In the eighth chapter of Luke we find a moving and dramatic story of a man with a great difficulty, possessed by demons. Society has cast him out by saying, “Stay out of town, go to the hills and caves; keep away from us.” Jesus reaches out with his healing hand and rescues, renews, and redeems the man. Then the healed man says to Jesus, “I want to be with you and go with you wherever you go.” Jesus turns and says to the man, “Go home to your friends how much God has done for you.”

The man obeyed. A few months later when Jesus returned to that area the whole city came out to see and to hear him. Before that they had been unfriendly. Then the healed man showed them what Jesus has done in his own life. A man became a Christian where he was, and changed a whole city!

There is not greater task in the world, no better opportunity, no great responsibility, no more fun-filled experience than to be a Christian where you are. And there is no more challenging and more fulfilling assignment than to share the Good News, to demonstrate its power in our lives, and to invite people to meet the One who is our Lord, to accept the Christ who is our Savior.

Now many Presbyterians (though I doubt they have the exclusive franchise) have a wonderful way of responding.  It usually begins something like, “Wait a moment, we’ve got to put our own house in order.” It continues, “We’ve got to discover what we really believe; we’ve got to do a self-study; we’ve got to set up a committee on evangelism; we’ve got to analyze the social and religious situation; we’ve got to study the complexities of the modern mind.  Then we’ll be ready to share with others what Christ has done in out lives.”

But when we really get honest with ourselves and with God and have examined all the reasons for our reluctance, it has to do with the depth of our own loyalty to Christ. It is hesitancy about our own commitment that makes us unwilling to issue the invitation to anyone else.

Conversely, it is when we are close to the Lord, when we realize most vividly what Christ means in our lives, when we awake to the thought of what it would mean to us to try to live without Christ that we are irresistibly drawn to make him known.   It’s time for action, not for delaying.