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There is an impression among many people that Jesus is losing ground. 

Sharing Faith: How - Mark 5: 18-20; Luke 10: 25-37 - February 6, 2011- Cicero United
Methodist Church - Everett J. Bassett

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            There is an impression among many people that Jesus is losing ground. It's certainly easy to feel that way in a mainline denomination like The United Methodist Church, where the
numbers don't look good. In 1959, The Methodist Church in the United States had over 10
million members. Today we have less than 8 million. Two million members less in fifty years.
Many other denominations have similar stories. The numbers aren't encouraging.

            But it's more than numbers. Many of us feel something in our bones. We've seen massive
changes in our lifetimes. When I was in grade school, I was taught the 23rd Psalm by memory-
but not in Sunday School, in public school. We learned about faith there. We prayed in school.
We talked about our churches. There were conversations in Junior High about what we did in
youth group that weekend in our various churches. And Sunday mornings were for worship-
stores were not open, school activities were unthinkable. This has all changed. We are a secular society now. Kids are busy on Sundays. A good number of our membership work on Sunday morning. The church no longer seems to have a primary place in the shaping of society.

            And all of this takes place in a much more diverse situation. Again, many of us grew up with a sense of uniformity - we lived in a Christian cocoon, in a Christian nation, and a sense that
everyone around us believed generally the same thing we did about God. But now many other
voices are speaking loudly in our society - the voice of militant atheists, the voice of secular humanists, the voice of scientific agnostics, of New Age spiritualists, of rapidly growing Islam
and other faiths - it is a religious smorgasbord, with all kinds of possibilities to claim our religious - or non-religious -- loyalties.

            And one way for Christian people to interpret all this change is that the bottom is falling out. Christian faith is losing ground, and society is heading South in a hand basket. That is, in fact, the response of many Christians. They are circling the wagons, even lashing out in fear. There is a feeling of desperation behind some of the Christian voices you hear today. And,
unfortunately, there are always preachers and teachers who will take advantage of that climate
of fear for their own gain. I have been astonished how easily we Christians feel threatened by
conspiracy theories and rumors of disaster, as if the sky is always ready to fall.

            Thank God there is another way to respond to all the changes in society's view of faith. And that is to claim our place as Easter people - people who believe in the power of God's love. We don't have to cringe in fear of new ideas, or new neighbors, because we believe that there is a
love that is more powerful than any other force on earth, a forgiveness that is bigger than any
human wrongdoing, and a Savior who promises to wrap us in grace forever.

            The thing is, all of that change we're experiencing - the secularization, the many voices, the religious ferment, the multitude of spiritualities - sounds a great deal like another time in the
history of the Christian movement - it sounds like the first days of the church in the Bible. The
early church was a minority voice surrounded by every kind of superstition, intellectualism, and
spirituality. It was a daunting, confusing time to be proposing a new faith. Yet if we read the
Book of Acts or the letters of Paul in the Bible, it was a powerful time for the Christian message,
because God was still God, and people were drawn to Jesus, and the Holy Spirit was a dynamic
messenger of love. And the instrument that God used to bring hope and joy into the lives of
searching people was this small, empowered group of people whose lives had been changed by
grace, and who had a story of Easter faith that they needed to share, or it would burn inside
them. And that combination of a powerful God, a loving Savior, a moving Spirit, and a
passionate group of witnesses changed the world. It's why you and I are here this morning.

            And it's why these are exciting times. No matter how sophisticated and self-sufficient and
secular the world seems to be, nothing changes the fact that people are spiritually hungry, and.
Jesus brought the Bread of life. That's still the most powerful message in the world.

            In March of 2008, the Barna Group, the leading research group on religious practices, reported that at any given time, 38% of American adults did not attend any religious service in
the last month. And, says the report, those 38% are much more likely to report that they are stressed out, that they are less likely to believe that they are making a positive difference in the
world, that they are much less satisfied about their lives, and much less optimistic about the
future. In other words, there are literally millions of people around us who are keeping no faith-connection, and, not coincidentally, are finding little fulfillment or hope in life. Who are spiritually hungry. And we see it all the time. People turning to all kinds of things to fill the
deep, haunting need they feel inside them. We live in a society that specializes in creating hunger. You can have it all. You deserve it all. But what we discover is that there is no material
thing, no emotional high, no person or relationship, no ideology or government - that can fill all
that need. It is a spiritual hunger, and only God can fill it. And we meet here today standing in
a long line of people who have found a way to spiritual peace in following Jesus Christ. I believe
that solution to spiritual hunger is just as strong and just as relevant as ever - even though
society's attitudes toward it is always changing. Jesus is still the Bread of life, and people are
still hungry. We just need to talk more about how to get the word out.

