Signs on the Earth
Signs on the Earth
"In the last days, God says...I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below." (Ac 2.17&19)
"I have sold even the word that commands me to sell all and give to the poor." (Desert Father, 4th C)
"What is Christianity without the Cross?" (Desert Father, 21st C)
During the 4th C, one of the greatest religious revolutions and movements ever experienced by the Church, took place. Up until that time Christianity had by-and-large been an urban and local church-based phenomenon and event. But during the 300s, in an occurrence comparable to spontaneous combustion, men and women who loved Jesus as their God and Saviour, sold all their possessions, gave away everything they had to the poor, and followed Him out into the nearest wilderness or desert. (Mt 19.21) There they sought to approach "light unapproachable", and interceded for the salvation of the human race. One of the most "popular" assembly points for these radical disciples was the desert of Egypt. Some lived alone in caves, not unlike wild animals; others gathered themselves into communities. They became known as the Desert Fathers and Desert Mothers. Reports of their Gospel lifestyle and ministries range from the poignant, to the extremely other-worldly. For example:
"A hermit said, The monk's cell is the furnace in Babylon in which the three children found the Son of God. It is the pillar of cloud out of which God spoke to Moses."
"A hermit was asked how it was that some people said they had seen angels. He answered, Blessed is he who always sees his own sins."
"A hermit said, If anyone says, 'Forgive me', and humbles himself, he burns up the demons that tempt him."
It is not an exaggeration, nor is it extravagant to say that the pattern for this particular kind of Christian life (contemplative), forged by these men and women so long ago out in civilisation's wastelands, has undergirded and upheld the Church for the past (close to) 2000 years.
Right now, this incredibly antique (and yet still influential) Move of God is experiencing an extraordinary revival, in precisely the same location where it was originally born. This Revival has been picked up on by TIME magazine, and Britain's "Sunday Times" newspaper which describes it as "a remarkable renaissance".
The English journalist and author, William Dalrymple, in his book "From The Holy Mountain" (Henry Holt & Coy, NYC), reports that one of the Egyptian monasteries which he visited "is bursting with young monks".
"The same is true of many of the Egyptian monasteries...there has been a massive revival of monasticism in Egypt, and many ancient ruins, abandoned for hundreds of years, are being brought back into use."
Remarkably, one of the major influences in this Revival did actually live for a number of years in caves which had originally been occupied by Desert Fathers in the 4th C. From his cave, Abouna Matta Al-Meskeen (Father Matthew the Poor, 1919-2006) moved into a crumbling monastery cared for by "six frail old monks...today it has 130" active brethren.
Father Matthew has written: "Prayer is my food and my drink, my outfit and my armour whether by night or by day"...and..."For as much as our hearts are pure, God finds His rest in us."
(Most interestingly, I understand that Father Matthew was in his turn profoundly impacted by an earlier, mysterious Desert Father. Abdel Messieh (Slave of Christ) appeared in the Nile Valley during the 1930s where he lived to pray in a cave. He mysteriously disappeared in 1965, during a pilgrimage to Jerusalem!)
So, what meaneth this?
Well, in my own mind this phenomenon of revival and restoration is clearly an earthly sign (Ac 2.17&19), which powerfully makes (at least) these two prophetic points:
1) One of the major reasons for the original flight of the Desert Fathers and Mothers into the desert, was the (unwelcome for them) incorporation of the Church into the political, social and cultural Establishment of the Roman Empire, under the Emperor Constantine. Overnight, martyrdom ceased being the chief benchmark for Christian discipleship...and was replaced by doctrinal "orthodoxy", moral and social respectability, and the "christianization" and idolization of the pleasures and treasures of this world.
The Egyptian monastic Revival is a frank rebuke to contemporary Western Christianity, drowning as it is in the mephitic stew of a "gospel" of material prosperity, cutesy-pie seeker-friendliness, and the carnal pursuit of sensual and supernatural experience!
Christianity cannot be reduced to a shopping list of human needs and desires. It only prospers when it exists to please its Founder alone. Why should a Church be permitted to go on existing, when it does not truly live exclusively for our Head?
2) I do not believe that the Western (especially the Protestant) Church as it is presently constituted will be able to survive the Last Days, because (contrary to what is generally portrayed) it is actually founded on reason...which expresses itself in individualism, and endless sermonizing and organizing. It also lethally and tragically confuses emotionalism with authentic spiritual experience.
Our Lord Jesus Christ plainly stated, "My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers." (Mt 21.13)
(His statement clearly begs the question...If the Church is not a "house of prayer", what will it become? A place which is over-archingly concerned about wealth and power, above everything else?)
God's House on earth (Eph 2.19-22) must be built on faith...which always and consistently expresses itself first and foremost in relational prayer, which is unceasing. The Egyptian Revival is an eschatological sign (concerning the 2nd Coming), which warns us against treating prayer as the curtain-raiser, before the main event. Whereas prayer (especially in the Last Days) has to be the main event...which also then inspires every good work, and through which God's grace is supplied to make each Godly assignment and enterprise possible and accomplishable.
"Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up." (Lk 18.1)
"When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" (Lk 18.8)
"Pray without ceasing." (1 Th 5.17)
"They said that on Saturday evening Arsenius used to turn his back to the setting sun and stretch out his hands toward heaven and pray until, at dawn on Sunday, the rising sun lit up his face, and then he sat down again." (Desert Father, 4th C)
"Prayer is the highest achievement of which the human person is capable." (Edith Stein, Carmelite martyr, 1891-1942)
"To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world." (Karl Barth, Reformed theologian, 1886-1968)
So far as the two prophetic signs identified in this essay are concerned, I doubt very much if anything of any genuine significance can now be done to reverse the deeply ingrained trend of Item One.
However, Item Two must not be ignored or refused. The whole Church has to become, in some way, shape or form, a House of Prayer if it is going to survive at all, and fulfill its destiny in the Last Days. This is obviously not about suddenly upping-sticks and charging off to become Coptic Christians in the deserts of Egypt.
But it is most certainly about growing where we have been planted. It is about turning today's Church onto its head, so that what is presently peripheral (prayer), becomes foundational. It is about marginalizing the current religious culture of power, fame and fortune...and subsequent lickety-spit, stopwatch-timed, performance-"liturgies". It is about thirsting for and then fully surrendering to the Holy Spirit of "earnest prayer, entreaty and supplication". For it is He whose gracious and powerful influence is going to save all Israel in history's extreme and final clock-tick. (Zech 12.10 & Ro 11.26) Similarly, it will be His final, prayer-driven bending of the Church into conformity with His sovereign will, which finally and ultimately saves us too.
We do not need to wait for guidance and permission from some glitteringly successful sage from elsewhere, before we transform the Church of Aotearoa into a House of Prayer. We need only to drop bone-crunchingly onto our knees, and there call out like little children,
"Holy Spirit, prompt us
When we kneel to pray;
Nearer come, and teach us
What we ought to say."
(William Henry Parker 1845-1929)
God help us all if we find this too challenging or inconvenient...and prefer the effortlessness of charging off all together to yet another jazzy conference, where overseas' ministry celebrities leave us once more with ringing ears and empty pockets?
"These I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations." (Isa 56.7)
"If anyone wants to pray, the demons try to interrupt the prayer, for they know that prayer is the only thing that hinders them." (Desert Father, 4th C)
"All you need is a piece of bread and enough covering for the body. The less you have, the less you have to distract you from God. Do you understand?" (Desert Father, 21st C)
