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An Ode to the “Rope Holders” · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reform thinking. It's good to have you with us
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again. I was looking at the stack of
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material we have for today and it got me thinking about how we
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tend to look at history, Christian history in particular.
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We sort of default to what some call the Great man theory.
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That's a very common lens, the idea that history is really just
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the story of a few heroic figures.
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You know, we look at Luther, Calvin, William Carey, and we
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think, OK, those are the people who made history happen.
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We see the peaks of the mountain range and we assume the peaks
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are the mountain range. We focus on the person with the
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microphone, the person in the pulpit, and.
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It makes sense in a way. Those are the names we know, the
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voices we hear. But the article we're getting
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into today does something well, it does something very
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different. It almost flips that whole idea
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on its head. It really does, because it's not
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looking at the peaks, it's looking at the the bedrock
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underneath them. We're zooming in on a small
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farmhouse in Saskatchewan, of all places, to look at a concept
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that you can argue makes the whole engine of global missions
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run. The main source we're digging
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into is an article by a writer named Hans Elgby, and it's
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called An Ode to the Rope Holders.
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Now, when I first saw that title, I thought, OK, this could
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be a nice, maybe a sentimental story about financial
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supporters. A kind of thank you note.
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Right. A pat on the back, yeah, but
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it's so much more than. That oh, it's much more.
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It's really, it's a theology lesson disguised as a biography.
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We're looking at the theology of support and the question isn't
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just, you know, who's paying the bills for the missionary.
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The deeper question is 1 of causation in God's Kingdom, who
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is actually well, who's actually doing the work?
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Is it only the person preaching on a foreign field, or is it the
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farmer praying through a Blizzard back home?
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It messes with the whole hierarchy we build in our minds.
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So let's get into this central metaphor, the rope holder.
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This isn't just a nice phrase the author came up with, it has
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a specific and pretty high stakes origin story.
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It does. It takes us all the way back to
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October 1792. Kettering, England We're at the
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very dawn of what we now call the modern missionary movement.
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And we really need to set the scene here 'cause I think we
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forget back then, being a missionary wasn't a career
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choice. No, it was more like accepting a
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death sentence. It was incredibly dangerous.
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You have William Carey, who we now call the father of modern
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missions, and he's preparing to go to India.
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And you have to understand everything was against him.
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The East India Company was openly hostile to missionaries
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it. Doesn't want anyone rocking the
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boat with their trade. Not at all.
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And the disease rates for Europeans in India were
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staggering. The logistics were well, they
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were non existent. So Carrie is meeting with his
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inner circle. Andrew Fuller, John Ryland.
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These are theological giants in the Baptist world.
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And Carrie looks at them and he gives them this analogy, this
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picture that has stuck around for more than two centuries.
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He compares India to a deep, dark mine.
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A. Mine or maybe a, well, a place
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of total darkness, suffocation. And he says I will go down, I
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will go down into the pit to find those who are lost.
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But then he adds a condition, a nonnegotiable 1.
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He looks at his friends, at Andrew Fuller, and he says I
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will go down. But only if you hold the rope.
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I will go down, but only if you hold the rope.
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I just know I want to pause on that for a second because the
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physics of that image, if you really think about it, are
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terrifying. They are.
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I mean, if you're the one being lowered into a well, your entire
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existence, your life is hanging by a thread.
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It's completely dependent on the friction of someone else's hands
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on that rope. And the strength of their grip.
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And their attention span, you know, if Andrew Fuller gets
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distracted for a moment, Carrie could fall if his hands get
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tired and he let's go. Carrie's gone.
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It implies that the person holding the rope is under just
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as much strain, just as much tension as the person going
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down. It completely reframes the whole
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thing. We tend to think of the sender
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or the supporter as someone who's comfortable, who just
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writes a check from an office. But holding a rope that suggests
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sweat. It suggests your hands are going
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to get calloused, maybe even burned.
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It connects so clearly to the idea of the body of Christ.
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You know, Paul, talking about how the I can't say to the hand,
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I don't need you. That's it exactly.
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In Kerry's picture, the goer and the holder are one functional
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unit. The rescue mission literally
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cannot happen without both of them.
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It's not an act of individual heroism by Kerry.
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It's a corporate act of the church.
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The whole church is going to India.
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Some are going down the well and some are standing at the top
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holding on for dear life. The article also makes it clear
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this isn't just some clever illustration from church
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history. It's got a biblical foundation.
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Hans LB points us to the book of Acts, Chapter 9, verses 23 to
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25. This is right after Saul's
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conversion. He's now Paul, he's in Damascus,
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and let's just say his new found faith is not making him popular.
