The missing day

I once missed Christmas Day. I was aboard a London to NZ flight via Los Angeles and we jumped the date line around midnight. Goodbye presents! However something different happened this year – a day went missing by government fiat. In order to better align with its key trading partners, Samoa jumped the International Date Line and moved from 29 to 31 December in a digital stroke.

There’s nothing new or alarming in all that. Calendars are a human construct, have changed often enough during history and at any given moment different people operate on different calendars. For example, the recently newsworthy Mayan calendar runs alongside the more general western calendar in some societies. Or again, Singapore chooses to position itself out of its natural time zone for reasons of financial markets.

In the ancient near east, calendars were commonly constructed according to the reign and deeds of a king. For example, consider the Biblical formula ‘in the 8^th year etc of the reign of King so and so’.

This is reflected in the present BC / AD division of the western calendar which divides around the incarnation of Christ. Well, not quite … for present scholarly reckoning places his birth in about 6BC. Its interesting to see present discussion about renaming this into BCE / CE and thus writing Christ ‘out’. Some Christians see this as an issue of spreading secularism to contest. Personally, I don’t think its worth the fight.

Hmm .. constructing a calendar around the deeds of a king? Now that’s worth thinking about. Put simply, it locates us in the last days in between the ascension and the return of the Lord. That gives urgency to the task of witness and encouragement to persist in following and serving Jesus. We are indeed to ‘watch and pray’ and labour and serve, for our master may return from his journey any moment.

How terrible to be ill-prepared and thus to miss the day.

Threads of lives

I first met Angie and her father Dan (not the real names) 40 years ago. Angie was about 10 years old. Her mother had recently died, leaving she and her two siblings as orphans.

Dan had belonged to the church my dad pastored about 15 years earlier and now resumed contact after a long absence. Dan started coming to my dad’s new church and also needed someone to care for the young children during his absence on business trips.

My dad referred Dan to my girlfriend who became the child carer during some uni holidays. That brought me into the scene. A year or so later I needed employment. Dan rang the boss of a firm he has worked for and so I had a job for two years while my life reshaped.

Dan soon married a woman from my dad’s church and then we all drifted in different directions for many years. After Dan became a church elder involved in wider church matters I met him more often. As a young adult, Angie sister was a friend of my wife and I and then, after a gap of decades, we became Facebook friends when she lived in the UK.

Angie’s life had ups and downs, involving tragic moments that tested and tormented she and her family. She died last Friday aged 50. I saw a Facebook message from her sister and rang Dan. Then contacted some other friends who were all part of that church and friendship network about 40 years ago. And so we will soon gather to mourn with those who mourn.

In this the threads of pain and care weave through the Kantian categories of space and time. Or rather, they are woven for it is God who brings people and circumstances in and out of our lives.

Something like this makes me wonder. Angie was a peripheral part of my life yet there are the threads of about 20 people in direct relationship and stretching over about 60 years of my family. And then I think of others whose threads are woven into the tapestry of my life and I in turn woven into that of them and others. There are the known and unknown; the long running and the short-lived; the welcome and unwelcome. The threads of my life are beyond counting and disappear into the mists of time backwards and forwards.

As Donne says: no man is an island. Each of these threads is a person made in God’s image and for whom Christ died. They are an opportunity for me to serve and be served with God’s love and truth.

And so I will keep in touch with Angie’s family through this … and resume contact with other people whose threads have resurfaced through this contact.

A tale of two Christmasses

I went to church twice over Christmas. The services were well attended, the feeling warm, the music uplifting and the messages were fresh presentations of the old old story. And then to a day of indulgence. The pleasure of family, watching the excitement of my grandsons opening presents, enjoying lovingingly prepared meals and an afternoon doze.

My brother also went to church. He is a missionary in Jos Nigeria. It was his first Christmas since his wife died on missionary service earlier this year. He probably started his day with no electricity and having to draw water from a well in his house. As he sat in church there was a bomb blast nearby: they heard it and felt a blast wave.  The service continued, rejoicing in the covenant faithfulness of God, praying for those who sought to harm them and seeking God’s peace on the city.

My brother’s Christmas gives a reminder of mortality and eternity. So much of what most us do from day to day is trivial against these horizons. Oh for grace to enjoy the trivial pursuits and enjoy life under the sun, but always for wisdom to see and live under the eternity that God puts in the heart of humanity.

The Trellis and the Vine

Marshall, C; Payne T, The Trellis and The Vine, (Matthias Media, Sydney, 2009). 166  pages plus appendices. Available in various formats through Matthias Media: http://www.matthiasmedia.com.au/the-trellis-and-the-vine. Reviewed by David Burke.

This little book has only been out for two years but is packing a punch. Ministry leaders from around the globe and in various traditions acclaim it and the language of ‘trellis and vine’ has become a standard ministry metaphor.

The subtitle indicates the book’s goals: The ministry mind-shift that changes everything. Talk about ambition! In summary, Col Marshall and Tony Payne call for disciple-making and disciple-growth to be at the centre of the church’s energies and to be at the heart of pastors and church leaders. The book makes a strong case for this from various Scriptures and then turns to the practicalities.

Nothing new?

In one sense there is nothing new in the book. Since Jesus took the 12 aside for deeper lessons and Paul did the same for Timothy, wise leaders have invested themselves in the growth and training of believers with potential. And I’d guess that most Christian leaders would speak about the importance of someone who took them aside at a formative stage and invested in their growth. In this respect, the book is applied exposition of 2 Tim 2:2 and Eph 4:11-12.

What’s new?

What’s new in this book is the passion with which the case for training is argued and the careful outworking of the training agenda and process. The ministry of training is developed through a vision for recruiting gospel-partners and moving them through phases of growth and service, concluding with a vision for full-on ministry apprenticeships. Marshall and Payne write with many years experience in Christian training. This shows as they work through the details and anticipate challenges.

Quotable quotes

Here are some quotes to whet the appetite (but you really need to read the book to get the point):

·       Is there anything more vital to be doing in our world? It is more important than our jobs, our families, our pastimes – yes, even more important than the comfort and security of familiar church life. (p38)

·       … what happens is the same: a Christian brings a truth from God’s word to someone else, praying that God would make that word bear fruit through the inwards working of the Spirit. That’s vine work. Everything else is trellis. (p39)

·       To be a disciple is to be a disciple-maker. (p43)

·       We have to conclude that a Christian with no passion for the lost is in serious need of self-examination and repentance. (p52-3)

·       A pastor or elder is just a vine-worker with a particular responsibility to care for and equip the people for their partnership in the gospel. (p67)

·       We are always an example to those whom we are teaching and training, whether we like it or not. We cannot stop being an example. (p74)

·       The principle is: do a deep work in the lives of a few. (p161)

What’s good about the book?

