Eternity - November 2014 - Issue 53

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53

Number 53, November 2014 ISSN 1837-8447

Brought to you by the Bible Society

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Holy war

On Ebola’s frontline

Image: VDU

Scripture Union gears up for summer mission

The jazz missionary

Image: Gokhan Sahin (Getty Images)

What’s the difference between Islamic State and Israel in the Old Testament?

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NEWS

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Books, Culture 11-16

Making disciples on the beach

Bible Society 17

TESS HOLGATE

News page 2-3 In Depth 5-10

Opinion 19-22

Obadiah Slope

THANKS TO THE ECONOMIST, here’s a quote from Umberto Eco, Obadiah’s favourite postmodern novelist. He says Apple is like Catholic and Microsoft is Protestant. The Macintosh, he wrote, “tells the faithful how they must proceed, step by step.” By contrast, Windows “allows free interpretation of Scripture ... and takes for granted the idea that not all can achieve salvation.” By now this item has upset at least half of Obadiah’s readers but whether on account of theology or computer preferences it is hard to say. Nearly all the Calvinists Obadiah knows use Macs.

FIVE CANDLES It seems like yesterday, but the first edition of Eternity came out five years ago.

FOR, LIKE, EVER Late last year a focus group described Eternity as a “much-loved institution”.

The name makes us look older than we are. Obadiah took it as a compliment for a newspaper still looking forward to kindergarten next year.

IT’S A COMPLICATED STORY, but a Bible found in a street in Liverpool (in NSW) has arrived on Obadiah’s desk. It’s an NLT Study Bible in a brown leather cover. It has tabs with the names of each book of the Bible and a brown ribbon. Is it yours? eternity@biblesociety.org.au

Infographic Do immigrants improve society?

60% 50%

60%

40% day I walked past the caravan and the child was saying ‘I love Jesus.’

60% His parents said ‘Oh that’s great, 50% good for you.’ Seven years later, the 30% whole family is converted and going 50% to church. They couldn’t stop their son loving Jesus, so they had to love 40% Jesus too.”

20% But40% the Scripture Union Mission teams have their fair share of Strongly Agree disasters too. “Last30% year we had 10% a huge electrical storm on the far Strongly AgreeAgree north30% coast. We were walking up from the beach and I prayed to the Strongly AgreeAgree Neutral Lord, ‘please keep 20% it away from us.’

0% God answered us and the storm Anglican Baptist / Catholic Lutheran Pentecostal Uniting Other Agree Neutral Strongly Agree Disagree Churches Protestant swept20% around us, but it moved on of Christ to Lennox Head and the lightning Neutral Disagree Agree Strongly Disagree Strongly Agree 10% strikes lit the ground on fire. The National Christian Life Survey: NCLS Attender Sampler Survey 2011 whole team had to be evacuated.”

Source: Disagree Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree 2011 NCLS 10% More than storms and sweltering Attender heat, Steve says the heaviest burden Sampler Source: Disagree Strongly Disagree Neutral Survey N v2 2011 NCLS 0% is the stories mission volunteers Anglican Baptist / Catholic Lutheran Pentecostal Uniting Attender Other hear from those they seek to serve. Churches Sampler Source: Protestant Strongly Disagree Disagree Survey N v2 2011 NCLS 0%confess emotional abuse, of Christ “People Anglican Baptist / Catholic Lutheran Pentecostal Uniting Attender Other rape, teenage pregnancy Churches to us. It’s Sampler Source: Protestant Strongly Disagree 2011 NCLS Survey N v2 all very confronting for us, because of Christ Anglican Baptist / Catholic Lutheran Pentecostal Uniting Other Attender it’s a broken Churches world, and it’s very Sampler Source: Protestant Survey N v2 2011 NCLS sad,” Steve said. of Christ Attender Other Baptist / Catholic Lutheran Pentecostal Uniting “All of these hard situations presSampler Protestant Churches Survey N v2 ent us with the wonderful opportuof Christ Lutheran Pentecostal Uniting Other nity of helping campers out through Protestant a crisis.”

In South Australia there are only five missions this summer, but they Andrew Shead – Opinion page 19 have plans to launch a new mission on Kangaroo Island soon.

Les Dennis, the new South Australian missions director came to faith in Jesus on a beach mission when he was only 22. Now in his 70s, Les shares that SU missions are “a good place for kids to come because they know they’re safe and are strengthened in their faith.”

It’s not too late to join a family mission team: contact SU in your state.

Greg Clarke – Opinion page 24

Quotable

Good news for the polyglots amongst us. In a collaboration between over 150 Bible Societies, publishers and organisations, the YouVersion Bible app now comprises 1000 Bible versions in over 700 languages. That means 70 per cent of the world’s population could find a version of the Bible in their language, on the free app.

Bobby Gruenewald, co-founder

Agree

Neutra

How does this “holy war” perpetrated in the name of Islam diff er from what God told Israel to do under Joshua?

When a significant minister leaves a church, it affects that community a bit like a divorce might affect a family.

1000 Bible versions in 700 languages TESS HOLGATE

Strong

Image & Data: (c) NCLS

REBEKAH THE HIPSTER: It seems Obadiah has not been as close a reader of the Bible as he could have been. It has taken up till now for him to notice that Isaac’s wife-to-be received a nose ring when Abraham’s servant gave her presents when she was engaged. Now there is some room for debate about the nose ring; it appears in the Good News and New International Versions but not in the King James and ESV Bibles. So now we know which Bibles are hipster Bibles.

On Boxing Day over 1800 people from across NSW will pack tents, 60% sleeping bags, and ten days worth of clothes into their cars and make 60% the journey to one of 43 different 50% Scripture 60% Union Summer Missions happening all over that state. Hun50% across dreds more will also travel Australia from Jurien Bay in WA 40% 50%north of Perth) to Coning(200km ham in Tasmania (south of Hobart).

40%team Across the country, 3,000 members is a conservative estimate.

30% 40%Windsor, missions director Steve for Scripture Union NSW 30%says each team will set up a temporary community 20% 30%to live in, love and minister to, by telling them about Jesus.

“They will display the love of 20% Jesus in what they do and how they 10% care20% for that community,” he said.

They are there to make disciples of Jesus, and they’re not shy about 10% it. Eternity asked Steve to share some of his stories from Scripture0% 10% Union missions over the years.

0% at mis“The way people convert sion is really organic. They don’tAnglican go ‘hey I0% want to become a Christian!’

Anglican Baptistabout / Catholic They go, ‘there’s something Churches you guys.’ And then theyof go back Christ home and they go ‘there’s something about those guys …’ And then next year they go, ‘there’s something about them …’ and the next year they come up to us and say, ‘we started going to church!’”

Often families are converted over several years, almost always starting with children. Steve says, “Years ago a child came and joined our Mini Mite section (under 5s), and learnt songs like ‘Jesus Loves Me, This I Know’ and would read the Scriptures with us and then we’d take him back to his parents. One

NOVEMBER 2014

of the YouVersion app, says “it’s unprecedented in history having so many Bible versions in the palm of your hand – something we never imagined was possible even a few years ago.”

Several of the languages now available on the app are only spoken by a tiny number of people: Huilliche for 2000 Chilean brothers and sisters, and Ama for 480 speakers in Papua New Guinea.

The 1000th digital Bible translation

was Deftera Lfida Dzratawi, a New Testament translated by Wycliffe into Hdi, a language spoken by nearly 45,000 people mostly in Cameroon and Nigeria.

With over 7100 languages spoken in the world today, this accomplishment represents less than 10 per cent of all spoken languages. United Bible Societies report that of these, 4455 still have no Scriptures at all, 1295 have only the New Testament, and 844 have

just portions of the Bible. So there’s more work to be done.

Bible Society Australia is supporting the 100 Bibles in 1000 Days project in 2014 in collaboration with United Bible Societies, supporting three of the translation projects, assisting Bible Societies in the South Pacific, Côte d’Ivoire and Bolivia.

The 100 Bibles project has the potential to reach over 500 million people with the Word of God. Find out more: biblesociety.org.au/100

Disagr

Strong

Source: 2011 NCL Attende Sampler Survey N

NEWS

NOVEMBER 2014

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Micah’s tax challenge to G20 ANGELA OWEN Micah Challenge

to tax proposals

Corporate tax as a percentage of GDP 20

4.0

19

3.5

18

3.0

17

2.5

16

2.0

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

Corporate Tax (OECD Average) as % of GDP

Corporate Tax (Global Average) as % of profits

Every year, billions of dollars that could be used by poor nations to provide healthcare, education and water for their citizens, is being lost through multinational companies dodging their taxes.

One of the major reasons corporations get away with this is because they operate under a veil of secrecy. The solution? To shine the light.

In the lead up to the G20 Leaders’ Summit, Micah Challenge’s “shine the light” campaign has been engaging Australian Christians in efforts to promote greater transparency in the global financial system for one primary aim – that poor nations would have greater access to tax revenue which is rightfully theirs.

John Beckett, Micah Challenge’s national coordinator, believes a lot is at stake when the world’s most powerful leaders meet in Brisbane this month.

“Actions to crack down on tax dodging by multinational companies are already on the G20 agenda, so this meeting could be truly transformational if the leaders take concrete steps to increase transparency, releasing much needed revenue for developing countries,” said Mr Beckett.

“The amount of money at stake is more than the global aid budget and represents a more sustainable source of finance, in the long term, for poverty reduction than aid.”

In Brief

Australia’s reply

Why act? Company tax is shrinking

Automatic exchange of information

A public registry of benefical ownership

Country by country reporting

Government says NO

Government says MAYBE

Government says YES

2012

CORPORATE INCOME TAX

Source: The Economist, PwC, OECD

Micah Challenge is concerned G20 opportunity, Brisbane churchReported vs percentage of GDP networks that the decisions made could es and denominational primarily benefit wealthy countries are partnering source: The Economist (PwC; OEDC) with Micah Chalrepresented at the table, while lenge to host Shine the Light Brisignoring the needs of developing bane – a weekend of worship, acnations. tion and advocacy one week before For this reason, hundreds of the world leaders come to town.

Christians across the country During this weekend (7-9 Novemhave been engaging Australian ber) Brisbane Christians are being politicians on the issue over the invited to form the “world’s biggest past six months, through facemock tax haven” in the city’s CBD to-face meetings, letters, churchto help raise awareness of financial based actions and media. They secrecy and influence G20 leaders have echoed the calls of thousands to take concrete action. of Christians around the world, Charles Newington, Senior Pasand over 90 prominent global tor of ACC-affiliated Cornerstone church leaders who have signed an Christian Church, recognises how open letter to the G20 calling for rare it is for Christians to have such greater action on transparency to a tangible opportunity to engage in benefit poor nations. global issues with the G20 bringing Seeking to make the most of the them to our door.

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“It gives us an opportunity to deepen local understanding of global issues. Such education can inform our prayers and how we engage in the Great Commission,” said Mr Newington.

The Rev. Susan Pickering, Senior Minister of West End Uniting Church in Brisbane, says the G20 has provided a unique opportunity to partner with other churches and faith organisations in speaking with one voice against an issue of injustice.

“This is an opportunity to be the prophetic voice that we are called to be – calling the world’s leaders to listen and respond on issues of injustice affecting the poor and vulnerable in our world.” www.shinethelight.com.au.

