Minister: Kirsten Barlow

Just Walk Across The Room: “The Power of Story” September 23, 2007

Luke 5:12-15 (The Message) One day in one of the villages there was a man covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus he fell down before him in prayer and said, "If you want to, you can cleanse me." Jesus put out his hand, touched him, and said, "I want to. Be clean." Then and there his skin was smooth, the leprosy gone. Jesus instructed him, "Don't talk about this all over town. Just quietly present your healed self to the priest, along with the offering ordered by Moses. Your cleansed and obedient life, not your words, will bear witness to what I have done." But the man couldn't keep it to himself, and the word got out. Soon a large crowd of people had gathered to listen and be healed of their ailments.

For the last two weeks we have been talking about ways that we can share our faith with others, that’s called evangelism. We talked about how we need to be alert to situations in which the Holy Spirit is prompting us to Just Walk Across the Room to connect with someone else: How we need to get out of our comfort zone and be willing to share the love of Jesus with others in small and big ways.

Last week we talked about how to live the 3-D’s. Developing friendships, discovering stories of others, and discerning next steps.

But, what do we do next? What if we have done all of that and one of the next steps is to begin to share something about who we are as a Christian with that person? The words that we use are very important.

Words. They can be helpful or hurtful; they can be clear or confusing; they can be thought provoking or meaningless. So, let’s think for a minute about words. I am going to see if you are really awake tonight/this morning. I am going to call out a word and you tell the person sitting next to you the first thing that pops into your mind. OK?

Here we go: Mona – Did anyone say “Lisa”? Football – Did anyone say Air Force or Broncos? Vacation – Did you say, “I need one!” O.J. – OK, I don’t want to know what you said in response to that one! Born-again Christian - … Ah, did that last one generate some interesting comments?

Maybe your response was, “Oh, please!” That phrase tends to have negative connotations in our culture, doesn’t it? It kind of connotes someone who maybe is a little over the top…a little overzealous. Someone who miraculously has figured it all out and now tells everyone about it whether they want to hear it or not?

Maybe the phrase, evangelical Christian brings similar images to mind. 2 What if Christians…any type of Christians were known simply as people of compassion…of kindness…of love. If Christians were known as folks who told the truth…who were humble…who reached out to others regardless of gender or race or ethnicity or health condition or….they really love people…they really love God…I can see it in the way they live…the way they talk…the way they act…

I wonder if this wasn’t what Jesus was trying to show us during his time on earth. He was trying to show God’s love in all that he did.

Is that what Jesus was trying to do in the scripture that we read today? Was he just trying to show God’s love?

Certainly a first century hearer of this story would have thought that Jesus was crazy touching a man with leprosy.

Leprosy was a horrible skin disease. It varied in severity from being just a bad skin disease to being a skin disease that ate away at one’s flesh until people’s limbs underneath the skin dropped off, eventually killing the patient.

It was believed to be contagious and incurable. As a result no one except another leper would touch a leper. As a matter of fact, lepers weren’t even allowed to live near non-lepers. They lived on the outskirts of the community and were outcasts of society. They couldn’t get physically close to other people. They even had to yell out “Unclean, Unclean” as they came upon other people. Because of this isolation, fear, and separation from society, leprosy was not only a physical disease, but it became psychological as well.

The man approached Jesus…that was a bold move. But, he probably thought…I’ve got nothing to lose. I am going to die anyways, so what’s the worst that can happen? Based on what I have heard of this guy, Jesus, maybe he can help me. The worst he’s likely to do is to ignore me or send me away.

So, the leper took a leap of faith and said to Jesus, “If you want to, you can cleanse me”. You see the leper put it in such a way as saying…Jesus, I believe that you can do this if you want to …the question is just – do you want to heal me?

…and Jesus reaction was radical…he said, “I do want to heal you….be clean.” And then Jesus touched the man and immediately the leper’s skin was clear of any disease…any decay…any blemish.

Now, in and of itself this is an example of Jesus’ miraculous healing power, but it is what happens next that I want to focus on.

Jesus tells the man to go and show himself to the priest. The priest was the one in Jewish society that had the power to reinstate someone into the community. If the priest examined the leper and 3 declared that he was clean, then the leper could rejoin society…he would no longer be ostracized.

Jesus asked the man to show himself to the priest, not spend his time talking all over town about what had happened. Can you imagine the scene though? Here is this man who everyone knows to be a leper and suddenly he is walking through the town looking as if he has never had leprosy. One person after another stops him and says, “Aren’t you that guy Joe that has leprosy? Haven’t you been banned from this area?...but wait…you don’t look like you have leprosy. What happened to you?

I can imagine the man being so excited that he just can’t keep quiet. He just has to say, “I just met Jesus and he has healed me. I was facing a death sentence from leprosy and now I have another chance at life.”

Don’t you think that those people who stopped to ask him about what happened began to wonder about this Jesus guy themselves?

It was a simple story that the healed man told, but what a powerful story! Because of the story he told, large crowds began gathering around Jesus to listen and to learn more about who this guy was.

Stories…and the words we use to tell them - are important! If we are going to be the kinds of people that Walk Across the Room to extend ourselves in friendship and love, we need to remember this.

