Sight Magazine

Hi Everyone. It's been a good experience having a blog. I am now writing for Sight Magazine, so expect there to be much less here. See if you can find any articles there! www.sightmagazine.com.au

Trading away our Sundays

Amazingly, you might think, our region does not yet have general Sunday trading. But with the competition going on between Woolworths and Coles the big chains have applied for extended hours and Sunday opening. Here is my take on it.

Before I comment on the proposed expansion of Sunday trading to the big supermarket chains, I must admit a conflict of interest. I work on Sundays. Indeed often the church’s comments on this topic have been more about maintaining our own monopoly over the day than reasoned debate. Those days are long past.

Of course having the big supermarket chains opening on Sunday won’t precipitate the end of the world – but it will be another small step that slowly and subtly changes the values of our society to reflect the fact that the holy dollar is the god we bow to; that every other value we have submits to the ‘right to shop’ where-ever and when-ever we want to.

Our town has already felt the effects of a seven day working week; the pressure it puts on families, the deterioration it has had on community and sporting groups. While it is hard to imagine any other way to run the crush, do we have to further devalue community and family for some inane appeal to shopping convenience?

The big stores are only thinking profits; it is their legal mandate to maximise shareholder returns. This will affect small business, workers, family and community.

Let’s not assume this is inevitable and progress. Western Australia firmly rejected extended general and Sunday trading in a 2005 referendum. People from the West celebrate that their state and cities still have a family/community atmosphere on weekends. It took society a long time to come to the 5-day working week and was seen as progress at the time; treating every day as the same is regress not progress.

Before we blithely accept General Sunday trading as inevitable and progress let’s consider what we are trading away for Sunday trading.

For a sermon on the topic of the Sabbath go to burdekinuc.podbean.com/2011/02/28/sabbath-blessing-or-burden

Bin Laden Dead

Is anyone else unnerved by the jubilation of Bin Laden's death?

While I'm happy to congratulate the US on seeking to find and capture the ring leader of al-Qaeda, to bring him to justice, and that inevitably such a mission would lead to casualties, I'm uncomfortable with the level of jubilation shown by various world leaders and average people on the streets. I'm with the vatican, I hope we would never celebrate the death of any person.

Could the US have celebrated the capture of Bin Laden, but been disappointed that he died in the cross fire? Shouldn't we lament that things should have to come to this - even if Bin Laden brought it all on himself.

I think US and world celebrations can only be bad for hopes of ending the East/West division. While we celebrate they protest and beatify. The size of our smiles helps grow the resolve of their resistance and hopes for revenge. From what I know Bin Laden was someone who had lost a sense of right and wrong when killing innocent people was justified for his cause. Yet we tread a dangerous path when we pat ourselves on the back for killing what now turns out to be an unarmed man. It seems this story has a lot more unraveling to do, and I feel our self-congratulatory spirit will only come back to bite us.

For a sermon that addresses this topic before it happened 'Do not murder' go to burdekinuc.podbean.com/2011/03/14/you-shall-not-murder/

The Power of Story

One good story covers over a multitude of statistics.

Dave the Donkey Book Review

Dave the Donkey

"Dave the Donkey" was short listed with my Car Park Parable books for the 2010 CALEB award for faith inspired writing in the Children’s section. I have personally corresponded with Dave’s author, Andrew McDonough, who is a South Australian also trying to get good Australian content out there in an American saturated market. He has given me some great insight into the publishing industry; don’t let that fool you though – I’m not afraid to tell you what’s wrong with this book. Unfortunately – there’s nothing wrong with it.

Dave the Donkey is an excellent retelling of the events around Easter from the donkey’s perspective. But it’s not a narration of the events – it takes the form of a picture book where less words are more. Where the irony, contrasts and juxtapositions in the last week of Jesus’ life are left to speak for themselves, and told with such simplicity that they are compelling even for a child.

As with all of the Lost Sheep books the pictures are bright, the humour is funny [and Australian], there is information on the back page about how to use the story, and there are little surprises to find on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th readings.

Although the Lost Sheep books are aimed at children, like all good stories they are ageless. I have personally used this story in schools, nursing homes and worship with no kids present – it always brings a smile and that pause, when you know something is taking root is a person’s heart.

Great to add to anyone in Ministry’s Easter repertoire [and you can download a project-able version from the lost sheep website] it is also a great book for a child to own to help them ponder this imponderable event.

Skype not against the law?

The recent revelations about 'Kate' who was unknowingly filmed during consensual sex and broadcast on the internet has opened a whole hornet's nest of issues for the Australian Military. The treatment of women in the whole of our society is again under-consideration. Unfortunately we men continue to see women as simply 'meat' for our pleasure - it is a reality across all our society - look at our advertising, bill-boards, porn, magazines.

I want to come to it from the position of privacy. As a minister I have to follow a whole heap of privacy rules in my congregation that have a compliance cost. Even though we are supposed to be a united body, intimate community of believers - I am not allowed to pass on a phone number to someone else in the church without their permission. Now, that might actually be a reasonable idea - but how can someone who has filmed someone else having sex, without their permission, and then broadcast it over the internet - have not broken any laws!!!!

