Andy rang last Thursday (April 7^th 2011) to let me know Br. Roland Walls had gone to be with the Lord. In these days that have followed I have been recalling memories of this dear man, my mentor and close friend.

I met Roland atLincolnTheologicalCollege( 1979) when he came to deliver a lecture on Contemplative Prayer. My first glimpse of him was when he arrived at the College in the Bishop’s chauffer driven limousine. When the driver opened the rear door, out popped this small and nimble man, in his sixties, who looked and dressed like a wayfarer (a man of the road) rather than what would be the common expectation of a Monk and former Cambridge Don. I had planned to miss the talk, expecting it to be a boring exploration of the technicalities of prayer. Seeing Roland had changed my mind, I was going to his lecture no matter what.

That evening Roland stood at the lecture podium, gave a broad and mischievous smile that narrowed his eyes and wrinkled his whole face and began; ‘Contemplative Prayer is being at home with Jesus Christ’

He then went on to tell a story of a holiday he made over twenty years ago.

At that time his friends and parishioners offered to send him on holiday, all expenses paid because they thought he needed a rest. His first choice wasSpain, where he thought he could rest, relax and have some fun. He ended up on the Isle of Patmos, a smallGreekIslandmade famous because it was the place of Exile of St. John the Apostle, and it was hereSt. Johnwrote the Book of Revelation. While in Patmos Roland heard about a solitary monk who lived in a cave by the sea, he decided to visit him. Walking along the seaside he met a middle aged, well dressed lady who looked angry and agitated:

‘Are you going to see that Monk?’

she barked at Roland

‘Then save your time.’

‘I came all this way to see him

to receive spiritual nourishment

and he waffled on for half an hour

about the beauty of creation

and told me the names of all the plants

and fauna around him: Waste of my time!’

She took off down the beach. Roland arrived at the cave, and the rather dishevelled looking man, pointed to a rock, which Roland presumed he should sit on. The monk never said one word for over 30 minutes, he just sat quietly, looking directly at Roland, who said he fidgeted the whole time. Roland was convinced the Monk had looked into his very soul, not found anything a great substance and so decided to say nothing. The Monk stood up and gestured to Roland to do the same, he then embraced Roland and spoke quietly to him;

‘Those who lean on Jesus breast

hear God’s heart beat’

It was a life changing moment for Roland. He recognised this to be what the Desert Tradition describes as a ‘Word for your life’ and he must now embrace that word and have the courage to follow to wherever it would lead him.

Roland’s lecture had a profound effect upon me. I too felt that call, but how would it be possible for me to respond. I had committed myself to the sacrament of marriage to my wife Linda, and our then two kids, Jayne and Sara. I was soon to be ordained as a Priest, a vocation I embraced and celebrated. Roland had stirred something in me that I needed to face. A few weeks later I read Bonhoeffers call to ‘a new type of monasticism’ perhaps this was the way forward.

In 1985 I found myself in the ‘desert’ having left Parish Life to pursue what it meant to follow the monastic way; I decided to seek out Roland.

I discovered he lived a three hour drive away, and one day my friend Alan Andrews and I set off to see him. We arrived early evening, it was just getting dark, and was the weather was cold and damp. Roland’s community house was located on a very nice street of 2 and 3 story detached Victorian and Georgian houses. In the middle of this street was a miner’s clubhouse. It was made of wood and corrugated iron and it blended anonymously it to the background of its more elegant neighbours, it had a small sign that said: The Community of the Transfiguration.

We knocked on the garden door, and a few minutes later we heard a voice from behind it: ‘What do you want?’  ‘We have come to see Brother Roland Walls?’  I replied. ‘Look, go way, there is nothing for you here’ was the response. ‘Wait a minute’ I replied, ‘We have driven three hours to see Brother Roland, can’t he spare us a few minutes’  I asked?  ‘Why drive three hours to see somebody when you don’t even know if they will be there!’ This was not the response I expected.

‘Listen.’ I said, ‘God is not going to send me on a three hour drive if they are not going to be in.’ At that point the door opened and behind it was that broad mischievous grin I first saw inLincoln.

We sat late into the night chatting to Roland. His love of God was contagious as was his laughter and down to earth ness. He smoked a pipe, which was usually perched in his mouth. When he laughed sparks from the pipe used to fly into the air and then land on his jumper and singe or burn it. At one point he was on fire, but just brushed in to one side as he carried on sharing his thoughts.

We shared with Roland about internal émigrés, a new type of monasticism, of our concern that we new nothing of the monastic way. It got late, intuitively, I knew I needed this man to teach me the monastic way, and asked if I could return at a later date and he agreed.

Moving toNorthumbriameant we had less miles to travel so I got to see him more frequently, and got to know Brother John and Brother Jonathan with whom he shared community.

They lived in a garden huts, behind the community house, each was about 6’ by 6’. Their chapel, consisted of two larger huts, joined together, where they celebrated Eucharist daily and said their Daily Office. At mealtimes you could find yourself sitting with people from all walks of life, and if it was lunchtime, eating the daily ration of raw onion and cheese. Their lives together were their teaching method, and for many years Roland and the Community of Transfiguration became an ‘old man’ to Linda and I, passing on to us the ‘way for living’ in which they had been nurtured. This life became a vital ingredient of the new type of monasticism we were seeking to live and the Northumbria Community to which we belonged.

What were the essential bits of that life?

1. Seek the Lord with all your heart find Him daily in everyday places.
2. Trust in him completely for everything and do you part.
3. Don’t take yourself seriously, or seek social status or popularity
4. Celebrate, enjoy, share, use well the portion you are given by God.
5. Treat all folk the same, show hospitality to all.
6. Don’t seek to be anybodies teacher share what you know with your companions
7. Don’t judge anyone, gossip about them, lie about them.
8. Be humble before God and your community.
9. Those who know lean on Jesus breast hear God’s heartbeat.
10. Laugh a lot, deep meaningful belly laughing.
11. Speak up for those who have no voice of their own.
12. Be a real blessing to others with no expectation of a reward.

When Linda and I left Northumbriato begin our peregrinate we lost touch with Roland for several years. I managed to pop in to see him once on a brief visit home. He had developed dementia, and the community explained he would probably not recognise me. He was sitting alone in the community garden and I sat next to him and said hello. He sat for a little while, digging deep in his memory to see if he could find me: ‘John my dear boy…how are you’ and his face burst into that broad and mischievous smile.

I have consciously borrowed from the teaching of Juan Carlos Ortiz and Floyd McClung.

Other sections represent hours of conversation with honest friends.

Please select whatever is good, is true,

is helpful to you………

and think on these things.

Andy Raine Date…possibly 1981 in Newton Aycliffe

Copy of Original Draft

A PAPER ON EVANGELISM

(1) Not all Evangelists, but all Witnesses  - I have not the calling of an evangelist,  but after years of reaction and reflection care very deeply, and would like to share some interim conclusions of my very own on evangelism.

