Evangelism, without sincerity, serves only to alienate most people. We’ve seen those
who profess to be evangels, shouting at the top of their lungs with Bible firmly in hand,
that the kingdom of God is upon us (save for all those sinners, mind you). How do we
reconcile these instances with a God of abundant love? Through indiscriminate acts of
solidarity and kindness, consistent with our words. The sermon is nothing without an
inherent love, bound up in the physical willpower to see those words borne to fruition.
To be evangelical is to be of one heart and mind with those around you.
A week and a half into my first month in Berkeley, I was approached by a man claiming
to profess the “good news,” a true witness to the glory of God. I decided to hear
him out. His immediate question was “Are you a sinner?” And therein lies the problem.
Too often, we mistake evangelism for “converting the unclean,” “saving the unsaved.”
It comes across as if one is trying to fulfill some sort of quota for the day, not as an
attempt at connecting with another human being. If we are to be true evangels, it must
be on equal ground.
To me, being evangelical is to be of one heart and mind with the people around you.
God’s love is only as transforming as the sincerity with which we speak of it. It requires
cultivating that love within ourselves first; without it we’re no better than the man asking
whether or not you’re a sinner. Our faith isn’t something to be prized as superior to
the unease or skepticism of the average individual. Acts 4:32 stresses that “No one
claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they
had.” Let’s take that further: no one claimed that their faith was their own, but shared
what they had. Our understanding of love and scripture isn’t something to be locked
away, rather it is to be distributed freely to any who have need.
Our faith is cultivated for the sole purpose of sharing it. This doesn’t entail seizing
someone by the arm so that you might let loose the inner evangel within – not at all.
It is expressed through a genuine connection, through dialogue. It is not a sermon to be
delivered for the sake of delivering it; it is a moment in which the love and grace of God
moves within you, motivating you to converse with others on equal footing. Evangelism
gets a bad rap these days, but this needn’t be the case. Through kindness, gentleness,
and a loving solidarity with our sisters and brothers, evangelism carries the seed of its
rebirth. It’s a matter of whether or not one is willing to take the first step in cultivating it.
Prayer: In a world that strikes us as bereft of your love and gentleness, allow us
the ability to look beyond our own misgivings and be a part of your world. Grant
us the strength to understand what it means to be of one heart and mind with our
brothers and sisters in struggle, to dismantle the barriers of hate and misunderstanding.
We are truly one with you, o God, though we often don’t know it.
Amen.
Micah Love is a 3rd year/transfer student at the University of California,
Berkeley and a member ofWoodland Christian Church.
Beverly Stambaugh
Michael – of all the profound and simple thoughts, you could have not said anything other than this, and the message would have been the same:
“God’s love is only as transforming as the sincerity with which we speak of it.”
So true. God bless you (p.s., I don’t like the new coined word “evangels”
Bev