The Man No One Would Sit With

The Man No One Would Sit With

by Norman Renshaw

Transcribed from the original recording; may contain errors.

And all the people said Amen. I wonder if they did all say Amen, or whether you still bring with you the bad habits that they’ve got in my church, and your church, and every other church. And you just leave a few people to say Amen, in case you get too much involved and don’t agree with what’s going on.

Well, this is the sort of place where you get involved, and you get involved right up to the hilt. You may think that I’m involved right up to the hilt at this moment, and I couldn’t agree with you more. And when I get to this point, I wonder why on earth, some months ago, even a year ago, people should have thought that there was any wisdom in asking me to come. And then putting my name on the front, and calling me one of the leaders. Honestly, this isn’t just the bit I say. I feel this tremendously at this moment.

I felt it as I listened to Hannah last night. I can see why they put her name on the leaflet. And we’re thrilled to have her here as a leader. But I don’t know why they put my name. And you may wonder why you’re here. And you may be saying, well, I’m here, but I’m not going to get too involved yet. Well, you can… you’ll miss something if you do it this way, but you can sort of free-wheel for the next hour and watch me being involved. But if you get involved with me now, then we might have the sort of spark that happens when the hammer hits the anvil. If you don’t mind being the anvil, and if I’m willing to be the hammer in this kind of session, then the spark may fly. God’s spark.

So get involved as much as you can, and get involved despite the speaker. Despite the speaker. Because we all have our likes and dislikes. And lurking everywhere is a little voice that says, particularly if there’s going to be anything in this camp that’s going to be specially for you, a little voice that says, well… you don’t really have to listen to him, or to her. You don’t have to get caught up in this. You can keep your distance. And you can find all kinds of reasons. You can say, for example, that you prefer to have a speaker who puts a jacket on and speaks to you in a jacket than one who speaks to you in a fisher neck thingamy bob, whatever it is.

Although some of you may say, oh, I like it like that because it looks nice and free and easy. Well, it doesn’t really matter. Two hoots, does it? But I guess the devil will be around somewhere to put all these odd, stupid, devilish ideas into our minds so that he can keep us in his territory.

But we’ve come to be in another territory. In another kingdom. And to take hold of this kingdom and stake our claim in it. And one of the ways to be in this kingdom is to take part in it. And that’s why the whole program of the camp, which is the pattern that was given to Glenn Clark 30 years ago now.

The pattern that has been the same at every camp almost. That’s why it is a complete pattern. And we all enter into all of it. We have a very good record for this in Britain. There are lots of things we don’t do over here half so well as the old hands in the States do them. Because they’ve been having camps so many years longer than we have. But I do know from my own experience that the people over here realize that every part of the program is prepared and arranged so that we can benefit from it. And if there’s any bit that you don’t want to take part in, that’s the one bit you must take part in. You can leave out the other bits, the bits you like if you want. If you must contract out of something, leave out the things you particularly like. But I beg of you not to leave out the thing you don’t want to do.

Or to put that in the old language of the mystics, the one time when you must pray is when you don’t want to. You needn’t bother to pray when you do want to, because you will. But or to neglect it when you don’t feel like it. When that dry time comes upon you, when nothing seems to be happening, when there does not seem to be any answering voice, to neglect it then.

That can be disastrous. So if you can just say to yourselves over these next few days, this is the particular bit where I’m going to take a back seat, where I’m going to keep my distance, and then get out of that old devilish kingdom into the kingdom of Christ and say, but this is the bit that I must enter into more even than anything else, and you’ll get such a wonderful experience in the doing of it.

So participation really is the essence of it all. Participation as we enter with the speakers into what they are saying and sharing, and into what God wants to say through them, listening eloquently, for without that, said Calvin, you cannot have good preaching unless there is eloquent listening, and participating in all the other activities of the day. And not least those of you who’ve never been before. You don’t know what a comfort you are to some of us. Those of you who’ve never been before. We’re delighted, of course, to see those old faces. They’re not older, of course, but those old familiar faces.

But the ones that have never been before… When you put your hands up last night, my heart leapt up in thanksgiving because I thought to myself, there at least are some people who will not have heard anything I’ve ever said before.