(2) That Nicodemus – born-again-feeling?  - A person can undoubtedly be “saved”, that is regenerate, without knowing the terminology – they must only know and submit to the Saviour. Charlotte Bronte many years ago remarked about the ‘profane’ Athanasian Creed, and when I read this remark I hunted through the doctrines of the Creed for some objectionable unorthodoxy – in vain until I read the introduction to each sentence: that to be a Christian a person must perforce assent to each of these fine points of orthodox doctrine. To be a Christian we must believe in the Lord Jesus, that alone – and then His Holy Spirit will lead us to embrace truth, progressively, and often by faith. The straight path has only one entrance, that is: the Door of the sheep, Jesus Himself.

(3) The Gospel According to Jesus – Jesus didn’t say to the rich young ruler, “Have you heard of the 4 spiritual laws?” or call to the fishermen by Galilee to follow the Romans road. In fact Nicodemus was the only one man we know whom He told to seek to be born again. The experience, the doctrine, the claims were the same, but always He met them at the point of their need, bringing the appropriate cutting edge…. “Go bring your husband”, “Sell all that you have”, “Let the dead bury their dead”, “What is that to thee?”, “Follow thou me” or whatever.  How often is our presentation of the gospel as vivid and varied as Jesus’ ministry demonstrates? Is our sharing relevant and understood or pre-packaged and always alike, clothed in formulas, references and mechanical prayers? Could our evangelism be defended as obviously exempt from a charge of “vain repetition”?

(4) The gospel of the Kingdom – Jesus and his disciples brought good news, that the King had come. His Kingdom was not of this world but within people. He would be King, but from the inside out – the Kingdom would be wherever He was King – it would grow inside us and when we reach out to love others they would say “what’s this? What is this love?” “It’s the Kingdom”, we reply, “the Kingdom of God is at hand, within your grasp – if you’ll only reach out and receive it, then you can become a love-slave of theKingdom ofHeaven!” Jesus insisted on being King, and Lord – if He’s not Lord of all, then He’s not really Lord at all no matter how often we shout “Lord! Lord!” He wanted to the Lord of the woman at the well’s sex-life, of the rich young ruler’s riches, of Peter’s attention, of Nicodemus’ reason.

(5) What’s the issue? – Jesus always focused on the real issue. We too often follow red herrings. Instead of sharing the good news, we feed the potential convert or new believer the latest controversial doctrine or our current position on an irrelevant issue – or the most interesting prophetic speculations. It’s sad for the new Christian to have to unlearn so much he is taught in his earliest encounters with the faith. It’s like the adults who stopped believing in Christmas, because they “grew out of all that Santa Claus rubbish”. That which we have heard, we have seen with our own eyes, that which we have felt and touched, the Word Who is Life – this we share with you (1 John 1: 3-5).

(6) “If I be lifted up”  Jesus compared Himself, prophesying largely about His death, to the brass serpent high up on a pole which was set up for Israelites to look at when they were bitten by snakes. If they looked at this sign which God had commanded them to set where all could see it, they would be healed. Too often, though, Jesus has been lifted up on the Cross, a sign to all, we obscure that Cross, we preach more or less than Christ crucified. Our job is not to draw men to Jesus, but to lift Him up. If we lift Him up, He will draw all men to Himself. One specific day God gave me understanding. We had spent the day in Philadelphia “witnessing”, trying to share the gospel by approaching people at random – with no result. As the day’s work was due to be over, we met some distance from our bus to worship together. We closed our eyes and sang and danced and exalted in the name of Jesus, and as we did people began to “come from nowhere”. As other Christians on their way back to the bus we saw the crowd they came over to us and began to share the Lord with the folk around us.  The people were hungry to hear – meanwhile we kept lifting up the Lord, and as we did the Lord flashed that Scripture in my mind, “If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto Me”. What a difference to preach to or share with someone who is drawn already! You certainly won’t be putting them off – or looking for a way to start a conversation about the Lord! That simple revelation has changed my thinking a lot. I believe the glory of the Lord to be the strongest evangelistic force there is. Worship is more important than evangelism; one is forever, the other will cease – but hallelujah, the greater includes the lesser. If we really worship and the world is exposed to what they’ll not be able to understand – that’s OK. That’s God’s way! He said ‘tongues’ are a sign for the unbeliever, not the believer – because they bypass the understanding. Like Jacob, they’ll know that heaven and earth are not altogether separated, and say in words of their own, “surely the Lord is in this place”. Worship isn’t just singing and dancing, though, – it’s a lifestyle. Our day to day lives must lift Jesus up – and if they do, people will be drawn to Him.

(7) Don’t be wonderful.  John the Baptist said, “He must increase so I must decrease”. That’s right. If we lift Him up they’ll know He’s wonderful, but if we lift ourselves up they’ll soon see we’re not wonderful. We don’t even need to try to be. A few years ago, I heard about a Christian girl who worked in an office and seemed always full of life and joy, praising the Lord and saying how good He was, but the girl she worked with showed no interest at all…until one day that Christian girl came in very upset – there was big trouble and tragedy hitting her life and she confided that if God wasn’t there to understand how she felt and what she was going through, she wouldn’t want to live. Suddenly the other girl in the office was interested…so God cared about people with problems? ..people who couldn’t cope?..who had no desire to go on living? For the first time she had a way of identifying with the Christian girl just when she thought she’d blown her witness.

We need to tell it like it is. We need to warn people that being a Christian is not just love, joy and peace – it’s suffering and caring and being stretched, and ordinary days too. Often it costs, more than we realised it would – but it’s worth it, a thousand times worth it. He’s worth everything, the very costlyPearl of great price.

(8) Salt and light. Jesus talked of Christians as the salt of the earth, and as a light for the world. The salt is no good if it loses its flavour; the light is no good if it is hidden. To be effective, salt must not be separate but amongst the food, for example, where it is invisible but its influence pervades the whole. Light must not be blocked by anything, but set apart where it can be clearly visible. We are given two analogies that are almost opposite in their strategy – to show that there are times and situations which require one or the other approach. On the whole, it seems there are two kinds of situations when we are required to actively set our light on a lamp stand and avoid it being hidden. One of those is a direct confrontation in which the world insists upon us conforming to their standards (of darkness) but we refuse to compromise the truth we know. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego stood their ground and refused to bow to Nebuchadnezzer’s idol. (Dan. 3 especially 16-18). Their light could not be extinguished and shone all the more brightly because of the surrounding darkness. The second kind of situation is one where an encounter is not sustained, but a clear witness can still be given, (like a person walking down a darkened street holding a candle). A light and darkness polarisation is not actually desirable in long-term situations where we can instead build friendships, do our work conscientiously and let people see how we really are on a day-to-day basis. Here we must be salt. Many difficulties can be caused by a wrong handling of these situations. In a long-term situation we have really to earn our right to speak. We must be diligent in maintaining a Christian witness that is consistent, not in the regularity with which we shoot our mouth about it, but in not having double standards, in not doing or saying anything that will contradict the testimony we may sometimes verbally articulate. The single most frequent obstacle to faith in the Christian church voiced by her observers is – “they’re all a bunch of hypocrites”. Usually their objection is valid, at least in part. It is fair to say to someone: I CAN’THEAR WHAT YOU’RE SAYING FOR THE NOISE OF WHO YOUARE. When we do fail and the way we are is in opposition to our testimony, we must learn to be quick to admit our fault, rather than justify our failure in others’ eyes. A heart-felt apology for the hastily-spoken word can sometimes pave the way for a deepened relationship, and earn a hearing in the future. There is wisdom in earning the right to speak. A whisper is attended to more than a shouted address from a propagandist, but you have to get close first before you can whisper. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but you must become a real friend before proving this (Prov. 27:6). There is a time to speak, a time to be silent – to everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. Many Christians are like the boy whistling in the dark to cover up his fear – they are defensive and speak too loudly, suppressing the fear that the darkness will overcome their little light (John 1:5). They alienate those around by creating an ‘us’ and ‘them’ situation, posturing as the wonderful witness, and like the loudspeakers in the cars of political canvassers, filling the air with uncomfortable noise.

