MORE CHRISTIANS OR MORE CHRIST?

(OR, 'WHY CAN'T WE BE MORE LIKE ET?)

by Adam Harbinson

I’ve never liked the expression ‘good living’, in the sense that some people apply it to Christians. Maybe I shouldn’t complain, but maybe I wouldn’t complain if Christians in general were better people than non-Christians. But they’re not. However, maybe the issue here is the definition of the term Christian. For example, Jesus said, ‘Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.’ He was saying that words alone don’t demonstrate who and what we are, and anyway, there are times when our actions shout so loudly that people can’t hear what we’re saying.

Now I readily agree that some Christian communities are marked by tolerance and kindness and gentleness and all those indicators of love, but doesn’t the saying, ‘The Christian church is the only army in the world that shoots its own’ have a horrible ring of familiarity about it? And isn’t it true that in many churches love is a bit thin on the ground?

So could Jesus have been suggesting that there are some people who claim to be Christians but are not? Or to put it the other way around, have you ever met someone who makes no profession of faith in Christ and yet they exude everything you’d expect from a follower of Jesus? How do you explain that one?

I was having this conversation with an old friend who is just such a person. It’s not unusual to hear the occasional expletive from this elder in a Belfast church, and he likes his gin & tonic, but he’s also kind and generous, helpful, undemanding, and very forgiving – dare I say it, Christlike. And when I expressed my view that there are many people who are Christians but think they’re not because they’ve been told they have to be religious, he stopped in his tracks and almost shouted, ‘That’s me!’ And it is, and the light dawned, and the realisation lifted a heavy weight from tired shoulders.

Now I can hear the Evangelicals howl, ‘Good works don’t make you a Christian!’ and they’re right, but I’m in good company when I argue that if being a Christian doesn’t produce good works, then there’s a question mark over your faith. That’s what James said in his New Testament letter: ‘It’s hard to see your faith if you aren't good people.’

I had a dream the other night about the 1982 movie ET. In the film a space ship carrying a group of Alien Botanists had landed in a forest in California, but government agents appeared and in their haste to escape, one of the aliens was left behind. He was picked up and befriended by Elliott who brought him home and adopted him.

ET had supernatural powers. He touched a dead plant and it sprang back into life. When Elliott accidentally cut himself, ET touched the wound with a glowing finger and it healed instantly, and when he was sad, ET touched the boy’s hurting heart and said, ‘Ouch!’

That’s the part of the movie I remember best, and that was my dream; a glowing finger touching hurts and bringing healing.

Good living? Let’s redefine the term. If we were all a bit more like ET, going about our business with glowing fingers, readily touching this one with compassion, or that one with forgiveness, there would be a lot more Christianity on our streets. There might or might not be more professing Christians, but who cares, so long as there is a lot more of Christ.