Somebody once said that we should share Christ at all times and speak if necessary. It is a good reminder that people read our actions more than our words. If we expect to give faithful testimony, our actions are important. However, we can give the message more effectively and with a greater likelihood that it will be understood if we speak. People are likely to start looking at our deeds with a critical eye after we say something about loving the Lord, but our words are probably what gets their attention first.

 People sometimes think they need special words or methods in order to share their faith. They may fear that they will make a theological mistake. We need to get over those concerns. Christianity is a way of living shaped by a relationship with Christ. If I am talking about life, I am talking about my life in relationship with Christ. When I speak intentionally or unintentionally about my relationship with Christ in conversation with another person I am testifying in the biblical sense. It need not be a speech, and I need not ask the other person in the conversation to concur in my faith. I simply need to speak about my faith with the same simplicity and natural words I use when speaking about cooking or the books I read.

 I have not yet reached a place where I need not work at intentional testimony. It happens more readily now than it used to, but I must still push myself sometimes. I think one of Satan’s best squelches is the contemporary habit of taking offense at everything. It is easy for me to avoid faith speech if I start to worry about offending someone. I get the idea of inviting someone to church, but as I face that person and start looking for the right moment, I get a little frisson of fear. What if it makes them angry? What if they don’t want to be friends any more? It is easier to get past that moment by reminding myself that I am who I am and I need to be honest about it. Maybe we should stop using the words “witness” or “testimony” so heavily. Maybe we should simply say that faith speech is being honest about who we are in relationship with Christ at all times.

 Faith speech is not a sermon. It is normal conversation that can take many forms. It isn’t all about converts, either. Faith speech links believers to one another just as surely as it attracts those who do not believe yet. Faith speech is part of our ministry of encouragement to one another. In fact, faith speech encourages the speaker, too. It comes in many forms.

• Would you like to visit my church with me this Sunday?
•  God loves you.
•  God bless you.
•  You are in my prayers.

 People in dressy clothes on Sunday morning in a marina attract attention. When we lived in a marina, we walked to church every Sunday morning, and later in the week we would see people who asked, “Where were you going all dressed up?” That question gave us opportunities to invite people to go to church with us. Not too many actually joined us, but occasionally someone would. People knew what we believed, and sometimes they said things like, “I know you go to church, so ….”

 After I became more intentional in faith speech, I found numerous opportunities to say, “God loves you.” The world is a troubled place, and people have problems. I am constantly amazed at the things people tell me about their problems. When they do, my first response is often, “God loves you.” I say those words, because I want to remind them that God is not the source of the problems. People say, “I think God is testing me,” and I want them to know that God is not in the business of giving us grades. God sent Christ to die for us. The God who loves us that much is not going to instigate evil in our lives. The evil comes from elsewhere, not from God. When I testify to God’s love, it often, but not always, leads to a deeper conversation.

 When I made up my mind to be more faithful in testimony, I wanted some easy way to inject faith speech into my conversation. I seized on the very common phrase, “Have a nice day.” Most cashiers say those words as the customer is leaving, and I started responding with the words, “God bless you.” I get all kinds of reactions, but many people say, “Thank you.” No matter what the reaction, I know that they get my message, which is more than just a blessing; it is a reminder, a prick, a word of love, a little surprise in the middle of the day. I think it would be wimpy to say, “God bless.” A blessing needs an object. I say, “God bless you,” and the blessing falls on the person I am speaking to.

 Sometimes the simple words, “God bless you,” lead to a lot more. I don’t say them only to cashiers. I like to say those words in parting at what seems to be the end of a conversation, and more than once the conversation has restarted with a new direction. Those simple faith words are used by the Holy Spirit for real blessing to me and others.

 Sometimes people tell me things that immediately call for prayer. When an acquaintance e-mailed me that she had been laid off from her job, I wrote back with a prayer for her in the e-mail. I don’t know what this person believes about God, but I know what God believes about her. God loves her. When I hear such news in the checkout line at the grocery store, I respond, “I will pray for you.” I pray silently right then and there that God will help this person find work that is fulfilling and pays the bills. When I get home, I add that person to my prayer journal. Maybe I will see that person again, maybe not, but I have spoken in faith, and the Holy Spirit will work with that testimony.

 There are opportunities for faith speech in all sorts of conversations. The important thing is to be completely honest. If someone says, “I don’t know how anyone believes in God any more,” I must honestly say, “Well, I do.” Someone saw me writing and asked, “What do you write about?” I answered, “I write about the Christian life.” She responded, “Oh, I’m an atheist. I don’t believe in God,” to which I replied, “That’s okay. He loves you anyway.” We don’t need to be stuffy, and we leave judgment to God. Jesus said that no matter where we go, we should never stop talking about him. Our Christian testimony is not a complicated thing. Speaking words of faith is really just living and breathing our faith.

