I was not going to answer.
The doorbell rang this morning, and when Mike is not home, he has told me I do not need to answer the door.
Peering through the peephole, I saw an older man and a young boy. I still was not going to answer, just because I did not want to, but I felt compelled. I picked up a few tracts I keep by the door and turned the door knob.
The twelve-year-old boy held out a glossy flyer with a face of Christ on it. The man stood behind him holding a stack of flyers. “Would you like to go to a Jesus Memorial next Saturday?” the boy asked. “Would you take one of our flyers?”
“Is your church having an Easter service?”
“Sometimes we use the rodeo arena,” explained the older gentleman, “but this year we are meeting at Kingdom Hall.”
“Oh!” I replied. “We do not believe in the same Jesus. He is fully God and fully man.”
Just that quickly, the man mumbled something and left. I was a little surprised because Jehovah’s Witnesses would usually want to get into a discussion. I suspect he did not want to do that with the boy present.
The whole idea of a memorial service for Jesus struck me as so odd. Again, in hind sight, I think I would have said something to the effect that Jesus is alive, not dead!
Also, I did not want to open my door and I did not pray before opening my door. If I had been thinking about THEM, instead of ME, I could have had a better attitude and said a quick prayer, which may have resulted in a different ending to this story.
So, I offer this story in case someone comes to your door this week and invites you to a Jesus Memorial. You can be better prepared than I was. I also wrote on my Sower Tools website this week about some different ideas you might try for reaching out to people at Easter.
“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” 1 Peter 3:15b NIV
6 comments
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March 17, 2008 at 9:36 pm
Yorkshiresoul
I find the Jovies attitude towards mainstream Christianity to be a little odd, they often call round at my place, and whilst they themselves are polite and charming, I find their message a bit disturbing and unsettling.
March 22, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Yorkshiresoul
I am given to understand from the Jovies that visit me that (according to them) when I die, my soul will exist for an undetermined period in purgatory before I am judged by Jesus when Armageddon comes.
I’m Christian Church of England, and we tend to be a lot less fire and brimstone than that.
That said, I’m not the world’s best practising Xian either, I’m a bit like the old gospel song “I’d like to be a Christian.”
March 24, 2008 at 3:47 pm
mikeandsus
Thank you for visiting, Mike.
I’ve put some links together about Jovies at http://thesowertoolsandtips.wordpress.com/2008/03/21/jws/ that I hope you will find helpful.
May 25, 2009 at 9:48 pm
alyson
http://www.answers.com/memorial
They do not attend the Memorial service because they feel Jesus is dead.
If you read the definition of memorial you’ll see, it doesn’t mean remembering dead people.
May 25, 2009 at 10:52 pm
alyson
Also, Jesus specifically says, “Remember Me this night.”
To Remember = Memorial
May 25, 2009 at 10:54 pm
alyson
Easter stands for Eostre the goddess of fertility. Doesn’t really mesh with what was happening to Jesus at the time.