Planting Seed
Planting Seed
"The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches." (Mt 13.31-32)
I believe that there is a key to the Church becoming a "house of prayer for all peoples" (Mt 21.13), for The End. It is "the creation of cell-like, little 'monasteries', burning with peaceful ferocity in the heart of every local church". (Read "Which Elijah?")
In Spain, during the 16th C's creative maelstrom of the Reformation, a most remarkable woman set about her life's work, at the age of 47. For the next 20 years, Teresa Sanchez de Cepeda y Ahumada (as thoroughgoing a contemplative as any) travelled the rough roads (tracks?) of her country. During those years she planted 17 houses of prayer; her contribution to the reformation of the Church at that time.
In her autobiography (1), Teresa recounts events which surrounded the establishment of her first reformed prayer house in her home town of Avila. It is a brilliant and illuminating testimony of one indomitable female up against a society and a Church, in which women were expected to be seen (occasionally) but never heard. Her account contains "imperishable" seed (1 Pe 1.23), which I believe, if planted thoughtfully in the 21st C, will grow up and become a multitude of variegated little "monasteries". These will act as triggers and catalysts for the metamorphosis of today's Church into a "house of prayer for all peoples"...where "the birds of the air come and perch"!
(1) "I tried to think what I could do for God, and decided that the first thing was to follow the call...that the Lord had given me."
Too many Christians end up sitting around on their "blessed assurances", waiting for something dramatic, "supernatural" or exceptional to happen, to convince them that God is wanting them to serve Him. "Yeah right!"
Teresa's sense of being called to "live to pray" had been almost life-long; it ignited at a time which the world would consider "late"? In the natural world, some of the most precious things take the longest amount of time to gestate, to mature and come to fruition. How much more is this the case in the realm of the Holy Spirit and the Kingdom of God. The authentic contemplative-prophet will always, to a greater or lesser extent, come to identify with Jeremiah's call,
"Before you were born I set you apart." (1.5)
This vocation will seem to have always been a part of who you are and thus will not need to be inaugurated with trumpets and drums. It will begin almost un-noticed, perhaps in a quiet child, who loves nature and solitude. It will eventually issue into knees on a floor, and a tentative, breath of a prayer,
"Lord, teach us to pray." (Lk 11.1)
(2) "I was very happy...where I was...Nevertheless we agreed to commend the matter most fervently to God."
The gap between fantasy and a plan is infinite, but effortlessly bridged by the simplest prayer,
"Commit your way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass." (Ps 37.5)
I think that today, so much of what masquerades as prophetic is in fact a soulish search for security. The quest to "hear" God is not actually rooted in love for His voice or His intentions, or a burning determination to be obedient. It is rather an attempt to validate selfish ambition and obtain "written" guarantees of success...and the noxious twins, fame and fortune!
Faith is "blind". (2 Co 5.7) It has no "plan B", no options! It demands that we lay every dream, hope and plan in the dust, underneath His nail-pierced feet...most especially anything that has to do with the contemplative-prophetic. In fact, the only security, the only guarantee available to Teresa of Avila's "children", is a mouthful of the same dust in which our blueprints and aspirations lie buried. You and I will just have to go on lying in the dirt with them...until He either raises them up or not.
The Western Church is littered and disfigured by the decaying remains of half-baked, religious fantasies and "white elephants". They are a blot on the Kingdom's landscape, a bad testimony, and bring dishonour upon the Lord Himself. It is infinitely preferable to die in a ditch waiting for God, than to go off "half-cocked" and leave behind a trail of broken promises, shattered dreams and disillusionment.
But when we surrender unto the Lord what is most precious and important, it is an act of faith which honours Him, and which He will always honour. If anything is going to happen, let it truly be Christ alone who brings "it to pass".
(3) "The Lord earnestly commanded me to pursue this aim (of planting a reformed prayer house) with all my strength...He said also that although (others) were mitigated (lacking their original purity of purpose and zeal), I must not think that He was poorly served by them."
If God really is calling upon you to plant (like seed) a house of prayer for Him, your work of reformation and renewal can never generate pride in your heart. It cannot and must not ever be a reason for superiority, or an excuse to look "down your nose" at others. By all means see yourself being out there on the "cutting edge" of God's purposes for your generation. But always remember, being on the edge also means that you are that much closer to toppling over into the abyss of hubris and arrogance.