If I can got to jail for giving a phone number to another member of a church fellowship, how can this not be illegal? Is this catch up? The internet moves too fast for the law. Is it just the law being an ass - or is it the stupidity of our modern society where we have rules that strain out the gnats, but swallow the camels? Privacy rules, and blue card rules, that burden the local, community, volunteer groups, while not doing that much to actually solve the problems?

Yes this is a rant, but I need a place to let out the steam! Having mentioned the 'QLD' Blue Card system - is this the best way to combat pedophillia? A huge bureaucracy that makes anyone wanting to help with kids have to go through a rigmarole that only tells us about people who've already been caught? Surely we could spend the money more pointedly. Confronting education programs across all schools. Preventative Programs. Has anyone does any studies of the effectiveness of the Blue Card.

OK, I'm over it, but the 'Kate's' of this world are not. Poor kate.

Best Thing I've read on Scripture

I read this book last year and was inspired. It is the best book I have read on Scripture. It goes beyond the typical discussions of Inerrancy, liberal/literal and takes a literary approach to scripture because, well scripture is literature - it is largely story! It especially 'clicks' with me as I consider myself a story-teller.

The Book - 'CS Lewis on Scripture' by Michael Christensen, 1980 Hodder & Stoughton. [still available at Amazon]. Lewis himself never wrote a systematic understanding of Scripture. This is Christensen's pulling together of Lewis' approach to scripture from all the sources he could muster.

Lewis was comfortable with myth having significant meaning, indeed being the closest way to understand in concrete ways what can otherwise only be expressed abstractly. Myth can be truer than history or fact, able to put us in touch with reality in more intimate ways than knowing or facts ever could. Thus while he was OK with Adam and Eve being 'myth' he was passionate about the deep truth revealed in the myth!

Lewis was also uncomfortable with the tendency of others to dismiss as unhistorical any text which reported miracles. He said the historical truth or otherwise of a text was not to be pre-judged on the assumption that miracles can not happen. That would be to make a mistake, for there is no philosophical grounds to make such an assumption. Miracles by definition are such because they can not happen!

He was scathing of those who were supposedly biblical literary critics posturing that it was obvious they had never read or studied any literature at all given their conclusions.

The appendix on 'The rational Romantic' is worth the price of the book alone and it's discussion of the idea Sehnsucht.

Lewis frees us from literal and liberal interpretations of scripture, freeing us from doctrinal determination of how we approach and understand scripture - of putting God, and the bible in a box. Rather scripture was literature; to be read, experienced and taken [not naively] at face value as God's word to us.

If you can find this book, do yourself a favour and read it!

No life without sacrifice

There is a deep truth that is older than the bible, a truth that was true before the bible was written, a truth the bible was written to reveal. A truth that was there at the beginning of time that actually shapes life and existence. It's a truth that can help us understand and navigate life if we grasp it's deep significance. This is the truth...

There is no life without sacrifice.

It's a truth the modern world has almost forgotten, a truth the modern world tries to cover over with red-tape and OH&S thinking that we can get through life without cost - but it's still there, hiding in the pages of history.

We see this truth at work in parents - who must give for their children. Who must sacrifice to bring up the next generation. Husbands and wives must 'give up' so much of themselves to create a marriage and if they don't do this, the do not create a marriage; the two can not become one of the two never sacrifice.

We see this truth so simply in nature where for one animal to live, another must give their life. Our own Sunday Roast cannot happen until the chicken dies. Unless a seed falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed.

Perhaps it is only in war where we acknowledge this truth - where we honour the sacrifice of our soldiers. Otherwise we want to live in the delusion that we can get through life with our lives!

All ancient religions were based on this deep truth. They all understood, there is no life without sacrifice. If this is a deep truth, then it reveals an even deeper truth...

There is no eternal life without a perfect sacrifice.

This cosmic truth [no live without sacrifice], stitched into the fabric of reality from the very beginning - was preparing us for the one who would reveal the even greater truth on a wooden cross on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

We can live in denial of this truth and think we can save ourselves, that we can get through life without sacrifice - we can't. Until we acknowledge this truth, and submit to it and the one who is this truth, we will always be fighting against the very fabric of reality.

If this reality is true, what is your sacrifice?

Catching the Faith

Despite the growing popularity of Christian schools and the long-term reality of Religious Instruction in the state education systems, we are still facing a decline in those that profess faith in the West, especially among the younger generation.

Why is it that much of our faith-based education seems to have the effect of inoculating, rather than inculcating the faith?

Could it be that our methodology is all backwards? Much of our faith-based education is what you would call indoctrination. It is based on the assumption that our children are already Christians, and we need to school them in the essentials of the faith. Often this schooling can be very moralistic, trying to ‘house-train’ good little Christian boys and girls.

This is in direct contrast to the way Jesus taught the crowd. Jesus’ teaching method to those 'outside' the faith was story-telling, particularly parables; riddles of the Kingdom. Jesus didn’t bother to explain these riddles, but allowed to sit in the air and perch in people’s hearts when the time was right. [to be bait, waiting to hook the fish!] These riddles didn’t inoculate the hearer, as the mysteries were kept hidden, but now and then one would take root and bear fruit in someone’s life.