To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. A time to speak, a time to remain silent; a time to be light, a time to be salt. If in doubt, say nowt.  If in doubt – be SALT.

(9) A Preaching Tour  - Francis of Assisi once asked a young Brother to accompany him that they might preach the gospel in the neighbouring villages. They walked for much of the day passing through a number of small villages, and the young Brother became almost impatient for them to reach wherever Francis would have them stop to preach. He was much taken aback when soon after this he recognised that the road ahead was leading them to the place they had left from at the start. “When are we going to preach?” he asked. Francis replied that if they had not preached already by their presence, words would have made little difference. Francis intended this sign to always remind the Brother that all of life is a witness, and that we are Christ’s epistle read by all men.

(10) Walls – Don’t build walls for the non-Christians to climb over. Often the new Christian is at pains to communicate the change that has occurred in his life. Before, he was outside the Kingdom, now he belongs to God.  He is born again. The implication for his friends is obvious – this change can happen for them too, if they will submit their lives to Christ. Their position has come sharply into focus – they are “outside the Kingdom” and must do something about it ( – give in!). Fine, if they do. And probably without defining their need of conversion it would not have been as readily provoked. But most people are not at that first confrontation with their friend’s testimony themselves ready to fall to their knees and ask to become disciples. If their friend then continues to re-iterate “I am a Christian; you are not” “You need to repent”, “I used to be like that before I got saved”, they find it difficult to talk about whatever their real obstacles to faith are, and are often made to feel guilty or stubborn for not having immediately responded. This “conversion” business becomes a higher and higher wall that they must climb over – the Christian has, unconsciously, in reinforcing his arguments, built it so high that their friend doubts he has the strength or desire to get over it to the other side. The non-Christian grows to hate this wall that has come between him and his friend. The Christian is hurt by the wall between them too, but that wall has been built upon the line between death and life over which he has passed, and in retrospective he values this transition so highly that he has come to almost worship the wall. Yet it is the Christian who can reach through the wall and be with his friend, if he dares. Sadder still is when that wall is built higher and higher between man and wife. The wall is not of God – He never builds barriers, only bridges for us to reach Him and each other. The Cross is a pathway, a sign, He died upon it. He did not hit us over the head with it. The scripture shows us the problem is not new. The new Christian desires more than anything to share his new-found life with his wife, but the more he talks of being a new person it frightens her – she knew him the way he was, and resents the adjustments demanded of her now. She may be jealous of his new friends whom he says understand him so well; she is suspicious of his attempts at a new considerateness. Or the Christian wife begins to think how much happier she would be to give herself to a man if he really belonged to the Lord. A passing thought, but one she can’t express to him. He picks it up, though, and it confirms in his fears that this Christian stuff would turn her funny. You can see this in the background to Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians. Read chapter 7 verses3 to 5 and 12 to 16.

(11) “Faith – imagination” – Agnes Sanford, author of ‘The Healing Light’ and other books about prayer and healing, talks of the use of “Faith – imagination” when we pray. This is based upon Mark 11:24 and tells us to see in our mind’s eye the desired result, and then believe God to bring it about. For example, to see a person in our mind’s eye walking instead of being confined to a wheelchair. If we cannot even imagine it as possible, then our prayer is unlikely to attain to it. We must “see” our friends, partners, everyone we meet as potential Christians, not in order to scalp them like an evangelistic head-hunter, but so we will reach out to have fellowship with them, or yearn to be able to share freely with them. If we actively pray for the person to be released into a new life, we begin to treat them much of the time as if they were another Christian, talk free with them about the Lord, admit to some of our own hassles, and cease to exclude them. Be realistic in this, positive and patient. Don’t let your love turn to disappointment or frustration when it seems to take too long. Remember the father in Luke 15, who let the son go his own way, knowing that if he came back it would be because he really wanted to.

I could wish you joy and peace to last a whole life long…………

I could wish you all the happiness that this life could bring

but I wish you Jesus…

but I wish you Jesus more than anything.

I could wish you treasures, or that all your dreams come true,

I could wish youParadise, that every day be spring,

but I wish you Jesus….

but I wish you Jesus more than anything.

‘Cause when I wish you Jesus I’ve wished you everything.

(12) The floor tilted – It is good to include the non-Christian at almost every opportunity, treating him as if he were a Christian, providing he will let you do this. Sooner or later he will feel left out, unable to identify or join in, the odd one out – but this should not be because he felt excluded by you, rather because he is aware of his need for a first-hand experience of what those around are already moving in. A lot of good sharing of experience doesn’t happen precisely because the Christian develops an attitude of “Oh, but you wouldn’t understand that”. A blind person may not be able to see a landscape for himself, but this handicap should not prevent us from helping him appreciate what is before him. As we describe for him, become his eyes, we present him with the opportunity of constructing vicariously a framework in which the impressions of his remaining senses have clearer meaning. (The blind person may, from where he is standing, clearly recognise salt air, but be unaware that it is a sheer drop from the edge of a cliff some yards ahead, above the shore). Blind people often have keener development of other senses – and the hard of hearing are frequently insulted by hearing people’s assumption that they are not only deaf, but also slow to understand what they do hear. A non-Christian is not some creature of a lesser or difference species, but a person with one sense not yet developed, his spirit dormant like a balloon waiting to be filled with the breath of God. His other senses he may well utilise more fully and properly than the Christian – he may be more diligent and earnest in his pursuit of truth, or more compassionate or self-sacrificing. Able-bodied folk have been known to instinctively address the relative or companion of someone in a wheelchair and say, “Is he feeling OK today?” as if the person were unable to answer for himself. Similarly, a Christian meets another Christian and their non-Christian spouse in some social context – in the street or at a party, and immediately ignores the non-Christian or avoids asking the simplest enquiries directly. This is as hurtful and alienating for the non-Christian as for the person in a wheel-chair.  Indeed, the truly handicapped person is the one who finds it impossible to relate naturally to people in wheelchairs – or to non-Christians!! The truth is that in our relationships with people we already know, the fact that we may be a Christian and they not, has at times made communication more difficult or put a strain on the relationship. (Jesus said this can happen, that He came not always to bring peace, but at times, a sword), and we begin to anticipate that this will always be the case. We become guarded and self-conscious about Christian matters amongst non-Christians in general. How tragic. Where we are able to be naturally spiritual and spiritually natural, we can be good to be with and influence our friends towards the Master, simply because they see His place in the centre of our lives is a reality for us, affecting all areas of our lives in the most natural way. One person whom I travelled with who engaged me in conversation over an hour or two, remarked at the end of that time – “It’s fascinating – I don’t believe the same as you do, but I see it all makes perfect sense in your life, and after being with you I feel like the floor has been tilted and I’m seeing life from a different angle for the first time”. We walk by faith, not by sight – our treasure is not of this world. We have a different centre of gravity (Acts  17:6) and when people will let us be ourselves with them, they will feel the world slowly turning right side up, which in time will alarm or challenge them. That pressure must come not from us, but from their own reaction or the direct intervention of the Holy Spirit without human interference.

