Paths to Faith
Is 60.1-6, Mat 2.1-12, Eph3.1-12,
Preached Canberra Baptist Church 7th January 2007

The cycle of liturgical seasons is often out of kilter in the southern hemisphere. Christmas comes not ‘in dead of coldest winter’ but in the heat and fires of summer. The Easter miracle of death and renewal comes not in early spring when winter gives way to new growth, but in autumn as the nights continue to lengthen and days grow colder. Despite the power of the primary meanings, as a reference to the background rhythm of life it just doesn’t work.

The exception to this is the strange little time called Epiphany, a time the church is invited to celebrate the revelation of Christ to the gentiles, to all the world. Associated in the first instance with the visit of the Magi, those wisemen from a distant land, it also engages the prophetic tradition which looked to a time when all the nations of the world would stream into Jerusalem and join the people of God, and the NT traditions which explored the role of the church as missional community carrying the gospel into all the world.

In Australia this festival falls in high summer when the tinsel and plastic angels of Christmas have come down and most people are off camping, holidaying by the beach or shopping enthusiastically in the summer sales. It’s the season for cricket matches and the Australian open and just chilling out. It is when we as a nation are at our most hedonistic, self-indulgent, and relaxed: what a marvelous time to acknowledge that the gospel is meant for all the peoples of the world, not just we committed religious types! It’s the time we have beach missions and various outreach activities around the country. It’s a time we engage all the glorious contradictions of our culture and sense the freedom and power of the gospel.  One year I participated in a example of this, when I was asked to celebrate a wedding at the Australian Open with the invited guests mingling with the bemused spectators and the tennis matches going on all around us on different courts.

When all this is happening around us the church calendar asks us to focus on the mystery of the revelation of Christ to the gentiles, to a gospel that calls all people to faith, whether in the church, at the beach, watching the cricket, or sitting in the office.

The stories around the birth of Jesus present us with many models of how this birth drew people into the community of this child. ???????????

The first were the shepherds, sitting in the countryside under a black sky, watching their sheep and minding their own business. Out of the blue, (or the black) of the night sky came the shining glory of the Lord and the announcement of the angels. They were doing nothing about seeking Jesus, we’re not told they had any special religious aptitude or interest. They were ordinary working people at their everyday tasks. And the glory of God broke into their lives, unannounced, even unwelcome if their fear be a sign.

Some people come to faith like that. Without warning  or expectation, God seems to speak to them, to dazzle them, to turn them around and set their feet to different paths. I know several such people and you may too. The ones who’ve wandered into a church and in a few short minutes have heard a message from the Lord and have come to faith. I know one man who sat in the back row of a church, unimpressed with the preacher, irritated with the service, anxious to get home and have a cup of tea with his wife. When the boring, unimpressive preacher said “there might be someone here tonight who God is calling to give up work and become a minister” the man felt no emotion or response but clearly heard a voice behind him say “That’s you, John!” [not his real name]. He spun around but there was no one there. A week later he threw in his career and commenced theological college. For some people, the path to faith is sudden, almost miraculous.

Luke also tells the story of very different people, of Anna the prophetess and old Simeon. These people frequented the Temple, almost lived there, probably making something of a pest of themselves. They were the really, really religious types who were eager and zealous for God. And yet in all their passionate and committed waiting there was a lack of fulfillment, a sense of something missing. Yes, they were deeply faithful, but it was a faith that somehow hadn’t quite arrived, hadn’t become complete, until they held that little child. You can hear it in the words of old Simeon: Lord let ou servant depart in peace, because I have seen your salvation. After all the waiting, it’s finally complete. Let me die now – now I understand!

There are those whose path to faith goes through the temple, through the church, through organised religion. They are a particular type of person, at ease in religious imagery and language. I think Simeon’s song, known by the first two words in the Latin version, Nunc Dimmittus, gives us a feeling for this old man who was so religious. I love the archaic forms of expression: Lord now lettest thy servant depart in peace … for thou hast holpen thy servant Israel….  The very old-fashioned language speaks of the context of liturgy, of ancient prophecy, of the apparatus and environment of worship, or tradition. And to some people at least, this brings life and leads to faith.

