A quick show of hands- how many of you have been in my office here at Bethany? Quite a few. You may have noticed, if you can step around a few books, on top of a bookshelf my collection of souvenirs that have come in as gifts.

• There’s the Jesus Action Figure still in a plastic case…Jesus has wheels on the bottom of his feet so he can roll around.
• Next to that is my coveted John Calvin bobble-head doll.
• And beside him is a box of soap labeled “REPENT Body Detergent”- just wash those sins away.

Well, last week a friend, knowing we were talking about “evangelism” for three Sundays, dropped off the latest and greatest in evangelism aids: the evange-cube. “Unfolding the Answer to Life’s Greatest Question.” Made to look a little like a Rubick’s Cube, you can see it unfolds in various ways to provide theological talking points for that conversation about Christianity you have been waiting to have. So here is humanity without God, you unfold it and it’s Jesus on the cross, unfold it a different way and it’s the tomb, etc. Evangelism made easy. We’ll have these in the lobby… $7.99!

Our sermons in these three weeks are on evangelism and collectively called “There, Here and Now.” Last week Tim Dearborn started us by talking about Christian witness “THERE.” As in “out there, over there.”

Tim took us on something of a world tour, which he is well qualified to do. He noted that both our lives and our words will bear witness to something …we decide what that something is: whether to Jesus, to ourselves, to money, to education or whatever. He talked about the invitation we have to participate in a kingdom-of-God-life by pursuing and living God’s justice, helping set things right. He talked about what Christian witness looks like in a number of different places around the world. There.

This morning we want to talk about the HERE part. What does evangelism look like right here in my daily life?

Well, first we have to talk about this “e-word.” It’s yet another word we have ruined, perhaps beyond reclamation. These days Evangel-ism means shoving your views down someone else’s throat. Evangel-ist means someone screaming and yelling on television…then collecting an offering. Evangel-ical means being politically somewhere to the right…of right. In every case it has come to mean something antagonistic, coercive and negative.

It’s really too bad. Mostly it’s our own fault, but it’s too bad because the root word “evangel” in the New Testament means Good News…bearing witness to Christ, bringing GOOD NEWS to people.

Now, I don’t know about you but that’s something I’m interested in. Because there’s enough bad news around every day to send us all into deep depression.

But good news? That’s in pretty short supply. I talked with a friend this week who was bragging about her adult son for sitting down with his mother-in-law and telling her rather matter of factly that she was well on her way to Hell! Somehow that didn’t sound like good news to me.

This morning we have this fascinating story from the book of Acts. Let’s read and see what God might have for us.

Reading: Acts 8:26-38

Philip is such an interesting guy. He appears in Acts 6, one of 7 people selected to make sure that the distribution of food to widows was being handled well in the early church in Jerusalem. Philip thought he was signing up to wait tables. He could do that. He wasn’t really a high profile guy, not a big teacher or apostle or anything.

But then everything changed. A severe persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem. Saul, later Paul, was dragging Jewish people off to prison for becoming Christians. Philip, like many others, fled the city and went to Samaria. He started to tell people there about Jesus, and that’s when all this amazing stuff started happening. People believed. Demons were cast out. Paralyzed people were healed. Joy filled the city.

Amazing stuff. Good news! Philip’s ministry was exploding. Two of the apostles, Peter and John went down to Samaria to see what on earth was happening. Suddenly Philip WAS a high profile guy. Success! So he probably did what almost everybody does in that circumstance- he created a program. He started to make plans for his next crusade, signed his first book contract “How to Evangelize Samaria- 8 Exciting New Techniques,” planned his strategies for the next two months. He was on a roll.

And right when Philip thinks he’s emeshed in God’s work…God speaks to Philip and says “Leave it.” And go down a desert road...a road that eventually winds down to Egypt and onto the continent of Africa.” That’s it.

Have you heard God speak lately? I read a novel last month called Revelation by Peggy Payne. It was written in the late 1980’s, and someone suggested it to me because it takes place around Chapel Hill, NC where we’ve spent quite a bit of time.

Oddly enough, it’s about a pastor named Swain, a pastor of Westside Presbyterian Church. He’s a very ordinary guy, not 100% sure why he is in ministry, and he goes out in the back yard one day…and he hears God.