(13) DON’T have ulterior motives – We must be prepared to love someone as they are, not in the hope that effectively they will become a Christian. Obviously, if we love them we want the best for them, and so desire their salvation, BUT if we could not go on loving them just the same even if they never “came through”, our love is conditional and inadequate. Suppose we help our neighbour with his garden ‘because it’s a good witness’ that isn’t really good enough.  We should do it because we want to, because we care, and that’s a practical way of caring (then it will be a good witness). The neighbour is surprised and questions himself why you are doing this – if it’s because you want to do that which may impress him, but if the next day you invite him to church, he concludes that the garden was an excuse to get under his defences and make it difficult to say no when you invited him to church, since he then feels under an obligation to you. His initial delight that you should be so unselfish turns instead to distaste. What a disappointment – he thought just for a little while that you might care about him or be wishing to be friendly. Obviously he was wrong.

When we go out at Christmas singing carols round people’s doors, they come running out expecting to be asked for money. When we refuse it they are surprised and usually pleased – perhaps it makes them wonder. But occasionally someone is hurt by our refusal to accept their money –and then we have to say that we will take it, because it would be wrong to deny their impulse to respond by giving , and the joy it brings them. The response isn’t the point. We share the carols because of who we are and our desire to share. There is no ulterior motive. Our life must be a carol – infecting others with its ludicrous joy, and unconsciously influencing them by its assumed Christian belief and values.

(14) Expect God to act – (and He will!)  - “Blessed are those who expect nothing, for they shall not be disappointed” – a text you’ll find in the Scriptures about as readily as the Book of Hezekiah, but true nonetheless.

An evangelist who works regularly in thePhilippines, shared with me the stark contrast in results he found when praying over people inBritainand thePhilippines. He would preach that they could be assured of God’s forgiveness through Jesus, and they would respond as instructed by reaching out in faith. He would then explain that Jesus heals people and ask them to receive healing by faith. Over ¾ of the people coming forward for prayer in those meetings in thePhilippineswould be instantly healed of whatever their complaint was – some of total blindness or crippling illnesses. In Britain,  the same preaching would bring less “results” – though many seeking healing were Christians who understood much more…but were perhaps more aware of all the reasons why the healing might not take place?

Our focus so readily becomes our faith or lack of it, and shifts away from the Faithful One. The faith to doubt – and yet go on to believe that God will act…is in itself a gift. In many places were the Holy Spirit removed from the Church 90% of its activity could continue without any noticeable handicap. But God would have us be in a place where we are dependant upon His action and intervention. If we do not assume that God is able, willing and likely to act in response at least to prayer, then we are in danger of attempting to do God’s work for Him. The famous ‘God has no hands but our hands’ quotation may have an element of truth in it – but not if the Body is attempting to act independently of the Head. The Body of Christ ought not to be smitten with palsy, nor sadly spastic, nor yet mobilised by automised artificial limbs. Only the Holy Spirit can bring someone under genuine conviction of sin, or awaken them to a consciousness of their hunger for God, touch their eyes and ears so they no longer see, but do not see, hear, but do not hear. We can pray “Come, Holy Spirit” and give simple testimony to our own experience of God, but it is better to speak one word under His anointing, than ten thousand without. If we lean on Him and His direction, co-operate with what He is doing or waiting to do, we will again see the unexpected happen. New Christians often have spectacular answers to prayer and experiences, precisely because nobody has taught them not to expect this, and they have not become dulled to the goading challenge and promise of the Scriptures either. Spiritual laws are as surely operative as the natural laws of gravity, entropy and so on, and need not be fully understood before being experienced. They make sense to us. An element of risk does not debilitate us in general. Every time we get on a bus we are in faith that we will travel safely to our destination. There are some casualties in bus-accidents, but the risk is one we take. A Bible-translator watched as a native chief, who was helping him in his work, became tried and threw himself backwards, without looking, onto the bed in the corner. Their difficulty had been to find a phrase in the chief’s language which adequately conveyed the word “faith”. With relief, he noted that faith is falling backwards on God, without needing to look, because you know He is there, and is able to hold your weight.

Another missionary, Hudson Taylor, was anxious to prove the truth of the scripture which says, “Your Heavenly Father knows what you need”, and other promises of provision, and so, in Britain determined to live for a time entirely dependant on God for money, food and other necessities, but telling no-one else of his need. If the character of God remains the same, he reasoned, and I prove that He is to be depended upon here, then I can know He will be faithful to provide for all my needs, even inChina, without needing to tell any other of my plight. Where God guides, He provides, and we must co-operate with His action. His purpose and way is important to discern if we would walk in faith and not presumption – but He will act where we release Him to do so. We must do the possible and rely on Him to do the impossible.

In the book ‘Angels on Assignment’, Charles and Francis Hunter write the story of a pastor inAmericawho was visited by angels, and instructed about many things. One revelation was that in response to prayers of a Christian for their “unsaved” relative, angels are released to bring about in that person’s life, circumstances that will bring them to an encountering of the claims of God on them and an opportunity of decision, but if their response is negative or non-existent, the angel will then begin the process again of setting up a series of circumstances to bring them to crisis, or opportunity of response. How much our prayers can effect – and how pathetic our puny attempts to take the task of ‘saving’ on ourselves, when we feel God has forgotten to act!

(15) Signs follow believers – Mark 16:15-20 says “These signs shall follow those who believe – they shall speak in new tongues, cast out demons in the name of Jesus, lay hands on the sick and see them recover” etc. We see in the Book of Acts these and many other signs following the Christians. In our day, sadly what we see is a few people who get on with believing God and signs follow them…and the other ‘believers’ follow the sign, but as we trust God in our daily lives and believe Him, the miracles we are experiencing should be an undeniable aspect of our testimony. In ‘L’Abri’ Edith Schaeffer recalls how many seekers after truth would come to their household to argue out or discuss their intellectual difficulties with, or objections to, the claims of Christianity and the Scriptures. Meanwhile in a way planned only by God Himself, they would see specific needs or problems laid before the Lord in prayer, and be there again when those needs were met or specific answers clearly were provided. This combination was not one the Schaeffers had planned or dreamed up, but God was allowing their visitors to witness a demonstration of His power and reality in matters as they arose, important, personal or mundane.

They could not pretend or try to be wonderful, just hope in God and be honest when they did not have any idea what was going on.

(16) Look for uncomfortable ways of doing the uncomfortable –

Most people’s bad experiences of doing evangelism are tales of the uncomfortable. This uncomfortable is not usually with what they believe, but with their method of sharing it, other people’s expectation they will share it, or the way the whole experience makes them feel like they’ve been forced to try to be someone other than themselves.

