Mark
1:14-20
There
has been a lot of news about the news past year, hasn’t there? Is it real
or is it fake? Left wing or right wing; manipulated by a foreign government?
Have social media sources been checked out or not?
Don’t
know about you, but I never used to wonder about those kind of things. When
Walter Cronkite ended the evening broadcast on CBS with “and that’s
the way it is” you believed him. When he returned from Vietnam in early
1968 and told the American people that the war was un-winnable, President
Johnson decided not to run for re-election.
The
Walter Cronkite era is long gone; clearly journalistic standards are different
today. And not only that, there are so many options for how we get
the news. We are bombarded with so much information, and people can manipulate
it make it seem so palatable, enticing.
Yet
like it or not, the influence of the media is pervasive - true or not, it confirms
our prejudices and shapes our understanding. Even can apply it to
the Church. For instance, take this this statement: Episcopalians are not evangelical.
True or false? Real or fake?
The
term evangelical derives from the Greek word “euangelion” (pronounced: u-an-gel-ion)
meaning “gospel” or “good news.” Technically speaking, evangelical refers to a
person or church organization committed to the Christian message that Jesus
Christ is the savior of the world. That He has brought into the world good
news. As the Christmas carol says, “our hopes and fears of all the years are
met in thee tonight.” In other words, Love came down at Christmas, and through
that life, that death, that resurrection – that love is roaming the world even
more, accomplishing the purposes of renewal, forgiveness, reconciliation,
healing and peace. As followers of Christ we carry within us for our own lives
and in
our interactions with others that hope that belief. So in that sense all Christians
are evangelical.
However, the secular media has chosen to distinguish different types of Christians,
some are evangelical - like people who go to a certain university in
Lynchburg. While others are not. In some circles evangelical has become a
negative term!
I
would like to gently suggest that this, if not fake news, is very misleading. And
has some serious consequences. First of all it creates a false dichotomy among
different Christian groups that divides and hurts the cause of Christ;
the division between Christian Churches has been and remains a scandal.
Secondarily, if we really come to believe that some Christians are evangelical
and we aren’t, if relieves us of any responsibility to be a bearers of
the good news of Christ to others. So our Christian life becomes inwardly focused,
more interested in what goes on in here than what is going on the the
world out there. Of course Episcopalians believe in the u an gel ion!
Baptismal
covenant: Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News
of God in Christ.
So
what does it mean when Jesus says Follow me and I will make you fish for
people? For some people it does means a launching out from home and family – missionaries.
Jesus said go into all the world and they did, and they do; the
missionary movement in Christianity is rich indeed, too multifaceted and
pervasive to go into detail in this sermon. Let me mention one important
missionary evangelical movement in the Episcopal Church that started
right here in Albemarle County.
In
1888 an Englishman, Frederick William Neve, accepted the call to become
the Rector of two yoked parishes in western Albemarle County: Emmanuel Greenwood
and St. Paul’s Ivy. As Neve road his horse to get to the two parishes he
served, he discovered in the Ragged Mountains mountain people
who were poor, isolated, and uneducated. The state of Virginia, still economically
devastated after the Civil War, was unable to provide in infrastructure
to help them.
Neve
sensed a call to minister to these folks and set out to do it. In 1890 the first
mission
St. John the Baptist was built; he recruited men and women to go into
the surrounding "hollars" - to provide basic services such as schooling and
medical clinics. In 1901 one of Neve’s followers, George Mayo, started the Blue
Ridge Industrial School for boys and girls as place to provide nurture security
and vocational training.
Over
the years the mountain work grew and expanded. Eventually it spread
into surrounding Greene, Page, Madison, and Rockingham counties.
In a recent biography of Archdeacon Neve, the author stated that
when he died in 1948 at the age of 93, he and his followers had founded
30 churches, numerous missions, schools, medical stations, and a children’s
tubercular preventorium. Some of those churches in our area include
Holy Cross, Batesville; Grace, Stanardsville; Good Shepherd of the Hills
in Booneville; Grace, Red Hill; Good Shepherd, Hickory Hill. All in all, the
ministry that Archdeacon Neve began wound up touching the lives of
thousands
of people here in Central Virginia. Want to know more? Talk to David
Wayland, who served in several of the churches I have mentioned, grew
up
in the area, and is giving a talk on Feb 25th at Adult Forum here at COOS.
But
of course there are other ways to follow Christ and to be fishers of people,
to be missionaries and evangelists. We can also follow him in particular
and distinct ways that may or may not be like the first disciples. Perhaps
we follow by becoming a teacher, or volunteering at a homeless shelter.
Perhaps we follow by inviting a neighbor to church or when the time
is right, sharing our faith story with someone. Perhaps we follow by being
generous with our wealth and with our time. Perhaps we follow by welcoming
a stranger into our midst. Perhaps we follow by caring for an
aging
parent or a special needs child or fill in the blank.
The
point is whether we leave our circumstances and launch out in a new direction
or stay right where we are, there is a movement, an intentionality to
by word or deed to be a bearer of good news, treating others with the same
regard love and patience that Jesus did - especially those who were overlooked
by society.
Such
an understanding on our part is at the heart of being a Christian; being
an evangel, a bearer of the good news; of trying with the grace of God, of
course, to follow Jesus as a beloved child of God, warts and all.
So
this week, think of yourself as someone who is carrying around a gift - a gift
of good news. Be alert this week for opportunities to share it and do this,
not out of obligation, but desire; and as you do that don’t be surprised to
discover richer deeper experience of Christ, for yourself. And that, my friends, is what it means to be an evangelist, to be evangelical. Amen.
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