February 22, 2015
Sunday

“Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you…” 1 Peter 3:15

I have talked about “relational evangelism” before – evangelism that happens because one person is willing to share their encounters with Jesus with someone else – usually someone they know. A good example is what happens when Jesus comes to Philip and Philip runs to tell Nathanael. (John 1:45) We look to Philip’s response and we wonder how we could do the same – be so willing and so compelled to tell anyone we encounter about our relationship with G*d, or about something that is happening in our church, or about our faith story. We all have a faith story. What is yours?

While I was in Seminary, we were constantly asked to write about and to tell our classmates and congregations we were invited to, to tell our faith story. It became a story we knew so well it rolled off our tongues with such ease. It became such an easy story to tell because we were compelled to tell it often. And that is how telling our story becomes second nature to us. I have often compared it to learning how to juggle. I was a child who needed to entertain myself a lot because I did not have many friends. So, one day I watched someone on television juggling, and I decided I was going to learn. And for the next many, many hours and days I practiced and practiced until I taught myself to juggle. Juggling is not something you can learn to do by watching others juggle. You have to do it to learn it.

The same is true with proclaiming to others why your faith matters in your life. In the story of Jesus Baptism, immediately after hearing that he is G*d’s “Beloved Son”, Jesus was driven into the wilderness by the same Spirit that descended into him at his baptism. And once he was there he was tested and tempted. And Jesus was there forty days. And afterward he went out to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom. In just the same way, as we are tempted and tested in life and in our faith, these experiences form and inform our faith – and helps us put into words our faith stories. But we have to practice putting them into stories and into words so that we can proclaim them to others. And practicing them and telling them makes that whole process easier over time.

Find someone today, a friend, a fellow church member, a family member, and tell them your faith story. Practice it – so that, when the opportunity presents itself, you will be ready to share it with someone who needs to hear how Jesus has changed your life. It may just change their life…

Pastor Dave

February 21, 2015

“Jesus said: I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” John 14:6

“There is an indefinable mysterious Power that pervades everything. I feel it, though I do not see it. It is this unseen Power which makes itself felt and yet defies all proof, because it is so unlike all that I perceive through my senses. It transcends the senses. But it is possible to reason out the existence of G*d to a limited extent. I do dimly perceive that while everything around me is ever-changing, ever-dying, there is underlying all that change a Living Power that is changeless, that holds all together, that creates, dissolves, and re-creates. That informing Power or Spirit is G*d. And since nothing else I see merely through the senses can or will persist, He alone is. And is this Power Benevolent or malevolent? I see it as purely Benevolent. For I can see, that in the midst of death life persists, in the midst of untruth truth persists, in the midst of darkness light persists. Hence I gather that G*d is Life, Truth, Light. He is Love. He is Supreme Good.”     Gandhi

“Some think of a Christian as one who necessarily believes certain things. That Jesus was the son of God, say. Or that Mary was a virgin. Or that the Pope is infallible. Or that all other religions are all wrong. Some think of a Christian as one who necessarily does certain things. Such as going to church. Getting baptized. Giving up liquor and tobacco. Reading the Bible. Doing a good deed a day. Some think of a Christian as just a Nice Guy.

Jesus said “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). He didn’t say that any particular ethic, doctrine, or religion was the way, the truth, and the life. He said that he was. He didn’t say that it was by believing or doing anything in particular that you could “come to the Father.” He said that it was only by him – by living, participating in, being caught up by, the way of life that he embodied, that was his way.

Thus it is possible to be on Christ’s way and with his mark upon you without ever having heard of Christ, and for that reason to be on your way to God though maybe you don’t even believe in God.

A Christian is one who is on the way, though not necessarily very far along it, and who has at least some dim and half-baked idea of whom to thank.

A Christian isn’t necessarily any nicer than anybody else. Just better informed.”

(originally published in Wishful Thinking – Frederick Buechner

No matter the religion, if one believes in G*d, then one believes in supreme goodness and Truth. And therefore the opposite may also be true: that if one believes in supreme goodness and truth, then by extension one is doing the work of G*d, though they may not even have heard of or know G*d, or Jesus. Goodness must trump evil, love must trump hate, light must trump darkness. There is no doubt that people have been searching for the truth about our existence, where we have come from, if there are others like us, and where we might be going, for millenia. To Live means we have a chance to learn that a greater good, an Ultimate Presence pervades our world. This Lent, take time to learn just a little bit more about Jesus – or at least find a way to do some good – even if it is just so that you are not doing bad. Jesus has come to show us truth – and to teach us truth. His way is goodness, love, light, and service – and if you have love, and if you live to bring light into people’s lives, and if you serve others, then you are in the way, the truth and the life, whether you know it or not.

Pastor Dave