I remember the first time I heard a live performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Christmas composition “Hodie.” It was performed in a large Catholic Church in Oak Park, Illinois with orchestra, mixed choir, boys choir, and Ivy Beard, accompanist of the Lyric Opera, at the organ. The cantata bursts out with a brass fanfare followed by the choir singing “Nowell! Nowell! Nowell!”

It’s a stunning piece of music telling the Christmas story. It moves me every time I hear it. Yet, something about it troubles me. The composer was not a Christian. Vaughan Williams referred to himself as a “cheerful agnostic.” The enigma of Vaughan Williams goes further. He was editor of The Oxford Book of Carols and The English Hymnal (one of the most influential hymnals) and composer of dozens of choir anthems and hymn tunes including “Sine Nomine” to which we sing “For All the Saints.”

How can someone who is not a believer contribute so much to Christian worship? It’s a puzzle. I have to conclude that God gives gifts regardless of the faith of the recipient. Furthermore, God can use people who have no faith to do good things, even to promote the faith they don’t believe in. That seems strange to me, but God does lots of strange things. That’s why I am glad God is God and not me. I’d always do the wrong thing, but God always gets it right, no matter how strange the method.

God be praised for enigmatic ways of doing things.

Read 1 Peter 1:8-9 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne