Sermons by Bishop Paul V. Marshall
Pentecost Sermon
To Convert, To Proclaim, To Witness - What is the Difference?
Bishop Paul V. Marshall
Cathedral Church of the Nativity, June 11, 2000[God's presence and power are available to those who lay down enough of their intensity or timidity to become receptive... Put the word "witness" where you usually use the word "convert," and see what is different inside you and in the communication...]
It is so good to greet you on Pentecost, the seal on the great fifty days of our Easter celebration. However, I must also acknowledge that this is a very busy weekend for Nativity. You have set a very high standard in terms of hospitality and the art of the quick change. I am profoundly grateful for the grace and flexibility with which Nativity hosted the Diocesan Convention, and look forward very much to the concert this afternoon.
In the center of all that is happening, however, we have the feast of Pentecost, and celebrate the feast this morning with brothers and sisters who are taking new steps in their life in Christ.
Pentecost is the day when we remember that the risen Christ continues to live in the Church through the power of God's Holy Spirit. Whenever we get too precise about what those words mean, we immediately tie ourselves in knots; and, frustrating as that is, I think there is purpose here. God's presence and power are available to those who lay down enough of their intensity or timidity to become receptive. In the story from Acts that we just read, it was to the devout, the ones open to God, that the miracle happened. They heard in their own languages. For most of us who work with words, and I certainly include myself, this is a particularly important reminder. The Spirit comes to those who lay themselves open to it.
I am intrigued as I consider those few words in our lesson, that everyone "heard in their own language" the marvelous deeds of God in Jesus Christ. What does it mean to us to speak words that people can hear when they need to hear them? It's the oldest and most worn-out story most of us know, the one about the spouse who says, "You never tell me that you love me anymore," only to be answered, "I told you that I loved you when we got married in 1965, and if I change my mind, I'll let you know." It's old, but it makes the point: communication means expressing a message in a way people can receive and at a time when they can receive it.
One of the interesting things I have learned in the transition from academic word warrior to pastor of a diocese is the necessity of saying what one sees as the truth in words that other people can hear. I am beginning to learn that when I feel the urge to lecture coming on the best thing to do is take three Tylenol, a caffeine-free diet Pepsi, and lie down until the urge to let them have it passes. Nonetheless, I stand amazed at the number of people in the world, and sadly we always have a few in religious circles, who think that the best way to convince others of what they are saying is to insult them.
I think that we can admit that we have done the same at one time or another, from giving a mild rebuff on one hand, to offering those stinging rebukes that only those who love each other dearly for many years have the ammunition and carelessness to spew and regret. The unacknowledged need to punish, to vanquish, or to control, can ruin the communication of very important messages.
When Jesus speaks of the power of the Holy Spirit, he uses concepts like comforter, companion, advocate. He speaks of Spirit-given power as enlightening and even as the power to forgive sins. It is not clear that we have always gotten the message.
I think where we get into trouble both in the ordinary secular sense and in the sense of advancing religious truth is that the sense of "converting" someone is often an act of domination. "To convert" people, as a description of what Christians are to do, is not an expression you will find anywhere in the Bible. I think I know why. The satisfaction that comes from getting people to submit to our way of thinking, especially after a long tussle, is very high on the list of human pleasures. I have heard speeches, religious and secular, that were really acts of bullying thinly disguised as the communication of values. I have never quite recovered from hearing the parents who lost a child to crib death being told for 45 minutes that if they wanted to see that child again, they should clean up their act and get right with God.
Some bullying is not as direct, though. Did you ever find yourself discussing in a general way before a group of people something that you would have taken up with an individual if only you had more courage? This is a particular sin of preachers and teachers, but it happens in family groups and business meetings, too. There is no feeling quite like a public "gottcha," especially when the victim does not have the power to respond.
If going out with hammer and tongue, as it were, to change other people's minds is not the model of communicating in God's Spirit, what is?
The two biblical words that I like are "proclaim" and "witness." One is entirely objective, "to proclaim." We can set out Good News in a way that does not have a personal spin on it, just tell it like it is, and let what happens happen. This is what Jesus is trying to get across when he talks about the word falling on good soil, rocky soil, and so on. Sometimes in life it is our job to simply say what we believe is the truth, and let God worry about the rest. Being a parent would have been a lot easier for me if I had given this idea a good deal of thought.
But there is another biblical idea about communication that I want to look at, especially with those of you who are taking new steps in your life in Christ today, and that is the word "witness." The word witness is a translation of the word "martyr." That word brings ups scary images: Christians being fed to wild animals, killed by gladiators, roasted alive over slow fires, used as living torches... and so on.
It is very important that we remember those people who witnessed to their faith by how they died, or why they died, and some other time we need to focus on that. The concern here is how we live. What I am asking this morning is that we put the word "witness" where we usually use the word "convert," and see what is different inside us and in the communication.
When we try to convert people, the unspoken theme is "I'm right, you're wrong," and "you should" do this or that. This is where divorce, co-dependency and warping our children often start. Like a lot of people at my time of life, I'm not especially proud of my parenting; but I do think one important thing I did with my kids was apologize to them when I saw that I was wrong. I hope they will live without thinking that being wrong is the end of the world.
When we witness, we share what we have seen God do or what actually works in our lives, and do it just as graciously and generously as we set a table with our best cooking for guests to eat. Witnessing is gentle, is focused on nurture rather than domination. Witnessing is calm because it comes from the one thing on which any of us can speak with authority, that which God has worked in us, what has been given to us. Witness is presence with people, not coming at them. In the context of witness, powerful words can be said. Any of you familiar with the various 12-step programs know that they work because the principle of witness is used precisely where we would normally reach for a fire axe.
In a few minutes we will all renew our promise to witness by word and example to the good news of God in Christ. What I've been up to in talking this morning is to suggest that our lives and our attitudes speak volumes, and that, knowing that our lives and attitudes speak volumes, we try to find ways of saying what we believe most deeply in ways that share our joy in and passion for God, and sincerely invite others to that feast.
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