And when I said this to one of them last night in the presence of two old hands, the old hands rebuked me and said, “Oh, I shouldn’t say things like that.” But then they went on to say, “Do you remember so-and-so that you told us last year?” I said, “Yes, I can’t say that again, can I?” “And do you remember something the year before?” “Yes, I do.” Well, it was wonderful that they remembered. But I can assure you that you won’t hear anything that I’ve written in any of my books.

Sorry. I don’t even need to explain it to you. I’d like to read the first few verses of St. John’s Gospel. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. And the Word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God. The Word was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him. And without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life. And the life was the light of men.

And the light shineth in darkness. And the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. The same came for a witness. To bear witness of the light. That all men through Him might believe.

He was not that light. But was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world. And the world was made by Him. And the world knew Him not.

He came unto His own. And His own received Him not. But as many as received Him. To them gave He power to become the sons of God. Even to them that believe on His name. Which were born not of blood. Nor of the will of the flesh. Nor of the will of man. But of God.

And the Word was made flesh. And dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory. The glory as of the only begotten of the Father. Full of grace. And truth. That is John’s magnificent prologue to his gospel. And almost immediately there follows an account of a CFO.

Like all good and perfect things you find them first of all in the Bible. And not least in the New Testament. And there are quite a number of camps. Farthest out. Recorded in the New Testament. Andrew decided to go to one.

Quite a way from where he lived. Like some of us have come. Perhaps 40 or 45 miles down from Capernaum. To where he heard of a new prophet. I don’t know why Andrew went. Was it a slack season in the fishing business?

Was he possibly, though I very much doubt this. Was he possibly the sort of person who was always willing to down tools and go off? Or was it his annual holiday? Or did he realize that man doesn’t live by fishing alone?

I know people who never find time. To take time off. People who don’t feel that their business or their home can never be left for very long without them. And so they miss the opportunities. Well, whatever the reason was, Andrew went.

And what a thing that was for Peter. If you think that’s a quick jump, it isn’t really. Because Peter, who didn’t go with him, first saw Jesus through the eyes of Andrew. And that makes me wonder what other people see of Jesus through my eyes.

Do they see anything of Him? Particularly the people who are not associated with me in Christian things. Do I ever say to any of them, “I found the Messiah”? This is what Andrew said to Peter. “We found the Messiah.”

I suspect you have to be a Jew to understand what that meant. And the sort of thrill in the voice of Andrew. So, as he said it, “We found the Messiah.” He couldn’t have said anything more wonderful about this man, Jesus, he had seen down there, the other side of Jordan.

And of course, although it’s only recorded that this is what he said, he must have said so much more. We do need to read the Bible very slowly and with great imagination. Not making it up as we go along, but filling it in. John himself said, if it was all written, we’d want all the books in the world. Well, we’d certainly want a lot of books. They couldn’t write it all. They leave us to write it on the basis of their wonderful foundation.

So we watch Andrew come back to Capernaum. That takes time. Oh, it’s probably only in the next verse. And if we’re reading too quickly with our eye on the clock, then we forget that maybe he’s got another 40 miles back and possibly he walked it. Because in England that won’t surprise us these days. We find that people can do all sorts of things on the road walking. We’ve rediscovered the art of walking. Or should I say, it has been rediscovered.

But they foot-slogged it, of course, and when you do that, you have time to think. One of the great advantages that John Wesley had was that his horse drove itself and he did a lot of reading on horseback. My 14 horses have to be driven and I can’t do my reading as I drive around. But these men walking, trudging home, talking in the evening time, they fill in the picture.

And when he gets back to his brother, what a lot he must have told him. What a lot there is to tell if you are prepared to say of anyone, he’s the Messiah, the Christ. You see, we might fill that out far, far more than we do.

These aren’t just parrot phrases, or are they? Have they become in our time parrot phrases? Jesus Christ, we say. But what does it mean? What do we mean when we talk about Him as being Christ, Messiah, the Anointed One?

Could we even write a page on that? Even if we didn’t think anybody else was going to see it, could we even write anything on it? Or if your neighbour really did say to you, what on earth does it mean? Could we tell them?

I know what it’s like to be put on the spot in this way. Once every week I go round a factory, not the same factory, three factories I go to, one week, one the next, and one the week after. And when I was recently at one of them, a man put me on the spot in this very way.

