At the end of William Butler Yeats poem Among School Children he asks the question, “How can we know the dancer from the dance?” The question ponders whether there is a difference between what we do and what we are. In dancing it seems these two cannot be separated for there is no dance without the dancer and no dancer without the dance. And so to rephrase it for the Christian, can we be Christian without doing Christian things?
On some level this is the old debate between faith and works. Can we be faithful Christians without doing Christian works or put in reverse can we do Christian works without being Christian? We seem to live in a world that approves of many Christian sentiments, showing mercy for the poor, loving one another and so on but is not so enamored with actually being Christian. In fact, many see Christianity as an impediment to living out a moral life. Christians in many circles are seen as bigoted and hateful. With the implication being that we must separate the Christian from Christian actions.
And while I am the first to admit that we Christians have been pretty bad advertisements for Christianity, I don’t think that we can separate belief from action. Is it nice that people want to do good and moral things? Yes certainly it is, but I am skeptical that it can be maintained, when it is not infused with the power of God. When you pull behavior out of the context of God it becomes about a decision that we make. We decide that actions are right, but what happens when we change our mind? We are fairly fickle creatures who can be like Humpty Dumpty in Lewis Caroll’s, Through the Looking Glass when he said, “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less." But, of course, such an understanding makes for a very confusing and disjointed world.
I am not saying that non Christians cannot act in God’s will or that Christians always do act in accordance with God’s will, but simply that they have their fullest expression when they are united. And my larger point today is not to look at those who are not Christian, but to those who are and ask that we be more like Yeats’ dancer and dance, that when people see us they see Christians in thought, word and deed.