share the journey

Yesterday was the 21st of the month. And therefore our monthly special focus on trafficking and modern day slavery. It was also a day when ‘the Lion’ came up as our element of God’s character in focus.

We looked of course at the description of Jesus as a lion (as well as a lamb) and at the associations with the tribe of Judah.

And we also looked again at C.S.Lewis’ infinitely helpful symbolic representation of God in Aslan.

It’s always a joy to revisit some of the clips from the recent Chronicles of Narnia films and allow them to speak deeply to elements of our faith.

Yesterday we watched two.

The first is one we use often to encourage people to think bigger about calling – Wunderkind.

But the second was a less familiar one from Prince Caspian where Lucy meets Aslan in the midst of a very dangerous situation. Take a look here.

Lucy is being pursued by a soldier who is a very real threat. But when Aslan shows up to rescue her, the immediate feeling is not relief but fear. Lucy is off her horse; exposed and vulnerable on the ground gazing up at a terrifying lion – he has his teeth bared and he is ready to pounce.

After the event Lucy tellingly says ‘I knew it was you’ but we feel that she means a silent ‘really’ at the end of this statement. There must have been questions and doubts in her mind before this point, because when someone we know and love turns up we don’t greet them in this way.

Clearly there was a moment when he was about to leap where she wasn’t one hundred per cent sure that the danger she had been facing from her pursuer hadn’t increased into something even greater.

But of course though Aslan leaps directly towards Lucy, he is not pouncing on her – he is leaping over her to apprehend her pursuer.

His rage and ferocity is protective love in action…

But notice also that he does only what is necessary to protect Lucy though. Mercy is extended to the soldier who runs away with his life spared…

And we are left with Lucy and a new revelation of the softer side of the lion – who is only ever angry out of love and has no qualms allowing Lucy to play and cuddle him.

It’s a profound metaphor and one we watched in the context of praying for real life stories from Qatar where principally Indian and Nepalese men are being held in slave labour conditions in order to prepare for the 2022 Fifa World Cup.

Men who are young and in their prime are being lured out of poverty at home with the promise of providing for their families only to find they are trapped in a nightmare situation with confiscated papers. And forced to working 12 hour day of extreme manual labour in 40 degree heat.

Many are dropping dead from heart attacks and it’s estimated that if the current situation is unchecked there will be 62 workers’ lives lost for every game played in the Qatar World Cup tournament.

We need God to be a lion in situations like this.

We need to pray to a God whose protective, parental love makes him ferociously angry. We don’t want him to gently and passively respond. We want him to come in with fierce love and power on behalf of the trafficked, the enslaved and the exploited.

We want to see his power and might convict traffickers of their sin and send them running away frightened… remembering too his mercy towards them and the fact he wants to be the same protective lion to ultimately redeem and rescue them from the darkness they are entrenched in too.

In the West we are mostly uncomfortable with imagining God as being angry or standing in judgement. And often this comes from a good place of having seen this view taken to damaging extremes, or being misapplied to his view of us as his children.

But we must be careful not to go to another extreme – none of us would want to see any person fail to get angry at child abuse. Let alone God. His fathering of that child would be dangerously compromised if he wasn’t fiercely roaring – warning the abuser off with a clear threat of consequences.

It’s a powerful exercise to imagine a trafficker, slave master or extremist militant into this story from Narnia. And to imagine God’s passion for the person in Lucy’s shoes – pursued, terrified and in very real danger.

We wanted to share this image of God in this context because we think it’s going to help us so much as we continue to pray about many issues, but especially trafficking and modern slavery. In Qatar. And globally. And we think it might help you too.

Let’s not pull the teeth out of our image of who God is.

As Lewis says elsewhere ‘He’s not tame… he’s a lion. But he’s good.’ Let’s be thankful that he’s powerful and a fierce and effective opponent to injustice and abuse. And let’s be even more thankful that he is all of the these things – always – because he is love.

We have seen amazing answers to prayer around this issue – raids, rescues, changes to legislation, raising awareness, new ministries of restoration established – and they have all happened for the same reason. God loves the trafficked and the enslaved and he is jealous for their rescue. Let’s take heart from how seriously he takes this and keep praying and working with him inspired by the same fierce love.

Two final things to help you respond in prayer for Qatar and so many other nations and situations caught up with this issue:

Lou Fellingham’s brilliantly helpful song of intercession for God to move in power and change everything – ‘Roar’

And ours to carry on your intercession and commitment to this issue more specifically – ‘What Price?’

We want to tell you a story. And if you can stop on your way to wherever and really listen for a while, you might just hear an echo of heaven’s song:

Once upon a time there was a missionary. She was tired and seeking restoration – space to meet with God, a touch of fresh inspiration; things of beauty that would lift her eyes to Beauty himself.

