Speaking at the Abergavenny Council of Churches’ Service of Prayers for Unity Fr Tom, Associate Priest and Sub Prior reminded us that ‘the opposite of faith is not doubt. The opposite of faith is certainty, and from that certainty comes fundamentalism.’
The address in full
Almighty God who caused the light of the Gospel to shine throughout the world through the preaching of your servant Saint Paul: grant that we who celebrate his wonderful conversion may follow him in bearing witness to your truth. Amen
I wonder whether you when you were children would long for it to snow? I certainly did. Nowadays I find it a bit of an inconvenience, but as a child there was this real air of expectation and plenty to be excited about. Predominantly of course, living in the countryside the ancient school heating would inevitably pack up and people would be unable to travel, so school would be closed for the day. Brilliant!
However at this time of year, when everything is dark and brown and muddy there is something amazing about waking up on those days and sensing even before you open the curtains that the light beyond them is different, and you pull back those curtains and see that the dark brown sludgyness has been replaced by a gleaming white blanket of snow. All those things which have become familiar and irksome suddenly have a new life and interest. The simple jobs, chores of everyday are no longer boring because you are doing them in the snow, and I remember being filled with a curiosity as to what the places we visited were like in the snow and how they would be changed. And so I would spend the day with my friends going around the village to see what our everyday hideouts looked like when transformed by a vesture of white.
Sometimes life deals us a hand which can suddenly change our outlook. I’m sure you can all think of a phone call, or a conversation which has unexpectedly changed you in some way, and made you view life differently. Perhaps it changed the way you feel about something or someone. Perhaps it closed a ‘door’ and opened a ‘window’ you’d never even considered looking through. Like the snow it may disrupt our day as an inconvenience, or it may captivate us with its mysterious beauty.
Today the church commemorates the conversion of St Paul whose life as Saul was so certain, yet as Paul today we hear about shipwreck, uncertainty and living at the mercy of God. Perhaps his conversion could be likened to the first century equivalent of Richard Dawkins becoming the Archbishop of Canterbury, or the Pope or something like that. Saul’s life changed in a flash of light. He was committed to his course: the harsh extermination of the early church, but rather like pulling back those curtains on a snow morning, he is stopped in his tracks by that bright light.
Today marks the culmination of Week of prayer for Christian Unity; that week when we are asked to consider and pray for the Body of Christ on earth, that we may be united, drawn together in our intention of witnessing to and manifesting the Gospel. Paul, or Saul as he then was, wants not only the persecution of that body, he wants it’s complete destruction, when Jesus, the head of that body, resurrected, living and breathing in and through it, speaks to him in person:
‘Saul, saul, why do you persecute me?’, and Saul the terror of Christians becomes blind and helpless as a newborn baby, for as we know ‘those who do not accept the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it’. In a matter of seconds his life is turned upside down and will never be the same again. He will become one of the church’s most ardent apostles writing and travelling all over the Mediterranean, putting his life on the line for the same Christ whom he persecuted. In our readings just now we heard of shipwreck, being bitten by a snake, being at the mercy of those in a foreign land and of how through grace he experiences their unusual kindness.
I don’t know whether you have a moment in your life, an epiphany if you will, that you can describe as your conversion. There are people who can tell you the time, day and year that they became a Christian, but there is perhaps the danger of focusing so much reliving one’s birth into this way of life that one can forget to focus on bringing it to maturity. Others of us who were raised in the church can doubtless remember a time when Jesus asked us ‘who do you say that I am?’ as we own our faith for ourselves for the first time. However in my experience this is not a one off event. Christ keeps asking that question because everytime we choose Christ we say ‘yes’ to his transforming presence in our lives. In this sense, every day is a snow day, when we can see our daily lives transformed by the power of Christ if only we will say ‘yes’ to him.
A wise man, one of my tutors and an inspiring priest once said that ‘the opposite of faith is not doubt. The opposite of faith is certainty, and from that certainty comes fundamentalism.’ The type of fundamentalism that has been responsible for IS, the Taliban, Al Qaeda and all kinds of terrorist groups who are so certain of what they believe that other people, their beliefs and the sanctity of human life become subject to their certainty with catastrophic results. Perhaps Saul could be described as a fundamentalist whose certainty in his conviction is shaken in his encounter with the risen Christ.
Paul was chosen by God for the powerful and unique witness he could bring, and Jesus tells the other apostles ‘You did not choose me, but I chose you.’
We can be grateful for the grace that is revealed through faith not being opposed to doubt as it means that every day God is gracious enough to allow us to choose him again. Every day we are given the gift of saying ‘yes’ to Christ once more, and every day we are free to receive that conversion in our lives.
Every day is a ‘snow day’ when we can see the world transformed in the dazzling light of Jesus. Every day we as Christians are being converted again as we choose him, even as we seek to be reunited with him through word and sacrament, and in our bond to one another.
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St Mary's Priory Church, Abergavenny 