Brisket for the Lost

Smoke a brisket and invite the neighbors to come and partake.

They will bring a bottle of Cabernet and their mostly agnostic beliefs with them. This is the predominant religion of my neighborhood. It is a religion where god is more convenient than the one described in the Bible.

I was once a member of this congregation. I believed in the god I invented because I knew better than to think all of creation is just an accident or some random selection made by nature. I chose this god because of the low cost of a god that aligns with my once-vice-gripped version of what is right and wrong. A god that doesn’t meddle in the details of my life, which I thought I had pretty well under control. I was wrong about that.

Here they come to nibble on our fishing bait. We sit on the deck. It’s a beautiful evening and still too early for mosquitoes. Jan and I want to be salty like the beef. Our strategy is to bring the conversation around and then around again to how God has blessed us. Point out how God has blessed them. Try to reflect the joy and love of God that is in us.

We listen in stereo, one ear to their voices and the other to the Holy Spirit us. God is already at work in all of them; no need to establish a foothold. Just build on the one that the Holy Spirit has already started. What is it exactly?

Sometimes it’s a great loss being grieved over. Sometimes it’s an illness of a loved one. Maybe there is a budget shortfall for some reason. Most of the time, it's just a life that becomes more and more aimless as these neighbors grow older, believing in a theology that has no endgame. We listen. Pulling from a decades-long apprenticeship with Jesus, perhaps we can share a part of our testimony that may apply somehow. Something that will be a catalyst for change. Something that God is saying to us to say to them. Words.

I think to myself, “When in doubt about what to say, quote the Bible.”

The evening ends. Everyone seems to be and says they are happy. Jan and I know we are the only ones who know genuine joy. Seeds have been planted. Having encountered them, we know now how to make our prayers and actions more specific. Harvest is in the future.

While cleaning up, the phone rings. It’s one of the neighbors who wants to know more about the Jesus we were talking about.