Sermon from April 6, 2008
I had a Hall of Fame of Christian heroes, when I was in high school. One of them, Dawson Trotman, had died while saving a girl from drowning at Word of Life Camp in Schroon Lake, NY. I knew his name and story, because Mr. Trotman founded a Christian organization called the Navigators.

The Navigators began as a ministry to sailors before World War II. They provided follow-up materials and training for Billy Graham crusades from the early 1950s on. Their scripture memory program helped many people (I was one of them) to learn scripture by topics. No one called their Topical Memory System a catechism, but that is what it was, teaching neophytes in the faith basic Christian concepts and the scriptures that supported them.

They had a logo that was shaped like a wheel. The hub was Christ, and it had four spokes: Prayer, the Word, Witnessing and Fellowship. It proved to be a powerful, although partial, way for young Christians to visualize what mattered in Christian discipleship. I’d like to talk about one of those spokes today: witnessing.

I’d like to call it by a different name: telling your faith story. I’d like to do that for two reasons. First, the word witnessing now has, unfortunately, a negative meaning that pushes people away and has actually changed the proper meaning of the word.

If you are called to be a witness in a trial, you typically speak when spoken to, and you are sworn to tell the truth. Witnessing as a Christian action has nearly reversed that meaning. It now means badgering someone, being heavy-handed and insensitive. In other words it is less like being a witness in a trial and more like being an aggressive trial lawyer, cross-examining a witness.

The second reason I’d like to use a different name has to do with how we teach people to talk about their faith with other people. Witnessing classes have nearly always taught people a structured way to share their faith. Campus Crusade developed the Four Spiritual Laws. The Navigators developed the Bridge. There have been many others.

There is nothing wrong with these methods. If you have a chance to learn them, I think you should do so. They put another arrow in your quiver, when it comes to telling your faith story. My objection to them is that they can leave the impression that if you haven’t mastered one of these methods, you have nothing to say.

Telling your faith story can happen formally, as for example it does here in a baptismal service; but it can also happen informally in one-liners in the most unlikely, non-religious settings. I’d like to talk about one-liners today.

With these caveats before you I am ready to say that a fifth habit of highly effective Christians is telling your faith story. I’d like to show you a biblical case study of how one person did that. Join me in John 9:1-34. We’ll read the story, and I’ll stop along the way and highlight effective ways of telling your faith story. Look at John 9:1-9.

Pay Attention to People
As he (Jesus) went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes. “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” . . . So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn't this the same man who used to sit and beg?” Some claimed that he was. Others said, “No, he only looks like him.”

But he himself insisted, “I am the man.”

The people who said, “No, he only looks like him,” looked at the man everyday but never saw him. They pigeon-holed him. He was a “sinner,” that’s why he’s blind; or he’s the blind guy that begs. Are you a student of the people you see everyday? Can you get past the way other people characterize them or stereotype them? Would you know if something significant happened in their lives? Do you know at least an outline of their personal lives?

One of the highest compliments people can pay you is when they say, “I really wanted to get to know you, and I’ve done all the talking.” It’s not that you’re unwilling to talk about yourself, but as a servant of Christ you know that people often don’t feel heard or appreciated in this world. If you can be a listening ear, not only does it help them to tell part of their story, it also may also help them to be open to hear some part of your story, part of which is a story of faith in Jesus Christ.

One-liners about Jesus and Your Own Experience
Now, that man’s story got around. Blind men don’t regain sight everyday, and that particular miracle took place on a Sabbath. So, verse 13 says that they (his neighbors) brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight.

“He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.”

Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.”

But others (other Pharisees) asked, “How can a sinner do such miraculous signs?” So they were divided.

Finally they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.”

The man replied, “He is a prophet.”

Go back for a moment to verse eleven. His neighbors had asked the man who made him see. He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.”

He knew the one who had helped him was Jesus. By the way, modern Jewish scholarship has given strong evidence that Jesus was the sixth most common name for boys during the New Testament period (Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, 85). When the Pharisees said to the man, “What have you to say about him?” they weren’t asking for his name, they were asking about His significance. The man replied, “He is a prophet.”

Two things about his answer guide us in telling our faith story. First, when we have the opportunity to talk about Jesus, look for a way to say what you think makes Jesus significant. One of the great one-liners we can use is to say, “Jesus is just what this world needs. I believe Jesus is the Savior of the world.”

The second thing about the man’s answer that guides us is that we don’t have to say everything about Jesus that we know. The man in the story didn’t know any more than to say, “He is a prophet.” We know a lot more than that, but we don’t have to say it all. People remember one-liners; they forget complex explanations.

