Just doing good?

Yesterday, I sat with a family as they prepared for the funeral service for their father and grandfather. They were sharing their remembrance of a life once lived … how involved the deceased was in church and the VFW. Then the statement was made. Oh, how I wished that the setting were different so I could have pursued the thinking of one of the daughters, but the time wasn’t right nor would it have been appropriate. As I drove home I began to wonder what it would take to get people to think correctly about the purpose of the church … what could I do … say … so that people would come to a better understanding of just what was the purpose and reason for the church. Oh, how we, the clergy, have failed in allowing people to think this way.

Here was the statement: “The VFW and the church are the same. They both have the same purpose … to do good in the world.” It was sincere. I’m sure that the daughter, who was raised in the church, hadn’t fully thought through what she was saying … or maybe she really thought that it was correct … that the VFW and the church were the same?!? Ouch!

Yes, both institutions do desire to do “good” in this old world of ours, but there is a drastic difference as to the motivating factor to “doing those good” things. One is doing it out of a humanistic point of view. The other is doing it out of a relationship with Jesus Christ with a desire that the world would come into a relationship with Jesus Christ … a saving relationship.

Here is my guess as to why the daughter made the statement. Her father and mother were good people. They took their daughters to church, but my guess is that they never introduced them to Jesus Christ. The church to which they were taken was a good church and had been served by a number of caring pastors (most of whom I knew). The church had numerous activities for the children and youth. It was an active and alive congregation … BUT they simply didn’t remember to “keep the main thing the main thing.” And, I must confess that as a pastor myself I am as guilty as the next one for I’ve been there … done that … looked at the activities instead of helping people to build a personal relationships with Jesus Christ.

It is vital that we remember to be committed to doing the “good” in this world … to feed the hungry, cloth the naked, care for the sick, visit those in prison, look after the widow and orphaned … to “do it unto the least of these”. BUT, we also need to remember that as we “do” these outreach, caring ministries not to loose sight of the motivating factor namely Jesus Christ … unless we just want to be like the VFW with very expensive buildings.

Quote for today: [According to a recent poll] 88% of Catholics and a majority of Presbyterian and Methodist evangelizers [those who actively try to share their "faith"] believe that "if people are generally good, or do enough good things for others during their lives, they will earn a place in heaven." National & International Religion Report, August 23, 1993.