Romans 6:1 [1]b-11    Matthew 10:24-39 [2] [2]

There are many different chapels inside of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. This ancient church marks the traditional site where Jesus' crucifixion, burial and resurrection are celebrated and remembered by pilgrims throughout the world. I had read through guide books and walked alongside many tours during the year I lived there, but none had taken me inside of a chapel I stumbled upon one day in a remote corner. Back behind some materials for doing renovations, I saw some steps leading down into a cave. Inside of the cave or grotto, there were carved out stone places to sit and look at a wall that had three enclosed sections also carved into the rock on the other side of the cave. Thick metal grated doors securely attached to the rock almost completely blocked off the view of what was behind them. Upon closer inspection of one of them, I could see that behind the grate, there were unlit candles and a blackened picture that had a dull, golden frame around it. The entire enclosed area was covered with black soot making it difficult to see anything. After seeing all of the polished gold and silver in the other chapels around the church, I walked away thinking that had to be one of the ugliest chapels I had ever seen.

Not long after that some of my Syrian Orthodox friends took me and an Australian friend of mine with them to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. They took us directly back into that ugly cave which turned out to be a Syrian Orthodox chapel in the church. And although they were usually having fun and joking around, our friends immediately became quiet when they entered this chapel. They told us that the framed pictures behind the metal grate were icons of Mary. They told us how they had been visiting this grotto since they were young children. They told us how their mothers would come and just sit in silent prayer looking intently at the icons during times of trouble in their lives and how they now do the same thing. They ended by saying that if you stare at the icons for long enough, you will see Mary crying. I thought they were joking until I turned around and saw the tears running down their own faces.

At that moment, nothing I had read in my tour guide books or heard on the tours could compare to this--not the history, not the architecture. What I experienced in that ugly chapel that day was living faith being shared with me by my friends in a very real, but somewhat different way. They named the beauty they saw and experienced. They pointed out a meaning that was deeper and more real than my superficial observation. Because they shared what was sacred to them, I, too, began to see a deeper beauty and meaning.

The sermon series we are in right now is about telling the story. Our gospel text from Matthew today prompts us to share our faith with others when Jesus says: "²⁷What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops." But this can seem like a daunting thing for many of us to do, especially when we read the stories about the early Christian community in the Bible. 

I am teaching a class on the Book of Acts right now and we are reading about how the first apostles can't help but share what they have seen and heard over and over again. The speeches we read in Acts come out so eloquently. Peter interprets how Jesus' presence is still with us through the Holy Spirit on several occasions and Stephen recounts all of Israel's history as he boldly shares his faith in Jesus Christ.

I do believe there is a time for these kinds of speeches and for this kind of sharing of one's faith, but different situations call for different ways of sharing. When you have been turned over to the authorities on false charges like Stephen or when political and religious persecution are part of daily life like they were for Peter and Matthew's community, then speeches like these are quite appropriate.

But sharing our faith in our daily lives, at least in many of the places where we live, rarely involves making an eloquent speech. As a matter of fact when I think of speeches, I think back to my high school days in Dallas. Growing up in the Bible Belt South, I had many friends rehearse their "Have you been saved yet?" formulaic speeches with me.  It's like they were told: First you say this, then you say that, then you quote this Bible verse..... To me, this kind of sharing seemed a bit forced. It didn't seem like they were sharing God's love and forgiveness that had touched their lives. Their God worked in neat packages and had easy answers. I needed a God who would enter into the chaos of my teenage years.

Living faith in real life happens and grips us in real life ugly, messy situations-sometimes in fantastic, miraculous moments and sometimes in barely noticeable moments that act as a lens helping us to focus and become more aware of the clarity and purpose that God has for our life.

Recently I was talking to someone about something else and one of the questions launched him into sharing his faith story with me. He told me that he was sustained during a self destructive period in his life because it felt like God's light would shine on him every once in a while. In the midst of many years of self-loathing and self-hatred, if only briefly, he would occasionally receive clarity about the enormous love from God that he didn't feel from anyone else. Then he told me about someone who came into his life, helped him to see how God loved him, how to love life and how to love others once again. This was real living faith that he shared with me.

