Evangelical (yes, I said it) Faith.

Texts:
Psalm 150
Jeremiah 30:1-11a
1 John 3:10-16

In Jeremiah, we read of the restorative promises of YHWH.  1 John complicates this, though, refusing to allow us to be passive recipients of the grace offered to us.  Grace would be so much easier if it did not pressupose and did not insinuate that it was a gift meant to be shared.  It would be so much easer if, at its core, our faith was not an evangelical faith.  Yes, I said it: EVANGELICAL.  It is time to reclaim this word for what it is.

(Are you ready for another tangent, based upon a single word, that will hopefully tie back into the texts but, let's be honest - it might just be another rabbit hole I've found to distract myself?)

What does the word evangelical mean?  It is a much bigger term than ascribing to or giving intellectual assent to a particular set of beliefs and practices.  No, it is much more difficult, much more nuanced, and much more insidious.  To be evangelical is to be a person of the promise, to understand that this promise transcends our lives, uniting us to one another, binding us to one another, and making us one in a way that is uncomfortable and awkward.  It welcomes the Other when we would rather not be welcoming.  It sees the face of Christ in the stranger in front of us.

Several weeks ago, a young woman came into our church.  Her caked-on makeup was running down her face, her thick mascara smeared down her cheekbones.  Her black sweatsuit left her midriff exposed.  She came in with a gentleman; I had assumed they were a couple.  They sat in the back row, as it seems to be customary for newcomers to our community (what would it look like if our churches invited newcomers to sit in our midst, in our habitual pews, scooting over to make room for a new brother or sister?).  As she came up for communion, I asked her name and told her, "This is the body of Christ, given for you," which have to be the most powerful words I know to speak; humbling and mystifying, there is no substitute for the times I say those words and catch my own breath and choke on my tears, realizing I actually believe that it is true.  

After church, several people welcomed she and the man with whom she attended church (!), and as the week transpired, I learned more of the story.  The woman had never seen the man who came to church with her before in her life. She was standing outside our church building, looked at him and said, "Will you come to church with me?"  And he did.  It was a "normal," church service, my sermon nothing to write home about, the liturgy the same one we had used for several weeks and yet, at one point during the service, the woman was moved to tears.  Why, I will never know.  All I know is that there was something that moved in me that day.  Sometimes, I wonder if these two were like the strangers that came to Abraham and Sarah, like the "stranger" on the road to Emmaus, teaching us what it is to be evangelical, opening the promises of grace and truth to show us that they are much bigger than what we previously thought.  It humbled me to know a woman whom I had never seen before had the courage to ask a stranger to attend church with her.  I, who have spent three years in theological education, who can jump through theological hoops like a trained circus dog, got schooled on what it is to be evangelical.

To be evangelical is to live into the reality of God's grace and into the promises made manifest in Christ.  It is to live into the complicated mess of faith, knowing it does not give any hard-and-fast answers, but walks along the way with us, helping us put ourselves back together when we break, and binding up our wounds.  It is to limp along, leaning on and providing support to the others limping along with us, unsure of our steps, but confident in the journey.