righteousness or self-righteousness

Danny Nalliah, Australia's poster child for all things right-wing and his group 'catch the fire ministries' held a prayer vigil on Mount Ainslie this past weekend to pray for Australia to be 'Saved' from all its heathenness and sin (apparently the bushfires and stuff are linked to our sinfulness). The prayer vigil was met by a group of protesters from various groups, gay rights activists, pro-choice, strippers, prostitutes, etc (you know the kind of people that extreme right-wingers see as the spawn of Satan, sinners and tax collectors).

Danny's prayer group was a direct result of signs of satanic rituals being held on the mountain, which was interpreted (possibly quite correctly) as a direct spiritual attack on Australian Politics. I have come from a quite right-wing upbringing, and whilst there are those who would probably see me as very left wing today, there are still things that I hold onto from my upbringing, and spiritual warfare is one of those things... I don't see demons behind everything, a la 'this present darkness' , but I cannot deny that there is some sort of otherworldly battle going on... some may call me naive, but that's OK, I'm comfortable with that.

What does bug me about this right-wing approach to the state of the world, is that it pins all the responsibility on evil spirits or on their human spawn (the anti-Danny protesters etc). In their view, our responsibility as good Christians is to live righteous lives and pray - then God will hear our voice and revival will come. They feel that through doing this and being vocal in the public arena they are doing their bit, they are being honorable to God. As I write this all I can think of is the pharisees that Jesus had to deal with... They too at a time when their nation was being oppressed (not by spiritual forces but Roman ones), saw that they needed to live more 'righteous' lives, to separate themselves and pray, calling all those around them to live a similar life, so that God would hear them and liberation (or in our language revival) would come.

This motivation in and of itself seems honorable, being righteous can never be a bad thing... but us being fallible human beings with big egos we often slip into self-righteousness. This clearly is the position that the pharisees were in. This is what Jesus battled, whilst at the same time hanging out and loving the sinners and tax collectors, those that that the pharisees saw as hell spawn.

Who did Jesus warn were in danger of the fires of hell??? - the pharisees or the sinners and tax collectors???

If you don't know the answer to this question I suggest you read the gospels - Jesus only every really referenced hell when he was talking about those who thought they were safe, but evidently were not - the self-righteous ones, the pharisees.

Interestingly the word righteousness and the word justice are synonymous in both the Old and New Testament. So really a person cannot truly be righteous unless he is fighting for justice, and who is it from a biblical perspective who needs justice? - the poor and oppressed, the marginalised... those that Jesus hung out with and loved, the sinners and tax collectors. Righteousness is not about being set apart and untouched by the world, it is about bringing our faith, our love and our support into a broken and hurting world, and in doing this, we will be truly set apart, because we are the only ones that are there caring for the unloved, risking our comfort, our time and our lives for the sake of others, the lost, the rejected, sinners, prostitutes, disabled, refugees, etc. etc... just like Jesus did (remember WWJD?).

I worry that we as Christians have done the same thing as the Pharisees, we see ourselves as righteous and set apart because we don't hang out with the sinners and tax collectors, but we are happy to condemn them (and possibly even demonise them if the situation suits). We sit in our churches and Christian schools and clubs and home groups and think we are saved and righteous. Outside the sinners and tax collectors continue to live their 'heathen' lives, and we pray, pray that the Lord would send revival and that the sinners would become saved and Australia would be won for Christ... but revival hasn't come. Contrary to Yonggi Cho's assertion, I don't think that prayer is the key to revival.

As I have stated before, Jesus had a different response, he saw the condition of the sinners and tax collectors and did not condemn them but rather lived with them, loved them and through them established his Kingdom. Interestingly if you look at true revivals in history (I'm not talking about the more unusual and dubious revivals of current times) they began amongst the sinners and tax collectors of their day... they began amongst the outcasts of society, those that were marginalised. They began as Christians stepped down from their ivory towers and began to live amongst, and minister to these people.

If we truly want to see Australia Changed for the Lord, then we can't sit back and pray for change, the whole time being self-righteous, waving our fingers in disapproval at the tax collectors and sinners. We need to get our hand's dirty, live amongst, show love to, and help those at the margins. Our faith is meant to be one of love not condemnation, I think we have forgotten that along the way somehow.

Forgive me Father - for I wear Nike

"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world - the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life - is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever." (1 John 2:15)

In the world, but not of it… This phrase has been one that has haunted me throughout my life (especially my adolescence). I can still remember the preaching from the pulpit, or the lectures from my Sunday school teachers and youth group leaders. To be in the world but not of it, meant that you had to live up to a strict code of moral behaviours… No drinking, no swearing, no drugs, no rock music, no discos, no D&D, no Harry Potter, no Sex, no late nights, no parties…etc…etc. These sort of behaviours were supposed to make us some sort of beacon of hope in the darkness of the morally corrupt world, and the sinners were to be attracted to the light of Christ in you. Or at least those that were ready to see the errors of their ways would be attracted… clearly none of my friends were ready, they all thought I was a loon. As a result, more often than not I would fall back into the world to be with my friends and therefore stuff up any sort of witness that I could have had.

I think somehow, we have missed the point here, Jesus taught that the world would HATE us, not simply think that we were weak or out of date. DON’T GET ME WRONG, I think that many of these sort of ‘rules for Christian living’ are valid and should be practiced by Christians (but clearly as you can see from my above list I also think that often these rules can be manipulated for the sake of control rather than Christian character). But there seems to be some real problems if these ‘rules’ are presented as the way we stand separate from the world.

Firstly, the ‘rules’ are extremely judgemental, If you follow them you are good, if you don’t your bad. If you follow them you are ‘in’ (‘in’ the club, and therefore out of the world), if you don’t your ‘out’ (‘out’ of the word and therefore in the world). If you follow them you can feel very proud of yourself and self righteous (oh, wait… that’s a sin too isn’t it??), if you stuff up and break a rule you are condemned either by your peers/leaders or by your own self talk. In fact, as I write this I notice how close this attitude would seem to be to the actions of the Pharisees that Jesus condemned…

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former”. (Mat 23:23)

Secondly it all seems a bit cheap to me, a bit surface. It seems to be one of those Christian double standards, we are called to live a morally upright life, by following the highly visible and external ‘rules’, but we are not called to address the issues in our life that have to do with mercilessness and injustice. For the most part we are so busy living up to the rules and being a good witness that we have missed how the way we are living our lives is hurting others. We are the rich man, and Lazarus is at our gate. What is worse is that our sin is not simply ignoring Lazarus, it is being part of a system that is harming him!

These sorts of parables and Jesus words quoted above were what made the leaders of His day hate Him. It was this that caused Him to die on the cross. If we limit the purpose of Jesus’ time on earth to simply the atonement, we miss a lot of what he was about… yes he died for our sins, but the reason he hung on the cross is because he spoke out and lived a life that condemned the powers that be… his very life was pointing the finger at the evils of the system.

Think about it… He broke the Sabbath laws to heal a crippled, essentially worthless man. He became unclean when a menstruating woman touched him and he did not condemn her, but rather spoke with her and validated her in the sight of the crowd. He prevented the stoning of a woman caught in adultery, she sinned, and this was her due punishment, yet he stopped it happening. He upturned tables in the temple. Jesus lived a life that was in opposition to the system, and the system hated Him for it.

Anyway… All that to say, maybe it would be more effective to ask if we are in the System but not of the System … if we truly stand up against the system and live an alternative and Godly life following in the footsteps of our Lord Jesus, then the system will not simply think we are old fashioned or a bit wacky, it will truly hate us… and whether we like it or not, that is what Jesus has called us to!

Peter

PS. I know I have not really addressed the title of this blog post – unless you read between the lines a bit… I’ll get onto that confession another day

Journey towards the poor...