CHAPLAINCY DEAL IS FIRM: All the states have signed up to the federal government’s National School Chaplaincy Programme, which provides funding for religious school chaplaincy. Some recent media reports have denied this – but they are in error.

DAILY GOOD NEWS: Readers of Alo, Serbia’s second largest daily newspaper got a Bible booklet every Wednesday in August and September. For the cost of eight daily papers, readers got a whole Bible. The idea came from a marketing manager on the paper who contacted the Bible Society.

BIBLE FIRST: In the US, Christian “Millennials” (young adults) have a traditional view of scripture.

96 per cent see the Bible as the actual or inspired word of God, according to a new Barna survey.

81 per cent read a printed Bible.

TEEN READ: The Cross by Edward Surrey, a school teacher turned pastor, has won the CALEB award for best non-fiction. The book encourages teenage readers to investigate the teachings and lifestyle of Jesus. The CALEBS are awarded to Australian authors by Omega Writers Inc. FACEBOOK BATTLE: Canberra’s Hyatt Hotel’s star rating plunged from 4 stars to 2.9 after it was hit by gay activists for hosting the Australian Christian Lobby.

ACLers pushed it up to 4.2 stars.

To avoid extra admin fees, and gain access to exclusive online resources,

moore.edu.au/apply

apply by November 30 and we’ll save you a seat. Ph: 9577 9928

NOVEMBER 2014

E RIDLEY SPONSORED PAGE 4

Growing as a Christian while learning online Educational Designer, Diane Hockridge talks about the spiritual formation challenges and opportunities that online learning presents for students & their mentors.

Until recently, theological education in Australia has been primarily a campus-based experience. The physical gathering of students and teachers together provides fantastic opportunities to build a community of learners where Christ-like character can be modelled, and where students can be guided, mentored and encouraged in their spiritual formation.

Over the next five years Ridley College plans to substantially expand the number of subjects and courses we make available online. As we do so, a question that commonly arises is “What about spiritual formation?”

As we develop our online courses and formation programs, there is a great deal of expertise in good practice we can draw on for helping students to learn at a distance and for developing learning communities. We should remember too that distance education also has strong biblical credentials, the apostle Paul was an excellent distance educator.

As we think about formation we are considering how we can help

our students grow in Christ-like character and minister to others in these newer digital spaces and communities. Our task is to work out how we can assist our students to both learn content and to grow spiritually, integrating their learning with life and ministry practice.

We are at a point in time where developments in webbased technologies and social media have already substantially changed the educational experience and expectations of learners and teachers. Our students and those they minister to are now communicating, accessing resources, and learning in many different ways, using an increasing array of technologies.

Our task is to work out how we can help our students not only learn content but to grow spiritually and be able to integrate their learning with life and ministry practice. Our online courses won’t be just a collection of individual subjects. We are developing a three-pronged approach to formation which will be embedded in the online program.

This will include: - guided spiritual formation subjects; - guided practical experience through learning in context with partner churches and ministry organisations;

- individual mentoring, which will provide space for seeking direction, for personal application and for critical reflection on learning and managing challenges of ministry.

When it comes to formation in theological education I think we need to be intentional and humble.

Intentional because we don’t want to assume that formation will just happen around the edges of what we do. Rather we seek to develop a clear strategy that intentionally addresses student formation in all that we do, whether on campus or online. And humble because we

recognise that a person’s spiritual formation is a lifelong process, guided by God through his Word, his Spirit and his people, in a myriad of connections, encounters and experiences. An individual’s formal theological education experience is just one element of this, which we at Ridley have an opportunity to contribute to.

Diane is completing a PhD in Education in which she is exploring learning design for formational learning in online theological education.

Find out more at: www.ridley.edu.au/online

Ridley Online

Ridley Online provides worldclass theological education, designed to offer you a unique online learning experience.

Lessons are presented on a customised learning platform that is simple to navigate with easy access to learning tools.

There are a variety of activities & quality multimedia presentations so the learning experience is clear, interesting and engaging.

Your Christian character is developed through a mentoring program that includes guided reflection which is integrated into your ministry setting.

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IN DEPTH

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DON’T MISS OUR FEATURE ON REAL FEAR with RUTH ADAMS*, DAVID LEBRON* and ALLISON HOWELL Image: iStock.com

During the Share The Benefit event participants are given a brief taste of poverty.

Share the benefit SOPHIA RUSSELL

When you’re living on the Newstart allowance, the simple pleasures in life – takeaway coffee, pizza with friends, ice-cream at the beach – are out of reach.

It’s a hardship I can’t appreciate, living with a husband who has a steady source of income. But I got to experience a small taste of this reality last month, when along with 150 other people from St Paul’s Anglican in Sydney’s north west, I spent a week eating on a budget equivalent to the Newstart allowance.

The challenge was part of Share The Benefit, a five-week event created by Anglicare to give Christians a taste of poverty in Australia. Participants record how much money they spend onn feed in an average week, then live on a reduced amount equivalent to the Newstart allowance. They donate the difference between the two budgets to Anglicare.

The programme – which also includes Bible studies on poverty – was introduced last year and has been run by seven churches in Sydney suburbs such as Vaucluse, Kiama and Carlingford. I took

“

I took part because I wanted to challenge my own assumptions about life on government benefits.

part because I wanted to challenge my own assumptions about life on government benefits. A week on a reduced food budget is only a glimpse into the complexities of poverty, says Andrew Ford, director of pastoral care and mission development at Anglicare, but it’s a start. “It’s sometimes hard to understand there are people who live on the edges of society … rather than just having people dole out money from their pockets, we wanted them to understand the situation of the people [Anglicare] interacts with,” he says.

Ford is right; many of us have

no idea how much some people struggle. Households that rely on allowances such as the Disability Support Pension, the single parenting payment and Newstart live on less than $1000 a fortnight.

After subtracting money for rent, transport and utilities, this leaves a family like mine – two adults and two young children – with $110.23 a week to spend on groceries: significantly less than the $250 I usually spend feeding our family.

With this amount, I began the challenge on Monday at my local Aldi for the weekly grocery shop.

Budgeting is familiar terrain for

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NOVEMBER 2014

Share the benefit

Image: iStock.com

my family, but I wasn’t used to shopping solely on a week-by-week basis. Even though bulk buying is more economical in the long run, I couldn’t afford to buy 1kg of cheese or a 10kg sack of rice. When you have just over $100 to feed the family, $30 for a bag of rice is a stretch. I also couldn’t afford the incidental items I usually purchase.

Dessert was off the menu. I avoided my favourite health food shops, wondering how people with food allergies survive when specialty items are so expensive. My kids howled in protest when we walked past our bakery without buying finger buns, giving me insight into the guilt parents might feel when their children go without.

These sacrifices have an emotional impact – something which Dr Wendy Moran, education consultant and research fellow at the Australian Catholic University, discovered when she participated in the programme. The mother of three children aged 21, 18 and 15 was given $193 to spend on groceries instead of her usual budget of $380. “My daughter had several school parties and wasn’t able to bring anything. We went to a friend’s house and brought nothing, when we would usually bring a bottle of wine,” says Dr Moran.

“Socially it has an impact because you can’t be ‘fair’ in taking turns to shout food and we Australians are big on that. You pay back things; it’s very strong in our culture. I hated not being generous and my pride was affected.”

Just hanging on: Some participants ... found themselves unusually grateful to be offered free cups of coffee.

Gabrielle Upton, NSW Minister for Family and Community Services, observed a similar sentiment when she visited St Michael’s Vaucluse last year during Share the Benefit. “Some participants … found themselves unusually grateful to be offered free cups of coffee by friends and colleagues and that being

grateful for such things was a new and somewhat uncomfortable experience,” she reflected in a parliamentary address. “Others said that they understood why people on the Newstart allowance would withdraw from regular social activities as they could not afford to participate.”

I had a similar experience

while on the allowance. Last year, Families Minister Jenny Macklin controversially claimed she could live on the Newstart allowance of $38 a day. There is some truth to her claim; you will not die of starvation living off the Newstart allowance. By the end of the week, we were still able to eat, albeit cobbled together meals in smaller

portions than we are used to. But although you can survive, there are few resources for much else. There is no money for going out with friends. You have less consumer power to choose nutritious food (a kilo of Homebrand chicken nuggets is cheaper than a kilo of fresh chicken). There is nothing left over to save, no financial buffer.

Although my food budget was limited, I was still able to take my son to the paediatrician and buy petrol. I would not have been able to afford these things if I was living solely on benefits.

How are Christians to respond to such hardship? Share the Benefit’s Bible studies, based on the gospels and the book of Acts, are a helpful way to kick-start this conversation.

Ford says some Christians found the studies sparked talk about what their churches are doing to address poverty in the community.

In my own growth group, the studies challenged our unwitting stereotypes of those who live on benefits. “Living as a disciple of Jesus isn’t just about fitting into normal social structures or believing a set of truth statements,” says Ford. “It should actually transform our lives, change our priorities and change the way we think about the people around us.”

A restricted food budget wasn’t enough to fully comprehend financial hardship, but it was an effective entry point into the experience of poverty and a challenge to – as Jesus did – love those in need.

We love people.

We love the Bible.

We want to see the Good News in every language.

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NOVEMBER 2014

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Hope for the Pacific Islands SOPHIE TIMOTHY

Image: Sophie Timothy / World Vision

As I sit in the World Vision Solomon Islands office with a room full of pastors, moisture lingers in the air, forming sweat beads on my brow. The air conditioner is on, but my body isn’t responding just yet.

At the front of the room, the facilitator of the workshop takes a poll: “Is it OK to discipline your wife?”

Everyone thinks for a moment before taking sides. Once decisions have been made, discussion begins.

One pastor pipes up in defence of physical discipline. He reasons: When Jesus said “turn the other cheek” what he meant was that it’s OK to slap someone with the back of your hand as a form of discipline, but when you punch them in the other direction, it becomes violence, and that’s not OK. It’s my first taste of what is an endemic problem in the Solomon Islands and the Pacific region more broadly. Seen as culturally acceptable, violence against women is prevalent right across the region, and sadly, the church is complicit, often perpetuating the problem through false teaching.

A landmark study published in 2009 found that 64 per cent of women in the Solomons had suffered physical or sexual violence, or both, from an intimate partner.

And this is in a country where 97 per cent of the population identifies as Christian.

Hoping to tackle distorted views of gender, World Vision established the Channels of Hope for Gender programme in the Solomons three years ago. Run across a number of days, the programme begins by examining existing cultural misunderstandings, and then moves to re-educate pastors using Bible passages like Genesis 1:27 to establish values like equality of status before God, and a husband’s duty of care for his wife (Col 3:19).

The Australian Government has partnered with World Vision to fund the programme which has now been run in a number of villages, as well as within the Solomon Islands police force. What makes this all the more remarkable is that Channels of Hope is a Biblebased programme.

The Australian Government, no doubt, has realised that faith leaders are the most influential people in Solomons culture, and the way to see change is to leverage the faith the majority of Islanders profess.

During my week in the Solomons I see people of great beauty,

Sister Christina from the Christian Care Centre for abused women and children in Honiara with enormous hearts and a contagious passion for God. But I also see poverty and a country where subjugation of women is normalised.

