“To devote themselves to the ministry of Christ among those who do not know Him, utilizing the gifts that the Holy Spirit gives them, for the effective extension of Christ’s Kingdom”

And so we come this morning to the last of the ten duties that our Church – The Anglican Church in North America, by way of our association with it through the Reformed Episcopal Church – expects all it members to willingly and enthusiastically practice as those who count themselves faithful Anglicans. They’re the “club rules,” so to speak, that we’ve all agreed to play by, by our choice in becoming members of this church.

So what again is that tenth and final duty? It is that every member of the church is expected “To devote themselves to the ministry of Christ among those who do not know Him, utilizing the gifts that the Holy Spirit gives them, for the effective extension of Christ’s Kingdom” In short, it is the duty of being an active part of the greater mission of the Church to build the Kingdom by reaching the lost for Christ. It’s the duty of mission, or evangelism.

You know, there’s the story of a vestryman who was passing the plate at a missionary rally and who came to a man who refused put anything into it. “I don’t believe in missions,” he said to the vestryman, to which the vestryman replied, “Take some then; it’s for the heathen.”

There is a real sense in which that vestryman was right. It is a heathen thing to declare yourself to be against missions. It cuts against the basic spiritual DNA of the Christian to not be willing

“to work and pray and give for the spread of [Christ’s] kingdom,” as the Prayerbook tells us is the bounden duty of every member of the Church. A resolution adopted by the Lambeth Council of 1958 put it as straightforwardly as this: “The world-wide task of evangelism is not an ‘optional extra.’ It is the high calling of every disciple.”

Why is that true? Why is evangelism not an optional extra but part of the very spiritual DNA of the Christian? Because the Holy Spirit has made it part of our DNA by remaking us in the image of Christ. It’s not an optional extra, because if we are truly Christians, Christ is living within us. And if Christ is living within us, He’s going to do what He does, and He’s going to do it through us. As a matter of fact, that was His plan from the beginning. I think Philip Yancey said it best: “All along he had planned to depart in order to carry on his work in other bodies. [His disciples’] bodies. Our bodies. The new body of Christ” (The Jesus I Never Knew, p. 228). And I love this quote by Canadian Catholic leader Henri Lemay. He says, “Jesus fulfills His mission through us, His body, the Church. The Church has no other mission than the one given by God to Jesus. Every member of the Church has no other mission than a part in the one given by God to Jesus.”

You see, that’s true because the Church is Christ’s continued incarnation in the world. And every member of the Church is part of that continued incarnation. What that means is that we are now the primary way Christ makes Himself present to people in this world - as we encounter them at work, or as we talk with them in the neighborhood, or we see them in the coffee shop, or walking down the street. In a very real sense, you and I are now to be Christ to these people, “because,” as St. John says, “as He is, so are we in this world” (1 Jn. 4:17).

That’s why the canon says – I think very powerfully – that it is our duty to devote ourselves to the ministry of Christ among those who do not know Him. It’s His ministry that we’re to devote ourselves to. It’s His mission that we are to seek to accomplish, because we are His body and His continued presence.

But again, what is Jesus’ ministry and mission? “I came…to save the world,” he said (Jn. 12:47). Jesus’ mission is nothing less than the salvation of the world; it’s nothing less that the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham, that in Him all the families of the earth would be blessed. That’s somewhat mind-boggling, isn’t it? But, you see, because we are His body and His presence, that’s now our mission. He said, “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost (Lk. 19:10). That’s now our ministry. “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly (Jn. 10:10). That’s now our purpose. “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Mt. 9:13). That’s our great commission.

You know, the amazing thing about Jesus’ ministry is that wherever He went He issued an uncompromising call to repentance: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Mt. 4:17); “Go and sin no more” (Jn. 8:11). And yet, sinners still flocked to Him. I think we often think that if we go out and call sinners to repentance all we’re going to do is chase them away. And we may see a few elbows and heals. But it won’t be from the type of people Jesus sought out and ministered to. I like what C. S. Lewis says. He says, “Prostitutes are in no danger of finding their present life so satisfactory that they cannot turn to God: the proud, the avaricious, the self-righteous, are in that danger.” Perhaps prostitutes, and tax collectors, and other notorious sinners responded to Jesus so readily because they knew they were sinners, and He alone had the words of forgiveness and healing. But who is it that we seek to bring to Church most often? Those notorious sinners, or just other Christians?