I’m not sure that he was necessarily really wanting to know. I think he was trying to measure me up, which is fair enough. And I must admit that I find it much easier to climb up into a pulpit, where everybody is properly arranged, and where my thoughts are more or less arranged, and where the atmosphere is conducive, and where people are ready and listening. And if I don’t talk about religious things, they will be surprised. I find it much easier to do that than to see a man in a factory, getting on with his job, working away all the time because he’s on piecework, and he’s not going to stop while I talk to him, fortunately, otherwise the boss would be after me, when he wants to have the gospel there and then.

And then I remember that that’s the situation that folk who aren’t ministers are in. This is the kind of work that we expect the Christian church to be doing. And whenever in a pulpit we say, now go back to your homes and to your neighbors and to the places where you work, and live out and speak out your Christianity when you have a chance. We’re asking that people should do this most difficult thing.

One of the reasons we’ve come apart here is to get help ourselves. But also it is a training course. We are in a sense, though we’re staggered at the suggestion, picked troops. This is a kind of OTC. We go back from here, better equipped, more capable, in this service. And I believe that one of the things we ought more, to be able to do more perfectly, is when the occasion arises to speak about this Master, this Saviour.

And then what kind of Saviour, Master do they see? And so I picture these two brothers, Andrew and Simon, obviously very close to one another. And Simon saying, “Oh, how I’d love to hear how he said it.” Was he cynical when Andrew went off? Or was he glad that he went? Did he say, “Wait, where do you say you again? Brixham? What was it too? Oh, what on earth is all that about?” Or did he say, “I wish I could come with you, brother, but one of us has got to stay at home. You go, and you tell me all about it. You may have folk waiting to hear all about it when you get back.” People who’ve been before. That’s wonderful for you, isn’t it? What an incentive to listen, and to take part, and to share in it all. And you’ll go back loaded. If any of you have got people pulling at it like that back home, well that’s marvellous. But I guess all of us have got some people back home who have sent us off a little cynically, and will welcome us back a little cynically. Well, I don’t know how Peter said it.

But anyhow, however he asked the question when Andrew got back, Andrew made his point. I know he did. We all know he did. Because Simon went off with him. And of course the supreme point that he made was, “Come and see.”

Because Andrew knew that he was inadequate to express all that he was beginning to believe about this man from Nazareth, unable adequately to paint the picture. And so more and more we need to say to people, well, “Come and see Him.”

That may mean that you give them a Phillips translation of the Gospel. That’s one way of seeing Him in these days, particularly for people who gave up reading the Bible when they left Sunday school at 12 because they said they couldn’t understand the Authorised Version. You can understand Phillips, all right.

That’s one way. It only costs half a crown now, too. Maybe part of the activity of every Christian is to have half a thousand copies of the Gospels and the letters to young churches to give away to people who want to see Him.

It’s one way to see Him these days. “Come and see.” And we mustn’t be afraid of the invitation. In fact, there must be a sense of urgency about it. Andrew was so keen that Peter should see Simon, as he called him then, that he should come down and see this Messiah himself. And maybe Simon was encouraged to go because of Andrew’s enthusiasm. All these points, as I think of them, hit me absolutely between the eyes.

Maybe people don’t bother to come and see my Master because I don’t seem very enthusiastic about Him. Maybe they don’t trouble much to come and worship with my friends and myself in my Christian community because when they come or if they come, it all looks so… lifeless. Something that’s been going on a long time and somehow still goes on because nobody’s ever stopped it.

And if I feel that about the worship in my particular church, then it’s no good my going to the church meeting or taking any of my people on one side and saying, “I think you’re a very dull lot as you worship.” I’ve got to start just with myself and see to it that when I come to worship, I come with such enthusiasm, such joy, such anticipation that I shall inevitably help others to do the same. And many, many revivals have commenced in Christian communities by people leaving a camp like this and saying, not “I must go back and alter all those people in my church. If only they’d all be different, my, it would be a wonderful church we’d have.” We’re tempted to do it that way. But they haven’t done it that way. They’ve gone back and very quietly and silently they have themselves sought.

