Sharing comes naturally to many of us. For example, when I read a really good book, I look forward to telling a good friend who also loves to read. When I discover a good recipe, I love to share it with another friend who enjoys cooking. When I discover a wonderful new restaurant, I love to invite a friend to try out some of the interesting dishes on the menu.
And, when I am off on vacation and see wonderful things, whether it is poppies in Tuscany or a sunset in the Texas hill country, I cannot be silent; I am compelled to share my excitement
with those around me. Why is that? Because I don’t want them to miss out; I want them to
share what I have discovered. I care about them, and I want them to experience the joy I have experienced in these things.
For this same reason, I should want to introduce others to Jesus Christ, to share the good
news of his grace and the abundant life here and now that he offers in a relationship with him.
But I don’t do this as often, or with the same enthusiasm, as recommending a good book. So I
ask myself, why not?
We would all agree that we live in a world in which people need God. As Christians we are called
to live in truth and speak truth in the world in which we live, and that includes authentic God talk. Although talking about God within the confines of our church building or in a fellow Christian’s
home seems natural enough, authentic God talk at lunch with a colleague, or with a carpool mom,
or the soccer coach seems….well…seems awkward.
Yet this is how Jesus made disciples, out in the real working world of everyday life. He engaged fishermen at their nets, tax collectors at their desks (and one in a tree), another resting under a
tree, and yet another drawing water from a well. He reached out to Pharisees and tax collectors
over meals in their homes, and others in the places he found them every day.
Some might say that the Church should consider returning to the basic mandate of going out to
make disciples rather than trying to lure them into a church building. Jesus commanded his
disciples in Matthew to “go and make disciples.” Go means go to Haiti, but also go to those in the
office buildings downtown, and those gathered at the West University soccer game.
Go means go to Mexico, but also to go to those at the Rotary Club meeting on Tuesday night,
and go to those who are parents on the school committee. And go means go to the immigrants
living and working around us in Houston, the students on the campuses nearby, those who are
ill and their families in the medical center, the young people on the streets at night in Sharpstown,
the homeless near I-59, and the often troubled, albeit affluent, families who live all around us…
and also, to all nations. The beginning, however, should be with those we meet every day, those
at work, in our neighborhoods, the families of our children’s friends, and our friends and families.
In Thomas Long’s book Testimony he uses the story of the loaves and fishes to demonstrate that none of us has the power to feed other people with our testimony any more than we have the power to feed people with a few loaves and fishes. Our “loaves and fishes” are our honest account to others of our own personal experience with God, which God then takes and makes not only sufficient, but abundant. We speak with humility and confidence, because we know that our experience is a part of God’s work of love for the world.
Sometimes I am reluctant to share this glorious truth with others, because I tend to think of it as me telling others what I believe and trying to persuade them to agree with these beliefs. Instead, if I simply talk about my own personal experience with Christ, knowing that what I say is true, then I am offering a gift, one that is needed by that person. In this way, I can be free from concern that what I say and how I say it is only right if the other person is persuaded by it.
I am compelled to speak because I see God at work in life all around me and in my life; my desire is to share that joy, to do something for others so that they too can experience this, and I should do so expecting to be amazed at what God can do with what I give -- my own few fishes and loaves.