I like the way in which Marshall and Payne puts discipling where it belongs – at centre stage in church life and ministry. The wide scope of training to include convictions and character along with competence in skills is refreshing. Likewise, its great to see the focus on gospel growth, not church growth – this is a timely encouragement in a day when numerical growth remains a guilt-trap for pastors. And again, the grounded practicality of the book makes it immediately useful. It’s a book that gives a vision and then gives the small starter-steps to see it happen.

Problem areas

However there are a few problems areas. It would be easy to pick up the impression that church is just a training organisation and that people like pastors are only trainers. Likewise, the brief discussion of what is unfortunately called ‘secular work’ will leave many feeling that their daily labour has no significance before God (pp136-138). It would be a pity if some readers saw these issues and dismissed the whole book as a product of alleged ‘Sydney reductionism’. Finally, it would be a great complement to see even a brief discussion of what kind of trellis work and trellis workers are needed to complement the rightful focus on vine work and workers.

Notes to myself

I wrote a few notes to myself as I read the book:

·       Gratitude for the people who invested themselves in my training as a new Christian and helped my growth and entry to service.

·       Thanks for the privilege of investing myself in the training of others along the way and for the pleasure of seeing God’s fruit in their lives.

·       Thinking about the ministries I now have and the people I touch: how can I sharpen my training contribution and vine focus?

·       What can I do to help shift the focus from trellis work to vine work in my church tradition (Presbyterian)? In particular, what can I do to help shift the focus of the eldership from governance to vine-work?

·       Thinking about myself: what growth do I now need and how shall I access it?

(David Burke has been in full time Christian service since 1979, including 21 years of pastoral ministry and 30 years in ministry training roles. He now teaches at Presbyterian Theological Centre Sydney Australia)

A distant suburb

I saw a production of Julius Caesar today.

In one scene, the wife of Brutus (main plotter) spots that he has a secret. She tries to get it from him and claims a wife's privileges as one before the gods. He refuses. She pleads, asking if she inhabits but the distant suburbs of his heart.

A thought: is God in my distant suburbs or city-central?

Christmas or Christmiss?

A mother wrote to a publication and asked what Christmas is all about and how to explain it to her six year old daughter in a way that would help her on the road to Jesus. I was asked to contribute a reply ..



What great questions you ask! How wonderful that you want to explain this to your daughter and help her on the road to Jesus. That’s great parenting!

I’ll start with a confession. I dislike Christmas!

The reasons are partly personal. One of my parents died soon before 25 December and the other one soon after. As well, Christmas is usually a period of heavy work for me – I spoke at 31 Christmas events one year! On top of that, Christmas was a time of separation from my family during the last 12 years. Put all that together and you can see why it’s not my favourite time of year.

However, my real dislike of Christmas goes deeper. The emptiness of the public festival that we call Christmas gives me dismay. I lived in a major south east Asian city where Christianity was a distinctly minority faith. Yet every shopping centre and public facilities such as airports and major roads were themed for some kind of Christmas. I say ‘some kind of Christmas’ for there was more of a general seasonal goodwill rather than any emphasis on Christ. Can you see that same trend happening in Australia? Public events are ‘Christmas-light’ and Jesus hardly gets a mention. Christmas is meant to be ‘Christ-mas’, or a celebration of Jesus. But what we often see is ‘Christmiss’ – anything but Jesus.

Did you know that it’s artificial to celebrate Jesus’ birth on December 25th? We don’t know when he was born, except that it was probably not December of January. Almost certainly Jewish shepherds would not have slept in their fields in a freeing December. Our 25 December celebration draws on some pre-Christian festivals associated with the northern solstice and New Year. Put simply, the celebration of Jesus’ birth on December 25th was an attempt to Christianise these pagan festivals. Given the modern ‘Christmiss’, I think that the pagans have struck back well.

Should we celebrate Christmas? That’s a serious question. I sometimes wonder if we should skip 25 December and hold our celebration at another time. Not all Christian celebrate Christmas on 25 December anyway. Some through history have not celebrated it at all.

However, I’m guessing that most of us will celebrate Christmas on December 25. If so, how can we use the day to tell our children and others about Jesus?

So what do you say to your daughter? I’d start with Christmas presents. Tell your daughter that we give them to remind us of the best present of all. That best present is God’s love to send his son Jesus into the world to be a real person like us.

That’s breathtaking. It blew the minds of the first people who heard it. Imagine the richest person in the world leaving their mansion and living in an ordinary suburb or town. We would wonder why? Now imagine way beyond that. God who made everything became one of us and one with us. As the Bible puts it: ‘the Word became flesh and lived among us’ (Jn 1:14). Jesus, who is God’s son, is that Word. When he came, it was ‘Immanuel’ which means ‘God with us’ (Matt 1:23).

Why did Jesus do this? He did it to show us what God is like in a way we can best understand (Jn 1:14,18). He did it to share our life and show us what it is to be truly human and without sin (Heb 4:15). And he did it to be the Saviour, who is Christ the Lord (Lke 2:11). As one Bible verse puts it: ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’ (1 Tim 1:15). Indeed, the very name ‘Jesus’ means that God is salvation. Or as that most famous verse says: ‘God loved the world so much that he sent his one and only Son so that whoever believes in him should not die but have eternal life (Jn 3:16).

This is a key thing to remember and teach your daughter. Put simply, Jesus became one of us so that he could go the Cross in our place and take our punishment for sin. The Christmas cradle always has the shadow of the Easter Cross.

So here are some suggestions for you and your daughter:
• Read the Bible stories of Jesus’ birth to her in the weeks before Christmas. (You will find these in Matthew Chs 1-2 and Luke Chs 1-2.) Take time to talk about these and to explain some of the significant sayings.

• Together make up some Christmas gift tags or tree decorations with some of the above Bible verses on them. Use these within your family and to others.

• Visit a Christian bookshop and buy some storybooks that are true to the Bible story and great value as kid’s books. Give these as presents.

• Make it a family priority to meet with other Christians to celebrate Jesus’ birth and maybe don’t distribute Christmas presents until later.

• Keep Christmas presents and meal modest to help keep the focus on Jesus.

• Set a good model to your daughter by yourself putting a big focus on Jesus at that time.

• Together say a big prayer of thanks for all the Christmas presents and especially for the best one of all – Jesus the Saviour.

