I once knew a couple who were farmers, and we used to go often to visit their farm. At one point in my childhood, finances got tight and they had to close down the farm for a few years. They sold all of the livestock and didn't plant any new crops. The barns stood empty and the fields were bare. But, for these two farmers, their lives revolved around the farming community. Their calendar had been filled with farming, farming conferences, cattle auctions, and shows.
So, with or without the farm, they continued with their farming lifestyle. They attended farming conferences. They listened to lectures about the latest farming technologies. They discussed which seed varieties worked best in their region. They learned about which tractors and combines were most effective to plow and to harvest.
And then they went home. They didn't farm. They talked about how helpful the farming conference had been and they both agreed that it had made them better farmers.
They went to cattle auctions and watched as other people bid on cows. Then they went home. They looked out at the empty barn and shrugged their shoulders. They didn't plant and they didn't harvest for another year.
The next year they eagerly signed up again for the regional farming conference. They were so excited to learn how to be better farmers, and to be taught how to grow and harvest more effectively. They were really ready for this conference to make them even better farmers than the conference the year before.
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After I became a Christian I wasted several years. I didn't share my faith with anyone for a long time because I was afraid. I assumed that I didn't have the right words, or that I couldn't answer their questions. I was afraid that people would reject me. I read books on the subject, and listened to sermons about it, but I never took that first step of sharing my faith.
I love the simplicity of the witness of the man in today's story. He sees that the Pharisees are stuck on some complex theological issue and he states simply that he doesn't know the answer. But he continues, "One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!"
It's this simple answer that the divided world is looking for. While professors and lawyers argue over great theological questions - the rest of us are left to give the simple answer. We can only share what we know. "I was blind but now I see!" I hated everything about myself and now I love myself. I was an angry drunk and now I love my family. I was a sinner and now I'm forgiven.
I want you to watch this video.
[I'm not sure if we'll watch the whole video in church ... maybe just a few minutes. I really wrestled with the idea of performing this, or making this interactive somehow. I'm not done wrestling yet!]
I want you to think about your own life. Could you explain what Jesus has done on one piece of paper? Could you then stand up on a stage and show that paper to everyone else? Could you say those two phrases to someone that you really love?
These last few weeks we've been preaching about sharing our faith. We hope that we have helped you become more confident and motivated to share your faith. As Christians, we believe that our collective testimony is powerful and world-changing. I want to share three stories with you all today that highlight this fact:
Almost 300 years ago the Methodist movement began. It grew out of frustration with the established church. It was a time in church history when the church was dead. The wealthy and the powerful went to church to be seen. The poor and the powerless were simply not welcome.
John and Charles Wesley came from an odd family life. Their father had been a priest, but he left his congregation to move to the city. His wife, Susanna, felt that it was important that her children have instruction - so she began teaching them on Sunday mornings. Well, soon enough, the other mothers found out about the Bible classes and asked if their children could also attend. And soon the mothers also began attending. And then the fathers began attending.
Susanna Wesley soon had a thriving congregation on her hands - and, unintentionally, she was their priest. So the Wesley children grew up with the knowledge that God worked in strange and wonderful ways - and that God worked through all kinds of people.
When the Wesley brothers were old enough they became priests as well, but the sensed that the church was dying - if not already dead! People with great wealth went to church on Sunday morning to be seen by others. The poor were no longer welcome in the church. The job of "priest" had become a profitable career choice. The Wesley brothers wanted to see their church come alive again. They became part of a home group - and during this time their hearts were strangely warmed. They began to see the problems that had been slowly eating away at the church.
They began preaching to all people. If the poor weren't welcomed into the church - then neither was Jesus and neither were the Wesley brothers. They would go and preach somewhere else. They preached the good news that Jesus Christ died for sinners and that all may be made right with God through Jesus - and they preached it everywhere. They preached in marketplaces and they stood on tombstones and preached it in cemeteries. Crowds gathered to hear this radical idea - and this idea is still radical today! - and the Wesley brothers formed these men and women into home groups.
75 years ago Elaine Neale was growing up in a poor immigrant family. Her father was a mean drunk and it wasn't uncommon for the children to have bruises. One of her neighbors attended the Methodist church in her little town, and came over one day to ask if she could bring Elaine and her sisters to Sunday School with her own children. Each Sunday she would walk with her sisters to the local United Methodist church.
They went to the United Methodist church because they were welcome there. People loved them there. To the people at that little United Methodist congregation; it didn't matter how poor those little girls were, it didn't matter how much of a drunk their daddy was, and it didn't matter that they didn't know anything about the Bible or how good people behaved. What mattered was that Jesus loved them, and so did the people of that little church.
I am standing here today because that woman had the courage to invite my grandmother to church and because that little church loved her and her sister's unconditionally.
In Mongolia I met several people with the name Nergyui. Now, in Mongolia people attribute great importance to names. I assumed that Nergyui must be a particularly beautiful and meaningful name. I asked one of the boys named Nergyui what his name meant and his eyes looked toward the floor. "My name means, 'no name'" he said.
In Mongolia, if a child dies, his or her name is no longer considered beautiful. So, if parents think that a child will die they choose not to waste a good name on them. I met many such people. Ter bish - not this. no one. nothing.
All of their lives, the world had told them that they were nothing - but in the church they found that they were so precious that God was willing to give Jesus to be nothing in their place. The United Methodist church in Mongolia is filled with such people. These people find the meaning and purpose that their lives had always been missing.
I share these examples to show the church in three very different locations and time periods working at its best. These were churches that looked beyond what the world saw and in turn they were able to transform the world.
In the past I have been afraid to share my faith because I felt like I was doing it simply for myself. I was trying to make myself feel better, or I was trying to be a better Christian because witnessing was what I was "supposed to do." When we share our faith with the world, we move in the direction of transformation.
If that neighbor lady hadn't invited my grandmother to church, I wouldn't be here today. For three generations we have worked for the cause of the gospel. We have shared our faith and we have fought for social change. I am very, very thankful that that woman worked up the courage to ask if she could bring my grandmother and her sisters to church. I owe a lot of my life and my ministry to her.
When we share our faith in big and small ways, we receive a blessing. But the fried that we share with also receives a blessing. Whether he or she accepts or rejects your words, the blessing is in part simply knowing that you care enough to share. If that friend accepts, his or her life will be blessed immeasurably by God. The world will be blessed by the new life that person has in God. The people they share with will be blessed.
When Jesus spat in the mud and placed it in the eyes of the blind man, he opened his eyes to a whole new world. The man had never seen anything before. He and his family had been shunned by the community because of his blindness - and now he could see. His life had been transformed by Jesus Christ and he was ready to tell the whole world.
You know, there are a lot of people who will tell you that it's wrong to share your faith. The pharisees were angry and upset that Jesus had performed this miracle. As though there was something sinful about opening someone's eyes to a whole new world. If people felt this way about Jesus, you can bet the farm that they'll feel the same way when you do it. People will be upset when you help to open people's hearts to God.
But, do you know who wasn't upset or angry? The blind man. He was thrilled to have his sight back. He was so overjoyed that he was ready to share his faith even with the powerful and important men who were clearly angry at this Jesus who "sinned" by healing on the Sabbath. No matter how you go about it, any person whose life is changed by Jesus Christ will be glad that you shared with them.
Go forth this day, armed with nothing but your simple story, and transform this world for Jesus Christ.
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