Reaching out

THESE have been tough weeks, during which many have been through painful experiences. Some of you have experienced illness and others, sadly, have been bereaved. Our thoughts and prayers are with those families especially.

I’m also aware that many people are doing incredible work for others. I want again to say thank you to staff in our residential settings: older people’s care homes, Lifehouses and safe houses for people who have been rescued from modern slavery. And I say thank you to everyone who is continuing to do what they can in these days.

Gill and I are surrounded by a tremendous group of people up and down the country who are a great support. I especially want to acknowledge Chief Secretary Colonel Lee Graves. He and his wife, Territorial Secretary for Leader Development Colonel Debbie, are from Canada so in the past few months I’ve had to orientate him to life in the UK. I’ve introduced him to football and explained unfamiliar phrases. Lee now understands what it is to be ‘snookered’, and what ‘it’s time to draw stumps’ means. Recently, he heard me say ‘they’re chancing their arm’ and I was able to explain this unusual saying.

Earlier this year Gill and I were in Dublin seeing some of the Army’s great work there. During some free time we walked through the city and found ourselves at St Patrick’s Cathedral. In the open space of the cathedral stands a door, separate from any wall, called the Door of Reconciliation. It has a big hole in it, which dates from 1492 when two feuding families, the FitzGeralds and the Butlers, were fighting. Eventually the Butlers retreated into the cathedral’s Chapter House where they locked the door. The FitzGeralds arrived, wanting to make peace, and asked the Butlers to come out. The Butlers were not too keen to do this, so the leader of the FitzGeralds ordered a hole to be cut in the door, then put his arm through as a gesture of peace. The Butlers, realising that he was chancing his arm, grabbed it and shook it. The door was then unlocked and the families made peace.

The Butlers weren’t the only people to have found themselves behind a locked door. On the day of the Resurrection, Jesus appeared to the disciples who were together, ‘with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders’ (John 20:19). Thomas wasn’t there and found it hard to believe what had happened. A week later they were gathered behind locked doors again, this time with Thomas. Jesus greeted them with ‘Peace be with you!’ (v26) and said to Thomas: ‘Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe’ (v27). Thomas responded: ‘My Lord and my God!’

I think Jesus is a specialist in making himself known in locked down and locked in places. Typically, when he arrives, he says to the disciples as he says to us in our lockdown places, ‘Peace be with you!’

I’ve always loved song 649 in our song book, which says in verse 2: ‘If doors should close then other doors will open,/ The Word of God can never be contained./ His love cannot be finally frustrated,/ By narrow minds or prison bars restrained.’ I think we’re discovering, when we’re confined, that amazing doors of opportunity can open up for us . We are beginning to understand that we have to be followers of Jesus in different ways and to express the gospel in new and exciting ways.

We should go on chancing our arms, endeavouring to find new opportunities, reaching out and discovering that God is with us. We should reach out in terms of being reconciled with God, of course, but some of us may need to be reconciled to one another, to reach out where we have been reluctant previously.

In these days may we know Jesus in the midst of us, bringing us peace, blessing us and blessing our countries in new and exciting ways.

ANTHONY COTTERILL COMMISSIONER TERRITORIAL COMMANDER

This message is based on a video released by the TC that can be viewed at facebook.com/SalvationistOnline or