One afternoon we’re driven down a dirt road through thick vegetation. None of us know where we’re going, only that we’re visiting a refuge for women and children who’ve been abused. Stepping out of the minibus we’re struck by the beauty of the nearby ocean, lapping at the shoreline dotted with coconut palms. But the peaceful view belies the reality of where we are.

Inside, we meet Sister Christina, who volunteers here full-time with the Sisters of the Church of Melanesia in exchange for a bed, food and basic living expenses.

She explains to us that the Christian Care Centre was designed as a place where dedicated care and rehabilitation could take place in privacy and safety. Women and children stay for anywhere between a few days, to a year, or more if

necessary. At the moment, it is the only refuge available to women across the Solomon Islands.

As we sit and chat, Sister Christina shares stories of the women and children who’ve come through their doors. From women beaten by their husbands to a young girl abused by her cousin, the Sisters have seen it all.

“I’ve learned a lot here, even though it’s challenging,” Sister Christina, who is single, tells us.

“I’ve come across things I’ve never experienced before. I didn’t know these things were an issue, but it’s opened my mind to the reality.”

In a sense, the Christian Care Centre is responding to gender violence after the horse has bolted.

Channels of Hope is trying to prevent gender violence from happening in the first place.

Later in the week, World Vision takes us to the Sun Valley village in Honiara where the Channels of Hope programme was piloted in the Solomons three years ago.

There we meet Fred Sikini, a

45-year-old village chief. Fred shares openly with us about the way he strayed from his faith as a young man, drinking and partying with the wrong crowd. He says it affected his marriage, which quickly became violent.

“I was an abuser. I was a violent man. I drove my car very fast.

Other people saw me as a negative, violent man; my own children were scared of me,” he says.

Part of Fred’s misunderstanding around gender was due to his own abusive childhood, but it was also a product of culture. In the Solomons, men pay a sum of money to a woman’s family to marry their daughter. Fred said he thought because he’d paid such a large amount of money for his wife, he expected her to do everything he wanted, which led to violence when she didn’t. “I used to regard women as below, because we buy our wives,” he told us.

But then he was invited along to Channels of Hope. “It took me through the stages of ordered

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creation, disordered creation and reordered creation. I realised all my problems came from the disordered creation.

“I learned ... that men and women are equal, complementary, should have mutual respect and interdependence.” With a big smile on his face, he tells us, “I know now, women are queens!”

For Fred, Channels of Hope has been life-changing. “It’s like a bullet entered me and dismantled me,” he says, touching his heart. “All this power is going into me, because the Bible is right.”

It’s a story repeated across the world where World Vision has run Channels of Hope. Due to its success, the programme will be rolled out in other Pacific nations, including Vanuatu and TimorLeste in coming months, where similar problems are encountered.

The hope is that the transformation seen in Fred’s life will be experienced by thousands of others.

Sophie travelled to the Solomons as a guest of World Vision.

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On Ebola’s front line Local Christians in West Africa visit the sick ALLISON HOWELL IN GHANA Shek Yayah Conteh, a Muslim cleric, was a lecturer at the Northern Polytechnic in Makeni, Sierra Leone. In the early phases of the Ebola virus outbreak in Sierra Leone, he participated in the washing of a dead person who later was suspected to have had the Ebola virus. Although Conteh’s home is currently quarantined in Makeni, a Christian, the Rev. Karim Kelvin Koroma has been visiting the home to ensure that those left there have adequate food, and to pray and encourage them. Just this past week he witnessed the district burial team removing the corpse of the seventh victim in this family of 12. The pain and devastation of the Ebola outbreak has, for many people in the affected contexts, seemed like drowning in a tumultuous flood.

Last May, Kelvin and I stood on the verandah of the AkrofiChristaller Institute (a Christian Research University in Ghana) discussing the final submission of his MTh dissertation for examination. We had both heard about the outbreak of the Ebola virus, but it seemed insignificant at the time. I got to know Kelvin well while supervising his dissertation.

I admired his commitment and constant positive attitude and gratitude even when I covered the pages of his work with corrections in red ink.

Kelvin returned to his wife Zainab and their children in their home in Makeni, Sierra Leone, in June and was immediately confronted with the reality of the outbreak of the Ebola virus.

As the virus spread, Kelvin who is director of church ministries and the second in charge of the Wesleyan Church in Sierra Leone, convinced his fellow ministers to participate in efforts to combat the Ebola virus in the northern Bombali District. Initially, they were involved in “sensitising” and comforting the families in 28 quarantined homes in their township. Kelvin’s team implemented the hygienic and preventive measures recommended by the health authorities for interacting with quarantined homes. Kelvin is also involved in visiting quarantined houses as the numbers of confirmed Ebola virus cases in Makeni grow weekly.

Kelvin and his team visit the

quarantined homes at least three times a week.

Usually, when they visit the homes, they attempt to find out how much food has been supplied to them and endeavour to supplement this, especially where there are small children. They pray with the families and share the word of God to encourage them.

They have also raised support from their own church ministers for the quarantined homes. A group of them, representing the Wesleyan Church, travelled to Freetown to meet the President and to give some gifts towards alleviating the Ebola virus outbreak. Kelvin was soon granted an official pass to travel around Sierra Leone running Sensitisation Workshops for pastors wherever they are needed. These workshops are facilitated by the health education personnel of the district health management team.

They involve sharing medical information on the Ebola virus such as its history, signs and symptoms; updated information on the number of infected persons, the dead, those undergoing treatment and survivors; and preventive

“

Economically, life is coming to a standstill in many areas.

There are huge obstacles to overcome such as cultural barriers and the sheer disbelief and denial that Ebola is real.

and control measures. They also examine the cultural and traditional practices that hinder the prevention, control and eventual eradication of the Ebola virus outbreak.

The third aspect of the sensitisation drive is to listen to pastors’ experiences in their localities, learn how they preach about the outbreak and participate in comforting the quarantined persons in terms of their psychological and spiritual needs. Kelvin then compiles the sermons at the end of the rounds of the sensitisation drives or workshops.

During one such trip to the village of Kamakwie in northern Sierra Leone, they discovered that a pastor, showing hospitality, unknowingly hosted an infected woman and she died overnight in the home. The postmortem results confirmed that she died of Ebola. The pastor’s home was immediately quarantined and he could not attend the sensitisation workshop because of this act of kindness in a medical emergency.

During the three-day lock down from 18 to 21 September, aimed at stemming the epidemic, Kelvin spent the time with his wife, four other pastors and the wife of

another pastor. 6 million Sierra Leone residents were ordered to stay indoors for the three days, while volunteers could visit households and educate them and medical staff could isolate the sick and remove the dead. But Kelvin obtained a pass to visit quarantined homes in Makeni to give the people much needed encouragement.

They also discovered some very sad situations and were able to liaise with the health authorities in Makeni to give urgent attention to some sick people who were not receiving treatment.

In these very challenging circumstances, Kelvin also managed to complete the final corrections in his MTh dissertation during the three-day lock down and to submit it for clearance for graduation.

Economically, life is coming to a standstill in many areas. There are huge obstacles to overcome such as cultural barriers and the sheer disbelief and denial that Ebola is real. Many unhelpful rumours keep circulating even from educated sources in the West.

It is now clear to us in West Africa that the West has finally woken up to the severity of the situation.

Many more medical personnel are desperately needed. In the meantime, people like Kelvin and his church are trying to play their part to relieve distress.

The Akrofi-Christaller Institute (www.acighana.org) has opened up channels for students, staff and friends to give money and other gifts to be sent to Kelvin and the Wesleyan Church, Sierra Leone, to assist their ministry of providing food and for the purchase of cleaning products, protective clothing, and transport costs.

In addition, Kelvin’s church has taken up the care of orphans such as the two children in the photo, the only Ebola virus survivors out of a family of seven in their church in Makeni. For Australians who desire to give gifts, please contact Allison Howell at amhowell@acighana.org for further details.

Allison Howell is Dean of Research, Akrofi-Christaller Institute of Theology, Culture and Mission This story is used with the permission of Rev. Karim Kelvin Koroma and the Wesleyan Church, Sierra Leone.

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Jazz man on a mission from God MADELEINE KOO

service, he believed the Lord wanted him to study theology so as to be better equipped to be a musician in the secular world.

“The message from the Lord was clear: ‘be my witness to musicians and artists, pastoring and sharing the gospel, by being where they are, being who you are, for my glory’,” Richard says.

He went to Moore College and then Sydney Missionary and Bible College and was appointed as a “jazz catechist” by the Dean of Sydney Phillip Jensen to reach out to musicians at St Andrew’s Cathedral and lead a Bible study at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Richard’s eclectic background melds Christian ministry and the music scene, which for many are incompatible as oil and water.

Artists are often on the fringes of church life or disenfranchised by institutional religion altogether.

“Music is such an incredible gift from God – yet so many musos [are] either angry towards God and his church, or [see] no relevance. It’s cool to be an atheist,” he says.

After many years of reaching out to musicians through one-toone discipleship, Richard and his wife Ali started the “the Muso Hang” in their home in 2007. It was a mix of a music jam, a party and a church service. Crowds of sometimes 30 or 40 would snuggle up in a lounge room around a double bass and a drum kit. Christ

Richard Maegraith would be a handy person to have on your church music team.

Not only is he an awardwinning jazz saxophonist, he is just as happy playing classical clarinet or rock drums. If pressed, he can even strum out a few worship choruses on the guitar too. Richard’s life is filled with the joy of music, yet he gladly admits that it ranks a poor second to his relationship with Jesus Christ.

Richard was brought up in an Anglican church but it wasn’t until his late teens that he came to faith. The year was 1993.

“When I was 19, I first saw that Jesus had a claim on my life and that I was someone whose heart was given over to all kinds of things other than him,” Richard says.

“For the first time I knew that he was the only one who could provide the forgiveness that I desperately needed.”

It’s tempting to assume Richard Maegraith’s faith journey has been all about the music, but there’s more to the story than that.

The father of four was a member of the Royal Australian Air Force from 2002 to 2007 and served in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a corporal, he was able to share the gospel with many work colleagues in the context of working with the RAAF band.

After completing his RAAF

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was proclaimed in a familiar and relaxed atmosphere.

From there, they planted the Freedom of the Artist Church in Marrickville. This was a community of believers seeking to use music creatively in worship and to arouse the curiosity of local musicians. “I always knew that I needed Jesus,” says a Sydney bass player, “but I’ve now realised what that actually means.”

Richard always had a sense that God was directing him towards evangelism. “From 1993 when I became a follower of Jesus to the present, I have sought to share the hope that I have in Jesus with any secular music colleague (and anyone else) who has enquired about my faith,” Richard says.

From next year Richard and Ali plan to take their four boys across the world to Berlin as workers with European Christian Mission.

They will be church planting among immigrants, artists and others, using the experiences of the last few years, to connect with the lost and broken.

From a teenager who first realised that Jesus was his Lord to now, where he is preparing his own children for life as missionary kids, Richard says he is humbled every day to know that God wants to use even him for his wonderful purposes in his world.

“God in his love comes to us in our brokenness, so that we can be available to share Jesus with others who are broken too.”

