I have mentioned on two or three occasions the vision I believe God gave me for Four Oaks: that we are being called to go “beyond the walls”.  This was given me at Spring Harvest about three years ago – but before we know it, Alison and I will be going ‘beyond the walls’!  Beyond the walls of living in a manse, that is.  As you know I will be ‘sitting down’ in August next year.  ‘Sitting down’ is what the Methodist Church calls it when a minister retires.   So far as I can establish, though, you sit down so that you can stand up and do something different!   Anyway, many people have asked where we will be living and I can now say that we will, most likely, be living in a house provided by the Methodist Ministers’ Housing Association on the Birmingham edge of Coventry.  This means we will not be too far away from Sutton and about half way between our two sons and their families.

I am delighted to hear that Revd John Rowe and Deacon Liz Rowe will be going beyond the walls of their manse in Cardiff and joining the Sutton Park Circuit and from what I hear they will carry on the vision to go “beyond the walls”.   I think that means many different things for us.  Things like going beyond the walls by trying new forms of worship such as Messy Church and Café Church.  It means going beyond the walls by taking the Good News of Jesus Christ out into the community.   Holding an Alpha Course in Coppice/Langley School has been an example of this.  Sharing with the rest of the church in the area in holding a monthly Café Church in Costa Coffee is another example of going “beyond the walls”.   

Going beyond the walls also means going beyond the walls of our own comfort zones; it means being prepared to do things in ways different to what has been done for many years.  Sharing a minister with Streetly and Blackwood will, for example, be different; as will working with a Deacon in her unique rôle.   Going beyond the walls means facing the challenges of shaping the church for future use.

Jesus’ whole ministry was spent going “beyond the walls”.   He loved where love had not been shown.  He spoke out against hypocrisy.  He ‘had no place to lay his head’.  He sought to serve rather than be served.  He mixed with tax-collectors and sinners.  He lived and he loved “beyond the walls”.

But more to the point, his earthly life began “beyond the walls”.  He left all the glory of his heavenly dwelling place to be born in the outhouse of a pub in the fairly obscure town of Bethlehem.  Nothing or no-one of any account came from Bethlehem – but that is where the Son of God chose to be born.  Not only did he give up his heavenly glory, he wasn’t even born in a palace, where you would expect a king to be born.   Jesus begun life beyond the walls; he ministered beyond the walls; and he died beyond the walls.  Everything about Jesus takes us, not within the walls of safety and security, but beyond the walls into vulnerability.

This Christmas, then, as we reflect on all that Jesus’ birth in a stable means for us, we are challenged to allow him, who is the King of Christmas, to be enthroned afresh within the ‘walls’ of our hearts, that we might be prepared and enabled to go ‘beyond the walls’ with him. 

In the meantime Alison and I wish you a truly wonderful Christmas.