Check out my latest sermon – preached this morning at my church – St Martin’s in Collingwood in inner-city Melbourne. It also includes a couple of interesting clips of what St Paul may and may not have meant by being ‘caught up’ in the air in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.
Category: Faith (Page 10 of 11)
I’ve found that the best remedy for regaining that inner quiet and peace is by choosing to do the right thing. We’re such impulsive people. Whatever we have, we always want something better. I long for the day when, like St Paul, I can consistently say that I have learnt to be content whatever the circumstances. John the Baptist said the same thing when he told the crowds to “be content with your pay.”
No matter what we have we always want something else. If we find this attitude within ourselves, then the advertisers have succeeded and we have become a victim of the prevailing culture. We are no longer in control of our impulses. They now control us. The goal of advertising is to create the impression of a vacuum that doesn’t really exist in order to make a dollar.
The Gospel is counter-cultural and transformational. Romans 12:1 says ‘no longer be confromed to the pattern of this world.’ Jesus said “What will it profit you if you gain the whole world but lose yourself?” How I need to take that to heart and be transformed by the One spoke these words of life so many years ago.
Our hearts are restless. We consistently feel wired and discontent. As Douglas Adams, in The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, put it so brilliantly,
“This planet has – or rather had – a problem, which was this: most of the people on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper.”
In these times of financial hardship for so many, the words of Jesus are more relevant than ever.
Further to the post below about our time at Voices for Justice, my wife was asked to do the feature painting for the Create to Advocate exhibition which was part of the conference. Click here for a report on the exhibition and a description of the painting.
The report also has a link to my wife’s website, Evocartive, where you can see some more pics, including one of Kevin Rudd signing the painting.
Last weekend my wife and I joined 230 other people in Canberra for the Micah Challenge annual Voices for Justice conference. This was not just a conference but a demonstration of faith in action. Voices for Justice has 2 main aims; firstly, to seek more of God’s heart for the poor, and secondly, to lobby our political leaders to act more justly in their dealings with the poor.
The main asks of Voices for Justice this year were for the Australian Government to increase its overseas aid giving to 0.7% of Gross National Income (GNI) by 2015, and to increase spending on child and maternal health. The Government has committed to spending 0.5% of GNI on aid by 2015. This is a commendable move, but it is not enough to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which Australia, along with 190 other nations, has committed itself to.
The first 2 days of the conference were spent organising our lobby groups and being educated and inspired about the reasons that Australia can and must increase our level of aid giving. The 2 main speakers this year were Dr Melba Maggay from the Philippines, who played a role in the people power movement in that country in the late 1980s which contributed to the demise of the Marcos regime, and Rev. Joel Edwards, the International Director of Micah Challenge. They both told inspiring and empowering stories of the need for perseverance in the lobbying of political leaders. Joel related the story of the persistent widow who knocks on the door of the unjust judge demanding justice, and eventually the judge gives in and gives her what she wants (Luke 18:1-8).
Then, on the lawns of Parliament House, we heard from Scott Higgins, author of a report titled ‘We Can Meet the Challenge’ which we left with the politicians we visited. Higgins told us that history belongs to the dreamers. There has always been talk that changes of the measure that Micah Challenge is seeking are completely unrealistic and will simply not happen, especially in the current economic climate. However it is those who dare to dream who are the shakers and movers of history. Higgins pointed out that William Wilberforce’s dream of an end to the scourge of slavery was seen as hopelessly utopian at the time, used as it was as the very foundation of the might of the British Empire. It took 50 years for the abolitionists to see justice prevail, but prevail it did, because of the perseverance of the faithful. When Martin Luther King spoke of his dream of little black children and little white children holding hands together, his dream was seen as hopelessly utopian, yet today we are on the verge of seeing the first black President in the history of the United States. When Nelson Mandela was languishing in a South African prison for 27 years, his dream of an end to apartheid was seen as hopelessly utopian, yet he became President of his country and is now a hero to millions.
History belongs to the dreamers. Dr King spoke of why his people could no longer wait for justice to simply happen. He knew they had to make it happen. Moses of old told the mighty Pharaoh to let his people go. In the end they were freed. Bono in more recent times has said that it has fallen upon this generation to make poverty history. And years ago a good friend of mine said to me that anything worth fighting for is never going to be easy.
When the commitment and passion of 230 people from every State and Territory in the country converges on the nation’s capital to demand that our leaders do what they have said they would do, change happens. We visited 102 politicians over 3 days, and the overall response was positive. Bob McMullan, the Parliamentary Secretary for Overseas Aid, spoke of the fact that change will happen the more groups like Micah Challenge speak up. After the conference, MPs Maxine McKew and Mike Kelly cornered McMullan and asked “what are we going to do about this?!”
It was McKew as well who spoke to our group on the lawns of Parliament House as we prepared to begin our visits. She applauded us for being there as we handed over 4,550 personal letters from people across the country asking the Government to do more for the poor. On the lawns that morning we also welcomed 6 cyclists, members of our group who had cycled 1,500 kilometres from Brisbane just to be in Canberra to lobby for the poor. On the way they gained support from 12 churches for their cause. Those churches are now supporters of Micah Challenge and will do their part in advocating for our poor brothers and sisters in developing nations.
