Story. A number of years ago, I decided to downsize.
Now when a rural Vicar talks of downsizing he means reducing the number of parishes he has
In my case it meant going from 15 parishes to five.
And this also meant moving house.
As we were taking our bedroom apart, I found 2 baskets underneath our bed.
One with three eggs in and the other with £50
So I asked Maddy my wife what the two baskets were about.
"Oh " she said " I must confess that everytime you preach a bad sermon I put an egg in the basket"
Secretly I was quite pleased - I thought ”Not bad three bad sermons over three years”
But what is the £50 for in the other basket.
She gave me a sweet smile as all Vicar’s wives do to their husband and said
"Well every time I got a dozen, I sold them!"
Hopefully this won’t be an egg sermon!
Christianity differs from every other religion in that it tells us how we can have a living relationship with Jesus Christ, its founder today.
No other religion can offer that, for their founders are long dead and buried.
What the Christain faith is all about can be summed up in the words from John’s Gospel we have just had read. Speaking of Jesus, St John wrote:
10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
Jesus was sent by his heavenly Father into the world.
He was born as a little baby and he grew up and ministered in the Holy Land
He had a ministry of about three years before he was nailed to a Roman Cross and died.
Now that should have been the end of the movement.
All what seemed left were 11 disciples, who were terrified that they might be next and who fled from Jerusalem to the Sea of Galilee.
Not a great way to start a religious movement you might say
And that should have been the end of this small Jewish sect that claimed Jesus was the Messiah
After all in the first century AD many Messiahs had sprung up in Galilee. Then their leader was executed by the Romans and that was usually the end of the movement.
Except this one
And within 300 years Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire.
How did the Church grow from such inconspicuous beginnings to becoming the Roman Empire’s state religion?
Cambridge Professor Charlie Moule gave the persuasive answer I have seen when he wrote
"the birth and rapid rise of the Christian Church ... remains an unsolved enigma for any historian who refuses to take seriously the only explanation offered by the church itself, the resurrection."
(C.F.D. Moule, The Phenomenon of the New Testament).
Jesus Christ died on a Roman Cross but was raised to life by God three days later.
In the New Testament, at least 513 men and at least one woman (Mary Magdalene) are recorded as attesting at various different times to having met the risen Jesus.
It was clearly not one mass hallucination.
Since he rose again, we all have the ability to know him personally.
I would now like to connect this to Charterhouse
Thomas Sutton died in 1611 and left part of his fortune to be invested in establishing an alms-house for 80 impoverished gentlemen, combined with a school for 40 boys, on the site of his house off Charterhouse Square, on the outskirts of the City of London.
This institution was to be named the Hospital of King James in Charterhouse, although it later became known as Sutton's Hospital in Charterhouse and King James I was on the Governing Board.
As you all know The alms-house survives on the original site
While the school, now called Charterhouse School, (and known by the boys as C’house) relocated
to Godalming, Surrey, in 1872
Charterhouse has given Carthusians over the years a good Christian foundation
This evening I would like to talk about one OC who surprisingly was not part of the New Hops test.
First of all for those of you who don’t know, The New Hops test was a test given to new boys to the School
It required the new Hop to know important things about Charterhouse - like how many tiles are there on the roof of Charterhouse Chapel.
Any ideas – None they are all slates!
Part of the New Hops test in 1968 when I was a New Hop was to learn who the famous Old Boys were – like Orde Windgate the famed founder of the Chindits in World War 2 and Lord Baden Powell, Founder of the Scout Movement.
Two famous Old Boys who should in my opinion have
been in the New Hops test were John Wesley –
Founder of the Methodist Church and General Sir William Dobbie – known also as Dobbie of Malta.
Charterhouse has given many of its pupils a good foundation in the Christian faith. Dobbie was such a pupil
I have been asked to make my talk relevant to Charterhouse .
There is one aspect of life as a Carthusian in Charterhouse that I would like to focus on tonight.
And that is the teaching of foundations of the Christian faith.
In my day, Charterhouse has two chaplains and a flourishing Christian Union.
And I believe this is still so today.
Attendance at Chapel - just after before Hash started - was obligatory – except on a Saturday.
I remember, many a time, running to get in before the Headman, who in my day was Oliver Van Oss.
I used to be able to get up out of bed and dressed for Chapel in a minute flat.
This evening I would like to tell you the story of Sir William Dobbie because he came to faith whilst a boy at Charterhouse.
And the life Dobbie lived clearly shows that becoming a Christian can be exciting.
In Dobbie’s obituary, in the Carthusian of December 1964, it records that he was a classical scholar from O.Q. 1892 to C.Q. 1897.
He was first in Robinites and then Saunderites .
