The Park Road Pulpit

  Sermons from Park Road Baptist Church    

      Russ and Amy Jacks Dean, Pastors

Show and Don’t Tell

Matthew 4.12-23

Amy Jacks Dean, January 27, 2002

            Friday’s are our favorite day of the week. One reason is that it is our day off. Our weekends are Friday/Saturday as opposed to Saturday/Sunday, and though I must confess that there are many Fridays that we do work, they still have a feel to them that is a little more casual and laid-back. In my ideal world – the world where I would receive “Mother of the Week” award each and every week – I would work diligently from Sunday-Thursday, then Friday and Saturday would be family days. We would sleep late and work around the house with chores and projects. We would play outside and eat three meals in our own home around our own kitchen table, and we would be able to do this without the help of PaPa John’s. We would work puzzles and read books and play games. Yes, Friday, in my ideal week, where I would win “Mother of the Week” Award each and every week would be a great “stay home day” for our family – enjoying the freedom of these pre-K years. But our sons will have none of that! They want to go to school on Friday. Every single morning, we awaken to the question “What is today’s day?” If it is not Friday, then they want to know “How many days until Friday?” You see, Friday is “Show and Tell” Day. Bennett has Show and Tell in the morning circle time. But Jackson has “Show and Tell” after nap and snack. If I arrive too early – before Show and Tell – it is a bad scene. There have been Fridays when I had to sit through 18 Show and Tells before we could leave. The most important part of Show and Tell is, of course, primarily self-centered. When you get to stand up before your classmates and show them your treasure and tell them all about it – it is must indeed a wonderful moment. But running a close second is to see and hear all about your friends’ treasures. “Show and Tell” is about the best thing going for a 3 and a 5 year old. It takes us a whole week to select the perfect presentation. It’s got to be both aesthetically pleasing and it’s got to have a good story. You’ve got to be prepared. There may be questions from the crowd. Indeed Fridays are wonderful days. We’ll come back to this in a moment.

            Last week, our text led me to reclaim a word that many of us had left behind – “salvation.” I redefined salvation and spoke of this new definition in terms of “to make wide” or “to make sufficient.” Based on the feedback from many of you, I have gathered that you have found these thoughts to be very helpful in better understanding your own faith journey (and if not helpful, at least you found it “interesting”!) In preparing last week’s sermon, I had honestly not looked ahead to this week’s text. Imagine my surprise when I read our gospel reading for this week from Matthew and realized that I would have another word to both reclaim and redefine for this week: Evangelism.

Today’s gospel lesson is situated in an interesting place. Matthew has the calling of the first disciples nestled between Jesus being tempted in the desert and the Sermon on the Mount. The story goes, as it is read from Matthew’s perspective, that Jesus was as alone as he would ever be – and out of this loneliness comes a desire to bring a few folks along who would become his friends. These friends walked with him and stayed close to him among the large crowds that were beginning to follow. And as those crowds grew, the story was told that Jesus delivered a sermon that was memorable to say the least.

            From Matthew’s telling, Jesus transitioned from being alone to having a massive following by saying two simple words to a few people: Follow me. And without a word, those fishermen left their nets and followed him. In Matthew’s story, these men have never seen Jesus before, they have not witnessed any miracles, and they have not heard any of his teachings. Nothing was explained to them. They were not told why they should follow Jesus, what following him will mean, or where the path will lead them. One commentator suggests, “We are met here with Jesus’ first miracle, the miracle of his powerful word that creates following, that makes disciples.” (New Interpreter’s, Vol VIII, page 169) That is more miraculous than healing of any sick or calming of any storm. Miracles are when people actually follow.

Thus far in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus has spoken only brief commands with authority and his following was growing. Jesus stepped intrusively and disruptively into the lives of four men, and he called them not to admire him or to accept his principles, not even to accept him as a personal Savior, but he asked them simply to follow. A reasonable response would have been “Where are you going?” (New Interpreter’s, page 170) They must have somehow understood that the destination was not nearly as important as the journey. Therefore they were willing to walk in the Way.

            Last week I told you about missionaries that would speak at my home church to raise money so that they could return to the mission field. I told you about the lump in my throat that I would always get as they spoke their heartfelt conviction that the world – every single person in it – needed to hear about Jesus. The world needed to be evangelized – the gospel needed to be spread and the whole purpose of my life and your life was to tell people about Jesus. That was my old definition of evangelism. A “Show and Tell” as it were. Show people the Bible and tell them about Jesus and then the rest was up to them. My work, at least was finished. I was then guilt free.

