Rocky Cape Christian Community

Patrick and Betty (Hofer) Murphy and their children on a walk through the wheatfields of the Hutterite colony in Manitoba, where they live, 2008. 

Every so often we come to a station in life -- like to a train station or an airport -- where depending on what we choose, the course we take remains permanently, eternally, changed. When we are young those stations come oftener. As we get older we live to regret or praise God for what we made of them.
 
No matter which way we choose to go, we soon discover others on the same route with the same destiny in mind. We start to talk, become friends, and enjoy travelling together -- all the more so, if our journey is with Jesus, and our destiny a fully restored universe under the reign of God.
 
A number of years ago I found a companion on my journey who has brought me great joy and inspiration ever since. His father (Don) an ex-US soldier, his mother (Michi) from Japan, Pat Murphy grew up with wide horizons. But they have only grown wider on the course he has chosen to go with Christ. I will let him tell his own story:
 
When I was still in grade school, I received a copy of the New Testament and began reading it. I was amazed at the conduct that Jesus expected his followers to adopt. In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapters five through seven, Jesus teaches we should love our neighbour as ourselves, and love our enemies! He says that just as God sends the sun to shine on good and on evil people, we should also be kind to everyone. He states we are to love God with all our hearts, and we should seek the Kingdom of God as our highest priority. What God's Kingdom is, wasn't as clear to me then as it is now, but there were some clues. These statements made it at least clear to me that this would only work if we recognized and accepted that God was watching over us, indeed, is expecting this from us – after all, Jesus says God even knows how many hairs are on your head, and that God cares for us.

Also, in the book of John, chapter 15, Jesus says, “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and become my disciples.... If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that  my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.” Clearly, obeying Christ had to do with loving my neighbour, and would result in abiding in God's love.

Unfortunately no one I knew was trying to live in accordance to the Sermon on the Mount, and I put this insight aside. However, later, while still living at home, my father read to us accounts from the early church, how believers like Justin Martyr or Polycarp chose to die rather than worship the Emperor in Rome. I was reminded of the expectations of Jesus; these early Christians had clearly another value system as compared to Roman society. Perhaps I had understood the teachings of Jesus similarly to how they had understood them! Later, my father read to us about how Anabaptists in the Reformation period were also choosing death rather than disobedience to Christ. I was struck by the similarity between their attitude and that of the early church  martyrs.

I could not forget these things. At the same time, I grew increasingly dissatisfied with the idea of pursuing the materialistic American dream – I could not envision harmonizing striving after wealth with seeking the Kingdom of God.

My father made contact with some Mennonites and Hutterites. We visited a few Hutterite colonies, and found them interesting but different from what we expected. I ended up attending Goshen college, a Mennonite school in Indiana. For my study-service trimester, I went with a group for three months to Costa Rica. One night on a trip I stayed at a remote and primitive farm on the edge of the jungle where I could hear howler monkeys and parrots. My host encouraged me to buy the land next to his and become a rancher as well. Although I chose not to do so, his invitation helped me to focus again on the question as to what I should do with my life.

After graduation I went to Japan for a year to work as a conversational English teacher and found it enjoyable, teaching at three or four schools at the same time (but only a few hours a day). Just before the year was over, I got a job offer to help manage a school. I thought back to my Costa Rican rancher friend and again, I tried to answer the question of what I should do with my life. What decision could I make that I could later look back on and be satisfied with? I thought about the Sermon on the Mount and the expectations of Jesus, and decided I wanted to be a “full-time” follower of Christ. I wanted to seek to live out the Sermon on the Mount, to seek first the Kingdom of God and learn to walk in a manner worthy of a disciple of Christ.

Back in the USA our family had been attending a friendly church where a lot of emphasis was placed on recognizing God's love for you and his love for all peoples, but I could see that Jesus stressed more love for your neighbour than what that church was stressing, and I knew as well, that the world view and values of most of the members I knew were similar to those of non-Christians, and not in line with that of the Sermon on the Mount. Looking back, much emphasis was placed on accepting Jesus as your Saviour, but little was expected in accepting him as your Lord and Master. When I brought this up, more than one person told me that I misunderstood the teachings of Jesus, that it is only possible to obey the teachings in the Sermon on the Mount when we get to heaven. However, I had to disagree, as I did not see much point in Jesus saying, for example, that we are to love our enemies, if that was the case. How many enemies did they expect to have in heaven? Or His command to not swear oaths – how often did they expect in heaven to have to choose not to swear an oath? A recent book by David Bercot called, “The Kingdom that Turned the World Upside Down” talks about this in detail.

I had read a lot about the Anabaptists. I was attracted specifically to Hutterite communal life by their inspiring history as told in their “Great Chronicle Book,” and by the writings of Peter Riedemann, especially his “Confession of Faith.” I saw in their history much of the same ideals as I understood them in the Sermon on the Mount, and also that which I saw in the early Church. Some things became evident that discouraged me, yet other things encouraged me. At their invitation, I spent many a day working at various colonies, visiting until late in the evenings, making friends and growing in my understanding.

I was encouraged when I read that the Sermon on the Mount was central to their teachings. They also, like their fellow Anabaptists, the Amish, stress separation from the world and membership in the Kingdom of God. As it says in I John chapter two, “Do not love the world or the things of the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world, for all that is in the world – the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches – comes not from the father but from the world. And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live forever.” I was glad to see that they tried to live apart from the world, but I could see worldy influences increasing.

Also, Peter Riedemann stressed in his book that believers were to seek to allow God's Spirit to lead them. While some Hutterites understood and practiced this far better than I, sadly, my impression is that many others only looked to their ancestors and rules and regulations.

I learned that the church stopped sending out large numbers of missionaries many years ago; but that some want to do so today. I found comfort in knowing that Peter Riedemann's Confession of Faith is still the official view of the church today. For example, here is an excerpt about what he says about missionaries: “Here we learn two things, namely, how Christ’s messengers should be, and what their task is. First, as Christ, before he was sent by the Father, was filled with the Spirit, so he wants his messengers to be. They shall be blameless, and enter into and walk in the power of his Spirit. Second, their task is to gather with or in Christ and be led into the fold of grace, so that Christ’s flock may be complete.”

It is perhaps to be expected that some members were only cultural Hutterites – not followers of Christ. Jesus said there will be weeds mixed in with the wheat. But others are truly committed to following Christ. They told me of their concerns for the future of the church as well, and I began to consider joining and working together with them.

Some told me not to join if I was expecting a perfect church, but to join if my focus was to work with them to build up the Kingdom of God. I was  encouraged to study the German language in Germany, which with the help of my parents and older brother, as well as help from a few colonies, I was able to do. So, after many varied experiences and much thought and prayer, I came to the decision to join, to help this church, whose foundation is based on the teachings of Jesus, but has fallen into a weak state. I decided to respond to the words of Jesus where he says, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?” (Luke 9:23 – 25) His words in the book of Mark chapter 10, verses 29 and 30 go well with joining a Christian community: “Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's, but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.”

Gentle Reader, if you are not familiar with the teachings of Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount, I hope you will read it and prayerfully consider what you are to do with your life, and to be not just a hearer of God's Word, but a doer also.

Patrick Murphy
James Valley Colony

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Conversion (Bekehrung) we have always connected, as German speakers, with the idea of turning around (umkehren) and going the opposite direction. Turning from the broad road to destruction to the way of eternal life.
 
Isn't that what it's all about?
 
Peter
 
Rocky Cape Christian Community
19509 Bass Highway
Detention River, Tasmania 7321
Australia
www.thecommonlife.com.au