We have come to the end of another message series. Over the past six weeks we have been looking at the next steps to a better you. We have emphasized that we are talking about discipleship, that by following Jesus Christ we add value to our lives. This is a truth that too many of us were never told as we grew up in the Church. For too long parishes focused more on nagging people, especially about money, instead of challenging them on the intellectual and spiritual level.

Discipleship is a journey, and like any journey it is made up of steps. This message series has been about the key steps for becoming a great disciple, because God wants us to be great. These steps are simple, even if they are not necessarily easy.

These steps represent a life style choice, the choice to grow in a relationship with Jesus Christ, to allow Him to transform us. We summarized this life style choice with the acronym STEPS:

“S” is about service in a ministry and/or a mission. Jesus referred to Himself as a servant, and that is what He wants His followers to be too.

“T” is about tithing and giving. Last week the deacons talked about this: or at least that is what they were suppose to talk about, I wasn’t here so if they did not talk about the four “P’s” of tithing – Planned, Priority, Percentage and Progressive – let me know after Mass. God is the giver of all our gifts. We need to learn to love the Giver more than the gifts, and then learn to use our gifts to worship and honor Him.

“E” is engage, which is how we talk about small, faith-sharing groups. We were made to be in relationships. We are just not going to be as successful in our faith without friends in faith who help us go further, faster.

“P” is the practice of prayer and the celebration of the sacraments.

“S” is sharing our faith, and that is what we are talking about today.

Today’s Gospel offers us an important lesson in sharing our faith. As I have mentioned before, the 12 Apostles assumed that Jesus would one day be king, as in an earthly king. They thought He would lead a revolution, kicking out the Romans, to become the king of Israel.

In today’s Gospel passage, two of the Apostles, James and John, approach Jesus with a request: basically they want positions of privilege and power when Jesus becomes king.

The other Apostles get angry with James and John, but not for the right reason. Instead of getting angry because they were asking for the wrong thing, they get angry because they didn’t ask Jesus first. Jesus sees this in-fighting, and He knows that He cannot allow it to go on. He does what all good leaders do; Jesus tackles the issue head on.

Calling them together, Jesus says, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt” (Mark 10:42). Like the Romans and most people of their time, the Apostles want authority and power so that they can use it to take advantage of others.

But Jesus continues by making a radical statement, “But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all” (Mark 10: 43-44). Jesus is explaining to them that in God’s eyes, the person who serves the most is the greatest, the one who is counted first of all will be the servant of all. And why is that so? Because: “For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

Today when we hear the word “ransom” we usually think of a kidnapping. However, in Jesus’ day a ransom actually referred more to a debt. If you were in debt to someone and you couldn’t pay it off, you would become the person’s servant and work off your debt. Unless someone else paid the debt off for you. That was a ransom.

Jesus teaches the Apostles, and us, that He has come to pay the ransom for humanity. That we are all born in sin, and while that might not make us a bad person, it does make us a slave. It means that even though there is good you want to do, you don’t do it, and even though there is bad stuff that you want to avoid, you do it. Sin is why we yell at our kids even though we don’t want to. Sin is the reason why we don’t diet and exercise like we would like to, and why we hurt the people we love the most.

While God created the world good, through disobedience sin messed everything up. Sin can be so pervasive and persistent in our lives that it is a form of enslavement. Sin creates a debt that we cannot pay, but it has been paid for by Jesus’ death on the Cross. Jesus is the ransom for sin, and He pays it out of love. It is a ransom we do not deserve, we did not earn it, and we could never work our way out of the debt. There is only one thing we can do with the ransom that Christ Jesus paid for us: SHARE IT!

Gospel means “good news” and that is what we are called to share. As the current crisis in the Church demonstrates, from time to time the Church has been quite effective in making the Good News sound bad and sad and scary. But Jesus gave it to us, and it is the greatest news of all time.

It is the Good News that we do not have to be a slave to sin. It is the Good News that even when we fail and fall there is another chance and fresh start waiting for us. It is the Good News that we do not have to be a perfect person for God to love us.

If we have Good News and we really believe it, the thing we cannot do, the thing we should never do, is keep it to ourself. Think about it; if we get a big promotion, do we not tell our family and friends? When you get engaged, don’t you want to tell everyone you know? Or when you ace a test at school, or find out you are going to have a baby? Good news has got to be shared.

Sharing the message of our faith can seem challenging. First, if you grew up Catholic, there was virtually no emphasis on this, so it doesn’t seem very important to most of us. Second, we may have seen it done badly through intrusive, and maybe even offensive methods. Finally we have no strategy to approach this step. In our society today, where religion has been marginalized and not talked about, a strategy is essential.

We cannot do much to change our past experiences, besides putting them behind us, but we can do something to help develop a strategy.

Our strategy for sharing the Good News is simple. It is called “Invest and Invite.” We need to invest in the people we know – people in our families, our neighborhoods, parents from our kids school, dance class, or sports teams. We need to invest in people we know who do not have a relationship with Christ and His Church.

We invest in them relationally, conversationally, and prayerfully. We spend time with them. We talk with them, listening to what is happening in their lives, and sharing with them what is happening in ours … and how we see God’s blessings in them. We commit to praying for them every day.

Then, when the opportunity arises, and it always eventually does (God sees to that), invite them to church. Offer to take them to church or meet them there. Promise them breakfast or coffee afterwards.

As a parish we are going to do our best to make the Sunday Mass a great experience. Of course there are still things we are working on in that, but we can work together by simply smiling and greeting guests gladly and warmly.

Sharing our faith is elemental and essential to discipleship, which is all about following the Lord, step by step, on the path of greatness. It is following the Lord step by step in the direction of discipleship; a little bit more today than yesterday and a little bit more tomorrow than today. In the process we discover a more successful and greater way to live.