• Echo God’s love-gift to us by taking your daughter to serve needy people with gifts of time, food or other gifts.

Hmm … maybe Christmas can become likeable after all!

A little correspondence about representations

I recently visited an art gallery specialising in portraits of people who are deemed significant to Australia. (But who decides significance and on what basis?)

My interest is in the messages of the paintings. Not so much the messages of the messages as the manner of the message.

I have little interest in abstract art, beyond examining what viewer-response it evokes. Those responses seem to say more about the viewer than about the work. Such abstract art can evoke or suggest moods or general feelings, but the meaning seems to depend largely on the context of a viewer. In this sense, such works become mirrors of the self.

I suspect that much the same happens with music unaccompanied by text. The aural images are abstractions that evoke moods, just as visual images of abstract art are abstractions that evoke moods. However, the content of the mood depends on the hearer of the music – just as it depends on the viewer of abstract art. Note how this changes when text is added to the music – the text shapes the content associated with the mood.

What was of greater interest in the portrait gallery was to view portraits of people I know something about. Some were clearly representational rather than correspondence in form. That is, the artist did not strive for a ‘photo in oils’ but chose to re-present the subject in some way to bring this or that feature out and to give a message of some kind. Hence portraits of two politicians that exaggerated this or that feature to present what they stood for.

The contrast here is with what I will call ‘correspondence’ portraits. A correspondence portrait has the appearance of being photo-like in that what appears in the image has a close facsimile-like correspondence with the subject. (Of course, a photographer can choose settings that render an impressionistic or representational image but let us set that aside for now.)

Representational portraits have certain honesty about them. By that I mean that the artist intentionally signals that s/he is not attempting a photo in oils.

But what of the portraits that were presented as a photo in oils? The artist’s skill is seen in the attempted production of a facsimile. But is this truly correspondence art in which the painter is just a neutral technician? Or is there a hidden deceit?

Think about the scene:
• A particular artist asks or is asked to do a portrait of a particular person?
• The subject is dressed and posed in a certain pose and in a certain context.
• The artist chooses aspects of the person to represent and others to fade to lesser significance.

And so on.

Each of these steps involves choices. Who makes them and on what basis? The ‘deceit’ is that these choices are concealed rather than being intentionally signalled.

I’m not suggesting the deceit is malevolent or even intentional. But rather, that the ‘photo in oils’ can be taken as giving an impression of a correspondence that it does not have.

Can there be any truly and purely correspondence portrait art? Or are we left with the conclusion that all portraits are representational due to the layers of choice in making the portrait? And that these layers add up to interpretations that block correspondence. If we then add in the interpretative layer(s) imposed by the viewer(s) we seem to get further and further away from the subject. Are we left with nothing but impressions and representations?

These are all old themes in philosophy and what is said of the visual arts can be said elsewhere. Do we, and can we, know anything as it is, or can we only know our ideas and impressions of things? Locke, Reid, Kant and a hundred others have written on these themes.

The same problem occurs with words.

Correspondence theories of language hold to the possibility of a direct correspondence between our words and the reality they refer to. Symbolic, deconstructionist and perspectivalist theories of language hold otherwise. Words can only represent reality, not correspond to it. And when we add the hermeneutical issues of words shared between people and across contexts the problem deepens.

Can words ever be other than malleable symbols, representations and deceits in the sense identified above? Can we say anything about ourselves, the world and God that is other than symbolic representation?

Yet we use words and visual images to communicate and assume on a daily basis that there is significant correspondence. In fact we stake our lives on correspondence. Think of a visual image warning that something is poison or that crocodiles abound in a waterhole. Or think of the words on a Stop sign or in a recipe. Even further, I can use the above words to communicate doubt about words as do many others who write words conveying meaning about deconstructing meaning from and into words.

Is there something being missed in the whole discussion? And does it relate to God who used words to speak creation into life, whose Son is described as the Word of God, and through whose Spirit men were carried along to write words that bring God’s word into our language? In short, is it God who sustains our words and their meaning, just as he sustains all else?

And, when we stand before a portrait, is there something of a shared community of God’s image that means we can catch something corresponding to the person behind an artist’s image, even through all the layers between that person, the portrait and us?

9/11 @ 2011

They say we can all remember what we were doing when we first heard of 9/11.

Interesting that. I wonder what else happened that day. Families lost loved ones. People lost love. Others found it. Some died noticed and others without notice. Some died from preventable causes of diseases easily cured, and of hunger and thirst. (What happened in Darfur that day I wonder.)

But the event that defines the day was the four-part scene in the US.

In itself just another death scene. Perhaps no other single event that day took as many lives as were lost in New York’s World Trade Centre. More (many more) died elsewhere but that’s the one we remember. Why? The intentionality. The originality of this edition of asymmetrical warfare. The graphic images. (Think of that man in the white coat falling through the air.) The sheer randomness of those who died and those who missed an appointment with their Creator.

However, of all the deaths that day, those are the ones we remember. Ten years on we can say it was a day that changed the world. The first mainland attack on the US that shattered it’s self-confidence. A trigger in the path to two Gulf Wars and to the endless Afghan campaign. The day gains its significance as much as from what followed as what happened.

I have been in the US several times since 9/11. In recent years I notice a diminishing confidence in American ‘can do’. The ‘audacity of hope’ has yielded to the collapse of hope. Grim sullenness is omnipresent about the economy, America’s place in the world and its sense of identity. Will the US be the same again?

I went to New York this June and caught a ferry out to the Statue of Liberty. It was a glorious summer day with blue sky, puffy clouds and green grass making for peaceful pleasantry. It was inspiring to see the statue close up, read the inscriptions and consider how this had been a place of hope for so many. They craved the new land in which to carve new liberties. It was, however, poignant to turn and gaze across the water to lower Manhattan and that empty space.

Whither liberty?

Wither liberty?

The loaf and the cup

On my work desk today there are two everyday items: a loaf of Vienna white bread and a container of rich red grape juice. I bought them from a shop as I walked to work and doubtless the ones next to them will soon be put to everyday use.

Later today this loaf and juice will be used in a college communion service that I am assigned to lead.

There they will remain bread and grape juice (no accidental substance change here!).

However, their use will change. Hopefully they will provide pre-lunch refreshment (as we use prodigal portions not puny Presbyterian ones). They will also be presented as symbols of grace.

The loaf reminding us of the body of Jesus. Real incarnate flesh with muscles and sinews and sweat dripping from his brow. (No docetic deceit here.)

