Readings
Romans 10:1-16
Brothers and sisters,[a] my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 2 I can testify that they have a zeal for God, but it is not enlightened. 3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they have not submitted to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.
5 Moses writes concerning the righteousness that comes from the law, that ‘the person who does these things will live by them.’ 6 But the righteousness that comes from faith says, ‘Do not say in your heart, “Who will ascend into heaven?”’ (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 ‘or “Who will descend into the abyss?”’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say?
‘The word is near you,
on your lips and in your heart’
(that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because[b] if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. 11 The scripture says, ‘No one who believes in him will be put to shame.’ 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. 13 For, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
14 But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? 15 And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’
Matthew 28:16-20
16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 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, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’
Sermon
So today we are on our fourth Sunday of thinking about the different holy habits – the practices and
spiritual disciplines which we weave into our daily lives to help us fulfil our purpose of glorifying God and enjoying God together. We have thought about the place or worship, prayer and reading the Bible. Today, we are going to think about sharing what we know about God.
Now I am going to confess to a bit of a love-hate relationship with a certain saying attributed to St
Francis: preach the gospel at all times and if necessary use words. Now, why do I love this quote – well, it reminds us that the way we live our lives is so important. If our lives are not good news, if the way we live doesn’t in some way attempt to love God and love our neighbours, words are going to be useless. In fact, worse than that, our words about Jesus will come across as insincere and a message of love, peace and hope will come across as hypocrisy. The medium is the message, as advertisers say – they way we live is the most powerful proof of the transforming love of God. Let our light shine before others to the
glory of God!
BUT the reason I sometimes don’t love this saying is because people can hide behind it and use it as an
excuse to never say anything at all! Now, I can understand why people might worry about telling others about our faith. The first reason relates to what I have just said – my life is not perfect, so how am I equipped to tell others about Jesus? I don’t want to look like a hypocrite. The second is that the church has made a hash of telling others about Jesus in the past, and come over as dogmatic and self-righteous. Goodness, our own church’s story is that it was started to put the fear of God into the poor after they had the temerity to
protest against wage cuts – you can spend two centuries living that down! The third reason is that people feel ill-equipped to explain their faith. In a fact-based and scientific world, not everything about our faith can be readily explained (that is in fact why faith is needed) and we can feel uncomfortable trying to justify why Jesus is so important to us. The fourth is that they are nervous about people laughing at something which is precious to them, and even being rejected for following Jesus.
These are real fears, but as Paul says so succinctly in his letter how can people call out to God unless
they have believed, unless they have heard and unless someone has told them! And sharing faith is not an optional extra in the Christian life – it is Jesus’ last instruction to his followers: go and make disciples, baptise people and help them to follow Jesus’ teachings. It is important too because the more people who choose to follow Jesus, the more people there are to share God’s transforming love with the world, the more people there are to love those who need loved, help those who need helped, change what needs changed and generally make the world more as God intended it to be. We need people to join the adventure of God’s Kingdom! And lastly, sharing good news is a good thing. Some people really want to hear about Jesus, so being a loving neighbour but never sharing the faith in Jesus that inspires your love, is not the kindness you
might imagine.
Preaching the Gospel at all times and at times, necessarily, with words is the task of every member of God’s
family, but HOW do we do it. Firstly, we ask God to help us. When Jesus gives those final daunting instructions to his disciples to spread the good news throughout the world, he reassures them – remember I am with you always. You are not doing this alone, and indeed faith is a gift of God. We don’t make anyone believe – that is between them and God. Our task is simply to give people opportunities to hear about God and the difference knowing God can make.
The next thing is simply to talk about what you know. You are not expected to have the answer to every question, but to play a little with the verse Paul quotes in Romans, what is in our hearts just needs to find its way to our lips from time to time. You don’t need to be able to explain how prayer works or why God is love and the world is unloving – you just need to be able to say why praying and being loved by God makes a difference to you.
The next thing to remember is that you are not a salesperson. You are not trying to make a deal by the end of the conversation. Rather each conversation, each small story you share, each invite to something that your friend might enjoy, can be a small encouragement on their journey of faith. You aren’t trying to sell anyone a product – you are simply sharing something precious with people you care about in case they want that something precious too.
A slightly frivolous example: something highly prized in the vicarage is my Dairy Milk. Anna knows that when I offer to share my Dairy Milk with her it is because I love her. She knows it is important to me, and to share my chocolate is no small thing. Sharing – as we try to teach small children – is a very good thing.
Lastly, one of the places we do talk about our faith all the time is in church. So if finding your own words for faith is daunting, invite people here. We are about to start silly season in Church, by which I mean that we barely have a week without something special going on between now and January. So invite your friends to things. The ways Jesus’ first disciples got people to join them was simply to say “come and see”. Come and see that church is full of ordinary people like you and me, who find comfort, purpose and peace in following Jesus. Come and hear about Jesus in our readings, talks and prayers. Come and meet Jesus in our worship. Come and see.
So why not make it a personal commitment to invite someone to a church event this month, and next month and definitely the month after. Ask them to join you. Say “I really think you’d enjoy this!” Pop a flyer through their door with a nice hand written note. Say “we could really do with your help at this event…”
My last bit of advice is the yellow car rule. So, yellow cars are the least common colour of car. But the minute you get one yourself, you see them everywhere! And it can be a bit like that with sharing your faith. The minute you say to God, well I am not very good at this but I am willing to give it a go, you will find that chances to talk about faith start turning up.
So pray, remember that God is with you, let what is in your hearts escape through your lips at times and if in doubt remember “come and see!” Share the precious faith you have in God with others so they too might glorify God and enjoy God forever. Why on earth would we want to keep something so precious to ourselves?
Amen!
Sermons at St Paul's 