"How to Share the Gospel" (Matthew 23: 1-12)

On the last day of the regional assembly two weeks ago, after the workshops were all done, after the business sessions had concluded, after the benediction was given at the closing worship… that evening, about a dozen youth from a handful of churches travelled a few blocks from First Christian Church in Garden Grove to Downtown Disney, for one last activity.

It was a scavenger hunt, organized by our regional director of youth ministries, BJ Barlow. He had the adult helpers he needed, so all I had to do was transport the two youth from Bixby Knolls Christian Church – Ethan and Sam –to Downtown Disney, wait about two hours for the scavenger hunt to take place, and then take them home.

Once the youth were given their instructions and the hunt began, I walked past the stores to Starbucks. I ordered a China green tips tea and found a table and chair on the outdoor patio. It was just past twilight, but my reading device is illuminated, so I read (I think I was reading some Thich Nhat Hanh that night), drank my tea, and watched the people walking by on the pathway below and the monorail zooming by above.

After awhile, a group of about 7 or 8 young men gathered right in front of Starbucks, right next to the main pathway.  I had a direct view of them. They all wore black t-shirts with big block letters printed on that read “JESUS IS GRACE AND TRUTH,” and one in the group stood up on the small wall next to the walkway. He had a guitar, and started playing, and the group started singing.

I wondered how far they’d get before Disney security came and escorted them away.  (You know what those Disney security guys are like!) And I was a little annoyed at first, because I was sure their theology was wrong. I hadn’t heard anything they said, but that didn’t stop me from pre-judging them; and I was annoyed that, in the eyes of society, people like that represent all of Christians, including me.

Well, for whatever reason, Disney security didn’t come right away. The group sang a second song. And despite my initial prejudice, I started to enjoy the music. Most of all, I appreciated their sincerity and enthusiasm. I knew that I still probably wouldn’t agree with their theology, but they did seem like nice people.

After the third song, they left. Maybe they decided not to push their luck, having escaped notice by security that long. And I started thinking to myself: OK, maybe I wouldn’t agree with their theology, but I sure liked their enthusiasm and their confidence.

Where’s my enthusiasm and confidence?

I mean, my understanding of God is that God is all love. God is a God who heals the wounded, a God who loves everyone unconditionally, a God who will always welcome you at his banquet table even when every other banquet table in the world turns you away.

That’s how I understand God. That’s how many in my church understand God. It is definitely an understanding that can change lives, an understanding that can save lives. In fact, I’ve seen this understanding of God save lives!

Isn’t that worth being excited about?

And yet, I – we – tend to keep this God to ourselves.

My next thought was: we need to get out there! We need to be on the street corners, with our guitars, letting people know about the God we worship! It’s the same God, but our understanding of God, I think, is so powerful, so positive, and relatively unknown by our society.  The way we understand God isn’t usually the way God is talked about by the media. If people knew how we understood God here at Bixby Knolls Christian Church – if people were aware of a more progressive view of theology that exists – then churches like ours would be overflowing! It is just what so many are looking for! …what so many need!

Why have we kept this wonderful, amazing gift to ourselves?

I let the questions float around in my mind for a few days. Meanwhile, I read the scripture for today, the lectionary reading from Matthew’s gospel.

In it, Jesus talks about the legal experts and the Pharisees. 

OK. I already mentioned my initial prejudice against the group that gathered outside of Starbucks. I have a similar prejudice against the Pharisees. They’re just a bunch of know-it-alls who just don’t get it.

And they like to draw a lot of attention to themselves.

And it seems that people in Jesus’s day had those same prejudices. 

The Pharisees were the public face of religion. They were the ones who were out there, making themselves seen on the street corners, standing in the spotlight, in front of Starbucks, telling people what to believe and how to live.

And Jesus commends their teachings. He told his followers: “Do what they tell you to do. Follow their teachings.”

But clearly, Jesus didn’t like everything about the Pharisees. Mainly, because they drew too much attention to themselves. They liked to be in the spotlight. They wanted large crowds to pay attention to them. They were always fishing for subscribers to their youtube channel, so that their own importance would be raised up in the eyes of society.

“Follow their teachings,” Jesus said, “but don’t seek the spotlight the same way they do. The one who is greatest among you will be your servant. All who lift themselves up will be brought low; and all who make themselves low will be lifted up.”

So OK. Now I’m wondering just how it is that we are to share this wonderful gospel as we know it, how we are to bear witness to the kingdom that is present in our midst. Is there a way to do this publicly that doesn’t put us in the spotlight, but instead shines the light on Jesus and the love of God?

Of course there is. It’s right there in Jesus’s comments. “The one who is greatest among you will be your servant.”

The greatest isn’t the one who stands in front of Starbucks and is seen by hundreds. The greatest is the one who serves.

That’s not to say that there is never an appropriate time to stand and preach in public. Peter preached in Jerusalem. Paul preached in Athens, on the steps of the Areopagus.

But more often, they served. They reached out to people with love. They ministered to people’s needs.

All this, of course, has made me thinking about today’s walk through the neighborhood. A couple things come to mind, some guidelines for people who want to get the word out.

1.  If you aren’t serving your neighbors, then keep your mouth shut. Seriously. If you’ve done nothing for the community, then why would you go out there and boast about your love? That’s the very definition of hypocrisy.

Fortunately, every month we’re out there picking up trash in Somerset park and along the neighborhood sidewalks. People in the community have seen us doing this, and the fact that we serve the community in this way gives us a lot more credibility when we talk about how we love our community.

There are other ways we at Bixby Knolls Christian Church serve our neighbors, but I’ll let you think of them. And probably, there are other ways that we could serve our neighbors.

2.  It’s more important to build a relationship based on love then it is to get a new member for the church. In college I was part of a group that went around trying to convert people, and if they got someone to say a short prayer they called the “Jesus prayer,” it was “mission accomplished.”

Really? Where’s the love? Where’s the service? It got to the point where I started looking in the group members’ back packets, or at least the group leaders’ back pockets, because I was convinced that they all had a little pocket notebook filled with tally marks for all the individuals they got to recite the Jesus prayer.

“Ooh, I got you to say the Jesus prayer. Great. Another one saved…”

I knew then that tally marks in a notebook are not something I can be enthusiastic about.

That group singing in front of Starbucks – I’m still thinking about them. I liked their enthusiasm, but what were they enthusiastic about? Did they consider their evening a success just because they were seen by hundreds of people who walked past them during the night? If so, that’s a poor measure of success. Where is the love? Where is the relationship?

We’re going out into the community today. As we go , if we connect with just one individual and establish a good relationship with that one individual, that’s worth far more in my opinion than shoving a hundred flyers into the hands of a hundred people who will probably just take them home and throw them into the recycle bin.

And as we are out in the community, if we discover new ways that we can serve our neighbors, new needs that we can help meet, new ways to love and serve those around us… what an opportunity that will be for us.

It is my prayer that our walk through the neighborhood is the first step to discovering new ways we can love and serve our neighbors.

Because it’s not about shining a spotlight on ourselves. It’s about humbling ourselves so that God’s love can shine through us, into the world.

And that’s something I can be enthusiastic about.