfast and designer coffees.
All of those things may be true, and all of those things may be
interesting and even attractive and no doubt well-worth talking about to
others, but Jesus is hoping that sooner or later that we might stumble back
onto the comprehension that having and advertising such “amenities” has
precious little to do with evangelism.
Evangelism is not about marketing and it's not about
institutional affiliation, any more than it is about standing on the street
corner shouting through a bullhorn about the depravity of those passing by or
threatening people with the fiery prospects of their eternity. It's not about jumping through a series of
religiously elevated hoops that will qualify us for heaven, and it's not about
getting people to “cross their heart and hope to die” should they ever commit
another sin.
In
fact, evangelism isn't in the first place about us at all; it is about the
embracing love of God and the lengths to which God will go and the depths to
which God will stoop to demonstrate it.
And having “gotten” that incredible message – having comprehended that that
was what Jesus was here to demonstrate and communicate – Evangelism is about
proclaiming that same assurance not simply to prospective members of our
congregation, but to everyone we happen to encounter. It is about being witnesses “in Jerusalem, in
Judea and Samaria, and away to the ends of the earth,” to this truly Good News
that the God who made us also passionately and unconditionally loves us. Commissioned by the risen Christ, we are to
go about doing what he did: putting
flesh onto the love of God.
St. Teresa of Avila, another spiritual giant in the
faith, is the one most often given credit for another prayer that could well be
thought of as the “evangelist's supplication”:
God of love, help us remember that Christ has
no body now on earth but ours, no hands but ours, no feet but ours. Ours are the eyes to see the needs of the
world. Ours are the hands with which to
bless everyone now. Ours are the feet
with which he is to go about doing good.
“Lord,” to
paraphrase Francis, “help us to preach the Gospel at all times – and, if
necessary, to use words.”
If I understand that instruction at all, it suggests
that Evangelism will usually make less use of mouths than it does of our
lives. However often it finds its way
into our conversations, it will most commonly find its way into our living, and
most particularly our loving.
We will make a habit of loving others – and making sure they know
that they are loved – not so much because they are necessarily lovable or
desirable or popular or endearing, but because we know that God loves them, no
less than God loves us, and it is our job to make that loving plain.
So what will that look like, and are we ever
successful at it? Certainly we can see
such Good News being shared as people, both young and old, are received into
fellowship and reborn in the waters of baptism.
But I suggest that we are being faithful to our commission in subtler,
but no less transformational ways, than that – indeed, when words are, in a
sense, plentiful, but have very little directly to do with the name of
Jesus. Every Tuesday, Wednesday, and
Thursday, the love of God – the Gospel
– is given witness and the gospel is being proclaimed around a group of tables
in the second floor lounges, in the midst of struggle, strangeness, and the
will to accomplish and become something better...
[ SONDRA
EDDINGS (Minister of Community Life) TELLS THE STORY OF OUR ENGLISH-LANGUAGE
LEARNING PROGRAM FOR IMMIGRANTS ]
Evangelism,
to say it another way, isn't about the Church – the features and
activities that list well on brochures and websites; the church, however, is
about evangelism: it is about embodying,
communicating, practicing and proclaiming the transforming love of God. It is about being the love of God;
not just talking about the love of God. We
are to be, then, evangelists – Christ's witnesses: here and there and everywhere anyone needs to
understand it.
So, preach the gospel. All the time.
And if you must, open your mouth.