I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that I planned to visit you many times, although I have been prevented from coming until now.  I want to harvest some fruit among you, just as I have done among the other Gentiles.  I have a responsibility both to Greeks and to those who don’t speak Greek, both to the wise and to the foolish.  That’s why I’m ready to preach the Gospel also to you who are in Rome.  I’m not ashamed of the gospel.  It is God’s own power for salvation to all who have faith in God, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.  God’s righteousness is being revealed in the gospel, from faithfulness for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous person will live by faith.’                                               … Romans 1:13 – 17

As Jesus was preparing His disciples for His ultimate departure, He told them that they would one day stand before kings and princes and give testimony to their faith in Him.  I wonder if those common Jews – fishermen, tax collectors, zealots, – were able to comprehend what He was saying.  I wonder if Peter imagined standing before Nero, or if John foresaw the day he would be exiled to Patmos.

Being continually filled and re-filled with the Holy Spirit, those common, ordinary Jewish men, and a handful of women, took the Gospel from “Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria, and to the utter most parts of the earth.”  And along the way, trouble found them at every turn.  It was said of them, “Those who have turned the world upside down with their teaching have come here also.”  So, they were persecuted and mocked; they were alienated and ostracized; yet, they went on proclaiming – with lifestyle and with voice – the gospel of Jesus Christ.  A later convert and Apostle, Paul could have spoken for the rest when he wrote to the church at Rome … “I am not ashamed of the Gospel.”

In a Christian culture, it’s easy to be Christian!  It’s easy to share your faith and let everyone around you know what you believe and in whom you believe.  But we’re not in Kansas anymore.  Ours is not a Christian Culture.  While the vestiges of Christendom remain visible here and there, ours is now a post-Christian (or as I prefer to call it, a pre-Christian) culture.  In a Pre-Christian world, we tend to be a little more withdrawn when it comes to proclaiming the Gospel.  In a culture that believes Christians to be close-minded, out of touch, out of date, old fashioned, and irrelevant, it’s a little harder to proclaim the Gospel with life and voice without experiencing some kind of backlash.  This will not change tomorrow, or the day after, next week or the week after, etc.  So, what are we to do?

Perhaps we need to reconsider where Peter, James and John (and Paul) found themselves.  They too lived in a pre-Christian world, an increasingly hostile environment.  And yet, with life and voice, they proclaimed the gospel.  Inspired and lead by the Holy Spirit, they stood in market places and private homes and told the story of Jesus’ life, suffering, death, and resurrection and exactly what that meant to them and the different it had made in their lives.  They weren’t ashamed!

Am I?  Are you?

There are parents who don’t know how to share the faith with their own kids and kids who don’t know how to witness to their own parents.  It’s unnatural.  It’s not easy.  How, then, can we share the faith with strangers?  With associates at work?  With neighbors across the fence?  What we need today is a holy boldness to proclaim the Gospel … with our lives and with our voices … across the street and around the world.  In cooperation with and in opposition to the ways of this world.   As Mr. Wesley said: “Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin, and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergymen or laymen; such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.”

O God, give us those “preachers,” those holy proclaimers of your Gospel – men, women, and children – who will proclaim with voice and life the difference you have made in their lives.  Let us no longer fear, but be filled with faith as we read the stories of those long ago who trusted in you and never regretted it.  And so, let us proclaim it until Christ is seen in us and your Kingdom comes more perfectly among us.  Amen!