I swear to you that the Lord of the Rings theme this week is entirely unintentional. I saw Frank post his yesterday and sent him a message saying that I already had this one ready for today. At least we didn’t pick the same topic -Clay
What is the purpose of walls? Are they built to keep people in, or to keep people out? If you construct a tall enough, think enough wall, can it keep out the hordes of those that you don’t want to have access in to your life?
In the second part of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Two Towers, the men and women of the kingdom of Rohan are on the run. Their western borders have been overtaken by the wildmen sent by the wizard Saruman. Their people were fleeing and the forces of evil would soon be on the doorstep of Edoras, their capital. King Theoden makes the decision that they would all gather at Helm’s Deep, a mountain fortress that had never been breached.
In this case, the walls of Helm’s Deep were erected in order to keep attackers out. Instead of being overrun by Saruman’s forces, the men of Rohan were able to hold out through the night until salvation arrived in the form of Gandalf the White and the remaining members of the Rohirrim, the horse-riders of Rohan.
Walls are useful for keeping evil at bay. We are wise to build up walls around our hearts
Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life – Proverbs 4:23
Do those walls need to exist to hold everyone out though? Too often (and I’m terribly guilty of this) we hold others at arm’s length, not willing to let them into our lives lest they see what we are actually like. We spend just enough time with people to barely get to know them.
The church of Acts did not experience this. They lived, ate, and worshiped together.
44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. – Acts 4:44-47
What will it take for us to break down the walls that hold out people, and then rebuild them as a community? The walls of our hearts need to be strong enough to repel evil, but able to expand to include those in community around us. As Pastor Phil said on Sunday, we need to replace our suspicion with openness, our uncertainty with willingness. When the church becomes a loving, welcoming community that is working together for a common goal (helping others to meet Christ and grow in that relationship), the world will notice. The community will see the unconditional love and the high expectations that we have for each other and want to know more.
Today, let’s all ask ourselves what we can do to make this happen. How can we rebuild the walls around our community so that we all can fight together?
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