If you saw someone shoot and kill your neighbor, you could help the police with your eyewitness report, and you could testify at the trial of the murderer. Your testimony might even help to put a murder behind bars. Sadly, nothing you could do in that process would ever bring your neighbor back to life.

 What if your testimony could bring someone to life? Would you do it?

 Every follower of Christ has a testimony that can help someone find new life in Christ. Every one of us can be witnesses to what Christ has done for us, and when we do that, we share words and deeds that may be used by the Holy Spirit to transform someone’s heart. We don’t need a degree in theology, nor do we need to be ordained to give this testimony. In fact, we don’t even need to have memorized somebody else’s testimony. We simply need to be honest and open about our relationship with Christ.

 I think we make it too hard, because we really do think we don’t know enough. I also think we fear the repercussion if someone rejects the message. These are two different problems, and we need to get over them.

 First, we do know enough. One of the easiest ways to be open about our relationship with Christ is to invite someone to church. To do that clearly testifies that Christ is part of our lives, and to invite someone to go with us ought to be as normal as to invite them to go with us to a football game or an art exhibition. We invite our friends to join us in activities we enjoy. There are many other ways to share God’s love, too. If we let God lead us, it can be as natural as talking about new babies and family reunions.

 Second, there could be repercussions, but you might be surprised how infrequently people get angry about it. I have invited people who didn’t go to church with me. I have said, “God loves you,” to people who replied that they don’t believe in God. I have never had anyone attack me, although one man did say “I guess being Lutheran is the next best thing to being a Christian.” I have never had anyone shout at me so far.

 Maybe the biggest hurdle for some people is the idea that there is a special “authorized” way to testify to our faith. There isn’t. If you doubt me, read how Jesus talked to people. He started where they were. For the woman at the well, he simply asked for a drink of water. For Zaccheus, he invited himself to dinner. When a lawyer tried to entrap him in a semantic argument, he told a story. I think our best testimony is offered when we simply speak of our faith as naturally as we speak of our children or our work. We don’t need to stress over it; we simply need to let it out.

 It is important to think about why we don’t testify more often, because it is even more important to remember why we do testify. We testify, because faithful testimony for Christ pushes back evil. We testify, because the only hope for a world full of people with broken hearts is the grace, forgiveness and transforming power of the Holy Spirit. We may not see the fruit of our testimony in many people’s lives, but we leave that work to the Holy Spirit.

 The next time you speak with someone and feel a nudge that says, “This person needs the Lord,” don’t ignore that nudge. Pay attention. Watch for the right moment to say, “Would you like to come to church with me this Sunday?” or simply say, “God loves you.” Follow the Holy Spirit’s leadership. Our world needs a lot more faith speech spread around. Jesus said that we are to be the light of the world. Some of us appear to be saving our lights for a darker night. It’s dark enough already. Let your light shine.

Jesus said that we are the salt of the earth, and he said that if salt loses its saltiness, then it is worthless. What did Jesus mean by calling his followers “salt?”

 I think he meant that we are to do what salt does.

 If I add salt to food, the flavor of the food is enhanced. The best cooks add only enough salt to bring out the flavor of the food, not so much salt that the saltiness overwhelms the flavor. Salt brings out natural flavors, much as a light reveals objects hidden by darkness.

 If we know what salt is and what it does, what does that mean for our lives in the faith? I think it means that as we go about our daily lives, we are to have an effect on the flavor of our culture.

 There is considerable evidence that we Christians have not done a very good job of flavoring our culture. One of the big lies of our day is that people love Buddhism, because it is a way of life, and they reject Christianity, because it is a system of beliefs. Jesus never suggested that his followers carry a checklist of beliefs with them and post it everywhere. While some Christians have tried to create theocracies and haul people into court for religious transgressions, Jesus did not teach us to do that. Jesus said, “If you want to be my follower, you must knock SELF off the throne of your heart, pick up the instrument of your own death and carry it with you wherever I lead you.” [my paraphrase of Luke 9:23] A system of beliefs is shaped in a theological courtroom. A way of life is shaped as we go about living selfless lives and following  Jesus. In fact, the last words of Jesus before he ascended into heaven as translated in the International Standard Version read, “as you go, disciple ….” [Matthew 28:19] In other words, “Whatever you are doing, wherever you go, keep talking about me.”