So to know this Master and so to worship Him and His Father that the kindling of the spirit in them has become a communion of the spirit, a sharing of the spirit to all the others. Well, Andrew had something and somehow he imparted it to Simon.

So I think and will do this week the kind of things that Andrew said to Simon about Jesus and will hope by the end of the week that my vision of this Jesus will be that much clearer so that, when I have opportunity to talk to others about Him, they will get a wonderful picture.

One that is so appealing and so challenging to them, that they must themselves have a good look. And so they set out together to go and see. And they arrive again after some time, I suspect. A couple of days, perhaps.

And Jesus sees them. Sees them coming. And He looks at Andrew, whom He knows, whom He’s met, with whom He has spent perhaps a night or two. And with what happiness He saw them both coming. Glad to see Andrew back. Thrilled to see Simon.

And He says, “So you’re Simon. Well, I’m going to call you Cephas.” Now you’ve heard that hundreds of times. Have you ever realized what that says about Andrew? Andrew must have said a lot to Jesus about Simon. I don’t think it was merely that Jesus could read a man.

I think He could. Though I think He could. But I think it was more than that in this situation. I think Andrew had talked to Jesus about this beloved brother of his. As we sometimes talk to Jesus about some beloved one. Don’t we?

That’s what we do. Don’t let it become dull because we call it prayer. Let it rather really be prayer. Talking with this Master of ours about someone like Simon. And the marvelous thing to me is that Andrew must have given Simon a magnificent testimonial.

I don’t think he could have spent any time talking to Jesus about Simon’s failings. Though he probably knew them better than anybody. His brother and a partner in the business. You put those two things together, there’s not much you don’t know about the other fellow, is there?

I suppose when you really boil it down, you can’t stand or sit in the presence of Jesus and criticize somebody else. Often I get people who ask me if I give them a testimonial. They’re going to leave school and get a job. Or they’re going to move to another job and so like most ministers, we’re asked if we write a testimonial for them.

There’s a greater art in reading a testimonial than in writing it. When you read a testimonial, if you are going to employ anybody, you don’t take any notice of what is written, except that what is written tells you what isn’t written.

And it’s what isn’t written that is important. Because nobody you see ever writes and says, “This person’s a lazy scallywag. I wouldn’t dream of employing them myself and I advise everybody else not to employ them.” Maybe we ought to, but we don’t do it that way. But anybody who writes and reads testimonials knows that the thing you need to look for is that which isn’t put in.

When Andrew spoke to Jesus, I imagine that he had found all the good things he could say about Simon. Because Jesus always does this with people. And He calls us to do the same. This is what He means, isn’t it, when He says, “Don’t judge, but do love.” Hannah touched on this last night and no doubt will again and again this week. One of the rules of this kingdom is this simple rule that Jesus gave. Do not judge. That’s the negative side of it. The positive side, do love.

Now I don’t know about you, but apart from the kingdom and apart from the spirit of Christ, I reverse that. I find it very easy to judge and very difficult to love. I can judge without any effort at all.

Find the wrong things, criticize them and all the rest of it. And so before I know where I am, I’m breaking the laws, right, left and center. Jesus said, don’t do this, but do that. And I swap it around and I say, I will do this and I won’t do that. And then I wonder why life goes wrong.

See, because you can’t order these laws. You can’t order them. You can break them, but you can’t order them. Well, Andrew, when he was with Jesus, whether he caught it almost spontaneously from the Master, or whether the Master began to teach him this straight away. For all we know, Andrew may well have started off by saying, “This has been wonderful to come down here to Jordan. I wouldn’t have missed it for anything. But I’ve got a brother at home. Oh, goodness me, if only you knew him. He’s terrible to work with.” You know, all the things that I used to say about a brother of mine.

And maybe Jesus listened for a moment or two. And perhaps He broke in then and said, “Look, Andrew, for your sake, first of all, for your sake, don’t talk like this. You know, I’ve been thinking the last six months or so, you could, if you like, work out that there is no more selfish thing in the world than the Gospel.”

That’s an odd thing to say, isn’t it? I’m sure. But every law of God is for our good. If only we will trust Him and believe it. And I’m sure He says to us, “For your own sake, don’t sit there telling Me what a brother you’ve got and how horrible it is to work with him. Because it’s only hurting you to begin with.” And my word, how right He is at all.