            As Jack shared last week, our Bishop Matthews has challenged every United Methodist in our Conference to bring someone to Christ in 2011. As Jack also shared, our own reflection
here at Cicero is that that is not the best way for us to say it. What we can do, each of us, is to
bring Christ to somebody. We can carry the message. We can share the love. We can witness

to the amazing grace that led Christ to the cross for our sins, and honestly and humbly share
the story of what God has done for us.

            The question for today is, how do we do that? We all have troubling images of evangelists - people knocking on doors and refusing to leave; people shouting damnation on streets corners; threatening to burn the Qu'ran, or holding up offensive posters in the name of Christ. Is that how you share faith? I don't believe it. It seems to me that sharing faith is something that is much more natural and personal than that. It is simply telling -- in words or in actions - what God has done for you, and offering that story respectfully as a gift to somebody else.

            And our two scripture stories lift up two people who were very good at bringing Christ to
others. Neither one of them is famous, at least by name. Neither one of them is a professional
preacher or evangelist. They were simply people who had Good News to share, and each did it
in his own way, in his own particular situation.

            The first was a man who had been possessed by terrible demons, and Jesus drove the
demons out, giving the man a whole new life. And in the part of the story we read today, Jesus
is getting into his boat to leave, and the overjoyed man begs Jesus to let him come along. But
Jesus says, "Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you ..."

And the man goes to tell his story, and everyone is amazed. And that man's example may be
Jesus' way of telling us that our faith isn't going to grow by just sitting at Jesus' feet, or going off
somewhere to be apart, as important as that can be. Our faith is going to grow as we share
what God has done for us. As we tell the stories of faith.

            But it's important to clarify that the story is told in many different ways, and many of those don't involve words. You may not run up to your boss tomorrow and say, "Jesus spoke to me." But maybe people will know it in the way you treat them, and how you go about living your life. And that's the witness of the second scripture this morning - the one we know so well about
who the true neighbor is - the Good Samaritan who stopped to help the man in need, gave of
his own water and time and convenience to save another, and then went beyond the call of
duty in extravagant ways to show the extent of love. That was sharing the story as well.

            Both of these ways of sharing the story of love are essential. We can't just say about our
Christian witness, liMy life will speak for itself." Because sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes the
person closest to us, or even the hurting stranger we just met, need to hear the words that
explain why God is important to us. But the opposite is true, too - if all we have is words about
God, and no action behind it, then the words are pretty much dead.

            The thing is, both the healed man and the Good Samaritan were doing what was natural and right in the situation. The man in the first scripture had an amazing experience - God had taken away his demons, and given him a new life. And when something like that happens, you've got to tell somebody. Because other people are struggling, too, and you wouldn't hold food back
from a starving person. And the Good Samaritan was doing what was right and natural to help
a neighbor who had been beat up by life.

            There are in this world people who are telling the story of love in beautiful way. There was a retired man named Carl who took it upon himself to water the plants in ~ tiny park in a rough neighborhood. Three youth came along on a hot day, and he offered them some water from the hose. Instead, they roughed him up, took his wallet, and ran away laughing. A few days
later, he was there again, watering the flowers when the youths came by. They looked at each
other a moment, and then Carl lifted up the hose and warily offered them another drink. This
time they grabbed the hose, sprayed him with it, and ran away laughing. But the next day, one
of the young men came back, and he had a bag with Carl's wallet in it. He returned it to Carl,
and then wordlessly took the hose and helped to water the flowers. Years later, the young man
would tell how Carl, without saying a word, told him the story of Jesus.

            Another time it was words. It was a woman who had a series of setbacks, and sank to a time of seriously low self-esteem; and a friend consistently said to her, "God made you, and that's  beautiful." And that message in loving words became her lifeline. Another time it was a church usher who greeted people with a handshake and a smile, and who doesn't know that when a little girl spotted him in the mall she whispered excitedly to her mother, "Look, Mom! There's
the man who's always happy to see me!" Another time it was a guilt-ridden youth who began
to see things differently because an aunt said to him, "Jesus died for us, and our sins are
forgiven." Every one of us has some way to bring Jesus to somebody this week.

            In a great old comedy movie, Groucho and Chico Marx got a telegram. They were so excited - they had never got a telegram before. It must be something very important. So they tore it open, and it said, "No message, Harpo." There are a lot of voices out there today that stir up a
lot of excitement for a while, but have no real message. But the story of God's love coming into
this world through Jesus Christ, and continuing on in the Holy Spirit - that's a story that is still
unfolding, still powerful, still life-giving. It has touched your life and mine - and in this hurting
world, thank God, we have a message. Let's share it.