Proclaiming the Good News

Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ? This question, from our baptismal covenant, is the first of our meditation questions this week.

(These musings are offered here as a way to start a conversation. After you read them, please click on the comment button and share your own thoughts and musings.)

Most of the conversations I've been involved in with fellow Episcopalians about this question come around to comments like:

"I don't talk about church or God much, but I think I do a pretty good job of being an example. I try to smile, be kind, be friendly and show people I care about them. "

While I exercised today, I pondered this question and the typical responses. I wondered why in this instance it seems so much easier to act than to talk. It seems at odds with the sense we have in other arenas that "talk is cheap." After all, it is much easier to talk about building a house than it is to build one. And, we certainly value the actual building of a house more than we value the talk about it. It's also true that we need to be and we need to meet good, kind, friendly people and we value our encounters with such people. But, in those encounters, are we really proclaiming the Good News of God in Christ? Are we really COMMUNICATING the Good News of God in Christ,? Is that what the people we meet are walking away with? I think we tend to see the question as "Will you proclaim by word OR example... " But the question we are asked is "Will you proclaim by word AND example..."

It seems that without the words, the people we meet may not get to hear the Good News of God in Christ.