The movie Leap of Faith starring Steve Martin as a roving con artist evangelist who doesn’t even believe in God.  One of his trucks breaks down in a little town in Kansas, so they set up a revival there.  There is a drought and the people are poor.  Yet they put on a good show and the money comes streaming in.  The sheriff is onto their scam and tries to expose them, but Martin is cunning enough to counter his accusations.

Then one night something happened to expose his phoniness and convict him of the truth.  He met a boy in a café and stuck up a relationship with him in order to get in good with the boy’s sister, a waitress in the local café.  She too saw him as a con.  The boy came forward at the revival and asked to be healed.  Martin tries to ignore him but the lad walks up to the large cross set up on the stage, earnestly prays, then throws down his crutches and begins to walk.  It’s a miracle!  Not a phoney miracle but a real miracle! 

Martin knows then that there is a God.  He also becomes convicted about the phoniness of his life, as it is exposed by the pure faith of the boy.  Martin goes to the stage that night, after everyone has left, stands beneath the cross and cries out, ‘Why did you have to make so many suckers?’  He is struggling with God and with himself.  He knows he cannot continue as before in a life of deception, even though thousands are streaming to his tent.  In the end, he hitchhikes away in a truck, leaving the sawdust train behind.  As he drives away, it begins to rain.  Another miracle.  The drought is broken.  The rain, like the waters of baptism, washes over him as he begins his new life.

The phoney evangelist encountered the Spirit of Truth and was transformed.  By encountering God, he came to see not only who he was, but also what he could yet be as he continued the journey of life.

In a world of deception, the doctrine of the Trinity informs us that God is self-revealing Truth.  We experience this truth through Christ and the power of the Spirit, given to all believers.  ‘He will guide you into all truth.  He will declare to you the things that are to come.  He will take what is mine and declare it to you.’

                    Rev Samata Elia