The Most Reverend Andrew S. Hutchison

I was so grateful to meet Andrew Hutchison, aka “Father Hutch,” retired archbishop of the Anglican Church of Canada, and his wife Lois, at their home on Vancouver Island. He shared with me a story I never expected to hear but it touched me deeply. It was the story of the young boy, Andrew, who’d lost his mother and was sent away to boarding school. He soothed his painful loneliness by sitting in the chapel at school, gazing up at a stained glass window of Jesus who was holding a lamp outside a door with no handle and overgrown with vines. Father Hutch explained to me that this stained glass window was a replica of a famous piece called “Lux Mundi,” “Light of the World.” It depicts Christ waiting to be let in; waiting to bring his light to those who would open the door.

It was that stained glass window that Andrew gazed at twice a day for six years. And with such deep insight, Father Hutch said that he could imagine himself on both sides of the door. He desperately wanted to open the door and let this “light and life and comfort” into his life. But he imagined himself also holding that lamp “not belonging, not knowing where I belonged..wishing that somebody would open the door and let me in because I’d sensed that there was a certain kindness and light in me.”

Wow, in one thought, Father Hutch summarized the entire spiritual journey for us: That we must let the Light in, the Light of Divine, often through a door that has been slammed shut. And then, that we ourselves, are the very same light, the light of the Divine, ready to serve.

The thought that we must let God into our lives in a very deliberate action is well pointed out in the New Testament where the author of Revelation, John of Patmos, wrote: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20, KJV).

Theologian and writer Brian McLaren, who has become a friend, explains the meaning of this verse: “I read it as a call to move from outward pride and comfort to inward spirituality, to hear the voice of God in Christ and open one's heart to God, making the heart hospitable for deep divine communion, sharing an intimate meal in the center of one's being. In this way, the cure to apathy, arrogance, complacency, and hollowness is an inner awakening—becoming quiet enough to hear the divine whisper, opening the heart, receiving as a welcome guest the presence of the holy, and communing with God as a companion.”

I know in my own life I so often forget to invite the Divine or Sacred Spirit or Universal Love—three names among many that I use for God—into a situation, good or bad. What a great metaphor of Christ at the door waiting to be let in that we can all use.

But then Father Hutch, who is as humble as human beings come, said something remarkable. He felt that he had a special “light and kindness” in him that was waiting to be let in! This reminds me of my own holiness. My own capacity to contribute to what we call in Judaism tikkun olam [repairing the world], or what Christians would simply call being a force for love in the world.

This was probably spoken to best by George Fox, the founder of Quakerism, who wrote of an “Inner Light” in each human. Inner Light refers to the “still, small voice” of God within. Friends (Quakers) traced this belief to scripture, namely John 1:9 (NIV): “That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.” In Judaism we are taught in the Torah: “Kidoshim Tihiyu Ki Kadosh Ani Adonai Aloheichem,” or, “Ye shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy.” What an amazing call to be a force for holiness and positive action in the world.

I am so grateful to Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, “Father Hutch,” who reminded me that I need to let God in, that I am holy, and that I have an obligation to serve that comes with it.