I was recently asked what it was that started my journey in ministering to the poor and marginalised. As I thought about it my mind initially went to my introduction to UNOH, visiting and volunteering at Foodbank during my RDO every second Tuesday, or reading some fantastic books by Ash Barker, or even attending the Surrender conference and hearing Jackie Pullinger or Tony Campolo speak. But as I thought about it more, I realised that the Lord had introduced me to the need for ministry to the poor much earlier than I had originally thought.
It was many year earlier as I was just beginning to be introduced to the concept of Missions that I had the opportunity to visit a church plant in Sri Lanka. My home church at the time was a kind of parent church to the church in Sri Lanka, and was a major financial supporter of the church. I was asked to go and visit the church on an annual basis to touch base with them, check them out and let them know they were supported (I guess morally more than financially).

There are many things that today bother me about this scenario, and there were many things that were being done by both the Parent and Daughter church that I would struggle with today. But regardless of the fact that the Church in Sri Lanka relied on outside support to function and that the relationship was fairly imperialistic, the church was essentially reaching out to the poorest people in the city of Kandy, and the reality was that the structure of the church (with two paid full-time pastors) could not have functioned without outside support as the congregation barely had enough money to feed themselves let alone support any sort of church structure. The church was trying to model itself after the classic mega-church model of Australia and trying to emulate our worship, preaching styles and trappings. They were being influenced by the teachings of Benny Hinn and Kenneth Copeland by video that some well meaning but direly misguided supporter was posting out to them on a monthly basis.

When I visited I was expected to preach every Sunday as the VIP western Pastor, and although I preach predominantly on how much this church had to offer the wider church and how they should not try to emulate the west but recognise their own forms of worship as pleasing to the Lord, I was obligated to hold an altar call and pray for each and every member of the congregation and see them ‘slain in the Spirit’. But besides the heavily colonial dynamic of the Sunday service it was on the day to day of church life that the true church amongst the poor could be seen.

It was in the nightly bible studies and prayer meetings that various members of the congregation came together to share a meal and simply fellowship, it was at these times that worship was casual and much more culturally relevant, and prayer and study were dialogical and passionate. The congregation were committed to visiting each other on a regular basis and helping each other out when things were difficult. As I reflect back on the church I realise how much they emulated the Church seen in Acts 4. The real inspiration to me was one of the paid pastors who lived on a bare minimum despite being given a very generous income from our church. The rest of his money was given to those in the church who were really struggling, the widows and the lame and he spent all his time visiting congregation members and being a real hands-on support to anyone who needed it.

Unfortunately my involvement with that church was cut short due to the other full time pastor being sent to study in Australia and having his head filled with grand visions of mega-churches, his decision was to no longer come under the cover of our church but to look for support from another bigger, more impressive Aussie mega church who said they would support them for six months after which time they would have to be self supporting. This concept at face value sounds great, however the reality of it was that when they asked how they could support themselves the suggestion was that they should stop trying to attract the poor in the community but should rather aim their church towards the middle class of Kandy. Needless to say the dream of a shiny rich mega church won out in the end for this pastor and they decided to follow that course.

I have not heard from that church since that time, I have no idea if they are still operating. I often think about the generous pastor and what he is doing with his life at the moment. Although I have a lot of sadness about the future of this congregation, I thank God for the experience of this church and the chance to see how a real church amongst the poor can function. This experience was truly foundational to my current vocation even if at the time I did not realise it… But then I guess most of our formation is done on a subconscious level through experiences like this.

Essay on the Sermon on the Mount - Part 4

Materialism. - Matthew 6:19-24
The first half of Matthew six was a call for individuals not to use their religiosity to dominate those around them, in this section, Jesus is identifying another way that people can dominate others, and that is through the acquisition of wealth and material possessions. The dominating effects of storing up treasures are seen in a brutal reality in our own global context today;

The most comprehensive study of personal wealth ever undertaken also reports that the richest 1% of adults alone owned 40% of global assets in the year 2000, and that the richest 10% of adults accounted for 85% of the world total. In contrast, the bottom half of the world adult population owned barely 1% of global wealth. (Kazandjian, 2006: NP)

The western world’s hording of wealth has relegated the other 90% of the world to the status of slaves, forced to do backbreaking labor for little or no pay. The Kingdom community is called to stand against this injustice, sharing its wealth with those in need, both inside and outside the community and through doing this breaking their own slavery to mammon and storing up for themselves riches in heaven.

Don’t Worry – Anti-Materialism – Matthew 6:25-34
Worry is indicative of one’s dependence on mammon rather than God. “But how will we survive?” is the question that instantly pops to the mind when considering being free with material possessions, Jesus’ answer is both spiritual and practical. The spiritual aspect is one of trust, if they do what the Lord has required of them he will look after their needs (Mt 6:33). The practical aspect is that within the context of the Kingdom Community none will be in need as the wealth and possessions of the group are shared around, just like it was with the early church (Acts 2:44-47). This concept is a real source of liberation for the poor as their needs are met, however it is a real area of trust for the rich as they learn to let go of the security of their wealth and learn to rely on the security that God through the Kingdom Community has to offer.

The Shelter of the Community – Matthew 7:24-27
The final section of Jesus’ sermon is a parable about two men, one who builds his house on the rock of Jesus teaching and another who builds his house of the sand of his own desires and understandings. This parable is a beautifully poetic conclusion to Jesus’ teaching, and a great reflection of his heart for the poor. A house is a symbol of security, particularly for the poor, who often may not have a place of their own. Jesus’ parable shows that if a person holds to his teachings (remembering that it is all set within the context of the Kingdom Community) that they will have the security they need. The house is figurative, but it represents the care of the community in looking after the needs of the poor, which in many ways makes it literal, as the protection that the community offers is as good as (and will always include) a physical house for that person to reside in.

The foolish man however is the man who tries to build his own Kingdom without the support of the Kingdom Community. Because this person puts his own resources into the house it costs him a lot more than the shared resources of the community, however when the opposition comes this foolish, independent man is left crushed under the rubble of his own desires.

Conclusion.
Studying the Sermon on the Mount gives us an amazing insight into how the Lord wants to see his Kingdom operate. It is an in-depth guide to living as a Kingdom Community, in opposition to the values, systems and powers of the Status Quo. Probably the most remarkable aspect of this guide to the Kingdom however, is the importance that it puts on the care for and inclusion of the poor and marginalised both within its community and outside. Such a teaching truly is foolishness to the wise and attests to the compassion and majesty of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

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Kazandjian A. (2006) Pioneering Study Shows Richest Two Percent Own Half World Wealth. In United Nations University, World Institute for Development Economics Research. Press Release: (http://www.wider.unu.edu/events/past-events/2006-events/en_GB/05-12-2006/) (18th March 2008)

Essay on the Sermon on the Mount - Part 3

Subversive Weakness. – Matthew 5:33-48
Jesus, after dealing with the need for being true to your word, turns his attention to how to deal with those who use their positions of power to oppress the poor. Jesus uses three scenarios to highlight the need for passive resistance towards the community’s oppressors; they are the concept of turning the other cheek, giving your cloak as well as your tunic, and going the extra mile. These scenarios present two obvious courses of action, to fight back or to passively accept the abuse of power. Jesus however is suggesting a third course of action. Walter Wink suggests that turning the other cheek is a way to level the playing field against those who are oppressing you;

… [Jesus] is saying to them, “Refuse to accept this kind of treatment anymore. If they backhand you, turn the other cheek.” By turning the cheek, the servant makes it impossible for the master to use the backhand again: his nose is in the way. …The left cheek now offers a perfect target for a blow with the right fist; but only equals fought with fists …and the last thing the master wishes to do is establish the underling’s equality. This act of defiance renders the master incapable of asserting his dominance in the relationship. (Wink, 1998: 102)

This popular interpretation however ignores the text that follows. If we look at this example in conjunction with the other two examples (walking the extra mile and giving your cloak) and the dialogue about loving your neighbour, it is clear that these passages are not about establishing equality. Rather, in going further than demanded, these examples seem to highlight the oppressive actions of one’s enemies, bringing shame upon their actions and bringing the cultural values that would allow such behaviour into question. The values of the Kingdom do not espouse power or equality, but rather a subversive use of the weak and powerless to shame the structures of the status quo (1 Cor 1:18-31).