If you examine the parables of the Sower in Matthew's gospel [chap 13:1-52], and the discussion during and after it, you see that the gospel in a treasure not to be thrown to swine, but protected in the oyster shell of the parable. Everyone is up to a different stage [road, rock, weeds, good soil], and when the time is right, the seed can take root. If you plant it too early, it will spoil.

I content that we need to rediscover the Master teacher’s method for proclaiming the kingdom. I know it sounds risky; our Western minds want to explain, dissect, and ensure children understand. But when you dissect something that is alive, you have a tendency to kill it. What is more alive than the word of God. I know this sounds like a risky method, but how could it be less successful than what we have now - indeed, isn't it about following Jesus?

Our task isn't to produce moral people, but noble people. Our job isn't about external compulsion, but internal transformation.

Troubled Times

Cyclones, floods, fires, mudslides, snowstorms, earthquakes. It’s been a confronting beginning to 2011 – and that’s not including the human induced tragedies. We can quite legitimately be asking, ‘Where is God in all this?’ Or is this what the Bible speaks about as the ‘birth pains’ – the signs that God is closer than we think?

Are these natural disasters an unusual confluence of events that will settle down, or is this the new normal? Is a hurting globe adjusting to human pollution, like a dog scratching at its fleas, or are we just experiencing what has always been and will always be?

Whatever is going on, such fearsome and frightening events put things in perspective. They put us in our place. They remind us how puny, how powerless and how pointless out lives really are. At the end of the day awards and achievements mean nothing. We are reminded that it is relationships that count. It is relationships that carry us through. It is relationships that we cling to.

The most important of these is a relationship with the Creator of it all. This is the relationship that can last forever, and can ensure our other relationships last beyond this mortal coil.

What else can we do in these tragic times but cry out to God for answers, for meaning – but also for comfort and solace. What have you done about your eternal relationship?

50 People every Christian should know

I read this fascination book at the end of last year and am only now getting a chance to blog about it. "50 People Every Christian Should Know" by Warren Wiersbe is a book that gives short biographical pictures of famous Christians of the 'golden era' - 1700-1940's. Most of them were preachers in England or USA but there are a few missionaries, women and people from other areas.

You will know their names; Matthew Henry, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, Fanny Crosby, Spurgeon, Hudson Taylor, Moody, Chambers.

Obviously I have to confess to an ignorance about most of these preachers, and this era, which is sad, but if you are like me, this is a great book to start with.

I really enjoyed reading about the people, the times, the problems of the era, how God worked in their lives. Each summary had pithy wisdom from the subject, insights and stuff on how they lived. It was fascinating to hear how many past preachers lived their lives. Praying & studying the word from morning to mid afternoon, then doing their pastoral visiting in the cool of the evening - virtually everyday of the week except Sunday.

It seemed a much simpler time to do Ministry - and the author would often harken back to this simpler time and simpler method implying that if this method was 'rediscovered' the mythical success the church is no longer experiencing would simply return. But there was enough variation in method - with some preachers confessing their lack of pray, and lack of visiting - to undermine such a rose coloured view of things.

Many of the 'preachers' spoke of their responsibility for the whole town; they had 5000 souls in their care and they weren't sure of each one's salvation. Again, a passion and vision that would be hard to replicate today.

I was also fascinated to learn that some of these churches were so full you needed tickets to get in. A young Dwight Moody had travelled all the way to England from America to hear Charles Spurgeon preach at his height, and nearly missed out because he didn't have a ticket. When they found out how far he had come, he could enter the standing room.

People would hear one great preacher in the morning, travel across town to hear another in the evening. This was the general public, so regular conversion were expected and experienced. Indeed the Leeds Skeptic Society [we thought Dawkins was new!] turned up on mass to 'heckle' Samuel Chadwick, but their president was soundly converted, and the rest of the group too within the next few months.

They really were the glory days of English/American Christianity - the heart of Christendom, when there was a church on every corner, full and with a wonderful choir to boot, the preachers were famous and influential in the society, the hymn writers renowned and the missionaries superstars!

It's very interesting because one insightful preacher, Phillip Brooks, said to his contemporaries, 'do not be ashamed of the age you live in least you talk of it in a weak tone of despair' [paraphrase, p155]. It seems every preacher did not see him or herself as living in the glory days, but as living in the worst of times with the glory days behind them. What a sobering truth. It is only in hindsight we see the significance of our days, and what might look like struggle to us, others may see as our glory days.

Indeed, the author does harken back to these times, praying that such preachers will arise in our time, that preachers will learn the lessons from this book. I think there is no going back to these times. When there was no TV, no films, the only entertainment on a weekend was the opera, or theatre - the 'preacher' was well placed to provide a burgeoning middle class society with some wholesome entertainment. Where else could you go and hear an amazing orator who would move you to tears and inspire you - all for a penny if that's all you had.

The time was ripe for this ministry, I'm not sure the time will ever be the same again. Rather than dwelling back, we do need to learn the principles from the past, but not stay there. Indeed, in our disparate, complex society - rather than having a whole country on fire for God, can we only expect to ever have a community 'on fire'. Can we see the various ministries doing well around the world as in their glory days [Hillsong, Saddleback, Willow Creek]. If things are going well where you are - see them as glory days, not 'if only' days.

