Matthew 22:34-46, 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8
1 Thessalonians 2:1-8
We’ve been talking about sharing the good news of Jesus Christ and using the book, “Hope for All”, to help us. This book has this week been delivered free to most homes throughout New Zealand. We have seen that this is something we can all get into, not something we leave to the specialists. We know that it is easily conveyed in a conversation.
Leonard Sweet says the same sort of thing in his book called, Nudge: Awakening Each Other to the God Who is Already There. He says that the way that we proclaim the good news is not as much about the words we say as it is about the way we tune ourselves to the ways of Christ so that others may see Christ in us. Opportunities to share Christ come along every day and everywhere we find ourselves. Our job, says Sweet, is to show who Christ is in all that we do, effectively “nudging” people by our love and our actions to want to know Christ for themselves. Sweet writes,
“Evangelism is awakening each other to the God who is already there. Evangelism is nudging people to pay attention to the mission of God in their lives and to the necessity of responding to that initiative in ways that birth new realities and new birth.
“. . .the human contact, the meeting of eyes, the sharing of space, the entanglement of words, the sense of bodily interaction [are all involved].
“….every person who crosses your threshold today is ripe for nudging.
“Nudging aims to bring people less to a decision than to an impression: not just to an hour of decision, but a lifetime impression of God’s presence and the nearness of God’s kingdom.
“Sometimes a nudge will lead to conversion, but most often it will lead to a conversation, a confession, a connection, maybe a germination, but always a blessing.”
When Paul writes “But we were gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children. So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us’ (1 Thess 2: 7-8). I think Paul is talking about the same thing Sweet is pointing us to. He is pointing to a sharing of the good news that comes from a place of not only deep personal experience, but as the result of the careful building of relationships with others that is driven by genuine love for them.
This is not something we can fake. It can’t be done to please mortals. It can only be done to please God who tests our hearts.
So we seek to pay attention to God who is already there, everywhere we go, and as we encourage others to do likewise we find ourselves nudging people towards Jesus.
Sweet says we tune ourselves to the ways of Christ. Jesus is at the essence of this tuning in Matthew 22:34-46.
As we live out Jesus’ call to love God, neighbour, and self we are empowered and equipped to share our faith stories, inviting conversation, giving witness, and sharing our sheer delight in the life we have come to have in Christ.
But it isn’t easy. Some of us come from homes where we didn’t feel loved for who we were, and the struggle to love ourselves is the hardest part to master. For others the greatest struggle comes in trying to love certain “others,” be they in our personal orbit or on another continent. And of course, loving the Lord God first and making the practice of that love our priority, even more than we love all of the other possibilities in life—family, friends, entertainment, work, activities, hobbies, travel, personal pursuits, and the list goes on and on—is no easy task either.
What needs to change in our lives in order for us to live by Jesus’ primary commandment for us? What might happen to our lives if we were to take his commandment more seriously? What situations in the world, community, family, and self might be transformed?
An Iraqi friend of mine has this week returned from Dubai where he has been working. He has come back because things are so fluid in that region that no one know what to do. No one knows what’s going to happen and people are unable to make decisions. It’s a real mess. Everyone is affected.
How does anyone operate in such a situation? In the midst of doing what they can to help the needy, especially refugees from conflict areas, the Christians are rethinking the way they do church. I read a report from Elie Haddad, President of the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary in Beirut. I see in his picture of the church in the Middle East something of our own churches. He said of the traditional churches in the Middle East that most had been complacent and in survival mode and have found it difficult to embrace Muslims. He said the challenges these churches have been facing are:
their lack of passion and love for Muslims, viewing them with suspicion,
traditional models of doing mission,
fear of Islam and
lack of knowledge regarding the proclamation of the Gospel.
However, as a result of the Arab Spring and the crises taking place throughout the region in its wake, Elie said churches are being transformed. “Muslims have become disillusioned with Islam and churches in the Middle East are waking up. Lebanese Christians are serving Syrians, whom they considered their enemies. Churches are caring for Muslim refugees and pastors are changing the way they preach and teach. Having more Muslims in our congregations is forcing us to change our thinking. Suddenly church is about drawing people to Jesus.”
We only need to change a few key words and we have a picture of the churches in New Zealand. Churches in NZ have been complacent and in survival mode and have found it difficult to embrace those who have no time for God or church. The challenges these churches have been facing are:
their lack of passion and love for secularists, viewing them with suspicion,
traditional models of doing mission,
fear of scoffers and
lack of knowledge regarding the proclamation of the Gospel.
However, faced with their own imminent demise and the crises taking place through major shifts in the moral consensus and the national ethos, churches are being transformed. Many secular Kiwis have become disillusioned with the way the country is going and churches are waking up. Churches are caring for an increasingly diverse range of needs and pastors are changing the way they preach and teach. Having more diversity in our congregations is forcing us to change our thinking. Suddenly church is about drawing people to Jesus.
Church is about drawing people to Jesus, which is the way Jesus meant it to be from the start. The Holy Spirit is actively drawing people to Jesus; our part is to watch where God is working and work alongside him, to love God with all we are and love our neighbours like God loves us, and to engage with people to nudge them towards Jesus.