Being present

By Ann Mann

There are all kinds of ways to be present without really being present. You can sit across the table from someone while looking at your phone. You can attend a meeting while your mind is somewhere else. You can sit in a pew while mentally making your grocery list. Our bodies can be in one place while our hearts and minds are somewhere else entirely.

Scripture gives us a wonderful promise from Jesus: “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” Christ promises to be present with us. So perhaps the question for us today is simply this: Christ is present for us. Are we present for Christ?

We love those final words from Matthew 18. We put them on church signs. We quote them before Bible studies. But read in context, we discover something important, Jesus isn’t talking about a pleasant gathering where everybody agrees. He is talking about conflict. “If another member of the church sins against you…” That changes things.

Jesus doesn’t say, “Walk away.” He doesn’t say, “Tell everybody except the person involved.” Instead, he says: Go to them. Show up. Be present. Speak honestly. Listen carefully. Try to restore the relationship. Go privately, don’t embarrass them, don’t gather an audience. The goal is not to win. The goal is to restore. “If the member listens to you, you have regained that one.” That’s grace, and it’s deeply connected to presence.

Because sometimes the easiest thing in the world is to disappear. Someone disappoints us, so we withdraw. Something happens at church we don’t like, so we stop coming.

But Jesus offers another way: stay present, keep loving, keep seeking reconciliation. That doesn’t mean tolerating abuse or remaining in unsafe situations, healthy boundaries still matter. But Christian community is built by people willing to do the sometimes-difficult work of showing up for one another.

Our presence can become a means of grace. Some of the most meaningful moments in ministry have taught me that presence doesn’t always require words. You walk into a hospital room and don’t know what to say. You sit beside someone after a death, and nothing you say will make the loss disappear.

So you sit. You listen. You hold a hand. You pray. You stay. And somehow, in the staying, something holy happens. Presence says: You matter. You are not alone. I am willing to share this moment with you.

But our question isn’t only whether we are present for one another, it’s whether we are present for Christ. Jesus doesn’t say, “I might show up if enough people attend.” He says, “I am there.” Christ is already present. The question is whether we are.

When we worship, are we expecting to encounter Christ? When someone beside us is hurting, are we paying attention? There is a difference between attending church and being present to Christ.

Presence isn’t simply getting your body through the door, it’s bringing your heart with you.

Grace doesn’t work by keeping score. We don’t show up so God will love us; we show up because God already does. And when we gather with God’s people, we place ourselves where grace can meet us again and again.

There’s something else beautiful in Jesus’ promise: “Where two or three are gathered.” Jesus sets the number remarkably low. Apparently, he doesn’t need a crowd to do something holy. Wherever people gather in his name and spirit, seeking grace, practicing forgiveness, carrying burdens, telling the truth in love, Christ is there.

So, church: Christ is present for us. Are we present for Christ? May we be people who answer with our lives, “Here I am, Lord. Use me.”

(Ann Mann is an Emmy Award-winning journalist, now serving as pastor to Barnesville First United Methodist Church. You can email her at annmann@comcast.net. Her books, “Hope for the Journey,” and “Finding Hope in the Storm” are available on Amazon.)