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Old Stories for a New Day: Sharing Your Faith 101
Gettysburg Presbyterian Church
David C. Wright
Acts 8:26-40
August 2, 2009
In a Peanuts
comic strip, Linus approaches his sister and innocently asks, “Do
you ever pray, Lucy?” Lucy responds, “That’s
kind of a personal question isn’t it? Are you trying
to start an argument?” She then begins ranting with
obvious irritation, “I SUPPOSE YOU THINK YOU’RE SOMEBODY
PRETTY SMART, DON’T YOU? I SUPPOSE YOU THINK…” Linus
wanders away. In the last panel, he is sucking his thumb,
holding his blanket as he tells Charlie Brown, “You’re
right… Religion is a very touchy subject!”
There are few taboos left
in our culture, but many of us have gotten the message that it isn’t safe
to talk about our religion with other people. In fact, many of us are afraid
of doing it, and have actually lost the ability to do so! But where does
that leave us with Jesus’ command to share the Good News of God’s
love with others? It leaves many of us clueless as to what to do, and very
hesitant. Steven Bonsey, in an article entitled, A Shy Person’s
Guide to the Practice of Evangelism, puts it like this: “Let’s
pretend that you are someone who might be willing, in theory, at some point,
possibly, to consider maybe doing something that, while not ‘evangelism-type’ evangelism,
still could in some way be construed as a sort of sharing of hope. Kind
of.”
That’s where many
of us are at! We’re sitting on the best news in the history of the
planet- the coming of God into the world to save and redeem it- and we’re
too embarrassed or afraid or uninformed or uncaring (you choose the adjective)
to tell anyone about it! Presbyterians in particular struggle with this. Our
denomination has lost about half our membership in the last 40 years and last
year we lost even more than usual. Part of the explanation for those losses
is the fact that Presbyterians don’t share their faith with others very
much. The early church in Acts didn’t have that problem. And
this morning’s Scripture lesson gives us an example of faith-sharing that
even Presbyterians can love!
The story features a man
named Philip, who was known for his ability to share his faith. Let’s
see what we can learn about sharing our faith from this ancient story.
26 Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Get
up and go (at noon) to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." (This
is a wilderness road.)
27 So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court
official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury.
He had come to Jerusalem to worship
28 and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading
the prophet Isaiah.
29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go over to this chariot
and join it."
30 So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah.
He asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?"
31 He replied, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" And
he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him.
32 Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this: "Like
a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer,
so he does not open his mouth.
33 In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his
generation? For his life is taken away from the earth."
34 The eunuch asked Philip, "About whom, may I ask you, does
the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?"
35 Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture,
he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus.
I gained several
insights about sharing our faith from this little story. First of all,
I noticed God’s active involvement in evangelism. God prompts an
angel to direct Philip to the road on which the Ethiopian is traveling. Then
the Spirit tells Philip to approach the chariot in which he is riding. And
clearly, God was already working in the heart of this unlikely candidate for
Christian faith. The man was a high government official, treasurer of an
entire African kingdom! The part of Africa he was from was regarded as
the end of the world by the Greeks and Romans. But God was at work in his
heart. He had been visiting Jerusalem to worship the one true God. He
was reading the Scripture. And it was not a coincidence that the passage
he was reading was one of the “Servant Songs” from Isaiah 53. These
passages speak of someone who would suffer unjustly and bear the consequences
of the sins of others, but would eventually be exalted by God. The Ethiopian
was understandably puzzled about who this referred to and wanted to know more. God
was at work.
This is an important reminder
to us about evangelism. It isn’t all about us. It isn’t
even all dependent on us. God is already at work in the hearts of people
we know and care about. God wants them to respond to the Good News even
more than we do! Evangelism is God’s work.
But Philip played an important
role in today’s story, too. He obeyed the angel, who asked him to
do a strange thing- to travel a desert road during the heat of the day. Ordinarily,
he would have been the only one there! In that climate people tried to
avoid traveling desert roads in mid-day. But Philip obeyed. And then
he obeyed the Spirit’s prompting to approach the chariot. And he
engaged the Ethiopian in a spiritual conversation.
We also play an important
role in God’s plan to share the Good News with all people. That’s
why all of us disciples are commanded to speak up and witness to our faith. It
isn’t optional for us, any more than prayer and Bible reading and worship
and obeying the commandments are optional for us. It’s part and
parcel of being a disciple. So, like Philip, we should obey God and speak
up for Jesus when we have the opportunity.
But that’s not always
easy. It wasn’t easy for Philip, either. There were barriers
to Philip talking with this African man. There were racial barriers. There
were cultural barriers. There were geographic barriers. There were
class barriers. In fact, it was considered taboo for a lower class man
like Philip to approach the chariot of a high official like this man. But
Philip obeyed the Spirit and did it anway. And God worked.