You just cast your mind back a moment. To the last time that somebody gave you cause to feel hurt and sorry for yourself. And then remember that you were very tempted and perhaps fell into the temptation of going and telling somebody else, just how hurt you were.

I always do it to my wife. She gets the benefit of these things. When somebody comes to me and knocks me down and walks all over me, then after I pick myself up I go and tell her how bad it is.

But fortunately we both know that there’s no sense in it. I saw a man in a factory canteen the other day sitting quite by himself. Those of you who have your meals in factory canteens know that the rules of where you sit are even more serious and important than where you sit in church. And that’s saying something, isn’t it?

I’ve been staggered to discover this. When I first started going to these particular factories, the first time I stayed for the canteen for the midday meal, I queued up with the rest and got my meal and I stood there. And I wished the floor would open up and swallow me. Because there are all these people sitting at tables and they all knew that I was the factory padre. And I didn’t know who wanted me to come and sit with them.

In one of the factories a group of three men shouted out, “Come over here, padre!” Oh, was I thankful. I went and sat with them. In the next one nobody said that and so I walked all the way down the canteen.

Hoping! But nobody said a word, they all went on eating like this. And because I was getting near the end and thought this would be ridiculous if I had to go out of the door, still holding the plate, I said, “Can I sit here?” And the father said, “Can’t sit in that one, you can sit in that one.”

So I sat in that one. He was sitting here and the other two places were empty. I said, “What’s the matter with these two places?” He said, “Oh, Bill and Tom sit there.” And Bill and Tom came and sat there too. And they sat there ever since they came to the factory.

I thought, I honestly thought it was only in churches that did this sort of thing. Goodness me! Now, of course, I go and sit anywhere and I move around amongst them, but they’ve all got their place. Every one of them. Well, the day may come if we can learn to sit anywhere in church, if… they may eventually learn to sit anywhere in the factory. Oh, if only we could learn to sit anywhere in church. Preferably in the front.

I really will think the kingdom has come when I see that. Still, I take heart, my people are getting nearer and nearer. But over here, I’m going to see the people who are going to sit anywhere in the factory. And so I started to tell you this because of a man sitting quite by himself. And so I went and had a chat with him over when we got to the coffee or tea stage or something. And I said, “I don’t seem to have seen you before.” He said, “No, I’m new.”

And I discovered that he had been on the staff in another factory. And now in this factory, he was an operative. Now, do any of you know anything about the structure of industry? This is a very hard thing for a man in his 50s.

The place where he had worked for 25 years, he’d been pushed out by somebody else. So all his expectation of status, promotion and pension had disappeared. He’d had to look for another job. He’d got another job with a different firm. But now he was what is called a counter man.

Downgraded. Glad to have the job. But seething inside because of the other people who had done this despicable and unjust thing to him. And there he sat by himself. Because the others were a little bit afraid of him. He was better dressed than the others because he hadn’t got any operative clothes yet. They haven’t got shabby enough yet for him to appear to be an operative. He looks as if he’s a member of the staff. But he isn’t a member of the staff in this factory and with this company. And he’s come and nobody said, “Come over here,” to him. And so he sits there by himself at a table for four.

Nursing his disappointment and his heartache and his annoyance and his grievance. And eating his meal at the same time. Many of you know what that does to you. And so I sat with him and I said, “You will expect me to sympathize with you.” Told him who I was, you see. And most people think that the Christian church is here to sympathize with people. Tell him how sorry we are. And that these things ought not to happen.

But I said, “I’m not going to sympathize with you. I’m going to tell you that the one thing you must not do, now or in the future, is to nurse a resentment about this situation.” And I went on to try to explain to him that if he resented it, if he bore a grudge, if he held this thing to himself, he himself, first of all, would be the one who is most hurt. I said, “It may be that the chap who’s done this dirty trick to you, he may be sitting having his meal in misery. But there’s quite a chance he isn’t. There’s quite a chance he might be only too delighted that you are out of the way. So while you are in misery here, definitely hurting yourself, you may not in any way be affecting him.

“And if by any chance you are affecting him, then you are hurting him. And though you may feel that that’s what ought to happen, that isn’t the way the world ought to be run. Somewhere along the line, people have got to be prepared to absorb evil in themselves, not pass it on.”

