Recently, the president was quoted as saying, “You know, there is no reason to be good.”  

Apparently, though, there is an exception: “I wanna be good because you wanna prove to God you’re good so you go to that next step, right?  So, that’s very important to me.  I think it’s really, very important.”  

Despite the confusing personal pronouns in that statement, it falls in line with a concept of heaven that he alluded to in August saying, “I want to try and get to heaven if possible.  I’m hearing I’m not doing well. I hear I’m really at the bottom of the totem pole” adding, there’s “some kind of a report card up there someplace.”

Granted, the president does not claim to be a theologian.  Still, the idea that God keeps a scorecard of rights and wrongs—the tally of which decides one’s welcome or rejection from heaven—is largely dismissed by modern Christians in favor of more nuanced thinking.  More importantly, the proclamation that “there is no reason to be good” is perfectly symptomatic of where we are as a culture today.

Is there a reason to be good?  Apart from the threat of hell, and setting aside the idea that the only alternative to “good” is “bad” (which is an entirely different article), yes!  Yes, there are many reasons to be good!

If you’ve come to worship recently, you may know that I frequently say that worship is important because it reminds us that goodness and kindness still matter.  Love still matters.  Caring still matters.  These things still matter because they are the defining characteristics of God, and God still matters.  God is still alive and working in the world.

When we act out of goodness, God’s presence is felt.  A light breaks through.  A warmth enters in and the chill abates if only for a moment.  And in that moment, something profound happens: we remember to whom we belong and what is possible when goodness is present.

Even if God is taken out of the picture, the best “reason to be good” is displayed by those who neglect to practice it.  The habitual failure to be good leads to self-centeredness, arrogance, greed, and corruption.  At its worst, one begins to feed on the negative energy of hatred.  This alone should be motivation, a “reason” to be good.

I believe the most important mission of the church today is to equip people to be and do good; to be ambassadors of generosity and kindness.  In doing so, the church releases into the world an antidote to the virus of hatred and cruelty that can infect both people and institutions.

See you in church,

–Rev. Dominic