The grape juice (sorry folks, no wine in Oz land) reminding us of the blood of Jesus. Real blood, rich in red blood cells, iron and such like, pumping through his heart to blood vessels, tissues and organs. (Wonder what blood group he was?)

The loaf and the juice, the body and the blood. Reminders of the grace that led the Father to send the Son to make atonement for my sins and those of the world. Symbols of the grace that saves and enables people like to reconnect to God, start recovering creational identity, escape sin’s dread hold and to live now in anticipation and hope of resurrection to eternal life.

The loaf and the cup certainly should not be idolised (and our low church order will keep us well away from that). But nor should they be despised or neglected as some are in the habit of doing.

So, as I later break the loaf and pour the cup it will be my prayer that they lift minds and hearts to eternal things as Christ is present in his sacrament by his Spirit. And then, having been thus lifted, we go back to the everyday world of bread and juice and there live worthy of the body and the blood.

Cup of coffee?

I like coffee and in fact I’m drinking a cup as I start writing this.

However, it seems that not all cups of coffee are equal.

In my early adult life instant coffee was all the rage: cheap, accessible, instant and tasty enough. Sure, there were brands that were more or less tasty (cup of International Golden Roast anyone?). However, instant coffee made its mark and was everywhere.

More and more coffee-making devices came along. When I was married in 1972 we were given a percolator that came out for special occasions (and very fancy it was too!). Then came drip-filter machines and the plunger era. More recently, fancy coffee makers have moved from cafes to homes and every dad is a barista. Old technology comes back too: my wife and I recently bought a cheap old-fashioned Italian stove-top device that makes a great cup.

The same upgrade has applied to the ingredients. Good commercial ground coffees are eschewed. We want fresh beans from the best source to process in our home grinder just before brew time.

All this is welcome and I’ll put my hand up as one who likes a decent cuppa. And again, why not pursue excellence in coffee making and enjoy the best that God’s creation offers?

However, something less welcome happened alongside the upgrades. Attitudes also changed. Its now common that instant is regarded as beneath contempt and some skip their cuppa if that’s all that is on offer. A plunger is barely acceptable and we go to great lengths and expense to get the genuine article. This sounds like a coffee snobbery and is found in surprising places. Is coffee-sophistication a new badge of Christian orthodoxy alongside having the latest book from the current guru?

Are we missing something?

What about the grace of contentment with God’s provision, even if its poor instant coffee (Phil 4:12)?

Is our disdain for poor coffee and longing for the best becoming the greed that is idolatry (Col 3:5)?

Is our search for coffee satisfaction an example of the hebel of Ecclesiastes (Eccles 2:1)?

Can we imagine a coffee snobbery in the one who had nowhere to lay his head (let along his coffee machine) and who calls us to deny self in following him (Mat 8:20; Matt 16:24)?

Do we fail to love our neighbour in poor coffee-growing lands by demanding great beans at cheap prices rather than buy through a fair trade organisation?

Hmm … maybe it’s time to brew a cuppa and think about these things.

Whose interest?

Australia, like other countries, is considering how to contain its harmful impact on the physical environment.

And so the government proposes a carbon tax on heavy polluting industries and then a later emissions trading scheme.

Public discussion has started. Proponents of the tax argue point to the compensation scheme and argue that few will be worse off than at present. Opponents of the scheme argue that the general will be worse off through trickle down effects etc into the wider economy.

Consider however where the discussion is largely focused. Its on the immediate economic self-interest of the individual.

How about considering some other interests:

- Social and environmental good as well as economic;
- Longer term as well as immediate.
- Other people, and especially the vulnerable in the community.

In Christian perspective we may also consider:
- Our responsibility towards the physical creation as its God-appointed managers (not damagers) who are charged to use it and care for it (Gen 1:26-28; Gen 2:15).
- The great commands to love God and neighbour (Matt 22:37-39).

Short term, economic self-interest really is such a sub-Christian way to think about the carbon tax and many other public questions.

The Test

It is a truism that all people are tested. However, not all tests are alike.

Here are two true stories.

Wendy was happily married with a loving spouse and two children. She had good qualifications and a job where they were well used and in which prospects were good. One son was expelled from school and has persistent problems in social adjustment. Another developed a life-threatening illness that was not covered by medical insurance. Wendy’s spouse died suddenly at a young age and she was forced to move countries. Wendy could not find suitable work and ekes out a living doing a job far below her qualifications and outside her key abilities. She is financially stretched in middle adulthood. She has remarried but the new family is not yet happy.

Wendy has the test of deprivation. This is a Job-like pattern, where all was taken from her and her confidence in God was tested to the limit.

Darren had a spouse who developed cancer but recovered. After some difficulties, their adult kids are on the feet. His qualifications are mid-ranking but he gained employment above his level and in a post which gave him great significance. He lost this job but another good post came knocking at his door and he had a seamless transition. He is financially secure and could retire anytime. Darren is well liked and has a wide circle of friends and contacts.

Darren has the test of success. He is like King David who won battles, gained popularity and had women falling at his feet. His test was to stay loyal to God amidst these blessings and to walk in humble obedience before God.

Deprivation or success – which is the greater test?

GE 2011 Singapore

Singapore soon has a general election that is attracting unparalleled interest. Candidates, platforms, alternatives and rallies abound. Normally apathetic people are going to rallies and following the new media for their fresh and diverse perspectives.

How do we follow Christ in the polling booth?

The following Bible study uses the familiar rubric of creation / fall / redemption to give some starter questions on this issue. The study and questions arise from the conviction that there is not a singular Christian way to vote, but what matters is whether our motivations and reasons for voting the way we do reflect our confession of Christ as saving Lord.


CREATION

1. Where do institutions of government come from? How should that shape our attitudes and actions? (Rom 13:1-7; 1 Titus 3:1; 1 Pet 2:13-17)

2. What boundaries are there to Christian submission to governments (Acts 4:19)? In what ways does that reflect the first commandment? (Exod 20:3) What does that mean in Singapore today – where should our boundaries be? Are we adept at separating our Christian and Singaporean identities?

FALL

3. What sad effects of the Fall do the following passage track with respect to politics? (Deut 17:14-20; 1 Sam 8:10-17) How do we see that playing out in local politics?

4. It is often said that the US constitution has a Biblical sense of human sinfulness in a careful separation and balancing of powers. In what ways can we help maximise this separation and balance in Singapore - given a single-chamber parliament and local political realities?


REDEMPTION

5. How should our identity as followers of Jesus shape the way we vote tomorrow? How is this different to the way others may decide how to vote?

6. How do we love both God and our neighbour in the polling booth (Matt 22:34-39)?

7. How, specifically, should we pray for politics generally and specifically for local Christians in politics (1 Tim 2:1-2)?

8. 'If Christ is not Lord over our all, he is not really our Lord at all.' Discuss the implications of this for how we vote.

On not going to church

Hebrews 10:25 tells Christian people not to neglect the habit of meeting together in order to encourage one another in view of the Lord’s coming. The book of Acts records Christian people meeting together on resurrection day. And, most of us can speak of those many Sundays when meeting with God’s people for worship has helped us reboot, refocus and recommit to be God’s people.

In keeping with all this, it’s my habit as a pastor to encourage church going for the sake of the person themselves (to be fed and encouraged); for the sake of others (to encourage and serve them by our presence) and for the sake of unbelievers (to witness to the priority of God in our lives).

However there are times when not going to church may be appropriate.

… I think of Christian workers who are paid to go to church but then face the danger of a professional piety in which their relationship with God is subverted and subsumed by their ministry identity. Not going to church on occasions can help resurrect that personal identity in Christ.

… Likewise with Christian leaders who are always ‘on duty’ when at church and readily occupied with institutional clutter which clamours for attention and seems so important, but which shows itself to be ephemera when stepping back.

The examples could be multiplied. For example, the believer whose soul is bruised and battered by such things as conflict at church, disappointment at bad decisions, gaps between profession and practice by more senior believers etc. In these situations, going to church may compound a problem of seething anger or disappointment that is worsened by donning a mask to ‘play’ at church.

In such situations, a ‘fast’ from church may be appropriate in order to devote ourselves to the Lord in word and prayer. These can be times of remarkable spiritual refreshment as we see him face to face unmediated by churchly clutter. This, of course, should be only for a season lest we breach Scripture by losing the habit of meeting together and retreat to ourselves with the attendant dangers of a private and introspective piety.

And so I’ll admit to times when I could have gone to church but chose not to. These have not necessarily been Godless times, but times of rebuilding and reinforcing my direct link with God and identity as a Christian person as opposed to my persona as a pastor. And likewise there have been times when I have encouraged / affirmed others in their choice not to go to church for a season.

So let us indeed encourage and keep the habit of meeting together with fellow believers. But let us stop it becoming idolatry by sometimes breaking the habit in order to meet with the Lord.

A note to a friend about both / and spirituality

Why is spirituality tricky?

There's a big bunch of material whose basic strategy is to withdraw folks from this realm into the presence of God for a time with the expectation that this then charges us up to return to the world (which may be seen as a hostile and godless place). At first glance that may sound good, but taken to extremes, this is an essentially escapist spirituality.

You are smart enough to see the basic flaw. Experiential spirituality that becomes escapist easily trends towards a dualism in which creational reality is seen as evil or unimportant. Some spiritualities fall right into that nasty little hole and essentially deny the outside world. Of course, that will be to varying degrees and there are times in which withdrawal to seek God is totally apt and has great Biblical precedent (think of Jesus ducking off for a night of prayer away from everyone and everything). And there are some people for whom withdrawal into experiential spirituality is a natural disposition. That’s fine, but there’s a need to nudge such folk back to a ‘both / and’ relationship with God in which we both withdraw and engage.

(And, of course, there are others of us who need to be nudged away from our primarily objective spirituality and encouraged into the experiential and relational element.)

A better way is generally to cultivate a grounded and world spirituality in which our relationship with God arises from, is conducted within, and is directed to the everyday world in which we are called to live. This is the spirituality of an ‘engager’ who takes the created world seriously as the place where we must relate to God. Indeed, we may ask if it’s worth holding a faith that does not push us to meet and be with God in the creational greys in which we live and move and have our being.

But you are also smart enough to know that all this is another one of the both/ands with which the Christian faith is littered. A purely worldly spirituality needs the complement of experiential relationship with God and a purely experiential spirituality needs the complement of worldly groundedness. Thus Jesus occasionally withdrew, but then he returned to engage with his father’s world and will.

Whatever the mix, its good to apply this test: does this spiritual resource or practice help me know and know about God more closely through prayerfulness and the Scripture, be more Christ-like in an everyday sense, and does it equip me to engage with the world in active discipleship and service?

Lent and earth hour.

On Saturday 26 of March 2011 many cities will observe earth hour.

This is a one-hour switch off for lights. It started in Sydney Australia and has gone globally viral. As such, it’s been an effective public event. However, does it raise environmental awareness to change behaviour beyond its hour?

A parallel can be drawn with Lent.

This is a 40-day time of various spiritual disciplines before Easter and is globally viral for a very long time. It is an effective public event. However, does it raise spiritual awareness to change behaviour beyond its ‘hour’?

Isaiah 58 is relevant. The context was one of religious fasting that was conducted with great display and fanfare. In God’s name he calls for what we can call a life-fast where people departed from wickedness and showed God’s righteousness in their day to day. Calvin somewhere picks up this theme and urges his readers to make the whole of life a fast to and before the Lord.

On this year’s earth hour we are urged to action ‘beyond the hour’. A life-habit of sacrifice to lessen our personal energy consumption is surely better than the hour. Likewise, a life-habit of abstinence and spiritual discipline is surely better than just the 40 days.

By all means let’s choose to observe things like Lent and earth hour. But let’s ensure that they are more than tokens by turning the ‘hour’ into the habit of a lifetime.

Home and away

Exile, or being away, was a tough experience for Old Testament Israel after the fall of Jerusalem. There they were, dispossessed and far from the land promised to Abraham (Gen 12:1; 15:18f). No wonder they found it hard to sing the Lord’s song in exile and far from the place that they regarded as home (eg Ps 137).

This language of home and exile is picked up in the New Testament. Thus Peter can address his readers as ‘elect exiles of the dispersion’ and urge them to conduct themselves with fear through the time of their exile (1 Pet 1:1; 17).

Christian believers, as much as the old heroes of the faith are strangers and exiles who seek the homeland which is the city to come (Heb 11:14-16; 13:14). Our real sense of home is to be with the Lord and away from the flesh (2 Cor 5:6-8; Phil 1:23) which is to occupy our room in the prepared place of the new creation (Jn 14:2-3).

Yet we are called to be in the world rather than to escape from it (Jn 17:15). We cannot live in a ghetto of the coming age and refuse engagement with the present.

How do we put this together?

Perhaps we can use a human comparison.