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TESTIMONY

10

NOVEMBER 2014

Some people have reason to fear: not us Two missionaries give us perspective on the real world

1

RUTH ADAMS*

“I definitely can’t do this.

Do you think I can back out?” I was talking with my sister the night before I left for a country in Central Asia, picturing myself dodging bullets and jumping into trenches. I felt the dread in the pit of my stomach, the elevated beating of my heart, the tensing of my muscles and the sweaty palms.

I was afraid.

Then I landed in Central Asia. I met its kind, gentle, loyal people. I ate their food, drank endless cups of their tea, and experienced their protection. My fear faded in the face of reality and I realised the source of my fear: ignorance.

I wonder how often our fear in Australia has the same source? We hear only the smallest snippets of world news in the media, which prioritises sensation over accuracy.

We discuss Islam and its dangers at length in our Christian circles, but how many of us have taken the time to ask an actual Muslim what Islam means to them? How many of us hear only of arrests for suspected terrorist activity, and never hear the follow-up that those charges were dismissed? Perhaps we too fear bullets where the reality is cups of tea.

That’s not to say that, at times, there aren’t legitimate reasons to fear. Having lived in an extremist Muslim country, I can testify to this better than most. Last year, a university lecturer identified my blood as halal for anyone

“

Image: iStock.com

Last year, a university lecturer identified my blood as halal for anyone who spilled it. who spilled it, promising them an eternal reward for doing so.

When I was called into the security meeting to discuss that threat, I felt the familiar dread settle in the pit of my stomach. I am grateful to work with an organisation that recognised this threat and acted to protect me. As Christians, we are to steward God’s resources wisely, including the lives of his followers.

At the same time, as I felt the sweat on the palms of my hands, I was reminded of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, so afraid that he was sweating blood and pleading with God to remove the cup of suffering. While I wasn’t at the point of sweating blood, I certainly identified with Jesus’ experience of being afraid. So his response was instructive for me. It left no room for hatred. Despite his fear, Jesus chose the way of love. He went to the cross and there won salvation for all who would give him their allegiance, including his persecutors.

As Christians in Australia, we are not in the same position as Jesus. We are not headed towards certain or even likely execution. Let’s remember that in Australia we are still more likely to die from falling off a ladder than from a terrorist attack. Still, the government has raised the threat level for Australia, and so we sometimes feel afraid, just like Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane.

So let’s respond like Jesus did as well: with love. Let’s quiet the insults hurled on the street at a woman with a headscarf or the man with a beard. Let’s invite the Muslim family over the road for dinner and make sure the food is halal. Let’s advocate for the humane treatment of refugees.

Let’s allow the cross to shape our behavior, knowing that the outcome is secure. Let’s rest, knowing that even at the bleakest moment of history, God was accomplishing the great act of his kingdom, and is doing no less now.

2

DAVID LEBRON*

I have never experienced sheer and utter terror, the threat of death by beheading/gun shot/bombing. The mere thought of it worries me, as my family and I live here in the Middle East. We are seeing people fleeing for their lives because of war and oppression. A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from a brother living under trying circumstances in the Middle East. He describes in crushing detail what his life will become. That is, he fears he will be another victim of war as rockets bomb buildings around him. Our brother is facing death. This seems to be a daily occurrence for him.

In one sense, it is natural to fear these things. Fear is a natural part of life in a fallen and broken world.

We may not be under the threat of bombs or war, but there may be other fears that we have in our lives.

It may not be something as severe as a terrorist threat, but it could be something traumatic still. One of your loved ones may be sick. Your job might be unstable. It could even be that you fear you are not a Christian.

But what I want to say to you, is that we should never let fear consume us. That is, when we are faced with fears, it hangs overhead like a dark cloud. It is inevitable that we will face fears sooner or later. But we cannot allow it to control us and the lives of those around us.

Even with these terror threats in Australia, we should never allow for

this to consume us with fear.

So what about these terror threats? Who do we actually fear?

What should we be doing in light of fear?

The antidote to fear is the love of God. Let us not dwell in fear. Hear what Paul says: For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

(Romans 8:38–39 ESV) Paul describes things that cannot separate us from the love of God. This includes the things we fear.

How can we overcome fear? The love of God overcomes fear because of Jesus’ death at the cross. We should only be fearful of things of this world if there is no hope afterwards. But the death and resurrection of Jesus shows us that there is hope after death. We should not fear death nor fear those who threaten us with death. Death is not the final answer. Instead, love is the final answer. Not just any love but divine love. Love from above shown through Jesus Christ.

And this love of God would drive us to pray for those who are our enemies and for those who persecute us. Remember that we too were enemies of God and it is by his grace that we are saved. So will we pray for our enemies? Will we pray for those who persecute us? * Names have been changed for protection.

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by Ann Voskamp 9781414397542 $29.95 Book Extract In the beginning – that is when this story begins. Which is far better than a story that begins with any old “once upon a time”. This story is better than the greatest fairy tale you’ve ever heard – because this story is all true. And this story is our story – your story.

Your story starts with a kiss.

That’s how God made people: He gathered up some dust and dirt. He shaped and sculpted the dirt into what looked like a person – eyes sort of like your eyes and a nose

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t’s the summ er of 1933, and Oxford better know don C. S. n to his frien Lewis, ds as Jack, holiday with is on a walk his brother ing Warnie and Tom Morr is. When young frien destroyed, Jack’s walle d they visit a t is accid bank to reple entally walk straig nish their ht into the funds—an scene of an d impossible The victim murd er. is in the basem ent of the by brick and bank, alone steel from , cut off the rest of has been the world—a stabbed from nd yet he behind and has vanished. the murder weapon It’s a ‘lock ed room’ mystery that cleverest sleut would have hs of the Gold baffled the but it’s being en Age of detec tackled by tive stories— the brilliant than-life perso mind and nality of C. largerNarnia and S. Lewis: beloved creat formidabl e defender or of of the Chri The first in stian faith a new series . of C. S. Lewi s Mysteries. . . .

Kel Rich ards is an author, journ Kel presented alist and broa Word Watc dcaster. h on ABC and is the bestselling radio for 12 years author of Corpse and The Case of The Aussie the Vanishing Bible. He curre Night Open ntly hosts Line Show The Sunday and Kel Rich Day on Radi ards’ Word o 2CH-117 0 in Sydney. of the

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kind of like yours and a mouth a lot like yours – and then the real God, the Father-King of the whole universe, knelt close and closer and closer until His very breath breathed on our skin, and His life and love filled us until we were warm and fully alive! Your story begins with a kiss.

See how everyone everywhere is putting up Christmas trees – tall ones and wide ones and small ones? And when you open up God’s love letter to us, the Bible, do you know what you find? You find the family tree of Jesus. You find the stories that trace the branches of Jesus’s family, the limbs of the tree that go back to His greatgreat-great-grandfather and to that many-many-many-greatgrandmother. And you go all the way back to the very beginning – to our beginning. And when you’re tracing that family tree of

NE W Kel Richards brings us a new mystery novel just in time for Summer.

Rediscover C S Lewis as an accidental sleuth whose insights and observations might just be enough to solve the case.

“

Your story begins with a kiss ...

Jesus, guess what you find? People who were big cheaters, fighting families, and all the beaten up and brokenhearted. (Ever know any families like that?)

One of those many-many-manygreat-great-great grandfathers of Jesus was Jesse. And things got so rotten that his family tree looked more like the stump of a tree cut right off. But out of that choppedoff stump of a family tree came the miraculous impossible, right out of the stump. This budding branch – this green shoot of new hope, new starts, new freedom for the whole family, was Jesus!

If you open these pages every day of December, much like opening the flaps of a calendar counting down the days to Christmas, and you read each story of Jesus’ family tree, and you hang the ornaments from each story on a little (or big or wide or tall) tree of your own, you’ll have what we call a Jesse Tree – a picture of Jesus’ own family tree.

God doesn’t cut off all the big cheaters, bad liars, weaselly sneakers, battling

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brothers, fighting families and brokenhearted from His family tree – He makes families just like these perfectly His! He adopts all the messy and broken and imperfect people into His tree and His story and His Heart, and He gives us His family name. He gives us His family name. He gives us His absolute perfectness and makes us alive and fully free.

Jesus comes right to your Christmas tree and looks at your family tree and says, “I am your Rescuer, and I will set you free from all the brokenness and sinfulness and sadness. I’ll be the Gift, and I’ll take you. Will you take Me? Will you want Me?” Come and don’t miss Jesus.

Come, and unwrap His story, the most unbeatable, unstoppable, unfailing love story – a story that is better than the best fairy tale, because it’s all true.

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Growing with Jesus

by Andy Holmes 9781400324071 Hardcover

Who is this Child?

by John Ortberg 9780310326885 Paperback

Love Does

by Bob Goff 9781400203758 Paperback

Palace of Darkness

by Tracy Higley 9781401687502 Paperback

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by Ann Voskamp 9781414397542

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Growing with Jesus is a terrific book of devotions for families with younger children.

It contains 100 easy to read and engaging minute devotions and my six and four-year-olds love it.

Each devotion starts with a Bible verse. This is followed by a couple of paragraphs of thoughts, which connect the verse to a young child’s daily life.

Each devotion finishes with a practical activity to reinforce the concept that has just been taught.

This might range from making a butterfly craft to doing something kind for someone you don’t like.

To round it all off there is an interesting little fact about God’s amazing world. Did you know “a Dall porpoise can go without sleep for three years”?

My kids find these facts quite fascinating and all they want to do is read on.

I highly recommend this book as a way to help you lead your family in devotions, but I’ll leave the last word to my six-year-old daughter who – when I asked what she liked about it – replied, “It talks about Jesus.”

John Ortberg brings the birth of Jesus to life, exploring the sorrow and injustices that Jesus came to fix. He reminds us that people of the time simply abandoned unwanted babies. Even today unwanted babies continue to be cast away, though in a deceptively clinical and sterilised setting. Ortberg reminds us of King Herod who, fearing Jesus might take his crown, slaughtered young children. King Herod was regarded as semi-divine – or at least wanted to be. Yet Jesus, the truly divine king, chose to be born as a child.

He later began proclaiming that “the first shall be last and the last shall be first.” He even declared children heirs of the kingdom of heaven. As Ortberg says, he began a revolution, “a slow quiet movement that began at the bottom of society” and brought blessings to the “poor in spirit, the meek and the persecuted”. This kingdom of the “Great Inversion” was then made reality through the “Great Reversal” – the divine and pure King of Kings dying for the sins of the world. The booklet tells us an old, old story of a child born to change the world. It is a subversive story of a quiet revolution. May the revolution continue in your town this Christmas.

BRAND NEW BIBLES!

It’s not often that an author writes his phone number at the end of his book. Bob Goff does. Why? The answer lies in his belief that Love Does. Through a series of hilarious incidents in his own life Bob shows how love doesn’t stop at nice thoughts or warm feelings. Love takes action. Love is audacious, whimsical, strategic and contagious.

As a college student he sailed half way across the Pacific Ocean with five guys and a crate of tinned meat. Bob became the Ugandan consul after saying yes to a prank.

He took his kids on a world tour to eat pastries with 29 heads of state.

