I spent most of this week at our diocesan Clergy Conference, held in person this year for the first time since April 2019. It was a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with colleagues and friends from parishes around Massachusetts, many of whom I’d only seen as tiny Zoom squares in the last two years. We also had the tremendous gift of hearing from the renowned theologian Kate Sonderegger of Virginia Theological Seminary, who’s one of the greatest thinkers and writers of the modern Episcopal Church.

Rather than sharing with you one of my own theological reflections this week, I want to share with you one of her insights about each one of your lives. Her second lecture opened with the question: “How do we bear witness to and communicate the mystery and glory of God to those who have not seen it?” How do we share the riches we have experienced with the people around us… especially in this secular world? And amid the various examples of how we bear witness to God’s goodness, with and without words—through the holiness and goodness of a Mother Theresa, or the self-sacrifice of Civil Rights martyrs like Jonathan Daniels, the laying out of theological arguments or our honesty in grappling with doubt and faith—Dr. Sonderegger offered a profound reflection on the powerful witness you offer to the goodness of God.

“Simply entering into the scandal of the faith in a secular age,” she said (and here I’m quoting from my own handwritten notes, so apologies to Kate if I’m misquoting), “Simply being an ordinary person who is a person of faith, is an important testament to the goodness and glory of God.” In the eyes of the secular world, a Christian—a person who puts their faith in a God who died and rose again, who shapes their life according to his ancient laws—must be an idiot or a bigot or both. And to be the person who you are—to be an ordinary person, imperfect but loving, thoughtful, and decent—is itself an invitation to the people you know who love and respect you but who have no time for God to wonder whether your faith and your goodness may in fact be related after all.

May we all have the courage to be visible symbols of God’s presence in our ordinary lives, and may our very ordinariness reveal to others the possibility of Christ’s presence with us, everywhere.