A Reflection on Conversion

 

En lieu of a sermon by me on the evil of Big Ag and our poisoned food supply, here's a reflection on John 6 by an old friend. He's a retired Anglican priest and onetime Oxford Blue (pistol).

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. John 6:44

This verse from the Gospel for today has me thinking about conversion. I believe passionately in the need for personal conversion. It is a personal choice to follow Jesus. It is a personal choice to accept his atoning sacrifice on the Cross for the sin of the whole world. It is a personal choice to serve God in this world. Nobody just drifts into the Kingdom of God. The verse above is clear; it is God who has taken the initiative.

That initiative of God is to “draw” a person to Christ. It is God the Holy Spirit who “draws” us to consider Jesus Christ as the Incarnate Son, the “perfect sacrifice for the sin of the whole world.” It is God who “draws” us. We are then personally called to respond. Sadly, most will go their own way. Remember the rich young man? “Jesus showed love to him and said to him, “One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me. But he was deeply dismayed by these words, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property.” (Mark 10:21-22)

I have experienced this “drawing” since I was young. I found that I wanted to be around people of faith. The Bible seemed always to speak to me. I loved worship in chapel at school. The Psalms and hymns spoke to me. I have always had a yearning to get closer to God. I believe I was being “drawn” and found ways to respond. That is even more so since I heard a clear call to the priesthood in 1967, at a Billy Graham Crusade in London. However, the “drawing” was, in retrospect, evident much earlier. In my opinion the key is how we respond. Do we say “yes” or do we turn away?

Conversion is a gift of Grace. As one who has found Jesus and the Gospel completely irresistible, I am amazed how many respond negatively to Jesus. Our sinfulness and need of God, our need of a savior, seem to me to be incontrovertible. At the end of John 6 we will read “After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.” (John 6:66) The twelve disciples did not reject Jesus, though one would go on to betray him.

Conversion is also a process of responding every day to God who “draws” us.  As followers of Jesus, we are offered constantly, daily, the choice to follow or not to follow, Jesus.

I pray for people to follow Jesus. God is always calling – calling each of us, all of us. Come, follow me, says Jesus. May we all hear that call of God amidst the noise of this world.

In his irresistible love, Fr Ian

 

I was moved by that and hope you find it helpful,

LSP

Marley's Ghost - Conversion

 

Have you read Chesterton's remarkable biography of Dickens? If not, you should and must. Regardless, here's a snapshot, via Lifesite:

The moment of Scrooge’s conversion is of course legendary, and is the closest depiction I have ever read of what happens in a man’s soul when he accepts the logical justice of damnation and undeserved privilege to repent. I could not describe the culmination of A Christmas Carol any better than the author who knew him best:  

“The beauty and the real blessing of the story do not lie in the mechanical plot of it, the repentance of Scrooge, probable or improbable; they lie in the great furnace of real happiness that glows through Scrooge and everything around him; that great furnace, the heart of Dickens. Whether the Christmas visions would or would not convert Scrooge, they convert us. Whether or not the visions were evoked by real Spirits of the Past, Present, and Future, they were evoked by that truly exalted order of angels who are correctly called High Spirits. They are impelled and sustained by a quality which our contemporary artists ignore or almost deny, but which in a life decently lived is as normal and attainable as sleep, positive, passionate, conscious joy. The story sings from end to end like a happy man going home; and, like a happy and good man, when it cannot sing it yells. It is lyric and exclamatory, from the first exclamatory words of it. It is strictly a Christmas carol.” 

 

Right on, eh? 

God bless,

LSP