Moderators Sermon - Given on May 3, my last day as Moderator

You can hear the audio of this sermon at www.firstcongmadison.org. Go to Sunday Morning, then Sermon Archive, May 3, 2009.

Good Morning.
For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Tom Syring. I am the Moderator of the church. Newer members and guests might not know this, but it is traditional for the Moderator to give a sermon on their last day. I couldn’t decide if this was a duty or a privilege. I guess it is really a bit of both.

Let us pray.
May the words of our mouths, and the meditations in our hearts,
Always be acceptable to you, our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. Amen.

Our readings for today serve as bookends to Jesus’ ministry here on earth. We start with Jesus calling the first disciples, and we finish with the resurrected Jesus charging the disciples with spreading the good news. In the next few minutes, I hope that I can convince a few of you to take some steps towards answering the charge to spread the good news.

When I think about our first reading, and how I would respond to the call to follow Jesus and learn to fish for people, I would have needed more information. What was he up to? Why would he want me to follow him? How long would I be gone? If I knew that the journey would end on a cross, I don’t know if I could go. Fortunately, today, few of us get killed for following Jesus, it is far safer to answer the call. In our reading, Matthew tells us that the four men answer Jesus call to follow him and learn to fish for people, they leave their families and livelihoods, and follow.
The second reading takes place at the end of Jesus’ ministry on earth. In this post resurrection story, Jesus appears to the disciples, claims that all authority is vested in him, and then commands them to go out and preach the good news, make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching them to obey what Jesus has taught them.

I want to leave aside the shock and terror they must have felt at the crucifixion, and the awe and wonder they must have experienced to have Jesus back among them.

I want to talk about the commandment to go out and spread the good news. This is much clearer than the call to fish for people. Jesus has been teaching the disciples for some time. They have a pretty good idea of his central message. Now it is time for them to go out and teach others what they have learned. And they do. They answered the call. None of us would be here today if they had not (they and others). The disciples become apostles, and spread the message to others, who spread it some more. Christianity sweeps the western world, and everyone lives happily ever after. The end.

Maybe not. Is the work done? Has everyone heard the message? What may be more relevant to us, here in the middle of predominately Christian America, has everyone heard what Jesus really said? What he really wanted us to do? I don’t think so.

I want to talk about un-churched people for a moment, people without a spiritual home. Un-churched people are referred to as the mission field – these are the folks that have not heard the message, or who have heard but didn’t relate strongly enough to join a church. What do un-churched people know about the message of Jesus? According to one survey of 800 non-Christian Americans ages 16-29 (potential future Christians), the three words most closely associated with Christians were, in order, anti-homosexual, judgmental, and hypocritical. Ouch. That hurts. Of the 20 words that the respondents rated for association with Christians, none of the positive words received a 50% response rate. It hurt me to read that information, it hurts me to say it to you, and I imagine it hurts most of you to hear. I imagine some of you get mad when you hear it.

I don’t think that is an accurate representation of all Christians, or even most Christians. I know it is not an accurate representation of the people here at First Congregational Church. So, not only has the Good News not reached everyone, but I believe that many of those who have heard something about Jesus have gotten the wrong message.

Yet, I can understand how people might think those things. At one time, long before I came into the doors of this church just over four years ago, I had convinced that I would never belong to a church again. While I had been raised in a church, my recollection was that the focus was largely on the salvation of individual souls. Additionally, any portrayal of Christians in the media made it seem like they were mainly concerned with abolishing abortion and with the oppression of homosexual people. If that was all there was, I didn’t want any part of it. I was an un-churched person who had dismissed the idea of Christianity as a spiritual option before even considering it. My story has a happy ending. When I first came here to First Congo, almost by chance, I heard another story. A story of a gracious and merciful God, who loves us and wants us to love each other. But I truly came here almost by chance. Had a joined a church with a narrower vision of God’s will, I would almost certainly be un-churched again today.

Those of us who come here regularly may not realize how different our vision of God’s will is from the common perception out there about Christianity. Most un-churched people think there is little discernable difference between denominations, and the predominant notion folks have of Christians is that of judgmental hypocrites, talking the talk without walking the walk. There are millions of people who have never heard the message of Jesus, and if they have, the odds are that they have heard it wrong.

It is our call and our charge to teach them a different way.

We have been called, you have been called, actually charged with the task, to go out and spread the good news. This activity is called evangelism. Yuck! That word can bring up unpleasant images for many of us. One writer on the topic of evangelism calls it the “E word,” as if it is too unpleasant to say in polite company.

The word evangelism can bring up a lot of negative images. It brings up images of high pressure sales pitches, as if God was vinyl siding being sold door to door. It brings up images of people that are absolutely certain their correct interpretation of scripture. If you don’t agree, you are absolutely wrong. When I think of evangelism, I picture the folks I saw standing outside the Kohl Center holding signs telling me and the crowds that we would burn in hell if we don’t find Jesus now. And then there are television evangelists, cheap, fake, sleazy – all sounding exactly the same, and seldom saying anything about loving our neighbor, feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger, or blessing the peacemakers. As much as I love to hear people talk about God, I cannot listen to a television evangelist for more than a minute.

While the word evangelism tends to evoke negative images, I believe the reality is that very few of you would practice it in the ways I described above. I cannot picture any of you selling God like vinyl siding. “Get God now and you will be protecting your home and family from any and all weather. Just sign here and you will be saved.” I cannot picture any of you declaring that you have a monopoly on the correct interpretation of scripture. Certainly, I cannot picture any of you outside the Kohl Center holding signs and yelling at people that they will burn in hell if they don’t get Jesus now.

On the other hand, I can picture many of you engaging in thoughtful conversations about important topics: what does it mean to have faith, how should we live our values, why do we have hope, what gives life meaning and purpose, why is beauty important, how do we know truth, what do we mean when we say God, who was this guy Jesus. I can also picture many of you talking about why you come to First Congo. Maybe you will mention how you love the worship service – the music, the preaching, the time with children. You might mention how we live our values, through the prison ministry, community meals, sustainable living, by our support for Porchlight and Habitat for Humanity, through our relationship with S.S. Morris. I know you have thoughts about important topics and good reasons for coming here. Those are things you can talk to others about.

If you decide answer the call to follow Jesus and the charge to spread the good news, if you believe that you know and meet people whose lives would be better if they knew Jesus and if they had a spiritual home, then you need to prepare to have a conversation.

None of us was born an evangelist, and few of us have witnessed a good evangelist at work. We need to do some homework. I have an assignment for you. Sit down for some time and think about why your life is better for following Jesus. This is a great topic to journal on. Think about why you came to First Congo, and why you keep coming back. Write these things down. Practice talking about these things with friends here at First Congo and elsewhere. In order to answer this call to follow and to meet this charge to spread the good news, we all need to think, and prepare and practice.

Someone out there, someone you know, is searching. They are searching for meaning in an increasingly chaotic world. They are searching for a spiritual home. They may be ignorant or confused about what it means to be a Christian, and about what Jesus was really about. You can help them. Prepare yourself. Wait for an opportunity, and begin a conversation.

Amen.