Sharing
(By Rev J.P. Thornton-Duesbery, M.A.)
(He Was Master of St. Peter's College, Oxford)
|
COMPLETE
but scanning errors not corrected
|
|
Sharing (J.P.
Thornton-Duesbery)
Full Length Digital Reprint of this
Oxford Group Pamphlet
‘That which we have seen and heard declare we
unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our
fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.’ 1
John 1. 3.
PEOPLE today are hungry for fellowship with God.
They are hungry, too, for fellowship with other men. Both facts are
pathetically clear when we get below the surface of life. In the
Church itself these demands are becoming plain, and there is an
increasing impatience with substitutes.
So, indeed, it has always been in Christian
history. Recent years have been the growth of a movement within the
Church, which is seeking to recapture the life of power and
fellowship in Christ as it was in New Testament days. Rut, as St.
John makes abundantly plain in the chapter from which we have
quoted, such power and fellowship are only possible after an honest
dealing sin has issued repentance and forgiveness. Thus they are
bound up with what is known as "Sharing".
The word ‘sharing’ as so used covers two
distinct things, further definable as Confession and Witness. This
double use of word
is due to a natural process of development since, as will be seen
later, the one readily passes into the other. But it is important to
distinguish clearly between the two, if we are rightly to understand
an experience by which present-day church life is being constantly
enriched.
|
The simplest
definition of this form of sharing is ‘being honest about
oneself'. To adhere in this sense is to be willing to acknowledge
our mistakes, to admit that we are wrong, to concede our failures,
to own up to our sins – in short, to confess. The ultimate aim
of this sharing is a right relationship with God. We are in
desperate need of forgive-ness; and in the last resort, whatever
aids we may use to help us to reach it, we must come to the place
where we stand before God face to face, con-fess to Him our sins,
and receive the forgiveness which He so freely gives. There is no
other way to fullness of life, and in our hearts we know it.
Now, ideally, such confession as this
would be made direct to God, without the need of any human
assistance. But, unfortunately, we men and women are not ideal, and
experience has shown the value of sharing with some Christian man or
woman, as a help towards reaching this relation-ship with God. Let
us be quite dear about it. Theoretically, there is not the smallest
reason why a sinner should not confess his sins direct to God and
receive, and know that he is receiving, God’s forgiveness then and
there; obviously, in fact, this has happened and happens time and
time again. But in practical experience, and just because we are not
ideal, instance alter instance could be quoted to show that there
are very many who need the help of sharing with another, in order
that they
|
|
SHARING 5
may come directly
face to lace with God, For them sharing is a practical necessity.
Only so do they grasp the reality of their confession, of the God to
Whom they confess, and of the forgiveness which He bestows. The
forgiveness itself docs not depend upon the sharing; its
appropriation by the individual constantly does.
From its earliest
days (James g. i6; Acts ig. t0) the Christian Church has been
well aware of the value of such confession. Wesley and the modern
Anglo-Catholic are at one in this. In one sense the psycho-analyst,
with his splendid technique based upon exhaustive experiment, is
simply bringing scientific verification to what the Church learned
long ago under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, though she has
fallen forgottcn to practice the lesson. The dangers of repression
are clearly seen today, and modern society owes a debt of gratitude
to the help of psychology in this field. Rut many of the
heartbreaking problems of this generation – fixed distrust between
parents and children, divorce, suicide, or insanity in many forms
– could have been prevented from ever arising, if there had been
such confidence between the persons concerned that natural sharing
could have liAcd the barriers in the early stages.
Once again, willingness to share with
another person is an indication of true repentance. Experience shows
that many go on verbally confessing the same siu to God times
without number, but with no lasting victory. They may never leave
|
|
Sharing 6
learned the difference
between mere remorse and real repentance, while sharing with another
person may be the means of bringing them to the latter. There are
indeed cases in which the refusal to share has been the last
stronghold of the pride which blocks the path to God; for such there
can be no life until that stronghold has fallen.
Such sharing as this
naturally takes place with some individual who inspires trust and a
conviction that he can help. It is private, and obviously a matter
of strict confidence. Hence it can be de-tailed in character, and
detail is usually imperative. In all cases such sharing finds
completion in direct personal confession to God.
Finally, as a part of
true repentance, it is often necessary for the individual concerned
to make confession and restitution to any other person who has been
wronged. (Numbers 5. 6, 7; Luke r g. 8). And this frequently
proves of the utmost value as witness, which carries us straight
into the other aspect of sharing.
B. SHARING AS WITNESS
Sharing as confession takes place
before the sick man's cure; sharing after it is witness to what the
Great Physician has done. The man in need confesses his sins; the
man whose needs have been met bears witness to Christ. Such witness
is the privilege of all who hear God’s call to take the good news
to every creature, and who, with St. Paul, recognize the obligation
of every Christian ‘by all
|
|
means to save some’
(r Cor. g. n; Phil. t. t8). Incidentally, it deepens the
reality of their own experience.
Christ is the whole content of' the
Christian message, but if we wish Him to be accepted, we must make
plain what we mean. We must say who He is and what He has done, and
this leads straight to the sharing of His victories over sin in our
own lives. (Luke 8. gg; John g. 39; 9. 25; I Cor. 6. g-it).