It can also be a trap and lead to death: Tom Torrance and the elder of the highlands church in Scotland.

But I doubt that you are likely to despise the road to faith that leads through the Temple, through the church and all its treasury of prayer, song and Scripture.

A third way into faith is presented by the wisemen. Here were men who were complete foreigners to Israel and her traditions. We are not told they knew anything of the Hebrew scriptures or religion. They were astrologers, philosophers, those who sought to interpret the stars. Do we have any modern equivalents? They were not the astrologers we have today (with all due respect to any astrologer with us today), so focused on finances, health and romance. They were more like scientists, philosophers, intellectuals, those who sought to discern the signs of the times (cf. Luke 12). It was the search for truth, the relentless discernment of signs, that led them to the place where the child was. They were not given angelic messages. Even the priests and scribes of the people were not enlisted to aid them but to defend Herod. They had to do it all the work on their own – even the angel sent to warn them did not appear until after they had found the child.

There are some people for whom the path to faith is the search for truth and knowledge, the path of a philosophy able to engage and explain the way the world is, the vagaries of the human heart, the mysteries and pains of love. This can be one of the hardest and the loneliest paths to travel, yet we in the church must honour and acknowledge it. For one thing it keeps the church humble: we have to admit that some people will come to the Cross despite us, come under their own steam and driven by their own questing and passionate search for truth. We cannot claim any hand in their journey other than the glad hand of welcome for a brother or sister at the point their path finally joins that of the people of God. [Peter Chapman’s conversion].

The unaware, ordinary person seized by glory out of the blue. The long-serving saint who after decades of serving and waiting glimpses something that finally completes the picture and fulfills life. The patient traveler in search of truth and wisdom who finally comes to the place where the Christ-child is. These are just three of the many possible paths of faith. Perhaps one of those paths is your story. Perhaps yours is another journey altogether. The point is that they all come in the end to the Christ, that all flow into that one journey of the people of God, the church.

The wonder of it all is that, according to Ephesians reading, it is “through the church, the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” (Eph 3.10). The church now has a cosmic, spiritual function to reveal the wisdom of God, even to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.  That’s a big task.  It connects with the expectation of the Isaiah prophecy of the gathering of the peoples in to the holy city, the drawing in of the nations and the kings of the earth. All of this is God’s promise and God’s purpose, but it is to be done through his agent, the church.

One of the first tasks of the church is to acknowledge the rich variety of the wisdom of God, the many paths to faith that exist and must be honoured. We have a goodly representation of Simeons and Annas in this congregation, the faithful watchers and waiters whose faith is a blessing to us all. There is also much in our tradition and our life that honours the journey of truth-seeking, of engaging with the world of philosophy and science and theology.

I’m not sure how we work with the simple shepherds, whether our cleverness might mask the glory that some folks find in everyday life, the chorus that calls people to faith out of the blue. That may be a growth point for us.

As this year commences we have to consciously take up our task as the people of God to witness “to the wisdom of God in its rich variety”.  If we as a community only sit in church singing the old hymns like Simeon and Anna we are failing our calling. If we only go about our business in the world, leaving it all up to God, we are failing. If we only engage with contemporary philosophical and political issues we are failing. Some of us may be called to one of these paths but as a community we need to reflect the rich variety of the wisdom of God.

We bear witness to all people, all kinds of people, we even have the task of the wisdom of God to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. Somehow the worship and life of the church has importance not just for the individuals we come into contact with, not just in our community, but in that mysterious spiritual realm of principalities and powers that is another element of the reality we inhabit. [We may need to reflect on that together over the course of this year].

As we break bread and share wine in the name of Jesus, let us acknowledge that we are all called to follow, whatever the path of faith that has led us to this point. We are also called to be an inclusive community that honours and even facilitates the various ways in which God works with people, and when we do that, it is not just the people around us who are blessed – in some mysterious way there is also an effect in the secret spiritual places that influence the way the world works.