As the election draws closer, and more and more people post their political thoughts on Facebook, there's one post that's struck me as particularly true. It's a simple pie chart. In green, the pie chart shows the "percentage of your friends who are convinced by your political arguments and change their minds". In red, the pie chart shows "the percentage of your friends who aren't convinced, but are now mad at you." The pie chart is 100% red!
Convincing people is hard! And yet, when we're passionate about something, and we're sure that we have information and insight that others don't, we're often overcome with the need to share what we think and feel and to try to convince others. We do this with our political views. We do it with our health and fitness ideas. We do it with our financial strategies.
And often, we do it with religion. And many well meaning Christians have interpreted the call of Jesus to share their faith as a call to "convince" others of the correctness of our beliefs and values. Certainly, Jesus didn't send his disciples into the world to say, "hey, this is just one good idea among many. You could take it or leave it." But is it really our job to "convince" others?
Yet that's often the trap Christians have fallen into for centuries. It's not done with malice, but often it works as well as when we try to "convince" others of our political viewpoints. And sometimes, that's because when we try to "convince" others, we appeal to:
- Logic - we try to show the rational reason why we're right; and yet, often that comes off sounding (implicitly or explicitly) like we're saying, "this is the right way to understand the Bible, and if you don't see it like that, you're either not paying attention or you're stupid"...amazingly, this doesn't usually work...!
- Emotion - we try to help people feel the love of God for them, which is great. Unless of course, it turns into "God really loves you, so accept God's love or you're going to hell", which is the way today's parable is sometimes interpreted ... not surprisingly, this doesn't work, either...
- Great examples of changed lives - and of course, Jesus calls us to live changed lives. But often, the change is a change in heart and a change in attitude. And while the change may be seen in what we do, mostly we rely on God's forgiveness. And when we try to present ourselves as morally superior to other folks, it's not only usually not true, it usually doesn't work to convince anybody...
And that's why I find the "punchline" to today's parable really helpful. You know how you're supposed to pay attention to the "punchline" in a joke to understand what the joke is all about? It also works for parables. Sometimes, after a complex and confusing parable, Jesus provides an unexpected "punchline" to tell you what the parable is all about.
And this is today's "punchline": "If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead." And here's the point: Many, even most, people weren't convinced by Jesus' understanding of the law and the prophets. They weren't convinced by Jesus' obedience to God's will. And a half century after Jesus rose from the dead, when Luke's Gospel was written down, they also weren't convinced when they heard that Jesus rose from the dead.
On one level, this parable is Jesus' reminder that there is no sure fire way to "convince" people of anything. That's the one really different piece to this story when compared to other stories like it that people in Jesus' day probably would have been familiar with. In many ancient religious traditions, there were also stories about arrogant rich people being punished in the afterlife, while the poor and down-trodden were comforted. They served as moral reminders not to be arrogant, and to assure people of the justice of the gods...
So Jesus tells a story similar to what people would have already heard and expected, but he adds this punchline. And it seems, in fact, that Jesus is telling his followers - including us - that our job is not to try to "convince" others, not even with the central story of our faith - the Resurrection of Jesus.
So if "convincing" others isn't our job, whose is it? It seems that, over and over again, we get reminded in the Bible that "convincing" is God's work, not ours. Convincing is what the Holy Spirit does in the hearts of people when and where it seems good to the Holy Spirit. It doesn't happen using human logic. And it doesn't happen on human timelines.
Still, this is also not a call to throw up our hands and say, "good, now it's God's job and I don't have to do anything!" Instead, this parable is also a reminder that, while "convincing" doesn't happen because of us, we can be people through whom the Holy Spirit can work to help shape the lives of others.
And while this story has similar motifs to other ancient stories, Jesus uses his version of the story to show us that following him is not about "convincing" but about:
- Listening - convincers need to talk, but Jesus uses this story to show that people who want to be in touch with God in their lives need to listen for what God is saying ... (it's what neither the rich man nor his brothers would do - notice that they're to "listen to" not just "read"...)
- Caring - that's the really tragic thing about this rich man - he noticed Lazarus, and even knew his name; but he didn't care; and often, it's simply through being people who care that others see God working in us ... (in fact, that's really the way the church grew in the first few centuries...)
- Acting - the rich man isn't criticized for not solving world hunger; he's criticized for not taking the simple actions of helping someone at his own gate; and while our simple actions may never convince anybody, they may be the concrete signs that God can use to show his presence in the world to others...
In the end, our job is to share our faith in Jesus by the way we live. It's not our job to "convince." But sometimes, through the way we listen, care and act, God can work to help others experience his love and presence.
That's our job as followers of Jesus. And it's actually more effective than trying to be "convincers." And that's because people who listen share their faith by not being threatened when others don't agree. People who genuinely care share their faith by projecting God's love instead of just talking about it. And people who act, even in small ways that don't get a lot of attention, share their faith by doing what we believe God is doing in each of our lives every single day.
Amen.
