Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence.
Closed doors intimidate me. If your door is closed, I want to leave it alone. I don’t like to knock and ask for admission. I want somebody to welcome me first, and then I’ll cross the threshold. But closed doors intimidate me.
I took my first job when I was sixteen years old. I rode a bicycle and delivered prescriptions and other items to the customers of a small pharmacy. Would anybody care to guess what my pay rate was back in ’54? (That’s 19 – 54!!). It was the princely sum of 55 cents an hour! Now, in order to earn this magnificent wage, I had to ride out to various homes in the community with their orders, ring their doorbells, give them their goods, and collect the money. That felt awkward. I never knew how I would be received. Sometimes I had to listen to complaints about the prices or about how I didn’t get there fast enough. Sometimes people gave me a hard time when I came to their doors. There would always be a problem. Some doors were hard to knock on; some thresholds were not welcoming.
Now, what do you think? Did I do the job or not? Did I go ahead and knock? Or did I back off and return to the store, goods undelivered, bill uncollected? What do you think? Which won over – shyness or responsibility? Personal discomfort or my duty as a drugstore worker? Why?
INTERACT [getting paid mattered]
About the same time in my life, my church decided to conduct a religious census. Now, David Sorrell, just hold back on the “Amens” until I finish this story! My church decided that as a good church that wanted to share its witness, we needed to know who lived in our community. We needed to know whether they had church homes. And so we set out with teams of church members to knock on doors and ask a few simple questions – who lives in this home, and does everyone have a church home? Pretty simple, right? Just get it down on a card – Mrs. Jones is a Presbyterian, Mr. Jones goes to the Catholic Church, and all the little Joneses are happy pagans, right! Simple. Easy. No problem.
Except that my shyness kicked in, big time. This hurt! This was painful! It was relatively easy at the first house I went to, because nobody was home! Hallelujah, thank you, Jesus! And it was almost as easy at the second house, because I knew these people, and, glory be, they were all members of my church already. So I dutifully filled out cards on mom and dad and grandma and four kids. I lingered long at this house. I thought about filling out a card on the family cat, just so I could stay a little longer. No pain at this threshold. Easy.
But then came the third house. Who lives here? I already knew that she was an elderly widow, living alone. And I knew her name. But I didn’t know that key information – where is your church home? I knocked; I listened, hoping she wasn’t home. I’ll give her thirty seconds to answer! But here she came, unlocking that door. Fast on her feet for an old lady! Well, stumbling on my words, with my tang tungled up, I told her why I was there and what I wanted to know, and she said, “Mighty personal stuff you’re asking! What are you going to do with the information if I give it to you?”
What should I have said? What should my answer have been to that question?
INTERACT [need to have had an answer ready!]
She probably thought, they are going to send crowd of missionaries to my house. Or maybe they are going to flood my mailbox with junk mail inviting you to everything from Bible studies to chicken dinners to revival services? I frankly don’t remember what I did get out, but she said, “Well, if you must know, I am Jewish, I go to Temple Adath Israel, and I’m sure you won’t need to contact me.” And she slammed that door! Now that’s pain at the threshold, isn’t it? She was irritated, I was embarrassed, nobody was happy. There was pain at that threshold.
What do you think I did about the fourth house? And the fifth house? Do you think I went to the rest of the block? Did I complete my census assignment? Did I do what I had promised to do, or did I let my personal discomfort get to me? Did I square my shoulders and march down that block, bravely ringing every doorbell and filling out every card? Or did I suddenly develop a headache and turn toward home?
INTERACT
I leave that to your imaginations, except I have heard that buried in some file drawer in an archives room at Deer Park Baptist Church in Louisville, KY, there is to this day a little package of yellowing census cards, wrapped in a decaying rubber band, and tagged with a label, “Assignment left unfinished by Joe Smith”.
I
Thresholds. Pain at the threshold. There is a potential for hurt whenever you approach any closed door. And I am not talking just about physical doors now. I am talking about what happens when people encounter each other, and the agenda is sharing the faith. There is a potential for pain whenever we are called on to share our witness. The apostle Peter knew that. Peter was not blind to that. He spoke freely of pain and suffering in his letter. He was aware that the church folks of his day were under duress. But he says, “So what?” “What does it really matter? “So what?”
Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord.
In other words, if we’re doing the right thing, what are they really going to do to us? Who is going to harm us while we share our witness? The answer is nobody. Nobody will harm us for doing what is right. But we feel some pain about it anyway. That little moment of embarrassment we feel, that’s not about others. That’s about us. That’s coming from inside us. If they laugh at us or reject us, so what? That’s really nothing.
And, Peter says, even if they do hurt us, that’s a blessing. It’s a blessing, because now we are a little bit more like Christ. Christ suffered rejection and degradation, and we get to be like Him, so give thanks! When we try to share your witness, there may be a little pain at the threshold, but so what? It’s worth it.
But let’s probe this pain at the threshold thing a little further. Let’s go deeper with this. We need to discover more about why we feel what we feel when it’s time to share a witness with someone. Just what’s going on with us when we say, “Oh, I can’t talk to anybody about Christ”? Just what is inside when we feel, “Oh, I could never talk to anybody about faith.” What’s that all about?
II
Use your imaginations with me. Imagine that you, right now, are at your home. And somebody’s knocking at your door. What can we learn from this?
A
At your door are a couple of adults, with two or three children just behind them. They have a stack of literature in their arms. I’m going to be on the outside of your threshold. You respond to me.
Good afternoon. I’m Witness Peter, and I’d like to share this literature with you. It’s all about the things that are happening right now.
INTERACT
This paper is called The Watchtower, and it will tell why things are happening as they are. May I leave this with you? It’s only a few cents.
INTERACT
Do you know what Jehovah is doing in the world today? Do you know that Jehovah is preparing for a great end time, and it will be soon?
INTERACT
The true Bible, the New World Translation, tells us that Satan was cast down and Jesus began to reign in heaven in the year 1914. So we are now beginning the battle time, you see. It won’t be long.
INTERACT
The elect will number only 144,000 to rule with King Jesus.
INTERACT
Jesus didn’t die on a cross. That’s a pagan thing. Jesus died on a torture stake. And Jesus wasn’t resurrected physically; He was made a spirit Son named Michael.
INTERACT
What do you feel when you are up against a Jehovah’s Witness at your threshold? What emotions surge through you when you engage them at your door?
INTERACT
The issue is readiness. We don’t feel ready. These folks appear to know their Bibles. And well they might, for they spend night after night, training to share their faith. Small wonder that to everything we say, they turn quickly and point out something that we don’t know about. We are the ones feeling pain at the threshold, our own thresholds, because we don’t know. We are not ready. We have not taken care of what Peter tells us to do:
Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you.
Always be ready. But we are not. The church offered Sunday School, but it was too early in the morning. The church offered midweek Bible study, but it was too close to dinnertime and we’ve worked a long day. The church offered discipleship courses, but we heard they called for forty-five minutes a day in God’s word, and that’s too much. And so of course there is pain at the threshold. We are not ready! Of course we feel intimidated by those who know their faith. We are not ready! And of course the idea of knocking on anybody’s door, the idea of opening up a conversation on spiritual things, the very notion of broaching with anyone his relationship to God – these things bring pain to our emotional thresholds. Why?
INTERACT
We are not ready. Hear Peter again, and hear him well:
Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you.
But, for shame, we are not ready. And that means pain at the threshold of our witness.
B
All right. The Watchtower merchants have left, and you go back to your private life, maybe a little shaken. Guess what?! The doorbell is ringing again; and this time you see young men, neatly dressed, fresh and youthful. They have parked their bicycles, and they are at your door. Who are they?
INTERACT
Again, although it may stretch your imagination a little thin, I’ll be that fresh-faced youth, and you be you, at your door.
Good afternoon. I’m Elder Peter, and we have something to share with you that will make your life better.
INTERACT
We have the Pearl of Great Price to give you, and you can learn from it the secret of eternal life as preserved in the true church.
INTERACT
I’m glad you know about the Bible. It is a testament of Jesus Christ. Now The Pearl of Great Price and the Book of Mormon, they are other testaments of Jesus Christ. They are witnesses to his visitation here in this blessed land. America is great because Christ has blessed us in a special way.