A lot of what uncomfortable is unnecessary, avoidable, counter-productive and destructive. All Christians are witnesses, but many will rightly feel it un-natural for them to deliberately provoke discussion of spiritual matters with those they meet as a general rule. But the time must come when we are challenged to say the task of evangelism must be taken up – we cannot let our bad experiences make us so defensive that we do nothing. Analyse your objections to being mobilised at all – what exactly are you uncomfortable about? Is your objection valid? Is the method suited to you – and if not, do you therefore drop out or do you do your best to adapt it sincerely? Some people are happy to use tracts instead of talking to people. Others find literature is arm’s-length and awkward. Do the leaflets embarrass you? – they’re gimmicky, old-fashioned, badly written or just not what you would choose.

At Alnwick Fair one year, we prepared pedlar’s trays so people in the old-fashioned costume would mix among the crowds with the other stall-holders, offering the visitors the chance to pick out a small roll of paper with a message on it. The method was appropriate to the occasion, and the messages were very carefully prepared or screened by the whole group so that they were ready to answer questions about the content. It was uncomfortable to take so bold a step, but we would make sure we’d make it no more uncomfortable than it need be. The response was good, and perhaps more far-reaching than we imagined. A year later, with additional rolls added to the selection, we used the trays again at the Fair, and one person said they had one already thank you from last year, and pulled from her purse a small slip of paper with ‘The Lord is my Shepherd – is He Yours?’ written on it!

The key was prayer – in the preparation of content, for prepared hearts to receive the message while they were all rolled by hand and on the part of the actual “pedlars”.

The messages said different things, general enough to be relevant to everyone, but saying one specific thing, rather than trying to say everything at once.

(17) A link in the chain. Imagine that in the same way we can by modern science measure someone’s pulse on a graph, or chart their blood-pressure, we could on a scale running from -100 to +100 measure where someone stands in relation to the claims of Christ in their life. Zero may represent the point of surrender beyond which there is a continual growing in grace at least potentially. Many Christians see their task in evangelism as being to achieve in the other person, a shift from -100 all the way at least to 0 if not to 65+ (and all in 20 minutes!) The scripture does not teach us to expect that this will always be the case. As we have noted before we are to exalt Jesus and His will be the work of drawing people to Himself (John12:32).

Paul in I Corinthians 3:5-7 rather gives the picture of each servant of God being used in turn to nudge the needle a little further along the scale. Someone may be used to bring a particular non-Christian up to -60 by creating an interest, a second person may answer his questions and remove some of the obstacles to his true conversion, bringing him to -45, a Christian at work is lazy or inconsiderate and that knocks him back a bit to -55, a chance TV interview puts it back up to -50. Talking one night with his friend, the one who got him interested in the first place, he mentions the TV interview, and they end up talking for hours and on the scale of the needle has moved steadily up to -4. Then a leaflet through the door about the evangelistic crusade, instead of being thrown away stays on the mantelpiece, he goes along, and although he never heard a word of the sermon, when the preacher asks for people to come forward and decide for Christ, he is the first one out, and the scale swings to +9. We may be content to be a link in the chain, part of the process. We are not called to bring about instant conversions – only the Holy Spirit can convert a heart – but we must be sure that we will help and not hinder that process in a person’s life.

(18) LISTEN!

Most Christians are very concerned with what they have to say – so concerned that we can be in our head preparing to answer the other person, and not actually listening to what they are saying. We must become active listeners, concentrating on what someone says out of a genuine belief that they are more important than us, and what they feel is important. We must not patronise or put another people down. Even harder than listening to what is said, is listening to what is not said, but is really being felt. We cannot claim to have begun to understand a person until we learn what it is to ‘walk a mile in another man’s moccasins! (For example, the person we are talking with may have been offended by an imagined slight. To us it may be apparent that the whole situation was a misunderstanding and no cause for upset – how silly to get worked up over nothing, we think. But the other person has been genuinely upset not by the real situation, but by the situation as they perceived it. Is the pain of thinking you are being ignored any different from the pain of being ignored? I need to think not of how I would react in certain circumstances that face my friend, but of how I would react were I him in the situation).

(19) Head, Heart and Hungry Places. When we share the gospel (= good news) with people, its communication is quite complex – we speak simple truth and the responses are varied in kind. Some aspect of the message may be directed at the mind, and as the recipient responds it will be with a nod, a shaking of the head, a quizzical look, a verbal response in equivalent or another question. These show that a mental adjustment or appraisal is what is going on.  Sometimes when we share the truth it hits a person at a felt point of need, rather like a punch, hard below the belt. Interestingly, the person’s response, their “gut –response” will often be expressed violently in some physical outburst. We need to see behind the anger and violence which sometimes we will encounter as we clearly present the truth. It may be that it is a deep hatred for all we represent, that is being manifested. Then we know and recognise the influence explicitly or implicitly of the Prince of this world and its culture, our arch-adversary, Satan, who prowls around like a roaring lion waiting to devour.  But it may be that the violence is the sign that you have got to that person where it hurts – and the outburst is an involuntary reflex, or at least only half-thought-through. When Stephen, the first Christian martyr was being killed, Saul of Tarsus did not stone him, but stood approving of what was done, guarding the coats of his murderers. Stephen spoke in forgiveness, “Father, lay not this sin to their charge”. Saul could not erase from his memory the words or the face of Stephen, but went breathing violence and hatred, killing and imprisoning Christians everywhere. But God, who looks not on the outward, but discerns thoughts and motives, saw through to his heart, saw as well the deep hunger in his life.  His very violence became zeal for the Kingdom, and after three years in the desert learning to adjust and re-adjust his thinking, his theology and most of all his independence, Paul was beginning to emerge as one who could teach others in the Way with real clarity and passion. (Those who are forgiven much, love much). Poor Stephen, if he’d been judged on the apparent success of his sermon in touching Saul, would have been booed out of town – it only made things worse, provoking greater violence and trouble. But the Kingdom will be seized by violent men who inside, like Jacob of old, are saying, “I won’t let you go until you bless me”. On the Damascus road all was changed in a flash.

We aim most of all to reach a person’s heart – when that happens there will be a reaction, more gentle perhaps, but definite. Often the person will cry, particularly if they don’t normally cry – this will be a sign. Often the route to the heart of a person is through their intellectual appraisal (-HEAD-)

explanation → realisation → heart-response; often it is through the felt-need (- HUNGRY – PLACES -).

One open arena for encounter in truth in our day, is that of sexuality. As we compassionately, but clearly, state what God has to say, it hits people at a hungry-place level (obviously!) but more so as our society has no remaining moral ethic beyond selfishness disguised in sentimentality. For this we should know we have been called to become involved in discussion in this area, and are sufficiently “sorted-out” ourselves to be able to talk freely and firmly. We should have clarity about what the Scriptures says and does not say, and what God’s attitude and intentions are. We are designed only to function properly according to the manufacturer’s instructions, and we must have studied the manual carefully before instructing others. We will need also to have courage, for holiness is hated in our day, and the truth will not only hit deep, but hurt deep. People’s response may be violent, before we reach their heart. It may be our job to be on the receiving end of that violence, and leave the Holy Spirit the job of reaching on into the other’s heart.

