Hundreds of thousands of Australians will sing Christmas carols this month at services and events organised by Christian churches.
It is a great point of connection for churches and the community and many of the carols are deeply spiritual songs that proclaim core Christian truths such as the deity of Jesus.
And while for many Australians it will be the only time in the year that they actually give voice to the faith they hide in their hearts, there is a discussion among church leaders as to what carols are actually appropriate.
The decision not to sing Jingle Bells at a Christmas service may seem fairly obvious; whether to sing Away in a Mangermay not be as clear.
Christianity Today has a discussion going on the use of Christmas carols and some issues have been raised which, frankly, never crossed my mind, and I’ve sung a few carols in my time.Read More »
In some parts of country Australia, such as western NSW, it has been at least five years since there has been a harvest of any note.
The land at its people have been oppressed by a stubborn failure of rain for up to a decade.
Ironically, the challenge this year has been too much rain with flooding meaning some farmers have missed out again.
Thankfully blue skys and a warming sun are prevailing for now, allowing harvesting to begin.
The west feels profoundly different, as if the pain of past years has been washed away by renewing rains or buried beneath a mountain of multiplying grains. The birds are more abundant and even tired old trees have dressed up in the latest green shoots of spring.
I am from the city but have been deeply moved in the presence of a paddock standing thick with wheat, the wind rustling the golden stalks like a happy, dancing wraith.
While there is much yet to do before farmers will feel their harvest is safely finished, this magnificent return to reaping what you sow is a massage to the heart.
There’s a rightness to it that challenges the cynical unnaturalness, or fakeness, of so much recent thinking.
Return to hope, return to the basics of love and truth and growth and new life. Return to God, the author of it all.
It has been a year of unprecedented change for our family, some if it chosen, some of it not – and it’s not over yet.
Change, whether initiated or imposed, is often challenging – especially when it affects the deep things of your heart and your future.
In the midst of some difficult moments this month, I had a speaking engagement where my theme was to be hope. Having been planned long before, it almost seemed laughable that I would contemplate hope when I was more prone to panic.
Of course, God has a sense of humour and that is good reason to be hopeful – it helps not to take yourself too seriously.
There is something unique about the Bible that when you turn to it to prepare some thoughts for others, it has an amazing power to instead prepare you.
And so, for all those pondering their future, wondering their past and wandering right now, let there be hope:Read More »
Just as Christmas is one of the rare occasions (other than the deliverance of Chilean miners) when there is public reference to Jesus, God, the Holy Spirit and angels, so too Halloween is increasingly a time for the mention of demons, spirits and the devil.
Whether it is small boys wandering supermarkets with the devil’s pitchfork, as I ponderously witnessed last week, or a television weather presenter claiming to be surrounded with demons and spirits, Halloween is to the Christian an unnerving public foray into the dark side of the supernatural.
Most know little of Halloween’s history – how the church long ago sought to supplant a Celtic pagan festival that honoured the dead with a festival to remember the saints – All Hallow’s Day (preceded by All Hallow’s Eve – Hallowe’en). The battle for the spiritual heart of the occasion is still up for grabs.Read More »
Churches have probably lost the fight against the NSW Government’s plan to introduce ethic classes in public schools at the same time as optional special religious education.
Education Minister Verity Firth is glowingly positive about the review of the classes and while there are no plans to remove SRE, the once ‘sacred’ right to offer Scripture without competition in NSW public schools will soon be a thing of the past.
Of course this is a manifestation of a wider truth that the church has lost much of its institutional power and perhaps in the future will lose even more.
There are positives though and the main one is that if churches and Christians learn they can’t rely on a privileged institutional role in society, they may finally revert to the ancient source of Christian vitality – personal and community transformation through offering real life encounters with a living God.
This of course can’t be done any other way than through authentic relationship and engagement with people of all kinds.
Grassroots influence verses institutional authority – which one sounds more like Jesus?Read More »
Western society – especially the white, European, inner city, educated elite – is little more than a secular-atheist backwater when compared to the vast ocean of faith and religious fervour that dominates most of the planet.
And this was clearly on display last week with two major events bringing God to the front pages of newspapers and onto prime time television.
Sweeping the planet from Rome was the ardour of Mary MacKillop’s canonisation which eventually overcame the most cynical media hack and had them sincerely discussing miracles, faith, worship and the value of a genuinely humble, self-sacrificial life.
Simultaneously we had the remarkable rescue of the Chilean minors and 90 point headings on major Australian dailies screaming, ‘GOD AND THE DEVIL FOUGHT OVER ME AND GOD WON!’Read More »
My Friend the Mercenary by James Brabazon is one of the most brutal, true stories you may ever read and yet streaming through it is a remarkable and unlikely friendship.