When we hear stories like this, when we hear and witness the love and joy being poured into someone's life, with all of its flaws and errors, we are enriched in our own faith because it helps us to see how God can work so differently in each of our lives. This then helps us to open our own eyes and see how God is reaching out to us in our personal lives and in the life of our communities.

"Telling in the light and proclaiming from the housetops what you have heard whispered" doesn't always mean you have to have the right thing to say though. Sometimes telling the story is done with our actions. Sometimes telling the story is living abundant lives and naming the Source of the abundance that you are spilling over onto others. And then sometimes, telling the story and sharing your faith is as simple as showing someone what you love.

Several of my colleagues in youth ministry have a saying: "Faith isn't taught, it's caught." Don Miller explains how this happened to him in his book Blue Like Jazz when he tells how he came to like jazz music. He writes, "I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn't resolve. But I was outside the Baghdad Theater in Portland one night when I saw a man playing the saxophone. I stood there for fifteen minutes, and he never opened his eyes. After that I liked jazz music. He continues by writing, "Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself. It is as if they are showing you the way. I used to not like God because God didn't resolve. But that was before....."

As you hear and experience Jesus' love for you and the world, you too will be transformed and transfixed by this love. You will begin to close your eyes and hear the familiar love song that God is playing in the midst of your life. This love song is one that will free you from the insignificant concerns of this world and free you for the things that concern God. God's vision for this world is revealed in the life and ministry of Jesus. The promise is that as God's vision is whispered to you, you will be given the power to proclaim it from the housetops.

As a first step to sharing your faith, I encourage you to share one real life story, no matter how ordinary it might seem, with someone who might find themselves inside of a church on a Sunday morning. You may be asking the same question we find at the beginning of Romans 6 [3]: "What then are we to say?" The Apostle Paul says that you should "tell how you consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus." In other words, you point out how you have seen beauty in the seemingly ugly parts of your life. You point to the deeper mystery, the deeper beauty, and the deeper hope that isn't easily described with words. You fumble for words, you ask questions, but you point to something beyond the superficial lonely place that so many people find themselves in today. Then as a second step, try beginning a deeper conversation with someone who you would not see in a church on any day of the week--maybe a neighbor or a co-worker. It might even be a family member.

During the past week, every time I turned on the T.V. to watch the news, I heard one anxiety-ridden news story after another. Skyrocketing gas prices and the toll being placed on the environment, the rise of unemployment and more housing foreclosures, food shortages and rising food prices on almost every continent, the role of technology and the rise of the middle class in India, and the pros and cons about continuing US troop presence in Iraq. Stories being told close to home and on the other side of the world seem to be getting louder than they have in the past.

One response to the crises of our day is to cover our ears, close ourselves off, and protect ourselves from whatever may come. Another response is to open ourselves up to others and share the deeper hope and meaning that can transcend the immediate anxieties we might be facing at this time. There is an alternative story that needs to be told, sung, played and pointed to.

We can point to the beauty of God's vision for the world that cannot be shaken by the fears of today. We can tell about a God who is so concerned about you and me and all of creation that every hair on each of our heads is counted and numbered. We can tell about a God who brings hope in the midst of seemingly hopeless, ugly situations and we can point to our living faith and trust beyond death because of the hope we have in Jesus Christ.

Our world is crying out to hear this message in whatever way is real for you to tell it. No fancy words are needed, no eloquent speeches need to be written. The story you tell can even be in the form of a love song that doesn't resolve. Our world needs you to name and point to the deeper beauty and meaning in what seems to be the ugly caves in our lives like my Syrian Orthodox friends did with me.

After all, the promise of real Easter hope is much more than what can be seen in an empty cave. Easter hope and faith comes from living in the love of Jesus Christ. And as you are filled with Christ's love, you won't be able to stop yourself from proclaiming it and singing it from the housetops. Amen.