Each story reflects a shift in Bob’s thinking about life and faith. Bob muses: “I used to think God guided us by opening and closing doors, but now I know sometimes God wants us to kick some doors down.”

Bob’s grades didn’t get him into law school, so he sat on a bench outside the dean’s office for seven days until they finally let him enroll. Whenever my husband and I read this chapter aloud with friends, we wonder together what doors God wants us to kick down.

Bob believes the most influential people in his life have also been the most available. That’s why he lists his phone number.

Palace of Darkness tells the story of a mother’s desperate search for safe haven and stability for herself and her son. Seeking help from family in the city of Petra, instead Cassia finds opposition, and her son is taken from her. She also finds herself surrounded by a different family, a group of believers whose generosity and genuine concern for Cassia and her son draw them into danger.

Cassia’s journey is one of strength through adversity, and of learning where true strength lies.

Setting her story in AD 106 against the temporal backdrop of the persecution of the Christians under Trajan, Higley intertwines fact with fiction to create her account of the dangers faced by a church in the city of Petra. The reference to the martyrdom of many believers around the Roman Empire, including Ignatius of Antioch, strengthens this sense of time and place. Higley’s depth of language artfully brings the city and its inhabitants to life and beautifully conveys the characters’ stories.

Although the setting is far removed from modern experience, the characters face relatable challenges, such as learning to trust and rely on God’s strength and wisdom, and follow his will, rather than relying on their own strength and plans.

This book is a delightful retelling of Bible stories according to the advent tradition known as the Jesse Tree.

Each day of advent is celebrated with a Bible reading, a beautifully illustrated Bible story, questions for family discussion, and a simple activity for further reflection as you begin making your own Jesse Tree.

The Jesse Tree is inspired by the prophecy of Isaiah that “a shoot will spring forth from the stump of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots.”

The daily readings lead us from Creation through the Old Testament stories and the descendants of Jesse until finally the “Father-King” sends the long-awaited “Son-King” (Jesus) to rescue us.

This is more than just a children’s book. Ann is a gifted storyteller who draws together symbols and fills them with meaning for all ages.

Those who read One Thousand Gifts will know that Ann has experienced many years of grief and pain. Perhaps this helps her draw out the deep emotional side to Bible stories. The real sorrow and joy found in these stories can resonate with our present pain and invoke in us a greater longing and yearning for the return of the Son-King, the same anticipation we experience each Christmas.

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Life in 2014 is characterised by often being chaotic and frantic. We are all time-poor and struggle to balance work, family, church, and relationships. Even the stay-athome mums are so busy balancing kids, housework and relationships, that they struggle for alone time. So when we are all grappling for some time out to just sit and breathe, the time we spend with the Lord on a daily basis can be hurried and stiff.

Many women resolve this timepoor issue by reading Christian books that encourage and inspire, or a daily devotional that spoon feeds us someone else’s thoughts and interpretations, rather than feeding ourselves with God’s pure word. Is it any wonder then that we don’t grow or mature as we should, and that we stay reliant on others to feed us spiritually when we should be doing the hard work ourselves?

In her new book, Women Of The Word, Jen Wilkins addresses this issue with startling clarity, and with a set of practices that help women to read and study the Bible for themselves. Wilkins beckons

women to become biblically literate and explains why it matters so much. She says of sound Bible study, “The Bible does not want to be neatly packaged into threehundred-and-sixty-five-day increments. It does not want to be reduced into truisms and action points. It wants to introduce dissonance into your thinking, to stretch your understanding. It wants to reveal a mosaic of the

majesty of God one passage at a time, one day at a time, across a lifetime.”

And with that in mind she teaches women the art of Bible study in a process she calls the Five P’s of Sound Study – Purpose, Perspective, Patience, Process, and Prayer. There is a chapter dedicated to each of the steps, with the use of examples from her life and experiences, as well as some funny anecdotes.

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This book shows women that they can be trusted to study the Bible for themselves, rather than reading what someone else has learnt. She explains that there is a place for good commentaries, but not as an alternative to good, solid study of the Bible.

With so many Christian books on the market filled with inspiration and advice from others, this book is a breath of fresh air. It shows women that not only are they capable of studying the Bible themselves, but that they are responsible for their own growth and study. This book offers good, simple advice in a manner that is engaging and heart-warming. The author’s love for the Lord and his Word is evident on every page.

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NOVEMBER 2014

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Specials!

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HUGE REDUCTIONS ACROSS THE RANGE Beginners Super Duper Activity Book

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Order online at specials.biblesociety.org.au mail to Locked Bag 7003 Minto NSW 2566 call 1300 139 179 For mail order, please include the item numbers and titles of products requested, as well has your contact and payment details. Also add postage costs to your total order (Orders $0-$30 Postage $6.95; Orders $31-$60 Postage $7.95; Orders $61-$250 Postage $9.95).

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While we endeavour to use correct illustration in this catalogue, final product delivered may have changeddesign without our notice. All prices quoted are in Australian dollars and include GST.

NOVEMBER 2014

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CULTURE

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ON SCREEN SNOWPIERCER The weirdest action movie of the year, enjoyable Snowpiercer is set in 2031. The world is totally covered by ice, because global warming “solutions” went bad. The only known survivors are aboard one bullet train. Powered by perpetual motion, the “Snowpiercer” chugs on a track that loops around the world.

Passengers are divided into First Class, and Cattle Class.

Led by Captain America star Chris Evans, the Cattle Class are imprisoned by those at the front of the train. Even though civilisation has been wiped out, class warfare remains.

And Curtis (Evans) intends to change carriages. All the way to whoever conducts this moving caste system.

Based on a graphic novel, Snowpiercer contains sequences of overblown violence that may rattle you. But, overall, this journey into the grim future highlights the power of hope, in the face of tyrannical exploitation.

Salvation beyond the stars Interstellar Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine Directed by: Christopher Nolan Reviewed by BEN MCEACHEN Interstellar is the biggest movie of 2014. On screen at cinemas this month, Interstellar is a massive movie about space exploration and saving the human race. The latest all-star blockbuster from director Christopher Nolan, the guy behind The Dark Knight trilogy and Inception.

As with Nolan’s recent works, precise details about Interstellar have been guarded. However, trailers and interviews indicate how Interstellar takes real-world concerns about environmental damage, and rockets audiences into wormholes. In search of survival.

Led by Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway as intrepid astronauts, the Interstellar mission searches other galaxies for planets

we can inhabit. “We must confront the reality that nothing in our solar system can help us,” declares a scientist played by Michael Caine. Nothing. No appealing to a higher power, or seeking other assistance within the Milky Way’s neighbourhood. Nothing.

When Cooper (McConaughey) requests a rescue plan, the answer is out of this world: “We’re not meant to save the world. We’re meant to leave it, and this is the mission you were trained for.” Interstellar sets up an intriguing portrait of how humans take responsibility.

Especially when you think about the instructions God gave when he created everything. He told the first humans they should “multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it.” (Genesis 1:28) Yes, that’s right. God gave the entire planet to people. As their home, workplace and birthing centre.

But tenancy of Earth didn’t go smoothly. From Adam and Eve, to

the billions of residents presently dwelling in God’s creation, humans have caused huge damage to their surroundings. Interstellar deals with the fall-out, by presenting a solution which seems to ignore the source of the problem itself. “We will find a way,” believes Cooper.

“We always have.”

“We” is us. Humans. But doesn’t reliance upon ourselves, to sort out our own survival, seem comical?

Given we have contributed so heavily to it being in jeopardy. From warfare, to domestic violence. From global-warming strife, to litter at the beach. But Interstellar presents humans taking responsibility for the human race not being wiped out.

Why do they have any confidence, at all, in themselves? What about “nothing in our solar system can help us”? “We’ve always defined ourselves by the ability to overcome the impossible,” notes Cooper.

That’s an accurate assessment, of a

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common human outlook.

Interstellar blasts off with the notion that, despite so many, many, many examples to the contrary, humans proudly reckon they can do it themselves. Even if it seems impossible.

But salvation, for an entire planet? Can we really save ourselves? Jesus didn’t think so.

When asked “who can be saved?”, Jesus replied: “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Of course, Jesus was speaking about God’s plan for salvation. A plan stretching beyond this life, into the reality of eternal life. The only rescue plan, available to any who believe in the one – Jesus – sent to save humanity from its own destructive ways.

While the year’s biggest movie suggests we can dump this planet and possibly start again on another one, Interstellar also indicates how humans relying on humans is a fanciful solution for true salvation.

TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT A new film released this month aims to put a price on our sympathy. Two Days, One Night stars Academy Award winner Marion Cotillard as a French woman recovering from depression and seeking to reclaim her life. Sandra returns to the factory where she works to take up her job only to discover her fellow employees have been handed a hard decision. The company is facing difficult times and has to make savings. The CEO says he can either keep Sandra’s position or pay this year’s annual bonus – not both. 15 out of 18 of her colleagues vote for the bonus.

Sandra’s friend convinces the boss to allow them to put it to the workers a second time.

Sandra now has two days and one night to convince each of the 15 she is worth more than a thousand Euros.

Two Days, One Night is a world away from films like Captain America where the titular heroes regularly risk their lives for strangers. But it’s also a world closer to ours.

+ For the full reviews of these new release films, visit biblesociety.org.au/film-reviews

NOVEMBER 2014

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The ultimate gift for Christmas

“

And so began an online spiritual journey, sometimes sharing videos one on one with friends and sometimes just putting them out there for the world, and her husband, to see.

Julie gave her life to Jesus four years ago and hasn’t looked back. And while her husband liked the changes he saw in his wife, the whole religion thing just wasn’t for him. Even though she longed for the love of her life to come to the Lord, she soon discovered that sharing your faith with those closest to you can be tricky. But the thought of facing eternity without him was too much to bear.

Like many of us, Julie likes to share aspects of her life on Facebook and her new found faith was no exception. She discovered a website called yesHEis.com that was filled with short videos that touch on aspects of faith and then follows that up with a gospel video and an invitation to follow Jesus.

The site even seeks to plug new Christians in to a local church nearby. “Perfect!” she thought “I can share these videos with my friends on Facebook and my husband will see them too.”

And so began an online spiritual journey, sometimes sharing videos one on one with friends and sometimes just putting them out there for the world, and her husband, to see.

She could search through the yesHEis database to find the perfect video to suit each friend according to their interests

and what was happening in their lives. She found a video for a friend with depression.

Another for a couple with a rocky marriage. Even one for a friend’s son who was being bullied at school.

Through her personal dashboard, she could even tell how many people had watched her videos and made a decision for Christ.

This Christmas, Share Eternity.

At shareeternity.com We all love Christmas with Santa and gifts. It’s a great time to share with family and friends.This Christmas, why not also share the gift of eternity that can be received through a relationship with Jesus. It’s simple, just sign up to yesHEis and share Jesus online with your friends and family. It truly is the greatest gift.

Sign up to yesHEis and give the ultimate gift this Christmas at shareeternity.com #ShareEternity

yesHEis gives you access to the best, most sharable good news content on the web that won’t have you pausing over the share button. Every video is connected to an engaging and authentic presentation of the Gospel to give the viewer the opportunity to become a follower of Jesus.