Now we can’t always judge who those notorious sinners are, or who might be ready to hear the call to repentance and the good news of God’s forgiveness, by their jobs or by the way they look. It might be the rich banker who’s ready, because he’s finally hit rock-bottom because of his secret coke addiction. It might be the lonely housewife in the respectable neighborhood, because of the guilt she’s suffering over the affair she got herself caught up in. It might be the doctor or the lawyer or the soccer mom or the Nascar dad, because a relationship has fallen apart, or because they’re trapped in pornography, or because they’re just struggling with the meaning of life.

So I’ve been asked, “How do we know who it is we need to share the Gospel with, or who is ready to hear it?”

Well, we can only know by knowing them. It’s as simple as that. And how do you get to know someone? How do get to know what’s in a person’s heart. You have to be with them. You have to establish a relationship with them. You have to open your heart to them. And when they see what is in your heart – the Lord Jesus Christ, and the transforming power of his grace – then they will tell you that they’re ready to hear and receive what you have. You see, sharing the Gospel with someone is as much, or more, about sharing your life with them, as it is about sharing your words. So in those famous words of St. Francis, “Preach the Gospel all the time; if necessary use words.” He means preach it with your life. Show the Gospel in your life. Demonstrate the power of the Gospel to change lives.

There will, however, be a time when it does become necessary to use words. St. Paul asks, “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?” (Rom. 10:14). You see, you can preach the gospel only so much with your life. You can only show the effect of Christ being in your life. And you have to be able to show them that, or your words mean a hill of beans. But you can only tell them what Christ did for you and for them, by dying on a cross and by rising from the dead and giving the promise of eternal life, by your words. They can’t learn that simply by observation. They can’t know the path of repentance and faith apart from words. So you have to know those words, and you have to take the opportunity to share those words when the time is right. It does take words.

So each of us is called to devote ourselves to the ministry of Christ among those who do not know Him, and to utilize those gifts that the Holy Spirit has given us for the effective extension of Christ’s Kingdom.

The canon assumes that all of us have those gifts, that all of us have the ability as well as the duty to evangelize. It’s not just for the super-Christian. It’s not just for those who feel they have the gift of evangelism. It’s not just for other types of Churches. I’ve heard it said to me that it’s really for the Baptists and the big community churches to evangelize people. And then when the mature enough in Christ they’ll come over to us. I’m not kidding. I had someone tell me that in my previous parish in all seriousness. But if that’s true that about us, then we aren’t a Church; we are just a club – an Anglican club – because evangelism is not an optional extra of the Church of Jesus Christ, it is an essential ingredient in what it means to be the Church.

Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled under foot”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer offers some extremely challenging comments on this very well know passage, but as someone who lost his life for the sake of the Gospel in a Nazi concentration camp, I think he’s earned our hearing. He said,

“The salt may lose its savour and cease to be Salt at all. It just stops working. Then it is indeed good for nothing but to be thrown away. That is the peculiar quality of salt. Everything else needs to be seasoned with salt, but once the salt itself has lost its savour, it can never be salted again. Everything else can be saved by salt, however bad it has gone – only salt which loses its savour has not hope of recovery. That is the other side of the picture. That is the judgment which always hangs over the disciple community, whose mission is to save the world, but which, if it ceases to live up to that mission, is itself irretrievably lost. The call of Jesus Christ means either that we are the salt of the earth, or else we are annihilated; either we follow the call or we are crushed beneath it. There is no question of a second chance” (The Cost of Discipleship, pp. 116, 117).

Challenging words indeed!

You know, a line from an article I read on evangelism some years back has been gnawing at me ever since. It was this: that “For better or for worse, Christ has risked His kingdom on His Church.” And, as you’ve heard me say before, He doesn’t have a plan B. We’re it. If the kingdom doesn’t come through the Church, it won’t come at all. Not that the kingdom won’t come. The Scripture is very clear that Jesus wins in the end through His Church. But will we be a part of that great victory?

This is why there can be no neutrality, no sitting on the bench while others get out there and get their uniforms dirty. Jesus said, “He who is not with me is against me.” He didn’t say, “He who is not for Me is against Me,” as we often mistranslate it. He said, “He who is not with Me is against Me.” We have to be with Jesus in His mission. We’ve got to go out with Him where He goes. And so He went on to say, “He who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.” It’s not that he’s just not gathering; he’s actually scattering; he’s working against Christ’s purpose.

So where to we stand? Do we stand with Christ, or against Him? Are we gather with Him, or scattering? Will we devote ourselves to the ministry and mission of Christ to the lost because we are His Church, His body, or will be just be a club for the righteous? Will we utilize the gifts the Holy Spirit has given us for the extension of Christ’s kingdom, or will we use them simply to serve ourselves?

These are hard questions, but ones we need to contemplate if we would be faithful to our high calling to be the continued presence of Christ in this world and to accomplish His mission among those who do not know Him. +