 If we are going to be the salt of the earth, then we need to be sprinkling salt around no matter where we go, no matter what we are doing. The official word for that kind of activity is “testimony.” Our testimony is often misinterpreted as a vehicle for proselytizing. If our testimony is true, then it will almost certainly attract converts, but that is not the only reason for testimony, or for being salt. We testify, because the gospel bubbles up inside and demands to be released.

 The Psalmist had the same experience we have. He said that in the presence of the wicked, he was tempted to shut up and not speak about the Lord. It didn’t work. He said, “I was silent and still; I held my peace to no avail; my distress grew worse, my heart became hot within me. While I mused, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue.” [Psalm 39:2-3] We need to speak of our faith and to act on our faith, because it is the truth and because the truth wants out. As Thomas Long said, in Testimony: Talking Ourselves into Being Christian, “We would need to talk about God to be truthful, to be whole, for life to be full.” 

 In the book of Revelation, John, the author, depicts world history in a phantasmagoria of flaming violence. His graphic imagery shows us the importance of worship and testimony. His original audience lived in a culture that worshiped human beings and imaginary gods, all represented by exquisite statuary housed in magnificent architecture. We twentieth century Christians tend to focus on the fact that the gods were fake and to forget that they were the instruments of political power. To worship the emperor was to commit oneself publicly to his agenda. Christians were not suppressed out of any fear of their faith or their God; they were suppressed because their unwillingness to worship the emperor made them political enemies.

 It is the same today. The political fear of religious expression is a fear of the way that expression impacts behavior. Our faith is a slap in the face to legalism, political sellouts, and speech deliberately crafted to hide truth.

 We Christians must resist the temptation to shut up about our faith as a polite response to cultural fear of our faith words. We must speak truth, and we must be fearless and resolute about it. I don’t suggest that we march in the streets with placards that read “The End is Near.” Rather, I suggest that just as we would freely talk about a new baby in the family or a child about to graduate from college, we talk about what God is doing in our lives. We need to reject political correctness, which is, by the way, censorship of free speech, and speak truth. We must speak and act with honesty and commitment to our faith in order to protect our right to continue doing that.

 This assertion may sound aggressive. Maybe it is. However, it is rooted in my belief that the founders of this country had it right when they wrote in the Declaration of Independence that liberty is a right given by God to every human. I believe that as a human being, God has granted me liberty to choose what I will believe. God gives me the freedom to be a Buddhist or a Muslim or an atheist or a Christian or any other form of religion or non-religion. I believe that God gives me the liberty to believe what I choose and to act on that belief insofar as it does not harm others, and I believe that when I tell the truth about what God means to me and what he does in my life, I am not harming anyone. I likewise believe that if a Muslim wants to observe Ramadan, he is not harming me. I don’t believe I should be prohibited from praying, and I don’t believe an atheist should be forced to pray. According to our founding documents, and according to the Constitution, we both have the right to free expression of our views.

 We Christians are in danger of trying to be so correct politically that we lose our saltiness. If we shut up and go underground and stop being visible in the culture, we will not add any flavor to society. We need to stop hiding. We need to practice our faith in full view of the world. Jesus told us never to stop talking about him. It is time for us to speak and live the truth in public. We need to sprinkle the salt of God’s truth all around. If we do that, maybe human society won’t leave such a bad taste in our mouths.

July 2, 2009

Aboard No Boundaries

We cruised through the C&D Canal today and into Delaware Bay. It was a very interesting trip. We arrived at the canal at a time when our forward progress was impeded by the tide, but the tidal current had subsided somewhat by the time we reached the middle of the canal. When we exited the canal, we suddenly found ourselves racing to the ocean on the back of the flow of the river combined with an ebbing tidal flow, and our speed picked up dramatically. As we entered the canal, our engine was running at 1800
RPM, close to its maximum speed, and our speed over the ground as reported via our GPS was 4.1 knots. We never changed the speed of the engine, yet as we turned into the main channel of Delaware Bay, headed for the Atlantic Ocean, we were making 7.7 knots. Our speed had almost doubled, even though we were not doing anything different. Forces completely outside our control made all the difference in our rate of speed as we tried to go forward.

Have you ever had a life experience that felt like this? Have you ever put your all into a project or a goal only to see that you had to run as fast as possible just to stay even? Do you laugh when people suggest that you just need to work harder? You are already working as hard as you can, but you aren’t getting anywhere. Your engine is already running at maximum. What is really stopping you?