            Today I’d like to offer an alternative definition of evangelism, based on the model that Jesus himself set – Show and Don’t Tell. The old adage “actions speak louder than words” are appropriate and true in this case. Evangelism is the spreading of the Gospel which is literally “good news.” And though there may be times when it feels that only words can express our faith, I challenge us all to find another way. There is no way that our words can convey our faith. To the contrary, for generations, words have confused and even driven away many. Words could never adequately express what I believe. For you see, each and every day, I work out my salvation. Every day, I have a new question. Every day I’m confronted with a new thought. Every day I am stumped. There is no way I could tell you about it and be sure that you would understand, much less want to believe yourself.

To be sure, this is a difficult pill to swallow for the preacher. In many ways, we make our living primarily with words – whether written or spoken. But we should all be aware that it is the unspoken that speaks the loudest.

            In her chapter on Evangelism in the book Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith, Kathleen Norris has this to say: One day when she was preaching in her church in the absence of the pastor, she said “I thanked the congregation for not using such heavy-handed tactics on me when I first began attending church. They had respected the mystery of faith – it’s like a marriage, in that only the two parties involved really know what is going on – and had pretty much left me alone to work out my relationship with God, and with them. I came back to church in fits and starts, and if I was missing in action for a while, they did not send out an `Outreach Committee’ to my door. Maybe some of them wondered what was going on, while others knew that I was engaged in studying with the pastors. But no one pressured me. And I am most grateful. The people in the congregation did evangelize in another sense, by saying and doing things they probably don’t remember. Most likely they didn’t think of it as `evangelizing’ – the name of Jesus, for example, may not have come up – but little things they said or did revealed their faith in healthy and appealing ways. Something about the way they lived their faith – or even failed to live it, failings I could recognize in myself – convinced me to throw in my lot with them and join the church.” (page 301)

            Oh that’s evangelism that I’m good at – knowing that when I am both a success and a failure in following Jesus – that I am drawing people into this journey called faith – that makes me want to evangelize the world. The object of evangelism has thus changed from telling people about Jesus to showing them about abundant life. It’s about clearing a path that is wide to offer, perhaps a word of hope, and then being there as a representative of God’s abiding presence. With the old definition of evangelism, one could get the job done in minutes. This new definition will require a lifetime.

Kathleen Norris goes on to say, “In my sermon on that summer Sunday I reminded the congregation that people making their way back to the church, as I had done, often felt helpless, at the center of a storm. And while it might be tempting to jump in and steer them toward calmer seas, it also might be just the wrong thing to do. It can be difficult for some Christians – those whose faith has remained relatively stable for many years – to realize that others must struggle for it, fight through doubts and fears, come up with their own answers to the question that Jesus poses in [Mark’s] gospel story: `Why are you afraid, have you still no faith?’ (Mark 4:40) (page 302) Evangelism is a Show and Don’t Tell kind of way.

These men who made their living fishing didn’t fish the way I did growing up. I had a cane pole, and an earthworm, and a cork. I presented the worm to the fish, and I waited and waited and waited. These fishermen used nets. They stood on the shore or in the boat and, with strenuous labor, they threw the net out and pulled it back in, and then with all their might, they threw the net out and pulled it back in – and they did this all day. So when Jesus said, “I’ll make you fish for people,” they understood that this would not be plucking one by one with a simple one-time message. They knew this would be strenuous labor that was constant – always standing along side tossing themselves out to all people and pulling them back in. They knew this would take a life time.

One more thing about Friday’s Show and Tell in our family: when Bennett, who is 3, finally reached the class where Fridays’ Show and Tell were a big deal, he didn’t quite get it. The first Friday he decided to take Jack, his stuffed dog and best friend.  All went well, and the next Friday, he said he would take Jack again. We tried to explain that he had already taken Jack. His friends had already met Jack. They already knew all about Jack. But nothing could persuade him otherwise, he was taking Jack again. This went on for more than 2 months. Each and every Friday, Bennett would take Jack for Show and Tell. We found this humorous and even cute. I wonder what he said, week after week, about this same brown and now-dingy white dog. Was there anything new to see? and was there anything new to tell? My guess is no. After weeks of dragging that dog to Show and Tell, my guess is that words about Jack became less and less. My guess is that his 3 year old friends came to love Jack – to feel like they knew Jack – without Bennett ever having to say a word. My guess is that Show and Tell, for Bennett and Jack, became “Show and Don’t Tell” and everybody understood.

            I pray that it would be that simple for me. May it be so for you as well.