On the first Sunday in November 1893, when he was fourteen, Dobbie recorded his Christian conversion experience like this:
“that things were no right between God and me and
that I was unfit to stand in his sight”
Later summing up his feelings he recorded “My need of a Saviour was brought home to me”
Dobbie went on to say:
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into this world for the express purpose of giving his life so that He might bear, and pay the penalty of my sin so that I might go free.
That night I accepted the Lord Jesus as my Saviour, my Companion, and my God- just by myself – there was nobody else in the room. It was the turning point of my life. The past, bad though it was in God’s sight, was blotted out; Christ’s presence and help were promised for the present, and the future was assured. I thank God more than I can say for that wonderful event in November 1893.
( Fight of Faith – Michael Claydon and Philip Bray)
I myself had a similar experience in 1971 when I asked Christ into my life with no one else in the room when I was 16 and I can say with Dobbie “I thank God for that wonderful event”.
I too found that meeting Christ changed my life.
As my father who said he was an atheist said to me: “Martin I can see Christianity has been good for you – even though it is not for me”
But I digress from Dobbie.
Dobbie left Charterhouse and entered the Royal Military Academy in 1897
He served in the Boer War and then in 1911 he decided to take the entrance examinations for the British Staff College in Camberley.
His graduation from the Staff College coincided with the outbreak of the 1st World War.
Like most soldiers, he did not speak much about his experiences in that war, but when he was asked what he did in the 1st World War, his laconic answer was “I ended it”
By that he meant that he was the officer on duty at the British Headquarters, when the German surrender was received.
Dobbie then dictated the telegram intended for every British soldier
Hostilities will cease at 11.00 hours today. Troops will stand fast at the line reached at that hour. There will be no fraternisation with the enemy.
Signed WGS Dobbie Lieutenant Colonel, General Staff 11th November 1918.
At the end of 1939, in August he was retired from the Army under age rules
As his obituary in The Carthusian recorded.
“It was particularly galling to Dobbie to be put on the shelf and for a long time his offer to serve in any capacity went unanswered.”
But Dobbie and his wife Sybil continued to pray asking God what role did He want Dobbie to have in the defence of the realm
Then surprisingly in April 1940, when he was lunching his club - the United Service Club in London – received a message that Sir Edmund Ironside, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff would like to see him.
Sybil Dobbie William’s daughter and biographer describes what happened
Dobbie got up and went over to General Ironside and after the customary greetings he posed the question
“Dobbie will you go to Malta?”
William did not hesitate “ Certainly , in what capacity?”
Sir Edmund’s reply came as a complete surprise “ As Governor and Commander in Chief”
(Faith and Fortitude – Sybil Dobbie p.213)
Malta looked a lost cause when he got there.
The defences were inadequate.
He had only five weak battalions , four out of date fighter aircraft, three of which were serviceable and nicknamed Faith, Hope and Charity” and 16 obsolescent anti aircraft guns.
Historians still cannot understand why the Italians did not take Malta, given its strategic position for convoys going to North Africa .
It has become known as the Miracle of Malta – for which incidentally the island was awarded the GC by King George VI.
Perhaps General Ironside’s telegram from London to Dobbie was most revealing:
It simply said Deuteronomy Chapter 3 verse 22.
“Do not fear then, for the Lord your God is the one fighting for you”
When France was defeated in 1940, Dobbie addressed the Maltese people as follows:
The decision of the His Majesty’s Government to fight until our enemies are defeated, will have been heard with the greatest of satisfaction by all the garrison of Malta.
It may be that hard times lie ahead of us, but however hard they may be I know our courage and determination will not falter and that with God’s help we will maintain the security of this fortress
I therefore call upon all officers and other ranks humbly to seek God’s help and then in reliance on Him to do our duty unflinchingly”
(A Very Present Help – General Sir William Dobbie)
Perceptively Sir Winston Churchill wrote of Dobbie that he was “ a Governor of outstanding character who inspired all ranks and classes, military and civil, with his determination: a Cromwellian figure at a key point …fighting with his Bible in one hand and his sword in the other”
( Fight of Faith – Michael Claydon and Philip Bray)
The foundation of Dobbie’s faith was laid while he was at Charterhouse, just as mine was.
And the faith of many other OC’s over the centuries began while they were pupils in the School
The challenge of the Christian Faith is this.
Are we prepared to receive Jesus Christ as our Saviour and Lord.
It is a personal choice that you have to make.
No one can make it for you.
But if you make it, I can assure you that life will be interesting!
It is my prayer
i) that Charterhouse will continue to teach Carthusians the Christian foundation for their lives
and
ii) It is also my prayer that many more of its pupils when they leave will do so having made a commitment to follow Jesus Christ throughout their lives.
I ask you to make that prayer yours too?