Brabazon was just beginning his career as a documentary maker and war-correspondent when he was invited to film rebels fighting against dictator Charles Taylor in Liberia, west Africa.
He was introduced to one of Africa’s most notorious mercenaries, Nick du Toit, who had an ambiguous history as part of South Africa’s special forces at the tail end of apartheid.
As James discovered, the sheer need to survive turns the theoretical world of objectivity on its head but also allows friendships to forge that might not otherwise exist.
Alongside the brutal description of rebels executing government soldiers and in one case cutting them up and eating their heart, there is a remarkable, tender portrayal of friendship between two men of different backgrounds.
After Liberia, James is invited by Nick to film the overthrow of the government of Equatorial Guinea. He is part of a small band of mercenaries who are working for the instalment of an exiled leader to replace yet another brutal, corrupt ruler.Read More »
When Jesus told his small band of followers that they would make him known to the ends of the earth, he unleashed a socio-spiritual revolution that continues to change our world today.
And the message they would carry was that as we learn to love God, love our neighbour and love ourselves – in that order – a new community of grace and truth is possible.
These largely uneducated and insignificant disciples never conceived of this mission and the community it would produce as being possible apart from a living encounter with the words and very reality of Christ himself.
On Monday, Tim Flannery released his new book Here on Earth: An Argument for Hope and some of what he proclaims sounds eerily similar to the mission proclaimed by Jesus, but with a new god at its core.
An extract from the book appeared in Saturday’s Sydney Morning Herald under the heading, ‘To the ends of the earth we must go’ – either an accidental or deliberate recalling of Christ’s words.
And while the focus of the extract is human responsibility for causing – but also potentially repairing – environmental degradation, there is a deeply spiritual tone to the article.Read More »
‘If you travelled on a Sunday you would notice, as you moved out from the inner city to the outer suburbs, that the church services attract bigger crowds. Conventional religious belief is stronger. This explains why these electorates do not warm to the Green agenda of euthanasia, abortion, gay marriage and adoption. The fascinating thing about Green supporters is that their natural habitat is not the open spaces or the pristine forests but the crowded cafes and asphalt alleys of high-density, inner-city living.’ Peter Costello writing in the Fairfax press today.
It’s not the first time this inner city Green phenomenon has been pointed out but the first time since the Greens held the balance of power in the Senate, and to some degree, in the House of Representatives.
A few suggestions – more churches in the inner city; a viable alternate political party with strong environmental and social justice policy that more closely reflects Christian views in other areas; think, engage, critique and comprehend the culture in which you live.
Sy Rogers is a Christian minister, married father and a man who lived as a woman for two years in preparation for a sex change operation.
Around that time, as he ventured into an average American church, he learned something of the real meaning of love, a message he shared in Sydney on the weekend, some 20-30 years on.
Feeling that the word ‘love’ has been over-used and stripped of meaning – we love our family but also love our new shoes – he replaced it with the word ‘value’.
‘For God so valued the world, the he gave His only Son…’ or ‘Greater value has no one than this, that they lay down their life for their friends’.
He said love – or his definition for it – value, is delivered, communicated or made real to others through three things:
1. Acceptance – which says ‘I’d rather have you messy than not have you at all.’ Because someone is valuable to God and valuable to us, we accept them as they are. This is where love/value begins.
2. Accountability – which says ‘because you are valuable I won’t leave you where you are, but hold you accountable towards a better day’. It’s the kind of accountability that doesn’t leave a friend playing dangerously on a busy highway, but says ‘ for your own good, because your valuable to me, get off the road’.
3. Affirmation – which says ‘I’m going to show you that your valuable, not just by what I say, but by how I treat you.’ Affirmation is when we communicate that what happens to someone we love, matters to us – rejoicing with those that rejoice, and weeping with those that weep. We need affirmation because of insecurity – ‘a fancy word for fear, a fear that says “I doubt my value”‘.
May your day be full of the giving and receiving of acceptance, accountability and affirmation because you are of great value!
The trappings of Christianity are precisely that, a trap – just ask Teresa Lewis or Mary MacKillop.
When we adhere outwardly, publicly or religiously to Christian faith but deny its inner, personal change, eventually we – and others – are snared in a trap of our own making.
What tends to happen is that the appearance of being a good Christian becomes an ever broadening disguise, hiding the real turmoil within. We would have been better to deny the appearance and be honest about the reality.
As guilt and condemnation do their insidious work, and as we have more to lose if our charade is exposed, we work harder on the exterior, becoming even more lost on the inside.
Jesus gave the simple example of the religious leader coming to pray, full of hubris, flaunting his religious superiority but in reality being further away in God’s eyes than the scorned tax collector who stood at a distance, ashamed of his wrong-doing, and seeking mercy and forgiveness.