Imagine her excitement when, one day out of the blue, her husband asked if he could go to church with her. That night he gave his life to the Lord and now he too shares evangelistic videos with his family and friends using yesHEis. At Christmas time we remember how God gave us the greatest gift - life eternal with Him through His Son Jesus. You too could give

the gift of eternity this Christmas using the yesHEis website or app.

Whenever you share content from yesHEis with friends or family, you don’t just share a great video or meaningful story, you also present them with an opportunity to be part of the greatest story on earth.

So, sign up to yesHEis and give the ultimate gift this Christmas.

NOVEMBER 2014

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BIBLE @ WORK

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SEE MORE ONLINE www. biblesociety. org.au

Ellen Condie (right) says that Bible-based literacy classes are helping Rwandans to trust in education and in one another again.

Teaching Rwandans to let go SUZANNE SCHOKMAN Schools are a scary place for many Rwandans, but not because of teachers or exams. The infamous 1994 genocide which claimed a million lives did not spare places of worship or learning, as Ellen Condie learned on a trip to the nation last year. “People were killed in large numbers in schools, so there’s a distrust of education.”

Yet, it’s in makeshift classrooms across the country that change is slowly but surely moving Rwanda on from its painful past.

At the time of her visit, 21-yearold Ellen was a Bible Society GodSpeak Advocate, who’d helped raise funds and awareness for the Bible Society’s literacy project in

Rwanda. In her month there, she helped to prepare lessons and to teach, and took photos of the Biblebased literacy project in action.

In the process she heard many chilling stories about the genocide, and how it had left great scars.

After the conflict, people stayed away from school because of its association with death, and for other reasons. Many families were left without breadwinners and older children had to work to help the family survive. The nation’s infrastructure was also shaken, and getting to school – those left intact – became harder. Sadly, many of those killed had been teachers, and education, like many other sectors in Rwanda after the genocide, faced a long road to

“

... Bible-based literacy classes have started to bring change. recovery. While education today is compulsory for those under 15, there’s an entire generation of people aged 30 and above who are ill-equipped to improve their lot.

But the Bible-based literacy classes have started to bring change.

Emmanuel Kayijuka, General Secretary of Bible Society Rwanda,

says teaching the Bible “educates someone in body, mind and spirit.”

As Rwandans learn to read and write using Scripture-based materials, they learn about forgiveness and how to let go of the past. Often, the classrooms are places for people to dialogue, and then realise “that my neighbours … are just like me.”

Bible Society Rwanda works with communities through the local church. Each church has a band of committed volunteers who undertake to be trained how to teach others. “Many of these are in the more remote areas that the government does not go into so much,” says Kayijuka.

In 2013, the programme reached more than 23,000 people. This

year, Bible Society Rwanda has extended its literacy class programme to six new districts.

By year end, it will have trained more than 800 people to become trainers themselves, passing on the life-changing skills of reading and writing to 15,720 Rwandans.

For many in Rwanda, this is a time for learning to move on. It’s taking place in the classroom, and the text is the Bible. + If you’d like to equip more people with the gift of literacy, and allow the Scriptures to bring newness to their lives, please donate at: biblesociety.org.au/eternity-rwanda

or by calling 1300 242 537.

All donations to this literacy project are tax-deductible.

NOVEMBER 2014

E NT CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS SPONSORED PAGE 18

We have lots of opportunities to talk about God and the world in which they live Marlene was working as a childcare worker at Batchelor, the nearest town 1 ½ hours from Woolaning, and Reg was a security officer at the Batchelor Institute. They are both from the Torres Strait Islands and grew up in that culture. Why did they take on the responsibility of being house parents to 12 Indigenous students?

This is Reg and Marlene’s story.

Seven years ago the Liaison Officer at Woolaning Homeland Christian College approached us about becoming house parents.

We have 6 grown up children of our own and 25 grandchildren, who live in Darwin and Cairns, so we felt we had experience to contribute to the task.

As houseparents we have 12 girls in our home from various Indigenous communities. They speak different indigenous languages and speak Kriol as a common language.

A typical day for us is to rise early, get breakfast and make sure the girls are ready for school which is a short few minutes walk from home. We do the washing, do any maintenance required, clean up and prepare for the afternoon and evening meals. After school we often go swimming with the girls and boys from the other homes.

“

It is very rewarding when past students ring us up and tell us about their lives.

We all do activities together, share BBQs and have lots of adventures.

We regularly camp over at our place at Batchelor for the night on weekends and drive to Darwin for the day to go shopping, fishing or going to the movies. We help them with homework, talk a lot and enjoy lighting a fire outside and sit around telling stories of their country, their holidays and camping and hunting trips. This is a wonderful opportunity to connect with the girls. The girls have lots of talks with Marlene about health and cleanliness issues and we have lots of opportunities to talk to them about God and the world in which they live.

We have had to deal with some difficult issues but we have sought

professional help when necessary and NT Christian Schools has encouraged us to do various courses to assist us in our role as house parents.

At the end of their 6 week term we often will drive them to their communities which involves about

7 hours driving each way. When the roads are flooded in the wet season they fly home. We have visited the various communities where our girls live and this has enabled us to meet their families and understand what life is like for them when they are not with us.

It is very rewarding when past students ring us up and tell us about their lives. Recently one girl rang to say she was helping her sister in a school in a local community. We are glad we accepted the challenge and we still love our work.

NOVEMBER 2014

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OPINION

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JACOB SARKODEE responds to SENATOR BRANDIS TIM COSTELLO on the G20

Image: iStockphoto.com

HOLY WAR IS and ancient Israel Most people, Christians and non-believers alike, are horrified by the atrocities of the Islamic State.

But for some Christians the current violence also raises uncomfortable comparisons with the Old Testament. How does this “holy war” perpetrated in the name of Islam differ from what God told Israel to do under Joshua? I’d like to point to three aspects of the biblical accounts that can help us.

What does the Bible actually say?

First, we need to make sure we don’t misrepresent what the Bible actually says. Here are Moses’ instructions in Deuteronomy 7:1-6: When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations – the Hittites,

Andrew Shead Head of Old Testament at Moore Theological College, Sydney on reading the Joshua story closely. .

Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you – and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take

their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your children away from following me to serve other gods, and the LORD’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. This is what you are to do to them: break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire. For you are a people holy to the LORD

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your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

At first glance this sounds irretrievably brutal: “destroy them totally … show them no mercy.”

And yet there are odd contradictions. If Moses is commanding genocide, why tell Israel not to make a treaty? And why tell them not to intermarry? Notice, too, that the specific violence Moses commands is against Canaanite religion rather than Canaanite people. We find similarly puzzling details in Joshua, where we read that he “left no survivors; he totally destroyed all who breathed” (Josh 10:40 and elsewhere) – but then find the narrator matter-of-factly

assuming the continued presence of Canaanite peoples (Josh 13:1), so that Joshua must warn them not to adopt pagan religions or intermarry (Josh 23:12-13). Stepping back from Joshua, we find verbs of expulsion used more often than verbs of killing to describe the conquest (Lev 18:24-28; Num 33:51-56; 2 Kgs 16:3), and many Canaanites were neither killed nor expelled (2 Sam 24:7; 1 Kgs 9:15-23). What’s more, Mosaic ethics include distinguishing combatants from non-combatants and not punishing innocent children for parental sins (Exod 22:24; Deut 24:16).

It would seem that there is some sort of rhetoric going on that is peculiar to Joshua’s conquest account. Peculiar, but not unique;

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OPINION

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NOVEMBER 2014

IS and ancient Israel

detail. And the ultimate justification for all this butchery came from their religion. Here is a description of what it took for the Canaanite goddess Anath to be “satisfied”: The blood was so deep that she waded in it up to her knees – nay, up to her neck. Under her feet were human heads, above her human hands flew like locusts. In her sensuous delight she decorated herself with suspended heads while she attached hands to her girdle. (from Archaeology and the History of Israel, 1968) By contrast, Joshua and his army targeted political leaders and enemy combatants (archaeology suggests Jericho and Ai were military strongholds virtually empty of civilians), and the symbolic execution of five captured leaders is described in Joshua 10:25-27 with remarkable restraint. Canaanites who respected Israel’s God – such as Rahab and her family (Josh 6:25) – could live freely among the Israelites. Once settled in the land, Israel’s uniqueness continued: they were forbidden from further wars of conquest (Deut 2:4-9); all divinely sanctioned battles after Joshua were defensive; there was no standing army; fighters were not paid; participation was strictly voluntary; kings had no authority to declare war.

What sort of God did Israel actually serve?

The basis of this unique behaviour was Israel’s unique God: “compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” (Exod 34:6). One expression of this love is his commitment to

justice, his determination to bring wholeness to all creation. This cannot happen if humans usurp the creator’s rule, which we do by putting other gods in his place.

Israel was not commanded to clear a space in the world of idols simply for its own benefit, but for the ultimate benefit of all nations (Gen 12:3; Deut 4:5-8; Isa 2:2-4; Ps 87:4-6). Nothing shows this more strikingly than the fact that when Israel themselves turned away from God to pagan practices, God mercifully warned them and gave them ample time to mend their ways, before finally expelling them from the land just as he had done to the Canaanites before them, using another nation – Babylon – as his instrument. God is no respecter of persons. His wrath against all evil behaviour is not in spite of his love, but because of it.

For those interested in digging deeper I recommend Paul Copan’s book Is God a Moral Monster?

Making Sense of the Old Testament God: For a specific, relatively short, and strategic period, God sought to establish Israel in the land with a view to fulfilling this long-term (indeed, cosmic) plan of redemption. God would simultaneously punish a wicked people ripe for judgment. Not doing so would have erased humankind’s only hope for redemption. (p. 191) What actually lives in the Christian closet?

Joshua may be innocent of IS’s crimes, but tragically the Church is not. Unlike later generations of Israelites, none of whom took Joshua as a precedent for holy war, the Christian closet is haunted by skeletons of crusaders, American colonists, and others who have used Joshua as a pretext to commit atrocities. As Australians engaged in a “war against terror” we have placed ourselves in ambiguous moral territory and the moral thoughtlessness of our national debate has already damaged the fabric of our society. Those who bring a Christian voice to the conversation must be especially careful not to cast us in the role of God’s warriors fighting the evil forces of IS in the name of Christianity.

God uses governments to restrain evil, but not as instruments of his rule. The kingdom Joshua fought to make space for was the one finally established by Jesus, whose words in John 18:36 ring out far beyond their original context: “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would fight.”

Public Domain

Image: Gokhan Sahin (Getty Images)

war accounts that have survived from Israel’s neighbours use exactly the same rhetoric. For example, the Moabite king Mesha recorded a victory by optimistically writing that “Israel has utterly perished for always.” The same sort of hyperbole features in inscriptions from Egypt, Assyria and the Hittites.

Specifically, we see language of “all”, “young and old”, “men and women”, used in obvious hyperbole.

This is not a practice we feel comfortable with in historical documents today, but conventions were different then. Perhaps our modern equivalent is the sporting commentator: “The All Blacks annihilated the opposition today. They literally blew them away!” Three thousand years ago, war was sport (2 Sam 11:1).

How did Israel justify what they actually did?