I have a friend who recently started a new job. After being laid off from a job she loved, she had felt completely disoriented. Three months of praying and searching resulted in no progress she could see, even though she tried as hard as possible. She worked at least as hard searching for a job as she had ever worked for her employer, yet nothing produced even a hint of a real opportunity for her. When her severance pay ended and she faced life on unemployment checks, desperation led her to take a job that seems to have no future. Still praying, still searching, she tells me she doesn’t know how to do more. Like our engine running against the tide, she is working just as hard as ever for half the payback. She yearns to turn into the channel where her energy and her circumstances will produce progress and fulfillment. Does God not hear her prayers?

Four hundred years after their arrival in Egypt, the descendants of Jacob felt just the way my friend feels. They had originally made their home in Egypt as honored guests of the pharaoh. He specified a large section of the Nile delta for them to call home. It would be naïve for us to think pharaoh’s generosity was selfless, because when he saw Joseph’s large and prosperous family, he must have wondered if they would try to lure Joseph away. Yet the fact that he wanted Joseph’s services enough to give a large section of his country to Joseph’s relatives tells us that he honored the family. They enjoyed the favor and respect of the pharaohs for many generations.

Then we read that “a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.” There can be a lot of political change in four hundred years, and this circumstance is not surprising. There had no doubt been any number of kings between the time of Joseph and the time of Moses who would not have known Joseph. The problem arose when a new pharaoh looked at the land of Goshen and its population of wealthy shepherds and saw a threat. Talk about racism! For hundreds of years these people had bothered nobody, yet this new king began to worry about their loyalty to Egypt. He said, “Let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us.” When my friend was laid off from her job, she felt blindsided, and the Israelites must have felt the same way when they heard what the new king thought of them.

Of course, we don’t exactly know the timing of the arrival of the new king and the beginning of the oppression of the Hebrews. The Bible does not tell us that the new king appeared four  hundred years later. It could have been only two hundred years later, and the oppression could have escalated over the next two hundred years. We don’t need to know the whole timetable to know that the people were in misery. It doesn’t take long for cruelty and oppression to feel like four hundred years. Add to that the deliberate genocide mandated by the pharaoh, and every day might feel like four hundred years.

One of the most dramatic acts of oppression was to put the Israelites to making a daily quota of bricks, and then to remove their supply line, requiring them to produce the daily quota while providing their own supplies of straw. Just like our engine working as hard as it could against the tide, they worked harder than ever in order to stay even and not fall behind. They could not beat the goal set for them by working harder. More effort and more work only produced more demands.

What had the Israelites done wrong? Did God not hear their prayer?

One of our big problems with God’s promises is our inability to understand time as God sees it. We can’t even imagine seeing the world from God’s infinite and eternal perspective. What is four hundred years, or a month or a millennium to a God who lives in an eternal NOW? To say that sounds crass. It sounds as if God could not care less what happens to us.

Yet he would never have sent Jesus to die for us if that were true. How are we to interpret the fact that God almost never intervenes miraculously to prevent us from experiencing pain? Trouble? Defeat?

I think Jesus explained God’s view of time vividly in the story of the wheat and the tares. In that story, the servants, like you and me, thought the weeds needed to be removed right away. They could not bear to see those weeds crowding the good wheat. Besides, it felt like defeat for the enemy’s seeds to be allowed to mature along with the good crop. However, the master of the farm looked at the whole scene from a different perspective. He wanted every grain of wheat to have the opportunity to mature and bear fruit. He was willing to tolerate the presence of the competitor weeds in order to give the wheat its opportunity. Unlike the servants, he wasn’t willing to lose one grain of his good wheat.

We often think of the story as an explanation for the presence of evil in the world, and it is that. Yet it is also about time. We cry out, “How long, O Lord?” The Lord answers, “I will be with you till the end of time.” In other words, we need to understand that our viewpoint doesn’t give us the big picture.

Of course, the other truth is one that Job had to learn, too. God, who creates and sustains everything, is not accountable to us for his timing. We tend to believe that we can drub God with his promises to us and demand action. This attitude is complete self-worship. To expect that we can force God’s hand in order to get what we want is totally incompatible with the teaching of the Bible. If this is the right view of things, why have so many faithful Christians suffered so much at the hands of evil men?

Jesus said, “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” This is the same Jesus who said, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” When we are spinning our wheels, when we are pushing hard against immoveable barriers, when we are crushed by forces of evil, it does not mean that we have been forgotten. It does not mean that we should stop praying. Quite the contrary. When things seem very challenging, even threatening, it is time to trust God more than ever. This is the time to remember that God alone sees all the way to the harvest at the end of time. God alone will know the right moment to burn up the Enemy and all the weeds he has planted. As we are crowded and threatened by the weeds forcing themselves into our path, the weeds that scarf up the riches and the power of this world, we must remember that God is with us preserving us and making us ready for that final harvest when evil will be done away with.