Extreme examples in today’s world come to light with the execution of a US woman and the one-time excommunication of soon-to-be-Catholic-saint, Mary MacKillop.
Teresa Lewis was executed in Virginia on Friday afternoon (AEST) fo arranging the killings of her husband and a stepson over a $US250,000 insurance payment.
Amazingly, Lewis had the appearance of a strong Christian and even prayed with her husband in bed before getting up and unlocking the door of their home to let in the killers.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Lewis admitted her life had been marked by outrageous bouts of sex and betrayal even as she ‘hewed to the trappings of Christianity’.
‘I was doing drugs, stealing, lying and having several affairs during my marriages,’ reads a statement by Lewis. ‘I went to church every Sunday, Friday and revivals but guess what? I didn’t open my Bible at home, only when I was at church.’
Which is why a Christian life marked only by ‘meetings’ is not a true marker of discipleship. Jesus said that while we would find his presence in the company of other believers, so too among the poor, in serving others and in a heartfelt searching of our own hearts.
Mary MacKillop by all accounts was someone known for these qualities which is no doubt why she was responsible for exposing the paedophilia of a priest, and then excommunicated for her troubles.Read More »
I’ve had my share of run-ins with online atheists, ready to drive me into the ground for being a person of faith, and that’s fair enough, after-all I am sticking my neck out here, on purpose.
But it’s interesting to see that even atheists are getting sick of the new breed of aggressive atheism which spreads the message that anyone who believes in God is a moron.
After two days of rain – warm and still relaxing – the sunshine invited us out for an early morning walk, along the breakwall and down to Port Macquarie’s Town Beach. And a reminder of where we stand…
When Scott Rush arrived at Denpasar’s District Court on August 26 his white shirt shone in the Bali heat.
By the time he stood in court a dark, wooden cross, of the kind commonly carved and sold in Bali, was hanging around his neck, outside his shirt.
As he made his statement to the magistrates, he told them that his fate was in their hands ‘and the hands of God’.
During his statement, he made an apology for his actions, and as he spoke the words, his right hand lifted up, searching for the cross, which he held and caressed while speaking.
‘I wish to say to you, my parents, my family, and the community, how sorry I am for the crime that I have committed and the pain that I have caused.
‘I have brought much shame upon myself and my family. I have a deep sense of guilt for what I have done.’
In a recent letter to Australian Labor politician Chris Hayes (Member for Fowler), Scott Rush wrote:
”I truly feel sorry for the hurt and pain I’ve caused to my parents. I hope to have the chance to prove I am capable of reform. I want to give back to my community and be an ambassador against drugs.
‘Please say a prayer for me, and remember me to your wife Bernadette. I continue to pray every day and night.’
Rush, the youngest of the so-called Bali 9, has done it tough in prison. A strange episode where he was supposedly circumcised by Muslims being just one example of the spiritual, cultural and legal forces swirling around his life.
He has some strong support in his appeal including a letter from the Australian Federal Police saying he played a minor role in the heroin smuggling operation. An Australian academic respected for his knowledge of international law, has also made a statement on Rush’s behalf.
Now might be a good time to join young Scott in those prayers, morning and night.
And to bring the humanity of this incident more to life, visit the Scott Rush website, obviously developed by his family.
'The Faith', sculpted by Luis Salvador Carmona in 1752-53. The veil represents 'not by sight, but by faith'. Image - Wikipedia
Quote of the week:
‘Dear Liliana, I’m well, thank God. I hope to get out soon. Have patience and faith. I haven’t stopped thinking about all of you for a single moment. I want to tell everyone that I’m good and we’ll surely come out okay. God is great and the help of my God is going to make it possible to leave this mine alive.’ Mario Gomez, 63.
Mario communicated these thoughts 17 days after being trapped 700 metres underground in a small room with 32 other men, knowing it would be weeks or months before rescuers would reach them. These are beliefs not lightly held…
The reality of God and the value of faith is often discussed in theoretical terms, as if life and death are not involved. But not for Mario and his friends. Seventeen days is plenty of time for an unreal pretense to have been stripped away. And yet faith in God has surfaced loud and clear.
Interestingly, Mario’s daughter made the following comments after hearing of the note from her father:
‘No-one will be able to take this happiness away from me… I’ve never felt anything like this in my life. It’s like being born again.’
Faith tends to have that result, whenever you encounter it… even for you, today.
The Festival of Dangerous Ideas is on again at Sydney Opera House on October 2-3 covering everything from The Right is the New Left through to that most important of questions, Are All Men Fakes?