As the story progresses, we move from a one-liner about who Jesus is to a one-liner about the former blind man’s personal experience. In verses 18-23 the story tells of his parents’ unwillingness to say anything about their son’s healing. Verses 20-21 express their reserve: “We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind. But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.”

Now, verse 24 says: A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.”

He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!” That is a memorable one-liner.

If someone were to ask you tomorrow, “Why are you a Christian?” how would you answer? Could you answer in terms of your personal experience? Could you answer in a memorable one-liner? If I had to answer that question, I would say, “Jesus Christ changed my life when I was in high school, and in fifty years I’ve never gotten over it.”

There’s a lot more to my story than that. There’s a lot more to your story than that. And we ought to be ready to tell more. But in the rough and tumble of day-to-day living, we need one-liners about our personal experience. We ought to have it down cold, and we ought to be ready to use it anywhere we go.

The power of one-liners about Jesus Christ and about our personal experience is that they may fit anywhere we go: board meetings and Super Bowl parties as well as in a baptism service. It is the story of Jesus and of your personal experience coming into any human situation like a spring breeze through an open window.

Offering a Challenge
The power of one-liners about Jesus Christ and about our personal experience is also that they may provoke further conversation. That will open up opportunities for us to tell more of our personal stories. Never forget: you are an expert on you. As long as you are telling your story in your own words with a touch of humility, people are more likely to respect what you say, even if they reject what you say. And people like stories.

And sometimes the conversation that your one-liners provoke may give you an opening to take the conversation to a very different level. You can see it in what happened after the man said, “I was blind but now I see!”

Verses 26-27: Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”

He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?”

That unlettered man just threw a match into a can of gasoline. Maybe he was too dumb to know better. Maybe he thought those people really wanted to know the truth about Jesus and not just look for reasons to tar and feather Him.

Whatever he knew or didn’t know, he embodied the character of the Christian faith: sooner or later it will challenge people to become followers of Jesus Christ. We’re not just telling personal stories; those stories always have a missionary purpose.

What strikes me about the man’s question was that he didn’t force it. It flowed right out of the conversation he was having with the Pharisees. It was natural, even if it was explosive. Challenging people to become followers of Jesus is always potentially explosive, even if we do it with great tact and self-deprecating humor. After all, we are asking people to make a decision about God. And to do it during a commercial time-out at a football game or over coffee at Starbucks creates a very dynamic situation.

Sometimes, the results are like those in verse 34: To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out. At other times the results are like those in Acts 17:33, when others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” And once in a while, someone responds (and they may even say to you), “I’ve been looking for something like this all my life.”

The Pastoral Center of Gravity
Life is richer than imagination, and we will find many, unexpected opportunities to tell our faith stories, even if it seldom gets beyond one-liners. But here is a handful of situations that are more likely to turn into moments, when you can tell your faith story.

First, get to know the people you see every day, just because they are worth knowing. Earn the reputation of caring about people for their own sake. That means listening more than talking. It means we don’t use people to feather our own nest. It means we don’t talk unfavorably about other people behind their backs. That kind of behavior by itself would revolutionize some workplace environments. It establishes for us the credibility that will make our faith story something people want to hear.

Second, look for events in our common life that naturally raise moral and spiritual issues. For example, after the killing of the Amish schoolchildren in 2006, people had questions and emotions about God and evil that made it easy to talk about God, even as it made it difficult to give easy answers about God. September 11 did that. Issues of race relations that the presidential primaries have raised offer another occasion for Christians to make their voices heard.

Third, look for life-changing personal experiences among the people you know, including your own experience. At the very least, it offers a golden opportunity to say to someone, “I’m praying for you,” or to offer then and there to pray with the person. Even more important, when the dust settles, and life gets back to normal, and most people have forgotten about the life-changing experience or don’t know what to say, then have a conversation that starts, “So, how’s it going? How have you gotten through this?” If your credibility is good, your interest is both welcome and powerful.

Fourth, take advantage of American generosity. We saw a massive outpouring of volunteer help after Hurricane Katrina. The tsunami in the Indian Ocean inspired thousands of people to go there and help rebuild lives. Big names like Bono have inspired many more to go make a difference among AIDs victims in Africa. Habitat for Humanity is giving hope and a home to thousands of people in this country. When you volunteer to help in situations like that, and someone asks why you are doing it, have your one-liner ready: “Jesus Christ loves the poor. So, as a Christian I have to be there.”

When I think of the thousands of people this congregation touches, it is awe-inspiring to think about the ripple effect of 1200-1300 of us getting our faith stories on the grapevine. Highly effective Christians not only tell their faith story, but they become leaven to an entire community. It isn’t glamorous, but it is very powerful.