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Things get very dangerous for him.
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Very. Fast they do.
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The Jews in Damascus are actively plotting to kill him,
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so they're watching the city gates day and night, waiting for
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him. Paul, the man who is going to
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write the book of Romans, is trapped.
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So how does he get out? He doesn't perform a miracle.
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He doesn't fight his way through the guards.
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Nope, nothing spectacular, the text says.
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His disciples took him by night and let him down through an
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opening in the city wall, lowering him in a large basket.
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A basket. The Apostle Paul, arguably the
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most influential Christian in history after Jesus himself,
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curled up in a basket being lowered down a wall with ropes.
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It's a very humbling picture, isn't it?
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But think about what that means. Who was holding the rope for?
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Paul, we have no idea. Not a clue.
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Scripture doesn't give us their names.
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They are completely anonymous believers in Damascus.
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But if they had dropped that basket.
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No, Paul. That's right.
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No missionary journeys as we know them, no epistle to the
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Ephesians, the entire history of the church, the formulation of
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our theology, it all pivoted on the grip strength of those
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unnamed friends on that. Wall It's staggering to think
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about from our Reform perspective.
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We talk a lot about God's sovereignty.
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We believe God ordained that Paul would be saved, that he
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would make it to Jerusalem. Yes, but this shows that God
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also ordained the means. Absolutely.
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God is the first 'cause but he delights in working through
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secondary causes. He didn't just teleport Paul out
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of the city. He used the physical labor of
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ordinary people. He used a rope.
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He used a basket. This gives such dignity to the
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work of the rope holder. It raises the mundane task of
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support to the level of a divine appointment.
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God's sovereign plan was being worked out through the hands of
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those disciples holding a rope. OK, so with that theology as our
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foundation, the idea that the holder is just as vital as the
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goer, let's meet the subject of this article, our modern day
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rope holders, Archie and Grace McCaskill.
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And the setting for their first meeting with the author is just
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it's so perfectly ordinary. It's a lunch lineup.
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A lunch lineup, Not a stained glass cathedral, not a
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boardroom. Right.
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It's a missions conference at Briarcrest Bible Institute in
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Saskatchewan. Hans Elgb, the author, is just A
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at the time he's there with his future wife, Wendy.
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They're young, trying to figure out their future, and standing
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in line with them are Archie and Grace, this elderly couple who
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had driven for hours just to be at this conference.
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And you know how these things usually work.
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There's a kind of social well, a stratification.
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The students stick with the students, the faculty with the
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faculty, the big donors with the mission agency presidents.
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We all find our tribes, but Archie and Grace just start a
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conversation. They take this immediate,
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unprompted interest in these two young strangers, the author
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writes. We were greatly encouraged that
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a pleasant elderly couple took the time and interest to
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befriend a couple of young people totally unknown to them.
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And that's the beginning, that little spark in the lunch line.
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They invited Hans and Wendy to visit them on their farm near a
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little town called Red Verse, Saskatchewan, and that
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conversation began a friendship that would last for decades.
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The article is very careful to describe their character.
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They lived on a farm, the text says.
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They did not have great earthly riches.
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They weren't funding the mission out of their stock portfolio.
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So what was it they had? The key trait Hans keeps coming
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back to his unselfish love, a genuine interest in others.
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He even connects it to Philippians Chapter 2, where
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Paul is talking, working with his friend Timothy.
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And Paul says, for I have no one like him who will be genuinely
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concerned for your welfare. It's such a rare thing, isn't
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it? A genuine concern?
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It is. It's not networking, it's not
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sizing someone up to see what they can do for you.
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It's a self forgetful interest in the well-being of another
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person. It's a beautiful picture of what
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the Westminster Confession calls the Communion of Saints.
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It is that chapter says that believers being united to
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Christ, are united to one another in love and have
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communion in each other's gifts and graces, that spiritual bond.
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It cuts across all our human categories, age, social status,
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geography, Archie and Grace, the elderly farmers, and Hans and
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Wendy, the young missionary candidates.
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They were connected not by a contract, but by this deep
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spiritual kinship. And that kinship had very
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practical outworkings. But before we get to their
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support for the mission, the article gives us this little
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glimpse into their earlier life, which I found just incredibly
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powerful. It's a section about the war
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years and it kind of shows us where their faithfulness was
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forged. Right, this is the back story of
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the rope holders. We go back to World War 2.
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Archie is a soldier serving overseas in Europe and Grace is
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at home in Canada alone. And she's not just alone, she's
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raising their son Keith, who was born while Archie was away.