(20) Leap of faith – Everybody has a mind, some use it more than others, some are governed more by it. That is neither a good nor a bad thing – or rather it can be both a blessing and a curse to have an active, questioning, logical mind. Do you remember how Thomas, the disciple, wanted to believe that Jesus was risen, but in all honesty could not, until it was proven to him. Child-like faith is a gift. It does not understand with the head, but the heart.

Soren Kierkegaard was a philosopher who turned to Christ and wrote extensively before and after. A thinking person may approach the Christian faith and examine its claims logically step by step, until  they lead to a cliff-edge. On the other side of a deathly chasm is another cliff-top with steps leading along from there.  The man reaching the edge of the cliff cannot come any further without taking a tremendous leap to the other side. Kierkegaard calls this “a leap of faith”. Man is not asked by God to put his reason to death, but to progress with it until he can progress no further, and must suspend his reason long enough to take that leap of faith. Once he has landed safely on the other side and has experienced the fruit of his leap, he may then continue according to reason. From time to time, further leaps of faith will be necessary as he follows along that path. It is logical that God could exist, that it might be possible to come to know Him, that if I spoke to Him He might hear me.  If He does not exist I will have lost nothing by the experiment, but if He does exist and I ask Him to reveal Himself to me, then having experienced His reality I must live my life according to the changes that must logically follow If I know He is real. But to these I cannot proceed without taking that risk, that leap of faith.

(21) Cain’s wife – the valid question? Many of the simple, good, beautiful Christians who rarely have doubts, questions or intellectual difficulties with their faith, see the questions of their more complicated brother-Christians as unbelief, or the questions of the non-Christians as excuses. Somewhere along the line we need help in living with loose ends, and answers to questions are usually available with diligent pursuit of truth. We must be prepared to answer people’s questions – even if it’s only with an “I don’t know – but I’ll try and find out for you”.

So when someone says “If you say the Bible is true tell me this, where did Cain’s wife come from?” We need to reply: “Do you really want to know that? Because if you do I’ll tell you (or I’ll find out) – or are you really saying I don’t want to believe the Bible is true because I’d have to change my life if I found it was, so I’ll use questions about Cain’s wife or anything else I can, to act as a smoke-screen to my fear that what you have is real”.

But if those questions are genuine we must try to answer, and remove what may be obstacles ton their belief.

(22) Ashamed? “I’m not ashamed to own my Lord”, as the hymn says, but I may be ashamed of certain Christian films, books, magazines, stickers or whatever. If I am asked to identify with these, they will inhibit me. A rule to observe is: Never use materials you have to apologise for. Where it is people – other Christians – who embarrass you, the issue is more complex. It is not possible for us to disown those who are family to you, but it may be wise for us not to walk deliberately into situations that feel strained or un-natural to us.

(23) Prepared hearts. Whenever we know we will be in situation where we are likely to speak of our faith to non-Christians, or may be called to, it is wise to pray that God will prepare our hearts and the hearts of those we will meet. That should allow conversations to flow naturally and without strain. It should also allow us not feel to constrained to investigate such conversations without very natural openings, for we will know how readily God can “set these up” when He so decides, and we have asked Him to prepare hearts. We will be relaxed.

(24) Have NO guilt. Guilt is never a valid motivation for our evangelism; compassion is. If we proceed out of guilt everything we do will be counter-productive. We are better to do nothing until that guilt in us has been dealt with drastically, and out from us.

“I the Lord of snow and rain, I have borne my people’s pain,

I have wept for love of them. They turn away.

I will break their hearts of stone, give them hearts for

love alone.

I will speak my words to them. Whom shall I send?

Here I am Lord. Is it I, Lord?

I have heard You calling in the light,

I will go, Lord, if You lead me,

I will hold Your people in my heart”.

The single most important key
to understanding the foundation
of the Northumbria Community
can be found in the crisis of faith that was
the common experience of the few who first started out
on the journey.

Like most ordinary folk,
back in 1980
secularization,
new age,
paradigm shift,
new physics and
post modernity
were not part of our vocabulary.

Yet, intuitively, each of us to a
greater or lesser extent
had begun to sense
and experience the momentous
changes and forces that were
redefining our culture.

We felt their impact and influence
in our homes, in the work-place, in the media and arts
and at the shops. With our families and friends,
neighbours and colleagues and in particular within
our church communities and our apparent
ineffectiveness to contribute to the
reconstruction of a society going through
radical transition.

The hope which
The Holy Spirit
had deposited in our
Christian communities
during the renewal movement
of the 70′s many had chosen
to invest in the house church movement
as a response to the inertia of the established Churches.

Unprepared to make
such an investment
and unconvinced this
was the way to move forward
some of us began to confront
those ‘chaotic forces,’
the cause of this
crisis of faith.

In 1985, a new group
of individuals were called together
to arrange Easter workshops.

Alan, John, Terry, Paul
Rob, Andy, Chris,
and others began to meet
and Heartcry emerged.

Heartcry represents the formative period
of creativity and thought expressed in art, music,poetry,
dance, drama, storytelling, metaphors and writing,
from which the language and ethos of Northumbria community
was born and is still sustained.

Heartcry
Internal émigré
Landscape of the Heart
Winter’s night
Come away My love
What mean these stones?
Who is it that you seek?
How can I sing the Lord’s song?
How then shall we live?
Set up the way marks
Child’s cry
Break down the walls
Kingdom in the streets
Cry for the desert..

these are themes from Heartcry ,
each pregnant with a meaning that gave us
hope, understanding, expression, as we
sought ‘an ethic for Christians and other aliens
in a strange land.’

This was the call
then, this is the call
now,

‘Come away My love’

As I said at the end of the last blog it has taken 25 years for a new type of monasticism and the Church, specifically but not limited to the UK  to start  getting  up ‘ close and comfy’

A friend of mine recently commented that new monasticism and the Northumbria Community are now an accepted part of the vocabulary of the College where she is training to be a Priest in the Anglican Communion. That said, getting up ‘close and comfy’ has not been limited to the Anglican Communion.

Roy Searle, the current leader and one of the founding members of the Northumbria Community has built bridges and made partnerships between new monasticism and the offspring of both the Reformation and the Radical Reformation Churches.  The ongoing acceptance of new monasticism in those churches is reflected in the appointment of Roy as the President of the Baptist Union in 2004/5.

His colleague and my successor in the Community, Trevor Miller, faithfully continues building on the legacy of the ‘Gift of Community’ and Northumbria remains  an eclectic mix of folk from every type of Christian background or not.

Ant Grimley, my student and colleague for over 10 years has built a solid relationship between a new type of monasticism and traditional monasticism. Check his work out at www.monos.org.uk This is a realization of a shared vision that a new type of monasticism has to be inextricably connected to traditional monasticism. (Sorry Dietrich…but we know you were a closet traditional monastic!!)

How did a new type of monasticism manage to get up ‘close and comfy’ with the Church?

Have we really developed the kind if relationship that we both need to face the challenges of these uncertain times?

