HW: Having an account of the hope that is in us.

A reflection on being salt of the earth and light of the world, written and spoken by Kieran J. O'Mahony OSA. 

Gentle piano music to close the meditation

Transcript

John’s Lane
D08 F8NW
8 February 2026
Salt and light

Welcome
The case of a teacher against “transgenderism” has attracted considerable media attention over the last few years. It has been noted throughout that the teacher in question is “evangelical”. This long word has come to function as a kind of shorthand for religious narrow-mindedness and an inability to engage with contemporary values. The connotations have become largely negative, which is a great pity. In our church, we also use words such as evangelical, evangelism and evangelisation, but I hope more constructively. The word “evangelical” comes from a Greek word — euangelion — which means simply “good news.”

Topic
We can always ask, what is this “the good news” in Christian perspective?

Steps
For me, it involves three things. It is the discovery that God is love — that kind of spontaneous, totally natural and unthinking love of a father or mother for a new-born child. That might be hard to feel or even to be convinced of, but that is how it is. We believe this extraordinary love has been disclosed in Jesus — in his teaching, his actions, his person, his death and resurrection. It leads to a profound sense of joy in believing — a conviction that life is a great adventure, worth living to the full and, importantly, that nothing is ever lost. In other words, evangelisation is predicated upon the full Christian proclamation, in all its arresting richness.

David Jenkins, the Anglican bishop of Durham, once summarised as follows: there is God, he is as he is in Jesus, there is hope. It is a decent and memorable thumb-nail sketch.

How we make this our own is the key. There is a sentence in the first letter of Peter which should resonate in our time:

“Always be ready to give an account of the hope that is in you.”

This is part of the task of the integration of life and faith, in the conviction that faith and reason do not finally contradict each other. Of course, the “account” is first of all to myself. It takes in naming to myself what I believe, why I believe and how I would put some words on it, again for myself. At the same time, Christian faith is not all at an individual project and we are part of the community of faith. Within that community, it should be possible to talk about faith and learn from the experience of others. Perhaps only then might we be ready to “give an account of the hope that is in us” to others.
The first letter of Peter goes on to say how we might do this:

“But give it with courtesy and respect and with a clear conscience,” (1Peter 3:16 NJB)

In our day, for a whole raft of reasons, handing on the faith —or even just talking about it — has  become problematic. One of the major roadblocks is the reduction, in popular imagination, of Christianity to moral teaching and behaviour — to my mind a tragic underestimation, even if understandable.

Some years ago, an Irish Anglican bishop Richard Clarke wrote a book with the title Is Christianity True?  One potential approach might be to ask people to suspend their disbelief for a moment and conduct a thought experiment. Imagine for a moment that the Christian story is true: because there is God, because he is as he is in Jesus, because there is hope, the Christian message really is good news: life is a gift from the loving creator, a great adventure. Against the pessimism and absurdity of our times, the Gospel offers a vision of life, a deep and lasting meaning and a set of values to live by. In Jesus’ own terms, we are called to live lives of love and mercy, justice and joy, precisely because this is what God is like. And, to use my own expression, nothing is ever lost, even in the greatest tragedy. The invitation to this thought experiment might lead to a sense that Christianity really is wonderful — who would not be attracted? — even if not yet personal faith.

Conclusion
Once we do take the step to personal faith, or, in the words of St Paul, once we allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by the love of God, it is no longer really possible to keep the good news, the euangelion, to ourselves. It is so good, it has to be shared.

St Paul himself was a joy-filled proclaimer of the good news. Even he at one point puts it like this:

“If I proclaim the gospel, it gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel!” (1Corinthians 9:16 NRSVue)

The great apostle cannot separate being a Christ-believer and being a bearer of the Good News. Neither should we today. Being the salt of the earth and the light of the world is a big “ask” but that is who we are.