Jedi Mind Trick Evangelism

Image via Wikipedia

As a Pastor, I find myself wishing I could use the Jedi mind trick on people to get them to do what they should do.  No mess, no fuss…just a wave of the hand and a few simple words to convince people that they need to live for Jesus.

If only it were that easy.  If the Jedi Mind Trick were and effective evangelism I could sit on my couch while watching my favorite TV shows after having Jedi mind tricked whoever passed by me that day and in know time the world would be made Christian.  It would mean I would never have to fear rejection. I would never have awkward conversations about my faith.  I would never have to show or compassion to anyone.  I would never really have to share the Gospel.  How easy it would all be if the Jedi Mind Trick was an an evangelism tool?

It seems to me that while I can’t imagine anyone employing a Jedi mind trick approach to evangelism, we tend to look for the magic formula or the quick and easy way to reach people for Christ with a minimal amount of effort.  We do what we can to avoid making people feel uncomfortable or to avoid rejection and we almost but never really share Jesus with others using actual words because we are afraid.  I know I am often hindered in sharing my faith because I allow my fears to dictate my behavior instead of allowing God’s love for me and others to drive out the fears in my life.

To see others come to Christ more often than not requires hard work, relationship building, trust building, and sacrifice.  It requires us to rely on the work of the Holy Spirit in our life and in the life of the person that we are building relationships with instead of cheap tricks and tactics that allow for us to sit idle without doing the hard work.  Much is required for those who follow Christ…the cost of making disciples is high.  If we are going to make disciples a simple wave of the hand will not work.  Magic formulas won’t work.  We must involve ourselves in the lives of others (and our communities) as messy as that might be so that the Holy Spirit can provide  opportunities to bear witness to Jesus in the messiness of life.  Those opportunities will not come to us as we sit on our couch hoping that God won’t ask anything to difficult of us or as we wait for him  give us everything we think we deserve in the form of big houses, cars, or money. God isn’t so much interested in our best life now as He is interested in his followers living up to the calling That Jesus left to us to make disciples.

And do you not remember?

I have been taking a class on the Practical use of Mark and in my reading, I came across a phrase that I have been meditating on the last couple of days.  The passage in my Mark that I was reading was Mark 8:14-21:

¹⁴The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat. ¹⁵“Be careful,” Jesus warned them. “Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.”¹⁶They discussed this with one another and said, “It is because we have no bread.”

¹⁷Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? ¹⁸Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember? ¹⁹When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?”
“Twelve,” they replied.

²⁰“And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?”
They answered, “Seven.”

²¹He said to them, “Do you still not understand?”

The particular phrase in the text that I have been thinking about is “And don’t you remember?” from verse 18.  How easily we forgot all that God has done for us when the next scary situation enters into our life.  Even though our Lord may have just provided us with our need moments prior, we still forget His blessings and His grace. I know life is scary sometimes, but may we always remember what God has done for us in the past so that we can have the faith and confidence to trust Him in the present and in the future.

Father, may we always remember your faithfulness to us so that in and through Jesus, we might remain faithful in trusting our lives to you.

A light in the darkness…

I have been thinking a lot about the traditional Lenten things that each of us us are supposed to be thinking about at this time of year.   I have been considering thing like sin, forgiveness, penitence, repenting, and the like.  As I have been pondering those things over the last week, God continues to bring me back to a couple of verses that I read about a month ago in Luke.

Luke 1:78-79

Through the heartfelt mercies of our God, God’s sunrise will break in upon us. Shining on those in the darkness, those sitting in the shadow of death, Then showing us the way, one foot at a time down the path of peace.   -the Message

Over the last few weeks I have come to really appreciate those two verses.  I can’t imagine the Gospel message being summed up more poetically than that.  I love the image of God’s sunrise breaking in upon us, the light of Jesus Christ casting aside all of the darkness in this world.  The phrasing here reminds me of the words in Psalm 23  where the Psalmist reminds us that even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death we have nothing to fear.  Luke reminds us as the Psalmist did, that even if we find ourselves in the dark places of this world, God’s sunrise will break in upon us.  We will not be left alone.

As we continue toward Easter and reflect on all of those things that come along with the Lenten and Easter season, may we all look forward to God’s sunrise where sin and darkness are driven away by the love and Light of our Father who leads us down the path of peace.