Working with young people I know that while my congregation may not be full and overflowing - these young people are having amazing encounters with the living God through us anyway - they will look back on this as their glory days - when the Glory of the Lord impacted them, grew them. That is glory to be praised.

Grab the book, it is a simple, but profound read. Baker Books, 2009.

Peter's Sermon in Acts

As a follow up to the previous post, I had always considered Peter's sermon in Acts 2 somewhat of a disappointment. Here was supposed to be the 'perfect sermon', preached at the birth of the church, converting 3000 to the faith. When I read it, I couldn't see what all the fuss was about.

The problem was obviously not the sermon, but my understanding! Not until I had to preach through Acts did I finally begin to 'get it.' Peter's sermon was 'perfect' for the context. Peter does not preach penal substitution - Peter proclaims that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah, in accordance with Scripture, and what they have just witnessed, the coming of the Holy Spirit, confirms this. Not only that but we, the very ones waiting for the Messiah, killed him, but God, again to confirm his status, raised him to life, indeed to the right had of God!

Understandably, many in the crowd were cut to the heart, repented [changed their minds about what they previously believe about Jesus and/or the Messiah], sought forgiveness from this and other sins, and believed.

The genius of Peter's sermon is not it's proclamation of a timeless, one-size-fits-all gospel, but his grand sense of occasion - Peter understood how the cosmic Christ event applied to these people. That's not to cheapen the truth of what he said, it was exactly true, but it's not what Paul later preaches to the Gentiles who do not await a Messiah [Acts 17:16ff]. The gospel, if it is really true, is a Cosmic reality that overshadows every tribe, tongue and nation; that every human can hear 'in their own tongue'. Can we be filled enough with the Spirit, to see how the gospel is good news to the people around us, and thus proclaim.

The Gospel

I had the privilege of visiting the local Presbyterian church and hearing my colleague proclaim the good news recently. He did a fine job of proclaiming penal substitution as outlined in Romans. At the end of the sermon he made the statement that this is what he would do each week, preach the Gospel, and for his congregation to hold him to account for this.

Indeed, I pray that he [and I] do this, each week - proclaim the gospel. But his comment, given the context of his preaching, sparked thoughts for me.

I grew up in 'Evangelical Anglican' territory. Not regularly attending, but having a combined youth group with them. I really appreciated their strong emphasis on Biblical literacy, their carful, logical, expository approach to Scripture. Indeed, to their credit Moore College influenced churches are very clear about the gospel, and offer excellent teaching about foundational theology. They know what the gospel is, they are great at setting foundations in the gospel and thinking logically/rationally.

As I grew, I came to understand though, that at worst, what they meant by the gospel was penal substitution and nothing else. That is, the gospel to them was and could only be understood as penal substitution. They preached penal substitution each week, no matter what the passage of scripture. Indeed, if someone preached and didn't clearly extrapolate penal substitution they had not preached the gospel, and indeed, sometimes even their salvation was questioned.

The Uniting Church meanwhile [my heritage] is a more broad church. It understood that the scriptures contain many atonement metaphors to try to explain the mystery of the cross; penal substitution, adoption, ransom, satisfaction, substitution, etc. What I discovered was that sometimes this meant ministers in the Uniting Church seemed to have no idea about the gospel! No wanting to 'nail down' the cross event, they seemed confused as to exactly what it meant [I have a terrible story about how this was lived out].

My reflection is that the hard line evangelic church clearly knows what their gospel is, is great at teaching foundational theology, but after that struggles and can be very closed to discussion and discovery. Meanwhile some elements of the Uniting church can be very vague about the gospel, is terrible at teaching foundational theology, but is very open to discussion and discovery.

To use a building metaphor - they are great at laying the concrete slab, and frame - but never go beyond that. We are great at discussing the architraves and individual design elements that make a house a home and individualise things, yet the foundations are weak.

In the Uniting Church we want to discuss all the nuances of faith and scriptures and the gospel - when we have no basic foundations to keep the discussion in a common ball park!

For me, obviously the middle ground is the narrow way. We need good solid foundations of the fundamental message of scripture, so that we can then understand it's nuances and let them add grace to our clear categories. Indeed, I think we have so many atonement metaphors as each one speaks to a different people group or situation. To only preach penal substitution misses a whole group of people. Penal substitution has the side effect of painting God into a corner of being a mean, angry God who must be appeased - this is the flaw of the metaphor, not of God. In an authoritarian day, penal substitution works. But in a post modern society, where authority figures and authority institutions are rejected, penal substitution is dismissed.

Our task as preachers is to discover the atonement metaphors that scratch an itch in our community. In our day of recycling, it's amazing to discover that the word for Salvation means recycle. God is the great recycler, who is redeeming, not plastic - but people. Jesus was literally redeeming people from he scrap heap [Ghenna/hell] of life, recycling them - giving them a new beginning [born again]. Now that's a metaphor that might scratch an itch. Then they can discover that penal substitution is also true.

So let's preach the gospel - God was in Christ redeeming the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them - but let's not become myopic on one atonement metaphor.

Why me?

It distressing to continue to hear about the various tragedies happening around Australia, the latest being the fires in Perth. How do we handle such things when they come close to us? Does the Bible give us any help in the valley of the shadow of death?

