"Good Christians" Mid-Week Reflection

THE REV. KATHLEEN M. STURGES

“You know, you don’t have to go to Church to be a good Christian.” I hear that now and then when someone discovers that I am a priest and, obviously, feels defensive. I don’t see the use in responding head-on to such a statement. And thankfully, making any judgement in regards to who is or is not a “good Christian” is not my job (anyone’s job). Still the declaration makes me sad because it seems that the speaker is missing out on richness of the Christian faith. For at its heart, Christianity is about connection - meaningful connection with God, with the Body of Christ (full of flawed people of whom I am chief) and with the world.

The words from our gospel reading this Sunday still ring in my ears, Luke 10:1 begins, “After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs….” I hear this as saying that our faith is not something one does alone. Wouldn’t it have been more effective to send out seventy solo missionaries so that double the people could have heard the Good News? Perhaps, but that’s not what Jesus did. Sharing the love of Jesus and doing the works of God in the world is something better done together than alone. Yes, you can stay home and quietly read your Bible, pray, listen to a sermon by yourself, sing songs of praise in your car - do all the things we do each Sunday in church alone - but it’s not the same. There is something missing and that is the rich connection with God experienced in the midst of the Body of Christ.

So for me it’s not about whether one is being a “good Christian” by going to church or not. Rather what I am concerned about is that Christians don’t miss the opportunity to live into fullness and goodness of the faith through life in the Church.