Actors for World Domination – Matthew 6:1-18
The first half of chapter six deals with three different religious practices; giving to the needy, prayer and fasting. In all three examples, the disciples are told not to be like the hypocrites, a term Jesus uses to describe the Pharisees. The term hypocrite actually originates from the Greek theatre, where the ‘hypokrites’ (ύπόκριτής) was an actor who played a part and often wore a mask. The references that Jesus gave, though probably somewhat hyperbolic, capture this metaphor beautifully, as the hypocrites seem to do these things only “to be honoured by men” (Carson, 1978: 57). The major problem with the hypocritical nature of these acts however, is not that they are an ego boost for the Pharisees. The sinister reality is that they used these acts to build up their standing within society.

Jesus was warning against this sort of ladder climbing within the Kingdom Community, those who had the finances to give alms, or the theological knowledge to pray impressive prayers, or the self control to fast should not use those ‘powers’ to build themselves up over the others in the community (the poor, the uneducated or the struggling addict). Such actions and motivations are about domination and stand in direct opposition to the values of the Kingdom Community.

Transformative Prayer – Matthew 6:9-13
Amongst all this talk of hypocrites is a passage often referred to as the Lord’s Prayer, though a more accurate name for in might be the Community’s prayer. For many this passage is purely a guideline for what we should pray for (that Jesus would return and establish his kingdom, that our needs would be met, that our sins would be forgiven, and that God would protect us from stumbling), but it is much more than that, it is a recognition that the light of the Kingdom is breaking through into a corrupt system;

…Every clause [of the Lord’s Prayer] resonates with Jesus’ announcement that God’s kingdom is breaking into the story of Israel and the world, opening up God’s long-promised new world and summoning people to share it. If this context is marginalized… the prayer loses its peculiar force and falls back into a generalized petition for things to improve, albeit still admittedly to God’s glory. (Wright,2001: NP)

Verse ten then is a call on the Lord to continue the transformative work in the world through the community, it is a refusal to see the present corruption as normal, but to see the will of God as the goal. Verse eleven is a call for the Lord to supply us with our daily bread, this is a call to have our needs met, but also a call to not become greedy or want more than we need.

Verse twelve is a recognition of the need to keep short accounts as the disciples live in community together (Mt 5:21-26). Verse thirteen calls for us not to be lead into temptation. This verse is a call for the disciples not to fall back into the rut of living a life that embraces the status quo, another temptation may be a tendency to look at the troubles around and fret that the darkness is winning.

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Carson, D. A. (1978) The Sermon on the Mount. An Evangelical exposition of Matthew 5-7. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.
Wink, W. (1998) The powers that be. New York: Doubleday Publishing.
Wright, N. T. (2001) The Lord’s Prayer as a Paradigm of Christian Prayer. In ntwrightpage.com.( http://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Christian_Prayer.htm) (17th March 2008)

Essay on the Sermon on the Mount - Part 2

The Beatitudes – a Kingdom Community. – Matthew 5:3-12
In studying the Sermon on the Mount, it is essential that we keep in mind that this passage is describing the way that a community within the Kingdom of Heaven should behave (herein referred to as a Kingdom Community as it is not the Kingdom of Heaven in its entirety, nor is it yet the church as the church was not established until after Christ’s assertion). Many suggest that the sermon is a guide for Christian ethics (Lloyd-Jones, ND: 33), but this is to set an impossible task before the individual believer. The result of this is the spiritualising of the passage and the reduction of it into a general guide to live by. The regrettably clichéd “…do to others what you would have them do to you...” (NIV, Mt 7:12) is a prime example of this, where the whole sermon is reduced to one line that mothers can tell their children to stop them arguing with their siblings.

But if the Sermon is seen as the framework of the Kingdom, then the impossible becomes possible. Within this understanding then, the beatitudes are seen as a description of who will be part of this new Kingdom Community. The first four beatitudes listed represent the poor who will be drawn into the community, the outcast of the society. It is within this setting that these outcasts will begin to find the promised blessings;

…these four beatitudes describe not personal qualities but oppressive situations of distress or bad fortune, which are honoured or esteemed because God’s reign reverses them. This reversal is under way in Jesus’ ministry but is not yet complete. The First four beatitudes critique the political, economic, social, religious and personal distress that results from the powerful elite who enrich their own position at the expense of the rest. (Carter, 2003: 131).

If we hold to this view, then the poor in spirit are literally the poor, rather than some spiritualised form of humble Christian. Carter suggest that the “spirit” in this passage refers to the spirit of the poor that has been crushed by economic injustice (2003: 131); likewise, those who mourn are those who have suffered at the hand of the corrupt and evil; The Meek are those who have no voice in society and so have no choice but to stand by passively as their situations are exploited; And finally, Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, as Bosch argues (1991: 71-73), are those who yearn for justice but do not receive it.

The use of the present tense “is” in the first and last beatitudes suggests that indeed the kingdom of heaven is not limited to an eschatological understanding, but rather, the kingdom is to reverse these sufferings both now and more fully in the future. This brings the beatitudes and indeed the entire Sermon on the Mount into a present reality rather than a spiritual set of moralities that we are to live by in order to attain entrance into heaven.

The final four beatitudes in a similar way represent those that are fighting for the rights of the poor within society. Therefore, those in the Kingdom Community should display mercy to all, especially the poor; their actions should show that they are pure in heart, not having any deceitfulness or malice; the peacemakers stand in direct contrast to the occupying forces of the day who forced their “peace” upon the people; persecution is a direct result of standing up against the dominant and oppressive kingdom of this age.

Societal Transformation – Matthew 5:13-16
The next section of the sermon talks about salt and light. Salt is a preserving agent as well as a flavour enhancer, light breaks through the darkness. Both elements are seen as agents of change within culture. The salt preserves the world from going off as well as supplying flavour, whilst the light breaks through the darkness of an oppressive system. These elements highlight the dialectic between the kingdom of heaven and the present age, but they operate on two different levels;

So Jesus calls his disciples to exert a double influence on the secular community, a negative influence by arresting its decay and a positive influence by bringing light into its darkness. For it is one thing to stop the spread of evil; it is another to promote the spread of truth, beauty and goodness. (Stott, 1978: 64-65)

The salt is the Kingdom Community’s ability to arrest the suffering and evil that is happening in the world. With this in mind, the eschatological excitement that many in today’s church display over the decay of this present age as a supposed sign of the imminent return of Christ actually stand in stark contrast to Jesus’ teaching here. It is not Jesus’ will that the world get worse and more people suffer due to greed, it is the Kingdom Communities role to arrest the decay of this age.The light then, is the missional reality of the Kingdom Community. When the world sees what this community is doing it will be drawn to it as a moth to a flame. For the marginalised of the world it will mean good news, however it will also bring with it persecution from the powers that control the status quo. This is why Christ teaches against hiding the light under a bowl (Mt 5:15). Hiding would keep the community safe from persecution (Mt 5:11-12), but keeping the blessing to themselves would mean that those in need of the ministry of the community would never receive it

Respecting Women - Matthew 5:27- 32
In talking about how the values of the Kingdom community fulfil and take seriously the law and the prophets, Jesus sneaks in an important lesson about one of the marginalised groups in society, women. Many see Jesus’ teaching on lust, adultery and divorce, as nothing more than dealing with sexual immorality and the sanctity of marriage (see for example Boice, 1972:134-141). However a deeper look into the passages will show that there is more to Jesus’ teachings;

While women are mentioned merely as an example, the example is significant because it involves a cultural criticism of the status of women. When the Gospel presents Jesus' discussion of divorce and adultery, the dignity of women (and perhaps even their rights) is clearly implied. Jesus says that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully commits adultery in his heart. Clearly the entire discussion of the collected sayings is geared toward the relation of action and faith. But, at the same time, it undeniably insists that women are not to be regarded as objects to be discarded at will. (Kopas, 1990: 15)

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Boice, J. M. (1972) The Sermon on the Mount. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

Bosch, D. J(1991) Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.

Carter, W. (2003) Matthew and the margins. A socio-political and religious reading. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.