One of the very powerful things the bible does encourage us to do is complain and cry out to God. Despite our English heritage that wants to keep a stiff upper lip, and a funny tradition that you never question/get angry at God, the Bible actually says this is the way through tragedy.

Rather than 'praise God no matter what', around 1/3 of the Psalms are what are called Laments - cries of 'Why me?' aimed at God on the lips of people like King David. They take the following general form...

Where are you God?

Here is what is wrong [my enemies surround me, etc].

Yet, I will cling to you, where else can I go?

Maybe you could do this God!?

Eventually, I will praise you again.

In the midst of our distress it is OK to get angry at God, to doubt his presence and goodness, to rile and rave at what's going on. Some psalms even express 'terrible things' - that God would smite our enemies, dash their children on rocks. It seems God is more interested in honest, vulnerable prayers than perfect, pious prayers and that God is happy for us to be angry at him, and take it out on him, to get it out - rather than leave it in.

The difficult thing, yet the powerful thing, is to continue to cling to God in the midst the the tragedy. Cling to the very one who it seems is ignoring or hurting us. After all, is there anyone else who could help but God?

When we do this a glimmer of light appears at the end of the tunnel. Our questions are not answered, the problems are not solved, the darkness is not taken away - but we have someone walking beside us.

This is not just theory, but something I experience powerfully. When journeying with the parents of a suicidal teenager, or partner of a car crash victim; when I don't know how to understand the mind of God and have no words to pray, I pray laments. "Where are you God!?" In my own life, in the midst of my own mild tragedy, lament has been a God-send. It is in many ways pathetically simple, yet after I pray this way, and shed tears, somehow I feel better.

What I find most compelling about the idea of praying this way, is that this is what Jesus did in his darkest hour. In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prays a lament. In his anguish he sweats drops of blood. He literally asks, 'Why me God? Why this way? Maybe you could find another way! Yet, I will trust and cling to you.'

Then on the cross, Jesus prays the words of psalm 22, a lament. 'My God, my God why have you forsaken me?' It is a prophetic and powerful psalm. The quote is supposed to point us to the whole psalm, this is Jesus' prayer to his Father that get's him through. If Jesus prays this way, how much more do we need to!

Lament is not escape from tragedy, it is succour through tragedy. It is one of the only things we have to cling to, because it is clinging to God.

In Praise of our Community

After living through a cyclone [and recent floods] you must appreciate our society, realise how much of a gift it is and not take it for granted. Us bloggers can be the biggest critics - great at speck spotting! [Matt 7:3-5] But thank God for the country we live in.

Where else do we have sophisticated specialists and equipment monitoring weather to give us warnings days ahead of time? Where else do we have researchers and government enforcing building codes that save lives, even if they cost us more to build? [The earthquake in Chile last year was over twice the strength of the one in Haiti yet around 550 died in Chile, over 300,000 died in Haiti. The difference, building codes and other developmental factors.]

Where else do you have SES, Army, Councils, electricity companies working around the clock to restore life to normal? Where else does the govt give you money if you were effected, indeed, help you out if you weren't insured? Where else do volunteers come out of the woodwork to help their neighbours?

Indeed help has become so 'normal' in our society, that when there are hiccups in the process [ie roads are closed, so help can't get in] we complain. People in many countries would be left to their own devises to recover by themselves, we have little to complain about. Remember Govt ain't God, all these things are gift, gift [not right] - we must recognise and receive them as such with much gratefulness. Gifts scorned and taken for granted are soon no longer given.

It is my contention that we live in such a wonderful society because of our Christian heritage, and that if we loose that we risk loosing such gifts. I say that not to force Christianity on our society, but so that reasonable individuals will see the connection and decide to get serious about faith!

The other thing that does confront and challenge me is, how do we share these gifts with the developing world? If our wisdom/technology was in Haiti - could 299,500 lives have been saved? That is to our shame. If it means no wide-screen TV's in anyone's houses, or less mobile phones or laptops - wouldn't that be worth it? It is only by divine choice I live where I live. But it is because of human selfishness that we don't share the blessings of human unselfishness.

Cyclone Yasi

I must preface this post by saying I only saw the hem of cyclone Yasi, and it was enough. We lost trees and power [for 20hrs] but nothing much more. A can't speak for those closer to the eye.

I’m supposed to be preaching on the first commandment on Sunday [see www.burdekin.ucaweb.com.au for podcasts of my sermons]. It’s interesting having that text in your head as a cyclone approaches. In some ways I don’t have to preach – just point to the cyclone. What greater example of the awesomeness and awfulness of God do we need? This cyclone was not God, but as a part of God’s creation, it made us fall on our knees and hide in toilets. If a cyclone can do this – how much more should we understand the awesomeness of the statement; ‘I AM the Lord your God.’

If you read the lead up to the giving of the Ten Commandments the parallels in imagery is striking. A huge cloud mass had descended on the mountain. Thunder and lightning was growling all around. The mountain was cordoned off as dangerous. Do not get too close or you will die. The Israelites were filled with fear. ‘Don’t come too close’ said God. ‘No chance of that!’ said the Israelites.

As we read those words, ‘I am the Lord your God,’ are we filled with awe and wonder? Do we tremble in our boots? Or have we become too familiar with God.