The adequate presentation of Christ’s claims demands such sharing.
Unless we are willing, as guided by God, to share explicitly and definitely
just what Christ has done for us, the man we are trying to help may
feel it is all too vague to become a personal reality to himself. He
may think that after all we who call ourselves Christians are
'righteous’, and have never been faced with his problems or
anything like them. Rut if we can say definitely, ‘Here, and here,
and here, Christ has given me forgiveness for my past sins and power
over them in the present’, we shall be on the way to convincing
the other man that Christ can and will do for him what He has done
for us. We are giving a far more adequate picture of Christ's power
by sharing the thing from which He has saved us, than we should by
making no mention of our own problems and their solution. It is
unfortunately only too true that much of the reluctance to share in
this way is simply due to the absence of personal experience of the
saving power of Christ.
|
| HARING Further, mutual confidence is essential to the
giving and accepting of our message, and the gaining of another’s
confidence often demands that we share. The person we are trying to
help may feel that his particular problem is quite different from
that of any other person (a most common belief), and that we would
be shocked if he were to share it with us. If we share our own
problems first, we gain his confidence and then he is more ready to
learn of the cure. Frequently, for example, a father has won the confidence
of his boy by telling him something of the conflicts of
his own youth and of what Christ has done for him. Such sharing does
not lessen the boy’s respect for his father; it increases it. Confidence
is assured; he knows now that his father will
understand; the two are equal before God – and that is the only
sure basis of fellowship; together they can seek and find the
answer in Christ. Such sharing is governed by certain fundamental
principles: r. It must always be done under the guidance of the Holy
Spirit, and must aim at giving intelligent help. There are various
tests of such guidance: (a) Is it consistent with the revelations
which Christ has already made in and through the Riblet (b) Is it
absolutely honest, pure, unselfish, and loving!' (c) Is it consistent
with our real duties and responsibilities to others? |
| (d) Ia it in accordance with the guidance of other
consecrated people? Observance of this principle of guidance will
prevent any impropriety in sharing, any selfishness or self-display,
any deadening reiterations of the story abared. On the contrary,
guided aharing will always have a constructive message. a There must
be nothing in our lives that we are not rebilling to share if God
commands. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we should be
willing to share anything, at any time, with any one. (N.R. This
does not mean sharing everything, every time, with every anal) The
plea, ‘That is too sacre4 to share’, is sometimes selfish and
sentimental. Nothing can be too sacred for God to use. What should
we know of the Temptation or the Agony, if Christ had not been
guided to share something of them with the disciples? The analogy
here is not complete, for Christ was sinless and we are not; but
the fundamental thing shared is the name – God’s victory over
evil in every form. g. The question of just how much to share must
be left to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Many can bear witness to
the fulfillment in this context too of Jesus' promise: 'It shall be
given you in that bour what yc shall speak.’ But, to speak
generally, this will mean that there will not be much detail in
public sharing. In most cases it is enough to name the sin in
general terms, e.g. pride, fear, dishonesty, impurity, selfishness,
hatred |
| – giving no details lest in a multitude of words we
lose our way and confuse others. In private inter- views there may
be a call for more detailed sharing; but in every case the principle
of 'all sharing under guidance’ is fundamental. g. Finally, it is
never right to betray a confidence or involve another without his
consent. This obviously does not preclude the use of other people’s
stories where we are quite certain that they are willing for them to
be told. In such cases names will usually be suppressed and nothing
said which will merely arouse an idle curiosity. The whole aim is
witness to Christ. The principle of sharing is one of those fundamental truce of
life which are never fully grasped until they are practiced. He who
consistently refuses to share will never understand. Rut let such a
man begin to share, and he will discover for himself a comradeship
that manifests the power of Christ with compelling reality. The
object of this paper is simply to set forth (to ‘sliarc,’ if you
like) the fruits of an experience. There is a hunger d'or
fellowship with God and man, and there are many who have found that
hunger satisfied in themselves and in others, along this double road
of confession and witness. ‘And these things write we unto you
that your joy may be full.’
|
|
He also wrote
Thornton-Duesbery, J. P. 1950.
‘Calling’ in A Theological Word Book of the Bible, ed. A. Richardson,
Collier Books, New York.
Thornton-Duesbery JP, The Open Secret of
MRA: An examination of Mr. Driberg's 'critical examination' of Moral Re-Armament.
London: Blandford Press, 1964
(Master of St. Peter's College, Oxford), copyright 1964, 142
pages. Further to my earlier e-mail, I have
discovered that Thornton Duesbery was at
Rossall School, that his father was Bishop of Sodor and Mainly and
that he was
Chaplain at Corpus Christi while he was there. Further information
about him,
Streeter and Henson should be available in F.L. CROSS: The Oxford
dictionary of
the Christian Church, Oxford University Press, 3rd ed., 1997.
alistair ricketts UK
|
|
Web
Display Copyright (c) 2001 2002
This documents are not copyrighted
but my digital display of them is considered within my copyright
Lamer Historians and webmaster's do not copy and display on your
webs without written permission |
|
|