But before we take a closer a look at the festival (tomorrow), I recall discovering a dangerous idea when I was at university studying humanities back in the early eighties.
That was a time when Australia still had an active communist party and I think most of its members were either studying or lecturing in my course.
It might also explain why one of the subjects on offer was Studies in Rebellion and I was just rebellious enough to take it.
Then while most of my comrades where sliding to the left politically or dallying deeply into capitalism, I became a Christian and began volunteering in a soup kitchen.Read More »
Most of us spend some time wondering why we do the things we do and not always finding answers.
There is an ancient Christian spiritual discipline that I know of as ‘examine’ in which the believer is encouraged to take time out during the day, consider the activities and emotions they have been experiencing, reflect on them with the assistance of God’s leading, and hopefully receive insight and awareness into why we do what we do.
This is in keeping with the Biblical imperative of 2 Corinthians 13:5 – ‘Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves…’
I am always fascinated when I find concessions to a deeper or spiritual life in unexpected places. Such as a marketing blog on the internet. While Seth Godin is not your usual marketing writer in any case, it was still a surprise to discover his recent blog ‘The places you go’ which I’ve quoted in part below:
‘Occasionally we encounter emotions at random. More often, we have no choice, because there’s something that needs to be done, or an event that impinges itself on us. But most often, we seek emotions out, find refuge in them, just as we walk into the living room or the den.
‘Stop for a second and reread that sentence, because it’s certainly controversial. I’m arguing that more often than not, we encounter fear or aggravation or delight because we seek it out, not because it’s thrust on us.
‘Why check your email every twenty minutes? It’s not because it needs checking. It’s because the checking puts us into a state we seek out. Why yell at the parking attendant with such gusto? Teaching him a lesson isn’t the point – no, in that moment, it’s what we want to do, it’s a room we choose to hang out in. It could be something as prosaic as getting involved in a flame war online every day, or checking your feeds at midnight or taking a shot or two before dinner. It’s not something you have to do, it’s something you choose to do, because going there takes your emotions to a place you’ve gotten used to, a place where you feel comfortable, even if it makes you unhappy.
‘…you realize that there are some [emotional] rooms you’re spending way too much time in, that these choices are taking away from your productivity or your happiness. Why are you going there again?
‘Every time you go to that room, you get unhappy, and so do we. Every time you go to that room, you spend more time than you expected, and it stresses out the rest of your day. Every time you go to that room you short-circuit the gifts you give to the rest of the team.
‘Once your habit becomes an addiction, it’s time to question why you get up from a room that was productive and happy, a place you were engaged, and walk down the hall to a room that does no one any good (least of all, you). Tracking your day and your emotions is a first step, but it takes more than that. It takes the guts to break some ingrained habits, ones that the people around you might even be depending on.’
Go for it Godin. This is the beatitudes of Jesus packaged in a 21st century medium and preached by a secular prophet.
‘You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.’ Matthew 5:8 The Message Bible
The headline read ‘Taliban massacre big-hearted team devoted to helping Afghans’ and accompanying the written report was a video featuring the widow of one those killed.
Before the video plays, on the SMH online site, it is preceded by an advertisement for electric toothbrushes.
The team killed in Afghanistan was providing basic medical care, including eye and dental care and one of the workers was a dentist who had handed out thousands of toothbrushes over the years, to children who had never seen one.
This juxtaposition reminds us of the implausible position we in the west too often take – that our wealth and freedom has no connection to another’s poverty and restraint.
This post is in honour of the six Americans, two Afghans, a German and a Briton who were slaughtered on August 8.
Many of them were Christians, most having given up their life in the west to embrace life in Afghanistan so they could be an example of kindness and goodness.
Watch the video report (minus toothbrush ad) and particularly note the response of widow, Libby Little, as she calls down God’s mercy on those who killed her husband.
Read the full statement about the deaths from International Assistance Mission, the Christian organisation for whom the team worked. This is an example of a deeply committed, intelligent, genuine Christian response to the world’s poor.
We’ve passed the half-way mark of the election campaign and the temperature could be rising just a little.
Waking a bit groggily this morning, the result of working split night shifts so that my already insomniac tendencies are exacerbated, I heard a promo for ABC Radio’s AM in which a determined-sounding woman was telling the reporter she wouldn’t be voting for Julia Gillard because she’s an atheist and she knew ‘hundreds of people’ who had the same view.
As if to keep the ball rolling, the Australian Christian Lobby launched its Australia Votes website today and once again you can get a good rundown at ACV.
Finally, candidate electorate forums are up and running, check out a list of the ACL ones organised so far.
Or perhaps you would prefer the Make Poverty History/Micah Challenge variety. Learn about them here.
My Friend the Mercenary by 
utterance 
