Sunday May 9, 2010

First Presbyterian Church
Ripley Tennessee
May 9, 2010
6th Sunday of Easter (mothers day)
Psalm 67
Acts 16:9-15
Witnessing to the Gospel


Witnessing to the gospel is a wonderful and rich topic. Even the word conjures up fantastic ideas of excitement in some, dread in some, and in Presbyterian circles the word usually prompts a broad roll of the eyes. We as Presbyterians do not do this very well do we? We will visit more about that in a minute.

My first memory of “witnessing” happened during a revival of one of the local churches in Covington. I have said before that as a child, I was exposed to the tension between two different traditions; one happened to witness and the other was very much Presbyterian…who did not “Witness” in the traditional sense.

What happened was this; I was probably about ten or eleven, I am not sure because after this happened, my family never spoke of the ‘incident' again. I was taken into our living room (the only room I was not allowed in and only the ladies bridge club seemed welcome) where some men sat who I did not know. They said, Conner we are going to pray for you. I said OK.

After they prayed over me they asked me if I wanted to ‘open my heart to’ the Lord. Two men and my father looking down on me in the forbidden room…“Hey sure, what ever you say that will get me out of this spot”.

So I prayed what we commonly call ‘The sinners prayer’, we all shook hands and they went away and everything was normal again. The only problem was that I was left with this “What was that all about?” mentality. I do not know if that ‘incident’ was the key to my salvation or not, it may have been, so I have never made light of it. I am grateful to those who felt a calling to pray for me that day.

I certainly left the experience with exponentially more questions than I had answers to. After that I was so confused I could not even formulate questions! What was I supposed to feel? What was I supposed to do? Was I supposed to feel something? I didn’t! Did something go wrong? I remember feeling scared, uncertain; anything but peace and security of ‘eternal life’ they had talked about.

The second ‘incident’ regarding witnessing occurred while I was in college at UT Martin. One particular group of students were especially…what’s the word…publicly evangelical. One of the guys was a guy I had graduated high school with. We were in kindergarten all the way to college together. And now he was part of a group whose plan of attack (literally) was to stand beside the sidewalks as classes were changing, waving a bible wildly in the air and screaming at the young men and women as they walked by trying to look at their feet trying to escape un-noticed. It reminded me of the way we all did in school to keep the teacher from calling on you. These screams were not of salvation but of charges of evil, sin and debauchery. It was like having to walk past Jeremiah just to get from biology class to chemistry class.

Still, I do not judge others or their methods. I must believe that someone benefited from these well intended individuals. We are also familiar with the Jehovah’s witnesses, the Gideon’s, very reputable and long standing organizations who do untold good for the kingdom of God.

I even remember attending a church where in Sunday school; there was a form the children had to fill out each week documenting how many people you witnessed to that week. That is all well and good.

13On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there.

Here we have a lovely image painted by Luke who, most believe to be the author of the majority of the book of Acts, points out that the group was simply looking for a quiet place to pray. Sometimes it is not simple to know that you need to do this.

An aside ~ my daughter and I recently left a school function at about 8:45 at night on a school night. We decided to just go find an old gravel road to drive down out in the country; you know, just to get out. I was not planning what happened next.

As we drove along between two pastures and a couple clumps of trees, the whole area was just exploding with lightning bugs. There were little frogs crying out, we saw a shooting star. I ended up on a gravel road where we stopped and turned off all the lights. Before I knew it, she had crawled on top of my truck tool box and was simply staring up at the night sky. I got into the bed of the pick up and just laid there

So, there we lay, looking up at the sky full of stars, lightning bugs so dense you could practically read by them, and the spring frogs crying and chirping so loud; a gentle spring breeze came in from the south. We did not speak a word…we did not need to…we were at peace.

That is all the apostles were looking for in this passage. They simply but methodically (we need to notice this) sought out a quiet place and a quiet time.

The women were simply encountered in the routine activities of the group. This was a chance encounter, but it was still an opportunity to witness to the grace of Christ and the truth of the gospel.

“We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there.”

There are three things going on here. 1) The apostles are PREPAIRED to speak of the word of God; 2) the women are OPEN to the word of God and 3) the Holy Spirit is working to RELATE the word of God.

All the witnessing in the world won’t amount to a hill of beans if these three things are not at work.

If we claim to follow God and His Son Christ Jesus, we are called on to understand his teachings. You know what? Before I can tell someone else, I first have to understand for myself. That is what this is all about. If I am not clear on my relationship with God the Father and my Lord, Christ Jesus, I am ill prepared to speak to others about their relationship with Him.

Now, I am not talking about being a biblical scholar, which I certainly am not. I am speaking of witnessing to the love and grace and peace of Jesus in your own life and being square with how that love peace and grace has affected you directly. That is in other terms, a personal testimony.

Second, Jesus says all through his ministry, “All who have ears, let him hear”. Have you ever wondered what that really meant? It reminds me of times teaching my children about math, telling time and what all the different coins of money were. On the level of a child…and some adults…these things are difficult to comprehend.

That is what Jesus is saying here, “Open your mind. Think big.” Follow what I am saying.” A popular saying among alcoholic and substance abusers in recovery is “I couldn’t understand until I hit bottom”. This is why I preach so much about our perspectives. There are so many people, the vast majority in my opinion, whose world view is limited by their own needs and desired and wants. There is SO much more to life.

14One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message.

So at this point we have a prepared person in casual conversation with someone who is interested and open. This is where ONLY the Holy Spirit can close the deal. Sometime it happens and sometime it won’t. But mostly we have to acknowledge that all things happen in God’s time in accordance with God’s will. We can not force the deal closed; whether in someone’s living room or yelling at people on the way to class.

As I have worked at other churches in New Member and Exploring the Faith classes I have witnessed another type of witnessing to the gospel. Over many years of working with people from all walks of life and backgrounds there is one common thread.

In these comfortable and non threatening setting, people work through their faith journey as a part of discerning if joining a church is the right thing to do and if it is the right time in ones life. An opportunity has always been provided to describe the journey they have had and to speak of one person who has been the most significant to them.

Without question answers would come back, “My mother”, “My Grandmother” and then the details would flow branching into all facets of individual lives. This is always a very tender time. I see how mothers affect lives. I have lived this, as I realize how often I mention my mother here. I have witnessed lives being changed by the legacy left behind by mothers.

Have you ever thought of how a mother’s unconditional love, whether easily shown or not, is parallel to the love and grace of Jesus? Remembering mothers who have gone on before us is an important part of Mothers day. Being with our mothers on this day is also important. Today is a day set aside to honor our mothers.

What better way to honor them than to think back on how our mothers have affected our lives. Who has been most influential in your spiritual growth? I bet if we took a survey here this morning, a vast majority would speak of mom. Mom has been witnessing to us all along! Think of that beautiful gift and be thankful.

I am reminded of the well known story of monk who took a student with him into the near by village. All day long they indiscriminately helped people, visited with people and shared a kind word with everyone they met. Near the end of the day the student asked, ‘Master, all day long we have done these menial tasks and been so occupied and busy, when will you preach a sermon?’

To which the master said, “All day long we have been preaching a sermon, it is only occasionally necessary to use words”.

Thank you mothers and may God bless you all!
AMEN