Hold The Rope
- Christ Episcopal Church
- 3 hours ago
- 5 min read
It's been two thousand years since the night that shepherds watched their flocks and an angel appeared to them with the message of the good news of a Savior’s birth. It's been over two thousand years since God directly intervened in human history, with majesty and mystery. The world since then has been daily transformed by ordinary people who have felt themselves transformed and their lives saved by the good news of Jesus Christ.
The gospel’s joy rests in the fact that each and every person who has felt deep within themselves the life-giving message of the good news has not only held on tightly to it, but recognized the incredible responsibility to proclaim the same good news and passed it on to others, just so they might also experience the saving grace inherent in the gospel.
For us, we hold the rope of the gospel because we can bear witness to the power in that rope. We hold the rope because we can bear witness to the grace of the gospel. We hold the rope because our lives depend on the gospel.
There’s a story of William Carey, a Baptist Minister and Missioner. William went to India in 1792 and “Saw his mission as a miner penetrating a deep mine that had never been explored, with no one to guide. He said to Andrew Fuller, John Ryland, and his other pastor friends: “I will go down, if you will hold the rope.” And John Ryland reports: “He took an oath from each of us, at the mouth of the pit, to this effect—that ‘while we lived, we should never let go of the rope.’”
To understand the story of William and his friends, all of whom were zealous for the Lord, is to understand that the deep mine which is referenced in the paragraph above was used metaphorically to depict the extent of the mission of evangelization in India. To understand them is to understand the burning desire to share the gospel, despite any challenges of the deep mine. The gift they could give each other was to hold the rope.
Remember Jesus' words, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” But however few in number that the laborers may be, the gospel is like a matchstick; as little as it is, it can burn an entire forest with its light. That is to say, that we only count on the zeal of those who believe themselves to have been transformed by the saving grace of the gospel to light the darkness of our paths with the flaming torch of the gospel. But, to do that, we must hold the rope.
If you have ever been to a Passover Seder, one of the profound experiences you would notice is that, during the meal, four questions, known as Ma Nishtana, are asked. The questions are: What makes this night different from all [other] nights?
1) On all nights we need not dip even once, on this night we do so twice?
3) On all nights we eat any kind of vegetables, and on this night maror?
4) On all nights we eat sitting upright or reclining, and on this night we all recline?
These questions, typically asked by the youngest among the group gathered to share in the Seder feast, are meant to provide an opportunity to recount the unique history that formed and shaped their identity as a people and wove it into a rope. The point of these questions is for everyone, including children, to know the rope so they can hold it. To understand these traditions is to know the rope. And the best part is to hold it. To lose it is to lose your identity.
As Christians, we gather at this time of the year to hear the stories that gave birth to our tradition and which inform our embrace of the good news. The stories we hear transcend space and time and reveal the glory of God. The stories that we hear tell of God’s purposes for all the peoples of the earth and God’s desire to renew the world. The stories we hear tell of God’s deep humility and of God’s disposition of love.
These stories have not only been woven into our lives, but they shape our lives, they guide us, they inspire and motivate us, and they drive us to do the best that we can for our fellow men and women. These stories take us on a journey of love, joy, peace, and hope.
And “Hope”, according to St. Augustine of Hippo, “has two beautiful daughters, their names are anger and courage. Anger at the way things are, and courage to make sure that things don’t remain the same as they are.”
The fact is, you must care about the world and love the people in it enough to make the change that the world needs. And so, at Christmas, we celebrate the God who was angry at the way things have been and yet loved the world so much that God assumed human flesh to change the way things are.
Things don’t have to be the same. Listen to the Prophet Isaiah:
The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
and a little child will lead them.
The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
The infant will play near the cobra’s den,
and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
When we Hold The Rope, we are committing ourselves to the idea that things don’t have to remain the same. When we Hold The Rope, we affirm the Christmas message that the Prophet Isaiah’s vision is still possible. When we Hold the Rope, we embrace this quiet confidence in this belief, that the gospel of Jesus Christ has the power to turn things around. When we Hold The Rope, we connect ourselves with the past, and we bind ourselves to the future of God. When we Hold The Rope, we commit ourselves to the self-sacrificing love that unites us with God and God with us.
As we welcome the Christ child into our world and into our midst this Christmas, we rejoice over such a wonderful gift. In our joyous celebrations with family, friends and even strangers, may we never forget that we are drawn to the greatest story ever told by a love that binds us like a rope unto itself. And that is precisely why I Hold The Rope.
I wish you all the very best of the season.
Merry Christmas.
Manny+
