SOUTHBOROUGH L’ABRI NEWS AND PRAYER LETTER
Summer 2013
49 Lynbrook Road, Southborough, MA, 01772
southborough@labri.org

Greetings from the Southborough L’Abri,

Back in April, members from the different branches of L’Abri met in Switzerland for our annual meeting. As usual it was a blessing to reunite with our colleagues who live far away. We were encouraged again by the commonality of the life that we share despite the distances between us.

Throughout the meetings we discussed something Francis Schaeffer would often say; that as Christians we are called to live before God in ‘active passivity.’ Active passivity is one way of articulating a foundational biblical principle; that our relationship to God is one of total dependence even as he calls us to certain tasks. The daily decisions of life are never to be made without this sense of dependence. We ask God to guide us, provide for us, sustain us and empower us. We are simultaneously working and waiting on the Lord; exerting ourselves but only with the strength that we receive from Him in every moment. At least this is what we are supposed to do. Of course our attitude of dependence is often overshadowed by our intense efforts to improve the world around us in our own strength. Throughout the history of L’Abri God has mercifully reined this tendency in by reminding us again and again of our true position of dependence.

Scripture makes it clear that active passivity is the attitude with which we should approach salvation itself. The Bible is full of exhortations to search, seek, look, knock, come, strive, press on, even to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12). We are called to action and expected to respond. But Scripture is equally full of reminders that we are chosen, called, sustained, indwelt by the Spirit of God. We are lost without His guidance and saved by His acts of power that are utterly beyond our control and influence. In Philippians 2:12,  Paul emphasizes that although we ‘work out our salvation’, we can do so only because ‘it is God who works in us to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose’. Activity and passivity when offered to God are not in opposition to each other but rather in harmony. We can strive towards the goal of being like Christ because God is already in us willing us to strive. The fact that God is already at work in us is not permission to ‘kick back and relax’ but rather encouragement to press on with greater hope in our final destination.

The hymn ‘Come ye sinners’ is an excellent extended reflection on the mystery of active passivity. (Several versions of the hymn text exist. I am referring to Joseph Hart’s words set to the melody Bryn Calfaria). The hymn title can be read as both an invitation and a command. It tells us emphatically that we should come to God now regardless of how unprepared we might feel. While our response is expected we are reminded repeatedly that we can actually do nothing but receive. Verse 2 claims that we are ‘poor and needy’ and that God’s bounty is free. To drive the point home Hart writes: “Without money, without money, without money, come to Jesus Christ and buy.” The implication here is that we can only receive what we most need if we come ‘without money’; if we stop trying to pay for it. Verses 3 and 4 of the hymn undermine our attempts to better ourselves in preparation for meeting God. To wait until we are fit to come is a decision never to come, which amounts to an active rejection of God’s invitation. Hart reminds us that fitness is something of which we can only ‘fondly dream.’ God requires a different kind of fitness that comes from a deep awareness of our need. The hymn is saying that all we can offer God is an acknowledgment of what we lack. To really know our lack of readiness is in a sense to be ready. Then comes what for me is the lyrical climax of the hymn. We sing:
 

Lest we are tempted to congratulate ourselves on our appropriate feelings of need and lest we seek to manufacture feelings of remorse in order to be ‘fit’ in our own eyes, Hart reminds us that even this crucial sense of our inadequacy is a gift; not something we achieve in our own power. The Spirit of God himself convicts us so that we may be ultimately comforted. So we come to God with nothing of our own to offer. Not even the will to come originates in us. The strength to desire the gift of God is itself a gift. And yet, despite all our emptiness and dependence we are never excused from making the active choice to turn to God. The invitation of the hymn still stands as something that demands a response. This hymn seems to capture an aspect of active passivity, which is to say it reminds us of our true position.

Marilynne Robinson in her novel Gilead has a beautifully simple way of putting it. The father in the story writes to his son: “I hope you will put yourself in the way of the gift.” Much of the Christian life seems to be just this: positioning ourselves to receive what God would give us. May God continue to help us put ourselves in the way of the gift.
 
Please join us in prayer as we begin our summer term:

The death of Edith Schaeffer has been on all of our minds. We have been reminded of the many ways in which her trust in God, her creativity and her love for strangers were foundational to the existence of L’Abri. L’Abri would not exist as it does without her life, passion and vision. So we are thankful to God for her even as we mourn her loss. Please pray for the memorial service that we will hold at the Southborough L’Abri on May 18th at 3pm.
 
Please pray for Bekah who is taking a sabbatical this term.
 
We are very thankful that Phillip Johnston will be joining us as a worker (on loan from Covenant Seminary’s MDiv program). Please pray that he would adjust well to life in the main house.
 
Luke Morrell has decided to stay on at the Dutch L’Abri as a helper for the summer term.  We miss him very much but trust that he is in the right place. It was a blessing to see him at the Members Meeting in Switzerland.
 
Nate Morrell is doing well in his sophomore year in high school. He continues to excel in tennis and wrestling.
 
Work on the interior of the Dick’s cabin is approaching completion, which is exciting. Dick and Mardi have both been very sick in recent weeks; Mardi with the flu and Dick with the flu and pneumonia. Please pray for a speedy recovery for both of them as term begins and for no further illness.
 
Ben and Nickaela are still pushing ahead with their three kids. Ellie and Abby will be starting kindergarten at a new school at the end of the summer and we need prayer for a smooth transition. Noah will be two years old in June and is thriving.
 
As always please keep this upcoming term in your prayers. We are blessed to have several of our helpers from last term returning and we have a full house of students for most of the summer. Please pray that God would use the term to work in the lives of each person who comes.
 
Blessings,
Ben Keyes