Many years ago, there was a prominent member of the congregation I was serving who had definite, regularly voiced opinions about people who only showed up for church services on Easter Sunday. This congregant would announce that he – unlike his usual attendance on every other Sunday of the year – would not be attending on Easter Sunday. His reasoning was that by announcing his absence in advance no one would worry that he was not well. Rather, his absence, he said, was intentional in order to make it easier for those showing up only one Sunday a year to find a seat.
There was no graciousness in this person’s comment. His ‘gesture’ was an overtly self-righteous act to avoid being a part of the anticipated Easter Sunday morning crowd. His announced absence was to be understood as a negative judgement on people – often categorized by routine church goers proud of their attendance pins – as C&E Christians; people who attend church only on Christmas Eve and Easter Sunday.
Most of the people I have been privileged to encounter in the life of the Church are loving folks sharing in the joys and struggles of life. They are people welcoming all who enter the doors of the local church for worship. More frequently they are involved in sincere efforts to INVITE others to be a part of a fellowship of faith, nurture, and support, while also serving in hundreds of ways in our communities.
But that said there are those self-righteous few who think and believe that showing up for church is just a badge of status and some sort of outward confirmation of their inward spiritual superiority. For them, being a part of a church is the proud practice of socially approved good manners or good hygiene with no deeper importance than wearing clean underwear or brushing one’s teeth.
The experience of Covid, the power of secularism, the enormous amount of people who now describe themselves as spiritual but not religious, and the passionless routine in far too many current worship venues have pretty much guaranteed that many seats are available in church on any given Sunday.
But that is an important matter for some future blog posts.
As another Easter Sunday Morning in immanent, I want to ask, what other kinds of Christians are there than C&E Christians?
Those of us who claim the Christian Faith are in fact and only, C&E Christians. We are Christians because we believe God was born among us and is to be seen in ALL PERSONS. We are Christians because we believe that love cannot be executed and that love, as profoundly present in Jesus, was raised from the dead.
We are Christmas and Easter Christians. And we cannot give up our seats.
This world is always on the brink of some disaster and the scene of yet another human tragedy. So, we must not only keep our seats but continue to go outside church buildings and behave as people who passionately believe in the message and power of Christmas and Easter!
If we give up our seats and stop the daily walk of faith, the unrelenting alternative is only a Groundhog Day experience of looking for signs in shadows and enduring the relentless tragedies chronicled on the 24/7 news cycle.
When children are being murdered in our public and private schools, we need C&E Christians.
When white supremacists advocating a national faith, threaten violence against any person or group they label ‘the other’, and say it is all biblically authorized, we need C&E Christians!
When church denominations split apart over arguments about doctrine enforcement, authorized interpretation of scripture, which loving couple is worthy of a marriage ceremony, where the ceremony can be performed, and whose sexual orientation – rather than character – is the determinant for ordination or consecration, we need C&E Christians.
When truth is a matter of politics, party, or reduced to alternative facts while the Dark Ages seem to be on the horizon once again, we need C&E Christians.
When those advocating a contrived culture war seek to remove or restrict books, regulate the teaching in our schools, and the practice of obstetric medicine, we need C&E Christians.
When a world leader – whose armies bomb hospitals, private homes, elementary schools, and glory in the destruction – can warn of deploying and using tactical and intercontinental nuclear weapons, we need C&E Christians.
The list goes on as we become accustomed to death threats on elected leaders with whom we disagree. The list goes on as candidates raise campaign funds promoting lies, conspiracy theories, use social media to incite riot, and excuse insurrection.
This is no time for C&E Christians to give up our seats. Indeed, joining with others to fill those seats is critical.