It is quite true that the best of God's People can lose their spiritual bearings and vigour. But that does not mean He has abandoned them; nor are they incapable of rendering Him valuable service and bearing fruit. We are called to employ our energy by getting on with our particular job, not judging the quality or quantity of another's,
"Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand." (Ro 14.4)
(4) "Humanly speaking, there was no way of carrying (the project) out...(our resources were) very small...almost none...O Lord, why did you command me to do things that seem impossible?"
This step in the journey has to be the most glorious and blessed. What more painful and yet marvellous grace can there be to come crashing into heads and hearts than this,
"I just can't do this. It just can't be done."
The 19th C missionary-apostle to China, James Hudson Taylor, said of his endeavours, "There are three stages in the work of God - impossible, difficult, done!"
There is a danger that we flippantly run into the promise of Matthew 17.20 that "nothing will be impossible for you", before first tasting the humbling (bitter?) truth that God has chosen "the weak...lowly...despised...the things that are not...so that no one may boast before him." (1 Co 1.27-31)
Confronting the impossibility of achieving our heart's desire and life's work is the blow-torch and blast-furnace of God. All of our noblest aspirations melt like wax under the fierce "heat" of the practical knowledge that unless the Lord Himself intervenes, sustains and completes, we are just dead in the water...headlines without a story. The beauty of this divine dynamic is that the stripping back, radical pruning, and even obliteration of every device, trick and facade reveal two glories,
(A) The naked glory of a native poverty of spirit; the infinite neediness of who we really are in and of ourselves. And that's in truth the only point at which God will permit us to touch Him and His infinite grace and power. Thus the Lord Jesus promises,
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Mt 5.3)
(B) The almost unfathomable (to man's soulish, vain intelligence) and beautiful simplicity of God's way of doing things.
"As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isa 55.9)
"But I fear, lest by any means...your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." (2 Co 11.3)
(5) "They laughed at us, and they declared that the idea (of planting a reformed prayer house) was absurd...there was hardly anyone among the prayerful, or indeed in the whole place, who was not against us, and did not consider our project absolutely absurd."
There is a lot of pious mumbo-jumbo talked about being "apostolic", "pioneering", "cutting edge" these days. It is curious how usually such dramatic adjectives are claimed and placarded by "establishment" churches and ministries. But the truth is that the call to "pioneer" is usually uttered because something isn't being done, and needs to be. All of a sudden the "in crowd" turns sniffy and snotty, because you're doing something they're not. And guess who's right...so far as they are concerned? We need not concern ourselves overly with the in's and out's of this unpleasant and awkward scenario. Suffice it to say, the bona fide contemplative-prophet is not usually to be found out at the front of the parade with the brass band and marching girls. Neither is he or she off in a corner throwing a wobbly, sulking and nursing an humungous persecution complex.
The point is to just get over it and get on with it. Take a cement pill and harden up. Build a bridge and get over it. Perhaps even consider becoming like Jesus,
"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." (Mt 5.11-12)
(6) "The abandonment of the project seemed to me impossible, I merely believed the revelation to be true."
Now of course, under certain circumstances this kind of talk might reflect an unstable mind; a disordered and disconnected life. However, in Teresa's case, this statement of faith is the product of order and stability. She has now been in the Lord's "school" since she was 21, and the older she became the most diligently and hungrily she sought the instruction, discipline and counsel of the most learned and the most profoundly spiritual leaders of the Church in her own country. Her "noviciate" spanned 26 years of prolonged, determined submission to "what is written in the Holy Scriptures" and "the laws of the Church".
Teresa reached that point in her pilgrimage where she just had to jump in - sink or swim, do or die. Sooner or later every Christian leader has to take this plunge. God help us if we've avoided or abbreviated our apprenticeship for ambition or reputation's sake. We will be exposed. You may count on that. But let us hope and pray that others do not have to "drown" along with us. Tragically in the past, many have gone down with the "ship" of ill-formed or illegitimate Christian leadership.
If you do have a plan which you believe had its genesis in Heaven, then test it to the uttermost. Submit it thoroughly, wisely, practically. Even consider submitting yourself to one who in the normal course of events might disdain or oppose you. There's very little to fear. "Gold, silver and costly stones" (1 Co 3.12) will not dissolve under the fiercest criticism or rejection. And your project will be so much better off without the "wood, hay and straw".