Let’s imagine a person who is living in a country other than their heartland. Their citizenship, identity and love lies elsewhere, especially if they were wrenched from the heartland. Yet they recognise that they are, for the time being, in another land. Thus they strive to make a fulfilling life in the new, live responsibly there and enjoy what life there brings. However, their sense of who they are and where they are has two dimensions. There is the adopted ‘home’ of the present and the ‘Home’ of their heartland (or, as we call it, homeland). Add to that a Christian identity and we add a third sense of ‘HOME’ as the place of the deepest Christian longing.

This sense of ‘home’, ‘Home’ and ‘HOME’ can help the exile find a working equilibrium in their inner and outer life. She is at home where she is and engages with the life that God gives. Yet he maintains an interest in, love and loyalty to the Home from which he is removed. And beyond that, a sense that all life lived in this age is a homeless exile and thus a refusal to unduly attach to home or Home, lest that tear the affections from HOME.

Come you weak

My wife and I went to a church service recently. As we walked in we could hear a group of people singing praise choruses with weak voices and no accompaniment.

There were about 30 of us there. About half came from a nearby home for people with mental and emotional disorders, many due to substance abuse. They would occasionally interrupt the service with odd remarks and wander in and out. The church ensured that these folk were given a worksheet to colour and complete during the service and the more regular members were careful to sit among the people from the home to help keep order. Of the rest, only one man was in modest employment and the rest were retired.

We met in a hall that had recently been renovated with the effect of a warm and welcoming appearance. All the singing was by voice alone and attuned to heaven if not to musical pitch. The preaching was workmanlike and adjusted to the audience and the fellowship cuppa afterwards was warm.

It’s a service we’d go back to despite its modest nature. Why? The caring and thoughtful welcome and reception of the weak and meek from the nearby home. The genuine warmth of welcome to us. But also the kingdom-minded heart of the congregation. This is visibly evident in their finances where this little group gave about $33,000 in offering last year and almost one third of it given to missions.

Here is a little local church in tough circumstances but with a big heart for God’s work. The open door of the church onto the street is a symbol of their heart for the community. An outpost of heaven.

A second look at Lent

We are now well into the season of Lent – the 40 days before Easter when many Christians observe a fast of some kind before the Easter feast.

Observing Lent is prominent in some Christian traditions as a way of identifying with the sufferings of Jesus and preparing for the glorious release of resurrection Sunday. Within these traditions, a variety of extra practices have accumulated around the basic themes of self-denial and discipline.

Lent tends to be rejected within strong protestant traditions because of its associations with Roman Catholicism; its compulsion as a man-made practice; the superstitious practices associated with it and because of the easy slide into a view that observing Lent impresses the Lord and earns merit points in heaven.

These are weighty concerns and, put together, make good reasons to steer away from the traditional Lent observances.

However, is Lent worth a second look? Can this season be kept as a time of voluntary and private self-denial in order to give oneself more fervently to the word and prayer and to develop the discipline of self-denial and self-control?

Perhaps a pattern like this can be useful:

Word: extended daily readings in Scripture with appropriate reflection and journaling.

Prayer: extended prayerfulness with particular attention to examine our own soul before the Lord with a view to its improvement and also keeping a balance by focussed prayer on a matter outside of the normal prayer horizon.

Self-denial: choosing to deny or minimise indulgence in something that we are free to do, normally do and enjoy. Thus learning to say ‘no’ to ourselves is a help in developing the discipline to say no to things that we are not free to do but find it hard to resist.

Voluntary: there should be no sense of compulsion on ourselves or an attempt to force or pressure others to participate (eg close friends or family members). Such compulsion quite destroys the moment.

Private: Jesus teaches to keep our praying, fasting and alms giving between God and us and not make a public show. Thus someone keeping a Lenten fast may tell an accountability partner, but otherwise should discreetly keep their fast from public view.

Of course, such a fast can be observed at any time and some may wish to deliberately disassociate from Lent for the reasons above. But again, there is something to be said and gained by appropriately constructed sharing in a long-established and widely-observed devotional practice.

Praying for Japan

See below for a prayer list from a mission team working in Japan and seeking to be useful for God after the earthquake and tsunami ..

ASK & RECEIVE Special JAPAN EARTHQUAKE UPDATE
MTW Tokyo Team


Dan Iverson (Tokyo MTW team leader) written 3/11/2011, excerpts below

Please pray for us as we decide where to go and help with hands, food, water, diapers, and money, etc. At this writing there are more than 1100 dead or missing, and we have the sad expectation that this number will go much higher considering how big and widespread the tsunamis were.

Where to go?
There is 130 miles (200 km) of coastal area devastation from this monster earthquake and resulting tsunamis, so it is difficult to know where we should go to help. We are looking for missionaries or churches in an area to partner with and that could be our base. Pray for wisdom: when to go, where to go, who to go to, and what to take.

So, as we and so many Christians mobilize and seek to relieve incredible suffering and pain in the name of Christ to the 5 million people of the devastated areas, pray that this will bring a turning to the true and living God, and to Christ and his grace and love. Japan really needs true hope that does not disappoint.

It needs to also break our heart that this very rich country is really so spiritually impoverished, with so many with no hope. To put the spiritual darkness of Japan in perspective, Japan averages about 90 suicides per day. It is so sad that already 1100 people appear to have died in the earthquake/tsunami, and yet a normal 12 days in Japan brings about this many suicides. Japan has grown strong economically and educationally and has "made it", with 100% literacy, longest life expectancy in the world, etc. But like in Ecclesiastes 2, so many Japanese people who sought the "abundant" life have found that "all is vanity." Pray for a new turning to the One who really does give abundant life (John 10:10b).

The stats on Japan's spiritual poverty, and especially the affected area:
The areas affected by the earthquake and tsunamis of Miyagi, Fukushima, and Ibaraki are some of the most spiritually needy places in Japan. With over 4.9 million people yet only about 9,000 active Christians (about 0.15%; about 1/6 of 1%). Fukushima has the lowest average worship attendance in all of Japan with only 19 per church. There are is one city and 44 towns with no church at all. There are 86 missionaries (adults, including husband and wife) assigned to these prefectures.

One town in Ibaraki has over 46,000 people with no church and several others have over 24,000 people with no churches. Average attendance for all the churches in Japan is the lowest in Fukushima prefecture. Ibaraki prefecture has the least number of people claiming to have any religious beliefs.


How do we help? Our plans?

We are renting a truck and preparing to go: Need to know where to go. Please pray for that.

We have rented one truck and are having people bring supplies to worship to take up north. Email and cell phone access are down in the Sendai area where things were the worse. We know OPC missionaries there who could be a base for us to help with their churches, if they and the churches are okay, but all we know is that "OPC missionaries the Cummings are okay, but have no electricity or other utilities" (word we finally got 2d hand). And, because the two nuclear power plants in the affected region are a very serious concern, we may not be allowed into some areas to help.

