My disclaimer: 

For those that asked me to post it on my blog this is the sermon from today. It’s written in a form that helps me to speak it when I’m up front. Sorry about the grammatical errors and weird spacing. And thank you for asking me to start writing again. 

Once a year, faithfully, they would come. A missionary family would show up at church with their children ranging from a couple years older than me, to a couple years younger. Every year they would gather all of the excited Sunday School classes into the church gym and we would watch their slideshow presentation about what life in Africa was like. We saw beautiful pictures of people, wild animals, and heard about their ministry. And of course they always had things for us to touch and pass around from the culture. I looked forward to it every year. But there was NO WAY I was going to be a missionary. I did not want to live like I was camping. Because that is what it is like to be a missionary right? You give up everything from the comfort of home and move to a third world country with disease and famine… and you share about Jesus. At least, that’s what I used to think as a kid….and maybe some as an adult.
Today I want to challenge us to think outside the box of what our church culture has traditionally told us being a missionary is. Ironically, I married an actual “missionary missionary” So for me to be up here talking about this instead of him is odd…but hear me out anyway and you can ask him if I am messed up later.

First of all, the good news is we are already called to be missionaries and we don’t even have to leave this country. Some people are called to leave this country. But not all of us at this time, or we wouldn’t still be sitting here…I mean…Matthew 28:19 is pretty clear.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit”
“All nations” that includes ours.

Wait what?

The very people that are around us everyday? That we….work with? You mean the neighbor that makes me crazy? The mom in the PTA that always tries to get me to sign up for stuff? The person with opposing political views?
Let’s try another verse. Mark 16:15, “And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.”

I guess the word ALL there means “yes” to the previous set of questions. ALL creation…I don’t pick and choose who I am share the Gospel with…

But really- How stinking exciting is this? YOU! ME! WE! Missionaries!

Still doubtful? John 20:21, “Jesus said to them again, “…as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”

I know what you are thinking. I think it too. We all do. It’s the FEAR Talking. It sounds like this:

I can’t share the gospel I am: too young, too old, I don’t know the Bible well enough, I wouldn’t know what to say, I am afraid I would say it wrong, I haven’t had my coffee yet… I know these excuses I use them all the time. It’s fear talking. It happened to me just this Wednesday. I’m sharing this story so you hear the excuses, not for the accolades. I want you to hear that you aren’t alone in your fear.

On Wednesday I took my two youngest to the splash park in town. This passage of scripture, Acts 3, was raging in the back of my mind. Over and over the story was rolling around but my thoughts were jumbled. I kept trying to write notes about it while the kids played at the park. I gave up and put my notebook away. It was 5pm and most of the parents who had been watching their kids play on the splash pad were now drying them off and bribing them to leave with dinner. My two decided to go play on the splash pad that only two other kids were now on. As soon as they started to have fun, the water shut off. They looked at me confused….I looked back at them confused. I read the sign behind me to make sure that it wasn’t “closing time”. We were good to go. I started shouting ideas “Run around. Touch the pole. Look for an on off button!” Friends, I know that these parents who had been there all day could hear me. I can yell. No one offered up any ideas…and just as I was about to get up and look around I hear this muffled voice quiet as can be behind me…”step on the red spot” I and turned around as he was saying it louder to my kids, “step on the red spot” and just like that Eli turned it on by stepping on the red spot.. I turned around to thank him and he was gone. Confused I looked over my other shoulder…he had been there all along. Unnoticed in the noise and chaos of a children’s park. He sat in the shade by the bathrooms with his backpack and wagon of what I can only assume to be all of his belongings. I hollered over my shoulder, “Thank you!” and he didn’t look up. I looked away. I should go talk to him. His face is so worn with life. His eyes had a story. I should go and sit down and talk to him. “But I have to watch my kids. He won’t want to talk to me. I don’t want to come off as a goody -goody. I don’t have anything to say. “ So I sat and argued with God for the next fifteen minutes while watching the kids play. Looking over my shoulder to see if he was still there every so often because my argument with God would be totally invalid if the man had just moved on….but he hadn’t . What was I supposed to do? Offer him my one French fry left? My half empty diet coke? That’s all I had with me. I sat there stewing over it. I had twenty bucks in my purse that was in the car. Nope…. I heard it loud and clear. It wasn’t money he was in need of at that moment. Why Lord? What?? And then I heard verse 6 from this passage in Acts in my head. “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I give you.” What else did I have? A chair? My beach towel?

I had kindness. I could show him respect and kindness. Just like Peter had the capacity to do what Jesus could do in Acts 3, I had the capacity to show respect and be kind the way Jesus would have.