Now if you think about it, what’s happening in the world nearly all the time is that people get evil done to them and then they pass it on. Or try to throw it back. Throw it back to the person who’s done it. Or pass it on to somebody else. Take it out to somebody else maybe.

But Jesus did not do this. He took it. He absorbed it. With Him it came to a halt. Here was a terminus point. No so back. No passing it on, but the accepting of it. And in that way sin and evil is mastered and smothered and destroyed. It can only live as it is passed on. Or thrown back. And if it comes to any place where a person is willing to absorb it, take it, accept it, master it, and say, I am willing for this to happen.

And understand, as some of you have heard me say before, but I believe it’s basic, that God has made us freely to love Him. And because we are free to love Him, we are free not to love Him. He has made us free to love people and because we are free to love people, we must be free to hate them. So when other people use their freedom to hurt us, we are glad.

And we accept it. Or only because of Jesus. Only because He would rather that people were free to crucify Him than not be free at all. For if they are free, even though they have crucified Him, they may come to the day when they crown Him.

And if they are not free to crucify Him, they will never be free to crown Him. And so I talked with this man, trying to learn and relearn the lesson myself. Because as Hannah pointed out last night, it’s so easy to tell the others, isn’t it?

Trying to relearn it myself and remember it the next time it happens to me. That you absorb it in the Spirit of Christ. In the first place for your own good. That’s what I mean about the selfishness of the Gospel. And I can well imagine that Jesus said to Andrew, “Look, Andrew, for your sake, don’t criticize this brother of yours.

“Love him.” It doesn’t mean that he hasn’t got faults. It doesn’t mean that suddenly he’s turned into a different kind of person. But the point about our God is that He loves people anyhow. He doesn’t love them because He knows in some strange way that there’s some goodness in them somewhere. And loves that little bit of goodness and shuts His eye to all the rest. Though I’ve heard it described like that, I don’t believe it.

Nor do I believe that He loves us because He believes that one day we might be worth loving. I honestly believe that God loves people. Whoever they are and whatever they are like. And I believe it because of Jesus.

I shall probably return to this tomorrow morning. And so He tells Andrew to love Peter. To love Simon. Because love is the law. Love is life. Love never does any harm. Love only does good. Love is God. Love is God. Well, I don’t know. That’s one of the tape recordings I’d like to hear in heaven. A conversation between Andrew and Jesus. And he said, yes.

But if Andrew began by talking of the faults, and perhaps he didn’t. He certainly ended up by talking about the good things in Simon. Painting a wonderful picture really of Simon. Of his ruggedness. Of his impetuosity. And of his determination. And of his strength.

This strong, powerful, out of door man. So that when. A few days later maybe. A week or two perhaps. Jesus saw him. He said. With a word of recognition. “So you’re Simon.” Just as we say when we’ve heard a lot about somebody. “Oh, so you’re Simon. Well, I’ve heard a lot about you. Hmm. So you’re Simon. And I’m going to call you. I’m going to give you a nickname right from now.” Oh, it possibly wasn’t true. We know it wasn’t true yet. But what an encouragement. “I’m going to give you a nickname. Cephas. A rock.”

I think it was something to do with Andrew. And I wonder. And I wonder. What people see of Jesus through me. “We found the Messiah.” And what Jesus sees of my friends. Through me. And I wonder what nickname.

The Master gives to us. He had a nickname for everybody. We might call it a Christian name. His name for us. It’ll have laughter in it. It’ll have some leg pull in it. He was a great deflator of those who thought that they were very important.

And I think nearly everything He said, He said with a smile. With kindness. But with a leg pull. It’s one of the things we’ve lost. We’ve got to recapture it. “So you’re Simon. You’re going to be Cephas.” He looks at every one of us and He says, “So you’re…”

“And I’m going to call you…” But what I know is it will be compounded of love and of power. And of His great expectation of us. And of what He can do in us and with us and through us. And what He longs to do. And waits to do.

Father, these are early days at this camp. May these hours be hours of wonderful beginnings. May we indeed make a living contact with Thy Son. And hear Him speak to us. That we may become… what He wants us to be.

And to Him and to Thee, be all the praise and glory. Now and forevermore. Thank you.