There is a groundswell of support in this country for justice to be done for those who are less well off than ourselves. We as a rich and affluent nation, have the resources to make poverty history, to listen to the call of God and act in doing justice, loving mercy and walking humbly with God. Change is upon us. We saw it in the support given at Voices for Justice.
When people commit themselves to act out God’s love for the poor and marginalised, change happens. The politicians have to do what you tell them to do. We went to Canberra calling for an increase in aid to 0.7% by 2015. I think it’s going to happen. On that weekend the Leader of the Opposition, Malcolm Turnbull, committed the Coalition to 0.5% by 2015, and is considering 0.7%. This is a huge step. It is now up to us to keep the pressure on our leaders to follow through.
We are the first generation to be able to end poverty in our lifetime. Jesus spent most of his time with the poor and outcast and he calls us to follow him. Just as the Father sent him, so he sends us. As Rick Warren found out a few years ago, there are more than 2,000 verses in the Bible referring to the poor. According to Jeremiah (22:16), to know God is to defend the cause of the poor and needy. What a privilege it was to spend 4 days in Canberra with 230 other Christians doing just that, being part of a movement that is bigger than ourselves, advocating for those who have no voice, and influencing our nation’s leaders to love those whom God loves.
For more information, visit http://micahchallenge.org.au
I’ve been thinking about the impact this crisis is having on those who have been sucked into the prosperity gospel idea. I wonder what they are thinking now as they lose their investments. One of the reasons the prosperity gospel is so disastrous is because, when events like this come along, they will turn alot of people away from God as they become disillusioned with what they have been taught about God’s apparent desire for them to be wealthy. Hopefully the good that will come out of this will be that people will begin to see the prosperity gospel for what it really is – a heresy and idolatry. Jesus’ words that you cannot serve both God and money have never been more relevant.
Soon after this issue arose, I also felt uneasy about the media frenzy associated with it. Recently one of the commercial TV channels in Melbourne ran a documentary about how to survive the crisis and keep from losing your investments. The response of bailing out the banks in the US (and now elsewhere) with the extraordinary amount of hundreds of billions of dollars is the same. It reflects on our society’s self-interest and priorities. As Bono said recently,
“I find it extraordinary that the US Government can find $700 billion to bail out the banks, but the entire G8 cannot find $25billion to save 25,000 children who die every day from preventable diseases.”
I think the prophets of old would be turning in their graves at the immorality of bailing out the banks with this amount of money. I also think of the rich man who ignored Lazarus. I think this idea is obscene and an insult to the world’s poor.
What this crisis also reveals is the destructive nature of unregulated market capitalism. The idea that the market knows best has always been misguided, especially for the poor. The nature of capitalism is that there always has to be a loser. I reckon this is what Jesus meant when he said “the poor you will always have with you.” He knows what human nature is capable of.
Mention has been made during this crisis of the movie, ‘Wall Street’, where Michael Douglas’ character, Gordon Gekko, utters the infamous words, “Greed is good.” People have been referring to this because of the reasons this crisis has eventuated. The unregulated market has allowed the greedy to get away with murder, and now may nations are paying the price. In stark contrast to the ‘greed is good’ mantra espoused by many, Gandhi once famously said that there is enough in the world for everyone’s need but not for everyone’s greed.
This is a time when the voice of the church needs to be heard from the mountain tops, a time when part of God’s kingdom coming on earth involves speaking out against greed and excess. Following Jesus and living a kingdom lifestyle involves living recklessly for others. The life of Jesus and the early church give us the best example of how to do this. In Acts we are told that “all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common. They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person’s need was met.” (Acts 2:44-45)
Some useful articles about a Christ-like response to the crisis:
Jubilee on Wall Street: Reimagining God’s Vision in Action
Orgy of Greed, Action Without Forethought
The wage of sin is the death of the market
Photo by Jorge Vicente (http://www.sxc.hu)
I’ve been a passionate Hawthorn supporter as long as I can remember. My earliest memory of following the Hawks is of wearing a Hawthorn jumper hand knitted by Mum with Peter Crimmins’ famous number 5 on the back.
So when I was at the G on Saturday watching my beloved team win their 10th flag against the odds, I was ecstatic. However, during the game I also realised that I can be quite an ungracious victor. The thoughts and some of the actions that came out of me during the game were ones which I thought I was rid of. I remember giving one Geelong supporter the stare after he dared to mention that Buddy Franklin was soft. So when Hawthorn kicked the next goal I (from a distance of course) looked at him and pumped my fist at him in defiance. As soon as I did that I thought ‘you idiot’. Then when it was over and the Hawks had done it, I looked around at some forlorn Cats supporters and found myself hoping that they were hurting. After all, they thought they would just have to turn up to win. There wasn’t a whole lot of sympathy in my attitude.
What followed the next couple of days was a sense of well-being that has only come from my faith. I found myself being more friendly, less fearful, less resentful and more willing to help people – all the characteristics of a godly person. Why is it that my sense of well-being is so tied up in whether or not my team wins a football match? As I walked home from work on Monday I realised that this will not last, whereas the peace that passes all understanding, the impossible joy, will last. And that can only come from staying close to God, letting him work in my life with an attitude of thy will be done, not mine.
