We're all evangelists...
A local preacher was speaking at an open-air crusade in Halifax, Nova Scotia where Billy Graham, the famous American evangelist, was to speak the next night. Billy Graham had arrived a day early and so he came incognito and sat on the grass at the rear of the crowd to listen to the local preacher. Because he was wearing a hat and dark glasses, no one recognised him.
Directly in front of him sat an elderly gentleman who seemed to be listening intently to the presentation. When the preacher invited people to come forward as an open sign of commitment, Billy decided to do a little personal evangelism. He tapped the man on the shoulder and asked, "Would you like to accept Christ? I'll be glad to walk down with you if you want to." The old man looked him up and down, thought it over for a moment, and then said, "No, I think I'll just wait till the big gun comes tomorrow night."
Unfortunately this story underlines how, in the minds of many people, evangelism is the task of the "Big Guns," not the "ordinary people." And I’m sure we all have a bit of sympathy for that idea – they’ll do it better, they’ll know what to say, they won’t get nervous or tongue-tied – there are lots of reasons to leave evangelism to the experts !
And Paul was one of those experts, perhaps the first of the multi-national travelling evangelists. In tonight’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles (16:1-15) we hear of some of Paul’s travels. We are told he went from town to town, and then had a vision of a man from Macedonia asking him to go there, so he did. He moved from place to place, telling people the good news of Jesus, and seeking to build Churches wherever he went.
I’ve got to be honest I really like some of the great evangelists – I like the noise and the huge presentations, the great show of a preacher in full flow. I believe many have been used to transform millions of lives. But not everybody is called to be a great public evangelist, and that’s a good thing, because the Church would not survive with just the big rallies and the dramatic conversions.
The crucial thing about any great work of evangelism is actually the people who are left after the rally or the meeting, and who continue to build the Church, those who work on a local level, amongst friends and neighbours, those who are doing the work of Jesus in their daily lives.
The Churches Paul founded couldn’t rely on him forever, and it wouldn’t have been healthy if they did. No individual should ever exercise total authority over a Church, because that’s how cults and superstitions develop. To survive the early Church would have to grow through their own efforts, through their own words and actions with the help of God, and it is often the case that the quiet people, those who are almost un-noticed make huge contributions to the life of a Church.
Last Thursday (14th August) the Church calendar remembered St. Maximillian Kolbe, described by Pope John Paul II as the ‘Patron Saint of the difficult 20th century’. He was a Roman Catholic Priest arrested in the Second World War for sheltering Polish people, including Jews, from the Nazis. He was sent to Auschwitz concentration camp.
When a prisoner from his barracks disappeared, the Nazi officer in charge chose 10 men from the barracks to be put into an isolation cell where they would be starved to death, as a deterrent to others considering escape. One of the men chosen though cried out so much for his family, including his young children, that Kolbe offered to take his place.
A few years ago Helen and I visited Auschwitz and saw the tiny cell in which the men were held. It was dark and tiny. Without doubt it would also have been filthy, but during the time in the cell Kolbe led the men in songs and prayer. After three weeks of dehydration and starvation, only Kolbe and three others were still alive, and at that point the officers finally decided to kill them.
Prior to the war, Kolbe had been involved in some great evangelistic efforts, including being involved in a magazine with a circulation of 1 million people and a daily newspaper. He was involved in doing work that touched many lives, but nothing has touched lives more than the story of his death.
Removed from publicity, away from all but a handful of people, he was a quiet man, who couldn’t lead big rallies, but through his character, through his faith and his example, he was a great evangelist. He shared the good news of Jesus with those men – men in a seemingly hopeless and desperate situation were suddenly given hope, suddenly given some sort of courage to know that their death needn’t be the end.
We don’t know the effect his actions had on the people with him, but the fact that they shared in the prayers and the singing perhaps gives us a clue. Perhaps even some of the guards would have been moved by what they heard – they, after all, are the ones that shared some of this incredible story with the outside world.
And small things we do can also be noticed and make a difference for Jesus. I told a story in the informal service on Monday evening, so I apologise if you’ve already heard it, but it illustrates the need to try and do good in the public things we do, but also in the things we don’t think others can see.
It’s a true story about a man who several years ago, in Long Beach, California, went into a fried chicken shop and bought a couple of chicken dinners for himself and the lady he was with. However, the young woman at the counter inadvertently gave him the proceeds from the day - a whole bag of money (most of it cash) instead of fried chicken. After driving to their picnic site, the two of them sat down to open the meal and enjoy some chicken together. They discovered a whole lot more than chicken, in fact, over $800!
But this man knew the right thing to do. He quickly put the money back in the bag. They got back into the car and drove all the way back. The man got out, walked in to the shop, and became an instant hero. By then the manager was frantic. The man with the bag of money looked the manager in the eye and said, "I want you to know I came by to get a couple of chicken dinners and wound up with all this money." And he handed it over to the manager who was obviously thrilled and rather relieved.
He was so thrilled in fact at this incredible piece of honesty that he said he wanted to call the newspaper to get a story done about it… But the man who had brought the money back quickly said, “Oh no, no, don't do that!" Then he leaned closer and whispered, "You see, the woman I'm with is not my wife...she's uh, somebody else's wife."
Doing good all the time, in the public eye or not, is what we must all seek to do ! And the story of Maximillian Kolbe I think reminds all of us that it is often not in great dramatic rallies with incredible preachers that we lead people to Christ, but in the quiet things. Certainly what Kolbe did was dramatic – he willingly gave up his life for another person, but as he did it he instantly touched only a small number of people.
Often the good things we do will touch only a small number of people, maybe just one, but by constantly trying to do the work of Jesus, we will make a difference in the world today, a difference that, when used by God, may well outlast anything we can ever imagine. AMEN
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