By All Means Save Some

A Sermon for the 5th Sunday after the Epiphany (RCL -B)

-Martin Niemöller was a prominent German Lutheran pastor when Adolf Hitler came to power. At first he had supported the Nazis, and so he was called upon to serve as a negotiator with Hitler in an attempt to save the German churches from being closed when criticism against Nazi ideals began to spread. Toward the end of his life, Niemoller told of a recurring dream that came to him in which he saw Hitler standing before our Lord Jesus Christ in the day of judgment. In the dream, Jesus came down off of the throne, put His arm around Hitler and asked, “Adolf! Why did you do the ugly, evil things you did? Why were you so cruel?”
-Hitler, with his head bowed low, answered simply, “Because no one ever told me how much You loved me.”
-Pastor Niemoller reported that at this point in his dream he would wake up always in a cold sweat, remembering that during the many meetings he had had with Hitler, never once did he say, “By the way, Führer, Jesus loves you! He loves you more than you’ll ever know. He loves you so much that he died for you. Do you know that?”
-Never once did Pastor Niemoller ask that question. Who knows what might have happened if he did? Would Hitler’s heart have been touched and changed in some way?

-We’ll never know, and – truthfully – for this Pastor it makes no difference, for his was a sin of omission.
-In a few minutes, when we pause to confess our sins, we will remember that we all have sinned against God “by what we have left undone.”

-Today, we are called to spend a few minutes together reflecting upon our calling to be a witness to the grace and truth that is found in Jesus Christ. And I am assuming that we do not have many naturally gifted evangelists in our midst.

-And I will confess this to all of you as well: I am horrible at the task of evangelism. This is a difficult message for me to deliver, because it convicts me of my obvious failure to act in sharing the gospel with those around me every day.

-But the truth of Scripture demands that we consider carefully our calling to share the good news of Jesus Christ.

-The good news. The message. The Gospel. Both Saint Paul and our Lord – in some mysterious way – are presented to us today as captives to this proclamation. They are bound to it, obligated to proclaim the good news.

-“Woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel!” This is Paul’s classic explanation of his ministry. His experience of the risen Lord was so powerful that he was willing to use any means at his disposal to make the good news understood by the different groups in his society. “I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel…”

-In our gospel reading from Mark, we read of our Lord healing the sick and getting the attention of the entire city. They all wanted to make use of his healing power.
-This would seem to be a good thing, right? But how did Jesus respond?
-“Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I might proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came to do.”

-It almost seems that the message had a hold of Him, that the message needed a Voice, that he was traveling and working on behalf of the message. It’s the same feeling that we get from Paul’s letter. “I do it all for the sake of the good news.”

-Think, then, my friends, of what this means for us. If our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ was captivated by the power of the good news, if St. Paul and the other apostles and countless numbers of saints have given their lives to the spreading of this gospel message, how do we value this precious divine treasure which we have received?

-Or simply ask yourself this question: How many people in your life could have been helped if you had sincerely and directly asked them this simple question, “Do you know how much God loves you?”

-Of course, when we are speaking of evangelism, our actions are of vital importance here. Most of you have heard of the famous advice from St. Francis of Assisi, “Preach the Gospel at all times; and if necessary, use words.”
-Both our words and our actions are needed to spread the good news.

-Do you remember the promise that we made, or that was made for us, in our baptismal covenant?
-Look with me, if you will. Turn to page 304 in the BCP, and there you will find one of the most important parts of the entire Prayer Book. The Baptismal Covenant. The promises made by those being baptized and indeed by the entire gathered community.
-These words, more than any other, most clearly define who we are and what we are all about.
-After the creed is recited in Trinitarian form, 5 specific questions are asked of the baptized community. It is the 3rd one that I believe we need to reflect upon today. It is immediately on the top of Page 305.
-The Celebrant asks the community this question, “Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?”
-And each one of the baptized community responds – all together, “I will, with God’s help.”



-With God’s help, you and I must proclaim the good news in our words and by our actions. There’s no cop-out, no excuse. It is not enough simply to provide support to others who have the gift of evangelism, though this is good use of our offerings.

-We cannot back out of this commitment by claiming that we do not have the skill or the training required. We do not need to have all of the answers. We simply need to be faithful.

-The work of evangelism has been aptly described as one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread. If you were truly hungry and you found an endless supply of good, healthy, satisfying food, you would not need any special skill or training to share this discovery with the other hungry people in your neighborhood! And if you didn’t share this good news with the others, because you were so busy eating that you forgot about them, or else you were afraid that they might think you’re a bit crazy, then you would in fact be guilty of a heinous crime.

-This analogy is rough, but it is a good one. When you leave here today, just look around and you will see a mass of confused, hurting, lonely people. And the God’s honest truth is that you and I know where they can find the direction, the healing, and the hope that they are looking for. It is our task to point them in the right direction, to point them toward Christ, and then to let God handle the rest.

-One simple and practical way to approach our calling to evangelism is to pray every morning for 2 things: first, ask God to bring someone into your path that day who needs to hear about the love of God in Christ; and then ask the Holy Spirit to make sure that you don’t miss or ignore the opportunity when it arrives.
-Let’s all try it this coming week. Remember – I need to pray for this also, and I am willing to do it with you. I am eager to hear a few stories next Sunday of what God might do with these prayers and with our openness to sharing the Good News of God in Christ.

-The world needs your witness – your voice, your story, your actions shared in love with others in need around you. So let us not keep all of this bread for ourselves. There is more than enough to go around. Amen.