On a different trip through Delaware Bay, we were traveling upstream at the time of tidal ebb. This meant that our engine at 1800 RPM could only make a speed of 1.2 knots over ground. That speed is even less than the 4.1 knots we made in the C&D Canal. There are life experiences that feel that way, and if we do not trust that God is with us and still in control, such experiences will lead us to despair. The book of Revelation reminds us that when the forces of evil rage their loudest, that is the time for us to testify as the apostle Paul wrote, “For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher, and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him.” [2 Timothy 1:11-12] Paul accepted the responsibility to do the work God had given him, he accepted the fact that he was resisted on every hand by evil, and he spoke his testimony of trust in God alone to bring about the accomplishments God had in mind. Our faithful testimony is part of God’s arsenal of weapons against evil in the eternal perspective. When we feel most stymied, when we sense that forces beyond our control are impeding our progress in the work the Lord has given us to do, that is the time to say, “I know that I am blessed, for I am persecuted because of the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Does God need to orchestrate tragedy in order to bring good to pass? A lot of people think he does exactly that. I have heard any number of people accuse God of preparing tragedy in their lives as “tests” or as lesson plans for their instruction. It might even be possible to interpret the book of Revelation that way.

 The book of Revelation records a vision of an effort by humans to “fix” the world without any help from God, and it records some unspeakably horrific tragedies. The narrative of Revelation pulls back the curtain behind the events we see and touch to show us things we do not normally see and touch. It pierces the barrier between time and eternity, between the finite and the infinite, between the temporary reality we can weigh and measure and the eternal reality not subject to us. In Revelation we see our present reality played out against a backdrop of warfare between God and Satan, between pure good and pure evil. In this captivating story, God continually tries to get the attention of people who have been deluded by Satan, calling them to a relationship with Him which will save them from the clutches of Satan’s demonic plans for them. People don’t want anything to do with God, because they want to do it all themselves. They try personal empowerment, they try big government, and they try all sorts of twists on religion. They try anything but a relationship with God. No matter what is going on, the people who love and serve God appear to be in a minority, always under threat as enemies of the earthly powers, treated like traitors to the human hegemony.

 In the midst of the murder and mayhem of this vision, there is a pause. The pause is about prayer. The prayers and the testimony of believers rise up to the throne of God like incense and everything stops. It is a powerful image of the significance of the testimony and prayer of the faithful. It is an image that reinforces our understanding of the value of humans to God. Everything stops while God receives and rejoices in the prayer and testimony of his redeemed children.

Revelation makes it clear that God need not orchestrate terror in order for there to be terror. Christians need not wait for God to plan tragedy in their lives, because it is coming. The power of Satan working behind the scenes, acting through people who have rejected God, is guaranteed to produce plenty of tragedy on the earth for everyone to share. Christians will always have opportunity to grow in faith under duress without God applying the duress. Yet the additional message of Revelation is that no matter how horrifying the duress, people will continue to turn away from God.

The more important lesson for Christians under duress, however, is this: God wins. When we cling to God in terror at all that is around us, we are clinging to the Alpha and Omega who transcends all the terror. God wins. When we pray and testify and listen to the voice of the indwelling Holy Spirit, we are doing the only thing that will ever have any impact on the situation. Throughout the book of Revelation, the action stops only as the prayers of the saints rise up to the throne of God.

When I gather with my congregation on a Wednesday evening for communion by candlelight, I see a living image of the way our faithful testimony and prayer work to push back the darkness around us. Light a candle in a dark room, and the darkness cannot squelch it. In this image, I see our prayer and testimony to God pushing back evil. In the gathering of fellow believers our faith is nourished and replenished. We come into the light, we share the body and blood of the Lamb, and we testify to what he has done for us.

The world I live in today is certainly full of frightening and depressing news. It isn’t the worst of all times, but it certainly isn’t the best, either. I worry about the freedom and prosperity of my children and my grandchildren. I often feel helpless as I contend with my own drive to fix everything myself. I can’t do it. There is only one thing I can do that will have any value in the larger scheme of things. I can pray to the Eternal and Infinite God, and I can testify to the power of the Lamb in my own life. I can’t slay the Great Dragon, but I can push him back just a little every time I pray and testify. That is how I will handle the disasters in my life until time ends and God wins.