Have you ever paid close attention to those interviews done with athletes or coaches before and after various sporting events?  It doesn’t really matter what the game or the athlete or the coach.  The words all sound the same.  Pre-game interview:  “Coach, can you tell us what your game plan is today?”  “Well, we need to execute well and score more points than the other guys.”  Post-game interview:  “Coach, can you tell us why the other guys beat you today?”  “Well, we didn’t execute well and they scored more points than we did.” 

Sportscasters could probably save themselves a great deal of trouble by just running the same interview over and over again regardless of who’s playing what because it there are millions who are hanging by every word simply because they say it.  It’s all about who’s saying what more than what is being said by whom.  There must be some private language that only athletes and those who love sports understand and appreciate.

My fourteen year-old son can listen to those interviews and get enough stats out of them to talk for two hours.  And, because he loves sports that much and I don’t, I have had to learn that caring about him means learning to read the sports page so he and I can still have something to discuss.  If he ever learns calculus as well as he can quote the receiving statistics of nearly any NFL wide receiver, I will have a Nobel prize winning scientist in my home before this is over.  On the other hand, if I don’t learn to read the sports page, we’ll barely be talking by the time he’s sixteen.  He means that much to me, though.  So, I’ll learn to speak whatever language he does so that I can talk to him in a language he appreciates.  If I wait until he appreciates the vernacular of a middle-aged Baptist preacher with sermon writing on his mind most of the time we may never have a meaningful conversation. 

Have you ever noticed how difficult communication can be even when you speak the same language as the person to whom you are speaking?  That’s because communication is as much about being understood as it is about being heard.  And, understanding is more the task of the one doing the talking than it is of the one doing the listening.  A mother and her sixteen year-old daughter may both speak English but whether they are communicating well has a great deal to do with how much mom understands the world daughter lives in.  Parents who want to be heard eventually learn to understand the world of their child so that understanding is as much what they communicate as what they say.

This is why parenting can be tough.  We have to learn to understand how we’ll be heard when we speak if we want to be understood when we are heard.  Parents who want to communicate well with their children, for example, need to remember that small children will tend to take what they hear quite literally. 

After one church service a little boy went up to his pastor and said, “When I grow up I’m going to give you some money.”  “Well, thank you,” his pastor replied.  “But, why do you want to give me some money when you grow up?”  And, the little boy said, “Because my daddy says you’re one of the poorest preachers we’ve ever had.”  Sounds like dad has some work to do on learning the difference between being heard and being understood.  Don’t we all? 

Just yesterday, while I was feverishly putting the finishing touches on this sermon, I picked up the paper only to discover that the lead story in the religion section is about how certain religious groups, such as Jews and Hindus, are gearing up to defend themselves against the latest Southern Baptist evangelistic onslaught.  People getting defensive around Baptists?  Go figure!  Well, some time back, the Southern Baptist Convention announced it latest effort to specifically “target” Jews and Hindus for conversion.  Now, some of those groups have announced their latest efforts to protect themselves from the good intentions of the SBC.  (“Toward a firmer foundation,” The Dallas Morning News, Saturday, February 05, 2000, G 1, 3)  Who can blame them?

Over against the concept of targeting, listen to the apostle Paul again.  You decide which of the two approaches will work better.  “I have made myself a slave to all so that I might win more of them.  To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews.  To those under the law I became as one under the law . . . so that I might win those under the law.  To those outside the law I became as one outside the law . . . so that I might win those outside the law.  To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak.  I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some.”

We do have a legitimate dilemma on our hands.  On the one hand, we claim to believe a message, “the gospel,” that has some exclusive claims.  Specifically, that only through faith in Jesus Christ does one have hope of eternal life.  Now, as a matter of logic, if you believe that what you believe is absolutely true, then you must also believe that those who don’t believe it along with you have to believe something else that is absolutely false.  We claim to believe something exclusively true about God that is called, in short, “the gospel.”

Unfortunately, over the years, this great gospel ship has grown some barnacles.  Somehow or another our “gospel” has gotten confused with certain social mores or moral issues that, in some cases, may have legitimate value but are not, in themselves, the essence of the gospel.  For example, because we have often not been careful to appreciate how we would be understood when we spoke, there a lot of people out there who think that when we ask them to believe in Jesus, we are, at the same time, asking them to swear they will never drink another beer or go to another dance.  Now, whether one should drink beer or go to a dance or attempt both at the same time or not is one question.  But, it’s hardly on the same level as one’s decision about faith in Christ.  Not to mention the fact that, because Baptists are an increasingly diverse community of faith, we’ve really confused some people.  There are actually people out there who don’t yet know that Baptists weren’t parachuted in from some other planet called Zion.  We’re actually a very diverse people made up of diverse backgrounds from this same planet. 

You see, some Baptists have never and never will drink a beer.  And, then, there are, well, others.  At least that’s what I hear.  A few years ago Nancy and I were at dinner with a group of singles from Wilshire Baptist Church.  When the waitress came up to our table she asked if anyone wanted something from the bar.  Before anyone could say anything else, one of the women at our table said, “No, we’re Baptists and we don’t drink . . . in front of each other.”  No wonder there’s confusion.