The first real dialog between a new type of monasticism and the church in the UK took place in 1985. I was a relatively young man then, and truly believed that when I presented Bishop David Jenkins with a vision for a ‘secular monasticism’ supported in the Church he would jump at the possibility. The concept was simple. Our small community would live and worship alongside the Churches in the Parish in which we lived , and at the same time be immersed in the local community. We would slowly cultivate the soil to enable us to grow in a new monastic vocation, sharing the fruit of that growth with others who feel that they may share our vocation. Our small community was shocked when the Bishop suggested the ‘desert‘was a better location for this to grow rather than the Church. As a Priest, I could not see how this vocation could grow if it was not fully connected to the Church? To follow the new monastic way meant I would have to leave my ministry in the Church.

Linda and I did move to the ‘desert’ a somewhat secluded rural area in Northumbria. Only one other family was able to join us.

The Archdeacon asked me not to attend the local Anglican Churches, in case people were confused about my status? Fortunately two of my friends were local Vicars, so an unofficial relationship was maintained. Through our regular Easter Workshops our ‘community’ began to grow, even at a distance, and so did our conflict with various Churches. Our Easter Workshops, which were normally a seven day event, were located in Northumbria with the final day taking place on Holy Island. We always tried to work and gain the support of local churches for the workshop.

In one town, we arrived at the Church who had agreed to host us, to be told by the Vicar that the Bishop had cancelled our meeting. Looking at the 60 or so people standing behind me, I informed the Vicar a booking had been made and paid for and walked passed him into the Church.

At another workshop, one of our communities had set up a meeting with all the Church leaders in a particular town. Terry, had worked hard to do this, she had spent time meeting with people privately or talking to folk on the phone. I was asked to speak at the meeting, and I shared some new monasticism themes. One of the Independent Church leaders stood up and declared me ‘psychologically unstable’ and off he went. Most of the other leaders joined him with the exception of two catholic Priests. They said we could use their Parish to host our workshop and said they could handle the occasional nutter!  It became our most creative workshop, whose themes would prepare us to embody new monasticism into a much wider community. Throughout these years of conflict with various Churches we were supported by communities from traditional monasticism: The Society of St. Francis at Alnmouth and the Community of the Transfiguration. Br Jonathan, Br Colin Wilfred, Br Ramon and Br Roland taught us the meaning of ‘constructive subversion’ in the Church.

When the Northumbria Community was founded in 1992, and we moved to our first Mother House, we had already won the trust of the local Churches. Bishop Alec of Newcastle visited Linda and I and apologized for our mistreatment by the Anglican Church. We were deeply moved by his humility and sincerity, and we accepted his invitation to have my Licence restored so I could minister as a Priest in our Community and in his Diocese. He also gave permission for the Eucharist to be celebrated in our Community Chapel by Anglican Clergy. This permission was given officially and unofficially by nearly every other expression of the One Holy Catholic Church.

The Mother House gave many more people an exposure to a new type of monasticism. They in turn, shared their experiences in their Church Communities, and the whole thing snowballed. The number of individuals and communities who have been influenced by Émigré: a new type of monasticism are too numerous to count nor is it possible to evaluate their very own distinctive contribution to Church and Society.

So, without doubt, new monasticism has got up ‘close and comfy’ with the Church in the UK…but are we in a beneficial relationship?  We can get round to that next time when we check out  ’constructive monastic subversion.’

Thomas was a bricklayer like his father before him.  He was a good man, easy to get on with and difficult to find offensive, and whose obvious shortcomings were more than compensated by his ability never to speak wrong of others.

He loved his wife and adored his children, and worked hard to give them a secure life together, the type of security he had known as a child.  Thomas had been worried recently, it was three months since he had known regular work, and the recession had been particularly cruel to the building trade.  He was therefore relieved to be offered a new job, even if it might only last a few months, putting up the final stages of the Government Correction Centre.  It was strange work, unlike anything he had known before, as he was used to putting up houses for people to live in, which had given him a lot of pleasure.  The special correction block, on which he worked, was unimaginative in design, rows of windowless, flat roofed rooms with white tiled interiors, not unlike shower rooms, except the only inlet pipes carried gas not water.  This disturbed Thomas a little, but he comforted himself with the thought that he was only doing his job, and it was not his responsibility to be concerned with such details.  Anyway his mates didn’t talk about it, although he had to admit there was an uneasy atmosphere on site.

It was some months later, after work was over, that he just happened to mention it to a stranger in a pub, no serious conversation, just passing time.

They came for him in the middle if the night, men without faces who had long ago given up the right to be called by name.  At first he felt it was a mistake, they’d come to the wrong house, the wrong man, it was only when he realized that is was no mistake, it was him they came for, that he trembled with fear and cried out his innocence; wasn’t he a good family man, a hard worker, easy to get on with, never passing judgment on other peoples affairs?

They took him away silently, with only time to collect a few personal belongings and say goodbye to his wife.  He pleaded with them as they drove off into the night, looking for some support and comfort, but he received no flicker of a response.  He too became silent, and began to hope for the best, perhaps he would be home again tomorrow, for after all, what had he done?  It was only when they reached the gates of the Government Correction Centre that his fear again began to surface, and panic gripped him.  They led him from the car, along the narrow pathway to the special correction block, which he had helped to build, even as they closed the door of the windowless room in which they put him, he cried out his innocence.

‘I’m not guilty, not guilty, not guilty,’

But soon all that could he heard was the gentle hissing of gas.

There once was a rock whose name was ‘Rocky’… now Rocky was a rolling stone, but unlike some stones that had rolled about a bit, Rocky had gathered a lot of moss and got into an awful mess.

One day, when he was rolling around with nothing particular to do he heard somebody reading from the ‘Master Builder’s’ Holy Book.  ‘Come unto me all you little rocks and I will make you into beautiful houses.’ That’s what Rocky wanted! So he went and asked if he could be introduced to the Master Builder.

Rocky was very embarrassed when he met the Master Builder and a little ashamed.  He wanted to tell him what a mess he had made of things, how many opportunities he had missed and how he longed to be a beautiful house, but the words just came out all jumbled up.  The Master Builder held him gently, then tenderly but firmly washed all the dirty moss off him.  Rocky had never felt so new and clean ever before, in the whole of his life, he was so excited he thought he would burst and right there and then he wanted to become a beautiful house.  The Master Builder gave Rocky a big smile, then told him to wait patiently and he would send his foremen to come and build him up into a beautiful house, right from the inside out!

So Rocky waited and waited and waited and when he got tired of waiting he reminded himself of the promise, that he would be a beautiful house.

One day, Rocky heard some singing, at first he wasn’t interested, but then he recognized the words…They came from the ‘Master Builder’s Holy Book,’ perhaps this is the foreman, thought Rocky.  So he coughed politely,

‘Excuse me,’ he said, ‘but weren’t you singing from the Master Builder’s Holy Book?’ ‘I’m waiting to be built into a beautiful house.  I wonder if you could help me?’

‘Just come with us, we will show you the way.’

So Rocky went with them and soon his life became very busy…….

It was all do this, do that, and even worse, it was don’t do this and don’t do that.  Rocky just wasn’t sure what all this had to do with becoming a beautiful house, he just trusted that if he did as he was told, he did what was the right thing, then one day the promise would come true.