Stop and consider with me the amazing parallel in imagery between a cyclone and meeting God.

When we know a cyclone is coming, and this is a modern blessing, we drop everything and start to prepare. Whatever was on our agenda is forgotten, the cyclone sets the agenda. We stock up on food, water, the very basics of survival. We find someplace that might survive the coming of the wind. Some of us even retreat, knowing that perhaps we can’t stand against such a force.

We go through our lives and clean out all the junk, toss away the stuff that doesn’t matter and only gets in the way.

Meeting God the Israelites did the same, but on a spiritual level. They let go of their own agenda’s and got onto Gods. They cleaned up their lives. They ceremonially washed their hands and hearts to be in the terrifying presence of the Lord. When the cyclone hits it knocks down anything that is not held down. It removes anything that is not strong. It removes the weak, broken and dead branches. Takes out the weak structures.

In scripture the presence of the Lord is compared to a refining fire. A purifying force that cleanses and removes all that is not dross and waste.

And this is what I find most startling of all. The strongest winds are right near the eye of the storm; the ones that do the most damage. But then, when you enter the eye it is complete calm; perfect stillness and peace. They say that in the eye birds start to sing. The sun can shine or the stars twinkle. Compared to the storm around it, it is surreal. It is not something that you would believe was possible, if it were not so.

A cyclone is not the presence of God – but is it something that points to a greater reality? A consuming presence that destroys all that is not strong and pure and holy in its path. But once you enter the very presence of God – it is perfect peace. A place of such calm and contrast that you cannot believe it exists. The birds sing, the sun shines, the stars twinkle. An impossible place.

In the film ‘Contact’ starring Jodie Foster, Jodie travels to just such a place. Her travels there are awe-full, terrifying, as she see galaxies, nebula, black-holes overshadow her. She wonders if she is going to survive as she is tosses around the infinite universe like a rag-doll in her puny, little man-made spaceship. This confident scientist is emptied, humbled, left in awe, only able to confess, ‘I had no idea. I had no idea.’ Isn’t this what a cyclone does? It puts us in our place. It reminds us of how puny, how powerless, how pointless our lives really are. All our bluster is blown away. We can only tremble and say, ‘I had no idea. I had no idea how powerful the world is. I had no idea how big the universe is. I had no idea how great is our God.’

If a cyclone can do that, how much more should the presence of our God humble us. ‘I had no idea. I had no idea.’ I am the Lord your God, who brought you through the winds of Yasi, out of the wilderness of complacency. You shall have no other God’s before me. All other God’s are a joke before the real one. How is it that we can have any other gods? Only when we forget the awesomeness of the one true God. How great is our God.

Cyclone Anthony [and Friend]

When we first moved to the Burdekin, knowing it was a cyclone area, I was interested in gauging from the locals how seriously they took the cyclone threat, to know how seriously I should take it. Cyclones didn't come up in conversation very often, and when they did the locals talked about them quite matter-of-factly, about the bakery roof that blew and landed on the church roof, and then they changed subject.

I assumed from this that the locals were quite used to cyclones and that they weren't too big an issue. I was wrong. They spoke of cyclone so dispassionately not because they were trivial but because they didn't want to relive the deep trauma.

When one cyclone finally parked itself off the coast, and threatened to head our way, the mood changed. People started to tell stories of previous cyclone and the fear was palpable. Grown men, the Hairy, tattooed, biker type - openly shared how they virtually sat in the corner crying for their mummies. I don't want to make light of the situation - but blokes who I thought would be afraid of nothing, even if it was misguided bravado, would openly share of their utter terror. It certainly put the frights up me [who has no tattoos and is scared of riding motorbikes].

The stories of houses disintegrating, the screams of metal, the impaling wooden posts. Locals rightly fear cyclone. It like riding on a freight train off it's tracks, down the side of a mountain. You can do nothing. You are not in control. You can only hold onto your family and pray to God. Locals are amazed not more people have died in the past, having been through it. Many don't know how even they survived.

So with Anthony [and possible friend] hanging off our shores, and the BOM telling us they are coming - we are praying and preparing. It's good to have heard the stories of locals, as unsettling as they are, or else a Jonny-come-lately to the district could approach the threat with nonchalant fascination. They have put the fear of God into me - and that's they way it should be.

Does God bring these disasters? I don't believe so. They are a natural part of the world as it is. But they remind us of the awe-someness of God; If this is what the wind, the wind God created can do, what could God do? They remind us of our place in the world. That we are really not in control of anything. That submission and prayer should be our natural state.

Praying that people take this wind seriously, and that God keeps an eye out for us.

Angry God

Something happened yesterday.

Most of us don't like the idea of an angry God. Ideas like the wrath of God are frowned upon or ignored. Our society scorns anyone who proclaims an angry God. I've got to confess, it's not a mainstay of my preaching. But something happened yesterday.

Firstly you got to know that I an not naturally an 'angry' father. I am the soft one in our household, quick to joke and abiding in 'she'll be right'. My wife often get's lumped with the bad-cop role while I play the good-cop to our kids. I am certainly slow to anger, too slow. But when I do I can be a volcano.