I don’t mean has a sense of God’s presence, I mean he hears God. For him the sound wells up over the trees and across the lawn and practically knocks him over. He’s petrified. He’s paralyzed. He goes in the house, turns to walk down the hallway, and he hears God again. The inside of him practically crumbles. And what he hears is remarkably …incomplete. Snatches. The phrase is “Know that truth is…” and then it stops.

The second time, he hears just one word, “Son.” That’s it. But the experience totally knocks Swain off his feet. He can hardly breath. He decides he needs to tell his congregation. So that Sunday, from the pulpit, he does. And what happens is- nothing. They sit in the pews. They shake his hand and smile as they go out the door. They ask about his kids. And Swain is left feeling like God let him down, didn’t finish the message.

I wonder if Philip felt this way. God doesn’t seem to have communicated enough to Philip. No big picture. No purpose. No instructions on what to do next. No destination. Just go south. I mean, if God had simply said “Go 26 miles south and wait.” That would have been something. Or maybe “Head south, I have someone I want you to meet and I’ll make it happen.” But no. Nothing. The only thing clear from the beginning is that this was God’s plan, not Philip’s.

If we are going to be able to share good news, we’re going to have to give up orchestrating everything. Quit depending on programs, techniques. Quit orchestrating. God’s apparent questions for Philip are our questions. Are you paying attention? Are you available?

So Philip goes. It had to be hard. He’s leaving behind something successful, with high visibility, and heading- for all he knows- into insignificance. All because God told him to. He probably feels a little foolish. Heads out, no doubt passing a number of people on the road going both ways, and nothing happens. He feels more foolish every time someone goes by. He’s deep in thought. He barely notices the nice luxury Hummer chariot on the road, the single person sitting in it, the trappings of wealth and power visible to everyone. Philip doesn’t think twice about it. It has nothing to do with him. He’s trying to figure out why God didn’t do something. Are you paying attention? Are you available?

That’s when the nudge comes. Pay attention to the nudge, the sense, the impulse. It’s not always from God, but we do learn to recognize it after awhile. “Go over and join that chariot.” What? It wasn’t exactly audible, but it was clear. Go over and join that chariot.

I suspect you’ve had that nudge before, that Holy Spirit prompt that says do something, even if it’s not totally logical. Even if you don’t have the big picture, or even the next step. I’ve felt this many times. Sometimes I act on it.

Sometimes I miss it. The last time I missed it was last Wednesday. Anne and I were over in Missoula, Montana, walking up Higgins Street downtown. We were pretty engaged in conversation, and I heard a woman’s voice off on my right say “Excuse me, sir…”

I knew what it was without turning my head. Somebody asking for money. I’ve never known exactly how to sort these situations out, so I usually just try to pray when I see them coming and say “Lord, shall I give this person something?” I have no problem with either giving someone something or saying “no,” depending on the situation but what was different in this case was that I never even looked at the person. Just kept walking.

Within 20 yards I knew I’d missed it. It felt like the “nudge” said “you didn’t even look at her. Didn’t even treat her like a human being.” I tried to focus on our conversation as we walked, but now all I could hear was the nudge to go all the way back down the block and acknowledge that a human being had spoken to me. The story doesn’t have some big ending. Just a nudge, and a long walk back down the block. Are you paying attention? Are you available?

You feel a nudge to reach out to a new student you see is hanging back by themselves. Someone makes eye contact with you in a coffee shop. Do you look away, or risk a conversation with someone you don’t know?

Philip hears God’s rather illogical message and runs to catch up and run alongside the chariot. It’s a funny picture- I’ve always thought of Philip with a long beard, his long robe flapping and a pair of running sandals with the little Nike swoosh on them, jogging alongside the chariot with a VIP he doesn’t know in it. Like many confidants of royalty in his day, this Ethiopian man has been castrated…made a eunuch. He is reading out loud from the prophet Isaiah, part of the same scripture from Isaiah 53 that Todd read earlier. It’s the one that talks about the Messiah being denied justice, acting as a sacrificial sheep, his life given up.