It seems that winning the premiership was a challenge to my ego, my idolatry and to where I think that life is to be found.
This piece was published in the Sunday Age Faith column on 28 September 2008. It doesn’t appear online so here it is reproduced:
I’ve been realising recently how much I try to impress God. I know I can’t make God love me any more or any less than he already does, but still I try to impress him. It’s like my motivation for doing the right thing is so, when I get to the end of my life, I can say, “See? Look! Look at all the things I did.” And then God will let me in.
As a result of such thinking, Jesus’ parable of the workers in the vineyard is one with which I have struggled over many years. I could never understand why God would treat people like that. What could be the merits in giving those workers who had turned up late in the day and only put in an hour or so, the same money as those who had slaved away all day? I never understood it until writer Philip Yancey pointed out the obvious to me. There was a sense i which I was right to be perplexed at the unequal treatment given out that day, because that’s the whole point of grace. it isn’t fair. It’s not about counting up what we have done. It is about what God has done for us, not what we think we can do for God. Jesus demonstrated that himself on the cross when he said to the thief next to him, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” Grace is not fair. It never can be, for that is its very essence.
I need grace because I am one of those who turns up late in the day and still receives the best that God has. This is the God of the second chance, indeed of the third chance, and the 100th chance. David Meece sang a song years ago in which he cried out, “Seventy times seven. Can you forgive me for all that I’ve done?” The answer is a resounding “yes!!!”, without hesitation and every single time.
If we could catch a glimpse of the amazing grace of God, our lives would be turned upside down. We would realise that no longer do we need to play the games, those games where we say like the 4 year old, “I’m not going to be your friend anymore.” It’s not just kids who do that. We do it when when we’re 4 and we can do it when we’re 34, 54 or 84.
We are all on a journey, and the journey for many of us begins in our heads, and the final destination is deep in our hearts where, once grace is firmly entrenched, we “love because he first loved us.”
When we pray for someone who is about to go somewhere, how often do we pray for travelling mercies for them? Basically what we’re asking is for God to physically protect the person from harm and that they will safely get to where they are going. However I saw a great excerpt from a book recently, putting a new (and I believe more biblical) light on this cliche that so many of us Christians use.
‘Travelling mercies’ does not mean protection. God never promised to protect us from hurt or to keep us physically safe. The travelling mercies that we can hope for are the hope for a better future, the hope that one day there will be no more tears and no more pain. This is the hope that we have, not for physical protection, but for a better day when we don’t even need to think of praying for protection because death and hurt will have been defeated once and for all.
Many years ago I was about to go white-water rafting with a group of friends. One of the leaders of our group prayed before we set off, and he said that after so many trips, he no longer prays for protection. Instead he prays for wisdom. I used to wonder about that but now I’m more sure that this is a prayer that God is more likely to answer.
This year has seen a major rethink in terms of the way I view my faith, the way I see Jesus, and, as a result, what I see the whole gospel as being all about. More and more I see that the Christianity I have been brought up with is, in many ways, a fairly long way from what I read in the Gospels. The more I read people like N.T. Wright and Rowland Croucher, among others, and the more I study the Scriptures and ask God to show me what he is on about, the more I see that what I was taught growing up is not what it’s really all about.
I don’t think Jesus had a whole lot to say about what happens after we die. I think what he is referring to mostly is what the kingdom of God is like. Jesus never defined the kingdom of God but he always said what it was like. It’s about Kingdom come – on earth as it is in heaven. As Tom Wright says, heaven is not our final destination. And as Rikk Watts says, heaven is coming here. The new heaven and the new earth is a coming together of heaven and earth where we will have physical, resurrected bodies. God is putting the world to rights. And that is our mission as believers. We are participants in the putting of the world to rights. That’s why we are to fight for justice, to care for the environment, and to protect the orphan and the widow. Salvation is the restoration of the image of God, indeed the restoration of creation. It is both personal and social, not one, not the other. And not where one is an optional add-on to the other. Jesus never separated the personal and the social. That is a western concept and a result of the Enlightenment.
I’m excited by the rethink that is going on in my head. May it makes its way further into my heart as I see to grow closer to God and ask for nothing more than his will to be done in my life.
Someone was telling me yesterday how, in our culture, we don’t seem to seek out the older generation to mentor us. Rowland Croucher is one such elder statesman who has been a mentor to many a burnt out pastor over the years. Our society needs more people like him to turn to for their wisdom – the wisdom that only comes with the experience of life. It is a wisdom that comes too out of a maturity arising out of long days and nights spent in meditation, prayer and contemplation on the vagaries of this life. Here are a few examples of such wisdom:
“Enemies and close friends are the only two groups who will tell you the truth about yourself.”
“Walter Brueggeman said in answer to the question, ‘What’s the Old Testament about?: ‘It’s about a God of grace who often breaks the rules God has set for God’s creatures.'”
“Success will feed your ego but never your soul.”
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