So yesterday our son did what sons do [might I say, what I used to do when I was his age!]. My wife was trying to deal with it but he wouldn't swallow his pride and do what she asked. We knew his tears were only crocodile tears as he was constantly trying to hide his conniving smile - he wasn't going to swallow his pride and submit.

I was avoiding getting involved [hiding behind the fact the my wife was doing the discipline and I didn't want to cut across her and undermine her]. But after 30mins it got too much. The volcano roared. Fortunately I didn't hit my son, but I wanted to and he knew it. While I got too angry - almost immediately my son pulled his head in and got on with it.

I always shock myself with how angry I can become. But this was unsettling in another way. I'd been thinking about an angry God and now circumstances seemed to collide to say something to me. We need an angry God.

Now while I was too angry - I realised my son needs an 'angry' father earlier than I want to be one. My wife needs an 'angry' husband to back her up and support her, to show my son she has my authority behind what she is asking. My son needs an angry father to feel safe and secure [more on that later]. In the same way, we humans need an angry God.

Angry, is not perhaps the correct word with all it's negative connotations. Perhaps the word is Awesome, awe-full. We don't want an awe-full God, because an awe-full God makes us swallow our pride, pull our heads in, and admit how stupid we are.

Kinda like we think, when we meet God we will have a few choice words with him about life. But I think, when we meet God it will be like finding ourselves in a hungry lion's cage. We will quietly soil our pants, fall on our knees and pray for mercy. All our bravado and pride will evaporate in a moment.

Our society needs to understand that we have an awe-full God to humble us, because for some, they will never pull their head in and do anything like the right thing until they know that there is an awe-full God in the heavens.

I noticed something similar as a boy growing up. One time my younger brother provoked my mum, in the presence of my dad [whom I get my temperament from] until my dad became the volcano. Once that happened my brother was satisfied. I observed and thought, this is absurd. My mum had been a volcano all morning, but once my dad got there, he submitted [there were no smacks or anything].

I can only suspect there is something going on subconsciously. Whether we like it or not the father is generally seen as the protector of the family. If someone attacks our family we expect that Dad will defend us. If the kids think 'this father couldn't bash his was out of a wet paper bag', how safe will they feel? My brother wanted boundaries, my brother wanted to know my dad was 'awesome', my brother needed to know Dad could defend us, so he could feel safe.

We need an 'angry' God to feel safe. If our God can't protect us, if our God can't defend us, if our God can't ensure justice, can he really be God?

I know from my teaching days that kids need an 'angry' teacher at times. Not simply an angry teacher, but they crave boundaries, they need someone with 'awe' to inspire them to be good and to work hard. I also know from teaching that you must be angry before you are angry. Once you are angry it's too easy to loose control. Something I'm reminded as a parent.

God says, 'I punish to the 3rd and 4th generation, but bless to the 100th.' God is an 'angry' God, but his mercy and love are times 300. God majors on mercy and minors on anger - it's good to know. But if we forget their is an awe-fullness to God I think we forget who God is, and we forget who we should be.

Ban the Burqa

The conspicuous presence of the burqa, a distinctive religious garment that unashamedly proclaims a particular religious position in the public square, has provoked an interesting response in the Western world. Many want to ban it.

The move to ban the Burqa seems to me to be an admission by the Western world that we have no answer to the Muslim religion. The wearing of the burqa is a direct challenge on our 'Western, liberal, Christian, democracy', a statement saying that we don't think it's all it's cracked up to be. A response that says 'ban it' seems to be saying, 'we have no better answer.'

If we truly believed that we have a wonderful and compelling way of life in the West [liberty and justice for all] then what have we got to fear? After a time here the Burqa wearing people's will be convinced to join us. I understand there are at least some going the other way joining the Muslim religion from the Western world-view.

This debate seems to unmask the reality that a secularised West has nothing compelling to offer, no good news, once the sales are over [except perhaps as a safe haven to practice their religion]. So instead, 'we must force them to be like us', or get them out of sight so we don't have to be confronted with our own society's spiritual poverty.

I think this is a timely challenge to our Western culture to rediscover and take seriously the compelling good news that created our society, otherwise our society will be quite rightly 'consumed' by another that knows who it is.

It is also a timely challenge to the church to reconnect with the compelling good news of the gospel, and not be afraid to proclaim, and be it, in the public square.

Disappointed with Getup

Recently driving through Brisbane I was confronted with 'GetUp's' abortion Billboard.

When Getup first appeared in my inbox I thought it was a great idea. Change public policy from the comfort of my computer chair, grassroots movement doing something about issues. People listening to the average person. I signed up and clicked support. But the longer Getup has gone on the more disappointed I've become with them.

I thought they were a thinking persons group. I thought they would understand the complexity of issues, encourage discussion and listening. I thought they would represent average people. Unfortunately they have turned into a knee jerk, black and white, shallow activist group for one side of the debate - as their billboard shows.

Now perhaps we can't expect more - activism demands you take an extreme position, that you shock and confront to make a point - but this is exactly what I hoped Getup wouldn't be - more of the same. I thought they promised to be an activist group for the thinking person. I long for an activist group that is about nuance and thinking and promoting understanding and the middle way!