INTERACT
If you were a part of the true church, we could help you with your needs. Food? Clothing? We can help, if you are one of us.
INTERACT
We have other books that you might like. I’d like to come back in a few days and bring them, and we can talk about what you’ve read. When may I come?
INTERACT
We’d like to study God’s words with you. We will come back.
INTERACT
Now what do you feel when the Mormon elder has left? Is it a vague notion that this guy is too good to be true? Is it that you are a little envious of his polish, his confidence, his charm, and his graciousness?
INTERACT
Why does he bring pain to the threshold? What makes us feel uncomfortable with this exceedingly polite young man? He brings gentleness and the respect. He communicates dignity and charm. But with us, religious discussions often end up in shouting matches. With evangelical Christians, spiritual dialogue degenerates into oneupsmanship. With us, it’s not witness anymore, it’s trying to win an argument. With us, it’s promising everything and delivering nothing. Christians talk about love, but end up bruising each other. Church folks speak about caring for one another, but we don’t even take the time to learn one another’s names. Folks, there is pain at the threshold when the Mormon missionary comes, because you can be pretty sure that despite his off-the-wall theology and his peculiar reading of history, he leads a life of integrity and he is committed to charity. There is pain at the witness threshold for us, because our witness is marred by the infighting that goes on in too many churches and because our testimony for Christ is in empty words and not in acts of charity and kindness. There is pain at our threshold, and there ought to be. There ought to be.
Listen again to Peter. Peter says that we are to be ready to give an account of the hope that is in us, and we are to do it with gentleness and reverence. Do it with gentleness and reverence.
Evangelism has a bad name out there in the world because so many folks who attempt to do evangelism do it for their own egos and not out of love. Too many share a superficial, hit-and-run witness, but too few will truly care about others. Friends, until we can lift up the least, the lost, the last, and the lonely, who are just beyond our thresholds, our witness will be weak and our testimony will be powerless. Until we can not only get our head religion right, but our heart religion too, no one will be attracted. Until the world may know we’re Christians by our love … and by our gentleness … and by our reverence … and by our sacrificial lives … until the world may know we are Christians by our love, nothing will happen, nothing but pain at the threshold. Give an account of the hope that is in you, by all means, but above all, do it with gentleness and reverence, with love and respect.
III
One day, at another threshold, the author of this passage of Scripture had a very strange experience. The Book of Acts tells us that Peter, the same Peter who later wrote this letter, had been in prison for a while. But he was suddenly released one night, and he went to where the church was holding a prayer meeting. The big fisherman knocked on the door, and a little servant girl named Rhoda left the praying long enough to go and answer. When she heard Peter’s voice, instead of opening the gate and letting him in, she went running back inside to tell the others and left poor Peter outside in the rain! I imagine Sister Rhoda felt a little pain at the threshold because she failed to let Peter in!
But when Peter did come in – how instructive! How right on target! Acts says he described first how the Lord had brought him out of prison, and then he said, “Tell this to James and to the believers”. There it is. That’s what witness is. Tell what the Lord has done for you. Tell what the Lord is doing in your life right now. Tell what the Lord is calling you to do. Just tell what is going on in your life, and there will be no pain at any threshold. Just tell the story of grace, and your shyness will melt away. Your confidence will increase. And your pain will vanish into joy.
Why, as a teenager, did I deliver the drugstore goods, even when it was painful, but I wouldn’t deliver the spiritual goods to my neighbors, because of pain at the threshold? I delivered the drugstore goods, because my boss said I had to, and if I didn’t, I wouldn’t get paid. But I forgot the consequences of disobeying what my Lord told me to do; I didn’t count the cost of His suffering on the cross for me. I didn’t know I was missing the joy he had set aside for me. So I got stuck because of pain at the threshold.
“Keep telling the story, be faithful and true; let Jesus [first cross the threshold], let Jesus come into your heart.” Then you’ll have a story to tell. Then you’ll be ready to give an account for the hope that is in you, and you’ll do it with gentleness and reverence. Then there will be no pain at your threshold; only joy. Only joy.
