Let Your Light So shine

I once was sitting in a church service, where a sharp dressed visiting speaker was delivering the night's message. He was quite the polished showman, and clearly knew every pentecostal cliche ever invented. In the interest of full disclosure, I have to confess I was bored. At one point I found my conscience accusing me, because my mind had wandered and I realized I had been quietly entertaining myself trying to anticipate his next phrase. I guessed correctly about half the time.

I had seen and heard this presentation many times before, by many different speakers, on dozens of different platforms. It's not that the words of so many sermons were identical--they were not. Different scriptures were used by different speakers, and every speaker gave his message it's own unique, sometimes clever name. But in common to all the others, this man's message was designed to excite and please the congregation he was speaking to. If that was indeed his goal, he was being moderately successful, gauging by the response of the congregation.

Not meaning to sound overly critical, but I couldn't help but think that it was not much different from entertainment. If you had substituted the speaker's suit and tie for spandex and a tank top, his gesturing and prancing around would have been typical of that seen on stage at a rock concert. The speaker skillfully peppered his presentation with funny anecdotes and well timed one liners, keeping the audience's interest as he performed.

Being somewhat detached from the show, I began viewing it through the eyes of an outsider. I wondered how meaningful it would be to my next door neighbor if I presented some ambiguous platitude to him, delivered with just the right amount of growl. "I just beleeeeeve, that Almighty God is going to give someone here a year of breakthrough! Hallelujah!" At some point, it occured to me just how irrelevant most of what was being said would be to the world around us.

Then I wondered what Christ thought about the show? Was this what Christ envisioned when he told us to take the gospel into the whole world? Was this what Christ had in mind when he said:

You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it gives light to all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.  Mat. 5:14-16

A disclaimer is needed at this point. Please do not let the reader form the conclusion that I think we can get by without the local church. Nonsense! The scriptures, as well as the experience of most believers teaches us that we need regular times of meeting together for encouragement and strengthening. And there is nothing inherently wrong with our individual churches having their own religious culture, so that an outsider could recognize the differences between evangelical, liturgical and charismatic services.

Furthermore, let me admit that to communicate effectively, a person needs to be engaging, and sometimes take advantage of devices to keep the audience's attention. Jesus himself used humor in some of his sayings.

But I can't help but believe that the most effective expressions of the Body of Christ occur outside church walls. The Church earns the privilege of its name, not when we meet in our buildings and enjoy our religious culture amongst ourselves, but when we let the teachings of Christ become incarnate in our daily lives. It's when we provide a meal to the family of unbelievers who are suffering from sickness. It's when we donate our time to help in the local homeless shelter. It's when we give of our own lives to help orphans and widows. In these and many other examples, we become the city set on the hill for all to see. This is how we let our light shine so that God is glorified in the end.

This is not a matter of taking a negative stance against our churchhouse traditions. I suspect that Christ is tolerant of the variety of worship forms found throughout believing christendom. This is a matter of us always remembering that our testimony in the world is of more consequence than what we do in a closed group of believers behind the church walls.