The Rt. Rev. Jeffery Rowthorn May 6, 2012 The Fifth Sunday of Easter in Europe, retired 11:15 a.m. Christ & Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, Westport, CT

ALL OF US EVANGELISTS IN JESUS’ NAME

Lessons: Acts 8:26-40; 1 John 4:7-21; John 15:1-8

Text: “Philip began to speak and, starting with this scripture he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus ….[Then] both of them went down into the water …. and Philip baptized him.” (Acts 8: 35, 38a)

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When it comes to evangelism, many of us can identify with Jonah, God’s most reluctant evangelist. Commanded by God to go to Nineveh, he goes instead to Joppa where he finds a ship that can take him to the other end of the Mediterranean. He goes west when he should be going east, and that’s not because he has a very poor sense of geography! No, it’s because the ship is a welcome escape-hatch for this most reluctant evangelist.

There could hardly be a greater contrast to Jonah than Philip whom we heard about in our first reading this morning. Philip has been preaching the Gospel in Samaria. Then, in response to God’s command, he goes south towards Gaza. On the way he encounters a senior minister of the Queen of Ethiopia who is now returning home from Jerusalem. And in that encounter Philip shows himself, in three crucial respects, to be not a reluctant but a willing evangelist for Jesus.

First of all, he is responsive to the Holy Spirit: “Then the Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go over to that chariot and join it’ So Philip ran up to it and heard the Ethiopian reading the prophet Isaiah.” (Acts 8:29-30a)

Secondly, he is responsive to the man’s questions and concerns: “ ‘How can I understand what I am reading unless someone guides me?’… . Then Philip began to speak and, starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus.” (Acts 8:31, 35)

And, thirdly, he is responsive to the opportunity given him to evangelize: “Philip said, ‘If you believe with all your heart, you may be baptized.’ And the man replied, ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God’ … . Then both of them went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.” (Acts 8:37-38)

Jesus’ call to be evangelists in his name, the call which Philip accepted so readily, is a call addressed to each of us as well. Yet most of the time we are more like Jonah than we are like Philip. God has good news for us to share in Westport, with all its promise and possibilities and problems. Yet we are tempted to head away, like Jonah did, in the opposite direction. Westport, Louisiana, let’s say, or Westport, Nova Scotia or Westport, Minnesota or Westport, Oregon (they all do exist!), but not right here. After all, we’re Episcopalians and we’re not in the business of evangelism.

Well, that’s something of a parody, so let me tell you about two couples, friends of mine, who have proved to be willing evangelists in Jesus’ name.

Some years ago Elyn and Peter McGinnis, from West Hartford, came to tell me that they felt that God was calling them to work for the Amity Foundation which is now the largest charity in China. In time Peter became the manager of the Amity Printing Press which prints Bibles in the simplified Chinese script. In 1988 they printed half a million copies of the Bible, in 2008 ten million. So far 90 million Bibles have been printed and distributed all over the People’s Republic of China, and openly, not secretly, with full government approval. Elyn and Peter have had the rare privilege of putting those Bibles into the hands of countless people who have never seen a Christian book of any kind, let alone owned one. And they have seen countless people come to believe in Jesus and be baptized.

Speaking Mandarin and living in Beijing alongside their Chinese neighbors, Elyn and Peter have been modern-day versions of Philip, responsive to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, responsive to the needs and concerns of those around them, and responsive to the opportunity to evangelize which ordinary daily encounters with others give them.

Page 1 of 2 The Rt. Rev. Jeffery Rowthorn May 6, 2012 The Fifth Sunday of Easter Bishop in Europe, retired 11:15 a.m. Christ & Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, Westport, CT

Blake and Nadine Redding were devoted members of the American Cathedral in . When Blake was called to be the Chief Financial Officer of Michelin, the great tire manufacturing company, he moved with his family to Clermont-Ferrand in the center of France. Before they left, Nadine told me that she wanted to establish an Episcopal congregation in Clermont where they could worship and their two daughters could be prepared for Confirmation. Off they went and for months I heard nothing from Nadine. Then one spring evening I found myself in their living-room, celebrating the Eucharist with them and five other couples. Before the evening was over, we committed ourselves to launch a brand-new mission congregation – Christ Church, Clermont-Ferrand. Nadine discovered a former Anglican chapel which the French Reformed Church made available to us. And day in and day out, she lost no opportunity to tell people about the church and its activities and to welcome newcomers into its life.

And what has come of it? Today, fifteen years later, Southern Baptists from the Michelin works in Greenville, South Carolina and members of other denominations and even a few Episcopalians worship at Christ Church. Young and old, black and white and Asian-American, even some local French-speaking residents have found a home and a faith community there. So many, in fact, that the congregation is now welcoming its second full-time and in October they will host the Annual Convention of all the Episcopal churches in Europe. And all of this because Nadine and Blake were responsive, as Philip was, to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. As willing evangelists they have borne much fruit, just as Jesus promised in today’s Gospel reading:

“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” (John 15:7)

And there is a third couple, also friends of mine, who are very much in my thoughts today. Many years ago, or so it seems now, I quoted these words to one of the pair: “Always hoped that I’d be an apostle, knew that I could make it if I tried; then when I retire, I can write the gospels, so they’ll still talk about me when I’ve died.”

You may recognize those words from Jesus Christ Superstar. They were quoted in the sermon I preached on a June day in 1974 when John Branson was ordained in Concord, New Hampshire. And now, thirty-eight years later, he is about to retire, and others have already written the gospels before he had a chance to do so!

For almost forty years John and Judyth have been responsive to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. Responsive to the needs and concerns of the people of Trinity Church in Hartford, St. Paul’s in Chatham, New Jersey and for more than two decades here at Christ & Holy Trinity, Westport. And responsive to the opportunity to witness to Jesus in their daily encounters with the people around them. Willing evangelists in word, yes, but more especially in deed, through the integrity of their professional and domestic lives, the generosity of their spirits, and their commitment to God’s truth and God’s justice in good times and bad. They have indeed heeded the words in our second reading this morning:

“The commandments we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also”. (1 John 4:21).

And there is the secret of the evangelism to which God is calling each of us: before all else to love those amongst whom we live and move and have our being. The call to put God’s love into practice took Elyn and Peter McGinnis to China. It led Nadine and Blake Redding to establish a church in Clermont-Ferrand. And it brought John and Judyth to be here in your midst. So in these testing times for our nation and our world be responsive, each of you, to God’s call to evangelism.

Speak of Jesus to others, Jesus whom we know from experience to be the Way, the Truth and the Life. And so that your words will ring true, live with integrity in your professional and family lives, live with generosity of spirit in your dealings with others, live compassionately and hospitably with your neighbors nearby and far away. In all these ways you will be proclaiming the good news about Jesus and, as you do so, may these words of his be true for you in the days ahead:

“I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” (John 15:11)

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