Getting an accurate picture of what Israel did is crucial, but it doesn’t let them off the hook. After all, Israel, like Islamic State (IS), cleared a space in which to live by forcibly displacing those who disagreed with their religion. They may have done it more humanely than IS, but they did it nevertheless. Our second task is to listen to the Bible’s explanation of these actions.

The Bible is consistently clear that the Canaanites were guilty of criminal atrocities far beyond anything Israel did in expelling them, and that it was only after granting many generations of opportunity to stop these abuses that God used Israel to judge them (Gen 15:16). At the same time, the Israelites were warned not to feel morally superior, but to be aware that the capacity for similar atrocities lay within each of them. Would that we of the “developed world” could learn to curb our self-righteousness!

After the LORD your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, “The LORD has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.” No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is going to drive them out before you … Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people. (Deut 9:4, 6) Have we any evidence that this “demonising” of the Canaanites is not simply Israelite propaganda?

The answer to this is clear in numerous texts and images from Israel’s contemporaries that describe torture, bloodbaths, reprisals and massacres in graphic and gleeful

Tim Costello says the challenge of talking to the G20 needs prayer.

Australia is hosting the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Brisbane in November this year and it’s a forum that presents an important opportunity for us all.

While primarily a discussion about global economic growth, the G20 Summit also provides these leaders – who represent the world’s 20 biggest economies – with an opportunity to ensure growth is more inclusive. Inclusive growth means making sure the benefits of growth are shared more fairly.

Having the G20 in our own backyard presents a platform for ordinary Australians to advocate for such policy reforms. This is an opportunity which two of the organisations I’m involved with – Micah Challenge and World Vision – have taken extremely seriously, rallying supporters and advocates to raise issues like tax avoidance and child labour with the Australian Government.

To date, we’ve seen Australian MPs and Senators make speeches and other acknowledgements of these issues and, as a group, the G20 finance ministers have made a commitment to taking a stand against child and forced labour.

This is an incredible testament to the hard work of ordinary Australians willing to speak out and stand up for the poor and vulnerable in our world.

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But beyond the political asks we are making, I would like to invite you – and all Christians – to pray.

We know the power of prayer.

Throughout the Bible we are implored to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17), to devote ourselves in prayer (Colossians 4:2) and to present our requests to God through prayer and petition (Philippians 4:6).

While to us it may seem a given that global leaders would want to take steps to address poverty, history shows us that it’s never quite that simple. With a raft of competing economic priorities and individual policy concerns taking centre stage for each country, the vulnerable can easily be forgotten.

It is only by our consistent, unceasing and devoted prayer that we have hope of seeing action on such issues. So I ask, please join us in prayer for all the leaders attending the main G20 Summit meeting in November.

Pray that they would recognise the voices of the poor and those marginalised by increasing inequality, and would commit to taking steps to share the benefits of wealth more evenly. Pray that the voices of our advocates would continue to be heard. And pray that together, we can help make the world a more just place for all to live.

OPINION

NOVEMBER 2014

21

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“When I in awesome wonder” Michael Jensen is amazed, awestruck and wowed – and thinks you should be, too.

Image: Matthew Yohe

You might remember Steve Jobs presenting the iPhone in 2007 to a clearly besotted audience. His speech was filled with words like “incredible” (ten times), “unbelievable” (seven), “amazing” (five), “tremendous” (three), “phenomenal” (twice), “revolutionary” (twelve) and “cool” (seventeen).

It is the language of wonder.

The words were describing not just an object, but the experience of interacting with this wonderful new object – to make us ask: how did they do that?

It was tapping into a fundamental human experience, which is that sense of profound amazement when we encounter something we are delighted by, but can’t readily explain. And this sense of wonder is very useful for the marketers of consumer products, because it evokes in us a kind of open-eyed, fascinated desire. We are deeply attracted to the things that amaze us. It may seem like a strange thing to say, but we love the experience of being astounded.

The experience of wonder is best represented by two punctuation marks: “!” and “?” Or, by two simple words: “wow!” and “how?”

The first reaction is almost involuntary. We are just struck – awestruck – by an encounter with something that is bigger, or more complex, or more beautiful than we thought possible. In some way, we are presented with a sudden moment of realising how small, or weak, or simple we are in comparison to something extraordinary (whether it be the Grand Canyon or an iPhone). We cannot then suppress our reaction – but it is a reaction that says, “my words cannot really describe what I am seeing.” That’s a good summary of the “wow!”

But then comes the “how?” If you stand in front of the Pyramids of Giza, or peer through a telescope into deep space, or drive a Maserati, or listen to a Beethoven symphony, you find yourself marvelling at the possibility that such a things exists.

How could it come to be? Why is it this way? How is this specialness even available to me in the world?

This question is not necessarily a question that wants or needs an answer. It is rather a question that says: I cannot comprehend how this is so. It is instinctively humble.

Wonderment may of course be the trigger to a serious investigation into the way things have come together, or the constituent parts

that belong to it. But at one level, to know too much is to remove the wonder from it. If we see the chef sweating and swearing in the kitchen over a raw piece of meat, the miracle of the beautifully done steak on our clean plate in the restaurant seems less amazing somehow. If we break down a thing of wonder into its bits, we may be guilty of reducing it to a pile of its inglorious parts.

However, the investigations of scientists into the workings and composition of the natural world (prompted by the “how?”) have not decreased but rather increased our sense of “wow!” Who knew that there were that many species of insect? Who knew that the universe was that phenomenally large?

Who could have guessed at the extraordinary world of microbes?

These things become more, rather than less, glorious and wondrous the more we know about them.

This is where there is a difference between the iPhone and the ibex. The “how?” question can be exhausted with the iPhone, and the answer is quite dull; and our amazement rapidly fades. We need an iPhone 6 to replace it. But the ibex (a species of wild goat with long horns): now, we can dissect an ibex, and we can capture an ibex, and we can even eat one. But it is

hard to become bored with the ibex. Reducing it to its biological components scarcely begins to apprehend it in its sheer ibexness.

And, to really grasp what it is, we cannot isolate it from the entirety of the natural world of which it is part and in which it participates.

It is this wholeness of nature – this extraordinary, harmonious, animated symphony of matter, living and non-living – that points to the divine. As Paul says in Romans 1: Since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.

The character of God is not visible to the optic nerve. But in apprehending the created world, we can (and ought to) “see” the divine majesty of God himself. As the old hymn says it: O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the works thy hand hath made, I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder, thy power throughout the universe displayed.

If the universe is awesome, beautiful, terrifying, delightful and

mysterious, then its maker must be all these things and more.

The universe is an extraordinary thing of power and beauty. But there are also creatures within that universe who seem to have been put there precisely to apprehend the glory and majesty of the created order. The experience of wonder seems to be something we were made for. Says the Psalmist: When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?

The Psalmist’s “wow!” leads to a “how?” He asks: if the cosmos God created is so extraordinary, then how is it that human beings matter to him, given how small and feeble they are? He is dwarfed by the grandeur and majesty of God’s works. And yet still, wondrously, God cares for his human creatures, and even crowns them with his glory and honour. They are not, in the scheme of things, seemingly of much significance. But God calls them his.

And as the narrative of Scripture unfolds, there is an even more wondrous thing to consider: God redeems his wayward creatures, and plans for them to share in his glory. Again and again, the Bible makes the majestic beauty of creation a pattern for the supreme glory of God’s work in salvation.

There is no wonder that surpasses the cross of Jesus Christ. When we come to the cross, we must be struck by a “!” and then a “?” that exceeds our wonder at the created world. How? How is it possible that the mighty creator of all might, through love – yes, love! – of his broken human creatures, hang rejected on a cross for their sakes?

We cannot answer the question; we can just wonder that it is the case.

This is how the great preacher Jonathan Edwards put it: The wonders of divine grace are the greatest of all wonders.

The wonders of divine power and wisdom in the making of this great world are marvellous; other wonders of his justice in punishing sin are wonderful; many wonderful things have happened since the creation of the world, but none like the wonders of grace.

Edwards would say that it is a vital part of the Christian life to cultivate our sense of wonder. And

what Christians do when they gather should certainly attune us to the wonderful works of God. We need to refine our tastes – to become resensitised to the beauty and majesty of the work of God for human beings. We need opportunities to experience the “wow!” and the “how?” for which we were made.

It is a bit like cultivating a taste for fine art, or for handcrafted beers. How does that happen? You can’t do it in abstract. You have to actually go to the art gallery. You have to actually taste the beers. But an expert can help you articulate what you are experiencing. And you can share your experiences with others. In fact, even though these experiences are subjective and personal, they are greatly deepened and enriched by others.

We need to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 15). A taste for him is really worth cultivating. And it can be by developing the habits and practices of the wonder of God. You cannot wonder at God’s glory as a bystander. Nor is it as good as it could be in isolation from others.

If our feelings towards God are benumbed, we can awaken them, and resensitise them, by taking ourselves once more to the foot of the cross – in prayer, in song, and at the table.

The best Christian hymn writers have understood wonder and it is interesting how frequently the best hymns have “wow!” / “how?” moments: And can it be that I should gain An interest in the saviour’s blood?

Or an even more famous example: Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me!

These are moments when we are helped to an experience of the immensity of God. In these words we apprehend the sublime paradox of God’s love for sinful humankind in Christ Jesus.

We also have that moment as we come to the Lord’s table, and share in the graphic symbol of Christ’s death for us. As another hymn writer puts it: When I think that God his son not sparing, sent him to die, I scarce can take it in.

How could we “take it in”? And yet: there it is.

Michael Jensen is the rector of St Mark’s church in Darling Point, Sydney and the author of several books

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OPINION

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NOVEMBER 2014

2009

Let’s talk ab out rights A toolkit to help individu participate als and grou in the ps National Hum Australian Governm ent’s an Rights Con sultation

Christians too timid on human rights Once during a missions conference, I was asked about what I was up to by a pastor. I responded by saying that I was studying a masters of human rights. “What on earth are you wasting your time doing that for?!” was the baffled response.

Clearly, in the context of vocational Christian ministry, human rights did not cut the mustard.

Undoubtedly this sentiment towards human rights is shared by many. However, when it comes to the human right to freedom of religion, there is almost universal consensus amongst Christians that it must be proactively and vigorously defended.

This was recently highlighted in a speech by the Attorney General George Brandis to the University of Notre Dame (re-printed in the October 2014 edition of Eternity as “The Christian base for human rights”). In it, he argued that a number of public critics have targeted “the Christian churches, in particular, the Catholic Church and people of Jewish faith.”

He linked this associated “attack” on religious freedoms to human rights advocates who, in his view, have presumed “that human rights are a secular construct.”

He describes this as an “egregious travesty” due to the fact that “human rights owed more to the Christian church than they did to the United Nations.”

While George Brandis may

Jacob Sarkodee responds to George Brandis’ speech on the Christian origin of human rights: we need to promote the rights of others as well.

point out that human rights “had its origins in the gospels,” he fails to recognise that Christians and churches are also to blame for why human rights are understood as a secular article of faith. Australian Christians appear to have bought into the idea that human rights are of limited relevance to living as a disciple in a modern democratic society.

This was made abundantly clear in the 2008-09 National Human Rights Consultation.

The consultation was focused on whether Australia should put into law a bill that would protect the most basic of human rights (the only western democratic country not to have done so).