At last…..the day came when Rocky was to get his windows, he would be able to see for himself just how things were getting on, what a shock Rocky got!

He couldn’t believe his windows!  For all the other houses he could see were standing side by side, in rows of grey.  They just weren’t beautiful; in fact they all looked exactly the same.  What was worse, he could see his own reflection in the windows of the houses opposite and guess what, he looked just like every other house.

Rocky was so upset; he went straight to the chief house and said,

‘There’s something wrong here, I wanted to be a beautiful house and just look at me and while I’m on the subject, look at you!’

The chief house didn’t let Rocky see how angry he was at him; it wasn’t really not the thing for a house in his position to do.  Instead, he gave Rocky a little smile, the type that leaves you feeling cold and said to him;

‘Rocky, the trouble with you is that you have nothing to do.  You need a job, something to make you feel important and take your mind off yourself.  He says here in the Master Builders’ Holy Book: Go into the world and make other little houses just like you!’

Rocky didn’t feel he could argue with the Master Builder’s Holy Book, so off he went to make other little houses just like him.  He did manage to make one house, but that house was just like him, not beautiful at all.  And that made Rocky feel more guilty that ever.  Rocky was hurt and angry, so he went back to the chief house.

‘You have let me down, I only wanted to be beautiful and I’m not beautiful at all.  I’m all dirty on the inside too and none of you seems to be able to help me, I just can’t take anymore!’

By this time several houses had gathered around to see what was going on.

‘Shhhh….shhhh,’ said one of the houses, ‘somebody might hear you Rocky, we have our reputation to think about, our standards to maintain.’

Rocky just couldn’t take anymore.  He cracked up.  His walls crumbled and fell in a heap and his heart lay broken in the rubble for everyone to see.  Overcome with embarrassment the other houses turned away from him.

‘There’s no place for you here Rocky,’ said the chief house. ‘You don’t belong on Holy Hill, you’re a failure, you’ll have to move to the City of Ruins.’

Some of the houses had tears in their windows as they watched Rocky set off for the City of Ruins.

Down in the City of Ruins things weren’t so bad.  The houses looked in a bit of a mess but at least they left Rocky alone.  Soon Rocky made lots of friends, he felt happier and accepted.  Deep down though he knew he was different.  He had heard the Master Builder’s voice and that made all the difference.

One day there was a knock at the door,

‘Hello, who are you?’ asked Rocky

‘I’m the foreman of course,’ came the reply, ‘where have you been? I’ve been looking all over for you; I’ve come to make you into a beautiful house.’

Rocky stood, door wide open, not sure how to respond, could this really be the foreman?  What about Holy Hill?  Why did it all go wrong?  What would happen this time?

The foreman stood patiently at the door, waiting to be invited inside.

‘Okay,’ said Rocky, ‘you better come in.’

The foreman soon made himself at home and Rocky felt comfortable having him.  They talked endlessly about the Master Builder, whom the foreman seemed to know so well, that Rocky felt they were probably related, though he didn’t like to ask!

The day came to begin work at building Rocky into a beautiful house, much to Rocky’s surprise and horror, the foreman got out the Master Builder’s Holy Book.

‘You can put that away for a start,’ said Rocky, ‘I’ve had enough of that to last me a lifetime, don’t do this, don’t do that, don’t, don’t… I feel so guilty just at the sight of it!’

So the foreman put the Holy Book away and said nothing more about the matter.  But Rocky wanted to be beautiful so he asked the foreman if together they could just peep into the Holy Book, just a peep mind you.  When the foreman spoke words from the Holy Book they became alive, they spoke hope into Rocky.  No more don’t do this and don’t do that, but promises that Rocky could make all his own.

‘Let’s get on with making me beautiful, please foremen.  That’s what the Master Builder has promised for me.’

So the work began.

‘Can I have patio windows? A green carpet I think. And an open fire of course!’

The foreman said ‘Yes!’ and set to work immediately cleaning the rooms in which Rocky lived and even the dark corners where he kept things hidden away.  Rocky had kept some rooms locked inside, but he foreman insisted that they be opened, to be cleaned and let the light in.

Rocky was quite embarrassed letting the foreman clean up after him, and sometimes he found it hard letting go of some of the old things.  But this was the price of being beautiful and that was more important.

Rocky’s friends and neighbours soon began to notice the changes that were happening,

‘Hey Rocky, what’s happened to you?  You’re looking great, what’s the secret then eh?’

‘It’s the Master Builder, he sent his foreman to make me into a Beautiful House.  I’m still finding it hard to believe all that’s happened to me.’

‘Do you think it could happen for me, too?’

‘Well, yes, I could ask the foreman to visit you, to tell you about the Master Builder.’

Soon there were several houses being rebuilt in the City of Ruins, each completely different, but all transformed from the state they used to be in.

One day there came a knock at the door, and Rocky was almost beside himself with excitement.

‘Oh, Master Builder, it’s you, come in, come in.  Sit there in the best armchair and please don’t say anything, not yet- just let me look at you.  You’ve done so much for me; I don’t know how to thank you,’ said Rocky

‘Rocky, I have a job for you to do’ said the Master Builder.

‘Anything, anything for you, you’ve done so much for…..’

‘Rocky I want you to go back to Holy Hill’ said the Master Builder

‘Oh no, Master Builder, anywhere but there, you don’t know what hey think of me.  They’d break my windows, they’d….’

Rocky tried not to look into the Master Builder’s face and instead he found he was looking at the Master Builder’s tired feet that were cut and torn after going after rocks like him.  He looked at the Master Builder’s hands that were bleeding from the work of building houses and he knew he could no longer refuse. He knew the Master Builder loved him.

‘I’ll go’ he said, ‘It’ll be hard but I’ll go.’

They agreed it would be easier if he went by night and so the next morning what a commotion there was on Holy Hill!

‘Have you seen?’

‘What is it?’

‘It’s one of them down there, up here!’

‘What’s it doing here?’

‘Don’t you recognize it?’

‘It’s Rocky, it’s Rocky!- It can’t be, he looks different!’

Some of the houses were quick to ask him,

‘Rocky, what’s happened to you?  You look beautiful!’

But others just muttered disapprovingly and said,

‘Worldly! That’s what it is, worldly!’

Then at night, it wasn’t in daylight, one of the houses came to visit him.

‘Rocky, you’re changed.  How can I become a beautiful house too?  Is it possible?’

Rocky remembered that this was one of the houses who had had tears in their windows when he was thrown off Holy Hill.

‘Yes, it’s possible; you can be built into a beautiful house- If you’re prepared to pay the price.  There’s only one way- you’ll have to take down your walls.’

‘Take down my walls!  I can’t do that; everyone would see how dirty I am on the inside.’

‘I’m sorry,’ said Rocky, ‘it is the only way.’

One morning, when Rocky looked out if his windows, he saw that his friend had done just that, and he cried, for he knew how hard it would be for him.  But then the building work began and some of the other houses did the same.  And so the work is still going on and houses are being re-built, some right there on Holy Hill and some down in the City of Ruins. All thanks to the Master Builder who gave everything he had so we could be beautiful.

Wherefore the law was

our schoolmaster to

bring us unto Christ.

That we might be

justified by faith

Galatians 3:24