Once again, as we’ve been doing on the second Sunday of the year for the past few years,

we’ve

remembered those members and friends of this congregation who have died. We remember the “cloud

of witnesses” who have gone before us, to use the term from Hebrews. We give thanks for their

witness, for their presence in our lives, and in the life of this congregation. We give thanks that they

have heard, as the writer of Acts puts it, “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit

and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for

God was with him.”

As I reflected on Grace and Jerry and the others who’ve died this past year, and in the years since I’ve

been here, I wondered how they first heard the Good News of Jesus Christ. Sometimes I hear about

how they came to know Jesus and were baptized as I talk with them in the midst of the life of the

church. Sometimes I find out how they came to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior when I talk with

family in preparation for the funeral. Often times, I don’t know how they’ve come to be followers of

Christ.

Not that the how is all that important, of course. It doesn’t really matter if they came to church as a

child because their parents made them attend, or came to know Christ as Lord later in life because a

friend told them who Jesus was and is. It doesn’t matter if they were raised in the church, as I was, or

if they came to know Jesus Christ as the Apostle Paul did, following some dramatic “Damascus Road”

experience. What’s important is that they came to be followers of Jesus Christ.

Yet having said that, it would be nice to know the hows, because you and I are called to witness to the

truth of Jesus Christ and I sometimes wonder if we’re being as obedient to this teaching as we should

be. Matthew tells us that Jesus said, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name

of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have

commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” In this morning’s text

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from Acts, we’re told that Jesus “commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the

one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead.” I wonder. Are we being the witnesses

we’re called to be?

Robert Webber, former professor of worship at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote in his

book, Journey to Jesus: Evangelism and Education, “The purpose of the church in God’s world is to

embody the Christian message, to proclaim it, to enact it, and to anticipate God’s eschatological rule

when all will be under the reign of Christ. In brief,” Webber wrote, “the church is a ‘witness’ to

God’s mission,” and he went on to list 8 things the church is to do from “embodying in community

what a redeemed people can look like” to “enlisting the world in expectation of Christ’s coming to set

up his kingdom to rule forever” to “modeling living exemplary lives.”1

Webber wrote that we as the church, the body of Christ on earth, do this kind of missional evangelism

indirectly. This evangelism, he suggests, “arises out of relationship in the family, the neighborhood,

the workplace and social situations. It doesn’t depend totally up the person giving witness. It

connects with the support system provided by the community that lives under the reign of God. The

Christian brings the unchurched to a healthy vibrant community of faith and, through association with

an embodied community, faith is discussed and caught as the gospel is overheard.”2

“This form of personal contact,” Webber states, “is the primary means of bringing people to Christ

and the church. For example, according to the research of the American Growth Institute, people who

come to church come because they have been influenced to do so by: Evangelism Crusade: 0.5%,

Visitation programs: 1%, Special Need: 2%, a specific program of the church: 3%, they simply walked

in: 3%, by the Sunday School program: 3%. They were influenced to come to church by the Pastor:
1 1. Webber, Robert, Journey to Jesus: Evangelism and Education, Nashville:
Abingdon Press, 2001, found in Pulpit Resource, Vol. 33, No. 1, Year A; January,
February, March 2005, p. 11.

2 2. Webber, p. 11.
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6%. They were influence to come to church by friend or relative: 79%. 79% of people who come to

church come because they’ve been influenced to do so by friend or relative.3

This doesn’t mean that a friend or relative has to brow-beat the person until they finally agreed to go

to church. This doesn’t mean that the individual will come immediately after being invited to church.

Sometimes these things take years and years. But clearly the percentages suggest that people come to

church because they’re invited by friends or relatives or those in their social circles.

My guess is that this is how those whom we remember this morning came to know Jesus Christ as

Lord. They were invited by a family member to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ. They were

invited by a friend to discover what the friend knew: that Jesus was and is the Son of God. They then

went to church and they experienced the love of God made real in the people at church. This is what

happens when people come to this church and are open to the love of God that all of you share with them.

They, too, come to know Jesus Christ.

As we remember these who have gone to be with our God, may we commit ourselves to being witnesses to

God’s love so that others may know God’s peace, God’s hope, God’s mercy. May we commit ourselves to

inviting family and friend and neighbor to come to this place to hear the love of God proclaimed and to be

encircled in the loving arms of this congregation. May we be an inviting people, witnessing to the forgiveness

of God.

3 3. Webber, p. 11.
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