Someone's Gotta Be Sent - New Evangelizers

Today’s First Reading for the Feast of the Apostle Andrew captures the passion of St. Paul and glorious victory we have in Jesus Christ’s salvation won for us! Writing to believers in Rome, Paul breaks into fantastic rhetorical emphasis, exclaiming:

But how can they call on him [the Lord] in whom they have not believed?
And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard?
And how can they hear without someone to preach?
And how can people preach unless they are sent? (Romans 10:14-15)

With this sequence of questions, Paul walks us back through some cause and effect relationships that help us re-frame how we view the non-believer. Sometimes, when we think of those who do not believe (i.e. the unchurched, unevangelized, “fallen-away,” “non-practicing,” etc.) our practical conversations focus on them in terms of their deficiencies.

For example:

• Didn’t he go to religious education? Why doesn’t he know the faith?!?
• Why are they asking to have their daughter baptized when they don’t even go to Mass!
• She doesn’t follow the Church teachings in the voting booth!
• His worldview is just plain anti-Christian!

But Paul walks us back from worrying about the deficiencies of others, to focus on our distinct actions.

Question 1: But how can they call on him in whom they have not believed?

Paul’s first question reminds us that only those who have believed in the Lord Jesus can call on Him for the help, wisdom, and power of the Holy Spirit to be the people God created us to be. This means it’s misdirected angst for us to be up-in-arms about what someone who is not a believer doesn’t do or say, if those actions and words are only what one would expect from a disciple of Jesus.

Question 2: How can they believe in him of whom they have not heard?

Paul’s second question is arguably as relevant in our modern, post-Christian society today as it was in ancient Rome. It’s easy to think that since the name “Jesus” is one that almost everyone knows, Jesus as Lord, Savior, and Friend is something people are actively rejecting. But this is not the case. “Jesus” is synonymous with all sorts of teachings and actions that aren’t the fullness of his Gospel message. It’s only when people experience the real power of Jesus through our witness and words that belief can emerge.

Question 3: How can they hear without someone to preach?

Each of us should imagine the Apostle Paul asking us this question today. How is each of us, baptized and empowered by the Holy Spirit to be a preacher–in the positive, fullest sense of the title? What and who am I announcing? Who are my audiences? Am I a “resounding gong or a clashing cymbal” (1 Cor 13:1) or am I speaking a word of love? Who is alone, isolated, or on the margins–how can I go to them?

Question 4: How can people preach unless they are sent?

Again, another question worth considering on a personal level. Who am I sending? Who am I encouraging, building up, supporting in friendship, sharing my resources with? Who do I consider my fellow “preachers” in similar vocational calling or situation–how are we strengthening each other? Am I (even inadvertently) holding anyone back or preventing them from being sent due to my own pride or desire to protect “turf”? How can I send someone as an act of self-giving love?

In these questions St. Paul reminds us that our response to seeing those without faith isn’t to blame, judge, or dissect all the reasons why–but to make sure we are doing the work of apostles, sending and being sent to introduce the world to the person of Jesus.

Colleen Vermeulen

Colleen Reiss Vermeulen, M.Div., M.N.A., blogs, ministers in parish life and lay/deacon formation, and serves as a U.S. Army Reserve officer. She and her husband, Luke, have been married since 2011 and live in Ypsilanti, MI with their two young sons.