I called the kids over and got them dried off. Anxiety started to build up in my chest. I am protective of my kids…what if this doesn’t go well? We packed up our stuff and I led the kids over to him. They didn’t even ask me where we were going and why were going away from the truck instead of towards it. I just said, “Sir, would you like some bottled water?” He looked up and didn’t say anything. He just looked into my eyes. But… he didn’t say no. So we went to the truck and brought him back two bottles of water. My son apologized for it being warm said as he handed him the two bottles. The man moved his mouth to speak but nothing came out. He took the water and nodded at me. I told him to have a good day and he nodded again. My kids skipped off to the truck and asked if we could bring him back cereal. As we drove off I kept thinking- it took me twenty minutes to show kindness to this man. That’s all I was being asked to give him. Kindness. It took my kids zero seconds to show him kindness. They didn’t ask me why, they didn’t comment about his appearance….his life…or even brag about it to their brother when we picked him up. It was a natural response for them. Because kids don’t have the FEAR of doing it wrong, saying it wrong…or talking to someone who looks different than us. They just DO kindness.

Why am I not more like a child? When did my childlike faith leave me? When did we adults become so consumed with fear, that showing respect and kindness to someone who isn’t like us is a rarity in these situations? Or even a chore? Why do we think we don’t have something to offer? What in the world makes me think I get to pick and choose when I share the love of Christ with others? Shouldn’t it be always? Not when I feel like it? Isn’t every person made in the image of God? Don’t they all deserve my respect and kindness?

In today’s lesson verses 12-16 it’s clear that the people around Peter were shocked at what they had seen. He redirected them to the fact that it wasn’t by his own power but by the power that comes from Jesus. Sometimes we don’t feel like we have anything to give when we see someone who could use some help. I know that most of us are not likely going to heal someone with a physical aliment. I know that not all of us have extra financial resources to help someone monetarily. But maybe we can do something else that we know Jesus would do. Because it’s not always about money, or physical need is it? Although it might appear so initially. What we see on the outside is a result of something on the inside.

I keep thinking about the people we see on the corners every day that are begging for money -there is even something we can do for them. Yes….I know, I know…..Maybe some of them are drug users. Maybe some of them are scammers. Maybe some of them are not homeless at all. Maybe some of them live in their car. Maybe some of them are war vets? We don’t know their exact situation but I am pretty sure no one writes on their kindergarten “When I grow up” poster “I want to be a beggar.” No…something happened in that person’s life to change their course. Something changed. That person on that corner is in need of something that we can offer. It might be a smile or a wave. It could just be a little respect or a little less judgment. I know it’s hard because we are human. But it’s not our job to judge what someone needs. Our job is not to figure out what someone deserves. Our job is to lift the fallen, to restore the broken, and to heal the hurting. That’s all.

Our mission as missionaries isn’t to hurry up and change everyone to Christians, we don’t have that power anyway do we? Our mission is to meet people where they are at, so that they can hear and feel our love for Christ and that door can be opened What does that even mean? To meet someone where they are at?
I read this recently,

“ People are where they are- despite our desire for them to be further along, more evolved, more fun, closer to our level, less intimidating, more reliable, easier to access, or simply more like us.

If you take the desire for someone to be different out of the equation you can meet them where they are. You can meet them in the real moment. You can meet them in their despair or their magnificence.
And when you truly meet them, with no wishing for something different to wedge you apart, you’ll know what to do. You will have the compassion to be calming, the humility to be reverent, or the wisdom to walk away.” (daniellelaporte.com)

Their despair or their magnificence…. Meet them there… so powerful!

Did you know the number one way people feel loved is to be listened to? What if the next time I saw that man at the park I sat next to him and asked him a simple question. “How are you today?” I wonder when the last time someone asked him that was? I wonder if the last time someone asked him that – if they listened. I wonder how long it has been since someone met him where he was at, without judgment, and listened. I read a sign once that stuck with me. You’ve probably heard this before. It said, “Preach the Gospel and if necessary use words.” What if I preached the Gospel to him by listening? What if I was better at that in my own home and family? What would happen if I took an extra five minutes at bedtime to listen instead of hurry the kids to bed because I am about to lose my mind? What if the next time I was at the grocery store I asked the checker, “How are you” and listened?

If we stopped to listen more than we stopped to talk, I think things might begin a change in not just the people we minister to, but in ourselves as well. Meet them where they are at….and if necessary use words.

I think that some of the things we are challenged to do in our own little “world” as a missionaries can be scary. They are uncomfortable. I know I don’t like feeling uncomfortable, most people don’t. But I think that’s the point isn’t it? It’s about walking where we don’t want to go…where we feel uncomfortable, pushing our boundaries so we can grow? Sharing the Gospel in practical ways that people can actually hear and feel it?

Acts 3 is about passing on the ministry of the spirit. And I would challenge us to remember that we are all called to do just that. Pass it on to people by meeting them where they are at, even when it makes us uncomfortable. Especially when it makes us uncomfortable. Forget the excuses that FEAR gives us and be bold in our faith. Bold in our knowledge that all we really need to do is love and care about others the way we want someone to love and care about us.
I know I said we don’t have to leave the country to be missionaries…but we do possibly have to leave our comfort zone. To quote Winnie the pooh, “You can’t stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”
J.