Some 32,000 public submissions were received, 87 per cent of which were in favour of a human rights charter. 13 per cent, or more than 4,200 were against. Despite having overwhelming support, the then Labor federal government decided

against adopting the charter out of concern that it may create “an atmosphere of uncertainty or suspicion in the community”.

Throughout the consultation, Christians were identified as one of the key opponents to the human rights charter. Of all the Christian organisations who made a submission, 65 per cent were against legislating human rights protections. Amongst individuals who identified as Christian, the number exceeded 95 per cent opposition.

Christians were seen to be speaking passionately for increased protections for religious freedom. But they also denounced or appeared indifferent to the opportunity for broader human rights protections for all peoples.

In its submission, the Australian Christian Lobby echoed a secular understanding of human rights.

They believed that human rights had failed “to acknowledge God

as the source of our dignity as humans [and] has stripped human rights of any solid foundation.

Human rights cannot exist in a moral vacuum.”

Most of the major denominational submissions held a high degree of scepticism towards human rights. In its submission, the Anglican Diocese of Sydney was unsure if human rights had a “philosophical and metaphysical basis of being grounded in a Christian world view.” The Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Australia said that human rights “do not arise from the moral law of God, but they are man-made inventions and perversions of God’s law. Such ‘rights’ ought not be protected.”

If the Christian faith is the basis for human rights, then how is it that so many Christian voices are opposed to its use in securing public justice and freedom for the oppressed in our society? It is not enough for us to claim protections for religious freedoms at the potential expense of ensuring just laws for the homeless, the refugee or the marginalised.

So, as people seeking to “do good to all people” (Gal 6:10), how do we in a modern democracy publicly advocate for justice and compassion?

A constructive answer would see us do more than petition only for the right to freedom of religion – as important as that is. We need

to bring basic human rights back into the vernacular of Christian discipleship. Advocating for human rights protections in our pluralistic society is an opportunity for Christians to “do justice and righteousness” (Jer 22:3) for those who are suffering.

The New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good – a collection of Christians in the US – have done just this through grounding their commitment to human rights “in the core Christian theological conviction that each and every human life is sacred.” They see human rights “as a systematic way to look out for the interests of others” and be an expression of Christian love.

This empowered them to speak out against the use of torture and cruel and degrading treatment on detainees during the “war on terror”.

So while George Brandis rallies Christians to re-claim human rights as a means to protect religious freedom, Christians need to be aware that we can’t just have our cake and eat it too. We must consider whether we are also prepared to support wider human rights protections for our fellow human beings.

Jacob Sarkodee, on behalf of IsaiahOne.org. He attends St Jude’s Anglican in Parkville in Melbourne. Follow him on Twitter: @Sarkodee

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ADVANCING MINISTRY

OPINION

NOVEMBER 2014

23

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Letters

Jesus wept tears of grief – but also of wrath Hope and Tim Costello makes three points on the death of Lazarus (October): Jesus wept at the graveside of his friend to show his “solidarity with mankind”, made a choice “simply to be present in that moment of grief” and allowed himself “to be moved by it.” But is this the thrust of John’s account?

A few moments earlier, while “groaning in himself” (almost like a horse snorting, according to Leon Morris) Jesus was actually moved, not by grief but by indignation. The word implies anger. Morris quotes B.B. Warfield: “It is death that is the object of his wrath, and behind death him who has the power of death, and whom he has come into the world to destroy. Tears of sympathy may fill his eyes, but this is incidental. His soul is held by rage and he advances to the tomb, in Calvin’s words ‘as a champion who prepares for conflict.’

“The raising of Lazarus thus becomes, not an isolated marvel, but – as indeed it is presented throughout the whole narrative … – a decisive instance and open symbol of Jesus’ conquest of death and hell. What John does for us in this particular statement is to uncover to us the heart of Jesus, as he wins for us our salvation. Not in cold unconcern, but in flaming wrath against the foe, Jesus smites in our behalf.”

That Jesus’ emotions go beyond mere sympathy reminds me of the truth hammered in when I was at Moore College: “There is no substitute in exegesis for working from the original text.”

Donald Howard, Elderslie, NSW

Library has Bible Eternity’s article “Aboriginal Bible is 150” opens with the claim, “There is only one copy left of the first edition of the ‘Scripture selections in Ngarrindjeri’ the first part of the Bible published in an Aboriginal language 150 years ago” (October 2014, p.5).

Thankfully this claim is incorrect. The National Library of Australia in Canberra alone holds four copies. At least six other libraries in four states and territories also hold copies: AIATSIS in Canberra; both the Royal Geographical Society of SA and State Library of SA libraries in Adelaide; the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne; and both

charity

“I’m starting to feel sympathy for the Japanese.”

the State Library of NSW and the University of Sydney libraries.

Besides the original 1864 edition, facsimile reprints were made in 1926 by the South Australian Auxiliary of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and in 1986 by the Bible Society in Australia.

The National Library also holds both of these. The records for all three editions are brought up if a search for <yarildewallin> is made in our catalogue (catalogue.nla. gov.au).

So while the original 1864 edition is certainly a rare and valuable work, it is by no means restricted to a unique surviving copy. Nevertheless, Eternity’s readers could help prioritise one of the National Library’s copies for digitisation, by leaving a message at www.nla.gov.au/feedback.

Thanks to Eternity’s article, the National Library will shortly digitise one of its copies, so will be viewable online by all in the near future.

Brendan Whyte, Assist. Curator of Maps, National Library of Aust., ACT

Male domination Dear Sir (as we wrote in more formal days), According to Greg Clarke, October Eternity, “Women report almost universally a sense of being devalued, discredited, sexualised and ignored from an early age.”

Adding to that extraordinary statement, we are told that things get worse as adolescence sets in, male negativity shapes their image, and that most of life is a struggle

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“just to keep your head above water in a male-dominated world”.

Looking back at about 70 years of memories, I have been acquainted with hundreds of women from many different backgrounds and involved in many paid and unpaid occupations.

Some were born in the 19th Century. Hundreds of today’s women were the girls I taught from kindergarten to Year 12.

There are countless “successful” women who are publicly known, including journalists, political activists and leaders, professionals and sportswomen, many of whom impress us and influence us.

From my limited perspective there is no doubt that Greg Clarke’s assertions are at best gross exaggerations. Such statements do not help in a rational assessment of the problems that far too many women still endure in the world.

David Morrison, Springwood NSW

Human rights

Congratulations to George Brandis for a good explanation of the origin of religious freedom and human rights in his article in Eternity (October issue). The same day I read of the plight of Zainullah Naser forced by Australia to return to Afghanistan, and his subsequent brutal torture and fear to even make contact with his loved ones for the sake of their safety. One of many such stories.

The values that form the basis of Brandis’ speech on this topic, like the values espoused by Scott

Morrison in his maiden speech, are totally at odds with a government that imprisons innocent people, trafficks them against their will to what have been described by John Keane as “concentration camps”, (see When Concentration Camps and Democracy Clash) on Nauru and Manus Islands, with the hope that they will take the fearful option of going to another country with one of the worst human rights records in the world. All this shameful policy enacted under a cloak of secrecy.

Professor Tim McCormack, who among other things is the Special Adviser on International Humanitarian Law to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague sees the absurdity of this situation.

At the Tasmanian Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast he commented on the Matthew 25 passage of the sheep and the goats saying “Oh Jesus, if we had known you were in the boat of course we would have let you in!”

The bizarre incompatibility of the stated beliefs of these politicians and the policies they preside over totally undermine the credibility of the Christian Church in Australia. It seems to me there are two options for Brandis and Morrison, for them to either renounce these horrific and brutal policies … or renounce their Christianity. It is a horrible thing to say, and I hate saying it, but to continue to enact these policies as Christian politicians, besides creating a hell for the innocent, is to continue wounding both Christ and his body.

Rev. John Langlois, Battery Point Tasmania

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Eternity is founded on the idea that Christians can be “prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope” we have. We have a reasonable faith, one that can be debated in a newspaper or a scholarly journal. Or at a BBQ. It follows that Christians can take on even the hardest questions we get asked. Or at the very least, that’s the ideal we should strive for.

Giving an answer for our hope is the reason for this month’s cover story.

On Facebook, Eternity got asked what is the difference between the actions of Islamic State and what God asked the ancient Israelites to do in war in the Old Testament.

We needed help. It’s OK to admit that.

We asked Andrew Shead, from Moore Theological College to give an answer.

It wasn’t the answer we expected. We liked that. It starts on page 19.

It seems to this editor, that there are a number of tough questions Christians are being asked – and asking themselves – right now.

Many of them are variants on, “Just why is Christianity good news?” Or “Is God a good God?” We should welcome these questions and work hard to give a reason for the hope within. I am sure we will fill many more pages of Eternity doing just that. John Sandeman

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OPINION

24

NOVEMBER 2014

Two ways to leave Greg Clarke is thinking about exiting (and how it should be done).

I’ve been thinking a lot about exiting. It comes up rather regularly at my stage of life: people dying, marriages falling apart, redundancies at work, emptynesting at home. These are the everyday “exit” experiences of the mid-lifer. And my guess is that they just multiply as you head down the home straight!

In the public arena, people tend to exit less than gracefully. They try to manage it, but it rarely works due to the conflicting desires of the players involved. We even have a term for it: the “Kirribilli agreement”. This notion harks back to the 1988 deal to transfer leadership from Australian prime minister Bob Hawke to his then treasurer, Paul Keating, “in the fullness of time”. It didn’t happen.

The same agreement didn’t work out between John Howard and Peter Costello in 2003, and in the UK in the mid-90s between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown (they called it the “Granita Pact”, named after the restaurant where allegedly the deal was done).

The ultimate success in public

life, it is said, is to be able to control the time of your departure. As a corporate chairman once told me, leaders get one choice about how to leave the job: should I jump before I am pushed?

The ethical debates around euthanasia revolve around this question of how much control one might have over his or her exit. So do most conflicts around divorce laws, employment conditions and touchy subjects such as ministerial conduct. It’s all about who has to leave, how, why and when. It’s all about who is in control.

In the church, exiting takes on a new dimension. When a significant minister leaves a church, it affects that community a bit like a divorce might affect a family. One half of the “marriage” is taking off. The church is like the remaining family members who have to puzzle out what the new reality looks like.

Whether it is a happy departure, or a forced one, it still breaks a bond and causes real pain, real reflection, and real change. And it is rarely done very well. If a church can manage the minister’s exit, it

is probably a good sign of its health as a body of believers.

Why is that?

Perhaps it is because, boiling it down, there are just two ways to leave. Either you do so as if you are everything, or you do so as if God is. You can leave as if the church will never be the same again; or you can leave, praising God for what he has managed to achieve

with such a jar of clay as you.

Leaving can be all about the leaver, or the left. The most valuable role a leader can play is to care about those who are being left, regardless of the circumstances behind the departure.

Which is precisely what the incomparable Jesus did on his departure. Unjust as it was, he was silent before his accusers,

concerned for those around him (the thief on the cross next to him, his grieving mother), and resolved to carry out his ordained task to the painful end.

Public life can be pretty grim, but in the moment of exit great leaders care more about those they lead than themselves. If you are going to be crucified, Jesus showed you the way to do it.

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