Kopas, J. (1990) Jesus and Women in Matthew. in Theology Today. 1990, University of Scranton. ( http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/apr1990/v47-1-article2.htm#Kopas) (17th March 2008)

Lloyd-Jones, D. M. (N.D.) Studies in the Sermon on the Mount. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

Stott, J. R. W. (1978) The Bible speaks today. The Sermon on the Mount. Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity Press.

Essay on the Sermon on the Mount - Part 1

This is an excerpt of an essay I wrote for bible college, it really changed the way I looked at Jesus' Sermon on the Mount when I wrote it, changing my view of it being a set of moral or spiritual rules to be followed by believers into a radical call to an alternative form of community.

Anyway here is part one...

sorry about the formal format of it all, but as I said it was an essay and I had to follow certain conventions...

Introduction.
The Sermon on the Mount is an amazing collection of teachings that demonstrate how Jesus expects his followers to live, it is however more than just a collection of moral codes by which we as individuals are called to live. It is the assertion of this essay, that the Sermon on the Mount is a call to live in a radical form of community. This call to community reflects Jesus’ heart for the poor in excitingly profound ways, and it is this aspect of Jesus’ teachings that this essay will focus on.

Defining Poor.
Before looking at Christ’s heart for the poor, it is important to define what is meant by the word “poor”. Ronald J. Sider argues that the predominant definition of the poor within the bible is “those who are economically impoverished due to calamity or exploitation” (1997: 42). This would include the widow and orphan (Jas 1:27), the ill such as a leper, the lame or blind (Lev 18:14), as well as the homeless or alien (Lev 18:33). However, it would seem that Jesus definition was wider and included many of the marginalised within society; His concern for women is clearly evident (Jn 4:5-42,Mt 9:20-22,Lk 7:11-15, 10:38-42), as well as his care for those who are ostracised by society like the tax collectors (Lk 19:1-10) and prostitutes (Mt:26:6-13).

A definition of the poor then, goes beyond a simple recognition of economic hardship. “The poor” refer to those who have been marginalised by society, whether that is due to financial impoverishment, physical or mental afflictions, social standing or gender.

Christ’s Heart.
Christ’s heart for the poor is an aspect of God’s character that is woven throughout the bible. It is a concept that is written into the very foundation and law of the people of Israel (see Lev 19:13-15, 19: 33, 25:8-55, Deut 24:19-22 etc.), yet time and time again, the people ignored the poor amongst them. In response, the Lord sent his prophets to address the people’s blindness. Through the prophets, God taught that the people’s religious observances were nothing but hollow ritual if they did not contain a response to the poor (see Is 58, Amos 4:1-5, Jer 22:16-17 etc.). It is in this tradition that Christ heart beats;

Jesus shares table fellowship with outcast public “sinners and tax collectors. His statements about the “poor” betray an obvious sympathy for the defenceless and place Jesus thoroughly within the prophetic tradition, which sided with the oppressed against the exploiters… These provocative associations of Jesus are not incidental to his ministry. The extension of compassion, loyalty, and friendship across well-defined boundaries of exclusion was a parable in action, a way of vividly communicating Jesus’ understanding of God and the quality of his rule. (Senior and Stuhlmueller, 1995: 147)

On the Mount. – Matthew 5:1--2
Stereotypically, when we think of the Sermon on the Mount, we think of Jesus standing on a small hill, orating on ethical living to the milling crowd around him. However, in verse one of chapter five we see that although there was a crowd around him, Jesus sat down on the mountainside and his disciples gathered around him. Sitting is not the posture one takes in addressing a large crowd. His position was rather that of a teacher addressing his disciples (France, 1985: 107). Although the crowd did listen in (see Mt 7:28), the “sermon” was predominantly addressed to his disciples, a band of people who had given up their own standing in society to follow this radical teacher named Jesus.

Jesus’ instructions on the mount were a call for those who had completely dedicated themselves to his teachings to seek the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth (Mt 6:10). This Kingdom was to stand in direct contrast to that of their age. By abandoning their livelihoods (Mk 1:14-20), the disciples had lowered their social status to that of the poor. Jesus’ teachings call for his followers to throw their lot in with the poor even further, joining with them in becoming an integral community that cares for one another and stands up against oppressive structures that will try to destroy them.

[The Disciples] have… left the people to join him. He has called each individual one. They have given up everything in response to his call… They have only him. Yes, and with him they have nothing in the world, nothing at all, but everything, everything with God. So far, he has found only a small community, but it is a great community he is looking for, when he looks at the people. (Bonhoeffer, 2001: 101)

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Bonhoeffer, D. (2001) Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Volume 4. Discipleship. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.
France, R. T. (1985) Tyndale New Testament commentaries – Matthew. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Senior, D. and Stuhlmueller, C. (1995) The Biblical foundation for mission. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.
Sider, R.J. (1997) Rich Christians in an age of hunger. (5th ed.). U.S.A: W Publishing Group.

Healing

Today I was talking with some friends about the issue of miraculous healing, and it has made me think about the issue a fair bit…
I have Cerebral Palsy, it is a disability that I was born with, and it affects the right side of my body. Throughout my childhood, this disability has resulted in me being ostracised from many of my peers; it meant that none of them wanted to play sports with me, many of them were repelled by a fear of the unknown, most thought it uncool to hang out with someone like me and some even went so far as to beat me up on a regular basis. These were the joys of having a disability in the era that I grew up in… Australian society was just coming to terms with having people with disabilities share the same space as them rather than being locked away, and I had parents who (thankfully) had the view that a disability was not something to stop a person being a productive member of society and so forced me into mainstream school and life.
The treatment that I received from my peers caused me to become very resentful and introverted, and out of these feelings of hurt and isolation the only thing I dreamt about was healing from my affliction. I went forward at church to every healing session that came along…
I believe that I have received healing, at least for the most part… I would say that this healing is about 90% complete, and I see it as a combination of the miraculous and hard work on behalf of myself and my mother who forced me to do hour upon hour of physio.
But complete healing to this day has not come, so I still “suffer” from cerebral palsy.
If you have ever done the faith healer circuit, then you would be aware of what sort of impact not being healed has on a person, from being told that you don’t have enough faith to be healed (and therefore by implication are not a real Christian), to being told that you have to receive the truth of your healing before the actual healing will occur (ie fool yourself into believing you have been healed)… That sort of thing can really screw with your mind and threaten your belief in God.
All of this comes out of some sort of misguided belief that as Christians we should all be perfect, that we should not be afflicted with physical disabilities, or health issues; just as we are spiritually transformed, so too should we be physically transformed, but I really don’t see that teaching present in the bible, sure there could be things misconstrued as God wanting us to be perfect (note here perfect is NOT a synonym for whole ), and yes there is a big focus on healing in the bible, but let’s have a bit of a look at that…
Firstly, Jesus, on his time here in the flesh did not heal every disabled person that he met… the pool of Bethesda is a prime example of this, so is his return to Galilee. However having said that we also know that not every healing He did is recorded in the bible either, there are many passages that said he healed many, even that he ‘healed all their sick.’ Having said that, if we do look at the healings that are present in the bible, I think that we can see that there is more going on in these occurrences than simply healing someone’s affliction. When Jesus (and indeed the Apostles) healed someone he did so to illustrate a point or to teach someone (often that person receiving the healing, but not always) a lesson.
You want an example? OK, how about Jesus going to heal Jairus’ Daughter, the crowd were excited, Jairus was powerful and important, imagine what this healing will do for the cause… But then a sick and outcast woman pushes through the crowd to touch Jesus’ cloak and get healing. At this point Jesus could have just continued to press on, the woman had received her healing and Jairus was waiting for Him, but he stopped, affirmed the woman welcomed her into the Kingdom and taught everyone there that the poor and marginalised are just as important (if not more) in His Kingdom as the rich and powerful. To illustrate the point Jairus’ Daughter died while Jesus was delayed. Of course we know that Jesus raised her and everything was fine with her, but the focus of this passage is not the Jesus could raise the little girl from the dead, the focus is what Jesus did for the woman and at the same time taught the crowd.
If we hold to a theology of suffering (read James 1:1ff), which says that God uses the suffering in our lives to teach us and mould us, then we have to see that Physical Afflictions are in the same category, God wants us to learn from these things, and in many cases he will not remove this issue because it is a testament to his power (1 Cor 1:26-31). If a person can be accepting of his or her affliction, and continue to be a vessel of God, used by Him in powerful ways then that person receives wholeness within the economy of the Kingdom, perfection is not needed.
The bible says that if we have enough FAITH that we can pray for healing and we will receive it (James 5:15). FAITH is nothing more or less than a complete trust in God, a knowing of his will and ways. So if we have Faith then we will supposedly know what is appropriate to pray for and when. We need to look at what is whole or perfect within the context of the Kingdom, and the more we get to understanding the Kingdom, the more we realise that it’s logic and values are opposite or upside-down to the values and logic of the world.
It could almost be argued that Jesus wants you to be physically whole as much as he wants you to have that BMW… If you think that he wants you to be rich, then you have missed the point.