Please do pray for Japan, and for us!

Overall Prayer Points
• Pray for team members: to be prepared with earthquake necessities, to experience the peace of Christ that is greater than any tremor, and to be able to pass that on to others. Pray they would be able to set aside their own fears to comfort others. Pray as they seek to assemble a team of volunteers to go and help in the affected areas, that it would be in God’s timing and the location that would give Him the most glory.

• Pray for the Japanese Christians: Pray that after being jolted from their routines they would look to Christ, and as they contact family members and secure their safety, that God would fill them with a new desire and urgency to love and share the gospel with their families and friends. Pray that God would put it into their heart to give generously of supplies and food, time and labor, to reach their fellow countrymen for Christ.

• Pray against hopelessness – pray that many would not give in to the hopelessness that surrounds them, but would reach out to the true hope found only in Christ.

• Pray specifically for the salvation of our many contacts and friends as they process the “whys?” of this catastrophe. Many students have relatives in the affected areas and may have experienced death directly. Pray that they would be comforted and counseled with the love of Jesus.

My Chinese mum

My Chinese mum would have turned 80 on March 5th. There were plans laid for a family dinner and the restaurant was booked. However this was not to be.

So I’ll record a few things in her memory.

She lived through tough times, including the Japanese occupation of Singapore. This meant the end of education for a promising Chinese girl. It also meant hunger and danger. For example, she spoke of a time when she and other girls were herded into a building that was being prepared for burning until a last minute order saved the day.

She became a tough one – a survivor in real life (not on a TV show). This stood her in good stead during the years of being a wife and mother, during which she also worked as a domestic helper.

She was tough, but not bitter, as some become with adversity. Her throaty chuckle, open smile and welcoming eyes spoke of a heart that stayed warm. Or was it warm because of her suffering?

From her suffering she became sensitive to the suffering of others. This made her sympathetic and a giver to others. She was also sensitive to the suffering of Jesus. And thus I recall one Good Friday service where she saw a clip from the Jesus Film and sat weeping.

It was not natural for her to become a Christian as she was raised in traditional Chinese beliefs. Although coming to church for several years she resisted conversion because it meant abandonment of her other gods and their rituals. When she did convert it was thorough. In the week she was to be baptized she took the paraphernalia back to the temple and left it there, never to return. Even in some later tough times when the Lord was slow to give what she sought, she kept her trust in him alone.

Her faith was simple and uncluttered. She loved coming to church and sat in a favourite spot. She prayed in dependence on God’s provision and learnt hymns of praise well enough to sing when her eyes faded. She enjoyed the company of the people around her, made shrewd assessments and embraced others with love.

My guess is that earthly birthdays are not celebrated in heaven (why would you?). But she is at a far better table than Imperial Treasure in Great World City. She is at the Lord’s table in the heavenly banquet. That is a better place by far and that is a great comfort.

Is it time to ditch traditional marriage?

The debate over gay marriage is commonly presented as a choice between including permission for homosexual and marriage and something called ‘traditional’ marriage.

However, we may ask what is ‘traditional’? It sounds like an attempt to steal the argument by a definition that implies outdatedness. Besides, which tradition is being referred to and at which time and place? It seems that ‘traditional’ is in the eye of the beholder. And thus in this present debate a straw image of ugly, domineering, patriarchal marriage can be constructed, labelled ‘traditional’ and then subjected to disposal.

Is it time to ditch the word ‘traditional’ and its vague historical reference?

Instead, let’s reconsider the Biblical ideal of marriage as a mutual, equal, permanent and exclusive heterosexual union formed under God. Maybe that’s more updated than ‘traditional’.

Please sir, I want some more!

I went to a church service recently as just one of the crowd.

The welcome was warm, the building inviting, the seating comfortable and there was a good cross-section of people creating a positive atmosphere.

We were called to order and the service began. The music was well presented, with competent musicians, a non-intrusive song leader, singable tunes and solid lyrics. The kid’s talk was a little self-indulgent by the presenter but, once again, Biblically solid.

The sermon was announced as the first in a series that would take the congregation through a particular book of the Bible. It was well enough presented (and with good slides to watch) and not unfaithful to the text. But I’m not sure what the take-away was: what was I to know, believe or do in the coming week? We heard about the context and structure of the book, a summary of a scholarly issue, the breakup of the coming series and what the home groups were to do with it in the coming week. But I heard nothing much to feed me then and there.

I went away with certain warmth from the gathering but still hungry. It was like being at a meal where you are served starter snacks, shown the menu and then served nibbles with coffee, but no main.

Meanwhile I was reading ‘The Work of the Pastor/ by William Still. Still may overstate his case that the main and (almost) only work of the pastor is to feed God’s sheep with God’s word. However, his point is well made for any age and certainly for the ‘Sunday light’ mode that seems now widespread. What else he does, a pastor needs to feed the hungry ones.

In the words of Oliver: ‘Please sir, I want some more.’

Five words from a new teacher

As I am formally installed as a theological college lecturer I make the following observations that express how I approach this post.

1. Regret.
Left to my will, I would have remained a pastor in Singapore to the end of my days. This was the calling that I learned to love and in a setting that gave me great joy. Thus I come to the teacher’s post with a measure of regret at that which was, but which is now no more. I do not come because I chose this post, but because God placed me here.

2. Thanks.
There is a lifetime of experiences, opportunities and especially people that lie behind this appointment. Each has contributed a part of the whole, like the threads of a tapestry. The greatest debt is due to the people who have provoked, stretched, tested and disagreed with me: friends, colleagues, fellow Christians. But most of all it is family that have given me space and support in the twists and turns of life. Chief among these is my wife Glenda who is remarkably patient and generous towards me.

3. Integration.
I will teach at two ends of the spectrum within PTC: the department of Christian thought and the department of ministry and practice. This suits my nature well. It also sits well with a distinctly Biblical and reformed world view. To paraphrase Kant: theology without action is empty and action without theology is blind. In that sense I seek to teach within the PTC vision to foster integration between the different classes within the college and between the classroom and the ministry actions of students and graduates.

4. Responsibility.
It is a great privilege to be a teacher in a theological college. But also a great responsibility to the students, to the college and to the Church that owns it. Before and beyond that is a sense of responsibility to the Lord of the church, his gospel and his mission. I thus pledge myself to strive for faithfulness to him in all my teaching and actions in this post.

