The Eliot Church of Newton

Texts: Wisdom of Solomon 7:26-8:1; Mark 8:22-30
Regathering Sunday

As I was reflecting on today’s Scripture lessons, I realized that
     the Gospel we just heard contains a command from Jesus
          that many of us here at Eliot Church are most scrupulous
              about obeying to the letter. 
I’ll bet we keep this commandment better than we keep
     many of the other command in the Bible. 
But don’t feel too smug about that – most New England Congregationalists
     are very conscientious about keeping this commandment.

But I’m afraid I’m going to go against the flow on this Regathering Sunday. 
Risky as it is for a Christian preacher to stand up in the pulpit
     and contradict Jesus, and tell you to break one of his commandments,
          I’m going to do just that.

And what is the command that Congregationalists keep so meticulously?
     Mark, Chapter 8, verse 30:
           “And Jesus sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.”
For the past few decades, we’ve been doing an excellent job
     of strict adherence to that law.
It’s our own version of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

But I’m going to challenge you today: 
     Break that habit. Break that silence. Break that law. 
Do tell. Tell your story. 
Tell why being a Christian matters to you. 
Tell how God has made a difference in your life. 
Tell how being a member of the church – of Eliot Church
     – has made a difference for your family, and for your own spiritual life.

This year, we would like to invite the congregation to learn what it means
     to be evangelists, bearers and sharers of Good News.
 And we’d like to introduce you to some resources
     and some “how to” steps to help you do that.

Now I know some of you are already thinking
     “Oh no, Tony’s gone off the deep end this time. 
He’s using the “E” word. 
Any minute he’s going to pull out a stack of tracts
     and send us out knocking on doors or standing on street corners,
          badgering people to ‘Come to Jesus’ and ‘Save your souls’

Well, you can do that if you want to,
     but that’s not what I’m going to ask you to do.
What I am going to ask is that a group of leaders of the church
     – some officers, some commission members,
          some Sunday School teachers,
     to read a couple of books together – they’re short, a hundred pages or so
     –  about what good, successful evangelism looks like in mainline churches. We’re also going to ask these leaders to discuss the ideas from the books
     in small group meetings. 
If they like what they read and discuss together,
     then we may decide to ask a larger group to read the books together,
          and discuss the ideas and follow the exercises in small group meetings.

What are these books about? What are some of the ideas in them?  
Well, the books are by a minister who has done extensive study
     on some of the characteristics of thriving, growing churches
          in the mainline denominations, like Methodists, Episcopalians,
              Disciples, Lutherans, and the United Church of Christ.
The author’s name is Martha Grace Reese. 
She writes, “The purpose of the study was to find churches
     that were doing effective evangelism and to discover their motivation. We also wanted to discover what made these congregations,
     their pastors, and their members tick. 
How do they think? What are they doing? 
We found some exciting answers.”

She goes on to say “our most important discovery
     is that a vivid relationship with God lies at the heart of real evangelism. 
People who share their faith,  
     love God, and believe that other people’s lives would be better
          if they were in a relationship with God, too. 
They know why they are doing evangelism:
     they want to share a driving force in their lives.
These Christians are growing in their own faith. 
They learn to talk about their faith. 
Their churches put a high priority on faith sharing.”

Rev. Reese also says,
“If you ask most mainline church people why they are
     (or should be) evangelists, they answer “so that people will join our church”.  Sometimes they say, “We need more people (young families, children)
     in our church”. 
This is a secondary focus. 
I suspect this secondary focus contributes directly to the malaise
     in our beloved churches. 
Too often we slip into treating church like a club. 
Then our faith slides into thinking first about church
     – about the building, the activities, the friends,
          the important life we’ve found there, the ministries we do. 

“We know these ministries can lead to faith in God, a faith life, a prayer life. 
But we wait too long for the church part of a Christian life
     to lead up the God part of faith. 
Both are important, but we emphasize the less crucial of the two.

“God matters more than church. 
The purpose of evangelism is to help new men, women and children
     begin a life of relationship with God. 
Church supports that relationship. Going to church is not an end in itself. Our failure to focus on our relationship with God has mixed us up. 
     We have let secondary church slide into God’s primary place.”

I know how much we all love and cherish and value
      the Eliot Church spirit and the Eliot family and community. 
But Martha Grace Reese reminds us that it is God’s Spirit with a capital S
          that has created this community;
     it is God’s Spirit with a capital S that has
          imbued it with grace and mercy, life and mission for 164 years;
     and it is God’s Spirit with a capital S that has called
          each and every one of us into the church’s loving embrace today. 
It is God’s Spirit with a capital S that is the great Good News
     that we have to share. 
The Good News of Eliot church is the result, the evidence,
     the fruit of God’s Spirit alive and at work and at play.

That is why Reese identifies prayer as a major component
     in faith-sharing congregations.
In one of the Anne of Green Gables books,
     there is a character named Miss Cornelia.
She is a staunch pillar of the Presbyterian Church.
In the book, she asks one of her friends about another woman’s health. 
“Oh,” the other said, “I’m afraid she’s going to have to rely on the Lord now.” “Oh no!” Miss Cornelia responded, “Surely it isn’t as bad as all that?”

“Relying on the Lord”  is not a recourse of last resort. 
Prayer is not just what we do when all else fails.
Prayer is the way that we keep God in the equation
     as our partner and our leader in the work of evangelism. 
Prayer is the way we acknowledge that the Holy Spirit is the one
     who gives faith, and opens people up to faith,
          and churches that thrive are the ones who cooperate
              with the Holy Spirit in this work.

When has the message of God’s love and providence,
      grace and mercy been needed more than today?

In a society that is so permeated with fear and distrust,
     with lies and misinformation and disinformation, and disdain
          for those whose politics or social policies differ from one’s own,
we need people and places in our lives, in our communities, in our society
     that deliver messages grace and mercy, forgiveness and peacemaking,
              messages of hospitality and healing and hope
          messages of trust, and empathy and compassion,
     so that people’s ears can be unstopped,
          and they may hear Good News.

Paul says in the letter to the Romans, chapter 10:
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."
But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed?
And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard?
And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? 
And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent?  
Faith comes from what is heard,
     and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.
As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”