I recently read something while searching for items to include in a letter that I write weekly to those in my congregation. It came from John A Stroman’s, God’s Downward Mobility, in it: “Nathan Williams told of two men who had been business partners for over twenty years. They met one Sunday morning as they were leaving a restaurant. One of them asked, "Where are you going this morning?" "I'm going to play golf. What about you?" The first man responded rather apologetically, "I'm going to church." The other man said, "Why don't you give up that church stuff?" The man asked, "What do you mean?" "Well, we have been partners for twenty years. We have worked together, attended board meetings together, and had lunch together, and all of these twenty years you have never asked me about going to church. You have never invited me to go with you. Obviously, it doesn't mean that much to you."

John A. Stroman, God's Downward Mobility, CSS Publishing Company.

I thought the story would have an impact on those in the parish. I hoped that it would raise the question, if we believe we have something important to share, are we sharing it. Christ says, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” And time seems to be one of our greatest treasures. We work hard so we can have the things we want and the time to enjoy them. We hurry home after work so that we’ll have more time. We wait for the last minute to leave for work, and then drive like maniacs, so we have more time at home. We hit the snooze button on the alarm so we can have just a little more time in bed. We rush on weekends and on vacation so we can get where we are going and have more time there. Time indeed seems to be something we treasure.
Attending Church takes time and because time is so valuable, it sends a message to all those we know, just how important Church must be to us if we spend our time there. And if it is that important to us, think of the message that an invitation to attend Church could be to the person we invited.

This led me to another observation. As I read the obituaries in the newspaper, I am often struck by the large number of people who leave instructions not to have a religious service after they have died. I’ve heard many reasons, such as “I don’t want a big fuss after I’m gone”; “I don’t want anybody saying: Oh he looks just like he’s sleeping”; “it’s just too expensive and I don’t want my family to spend money on a funeral”; “I don’t want a bunch of people crying and being sad”; “I’ve outlived all my friends, and there’s nobody to come anyway”, and the list goes on. Some of those of those reasons came from infrequent church attendees, but they also came from those who faithfully attended Church. The point being that many times people believe that their faith should be private. That inviting someone to attend Church and to share in that faith isn’t an easy or comfortable thing to do.

This takes me back to the story that Nathan Williams told about the two business man. If Church is important, why didn’t he invite his friend. Or if our faith is important, shouldn’t it be shared.

If you had the cure for cancer, wouldn’t you want to share it with everybody you could? If you had the key to world peace, wouldn’t you share that?

Our death may well be the last occasion we have to invite family and friends to Church, to God. It is our last chance to tell others that faith counts. As Christians, it is our final opportunity, in this world, to tell others that we have found something more important than the cure for cancer, that we do hold the key to peace, and more importantly, that we do want to share it.