This billboard shows a shallowness towards the abortion debate. It says to me that they don't understand that abortion is not a simple yes/no, good/bad issue. Don't they understand that abortion hurts. Firstly the embryo - of which we were all one at one time. It distresses mothers who are forced to make such a huge, huge decision. It effects staff who are involved in the process. To think it is as simple and dispassionate as eating a sandwich is just unconscionable.

That's why we have 'mixed up laws'. Laws that don't give a blanket ban or blanket permission. We can all think of extreme positions where we would, or wouldn't - but that doesn't represent the majority of situations.

I think 'Getup' have missed the mark with the average Aussie. Yes we want to show compassion on mothers finding themselves in terrible predicaments, but we don't want it to become consequence free - because it isn't. A society where abortion is done as easily as waxing, now that is a society that has lost it's moral compass.

Getup have taken a position and lost me.

Evil People

Not that long ago there were litmus tests in the church [and since church was important back then, society too] that declared whether a person was righteous or evil. The tests were, swearing, smoking, tattoos, drinking, gambling, sex outside marriage - that sort of thing. Indeed this showed a very shallow and judgmental church - as long as you didn't drink, smoke or swear you were a good person - otherwise you were evil and to be scapegoated. [My how things have changed!]

Jesus talked to the religious righteous of his day about the more important issues being justice, mercy and faithfulness; not majoring on the minors. Learning to show grace and forgiveness, while maintaining high values. [Matt 23:23]

With the sidelining of the church in our society, a new breed of self-righteous high priest has arisen, with the same shallow way of operating. Today the new litmus tests to determine righteousness or evil are issues like gay marriage. If you are for it, you are righteous, if you are against it you are evil, prejudged and easily dismissed - indeed, search your feelings after reading this, if you don't want to read on perhaps you are the new breed!

What distresses me most about this debate is the polarity on both sides, the shallowness of the debate and that the old mistakes of the church are being made by the new moral police. If you are against gay marriage you are obviously homophobic, backwards, ignorant, a religious bigot, prehistoric. There is no chance to enter a cordial debate, to look at nuances and shades of grey. The issue is black and white, the litmus test of good and evil. [This is true of the other extremist position too - 'you must be against it!'] Such a shallow, black and white, simplistic situation is what is most disappointing to me.

Meredith Resce came upon this type of black and white debate as a Family First candidate in South Australia at the last federal election. She went to a 'question the politicians' event organised by the local Uniting Church. She knew it was coming - 'do you support gay marriage'. These good church people had already pigeoned holed her and judged her, dismissing her before she began - she was against it [political suicide in this liberal church]. They wouldn't listen to her reason's why. She has many good, close gay friends who are willing to openly talk about it and listen to her 'grey'. But she was judged, juried and executioner-ed - scapegoated as one of those evil people.

There are very few truly evil people in our society - just people; a complex mix of good and evil, weeds and wheat growing in the same field - whom God will sort out at the end [Matt 13:24-30]. We have this strange, human, 'Die-hard' desire to scapegoat the evil people. If we do society will be saved!

Strange thing, because there was one guy was was scapegoated by society at the time - and we believe he does save us, not because he was evil, but because he was good.

East and West

Every 6 months or so a Muslim country makes headlines in the West for being about to stone a lady caught in adultery or the like. We in the West think this is terrible! How inhumane, uncaring, horrible and terrible these Muslims are! So we begin a campaign to put pressure on them to free this innocent lady. The lady somehow becomes a virtuous woman caught in a terrible situation. 'We need to teach these people to be civilised, merciful, compassionate.'

From the Muslim perspective though, they find a lady caught in adultery and they think this is terrible. Adultery to them [and the Bible] is an attack on family, an attack on marriage, an attack on everything that is sacred and civil. They must act so that adultery and divorce and family breakdown don't become rampant and destroy everything they hold dear - so it doesn't destroy civilisation, she must be an example! Suddenly the West gets involved screaming 'set the adulterer free!'

The Easterner's think, 'What kind of people are these Westerners? Don't they understand that adultery is a cancer that will destroy marriage, family, society? Here they are condoning adultery, celebrating adultery, making a hero of the adulterer! If they do this what will society become?' Then they look at our society and see sky high divorce rates, porn everywhere, family breakdown and they conclude, 'this is what will happen!' We don't want to become that! We want the opposite!'

We think they must be terrible people for wanting to stone the adulterer - they aren't, it's because they are trying to be good people they want to stone the adulterer.

They think we must be terrible people for wanting to free the adulterer - we aren't, we want to show mercy and forgiveness [although more and more in our society do want to celebrate adultery!]

We don't get each other at all. The West needs to approach such issues completely differently. We need to say, 'You are right, she has done a terrible thing! Adultery is bad - we should know, we're suffering the consequences of it! You need to punish her! BUT, we have learnt that death is perhaps too extreme a punishment. What if it was your daughter, or your mother, - and can any of us claim total righteousness? We have learnt from Jesus, to give people a chance at a second chance. Yes there needs to be punishment. She is not a hero of freedom and liberty - she is a sinner. How can we work for her salvation, but also remind people that adultery is not good, not good at all.'

Isn't this Jesus' approach? 'Does no one condemn you? Then neither do I, but go and sin no more.' Jesus maintains incredibly high morals, but also showed incredible mercy.