A New Thing

There is tremendous conflict in that scene: the eyes of Jesus gaze piercingly at the group of Pharisees who are blocking the gate – and they look sternly back at him.

Most of the priests, Pharisees, and other leaders could only hear what Jesus said and did as bad news, news that announced the upsetting of their little arrangements.

The in-breaking of the kingdom of God does not have any special perks or privileges for them!

Where are we in this icon-scene?

Do we stand with the leaders who oppose Jesus, or with the disciples who at least are looking at each other in wonder:

Can this be true?

Can God be doing a new thing here? --in us? --through us? --on our behalf?

The old thing is death.

We know about that; it chases us all the time.

The new thing is life re-made, life out of death, the life that Baptism both promises and begins.

“See, I am making all things new,” says the voice from the throne of heaven.

Can it be? Is it true?

If it is, I need to tell someone.

And right there the excitement level of us, typical Lutherans, drops to zero.

It is like we are junior-high school students at the school dance in the gym, with the boys standing on one side awkwardly whispering, and the girls on the other side doing the same, with no one in the middle dancing.

The dance here is called “Evangelism,” and it is how other persons find out what excites us about life in the church of Jesus Christ.

Clearly, we need to do better with this than we did in junior-high dances!

We need to expand our definition of the dance called evangelism by asking this question: who needs evangelizing?

The answer is – everyone!

--those who have been here for 80 years, and those who have recently stepped through the door.

--ones who are deeply steeped in the story of Jesus, and those who are hearing it for the first time.

Remember the hymn:

I love to tell the story,

For those who know it best

Seem hungering and thirsting

To hear it like the rest. [LBW#390]

Yes, those who know it best want to hear more of it.

So who might be involved effectively in this evangelism-dance?

1.The dance of evangelism includes being a teacher or helper in Sunday School or Vacation Bible School.

Some time back I read about a young mother who was talking about her child's presence in Sunday School.

She said, “He's smart enough to realize what is going on here.”

“What do you mean?” the writer asked her.

“The other day he said to me, 'Mom, I like going to Sunday School, because it is the only time as adult has anything to do with me who is not paid to do it: school teacher, bus driver, doctor, etc., are all paid to look after me. In Sunday School, it is done for free, out of love.”

What an effective evangelism-dance!

2.Here at St. Mark's we could easily have a very similar story about our catechetical program, where we have adult mentors for each of our students.

These are adults who are unrelated to the students who have agreed to give of themselves for the sake of the Gospel, to spend time with a particular student for the two years of the program.

The kids know the value of this gift of time and thought offered to them.

3.The evangelism-dance includes things like greeting a visitors and others here at worship.

It doesn't matter if the person just walked in the door for the first time, or whether it is someone back after being away for a while, or is a member who attends the other service.

Our greeting in the name of Jesus is gracious Gospel to him or her.

4.To assist someone at the Communion rail, that is evangelical behavior.

5.So is providing the resources to make it possible for others to carry out their evangelism.

We are hoping to host our missionary Brian Palmer at Luncheon Fellowship in June.

Our presence at that luncheon and a monetary gift to speed him on his way will be a part of the evangelism-dance.

6.There is the conversation that takes place during the lunch break at work when one gets around to talking about things that really matter.

7.And when we remind someone in the hospital of Christ's promise to hold onto us in easy times and also in the difficult and lonely days.

There the dance of evangelism takes its gentlest steps.

What we are exploring here is a new thing, God's new thing, the promise of life in Jesus' name, being shared face-to-face, in the dance of evangelism.

What we Lutherans always find hardest, taking the greatest nerve, is evangelism with someone completely unknown to us.

But amazingly good things can happen.

I read about a congregation who made prayer cards and enclosed them in bags containing four doughnuts, knocked on doors around the neighborhood and offered them with a smile.

At announcement time two weeks later, a man stood up and said, “I haven't been in church for 30 years. I barely get by with my check.

Last week I bought my medicine and had nothing left.

I had been sitting in my apartment all day with nothing to eat.

Then some of you people came knocking on my door.

You brought food for a starving man.

Those doughnuts were as much love and concern as I have seen in a long time.

I'm here to say Thank you.

I'd like to be a part of a group of people like you, if this is the sort of thing that you do for people.”

Evangelism by doughnut.

How does one learn how to dance?

One can read about it, think about it, watch others, pick up ideas.

But there comes a point where the only way to learn it is to do it!

Will it be great the first try? Probably not.

Does that matter? Certainly not!

Behold, I am doing a new thing,

a dance in the wilderness where you though it was impossible.

a dance of life, new life in Christ,

a dance of hope for the despairing,

a dance of insight and understanding for the spiritually blind,

a dance for lovers: the risen Lord Jesus and the church he raises from death.

What are the ways that our Easter joy should get our toes to tapping in all our relationships with others both inside and outside the church?

In Easter joy, may all of us keep asking for it, looking for it, praying and listening for it, and learning new steps in this evangelism-dance, and get on with doing it, to know Christ and to make Christ known, which reflects the message that Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.