This is the 5th and final week in the Theological Banquet Series. I’ll recap in case you missed the earlier installments.

This series is based on the book Undivided Love by Janet Gear, a United Church minister and theologian. She uses the metaphor of different courses at a banquet to describe different ways in which people live their faith.

All categories are valid ways to live your faith; none is better than the others. We began by talking about those whose faith is ecclesial. They live for the church. The building and the traditions, the heritage and the communal worship, as well as the community they find there, are important to them.

Then we talked about those described as ecumenical, for whom the world and the Gospel message cannot be separated. They work for social and systemic change because they believe we’re called to help realize God’s promise of abundant life for all.
To them, working for justice is following Jesus. They want to know why problems exist so they can work to improve the system that causes them.

Then we talked about those whose faith is spiritual. Like some of the others we’ve talked about, this group can include many different people. Many of them have yet to connect with a faith community. Spiritual believers are on an inward journey that connects them with the entire world and God. They are sensitive to the whole of things and see themselves as one small part of God’s creation. The natural world is inextricably linked to their sense of belonging in the world, and to their sense of God.

Last week, we talked about those whose faith is missional. Those people who see themselves as Christ’s hands and feet in the world, ministering to their neighbours who are in need, both within and beyond the church.

And today, the topic is evangelical! Evangelists live their faith as eager messengers of God’s saving love in Jesus. My on-line colleague, the Rev. Nancy Painter, who did the same series last summer, wrote this:

The evangelical group is probably the most diversely populated group at the theological banquet table. It includes a disproportionate number of performing artists, because they see their art as part of how they live their faith. Evangelists see themselves as messengers who live their faith as eager messengers of God’s saving love in Jesus. They believe their purpose is to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen, our judge and our hope. Does that phrasing sound familiar? It’s taken from our New Creed in the United Church of Canada. So being evangelistic doesn’t require you to have a giant sanctuary that holds thousands, or a TV show that reaches millions. Being a faithful evangelist for God means you believe that God’s love through Jesus saved you, and it’s your responsibility to share that good news with others so they, too, can be saved. That’s the first category of evangelists, those who believe in the centrality of the good news of salvation and a duty to share it.

The second group is those who are at home with a lived faith of gospel praise, prayer, invitation and testimony. Their faith may have been shaped by growing up in an evangelical church or congregation, or their life journey may have included the intersection of their own hardship and the Christian witness of an evangelical lived faith. They are so grateful for the difference that Christ made in their own lives that they want others to experience it, too.

And the third subgroup within evangelists is those who’ve come to their current church seeking a call or refuge, because they were persecuted or condemned for who they are in another denomination, or because their ability to serve God was restricted by human rules, such as women called to lead who leave a church that won’t allow women to preach or for their sexual orientation or identity.

We would have no story of faith without evangelists! I suppose one way we could understand at least some of the Biblical writings is to think of them as spiritual memoirs.

Each one of us has a story of Jesus. How his life and ministry has impacted us… even if you are just dipping your toes in the water… wondering who he is… wondering what church is all about. Even if we don’t share that story with others very often. Or at least not outside of a church setting.

As my friend and colleague, the Rev. Dr. Ross Bartlett wrote in his book On Holy Ground, You and Your Faith Story, “There is a simple premise underlying this brief book: you have a faith story that is important. You may never have been told that before.

Nonetheless it is true. There’s a good chance that you’ve never been shown how to tell that story. You may feel intimidated or turned off by folk who “share faith” in easy, self-confident and sometimes glib ways. Perhaps you imagine that your life is not important enough or dramatic enough to be the basis for a story anyone cares about. I’m sorry to be blunt but: you’re wrong. Your silence does no one any good: not you, or your neighbour or friend, or God.”

Listen to these words from 1 Peter 3:

“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that is in you – but do so with gentleness and respect.” (1 Peter 3:15-16)

Each one of us has a faith story. Part of my faith story is preaching most Sundays, something I never thought I could do. The culmination of a call that I had disregarded for years. A call and a process that held ALL THE FEELINGS. Joy, excitement, terror, amazement, anxiety. Probably the same sort of feeling that you would have if I asked you to come up and share how following Jesus has made a difference in your life! 😉

I wonder if Nicodemus had some of the same feelings when we approached Jesus by night? Let’s listen as that story unfolds as it’s written in John 3: 1-17

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with that person.”

Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”

Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?”

Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”

Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen, yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him.

There is so much to unpack in that reading, but have no fear, I’m just going to touch on some of it. I am going to touch on the sharing faith part of it. There are all kinds of verbs in this passage… Jesus says something about sharing faith 8 times!

Nicodemus comes to Jesus in the night… perhaps embarrassed, perhaps afraid… perhaps not wanting to be seen as needing to learn something from this itinerant preacher. And Nicodemus and we hear words that we must be born again. And we hear from our more evangelical brothers and sisters that you MUST be born again, and many of them speak with such conviction and belief that somehow when confronted with it, we are just sort of rendered mute. And yet, to follow Jesus, we must be born again… perhaps not in a life altering moment, but again and again.

Born into caring for neighbour when culture says only be concerned with yourself.

Born into generosity when our culture says that greed is rampant.

Born into community good when our culture says the individual is more important.

Born and reborn into following Jesus… and learning to tell our story… with gentleness and respect.

Thanks be to God for the challenge and the opportunity, amen.

John 3: 1-17
1 Peter 3:15–16