Re-thinking Christmas

Naomi & I have been trying for a number of years now to do something different within our Christmas celebrations within our extended families. Last year, we purchased all our gifts from a fairtrade shop for our families with a budget of $5 per person, our families rolled their eye's and said that they would expect nothing less from us, but I suspect that they appreciated the sentiment none the less.

We also limited gifts for our children and ourselves at one gift each worth no more than $20... surprisingly they did not seem to mind at all, however with all the extra gifts they got along the way from others I think the intent of that was somehow lost...

It is difficult to make a stand about consumerism at christmas time, when those around you earnestly want to show their love for you through buying gifts, and certainly, we would not want to take that option away from them...

The problem is how to show our love to them without looking like a tightass (excuse the french), there have to be creative ways out there, we have tried to make gifts for our loved ones with varying degrees of success over the years, but even they can often get quite pricey as we buy the supplies we need to make the gifts and as a result our aim of a consumerism free christmas was lost...

If you have any ideas for us this year, please let us know as I personally am running out of ideas.

Anyway, here are a few thoughts on consumerism and christmas...


This is a website dedicated to a "buy-nothing-christmas". Well worth checking out.

And here are some thoughts by one of my favourite writers and revolutionaries shane claibourne

Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up.

I recently received a link from a friend of a godtube (Christian youtube rip off – I guess it’s more sanctified or something!) clip of a young African American woman reciting a Hip Hop style poem about peoples misconception of who is the real Jesus… the general thrust of the poem was that Jesus has become too easy to follow or too safe.

The reason that my friend sent me this clip was because he felt that my Jesus has become too safe too (or probably too pc). Now we are not talking about a buddy kind of Jesus like in a recent post by a myspace friend of mine who suggests amongst other things that HIS “Jesus” would have smoked the occasional pot… You come cross that kind of Jesus very often, the Jesus made in your own image kind of thing… He allows us to be more comfortable with ourselves rather than calling us to surrender and transformation.

My friend has always struggled with my view of Jesus. And the latest bent that he is on is one of exegesis… if we study the work properly and understand the context that Jesus was ministering in then we can get an accurate view of the real Jesus… now my friend has not done any of this work himself but has been relying on the work of important biblical scholars who have apparently arrived at the truth. He cannot accept that other respected biblical scholars have done the same thing and come up with very different images of Jesus. Even exegesis when push comes to shove revolves around opinion… especially when that exegesis begins to be applied (I think that’s call hermeneutic from memory).

The problem is that we all come to Jesus with preconceived ideas, sometimes those ideas are challenged and depending on how strongly those ideas are challenged our idea’s about him may change or we may defend our position all the more… and this could be viewed as either integrity, weakness, stubbornness, maturity, immaturity or compromise (again depending on your preconceived idea of who Jesus is). It is easy to see Jesus as a buddy, there is little challenge in this and little area for growth… we can say “I just follow the teachings of Jesus” and remove the sting from any opposing arguments. Unfortunatly we ignore the teachings of Jesus that tell us to take up our cross and surrender our lives. It is also very easy to have a legalistic Jesus, with him we can build firm guidelines of who is in and who is out, we can judge others (especially those who have the all permissive buddy Jesus), say we are following the teachings of Jesus, and feel very sanctified in the process… The problem with this view is that we end up with many enemies and the one teaching of Jesus that we can’t seem to understand is “Love your enemies”.

The problem is that we have a Jesus who likes to party like the buddy Jesus suggests, he hung out with tax collectors and sinners (to the chagrin of the legalists). But those who chose to follow him were called to a life of submission, transformation, pain, and hardship (sorry buddy Jesus). The true Jesus must lie somewhere in between or better yet as Brian McLaren likes to suggest somewhere ABOVE those two views, and finding Him there is no easy task. We have to remember that He hung out with the sinners and prostitutes and was accepted and loved by them, but that he never compromised his own values (the values of God himself as set out in the OT). Whether we like it or not, for this to happen we have to accept that He did not stand in judgement of these people, separating himself from them. In fact – the only people that Jesus does loose it at are the religious types, the legalists, the Pharisees, Sadducees, and teachers OF THE LAW (the very law that he lived by like no other man has). We also have to accept that just about all of his disciples (depending on what tradition you come from) were martyred for their beliefs, as were many of the other followers of Jesus. The reason for this is that they were a challenge to the rule of the day they were bringing a teaching and way of life that was in opposition to that of Cesar and the Jewish leaders, they did not hole themselves up in a religious compound keeping themselves sanctified as the Essenes did – if this was the case they would have dwindled into obscurity (as the Essenes did) and Cesar would not have cared. Rather, they lived out their lives; they partied with the sinners and looked after their poor (not only their own!!). They stood by what they believed but were still accessible to those who they were called to share the gospel with. They loved their enemies and took up their cross and their numbers were added to DAILY!

It has been a long time...

It has been a very long time since I have blogged, and the truth of the matter is that although I have been busy I have simply not wanted to blog. I have been worn out by it all, maintaining it and other websites, blogger, myspace etc… it is all a great waste of time, or so I thought until I realised how much I missed doing it all, I use my blogs as a journal, they are cathartic for me. I can’t say that everything I write here is correct or truth or that I won’t want to take my words back in a year’s time but I need to get this stuff out, I need to put it out there, I hope and pray for feedback, both positive and negative, these comments make me think, make me ponder and I hope make me grow. I do not even know if anyone is interested in what I write. Is anyone interested in what I value?... but that is the beauty of the blog, I guess it does not matter.

I am looking to continue my study next year, I will be working towards my masters after taking a short detour in a Grad Dip. In order to do this, and continue with the work I am doing here in Springvale, I will need to become disciplined, as a result I plan to use my blog as a training ground of this discipline, at least until I begin my studies (hopefully I’ll continue after this, even if it is less frequent). Not only will it train me to schedule my time, it will train me to write more and to think more – at least I hope it will!

Over the time that I have been away from my blog I have had many thoughts that would have been good to get down, so hopefully I can get these down before I forget them… anyway, I will see you all again really soon..

Peter

I am in Despair...

Hi everyone...

I am feeling a bit down at the moment, I have been going through a hard time with someone I considered as a really close friend at the moment, this friend of mine has decided to start attacking my beliefs and what I do and that sort of thing always hurts. When I joined UNOH we got a fair bit of this sort of thing from other friends, but this guy stood by us. Now my friend has caught onto a new type of teaching, one that stand opposed to what I do in many ways, one that is more focused on personal righteousness than living out the Gospel, I'm sure you know this type of thing... whilst both things are needed there is an unhealthy tendency to swing towards one or the other rather than keeping them both in tension...

Anyway, I take these things really badly and this has put me out a fair bit, it reminded me of something i wrote about 4 months ago when I was also going through a rough stage because of something that was affecting Naomi pretty badly... it was a cathartic exercise that I was going to keep to myself, but Naomi saw it and thought it was good so I thought maybe I would share it with you...