FIRST POINT: How we tell God’s story of who He is and what He has done makes a difference. Do we talk of a God who created us in his own image, who loved us so much that he let us make our own decisions, even when some of those decisions caused us to wander far from God. But, who loved us so much that he didn’t leave us wandering, but who sent us his Son that we might be able to have an example of how to live and how to love. A Father who gave his Son that we might have life…the life that God has always wanted for us.

Or…do we talk of a God who is harsh and judgmental…a task master to whose standards we can never live up.

How we tell God’s story either makes God appealing to those who don’t know him or it drives them away. We have to learn to tell God’s story well.

SECOND POINT: But, don’t worry…you aren’t in this alone. Trust in the Holy Spirit to guide you. Don’t be like the people in these videos. Do you think they helped draw people closer to God by the way they told the story?

- SHOW VIDEO CLIPS – back to back

Neither one of those approaches seemed very appealing to me…did they to you?

You get the picture…it is important to tell God’s story, but people also want to know how God’s story has intersected with our lives.

Isn’t that what made the story of the leper so powerful? It’s much less personal if the leper said, “Oh, ya. I saw this guy, Jesus. They say he has healed a bunch of people.”

Instead he says, “I was going to die of this awful disease…alone…separated from my family, separated from my community, but then I met this Jesus guy. He touched me and cured me of my disease. He gave me back my family, my community, my life! I was dead for all intents and purposed, but now I am alive.” Wow! That is a much more personal and powerful story. Isn’t it? Believe it or not, you have a story to tell, too! Learn to tell it well!

THIRD POINT: How do we know when we are supposed to tell our story? Well, we have to pay attention. We have to listen for an opening and then to sense whether the Holy Spirit is prompting us to share something about our faith with that other person.

A few weeks ago, when I was at physical therapy I encountered a young therapist that I hadn’t worked with before. As she readjusted some of the torture devices attached to my back, she casually said, “So, do you have big plans for the weekend?”

I thought, “Oh boy, should I just say no and leave it at that or should I say something about what my plans really were for the weekend.” I felt a prompting to say something more definitive than “oh nothing” and so I said, “Well actually the weekend is my busy work time.” The therapist said, “Oh, what do you do?” I thought, I’m really in deep now and so I said, “I am a pastor and we have both Saturday and Sunday services at my church so the weekend is usually pretty busy.”

Then she said, “Oh, what do you do during the week?” I resisted the temptation to be a smartalec and say, “Oh, nothing…I only work one hour on Sunday.” Instead, I tried to give her a synopsis of what I did during the week: meeting with people who needed to talk, praying for the needs of the congregation, meeting with other staff members to plan the weekend services and other activities, etc., etc.

I am not sure that I did a very good job. I was lying face down on a table while trying to be as concise and yet as interesting as possible. I couldn’t see her face to know how she reacted to what I said…I trust that God will use what I said in her life. I don’t know how, I don’t know when, but I trust that God will use it to bring her closer to understanding and knowing Him…someday. I am just responsible for listening to God’s promptings as to how to answer her questions and then to following through.

But, I’ll admit that I still need to work on being able to share my story clearly and concisely.

Perhaps we all do. You’ve all been in those situations when you have asked someone a question and then soon begin to regret that you have asked. Believe me, I know the signs. I learned to tell stories the way my mother always did…with lots of detail and background. I still often catch myself as I answer a question doing this…and I catch the listener (sometimes it is Marv) looking at the clock or some other distraction and I realize…ok, I‘ve got to get to the point and fast!

We need to not be like Ingrid in the video clip, using language that no one understands. We can’t be like the man who followed and pretend to be holier than thou. We need to be able to tell our story of how God has made a difference in our lives and we need to be able to tell it well. That’s what I am going to ask you to work on this week: Telling your story.

In your bulletin, you have a card that looks like this (hold up the card). It asks you to write down your faith story (what your life was like before you came to know Jesus Christ and your Lord and Savior and what your life has been like since) in 100 words or less. Remember, we are trying to be clear and concise. What can you tell someone about how God has made a difference in your life in 60 seconds or less that will be compelling? Just the basics in clear and easy language…and if they have questions, then you can go into more detail.

It’s just like when I used to have to make presentations in front of all of the bank presidents about which loans we were going to have to write off of our books, because the borrower was never going to pay them back. My boss said to just give them the basic facts (Just the facts, Maam!) and if they had questions answer them. Otherwise lay it out short and sweet and then sit down!

You can either write your story on the back of the card and then bring it back next week and drop it in one of the baskets at the back of the worship area or you can e-mail it to the address on the card. If you’d like feedback or follow up, then please give us your name and how best to reach you. We won’t share these with others unless you say it is ok.

So…if I had to share my faith story with someone what would I say? If someone asks me why I left banking to go into the ministry (and they have) what would I say? Well, I think I’d say something like this:

I had a great job, but I just wasn’t happy…it wasn’t enough. I thought, “What do I want to be when I grow up?”…I kept asking God, “Is this all there is? Is there something else that I am supposed to be doing?” The answer began to unfold as I got more involved in my church. I found that I worked my “day job” to allow me to spend my nights and weekends at the church. When I realized that God was calling me into full-time ministry, I felt the weight of the world 6 lifted off my shoulders. I miss some of the people that I worked with, but I don’t miss my old career and my old life. (OK, well that is 119 words…so maybe I still need to work on it!)

Before…despair…after freedom.

What’s your story of how God has worked in your life? Are you ready to share it with others as you Walk Across the Room?

Let’s pray…