Why blog this?

"How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them?"

Penn Jillette, Atheist.

      Recently, I sat down for a wonderfully pleasant conversation with one of my favorite High School teachers.  Her theological position is quite a complex one, pulled together from her experiences throughout her long and adventurous life.  Raised in the Christian church, influenced both positively and negatively by Christian pastors, with a good sprinkling of Buddhism, Taoism, Atheistic philosophy, and real life mixed in, she is a fascinating personality and a wonderful teacher.  Honestly, I cannot say enough good things about her, and that's not just because she might one day read this.

     So when we met again after an extended period (I have moved away from my high school stomping grounds, and sadly I do not get back there often enough) we had a lot to catch up on.  How is the family, how is school, how is work, how is life?  She knew I was a Pastor, and wanted to hear all about how things were going with my ministry, and what I was doing with my church, and eventually the topic came around to outreach.  We had a wonderful exchange about reaching out to hurting people and offering them warm clothing, or supporting a local food pantry, and about community meals the churches in my area provide at no cost to anyone who wants to come. 

Then I said "Christ calls us to go out into the streets and tell people.  To tell them how much He loves them and to bring them into His sheepfold.  Christianity is just one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread."  It's one of my favorite descriptions of sharing the faith, because I think it is so very apt.  

"That sounds an awful lot like proselytizing," she said.

"It is. Christianity is a proselytizing faith," I said.

"You shouldn't do that," she said.

And suddenly I realized a logical disconnect from what we had been talking about only a moment before.  It was wonderful, we both agreed, to feed the hungry and clothe the naked and shelter the homeless.  But in the eyes of my friend, it was crossing a line to tell them about Jesus.  I was stunned, and she very perceptively picked up on the disagreement and moved to another topic, but the idea stayed with me.  

When I offer someone bread, it's consumed.  When I offer them a warm coat, it wears out. When I offer them shelter,  usually it is a temporary arrangement.  But when I offer them Jesus... Jesus who

is the same yesterday, today, and forever,

and when I offer them salvation, there's nothing temporary about that.  Like Christ says to the woman at the well, 

“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

 It's not bread that is consumed, or temporary shelter, or clothing which the moths will eat, but eternal life.   And how much would I have to hate someone to not offer them that?