Evangelism 101: Don't Be a Jerk

Click here to listen to sermon

            When I was twenty-three, I spent the summer in Birmingham for Clinical Pastoral Education as a part of my seminary education. After being at the hospital for a 36-hour on-call shift, I was finally home for some rest and relaxation.  And just then there was a knock at the door.

            I found on my front porch two young “evangelists” from a local Baptist Church.  They asked me if I knew Jesus.  I told them that I did indeed know Jesus.  I guess they weren’t convinced so they asked me, “when exactly did you say you met Jesus?” I felt like I was being interrogated by the FBI – not that I have! 

            I tried not to be a jerk so I told them about a conversion experience in Valle Crusis, North Carolina on a youth mission trip.  They followed up by asking, “So is that when you asked Jesus into your heart?”  I paused for a minute and said, “I guess that was the moment when I knew Jesus was in my heart.”     

            Again, they didn’t seem to be satisfied.  It’s like they couldn’t take “yes” for an answer.  They said again, “but did you ask Jesus to come into your heart.” I finally replied, “I’m not sure I said, ‘Jesus come into my heart’, but I remember feeling closer to God.”

            The conversation went on like this for several more minutes.  It was clear that they wanted me to recall the day when I explicitly asked Jesus into my heart so they could write it down on their notepad.  And if I couldn’t recall the first time I said, “Jesus come into my heart”, then they were determined to stay at my house until I did in their hearing. 

The young “evangelists” finally left disappointed by the fact that they couldn’t save my soul.  Even more, the left without really getting to know me at all.  They only thing I knew about them was that they were pushy and even rude at times.  And these people were supposed to be Christians sharing the good news of Jesus?!

            Unfortunately, the picture I have pained for you is a picture of how most see evangelists today.  Typically, we see evangelists as people who go around trying to convince people to say the magic words, “I accept Jesus Christ into my heart as my personal Lord and Savior.”  And then poof, everything is better forever and ever, amen.  The work is done.

            But the work of an evangelist isn’t about saving souls.  In fact, saving souls isn’t up to anybody except God.  And God accomplishes the saving of souls through the Lamb of God...more on that later. 

            The work of the evangelist isn’t about pushing people to say, “I accept Jesus Christ as my Savior.”  In fact, the work of the evangelist requires one to listen more and speak less.  Imagine that?!  -- an evangelist who listens more and speaks less!  I imagine Jesus as one who listens more and speaks less. 

In today’s lesson, Jesus doesn’t really say much, does he?  In scripture, when Jesus does speak, it usually follows a question.  Jesus rarely launches into a parable or teaching without asking a question or responding to a question.  Jesus knows the situation and the people before sharing the good news.  And today Jesus asks, “What are you looking for?”  (pause)

            After noticing that he has some followers, Jesus turns around, and asks these first disciples, “What are you looking for?”  What if Jesus suddenly turned around and asked you, “What are you looking for?”  What would you say? (pause)

            If you have no clue, that’s okay.  It doesn’t appear that these two disciples really know what to say either.  And like one does when they don’t know what to say, the two disciples follow a question with a question.  Where are you staying?

Even though the disciples’ question seems rather trivial, where are you staying?  Beneath the surface, they are asking a question that we all long to know – where is the home of the one who created us, redeems, and sustains us?  Where can we first rest for our weary souls?

            Jesus, the ultimate evangelist, the one who embodies the good news of the kingdom, doesn’t respond with an ontological argument that details how he is the home of God – which he is.  Jesus doesn’t respond to their question by saying, “You are supposed to know the answer, and I won’t tell you where I live unless you study harder.”  Jesus simply replies, “Come and see.”

            The work of an evangelist is less interested in telling and commanding and more interested in listening and inviting.  The work of an evangelist is about helping someone make room in their lives to behold the Lamb of God in their presence just like John the Baptist beholds the Lamb of God in today’s lesson.

            And like I wrote in my Christmas message, the only power that can make room for anything that is good is the power of love.  Only when we are loved and love, can there be room to receive good news.    The work of the evangelist is deeply personal and requires us to learn how to love.  It’s not about checking somebody off a list and then moving on. 

And how do we love as followers of Jesus?  Thomas Merton said, “The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.”  I would also argue that this is the beginning of evangelism.

It’s not about waiting for people get their act together so they can join you in the pews at church.  No, it’s about walking out these doors in the knowledge that you are loved beyond measure in order to tell a lost and broken world that they are loved beyond measure.  And you know this truth about love because you are blessed in this place to behold the Lamb of God – the one who takes away your sins and declares that you are loved no matter what.

When you go out into the world to tell of the gospel truth, you don’t need to recite a special formula of words that some book prescribes.  You aren’t called to tell people to do this, this, and this in order to be saved. 

Your vocation is to simply love others for the way they are – especially the sinful part of a person.  Your vocation as an evangelist is about being informed by your experience in the presence of the Jesus, the Lamb of God.  And when someone asks you, “How do you love so well?  Why am I, of all people, worth your time?”  You can invite them to “Come and see.”

The work of evangelist isn’t about forcing yourself onto someone’s front porch.  No, the work of an evangelist is about committing to love others without condition because an evangelist knows that they are loved without condition.  The work of an evangelist doesn’t give up on somebody if they are slow to accept the truth of their belovedness because an evangelist is also someone who struggles to know their belovendess. 

The work of an evangelist is about helping people make room in their lives, in their hearts to hear the invitation of Jesus himself, an invitation for us to come into Jesus’ heart, an invitation to rest in the home of God which is in the heart of Jesus. 

The question isn’t simply, “have you accepted Jesus into your heart?”  But also, “how can I help others see how Jesus is calling all people into his heart.”  How can I help someone want to know that they are loved through the person and work of Jesus, the Lamb of God?

And I’ve learned, that they way to proclaim this truth is through listening and inviting, it is about asking and accepting, it is about praying and waiting, it is about helping someone see how Spirit of God is breaking into their life and proclaiming, “you are a beloved child of God.” 

The work of an evangelist is about helping someone have a personal relationship with Jesus.  But before that work can being, an evangelist must be willing to have a personal relationship with the people whom they encounter and it is my firm belief that through that relationship, Jesus will appear and say to us all, “Come and see.”  Amen.