I am in despair…
When I see the condition of this world,
I am in despair…
When I see the Condition of this Church,
I am in despair…
When I see good people fall,
I am in despair…
When I see good people hurt,
I am in despair…
When I see the tear in my wife’s eye,
I am in despair…
When it seems Evil is winning over good,
I am in despair…
That the church sees the answer as offence rather than love,
I am in despair…
When His Kingdom seems to be slipping away,
I am in despair…
When I feel that my hands are tied,
I am in despair…
That the church keeps crucifying him day after day,
I am in despair…
That I keep crucifying Him also,
I am in despair…
At the darkness that is in me,
I am in despair…
That there is no clear way ahead,
I am in despair…
That introspection makes me feels selfish,

But I stand…
On the truth that He will never leave us,
But I stand…
On the truth that He will never forsake us,
But I stand…
Because the light has not died,
But I stand…
Because the hope has not died,
But I stand…
Because He is my life,
But I stand…
Because I am not alone,
But I stand…
Because I am loved,
But I stand…
Because I am called.

Women, The Church and Leadership

This is a topic I have been thinking to write about for quite some time, but have never got around to...

For me in all truth the question is a bit of a waste of time, there are numerous accounts in the bible that suggest that women are aloud to teach and are equal to men and all that sort of stuff ... (see for example Gal 3:28)... But it seem to be a bit of a problem for a lot of the church, mainly due to 2 or 3 passages by the apostle Paul. I am one of those people that believe that if we are to look at the context that Paul was writing into that we can understand what he is saying a lot better, I know that many Christians out there see this as a cop out, but have you ever noticed how easy it is to put someone off side when you write them a letter or more often e-mail and they take it the wrong way, because they did not understand the spirit that you wrote it in? - well, context is the same sort of thing... anyway lets not get into a lesson on exegesis, lets just accept that I believe that women should be in leadership in the church.

After saying that, let me now say that a lot of the women who are in leadership in the church should not be in leadership (but then neither should many of the men). Jesus was a big teacher of the first being last, the last first and of servant leadership (washing feet etc.). The sort of leaders that Jesus wanted were leaders who were there for the good of others, not for their own glory or prestige. I believe that we should respect and honor those that the Lord has put in charge of leading the church, but if these leaders expect or demand such respect, I do not think that the Lord has truly put them in leadership...

In a world of women's liberation and a church that tries to suppress female leadership, the sort of women who make it to leadership positions (I talk in generalisations as there are many truly humble and anointed women leaders who I have met), are the sort of women that have had to fight tooth and nail to gain their position. They have had to assert themselves and prove themselves as being professional, great orators etc etc. These sort of women do not understand servant leadership and they certainly would not wash the feet of their congregation (after all that's servants work, and women are not servants!).

It is a shame that the church has put so much pressure on women, that many of those who have the will to stick to their beliefs are those who want to prove a point and therefore forfeit their right to be leaders in the church (according to the servant leadership model), but then if we use the same yard stick to measure male leadership, I'm sure that many of men would fail too...

The question should not be Male or Female, the question should be about motivation... Prestige or Servanthood!!

CHARGE!!!!.... What? Which way???

Today, I went back to my old, old church, one that I left because of many reasons, but amongst the strongest was that I could not find a sense of purpose there. 5 or 6 years down the track, I have found purpose, and whilst praying one morning, I got struck with the need to go back to that church for a time, to get my attitude right with the church and to see that even if I disagree with the form, Christ is still at work in it. I am not going to go into the details of my visit, there is still a lot of work for God to do in my life before my attitude is right and I don’t want to ruin it by bitching here.

What I did want to blog about was a bit of a question that came out of today’s sermon. In the sort of church that I have belonged to for the past 5 or so years I probably could have bounced this idea around a bit with everyone, but I just didn’t feel right standing up and saying “ahhhh… excuse me….?”

The sermon in a round about way was sort of about being a warrior for God, and being part of an Army of God, it revolved around reading the bible and being prepared and fighting like your life depended on it (the female preacher told us that we were not allowed to fight like girls). Anyway, the question that came out of this was what are we an army for? Where or what is our battle ground, our front line? This question was never really touched on… There was talk about personal battles, like when you feel the devil attacking you personally (your self esteem or something) or your family (your teenage kid might be getting into sex, drugs or God forbid Rock and/or Roll)… but those are personal battles, and yes they are serious, and yes we need to fight them, and yes we need God’s help and the Word to deal with them. But I got this kind of picture in my mind of a person in an army walking along to battle, in full armour, kind of like how the Roman legions did, complaining about how rough the road ahead is. Complaining about how there was a log in the road ahead and how he had to climb over it, or the cliff he had to scale to get to the battle ground, and when he finally got to the battle ground saying “well that’s it I’m stuffed, I fought my battle getting here… you chaps can do the rest…”

I think that what the preacher today was suggesting was that we are an army, that we do have to fight together, that there is a battle to which we are all called to fight. But the battle was not named, and I don’t feel like the battle was ever really named in the years that I was there either, only the personal battles, and the threat of some nebulous future threat. I wonder, if the reason for this is because of the user friendly approach of so many western churches, the reality of what it means to be in this army, the reality of what the war is, or what we have to give up or go through to fight in this army is too confronting. Maybe if these people were asked to count the cost of going to war they would rather run and hide, it’s a lot easier to pump people up, to let them know that in Christ they are mighty warriors, to let them know how marvellous their armour is , than to start to train them in the art of warfare, of tactics, of knowing their enemy…

By this point you probably have noticed that I have not named the battle front either… the battle is to further the Kingdom of God (“thy Kingdom come…”) to make disciples of all nations (not converts, disciples)… to love your enemy (even the Muslim extremist terrorists?... surely not?)… to feed the hungry… in a nut shell to stand in direct opposition to the works of the enemy, it is a warfare of LOVE, but the enemy fights back with HATE, he is blood thirsty and vile and that is why we need the armour of God… that is why we need to be a unified army!!

We're Back!!!

Hello everyone,

it has been a long time since my last post, we got robbed, and our modem went with everything else... The police tracked down one of our burglars, and amongst the stuff they had was our modem, so I am back online again....

We are still waiting for our insurance company to come through with a payment; these things seem to be extremely slow...

It is amazing the effects that this has had on my thinking. The robbery itself was of course a shock; it knocked the kids around a bit, though they bounced back pretty well. Fortunately for us, our robbers were quite considerate in the way they went through our property, there was no needless damage or vandalism, and even though they went through draws and stuff, the contents that they did not take were left behind in the draws neatly. I guess that Naomi and I sort of felt that burglary was probably par for the course in moving into this neighbourhood, so once the initial shock wore off, we got over it pretty quickly (the sense of invasion, violation, loss of security etc).

When your property is stolen like that, you are really forced to evaluate how attached you are to material possessions, how much you are a slave to the god of mammon. When we decided to join UNOH and leave the middle class rat race, to join a poor community and take a vow of poverty ourselves, I believe that we took a step in the right direction. There was a real sense that God had released us from the love of money, keeping up with the Joneses just did not seem to hold any importance for us. Looking at things from the other side of the fence, it seems that the love of money is prevalent in the western church… the consumerist mentality of church growth teachings fit hand in hand with the seeking of comfort and safety that characterises middle class society; as a result materialism is embraced or at best ignored within these churches.

Anyway, I have strayed from my point… after leaving my previous lifestyle, I often felt that we still had too many comforts, certainly once we moved our stuff into our small unit that we now call home, it did scream to us “Middle Class”. I felt that we had not gone far enough… actions speak louder than words (or in this case thoughts) however… and I never really did anything about it, so I guess to some extent I was still a slave to materialism. The robbery however proved to me how little attachment I did have to my possessions, as the actual loss of most my stuff has not really affected me (there were a few personal items that really hurt to loose, like my wedding ring).

The biggest problem in this line of thought however is that we had insurance, a wise move really, at least some would say that… however I know that some of my carefree attitude to the robbery was probably do to this, so at this stage of my life I don’t know how free I am from materialism. I am also faced with the problem of deciding what to replace that was stolen, due to the nature of insurance I will have to purchase new items that will make me look more prosperous than I did before. Some things are quite important to me to replace, like a new camera, others I don’t think I will replace if I have the choice, like the playstation (our lives are better without that). Still, I am haunted with the thoughts of what are the best things I can get with the payout… I am starting to understand what Jesus was really talking about when he mentioned the camel and the eye of the needle, and I am truly thankful that it is not through our power that this is possible, but that it is purely up to God to sort the issue of mammon out in each of our lives…

Peter

Why I Hate Eagles...