(7) "For five or six months I kept quiet, making no move towards (the project) and not even speaking about it...(I) was unable to rid myself of the belief that the foundation would eventually take place."
There are some things which just take time. (E.g. The making of a fine, red wine!) You cannot and dare not try to speed things up, look for short-cuts, or cut short processes. If you do so, you will very likely injure or harm God's ways and People. But even more important than processes and programmes, is your own preparedness and maturity to begin your life's work. Usually "the call of God" itself "comes to maturity along with the one who must carry it out". (2)
(8) "I went on, without a farthing, and the Lord did provide (money) in ways that astonished us...I thought the house (we purchased) very small...(I) arranged to have the little house equipped so that we could live in it. It was very rough and ready, and no more was done than was necessary to make it healthy to live in. This is always the proper way of doing things...(The Lord) assured me that anyone who served Him would not go short of the necessities of life."
Teresa's great faith, warm humanity and intense realism shine through here. She really and truly believed and lived by the Word of God.
"God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work." (2 Co 9.8)
"(He) who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power." (Eph 3.20)
"My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus." (Php 4.19)
Any Christian who wants to "live to pray" and needs to plant a prayer house to accomplish this, must not in any way, shape or form become indebted or beholden to man! In the very best sense of the word, you must be "independent", "detached" and "unconstrained" by the flesh and the world. Then you can truly be dependent upon, attached to and constrained by God alone. You must have almost absolute freedom to live and pray as you are led and moved by the Spirit of "grace and supplication". Various powers (both human and supernatural) will repeatedly attempt to sway you their way. But you have not been called to become a clone or a franchisee, but the image and similitude of the invisible God. And He will express this as much through your lifestyle, your habitation, your standard of living...as by your doctrine and your method or style of praying.
After Teresa had established this first house in Avila, she penned a series of essays of advice to those living in that prayer community. Together they were called "The Way of Perfection". These messages contained detailed and profound teaching about prayer. But what is particularly interesting is that she first of all addressed very practical matters concerning their daily way of life.
"Keep your eyes fixed upon your Spouse: it is for Him to sustain you; and, if He is pleased with you, even those who like you least will give you food, if unwillingly...Leave these anxieties to Him who can move everyone, Who is the Lord of all money and of all who possess money."
"Have a care to this, for the love of God...If I may say what my conscience bids me, I should wish when you build (sumptuous) edifices, they may fall down and kill you all...Always remember that these things will all fall down on the Day of Judgement, and who knows how soon that will be?"
(9) "I have always known that (the planting of the prayer house) was done by the Lord. My share in the business was so full of imperfections...But it was a great joy to me to see how the Lord had made me...His instrument in this grand design. I was so happy, therefore, that I was quite carried away with the strength of my prayer."
If you are keen to have a condensed and abbreviated ministry career, and wind up buried without trace in the deep sands of Church History, then feel quite free to be a glory hog! Or you might choose to be like Teresa of Avila, luminous and influential more than 400 years after her death. She, like the Apostle Paul, knew how utterly imperative it is to sing unto the Lord,
"Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen." (Ro 11.35-36)
(10) "Lord, this house (of prayer) is not mine; it was made for You. Now there is no one to manage its business, so Your Majesty must do it."
There are some events in life where the end is actually the beginning. Planting a house of prayer is one of them. The house in Avila's existence was seriously contested after its foundation. And Teresa continued to plant communities right up into "the last months of her life...The difficulties that she met were even greater than those of her first foundation; her strength in combating them even more flint-like." (3)
In a very real sense Christians can never relax, as the world might understand "chilling" or "mellowing out". There is a "rest for the people of God". (Heb 4.9) But it is more like unto coolness under fire...steadfastness in the heat of battle.
Dear friend, if you aim to put your hand to this particular prayer-plough, then plan too, to fight to plant, fight to grow, fight to harvest. And do not forget Teresa, christened by her "enemies" as that "restless gad-about...femina inquieta". Even as she lay dying, she busily exclaimed, "Oh God help me, my daughters, how tired I feel. It is more than twenty years since I went to bed so early." (4)
(1) "The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila by Herself" (Penguin Books, England 1957)
(2) Noel Mathieu, poet, 1916-84, France.
(3) JM Cohen, 1903-89, Penguin Books Editor.
(4) "The Eagle and The Dove" by V Sackville-West (Sphere Books, England 1988)
