Midweek Lent, 2025 + Love Does No Wrong to a Neighbor +
Week 2: All peoples long for God, and God is with them
Vicar Natalie Wussler
Texts: Acts 17:16-32; John 4:1-42
Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Evangelism feels like a dirty word.
It’s the first word in our denomination’s name, yet we shy away from it, and for good reason. Evangelism has a pretty bad reputation in our 21st century minds, because for many of us, it means sidewalk preachers outside of sporting events with large signs threatening eternal torment if one does not repent and follow Jesus. Evangelism has meant seeing people as projects in need of converting and saving, rather than God’s beloved children, deserving of love exactly as they are. It’s associated with coercing people into pews without caring for their wellbeing. And on a large historical scale, evangelism has been a scapegoat for massive human rights violations–the crusades, the inquisition, the colonization of Christianizing of indigenous people in all corners of the world, the continued oppression of LGTBQ+ people, and the governing of women’s healthcare choices.
Love does no wrong to a neighbor. So if sharing our faith comes at the cost of someone else’s rights, their sanity, or their self expression, we don’t want anything to do with it. And yet, we are people of good news and ambassadors of Christ. We worship a God who loves all people and desires to be near all people. We are bearers of Christ in the world. So perhaps our evangelism and our sharing of good news could be something of more substance. And perhaps we could engage other people of faith in a holy sharing that could lead down a path toward real reconciliation and repair.
It starts with a deep understanding that God is already with all people.
God created all people, loves all people, and is compassionate to all people. Our Psalm says God’s mercy and love extend further and deeper than any of us could imagine. There is nowhere that is untouched by God’s love. And that’s good news for us. We are not tasked with bringing Christ anywhere, because there is nowhere that Christ is not already present. God’s love does not abide within the limits that humans set, nor is it exclusive to people who proclaim certain beliefs. And when we spend time with those who do not believe the same as we believe, we should reflect God’s compassion without agenda.
Jesus realized that. Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus and this unnamed woman’s people had a violent past; both sides convinced that they both worship rightly in the correct places. Damage has been done in the name of their beliefs. Mistrust persists between Jews and Samaritans. Yet, Jesus initiates a conversation with this woman. There are so many societal reasons why Jesus and this woman should not be speaking like gender roles and religious conflict. But Jesus and this woman bravely break barriers to treat each other with kindness and compassion and they value each other’s voice.
Jesus treats this woman with dignity and respect. He recognizes her marriages as symptoms of an oppressive system that does not value women. He knows she’s likely experienced real trauma. Jesus sees her as someone who God already loves and is at work in. He sees her deep faith and desire for truth. And because Jesus has created an unexpected grace-filled space for her, she, in turn, begins to understand and trust in who Jesus is–first as a prophet then as the Messiah. She goes out to her community as the first evangelist. She shares her story, asks a question, and invites others to join her in a deeper understanding of who Christ is. God was already there, preparing the hearts of all to receive living water, the Holy Spirit, who nourishes our every spiritual need, quenches our thirst in love and mercy, and sends us out into the world to do God’s work.
Just as God was already with the Samaritans, God was already with the Athenians.
Paul trusted this. Before Paul ever began to talk about Christ, he spent time with the Athenians, learning about their culture and way of life. He engaged in conversations with them in synagogues and marketplaces, and he discovered that God was already with them and had already embraced them. And because of his openness to engage with them, the Athenians gave him an opportunity to speak on a large public platform, the Areopagus, where great minds debated big ideas. Paul starts his conversation with the Athenians by first acknowledging their devotion to their religion. He recognizes their curiosity as God-given. He offers no words of condemnation. Rather he speaks to them in their own language through the words of their own philosophers and poets and talks about their own shrines as a way to build common ground. He meets the crowd where they are and treats the Athenians as fellow beloved children of God. And through his words and the prodding of the holy spirit, some came to trust in Christ, and some decided to leave, and others decided to continue speaking with Paul to learn more about this God that’s foreign to them. And God still wrapped all the Athenians in a loving embrace, regardless of any creed they confess. That’s always been God’s way. So it should be our way.
We can follow in the footsteps of Paul, Jesus, and the Samaritan woman as we share our faith with others, loving and serving our neighbors as Christ without agenda before we speak about Christ.
When we start from a place of curiosity, radical listening, active compassion, and recognition of our shared humanity and belovedness to God, and when we humbly share our stories and our beliefs, and find common ground with our neighbors, we build bridges where there have been walls. And when we trust that God is already at work in the lives of our neighbors and repent of the ways Christ’s name has been co-opted to bring harm, our focus shifts. God changes our hearts to be affected by our neighbors’ stories. We can learn more about the God we worship.
And through our continued holy sharing of ideas, stories, and beliefs, we build partnerships that can lead to healing, not only for our relationships with our neighbors, but for the whole world. And if evangelism is marked by loving, serving, and sharing with those of different faiths without agenda, if it’s a willingness and openness to letting God change our hearts through the stories of others, if it’s working with beautifully diverse perspectives to bring peace and justice and healing, that’s an evangelism we can get behind. That’s an evangelism that can lead to repair of what’s been broken.
Let us anticipate seeing God’s face and hearing God’s voice through our neighbors of different faiths, and through our conversations and service; and through mutual listening and partnership we can begin to heal the harm that’s been done in Christ’s name.
May we be compassionate like Jesus, listen like Paul, be curious like the Athenians, and brave like the Samaritan woman. May our lives and the way we treat people testify to God’s all-consuming love.
In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
