My good is better than your good…

I wrote this in last week’s post: “For years the church as been telling me that it [life outside of our Christian sub-culture] is bad and that they (outsiders) are bad and that the only good things left are found within their teachings, ministries, music, and people.” And this: “What if our organizations have essentially cut in on us and sold us “their way” as opposed to ‘Jesus’ way’?”

At some point during last winter, our friend had organized a small coat drive. So, my wife participated and donated a coat. This was a nice coat she had found at a great price. It was still in style and still in great shape. Last week, we had dinner with this friend that had organized the drive and his wife. We have had a lot of dinners with them since the drive, but we never really talked about how things turned out. The coat drive came up in our conversation and my wife mentioned that she had donated a coat. Our friend remembered and told her that the girl that got her coat said something to the effect of “You mean I get to have this one?” He remembered her excitement. I can imagine that it would be a pleasant surprise to show up expecting just any coat in order to stay warm and actually receive one that you felt good about wearing – to have something nice when you don’t have much of anything at all.

On the way home my wife talked about how she felt when she bought that coat herself. Like most of us, we don’t just buy whatever we want whenever we want it. Sometimes there are things that we would like to have, but can’t spend that much money on. Finding a coat you like and getting it at a great price can be a beautiful thing. As she went through her things to find what she had to donate, she came across this coat. She remembered the excitement she had felt and she hoped that God would allow the person who received it to feel the same way about it. She even slid some money in a side pocket hoping it would be another moment of being surprised by joy for someone whose life was probably fairly bleak at the time.

My wife and I have both grown up in churches, worked at churches, participated in a lot of camps, retreats, conventions, small groups and on and on. We have seen a lot of beauty in church and a lot of beauty outside its doors. After talking about the coat story on our drive home from our friend’s house she said “If I had to make a choice, I would much rather give 100 needy children coats than be a part of 100 powerful worship services.”

I hear a lot of Christians wanting to make sure that we all understand that “goodness” in itself is not enough. They want us to be sure that you can be good, but if you don’t have Jesus its’ not enough. I understand matters of faith and belief, but as I have said before, I think we have grossly compartmentalized things calling these things “spiritual” and these other things “worldly”. It is as if we say “Sure, there is “goodness” outside of church, but it lacks value because it is not placed in the right context.” In essence, my goodness is better than your goodness. Why? Because I am doing it aware of God and you are not.

I wonder if Jesus would tell us that He can’t be separated from goodness. That if you find goodness, you find Him even if you are not aware of it and even if you don’t “connect the dots.” I wonder if the dots we typically connect in our institutions miss the point. In fact I am sure they do.

In Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus describes a group of people that call Him Lord and yet He essentially never knew them. In my more arrogant and institutional days, this verse was often used to describe “others” who claimed to be Christians only to find out in the end that they had gotten it wrong (on doctrinal issues of course) and really weren’t serving God as he so desired. Within the immediate context, He is talking about recognizing those who are of God and of His way by their fruit. These people that called Him Lord were doing all kinds of “churchy” things. They prophesized, performed miracles, and drove out demons - the kind of things only done by “true spiritual warriors” (yes, those are sarcastic quotation marks). Yet, these people who seemed so “spiritual” were called “evildoers.” These people did these things, but according to the passage, they did not do the will of the Father.

Could it be that we do “Christian” things with all of our church stuff, deep theological classes, detailed worship services and the like and yet overlook the very will of God? Could I be the one calling out “Lord, Lord” from my office in my church where I’m a minister doing all of my church things with all of my intricate understanding about God and yet out there on the street is a person who does not have that same deep understanding, does not have those same church connections and who is completely unable to put his or her life and actions in the correct theological context and yet their “good” fruit is completely in the will of the Father. Wouldn’t it be ironic if on Sunday morning while I spend my time teaching and preaching about what that will actually is there is someone else who has never given a sermon and would be completely unable to stand in a pulpit with any credibility and deliver the kind of sermon or organize the type of worship service that we have become addicted to and yet, despite that, they are doing the will of the Father and I am not. Why does this sound like so many stories in the bible where Jesus found goodness in the non-religious while the emptiness of the religious stood by exposed for what it was?