"These are the birds you are to detest… the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture…” Leviticus 11:13

Ah, the eagle, that magnificent, powerful bird, mascot of the “most powerful” nation in the world. Interestingly enough it was also the mascot of arguably the most evil regime in the world. The Eagle has also been adopted by the church as a symbol. The symbol has predominantly been adopted thanks to the following verse:

But those who hope in the LORD

will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 40:31

I am always a bit perplexed at the adoption of the eagle as a symbol of Christianity. There are a number of references to eagles in the bible – 29 to be exact – however most of these verses refer to things like dietary restrictions, symbols of judgement and corrupt or ominous nations and characteristics of the creatures who worship god in Revelations… if we look at the bibles reference to eagles in a positive light, there really are only 3 or 4 verses. Yet it seems to me to be the third most popular Christian symbol (at least in the protestant tradition), right after the cross and the fish…

So, what difference does it make? Not a lot really, it is just an interesting observation… The lamb to me seems to be a much more accurate image of how God and the Bible view those that follow Christ, there are certainly more references to us being like sheep, especially when you take into consideration the references to shepherds. It is interesting that we more often than not neglect this fragile, vulnerable and stupid animal to represent us, and opt for the powerful, majestic, independent predator that is the eagle.

The church seems to seek after power, as do many of it’s members, church numbers seem to be the main focus for many, a good church or a blessed church is the church with thousands of people attending, and good or blessed Christian is the one who is financially prosperous. The biggest fear of the church in the west today is that we will fall out of the mainstream, we fear a society that is not Christian, as a result we try to get into politics or align ourselves with political parties. Unfortunately, more often than not this is aligning ourselves with the devil, or the next best thing.

My journey has caused me to strongly believe that the church is not meant to be in the mainstream, the mainstream leads to comfort and ego and laziness and mediocrity. It is those Christians in the margins that are truly powerful although they are often oppressed. Look at the growth of the church in China and other countries where the gospel is banned, in many of these countries the church is growing rapidly, but quietly, the congregations are kept small, running underground in homes, it is these people who are soaring like eagles, it is these people who are attesting to the power of the Lord, the real power that comes out of weakness.

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 1 Corinthians 1:27

We need to embrace our foolishness, our weakness – isn’t it foolish to follow a man who was killed on a cross? Isn’t it foolish to follow a man who tells us to loose our lives, to pick up our own crosses and follow him (to crucifixion, figuratively as well as literally), isn’t it foolish to love our enemy?

True Christianity can never survive in the wisdom and strength of the mainstream, Jesus’ teachings stand in direct opposition to it. The Kingdom of God, that the bible tells us will one day come, yet is already here, operates in contradiction, amongst other things it repays hate with love, and it calls us to freely give instead of building security through wealth. Look at the beatitudes, these values stand in direct opposition to the “Christian” society that we find ourselves in. And somehow, in some wonderfully paradoxical way, the Kingdom of the margins, that can never be mainstream, will one day be victorious.

I do not pretend to understand it, and I think that is part of the beauty of it all, we can only trust in our Lord and follow his ways, and he will look after the rest, we are not to be eagles, we are to be lambs, innocent, trusting, defenseless lambs…

I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. Matthew 10:16

… yet we still have a mission, we are still warriors in the army of the Lord, however we are warriors of peace, this is yet another wonderful paradox of the kingdom… maybe I will explore this later…

Blasphemy Challenge

Hi guys, as you are aware, I have been playing around a lot on myspace of late (in an attempt to get my head around it for UNOH promotional purposes - see shobie's myspace page... I did that! - but I did not come here to blow my own trumpet). While playing around on myspace I came across a group known as the Confession Campaign which is a direct response to another group known as the Blasphemy Challenge. The Blasphemy Challenge is a bunch of sceptics or rationalists convincing people to make videos and post them on myspace or youtube, renouncing the holy spirit in their lives. I am not quite sure of the rational behind it, to me it seems quite juvenile, but in the U.S. it has got a lot of attention and the church is up in arms about it.

The Church of course has responded, and the Confession Campaign is one such response, here is what they see their mission as...

We have one weapon, prayer that is aligned with the WORD OF GOD. This is how we'll fight off this challenge and whatever else Satan schemes with. Our goal needs to be to expose these fads, educate people about these fads, and to help the lost from falling for these frauds. This is our mission statement: 1. Confess Jesus with your mouth. 2. Confess Jesus with your lifestyle. 3. BE BOLD!!! Do you want a challenge? Then follow these 3 things. Make a video, we'll put it on this site, leave a comment, send pictures, confess Jesus at school, work, or the street, do whatever you feel challenges you... but BE BOLD

Now I strongly agree with the sentiment above - this is how I am trying to live out my life... the problem is that the only real outcome seems to be that people are making videos stating that they believe in the Holy Spirit and follow Christ. What it ends out as is a Tit-for-tat battle, and really, what good is that?

Yet again, I think that we have missed the point (I don't think that the confession campaign has missed it - I think those subscribing to it have). Yet again the church has circled its wagons, trying to defend itself against attack. I hate to tell you this guys, but a video stating that you believe in OR renounce the Holy Spirit is going to do nothing in the bigger scheme of things.

A friend of mine, Ash Barker once said something along the lines of "The world does not need more words, the world needs more words become flesh" which to me follows on from St Francis' famous quote of "everywhere you go preach the Gospel, and if necessary use words". The blasphemy Challenge in my opinion only exists because the church has lost it's way, has become a laughing stock & is viewed as hypocritical. If we actually stopped trying to defend ourselves and stepped out & lived the Gospel (and the Gospel is good news TO THE POOR! - the hurting, the lonely, the marginalised etc), then maybe the world would once again see that the church is a force of change for the good.

If they are going to persecute us - and the bible says they will, let them persecute us because we are doing the right thing and not because we are sitting back, getting fat, protecting ourselves and hurling judgement and condemnation onto the world.

The church in the west is once again being forced into the margins, we are no longer main stream! - we are getting back to where we were in the first 300 years of the church's history, a powerful time for Christians, a time of persecution, but also a time of witness (through action) and effectiveness. Lets pray that the church wakes up, sees the position it is in and starts to head out into the world to make a difference and does not become defensive and circle its wagons until it is finally taken over.

Sacred/Secular Duality

In playing around with myspace over the last few weeks, I have been confronted by a theme that I often think about and probably have blogged about in one form or another many times, and that is, what does it mean to be a Christian…

I came across one site of a guy professing to be a Christian. In his “about me” blurb, he mentioned that he believes in forgiving but not forgetting, and explained about how he has a 3 strikes and your out policy (as if this is a virtue), unless of course you do something really bad and then you are out on the first strike. I have read other myspace entries by Christian musicians explaining about why they don’t sing Christian songs, and whilst I understand the dilemma they are going through and understand what point they are trying to get at, there seems to be this duality going on in their lives, where they can separate the sacred from the secular within their own lives.

On the subject of Christian art, I agree, a Christian should not feel compelled to sing about Jesus, just like a painter should not feel compelled to paint the cross in their work, but if an artist is a Christian, doesn’t their artwork by default become Christian? The values sung about the feelings expressed, should be a reflection of that belief (and again I am not talking about veiled love songs that actually are dedicated to Jesus and not a girl/boy friend). In the same way, the work of an abstract artist who is a Christian, is imbued with the values of that persons relationship with Christ, even without Christian icons being present on the canvas, and even without anyone else understanding the value of the work…

My point by all of this was not to defend the work of a ‘non-religious’ Christian artist, but to challenge the separation of sacred and secular in our lives. I don’t think it can really be done. Again I am not saying that we need to fluff around acting religious, greeting everyone we see with a “Jesus Loves You” and calling everyone brother or sister, but if the values of the Gospel, the values of the Kingdom, are not present in our lives, then our lives are not given over to Him, and we need to reassess our values.