Philip recognizes the passage. So as he’s running alongside the chariot, he ventures a question: “Do you understand what you are reading?” The eunuch perceives he might learn something from Philip and invites him into the chariot. And he asks a very perceptive question: “Is the prophet Isaiah talking about himself, or someone else?”

And Philip answers- “About someone else. Someone I know about.” And he proceeds to share the GOOD NEWS. The good news…is about Jesus. It’s news because this man doesn’t know it. It’s good because in Jesus God has invited all people, this one Ethiopian man to share in his kingdom. It’s good because in Jesus all barriers are removed, all is forgiven, God’s love is spilling out all over the world, this man who has been mutilated can know who he really is, made in the image of a God who holds nothing back for him. A reason to live. Philip had experienced all this. Tough to fit all that on a cube! But boy, if you share it in relationship, it is so powerful.

This is what Philip shares: Jesus. Tim told us last week what Mahatma Gandhi, a Hindu, advised Christians that they should practice their religion without watering it down. So Philip swallows and says “This passage is about Jesus.” He doesn’t say something spiritual, or religious, doesn’t send him to his pastor, doesn’t tell him to visit his church…he tells him what he knows about Jesus.

This isn’t the only kind of evangelism there is. But it has a quality that touches close to home for us. It’s one-on-one. Life-on-life. It’s not mass evangelism, it’s not a program, it’s not impressive statistics. It’s Philip, and the man from Ethiopia. Was Philip the most articulate person God could find? No. Was he the best theologian? No. Was he the most persuasive speaker? No. Philip was paying attention. And he was available. We need to be available.

Philip also had a very important tool in his toolbox. He knew the scripture. He knew Isaiah. He recognized what the man was reading there in the chariot. That scripture in Philip was available, and God used it. Given that at this time, not a single line of the New Testament had been written…what better scripture for Philip to be asked about to explain Jesus?

You may have noted the similarity of this story to the one of the risen Jesus on the Road to Emmaus. In that story, Jesus was also walking on a road, like Philip. He encountered some disciples and walked along with them, like Philip. Jesus and Philip both used the scripture to help open up the gospel. Both situations were marked by a holy, sacred moment (supper with Jesus, baptism in this story). Eyes were opened, like this man’s. They were filled with joy, their hearts burned within them. GOOD NEWS.

Church tradition, and some ancient historians cling to the idea that the eunuch went home to Ethiopia, and began to share the story of Jesus. One early writer even records that he shared with the Queen, who came to believe in Jesus…and that the ancient church in Ethiopia, still 40 million people strong, started from this one simple encounter.

As I read this story this week, I began to wonder especially about those of us who have followed Jesus for some time now. I wonder how long it has been since we have paid attention, been available for God to use in someone else’s life to come to know him? And if it’s been a long time, I wonder why? Are we not as fervent as we once were? Are we more fearful of rejection than earlier? Are we less convinced that the good news…is really good? Have we bought into the idea that if God were good, bad things wouldn’t happen in the world, so we hesitate to share God with others?

Or maybe you look at this story of Philip and say longingly “When am I ever going to get an opportunity like this?” I think the answer is: constantly. All the time. God is at work. He longs to love people into kingdom lives. His presence is visible everywhere, if we are paying attention.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning is the 19 th century romantic poet who wrote the well-known sonnet, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways…” She also wrote these lines:

“Earth is crammed with heaven
and every common bush afire with God
But only he who sees takes off his shoes
the rest sit around and pluck blackberries.”

Nothing wrong with picking blackberries. But wouldn’t you rather be alert to God’s presence, burning within us and for the world, the people he has created? Wouldn’t you rather be part of Jesus’ kingdom work? Wouldn’t you rather be able to give people GOOD NEWS?

I venture to say that this week you will have a dozen opportunities to live or speak good news into people’s lives: you are surrounded by neighbors, work colleagues, family members, friends, other students, people who just happen to be on the road with you.

And I’m pretty sure that the Holy Spirit will provide the nudges for you to act or speak. What will you do? Don’t flee. Don’t look for your evange-cube! Give up trying to orchestrate everything. Pay attention. Be available. Amen.