August 9, 2026 · Rev. Dr. James Olson · Romans 10:5-15; Matthew 14:22-33
Having once scored low on evangelism, Rev. Dr. James Olson redefines it with the line attributed to St. Francis: preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words. Like Peter stepping out of the boat, we're called out of the comfort of these four walls to live so that people want to know where our strength comes from.
Transcript
Well. Good morning. When someone discerns that they want to go to seminary. There are a variety of exams and questionnaires and inventories that you fill out. Mostly they just want to know that you're the right kind of crazy to go to seminary. But one of the things that we take as a thing called the strong interest inventory, and it's used for other professions as well. There's a version of it specifically for clergy and it rates all sorts of different characteristics teaching, preaching, you know, administration. One of the things that evaluates is evangelism. Now a long time ago, I, I'm a lifelong Congregationalist. I grew up in at First Congregational Church in Randolph. And back then, when I heard the word evangelism, I pictured the Salvation Army out there on a street corner with their, you know, baritone and their drum and their, you know. And so as you can imagine, I scored really quite low on sort of my ability to evangelize. And I learned in seminary that that was actually okay, because I had the wrong idea about what evangelism looked like. It's not necessarily door knocking or standing on the street corner with a sign or, you know, the guy at every golf game since about nineteen fifty with the John three sixteen, just behind the camera, just behind the guy who's about to tee off. That's not true evangelism. It's a form of it. It is, but that's not what was being asked on this inventory, and it's not what our call is fully.
I learned in seminary that there was a beloved Saint Francis. Some of you who are former Roman Catholics know Saint Francis quite well. Others, we know who he is. Most important thing, I think, that Saint Francis ever said was this in all things preach the gospel if necessary, use words. And I think that unlocked for me, and I hope it unlocks for you this idea that our lives as Christians, what it is that we are called to do is to live a life that is so gospel filled. That people automatically recognize who we are and what we're about without us ever saying so.
Paul in this morning's New Testament reading, is addressing the church in Rome again. New communities of faith. No real idea, no real history yet of what a Christian community was supposed to look like. And if you read a lot of Paul, you recognize that Paul, like Jesus last week when Jesus looked up to heaven and it was not a sacred moment, it was an eye roll. Paul spends a lot of time, I think, quietly, just taking that one deep breath before he says something he regrets to these communities of faith. And this morning's scripture lesson is one of those moments where the church in Rome really was not getting it about what it meant to be, about the business of sharing the faith That that the Romans either weren't doing it at all or they were being obnoxious about it. He says, to us, salvation is found in simple belief that faith in God. And for us, for us as Christians, faith in God through Christ is all that is needed. It's all that is needed for salvation.
Remember, Paul is writing to people who remembered being very, very recently remembered being either pagans or Jews, both of whom had lots and lots and lots of rules and laws that they had to obey in order to gain salvation. Other traditions didn't necessarily phrase it that way. Some it was God's favor or the favor of the gods, plural. But the idea was the same that that to be approved by whatever deity you believed in, You had to behave a certain way. You had to act a certain way, you had to live a certain way. And if you didn't, you could lose that favor. And Paul reminds us. That for us, who are Christian? Us, we who claim the name of Christian, that it is only faith in that God through Christ that matters.
Now that is not licensed to go out and misbehave. Please do not hear that. That is what I am preaching to you. I am not saying if you're going to sin, sin boldly so that grace may abound. That's actually not what Paul said. Why am I looking at my friends in the front row? But that we must simply trust and believe that the promises of God made to us through Christ are all we need. That we have a God who loves us, who wants us to be happy. Thank you, Ben Franklin. And that we not need worry in this life about the next one.
That is a very different message than you were going to hear from other branches of our Christian family. He, Paul asked the questions, how are they? Meaning any who call on the name of the Lord to proclaim that salvation. We must simply just believe and live. We are called to witness publicly to the Good News in Jesus Christ that God's love is for everyone and it is not fenced off or restricted. It is not fenced off or restricted.
Last week we talked about the abundant love of God at the table and here at this church and at many churches, we practice an open table. If you are here with us on Communion Sunday, you are welcome to receive communion. And we put no restriction around that. None whatsoever. It is the abundant love of God, and I am certainly not going to get in the way of someone receiving a sacrament because they haven't fulfilled a rule, a law, because whatever human made reason.
The other side of that, though, is that we are given the responsibility, the duty to live our lives out in the world as if God actually loves us, as if we believe the good News, as if we believe in the teachings of Christ and if necessary, out in the world to use words. I'm always tempted whenever I'm at a new church to put a little sign over the door where usually it says exit. That door is not an exit, it is an entrance. It is an entrance out into the world, where we have the duty and responsibility to act as if we are beloved children of Christ, beloved children of God.
In this morning's gospel lesson, Jesus Comes across the lake and sees Peter in the boat and asks him to do what Peter believed to be an impossible thing. Which was to get out of the boat and come to Jesus. It is a dramatic story, and you've all seen portrayals of it in movies and on TV. But the storm itself, the external storm where Peter is in and comes across the water, is not the important part of that story. The important part of that story was the doubt and the storm inside of Peter, where Jesus called to him and said, come and do this thing. And he did. And he had a moment of weakness and doubt, and he started to sink. And Jesus said again to him, come on, you can do this. And he did.
Jesus asks us to step out of the comfort of this new wave. Literally boat to step out of the comfort of these four walls. To step out of the comfort of our quiet lives, where our faith is internal, where we're all terrible at evangelism. And to be out in the world in a way that is so lovely and so attractive, and makes people want to come and see where we get that strength from.
I just watched a little podcast, which I'm somehow going to figure out how to make available to everyone where this theologian seminary professor writes about boring church. And how there is a difference between churches that entertain and churches that build discipleship. And she makes a good point that it is the quiet, steady, repeated, repetitive practice of coming to church and singing hymns. Some new, some old, but that tie us across time and space with those who have gone on before, and to those who will come after us. To hear Scripture that is two thousand and three thousand and four thousand years old. Again and again. And to be about the job of quietly evangelizing ourselves first so that we can then go out into the world.
I think it's fitting that our nickname is the Old Sloop. Because this is the safe place. This is the shelter in the storm. This is the place where you might have gotten married, where you raised your children, where you see your grandchildren in the Sunday school and in Vacation Bible School, where you might be a newer member. But this reminds you very much of other places you have been The architecture of this church reminds me very much of the church that I grew up in in Randolph Center. And that familiarity is a ground, is a foundation under which I can then build a ministry with you.
Saint Francis said, in all things, preach the gospel if necessary. Use words. Our challenge today, this week, this year that we will have together, is to figure out how to be in the world out there in such a way that folks might come in the door and see what we're about, and then maybe we'll grow a little bit. The growth is not the goal. The growth is the benefit. The goal is to be a place that makes disciples, that helps individuals grow in spirituality and in love. That helps give people the energy and the bravery to do the things in society that need doing that are hard to do.
I was a little critical at the beginning of my sermon of the Salvation Army. Not critical really. Whatever you think of the Salvation Army, they are the ones that roll their sleeves up often in communities and do what needs to be done in ways that many, many, many of us would not do. In all things, preach the gospel, and if necessary, let us use words. Amen.