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You just have to try and imagine that raising a child who has
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never once laid eyes on his own father.
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It must have been so difficult, but then you see what happens
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when Archie finally comes home. The article paints this picture
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of the scene at the railway station.
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The train pulls in, Archie steps onto the platform, and this
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little boy, Keith, who has only ever seen his father in
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photographs, runs toward him, shouting Daddy, Daddy.
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It's a beautiful image, but the author asked the obvious
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question, how? How does a toddler recognize and
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run to a man he's never met? And the answer is Grace, the
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mother, Hans writes only because his loving mom had, through
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faithful prayers, instilled in their young boy a love for the
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dad he now is about to meet. She showed him the pictures.
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She told him the stories. She kept that relationship, that
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love, alive across the ocean. Hans calls it rope holding at
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its finest. It really is.
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It's keeping that connection alive despite the physical
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absence. And there's such a clear
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theological parallel there. You think of first Peter 1.8
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where Peter is writing to believers about Jesus and he
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says though you have not seen him, you love him.
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Rolling Keith's position in that story.
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We absolutely are. We're the children running
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toward a Heavenly Father we've never seen with our own eyes.
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And how do we know Him? How do we learn to love Him?
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It's through the rope holders in our own lives.
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Our parents, our pastors, Sunday school teachers, the ones to
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faithfully show us his picture in the Word and say this is your
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father, this is who he is. So Grace's quiet work in that
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farmhouse, teaching her son about his earthly father, was
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actually kind of training ground.
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It was practice for the spiritual work of pointing
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people to their Heavenly Father. It shows that real faithfulness
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is almost always developed in the quiet, private places.
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It wasn't a public performance, it was just the day in, day out
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discipline of showing a photo of praying with a child.
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That's the kind of steadfastness that later allows you to support
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a missionary in a hard place for 30 years.
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If you can't be faithful in the small things in the nursery, you
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won't be faithful when the world is watching.
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Speaking of faithfulness in hard places, we need to talk about
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the winter story because I think when we hear farmers in
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Saskatchewan, most of us don't really grasp what that level of
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isolation can mean. It can be extreme.
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The source says their farmhouse was more than 6 miles West of
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the nearest town. Red Verse, and it was a simple
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place. The article then tells this one
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specific story about a particularly harsh winter.
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Yeah, this part, this part gave me a chill.
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Some friends of theirs, Carl and Mary, decided they would try to
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drive out to visit them. This was late February, or maybe
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early March, so, you know, right at the tail end of a very long,
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dark Prairie winter. And when Carl and Mary finally
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get there, Archie and Grace, his reaction says it all.
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They said you are the first people we have seen since
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Christmas. Since Christmas.
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That's January, February 2, Maybe almost three months of not
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seeing a single other soul besides each other.
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Just think about the mental and spiritual fortitude that
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requires total isolation. Just the sound of the wind, the
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endless snow. And yet, the author says their
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character wasn't developed in a vacuum, but that God guided them
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through joys and hardships like this one.
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It raises the question of spiritual survival.
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I mean, how do you maintain a vibrant faith when you literally
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can't get to church for three months?
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When you have no fellowship, no neighbor to talk to.
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It demands an incredible amount of internal discipline.
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This is where I think the Reformed view of sanctification
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becomes very practical. We believe sanctification is a
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work of God's grace. Absolutely he accomplishes it.
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But the confession also, says the believer, is quickened and
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strengthened. It involves our active
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participation, our persistence. So they weren't just passively
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waiting for the snow to melt. No, you can be sure they
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weren't. They would have been in the
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Word, They would have been in prayer.
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They would have been keeping the Sabbath in their own home.
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That kind of profound isolation, it strips away all the external
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props of religion. Right.
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The coffee hour, The music, the program.
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All of it. You're left with the raw reality
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of your relationship with God, and I think if you can hold onto
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your faith through a Saskatchewan Blizzard alone for
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three months, you have the kind of spiritual stamina required to
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hold a rope for a missionary halfway around the world.
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That's a great point, because the rope is heavy.
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Missions is a long, hard slog. Missionaries face
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discouragement, illness, years with little visible fruit.
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They need supporters who aren't going to get bored and let go
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just because it feels like a long winter.
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Archie and Grace had learned endurance.
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They knew what it meant to wait for the spring thaw.
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That's the kind of character you want on your team when you're
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facing spiritual opposition in a difficult country.
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You don't want fair weather friends.
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You need winterproof friends. So we've seen their character.
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It was forged by war, by winter, by parenthood.
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Now let's get into the actual mechanics of their support.