We have barriers to sharing
our faith, too. Like the Peanuts comic reminded us, we’re afraid
that some people might be offended if we try to share our faith with them. That’s
a barrier. And, many people today feel no need for God. They’re
happy with their lives they way they are. Others have had bad experiences
with church in the past and want nothing to do with it now. Still others
are living lifestyles that they know God would not approve of. These are
all barriers. And then there is our own fear of rejection, and our lack
of knowledge of the Bible and Christian faith. Formidable barriers.
But they can be overcome. God
will overcome some of them for us, working in the hearts and minds of others. And
Philip’s approach is a good model for us in overcoming other barriers.
Notice how Philip engages
the Ethiopian in a faith conversation. After approaching him, he listens
and notices that the man is reading from Isaiah. He recognizes that this
is an opportunity to talk about spiritual things and asks an excellent question: “Do
you understand what you are reading?” What a great entry point! It
gives the Ethiopian an opportunity to engage in spiritual conversation if he
wishes to, or to decline if that’s what he prefers. Then, when the
Ethiopian invites Philip to speak, he does so clearly, telling him the Good News
of God’s love for him in Jesus Christ.
I think this gentle approach
is a great model for us here in the early 21st century! We begin by listening
to others and their concerns. Then we look for opportunities to bring faith
to bear on their situations. If someone tells us about a struggle they
are having, we could ask if they would like us to pray for them about it, saying
a word about what prayer means to us. If someone is dealing with a loss,
we might ask how that has affected their faith. If someone has lost their
job, we could ask where they find the strength to deal with that. Good
questions can open up a faith conversation with another person, if they would
like to have one. Then we just continue the conversation, sharing what
we believe, while listening to the other.
After high school I attended
a Bible college for a couple years until they asked me to leave. That’s
right. You have a pastor who got kicked out of Bible College! (I
may have failed to mention that to the search committee…) Let’s
just say it wasn’t a good fit! While I was there every student was
required to witness to someone about Christian faith each week. We had
to submit a written report, stating how many people we had witnessed to and when
and where. Apparently previous students had been pretty loose in their
definition of “witnessing,” perhaps shouting “Jesus Saves” as
they exited a crowded bus and then claiming that they had witnessed to 50 people! So
the rules had been tightened up for us. In order for our witness to “count” we
had to present the entire gospel of Jesus to someone and ask them to make a commitment
to Christ. This was a hard assignment for someone like me, because (believe
it or not) I am somewhat introverted.
For years this approach
skewed my view of what faithful witnessing actually is. I assumed I needed
to dump the entire biblical message of salvation on someone and then pressure
them to respond on the spot. Sharing your faith like that is a little bit
like the helicopter pilot who was flying above Seattle when his navigation and
communication systems shorted out. Due to clouds and haze, he couldn’t
determine his position and direction. He saw a tall building, and hovered
outside it while his copilot held a large handwritten sign which read, “Where
am I?” People in the building wrote a response which read, “You
are in a helicopter.” The pilot smiled, waved, looked at his map,
determined his course to SEATAC airport and landed safely. Upon landing
the co-pilot asked, “How did you figure out where you were?” The
pilot responded, “I knew that those people had to be in the Microsoft building
because they gave me a technically correct, but completely useless answer.” (If
you’ve ever tried to get technical support from Microsoft, you know what
he meant!)
The Bible college approach
to witnessing was something like that. You just dumped a bunch of information
on someone that was technically correct, but likely useless!
I’ve since come
to believe that simple, non-pressured conversations are the best way to share
our faith. We’re often just one link in a whole chain of events that
may draw someone to faith. That’s OK. The results of our witness
are up to God, not us.
But the end of the story
in Acts 8 shows us what can happen when we share our faith.
36 As they were going along the road, they came to some
water; and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water! What is to prevent me
from being baptized?"
38 He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and
the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.
39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched
Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.
40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through
the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.
The Ethiopian responded to the gospel, was baptized, and “went on his way
rejoicing.” You know, the word “evangelism” comes from
the root word “evangel” which means “Good News!” And
when people receive good news, they rejoice and are made glad. They get
jiggy with it and can’t wait to tell others. That’s what happened
here.
Once, a Marine Corps officer candidate was running the obstacle course in basic
training. On his first attempt, he completed the course far ahead of everyone
else, but he was immediately confronted by his drill sergeant, who demanded, “Where
are your buddies?”
“Back there, sir,” he replied. “I won!”
The sergeant barked out, “The obstacle course isn’t about finishing
first! Everybody finishes, or nobody wins. Go back and run it again. And
this time help the guys who are struggling along the way!”
That’s what sharing our faith is all about- helping those who are struggling
to find God along the way.
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