She had travelled to a famous Cathedral city to see friends and was taking the opportunity to soak in its culture, wondering cobbles alone in the sunshine and taking time – even among the crowds – to be alone with God and to breathe.

It was no surprise that she found herself drawn to the Cathedral’s doors. Its spire had beckoned repeatedly as she wove around its surrounding streets. She sensed his presence already of course, but there was a desire to be in his house – to mark all he had been speaking to her about as she wandered and listened.

But she stepped inside the church to crowds queuing to buy tickets. She knew if she found someone, explained who she was and how she was living, they would surely let her in to sit and pray. But she felt reluctant to be an ‘insider’ and push past the queues – or to empty her wallet of money she could barely afford to pay for ten minutes where she was surely more welcome than anywhere else.

So she chose instead to find a patch near the entrance where she could merely look up at the transcendent beauty mirrored by the arches high above her and the pure light streaming in through coloured glass.

But she was still close to the queue to buy tickets and the conversation she heard between two friends waiting there was all about commodities. Where was the next place on the shopping list after the Cathedral? Should they go to the Levis store? God, there were some great jeans there weren’t there. Where exactly was the Urban Outfitters here?

The Cathedral was selling and these people were buying. And although in many ways she was pleased this tourist transaction meant they had entered God’s house – she still left saddened. Surely its own beauty and presence through centuries of history wasn’t the greatest treasure this building could witness to?

She stepped outside and turned the corner. And that was when she heard it. The sound of a sole busker of extraordinary gifting, singing with astonishing beauty and a note of haunting longing.

She sat down on the Cathedral steps – outside the building – and heard what became worship in her heart.

And as she sat there, this  offering given for free began to draw a bigger a congregation around it, even though perhaps neither the crowd nor the singer knew exactly who the beauty was echoing. Or why they couldn’t resist responding to it.

When she finally left those steps she gladly emptied all the coins she had as she thanked the busker and blessed him with tears pricking her eyes. She was truly thankful. For she left with a gift that day. The moment with God she had been searching for had been provided by a stranger on the streets. And through it another gift had been given… a whispered confirmation of a seed God had previously sown…

That perhaps she could follow Beauty himself into the town centre of another place and sing him to the people there. Perhaps together they could build a Cathedral-without-walls on the street. To create a sound-spire with truth’s song and draw people to it – and to the One whose presence it would resonate with.

And a new, modern-day beatitude beckoned her into its expansive vision. Blessed are the buskers she thought.

It’s time to take his song beyond our walls. Show us how Lord; show us how.

Tomorrow is the start of our summer term. And it’s also the start of a new season for the Sanctuary’s ministry… as part of our commitment to constantly follow where we sense God is leading us next.

Our core vision and work remains completely unchanged. We will still be running our daily times of outward focused worship and prayer. We will still be creating outward focused worship resources and giving them away through our free online library to inspire, equip and challenge the church.

And we will also still be seeking to embody our vision in our community through our window art and exploring other emerging creative projects to take God’s love and truth beyond our walls.

But one of the ways we’ve previously been embodying our vision locally is coming to an end. Following several months of prayer and discernment, we have decided to no longer offer drop-in services at our centre.

We have much to celebrate from two and a half years of running this ministry alongside our core work – a significant number of individuals lives have been deeply touched through practical and pastoral support; deep community and friendship has been built right across our community of pray-ers; and a huge amount of learning has happened.

But in order to respond to the brilliant and significant growth in our core work – and to follow where God seems to be leading us in exploring new projects that embody our vision locally through creativity – we came to a unanimous decision that it was right and good to end the season of operating drop-in services each morning, or of continuing to facilitate the drop-in culture that has grown around them.

If you would like to chat about the Sanctuary’s work, visit the space to look around or explore the possibility of booking the space or working in partnership with us, please now email info@thesanctuarycentre.org with your request or to make an appointment to meet with one of us in person rather than just calling by without getting in touch first.

This is another opportunity to thank everyone who’s helped make this ministry possible over the last couple of years, so we’re not missing it. Thank you again!

It’s also an opportunity to share with you that whilst we look back with amazement and thanksgiving at what God has done through drop-in, we are experiencing a huge sense of freedom and excitement in letting go of it (and its inevitable challenges and limitations) to embrace all that is happening now and coming soon.

The Sanctuary never wants to stay still. We want to be flexible and always ready to respond and move on as God leads… so we’re never surprised to be changing direction or seeing something new open up. But, as with any significant change or milestone, we would still hugely appreciate your prayers at this time of transition and adjustment for our team and community.