The Million Dollar Question

"The Million Dollar Question! Take this, it has the Gospel message on it!"

Being both a Christian and banker (well, bank teller at least) a combination of money and Gospel is something that at least piques my interest, particularly if they are being used in conjunction to evangelize.

The story was sort of an odd one. I had just arrived at Ballston via the metro after a day of "gaming" with a few friends, and my wife who was working at our second job (a small teddy bear store in the Ballston Commons Mall) called and asked if I could relieve her so she could run an errand. I said that was fine and began walking towards the mall, which is only about 5 minutes from the metro station. As I was walking towards my destination a woman, short (mind you I'm 6'3 so "short" is rather relative), dirty blond hair, somewhat large in build, glasses and a smile approached and spoke the quotation at the top of the post. I nodded politely, took her fake million dollar bill and continued walking. I stopped at the crosswalk just across from the mall and took a few seconds to skim paper that had been handed to me. Aside from being the wrong color and size for real currency (which makes sense; you wouldn't want to get in trouble for printing fake money that isn't even an attempt to scam people) the front had a portrait of Rutherford B. Hayes and patriotic pictures of Bald Eagles, American flags etc. The back of the bill had an image of Washington crossing the Delaware and forming a parenthesis around the image were two blocks of text.

This is where I started to cringe slightly. The first block of text began by listing various sins, using the Ten Commandments & The Beatitudes as references, referring to blasphemy, lust, drinking, and the list went on. Goal? Establish guilt in the reader and set them up for the second paragraph. The text asserted that the reader must be a sinner and that their soul was going to be damned. Rather Calvin of the text at this point, given that it just flatly assumed damnation, rather than simply making clear that my soul was in peril, but not guaranteed to go to hell.

I began to cringe even more at the second block of text, asserting in rather Arminian terms, that I had a choice. Jesus had suffered and died for my sins, that he had, in an almost legal sense, gotten me off the hook of God's wrath, and if I embraced this suffering and death I would be saved (emphasis on the past tense). It also may very clear that I had to "trust" in Jesus ALONE (it actually had "alone" in caps lock, so apparently the person who made this must have been expecting Catholics or Orthodox to be handed this?), read and obey my Bible as the only authority (and then some side reference to the Holy Spirit as guidance. Apparently the third person in the Trinity isn't as important as the Bible).

I think I can honestly say that all of this went through my head in the one minute I was waiting for the walk signal to give me the OK to cross the street.

I walked into the bear store, and my wife was getting ready to head out when I announced that I had been given a tract and that I wanted to go back and talk to the person who had given it to me. My wife reminded me that I needed to close the store first. As she left I grumbled something about how the text was like one of her interim pastors sermons.

As I closed the store and made my way back to my apartment (which is also only about a five minute walk from the metro and would take me back past my would be evangelizer, I read the text again. It struck me then that, as much as I disagreed with how she had approached me, her method of simply dropping a piece of paper, and with some of the explanations for how Christianity works, there was still truth. The first block of text soon reminded me of an Examination of Conscience, and yes, I do believe that Jesus death conquers Sin and Death (though I always find it odd in such tracts/sermons that the Incarnation is never explicitly mentioned, and the Resurrection and Ascension seem like side notes), and I think the Bible is very informative on matter of the faith, and is a staple of authority on such matters(we can talk about the role of Tradition in another post). With this in mind as I walked back towards the apartment I was suddenly no longer upset at having the piece of paper, but eager to have a discussion with the woman, should she still be there.

I approached the Ballston metro and spotted my evangelist. I made a point of walking towards her, and she quickly tried to hand another of her Million Dollar Bills to me. I politely held up the first she had given me, which made her smile, but then the kicker. I think the conversation went something like this:

Evangelist: "The Million Dollar Question! Take this, it has the Gospel message on it!"
Me: "Actually, you already gave me one."*hold up fake money*
Evangelist: "Oh, excellent!"
Me: "And actually, I'd like to give it back to you."
Evangelist: *gives me a confused look* "No, don't worry. Just leave it on a bus or throw it in a trash can."
Me: "Well, that seems like it would be rather rude, and I would really like to give it back to you."
Evangelist: *more confused tone* "Well, did you READ IT?" (her voice did get louder, as if it seemed impossible that I could have read it and either not thrown it away or had my sudden conversion)
Me: "Yes I did read it."
Evangelist: *takes fake money from me* "Well...have a nice evening".
Me: "You too."

As I walked away I realized that I think I was just as much let down as she was. I had been hoping she would have asked me WHY I was returning the fake money, aside from simply thinking that I would either read-and-reject or read-and-convert. I wonder if it had occurred to her that she was in some way wasting her ammo, given that I was already Christian and agreed with some of the points and that this could have been a point of contact, a chance for us to both share some of Christ with the other. Then again, this could just be my pride talking, and I think I equally could have been looking for a debate, a chance to blast the points I disagreed with her on, out of the water. So perhaps NOT having the conversation was a better outcome, if not the best. I probably won't know, or at least not anytime soon in this world.