In the third of this year’s reflections on the readings for Advent, Paula Gooder addresses the mystery at the heart of discipleship: the love of God is free, but it costs us everything
Once, when on a taxi journey, the Muslim driver and I fell to talking about faith and, in particular, the five pillars of Islam (the five acts that form the foundation of Muslim life and devotion).
What confused him, he said, about Christianity, was that he could not work out what the five pillars of Christianity were. What do you have to “do” to be a Christian?
His question has been asked for centuries, and is reflected in Luke 3:10 where, after hearing John the Baptist’s message, the crowd asked, “What, then, should we do?”
John’s answer to them was, perhaps, a little underwhelming: tax collectors should be honest and only collect what was owed to them, and soldiers should be satisfied with their wages and not bully people for more. In other words, tax collectors should do honestly what they were called to do, and soldiers should do what they were called to do.
One imagines these were not the only people asking John what they should do and similar answers would have been given to a wide range of people, all of which focused around the simple message that you should live the life to which you are called, truly and honestly.
It is very tempting to exclaim, “Is that it? Surely there’s more to it than that?” This kind of question gets us right to the heart of the paradox of Christian life and faith. On one level the answer to the question, “What do I have to do?” is that simple: live honestly and truly in the joy of the knowledge that God loves you.
It really is as easy as that. There are no five pillars of Christianity, no long lists of requirements, no checklists of righteousness.
All we have to do is to respond to God’s insistent call of love; to hear and obey Jesus’ gentle summons to “Come, follow me”; to open our hearts to the work of the Holy Spirit.
The love of God is free but, as the gospels make so clear, at the same time it costs us everything.
All we have to do in obedience to the call of Christ is to follow, but once we do follow we will find ourselves called to take up our cross like he did, to become more and more Christ-like; to be transformed into glory.
Following Christ is that easy; it is that hard. During Advent, the paradox of faith is revealed time and time again.
Living well in Advent requires us to prepare ourselves to encounter a great mystery: to welcome Jesus Christ, Son of God, who entered our world as a tiny baby and turned history on its head; to celebrate the power of our glorious King born a vulnerable infant in poverty and squalor; to give thanks for the love of God, freely given, but which costs us our whole lives.
Paula Gooder is theologian in residence at Bible Society and author of Journey to the Manger: exploring the birth of Jesus, published by Canterbury Press.
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