Fr Robert Hendrickson

Dear Friends in Christ,

Our collect for today reads, in part, “Grant that your people, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ's glory.”

There’s an assumption in American Christianity that Jesus is kind of a self-help guru. For example, when you ask many Christians why they go to church, they will reply, “to be a better person.” It’s a very common response. The idea is that you go to church and then, somehow, you become a better person. The problem is that wherever we go, whether it is to church or to the backyard or to the living room (there aren’t many places we can go now) — wherever we go, we are still there.

Jesus doesn’t arrive on the scene and gather people in a circle for deep-breathing exercises or to take the Meyers Briggs test or to do some therapeutic work with them. All of those things are great, in their own right, but Jesus does not come to be one more part of our individual self-awareness or self-improvement. He comes to set us free from the bondage of our sins and to draw us all people to himself.

Now, those things I mentioned earlier, they are helpful in figuring out how we stand in the way of Jesus showing forth in our lives more fully. But the end product is not a better person or a nicer person — it is a holier person. Most of the people we think of as Saints were not regarded as nice. They were regarded, by society, often as cranks and nut-jobs because the way they lived was so radically different from the world — their lives shined with the radiance of Christ’s glory.

The challenge we have is that our notion of what “better” means is so transmogrified by the forces that swirl around us that we have little idea what that means. So if we come to church to be a better person we are beginning from the notion that “better” is a goal worth pursuing. I’d argue for something else — I’d argue that rather than better we should be aiming for something altogether more daunting (and yet actually less labor-intensive). We should be aiming for a complete and utter transformation of our mind, soul, and purpose.

We should not want to be “better” — but to be Christ for the world. We should aim for a way of living that is scandalous in its joy, merciless in its loving-kindness, and unwavering in its push toward hope. Fed by Word and Sacrament we can strive for something more than a kind of solitary perfect, or self-improvement, but for a way of shining that reveals not our holiness, but the Father’s. Not our joy, but Christ’s. Not our love, but the Spirit’s.

We can be radiant with Christ’s glory — a glory that shines in the darkest times, in the dimmest hours, and through the longest nights.

Wherever we go, we are still there. But wherever we go, Christ is there also. Wherever we go, for however long it may be, in whatever place we find ourselves, through whatever circumstance life offers — through it all may we strive to reveal more of Christ. In doing so we may discover what “better” is. If we do not, we may discover something more, something radically different — we may discover true joy and lasting hope.

Yours in Christ,

Fr Robert