Evangelize!

Evangelize!

Matthew 28:16-20

            Evangelize!  Oh, how we hate that word!  When we hear it our minds conjure up all sorts of unpleasant scenes.  We see those gospel tracts—poorly written, poorly thought out—that someone hands us as we walk down the street, or we take from a rack in a doctor’s office.  They have only one purpose:  to scare us out of hell and force us into heaven.  If you’re anything like me, you don’t like to be forced into—or talked into—anything; and my scare quotient has gone down significantly over the years.

            Our minds turn to those door-to-door evangelists, the ones who, while sincere in their conviction that they have only one mission in life (to preach as many souls into heaven as possible before God calls them home) are so annoying in their persistence that they turn off more people than they attract.  Secure in their belief that they are right and whatever we believe is wrong, they talk us to the point where we might prefer heaven’s alternative just so we won’t have to share accommodations with them in the afterlife.

            We remember those well-meaning street corner preachers we’ve seen in busy city downtowns, calling out their message to the passing crowds while suffering the ultimate indignity:  being ignored by the people they are trying so hard to reach.

            When we read Jesus’ final words to his disciples as recorded in Matthew’s gospel, some or all of these pictures come to mind, and we say, “No thanks.  I’ll spend my time in some other activity.”  The problem is that evangelism is not an optional part of the Christian life.  Jesus doesn’t say, “Go, if you have nothing better to do,” or “Go, if you’re not too embarrassed,” or, “Go, if you have a few minutes to spare.”  Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and earth are given to me.  As the Father has sent me, so I send you.  Go!”

            But evangelizing makes us uncomfortable.  We know if we start preaching to family members, or neighbors, or co-workers, or fellow students we will be shunned.  When they see us coming, people will lock their doors and hide, or cross to the other side of the street, or develop a splitting headache.  We don’t want this to happen.  We don’t want to be ignored, isolated, made to feel as if we don’t belong.  Human beings are communal, and we want to be part of the community around us, not marginalized and avoided.  What should we choose:  risk becoming nonpersons in our community, or shirk our Christian responsibility?

            May I suggest an alternative path?

            Jesus never preached.  He taught.  Before he taught he attracted people by the way he lived.  Sure, he did miracles—turning water into wine, casting out demons, healing all manner of diseases—and we can’t do any of that.  We can do what he did before he performed even one miracle.  Jesus lived his life so that everything he did pleased and glorified God.  Remember what he said in the Sermon on the Mount?  “Let your light so shine before people that they will see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

            At the root, that’s what evangelism is:  living our lives so that people see the gospel in us.  That’s so much better than having the gospel preached at us.  Edgar Guest wrote a poem:  I’d Rather See a Sermon Than Hear One Any Day.  Look it up.  I think you’ll agree with his words.

            When we think of an evangelist, if we’re thinking positively, we think of Paul, standing in the city center of Athens, or Ephesus, or Corinth, preaching the gospel loud and clear, and we say, “I could never do that!”  We don’t have to.  If we live the gospel, right down to our bones, we’ll never have to say a word.  People will see the gospel in us and want what we have—the love of Christ overflowing onto everyone we meet.