April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
BISHOP'S COLUMN
The joy of letting (sin) go
I said, well, no one likes being yelled at, even in the name of God! So, is that what it means to evangelize?
When you hear about "evangelizing," do such images come to mind? Do you think of "holier-than-thou" types looking down from their self-righteous perches like they have all the answers and you don't? Sounds more like "proselytizing" to me, and I don't much like it either.
Although the original meaning of proselytism was perhaps less severe, today it has a connotation of beating people over the head to change their religion or ways of living through intimidation, guilt, inflated promises - or even legislation. It has less to do with evangelizing as Jesus did - through inner transformation - and more to do with imposing change outside in.
How does Jesus "evangelize?" In a sense, He never needs to: He IS the Gospel! Christ's life, death and resurrection IS the good news. God became man and took on every bit of our human nature - except sin itself - including death and other effects of sin, so that we could be freed from them. Yet Christ also engaged people to enable them to be evangelizers through the transformation He brings to their lives.
Take the woman at the well (John 4:3-42) - no doubt a soul with a lot of disappointments in her life. She must have been a social and moral outcast, because she came to the well at noon, alone. All the other women would have drawn water in the cooler hours earlier when they needed it and could catch up on the local news. This woman did not fit in.
Jesus goes out of His way to engage her, and with great tenderness and humbleness. He asks her for a drink, putting Himself at great risk for being seen - as a Jewish man - not only alone with a woman, but a Samaritan of ill-repute besides!
So, the first thing we learn about how Christ "evangelizes" is that He is kind and inviting, not condescending. Then He takes a curious initiative: He ignites the woman's curiosity, saying He has something to quench her insatiable thirst - a living water.
Her "thirst," it turns out, is a desire to be loved. She has not gotten this love out of her many relationships. Jesus knows this is making her unhappy, so He has to bring up the topic. She is uncomfortable, of course, and tries to change the subject, but Jesus does not let go. He wants her to know the love she is looking for can be found only in Him - not serial relationships.
First lesson: Noting the sin does not mean condemning the sinner!
Also, how ironic that Christ's own thirst for the woman's soul should lead Him to confront the sin enslaving her. But He does not rub her face in it - for she is the one who has been wallowing in it! So He exposes the sin that is a frustrating, ineffectual response to a deeper love-need that cannot be satisfied by so many "relationships."
She is transformed by the power of His loving presence and runs off with a new purpose in life: to bring others to meet Christ. She now becomes the evangelizer! Note that, now, she is no longer isolated from the community, but becomes a credible witness to the power of God's love.
Second lesson: The liberated sinner becomes the evangelist, the messenger of joy!
Moral of the story? Let go of that sin! This could be everyone's story, if we let Christ address our soul's hidden corners and deepest longings where we struggle with our most unfulfilled and unsettled desires.
Christ can release us from bondage to our sins - repressed through years of denial or visible in various addictions - and free us from the demons that drag us down. When that happens, we can't help but proclaim what Jesus has done for us.
When we allow Him to enter our hearts and move us to repentance, there is no telling what else He'll do. And when He absolves us and sets us finally free to be joyful - to shout, "Alleluia!" - how could we keep our joy a secret?[[In-content Ad]]
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