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What did being a rope holder look like for them practically
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for Hans and Wendy? The article lays it out in very
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concrete ways. This was not some vague We're
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thinking of you. OK, so first there was the
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financial side. The article says they gave from
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what they had despite not being wealthy.
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That's a widow's mite principle, isn't it?
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It's sacrificial giving. It's not giving out of a massive
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surplus. And often that kind of support
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is the most reliable because it's built on conviction, not on
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a booming stock market. Then there was what you might
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call logistical support. When Hans and Wendy were home
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from the field on furlough, Archie and Grace would set up
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speaking engagements for them in local churches in people's
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homes. And that is real work.
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A missionary on furlough is often just exhausted.
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They're living out of a suitcase, trying to report to
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dozens of churches, raise support for the next term,
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having someone on the ground. He says, don't worry, I've got
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it. I booked the church.
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I invited the neighbors. All you have to do is show up
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and speak. That is a huge gift.
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It's the Ministry of Administration.
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And then there's this little detail in the article that I
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just love physical labor. Hans remembers helping Archie
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with the potato harvest on the farm.
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It grounds the whole thing in reality, doesn't it?
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This reformed thinking. It's not just about abstract
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ideas. It's also about digging
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potatoes. It shows that the relationship
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wasn't one way. Hans and Wendy weren't just the
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missionaries up on a pedestal, they were friends who got their
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hands dirty. It was a true partnership.
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The article also mentions that even when they were retired,
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Archie and Grace were taking Bible correspondence courses.
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I find that amazing. They never saw themselves as
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having arrived. They never stopped being
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students of the Word. It shows you that a good rope
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holder is a theologically informed robe holder.
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They weren't just supporting a good 'cause they were supporting
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the spread of the gospel, and they care deeply about the
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content of that gospel. OK, and we have to talk about
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what was probably the main strand of the rope prayer.
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The article describes them simply as prayer warriors, Hans
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writes. Even though my family to this
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day can't see or know the full impact of those prayers, I am
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sure it was considerable. This gets right to the heart of
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the efficacy of prayer in Reformed theology.
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You know, people sometimes raise the objection, well, if God is
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sovereign and has already ordained everything that will
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happen, then why should we pray? It's the classic question.
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But our confession is so clear on this God ordains the end, but
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he also ordains the means to that end, and prayer is one of
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his primary ordained means. The point of prayer isn't to
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give God new information as if He didn't know.
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It's the very instrument through which he has chosen to
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accomplish His will in the world.
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So when Archie McCaskill was sitting in his simple farmhouse
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in Saskatchewan praying for Hans in Pakistan, that prayer was
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actually doing something in Pakistan.
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It was moving the hand of God. It was shifting spiritual
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realities. Maybe it was providing
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protection or opening a door for a gospel conversation or giving
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Hans wisdom in a difficult situation.
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We don't see the invisible lines of connection, but they are
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real. The farmer in Redbirds becomes a
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Co laborer in the harvest in Lahore.
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It really makes you wonder, doesn't it, how much of what we
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call missionary success is actually the direct result of
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the faithful prayers of people like the McCaskill?
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'S I suspect that when we get to heaven, the award ceremony is
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going to be full of surprises. I think a lot of the people we
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consider the frontline heroes will be pointing to the quiet
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ones in the background saying I only made it because they held
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the rope. Let's move toward the end of
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their lives. In a beautiful turn of events,
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Hans and Wendy eventually took a pastorate in a town called
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Merrifield, which was very close to red verse, so they were able
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to be physically present for that final chapter.
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A wonderful piece of God's Providence, the ones who'd been
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supported from afar, we're now there to provide support up
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close at the very end. There's this scene described
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from the hospital. Hans is visiting Archie, who is
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very frail and near the end. But Hans says to him, at this
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point, you may be physically frail, but that light of the
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Lord in your eyes still shines brightly.
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Finishing well, that's the goal for every believer, isn't it?
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Not just to start the race, but to cross the finish line with
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that light still shining. And at Archie's funeral, Hans
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read a very specific passage of Scripture.
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It was from Psalm 119, verses 30 to 35.
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I want to read a part of it because it just seems to
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perfectly sum up this whole rope holder life.
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I have chosen the way of faithfulness.
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I set your rules before me. I will run in the way of your
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commandments when you enlarge my heart.
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That is such a rich passage. First, I have chosen the way of
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faithfulness. There's an active choice there.
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Yes, it's a choice empowered by God's grace, but it's still a
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choice we make. We choose to set His rules
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before us. And then that phrase when you
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enlarge my heart, what do you think that means in this
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context? It's a fantastic Hebrew idiom.
