A response to Kate Andrews, In Search of a Second Epiphany

 On the eve of the Feast of the Epiphany, I want to say something, if I may, in response to Kate Andrew’s thoughtful and moving Spectator piece (16 December 2023), ‘In Search of a Second Epiphany’. 

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/in-search-of-a-second-epiphany/

I hope it will not seem patronising to commend Andrews for her honesty and her seeking. She expresses cogently what many feel. Despite the dominance of scientific materialism in parts of the middle class press and the academy, most people are convinced, as Andrews is, that God exists. “Believing in a higher power has never been the hard part”, she says. “It’s everything that follows as a consequence of having faith which I find difficult.”

There’s much truth in that. As G. K. Chesterton once said: “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” What would a serious commitment to follow Christ day by day mean? I am glad that many go to church on Christmas Eve. But Christ is not just for Christmas. Too right, this way is difficult. All of us veer off it before breakfast. And so moment by moment we need the mercy and compassion of God who knows us better than we know ourselves.  

Andrew’s specific issue is that she finds belief in God brings no particular strength, comfort or assurance. She speaks of the anger over the death of her mother and of God’s failure to intervene to reduce suffering. She says she takes her anger to church. And I think she’s right to do so. God can cope with it. Our anger at pain and injustice is part of the evidence for God, of our being made in his image. If blind chance were all there is, our anger would be nonsensical. Why rage against fluke upon fluke if all your raging is fluke too? But Jesus shared our anger. He drove the money changers from the temple and he snorted with indignation at the damage done to human lives by disease and evil. If we cry out for a better world and for God to act, these are Christian cries.  

Andrews mentions the book of Job. Job’s comforters get little right, but they do go and weep with Job and sit with him in silence for seven days. I hope Andrews has Christian family or friends ready to do that with her. 

Only after more than thirty chapters does the LORD God speak to Job. The Almighty asks Job where he was while God was making the universe. Does Job have some advice for the omniscient one? I realise that is a stark message. The answer of the book of Job is that we don’t have all the answers. None of us. Andrews at least admits it more readily than some of us Vicars sometimes do. Faith means trusting God that he knows what he’s doing, even when we don’t. Job comes to believe that God can do all things and that none of the LORD’s purposes can be thwarted. Inevitably if we speak of God and his ways, we speak of what we do not really understand, things too wonderful for us which we know not. 

Is there more to say, then, than shut up and trust God?

I think there is. A measure of comfort, strength, assurance, peace and joy are possible. And Andrews already points to their source in the life, death, resurrection and return of Christ. 

C. S. Lewis speaks of the elusive nature of joy. Ask yourself whether you are happy or not and your happiness begins to tarnish. It is a mistake to seek peace, joy and strength directly. What we need is Jesus. He gives meaning and purpose and all these things are to found in him. In Jesus alone are the depths of the wisdom and knowledge of God. He is our peace.  

Andrews is right to look to the church and to the Scriptures for Christ. Our feelings are often fickle and can depend as much on our blood sugar levels or our sleep patterns as on reality. Who knows what an epiphany might be like? For some it is spontaneous and overwhelming flood of happiness. For others it is a rational conviction which leads to a commitment to stake everything on Jesus. As a journalist, Andrews knows the importance of the search for truth. As we seek The Truth, we will find him also to be the Way and the Life. Love, joy and peace are to found in Him. I for one am going to go on praying Andrews’ prayer.