The beloved St. Francis of Assisi is credited for saying,“Preach the Gospel at all times, use words if necessary.”
Preach the Gospel at all times, use words if necessary.
Most likely, Francis did not coin this phrase. It likely evolved from one of the instructions he gave to the Franciscan brothers for their rule of life: “preach the Gospel by your deeds.” This makes sense given the Franciscan vow of poverty, to minister to the poor, and to engage mercifully with people and the planet. Like their founder, the Franciscans preach the Gospel through their deeds of mercy.
Much of the time we think of preaching as something that people like me do. Yes, indeed, preachers occupy pulpits but that is just one form of preaching. You, too, preach with your words and your deeds.
When we affirm our baptism at the time of confirmation or when a person joins the church or when we sometimes affirm our baptism together, we commit ourselves to a life of following Jesus and remaining in the community of Christ. We make a series of promises to continue in the covenant God made with us at the font. One of those promises is this: To proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed.
Word and deed.
There are many ways you preach the good news with your words and there are many ways you preach the Gospel by your deeds as you live out your baptism each day.
Such preaching by both word and deed is commanded by Jesus when he sends out the twelve apostles.
“As you go proclaim the good news ‘The Kingdom of Heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, and cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.”
This apostolic commission was to proclaim that the nearness of God’s kingdom through actions of bringing life, healing and wholeness. They were sent to bear witness through these things
It is as if Jesus was saying something like this to the apostles: “Preach the Gospel at all times, use words if necessary.”
This apostolic commission has been passed down to us through the ages and so we proclaim the good news through word and deed, and we do this is a variety of ways and each of us with our unique gifts. I suspect that when you preach by your deeds of mercy you make a difference in some people’s lives, touched by your witness or even moved by your witness, and you may not even be aware.
I have long been inspired by the account of the conversion of Pachomius. Known in later generations as St. Pachomius, he is revered in the Coptic Christian Church. His story of coming to faith began when he was a young man in 4th century Egypt. There he was forced to become part of the Roman army, against his will. Along with several others his age, he boarded a ship that floated down the Nile River and landed at the Egyptian city of Thebes. There they waited in prison before they were deported to their workplace.
While they waited in prison the local Christians heard of their plight. They learned about their story of being conscripted by force into the Roman army. So these Christians decided to reach out. Every day they brought food and drink and comfort to the prisoners.
This impressed Pachomius greatly. He was moved by their compassion, generosity, and ministry to the jailed troops. He wondered what compelled these Christians to take it upon themselves to reach out, so he learned more about this new Christian movement and was awe struck by their mission to show mercy to everyone without discrimination.
Once his term in the army came to an end, he sought out a church and was baptized. Deeply moved by the desert monks of Egypt, he later founded his own monastic community known as the Cenobites who devoted their lives to living in community and taking necessary time for solitary prayer.
I think those Christians in Thebes proclaimed the Gospel, the nearness of God’s kingdom by their deeds of compassion and for Pachomius, it moved his heart and changed his life.
“Preach the Gospel at all times, use words if necessary.”
This is what Jesus has set us free to do in the places we work or volunteer, here in this church community, in our homes and with our families, among our friends and neighbors.
Notice what else Jesus instructs these apostles to do. He tells them to travel light. He reminds them that they have received much without payment and they ought to give without payment and to take no gold, or silver, or copper in their belts, no bag for their journey, and to depend upon the willingness of those who offer food and drink and hospitality.
This command to the apostles to travel lightly says that our commission to bear witness to the Gospel is not about us. We are sent not to draw attention to ourselves but only to Jesus. The apostles go without a bag of tricks or tools to make them attractive or to lure people into some experience or another. To go with little is to move the focus of attention to Jesus.
We’re not the apostles of ancient times but the apostolic commission has been handed down to us in our context and circumstances. What does it look like to travel lightly in our vocation of witnessing to Christ?
The first question is, what heavy baggage do we need to discard in order to travel lightly?
Has not the church tried to make itself look attractive and often focusing way too much on tricks to get more people into the pews?
Our money, our stuff, our intellect, all these things are to be in service to the Gospel and often we use them for other motives overemphasizing the ministry and life of a particular congregation in order to get results.
That often creates a lot of baggage that makes the journey not so light.
We get weighed down by our expectations and focus too much on us and jettison our witness to the things of God.
The call of the church is not to be large or somehow relevant according to the standards of society, but we do get sucked in, especially when we fret over numbers and having more and more members or get bogged down in securing status. These desires get in the way of serving Christ humbly. We forget that we are not called to be a sign of success. Our call is to be faithful.
Sometimes we want to be effective. With great passion we want people to know what we know or have the experience that we have. That’s good! And sometimes these passionate desires fade into impossible demands for ourselves. So, we long to convert people just as Pachomius was converted. And that goes under the rubric of high expectations that we place upon ourselves and each other. I think this kind of expectation makes us anxious. It is baggage we must let go of and remember that God does the work of conversion, our task is to bear witness.
Sometimes the baggage we carry is fear. A fear of rejection. The disciples and the apostles and Jesus himself knew all about rejection and downright oppression because of their words and deeds.
What if, in our witnessing we are rejected? What if we are laughed at when we speak of our faith? What if people get offended by our efforts at peacemaking and reconciliation between enemies? What if our particular acts of mercy and kindness are not taken seriously but are mocked? What if our gestures of standing up for someone or some people who are treated poorly finds us at odds with the “powers that be?”
I think of a friend who was caught up in the grip of a conflict at the school where his child attended. Parents were at odds with the principle and hateful acts were done on both sides. My friend spoke up at a meeting and suggested that both sides come to some sort of reconciliation and forgiveness and then iron out the difficulties. He was laughed, dismissed, and failed to get a hearing.
One of the things I’ve learned is that if you are rejected for your particular witness, people are not rejecting you. They are rejecting the one to whom you are witnessing. It’s not about you or me. We are bearing witness to the Gospel and it is both received and rejected. So, rejection is to be expected just as Jesus and the apostles experienced rejection.
Turn again to Jesus’ words to the apostles, “If anyone will not listen to you or welcome you, shake the dust off your feet as you leave that house or town.” Shake the dust off your feet as a protest and as a gesture of letting go and moving on.
We use our unique gifts to bear witness to Jesus and it is not for our sake. We have no agenda other than loving people just for the sake of loving them, reaching out to the poor, the hungry, the prisoner, those who are sick because we want to be part of God’s mission of mending a broken world. No personal agenda needed. We are called to justice, to advocate for those who are used, abused, treated unfairly. We seek such justice not because we get something out of it but because we are commissioned to do the work of the Kingdom and yield to Jesus.
Friends in Christ: when you leave this gathering this morning, know that you are sent. The Sending is the final act in the liturgy. We go forth freely. We go forth in peace. We go forth to proclaim good news in what we say and in what we do.
We go having received the blessing of God and filled with the energy of the Holy Spirit. We go in peace to serve the Lord.
We go to preach the Gospel at all times and use words if necessary. Amen.