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It's not about the physical organ, it's about capacity.
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It suggests that sustained obedience, running in the way of
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the commandments, requires an expanded internal capacity for
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love, for endurance, for faithfulness.
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You can't run a marathon with a constricted, narrow, selfish
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heart. So God has to stretch our
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hearts. He does.
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And how does he do it? Through things like the war
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years, Through the isolated winters, Through decades of
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sacrificial giving. Every time Archie and Grace said
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no to their own comfort in order to say yes to God's mission,
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their spiritual hearts were being enlarged.
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They were building the spiritual stamina they needed to hold that
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rope for a lifetime. That's a great way to think
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about it. You can't hold a heavy rope for
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50 years with a small heart. You'll give up, your hands will
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get tired. You'll let go.
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You need an enlarged heart, a heart that has been stretched by
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the Holy Spirit to consistently care about people you've never
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met in a country you'll never visit.
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Small hearts are only concerned with their own little world.
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Enlarged hearts can encompass the globe because they're trying
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to beat and rhythm with God's heart for the nations.
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This brings us right to the legacy and the application.
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For all of us listening, the article isn't just a sweet story
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about a nice couple. It's a direct challenge, Hans
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writes. The challenge for us then, must
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be to seek to emulate them. He gives a warning.
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He says we must beware lest our fast-paced and secular world rob
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us of the true riches. And that's the real tension,
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isn't it? Our world screens at us.
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That riches are your 401K, your house, your social media
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following. But this article is defining
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true riches as a life poured out in service to Christ and others.
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Right. Hans quotes that old saying only
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one life will soon be passed, only what's done for Christ will
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last. It might sound a little old
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fashioned, but it's profoundly true.
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The Mccaskill's farm is gone now, or sold to someone else.
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The money is spent, but the eternal impact of their
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faithfulness and. The call to action here is
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specifically for the ordinary Christian.
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The article is clear. Not everyone is called to go
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down the well. And that should be a relief to
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people. If the Great Commission meant
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that every single Christian had to move overseas, the church
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back home would cease to exist. We need faithful farmers and
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teachers and mechanics, but the vocation of the rope holder,
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it's not a secondary lesser calling.
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It is the essential, necessary counterpart to the one who goes.
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So what does that look like practically for someone
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listening today? The article just brings it back
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to the basics. Prayer, Bible study,
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hospitality, giving. It's the basics.
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We're always looking for some new, complex strategy for
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Christian living, but the McCaskill Show us the secret is
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just doing the basics consistently, faithfully, over
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the course of a lifetime. It's opening your Bible when
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you're tired. It's writing the check.
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It's inviting someone over for a meal.
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It gives such dignity to the quiet, faithful life.
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You don't need a huge platform, you don't need a podcast
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microphone. You just need a rope and the
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willingness to get a good grip. And the conviction that your
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grip actually matters, that it's Kingdom work.
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So as we wrap up this deep dive, let's just recap the big idea.
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We started by asking who is really critical for the work of
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the gospel. And the answer this article
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gives us is the whole body. The spread of the gospel is a
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symbiotic relationship. It depends on the go and the
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sender, the one in the well and the one holding the rope.
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You simply cannot have one without the other.
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And the story of Archie and Grace McCaskill shows us that a
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quiet, simple life on a Saskatchewan farm.
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A life full of snow and potatoes and prayer can have global
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eternal effects in the economy of God's Kingdom.
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They show us that isolation doesn't have to lead to
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spiritual stagnation, that geographical distance cannot
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stop the work of love, and that an enlarged heart can hold a
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rope that stretches across oceans.
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I want to leave you with a final thought to chew on.
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It's a bit of a challenge. We've spent this whole time
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talking about Archie and Grace holding the rope for Hans and
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Wendy, but I want to turn the question to you.
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Who is holding the rope for you? That's a searching question.
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Who are the people whose prayers, whose support, whose
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encouragement are keeping you from falling?
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And then the other side of that question, whose rope are you
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holding? Look down at your hands
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metaphorically. Are they calloused from holding
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on for someone else, from bearing their burden in prayer,
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in giving? Or are they smooth because
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you're only focused on carrying your own weight?
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I think, and this is just the thought, but perhaps the
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greatest threat to the modern mission movement isn't a lack of
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passionate young people willing to go down the well we have
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them. The danger might be a lack of
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people with the patience, the grit and the enlarged hearts of
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Archie and Grace who are willing to stand at the top and just
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hold the rope, year after year, decade after decade, with no
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applause and no recognition. We need more rope holders.
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We really do. This has been reformed thinking.
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Thanks for joining us.