So, let’s try to clear it up at least a little.  The “gospel” to which Paul so passionately has referred is the simple message that God loves all, sent His son to die for all, raised His Son to eternal life for all so that all who believe in Him may have all that God wants for them.  The call to repentance and faith, is not so much a call to stop drinking beer or dancing or chewing tobacco as it is a call to stop not believing in Jesus and start trusting that He has forgiven you and will, if you allow, empower you to start the journey toward becoming all that God created you to be.  It’s not just the history of what God did.  It is about what He is still doing.  In a sense, doing what we call “evangelism” ought to be as simple as saying, “look what God is doing.”  What God is doing in the world.  In your life.  That’s it. 

Now, again, part of the dilemma, as I said, is that there is something exclusive about that.  Believing in Jesus, according to the New Testament, is not the same as believing anything else.  To believe in Christ is to exclusively trust Him alone for one’s hope of eternal life.  That’s what’s exclusive about the “gospel.” The other dilemma is that we live in a whole world full of people who don’t believe that.  Jews.  Hindus.  Buddhists.  Hundreds and hundreds of other people groups.  What do we do about them?  Do we target them?  Paint a gospel bull’s eye on their spiritual backside and take aim?  Do we compromise what we believe so as to not commit the unpardonable sin of our generation which is to fail to be pluralistic? 

Now, before I go any further, I must confess that I have many unanswered questions about what God is going to finally do with this terribly confused world.  I haven’t yet come to peace within myself about how God is going to finally deal with the millions and millions who are born and die without ever hearing of Jesus.  I know that I believe in Jesus, in large part, because I was born in the southwest United States in the twentieth century into the home of some good Baptist people.  And, I know that God cannot possibly be that limited in either His love or His commitment to redeeming the world that only those born into Baptists families in the southwestern United States will ever see heaven.

But, what I also believe is that Jesus died for the sins of all men and that God has made no provision for the salvation of mankind except through the birth, death and resurrection of Christ.  I really believe that.  Which again begs the question.  What do I do, do we do, about those who don’t believe that?  That is the second of our dilemmas.

Listen again to the first man to deal with this dilemma on a large scale.  “I have become all things to all people that I might by all means save some.”   I’m not exactly sure what all that means.  But, I know it means a great deal more than targeting a people group.  It sounds like love.  It sounds like trying to understand those to whom we will speak so that what we communicate is not just information but understanding.  It sounds like what God did, what we celebrated at the communion table this morning, when, in Christ, God “became flesh and lived among us . . ..”  (John 1:14)  It sounds like what we must learn to do if we are going to be God’s people in God’s world.

We must learn to take a step toward what they are before we can expect them to ever take a step toward what God has for them.  Now, this isn’t easy.  If you choose this course you will likely feel that you are losing some of yourself along the way.  You may find that you don’t always know how to act in certain situations.  You may find yourself, as Jesus did, misunderstood by those more interested in rules than the people the rules were meant to serve.  You may find yourself tempted with sins that never before bothered you.  You may find yourself stumbling and having to start over again.  But, “for the sake of the gospel,” there is no other way. 

It’s tough.  We come to church and feel like we have to act one way among those who expect a certain standard of us and then find ourselves going out into a world where people never heard of Jesus.  A Jesus who is far more concerned about people who are self-destructing than He is about the specific means they may use to do it.  A Jesus who knew the difference between a glass toasted in celebration and using a glass to get toasted.  A Jesus who can make your heart dance with joy even if your preacher said dancing was a sin.  How do we live in so many different worlds and maintain our sanity?

I received the most marvelous letter this week from one of our dear ladies.  What I am about to say is an extreme oversimplification of what she said.  But, basically, she was confessing the same sense of inadequacy many of us feel at church.  Though she fears that she will embarrass herself if she gets into a conversation about the Bible she’s also celebrating a newly found hunger to read God’s word.  And, she is also celebrating newly found joy, as she said, that God “no longer frightens me.  I stand in His presence, unworthy for sure, yet knowing I’m forgiven, accepted and loved.  In my heart of hearts, I know His opinion is the only one that matters.”  Sounds like “the gospel” to me.

Honestly, this letter was one of the most marvelous Christian testimonies I’ve ever read.  I could have read it this morning as the sermon and been better off for it.  Toward the end of the letter, expressing her concern for those around whom she works who don’t know Christ, she said this.  “I find it easier to be a witness to my co-workers, without really trying, than to fit in at church sometimes.  Because I know what is expected of me here and because I know I’m a good worker, I don’t constantly compare myself to anyone else – being ‘who I am’ comes naturally to me.  I always have devotional materials at my desk.  I keep an extra Bible here, and many days I take it to read when I go . . . for lunch.  Occasionally, someone will ask me about it, and I have an opportunity to share a little.  As you know, it isn’t always necessary to say anything.”

Well, she said a lot, didn’t she?  She really said it all.  What more can we do or should we do than accept our responsibility “in (our) hearts (to) set apart Christ as (our) Lord (and) always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks (us) to give the reason for the hope that (we have)?  (1 Peter 3:15, NIV)  Whether we do that across the desk at work, across the street or across an ocean on another continent if we can live in such a way that people see that, even though we don’t have all the answers, we do have a lot of of hope they may want to know what’s going on.  There is just something about being full of about peace and hope in a confused world that speaks its own private language of understanding.  A language that always says, in a language nearly everyone understands, “look what God is doing!”