This kind of concept reminds me of the movie “The people versus Larry Flynt”, a biographical movie about a pornographic magazine editor. In this movie, Larry becomes a Christian at one point, and from the portrayal in the movie, it seemed to be a genuine conversion, but Larry tried to continue his magazine editing work whilst professing Christ (from memory he even tried to put Christian articles in his magazine). Anyway, the point was that something had to give in the scenario, and for Larry, he let go of his Christianity. Similarly, I had a friend who was involved in the drug trade (and other shifty dealings) who became a Christian and tried to balance the two, again he found it impossible and let go of Christ (the positive side of his story is that God has continued to pursue him and through business failures and marriage failures, this man is beginning to turn once again towards Christ). For myself, I used to work in a newsagency, every day I would sell Tatslotto tickets, now that I work in the context that I do, amongst those who are affected by gambling addictions I do not feel that a Christian should work within such a destructive industry.

But those examples are extremes, which make a point, we are faced with these sorts of decisions every day, and not only referring to big things like the industries we work in. We are to be challenged by day to day things, do we display forgiveness in our live (70 x 7 – and this is not literal), we should display morality in our choices of how we live our lives (do we support industries that cause harm to others, do we lie to get advancements in work, do we manipulate situations to our advantage), we should also display compassion (opening our eyes to the hurt that is in others and helping them wherever possible). We will never be perfect in these things, it is a continual learning curve, but if we don’t challenge ourselves in these things we will never change, if we continue to justify our actions, because it is the way of the world then we will never see His Kingdom come.

This morning as I did my reading I was challenged again by this passage; it is relevant and I think that all of us in this comfortable western existence that we are in need to keep it constantly in the back of our minds as we go about our day to day…

"Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:37-39)

Australian Poverty

Poverty is a confusing word. Probably the first thing that comes to mind when we think of poverty is the starving children from African nations that we see on T.V. through World Vision (and other groups) ads. This is extreme poverty, the sort of thing that the Make Poverty History campaign is aiming to eradicate. Fortunately for those facing extreme poverty, this form of poverty is easily marketable; for those of us that have not been desensitised by the ads, the injustice and suffering of the sunken eyed, swollen bellied kids standing in the squalor of the slums they live in breaks our hearts.

Unfortunately, poverty affects many here at home too. It is not the same sort of poverty, and it is difficult to market, in fact many of the people facing poverty in Australia have been vilified in the minds of the general public. Thanks to people like Derryn Hinch and other similar talkback radio presenters, these people are labelled as dole bludgers or no hopers or other derogatory titles that just help in keeping these marginalised people in their place.

There is this financial measuring stick in Australia known as the Henderson Poverty Line. The HPL was developed in the 70’s as a guide for what it would take for individuals in Australia to cover their essential living costs. This figure takes into account whether a person is living as an individual or as part of a family of differing sizes and is adjusted every three months in relation to costs of living, inflation etc. Obviously, the HPL is the line that is used to say if a person is living in poverty or not; a person living on full Centrelink payments is living below the HPL. Having said that then, a person living on Centrelink cannot meet their day to day costs of living; this is probably done in the government’s infinite wisdom to encourage people to get a job, however, for many this is not possible.

For myself, I have gone through a stage in my life where I was classed as long term unemployed. I know how degrading it is to be in this situation, and I came from a privileged background… I had a stable and loving family, I had all my needs and most of my wants met as I grew up, I had a good education, yet I could not get a Job. Every fortnight as I filled out my jobseekers diary, I felt the humiliation. Every time I had to queue up and hand in the form I felt the same oppression as those around me.

The people who I meet and walk with every day all have different stories, some of them suffer from physical disabilities, some have had unstable childhoods, that resulted in them not getting a great education, many have fallen into the trap of addiction, many of them are mentally ill, and many come from third world countries where even if they were educated and employed back home (and few of them are), they find themselves without recognised skills here in Australia. Some more of these people have simply made bad choices, but what ties these people all together is that they are trapped within the welfare system; a system that is very hard to claw your way out of.

Few of these people will have the opportunity to work their way out of the welfare trap, some will try and fail time and time again, and others are doomed to be dependant on the welfare system for the rest of their lives with no support structures in place to help them out. Those stuck in the trap will continue to live in a situation where they don’t have enough money to meet their basic needs, for those facing addictions, the problem is only made worse, as they need to gain money to feed that habit and eat as well. Rehab, psychiatric, counselling and medical help is hard to come by, it is expensive or inadequate; free support is often stretched thin and as a result only basic care can be offered.

These people do not have the family support that many of us have, they often have been ostracised from their family, and have worn out any friendships they had. So they are alone, the only contact they have with people is with case workers or centrelink staff (where they are usually only a number or a commodity – I once heard of a centrelink manager referring to people who come through their doors as “STOCK!!!”). Our society in general looks down on those suffering with issues of poverty, if they recognise them at all, so there are very few supportive, healthy relationships that these people can create. These broken, hurting and lonely people can build friendships with others in similar situations, however this too can often lead to further hurt and hardship, and people can find themselves deeper in the trap of oppression, depression and degradation.

My aim in this blog entry was to try and make a case for poverty in Australia, it may not look the same as third world poverty, but it is still robbing people of a decent quality of life. Hopefully I have conveyed the hopelessness that these people face – this is not what God wants for any of his children, and it is something that we as Christians need to face. The Salvation Army estimate that 2.5 million Australians live in poverty, that is 12% of our population. According to a report by the Salvos, this is an increase of 400,000 over the last 3 years. There is a big job ahead of us, and we can no longer justify living for ourselves…

Blood Diamond

It was Naomi and my wedding anniversary on Monday - it has been thirteen years. We thought that we would celebrate our special day by going to a movie, you know, something romantic... something like BLOOD DIAMOND??????

Well, it was not exactly romantic, but it was the only movie worth seeing at the moment so even though we knew we were in for a heavy time we thought we would go see it anyway...

If you have not seen it, Blood Diamond is based in Sierra Leone during the civil war (it is officially at peace at the moment), following the story of a fisherman who is captured by the RUF and forced to work in a diamond mine where he finds and hides a massive pink diamond, the mine is attacked by the government troops, the fisherman "Solomon" is captured by the troops and put into prison where he meets "Archer" a diamond smuggler who wants to get his hands on the diamond and sell it to a UK diamond company (ripping off Solomon in the process). Meanwhile Solomons son Dia is captured by the RUF and trained to be a child soldier.

I won't go into any more details about the movie, however I have a few reflections to make...

We recently made the acquaintance of a family of 11 from Sierra Leone who just came to Australia (we were asked to help find them housing and clothing and other such things as they came out with next to nothing). The stories told by this family are very similar to what happened in the movie, however the real horrors of rape that they had to endure were not depicted in the movie (thankfully).

From what I understand the SL family were quite happy that the movie was released as it shows the plight of the people and raises awareness of what is going on in war torn countries. And I agree with that, a person who is sensitive to what is going on in the world will be shocked into a sense of urgency and desperation... unfortunately there is no real hope presented in the movie, even though it does have a happy Hollywood ending (I guess that is where the quote by Dave Andrews comes in - we can see change).

The most disturbing thing for me in this movie however was the audiences attitude. We had a young couple in the cinema with us who chatted through the whole movie, making excited noises at signs of violence, and walked out of the cinema as if nothing had happened. Meanwhile Naomi and I were shattered by the harsh reality of the movie. Is there really any advantage in making a movie like this if it is only viewed as entertainment? To see the horror that real life human beings have had to go through viewed as nothing more than another Lethal Weapon movie or something like that is really disturbing...

Anyway, this movie brings home the reality of many of the refugees that we work with here in Noble Park and Springvale, it explains the tendency of these refugees to hide away and keep to themselves, not participating in the wider community, not interacting and not learning English. It also highlights the ignorance of people who complain about immigrants entering Australia and behaving this way.

At one of the houses that we stayed in when we first moved into Noble Park, there was a young African child living there, this child would often have nightmares, waking and screaming in absolute terror. What had this child seen? How can we ignore the evil that is going on in the world, or reduce it to entertainment....

anyway that's about enough from me....

Peter