Where the Church Is: A Reflection by Fr. David

Every Thursday morning, a group of men gathers at Church of Our Saviour at 7:00 to share breakfast and to study the Bible together. We are currently reading through Luke's Gospel, which has inspired some terrific discussions. As Luke makes clear, Jesus goes out and meets people where they are. And he calls other people to follow him and do the same thing: meet people where they are with the Good News of God's love. Which means that wherever we go, we are the Body of Christ. And most of the time we are not in a church building. Most of the time, the church is out in the world, with Jesus and those who need him.

A woman here at COOS once visited another parishioner in the hospital. They had a good talk, and then this woman came to see me. She told me about this person she had spent time with, and then she said to me, "The church really needs to visit her!" I could only look at her with bemusement: the church had visited her! The moment that woman walked into that hospital room, the church was there. And so was Christ.

Bruce Dotson brought the above cartoon to share with the men's group this morning. And now I am sharing it with you. Where the church is  . . . is wherever you are. You and I embody the church every moment of every day. Let me be clear: I don't think that means we go should go around talking about religion all the time and trying to get people to sign up. Our role is not so much to talk about Christ as to be Christ: to offer love, forgiveness, hope, and prayer to anyone and everyone who needs it. Sometimes that will mean listening kindly; sometimes that will mean going out of our way to help another person; sometimes that will mean actually praying for someone or with someone; sometimes that will mean sharing our faith and talking about how God's love revealed in Jesus has made our lives better; and, yes, sometimes it may even mean inviting someone to worship with us on Sunday so that they can "come and see."

I have no idea if that will increase church membership or not, and I really don't care. It will increase the flow of the Holy Spirit through us and it will further the reign of God in our world. Put simply, the more we let ourselves be the church wherever we are, the more we will be a blessing to others. And in the wonderful economy of God's grace, the more we bless others, the more we ourselves are blessed.