Lent: 4/1/09
April 1, 2009
Exodus 7:8-24
2 Corinthians 2:14-3:6
Mark 10:1-16
“The Apostle Billy Mays?”
For we are not peddlers of God’s word like so many; but in Christ we speak as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God and standing in his presence. – 2 Corinthians 2:17 (NRSV)
This week I was approached by some folks at the grocery story who were attempting to engage in what they thought to be evangelism. I have to admit it was the strangest effort at converting someone I have ever heard. They did not try to tell me about Jesus. They never mentioned God or Heaven or even anything religious. Instead, they asked me if I listened to a certain local radio station. I said that I had listened to it briefly on occasion hoping that that would be a satisfactory answer. To this they went on to say that if I listened to it all the time I would: A) Find what I was looking for; B) Have all my questions answered; C) Become delivered of my problems.
Looking to finish my shopping, I thanked them for the tip and hurried away. I try not to be rude or cynical but I doubt that this radio station has a show about: A) Where Walmart had moved the fiber supplements (this was what I was looking for); B) Why are the vegetarian frozen foods are always between the frozen waffles and Sara Lee pies? (the major question in my mind); or What about me is making me so approachable today (this was not the first time my shopping had been interrupt and was the primary problem that I needed deliverance from)?
I think that this is why most Mainline Protestants have a problem with evangelism. We don’t want to be the people harassing folks in the middle of the grocery store. We don’t like feeling like high-pressure salespeople with starving children at home. Further, we understand that this is not even good salesmanship. They did not even know who I was, what I needed, or what they were selling. They were not even marketing the widget that they wanted me to consume, they were directing me to someone else who was a better salesperson than they were. What they need is Billy Mays. Mr. Mays would at least try to tell me what it was that I needed and why I need it, urgently and loudly!
Hit and Run evangelism is fatally flawed. What do we have to sale? For that matter can we even give faith to someone? What type of meaningful conversation can we possibly have in such an encounter? What about their quest, questions and problems? If they had all the answers why direct me somewhere else? If they had found what they were looking for, why were they stalking the store looking for people to harass? And if that wonderful media outlet cures all the problems of faithful listeners, why weren’t they somewhere listening? Because theses folks have some problems! Most important of all, If they really cared about me, wouldn’t they at least want to know my name and even introduce themselves.
There are no shortcuts or gimmicks that will result in Christian discipleship. There has never been a forwarded e-mail, a two-color pamphlet under the windshield wiper, or even a manipulating sermon that will take the place of sincere human relationships. There is no media outlet that can replace a loving community of faith. There is no simple one size fits all answers to the complexity of human existence. To act otherwise is really irresponsible.
Maybe the act of looking is really what we need. Maybe asking questions is more important than the best answers that can be given. Maybe we need to learn to be healed in our suffering.
And yet as we seem to experience an increase of the decrease, their numbers grow. As we struggle to keep the lights on in tired old preaching houses, they build glass palaces. As they continue selling a religion of shallow answers, mindless slogans, and shiny things at an ever-increasing pace, we cannot even give ourselves away. We humbly hold to the high ground and perish of thirst, while they stroll unaffected by the rising waters of the flood. I wish I could find the error of our ways and the virtue of theirs. I wish I could declare defeat and warm myself by the warmth of the fire I see in the courtyard. But I cannot. I cannot surrender this Christ that has taken hold of me in trade for anything less. For now I will remain in the darkness of this night. For now I am more willing to suffer the lonely cold than come into the bright neon and snuggly blankets of their encircling camps. Maybe we Mainliners are so out of touch, so mislead, so blinded, so proud, so something, that we cannot see the attraction that makes them grow so large. Are we the disciples huddling in the garden, or are we the leaders of the old establishment staring out the lofty windows of our holy places cursing their campfire on the hill? I don’t know.
But at least for now, I know that the darkness and the cold are real. At least for now I prefer to feel real pain, than imagined comfort. I’ll take authentic uncertainty over answers that come too easy. I’ll endure the silence over the sound of their hymns of their effortless victory. I would rather die in shame and despair than receive salvation from a toothless, declawed messiah. How could we have come to this? Were we not certain that this Jesus was the One to lead us into victory? There are some among us even now who are looking for an opportunity to force is hand! Even now I hear the whispers in our own camp, “Maybe our Jesus could be sold too?”
This day let us consider how the attraction to cheap and easy religion comes into tension with the coming days of Holy Week. What do we miss when we jump from Palm Sunday to Easter? Why do so few people attend Maundy Thursday and Good Friday Services? How can we find what it takes to sit up and watch and pray among the olive trees so that we don’t endure the pain of hearing the roster crow again this year?
Let us pray…
How long shall we pray?
How long will our prayers go up only to return in eerie echoes?
How we long to feel your presence in our midst once more.
You children perish from hunger and your people suffer from a lack of knowledge.
There is no peace; there is no rest…until we rest in you.
Shorten the length of these hours, or there will be none left to lift their voice in prayer.
Shorten these days, or there will be no congregation to sing.
One by one we fall into the silence of the void…
Who will take their place at the wall?
Who is left to stand watch at the gates?
How long shall we pray?
Save us quick.
Save us
save