5. Commitment.
I said above (point 1) that I come to the post against my will and with a measure of regret. However, I acknowledge the clear and evident will of God that has marked me for this post and brought me here. And so I join my Lord and pray: ‘your will not mine be done’. Because I recognise that it is God’s will that brings me to this post I give myself to it in a very positive way and pledge my energy, hard work, enthusiasm and indeed love for this post.

(Response delivered at my setting apart as the lecturer in ministry and practice at Presbyterian Theological Centre Burwood on 9 February 2011.)

Singing in a strange land

A strange land

‘How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?’ (Ps 137:4)

I write this just one week after arriving in Australia after 11.5 years living elsewhere.

There are all kinds of things that presumably seem normal and unremarkable to the native population but which stick out in my view. They will doubtless soon enough become unremarkable to me, thus I record them while I still notice them.

Shops and businesses that open and close early.
I am used to offices opening at 9am (but don’t expect too much then) and shops not open until 11am. But the other side of that is the difference between everything closing at 5pm and offices that are open until 6pm+ and shops until 10-11pm.

Restrictions on alcohol sales.
Australian alcohol sales are restricted such that it is available only from controlled venues and not until certain hours. I’m used to seeing alcohol available at any supermarket, servo or mini-market and anytime they are open. Yet beer is sold and consumed in ‘slabs’ of many bottles or cans in Australia as compared with people buying what they want to drink at the time. I wonder is these well-meant restrictions are not helping foster binge drinking and over-consumption?

Free parking and many parking spaces available.
I’m used to paying for parking almost everywhere and expected to queue and squeeze for parking lots. What a welcome contract to have much free street parking or long fee-free parking in malls etc and to drive straight into a parking spot.

Shaky communications.
Mobile calls drop and fade here and likewise with wireless internet signals. Thus landline phones and cables internet assume greater significance. That’s an irritating change from a place where handphones are strong almost anywhere and likewise for wireless national net signals.

Flag-showing patriotism.
National flags are only allowed in Singapore for a restricted period around national day and with controlled exposure and handling. Flag-displays were quite uncommon for private Australians when I left. But now every second car / house seems to be sporting a flag and there is much more flag merchandise for sale in this present season of Australia Day. But guess where the flags and merchandise are made? Yep – mainland China!

Broad Aussie accents and idioms.
The Australian accent seems pronounced in its broad vowels and also in its distinct idioms. Eg, a preacher who described something as being ‘bonza’. I’m self-conscious, when speaking, of how my accent has neutralized in 11.5 years away and how Australian idioms are much-removed form my speech. It will be interesting to see if I revert to a more local accent and idioms over time.

These things indeed seem strange to me and at times I feel a stranger in this land of my birth. I’m not saying better / worse, just ‘strange’ for the present.

And yes, I will learn how to sing the Lord’s song in this strange land.

Bonhoeffer on the Bible

Bonhoeffer on reading the Bible

First of all I will confess quite simply – I believe that the Bible alone is the answer to all our questions, and that we only need to ask repeatedly and a little humbly, in order to receive this answer. One cannot simply read the Bible, like other books. One must be prepared really to enquire of it. Only thus will it reveal itself. Only if we expect from it the ultimate answer shall we receive it. That is because in the Bible God speaks to us, and one cannot simply think about God in one’s own strength, one has to enquire of him. Only if we seek him will he answer us. Of course, it is also possible to read the Bible like any other book, that is to say from the point of view of textual criticism etc, there is nothing to be said against that. Only that is not the method which will reveal to us the heart of the Bible, but only the surface, just as we do not grasp the words of someone we love by taking them to bits, but by simply receiving them, so that for days they go on lingering in our minds, simply because they are the words of a person we love, and just as these words reveal more and more of the person who said them as we go on, like Mary, ‘pondering them in our heart’, so it will be with the words of the Bible. Only in them we will venture to enter into the words of the Bible, as though in them God were speaking to us who loves us and does not will to leave us alone with our questions, only so shall we learn to rejoice in the Bible. …

If it is I who determine where God is to be found, then I shall always find a God who corresponds to me in some way, who is obliging, who is connected with my own nature. But if God determines where he is to be found, then it will be in a place which is not immediately pleasing to my nature and which is not at all congenial to me. This place is the Cross of Christ. And whoever would find him must go to the foot of the Cross, as the Sermon on the Mount commands. This is not according to our nature at all, indeed it is entirely contrary to it. But this is also the message of the Bible, not only in the New but also in the Old Testament.

And I would now like to tell you quite personally: since I have learnt to read the Bible in this way – and this has not been so for very long – it becomes every day more wonderful to me. I read it in the morning and in the evening, often during the day as well, and every day I consider it a text which I have chosen for the whole week, and try to sink deeply into it, so as to really hear what it is saying. I know that without this I could not properly live any longer.

(From: Bonhoeffer, Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. Eric Metaxas, Thomas Nelson, 2010. pp136-7)

Miango Ministry

I was in Miango (Plateau State Nigeria) from 4-10 January 2011 doing some Bible talks for the SIM annual Spiritual Life Conference. What follows is a daily blog from those days.

Sun 2 Jan.
Left Singapore at 11pm for London. Slept well and watched Agora which is an interesting movie re the spread of Christianity in Alexandria C5.

Mon 3 Jan.
Largely spent in the luxury of the Qantas lounge in London – frankly indulging myself. Overnight flight to Abuja: asleep before take off and waking just an hour before landing.

Tues 4 Jan
First day on this second visit to Nigeria. A vehicle breakdown meant a long wait in Abuja (during which a guest house hostess thoughtfully provided a bed for some catch up sleep) and then a late trip up in the company of the youth ministry team. Settled into a sparse but adequate ‘villa’ which I had to myself. Slept before 10pm and only woke once before arising at 6am.

Wed 5 Jan
First day on the job.

As people arrived for the conference my brother Peter arranged for three Nigerian friends to take us on a district tour. This included the site where Christianity first arrived among this tribe, a hydro-power station in the middle of nowhere – but non functional since July due to a blocked water intake and a picturesque but polluted waterfall. Also did my first talk (Jer 1). My theme title is ‘Confidence in the Lord, confidence in his word’ and I’m looking to encourage people to persist in word-based ministry.

Before I spoke an American doctor gave testimony to his experience during a home invasion during which he was shot and held for 48 hours until ransom was paid. After treatment, he returned to the field to keep serving as a surgeon. But then the doctor who prayed for him had also been shot in such an invasion. These people know suffering for the Lord in a way that I do not. Yet I will speak on suffering for the Lord in a talk from Jer 20 on Friday.

I think there’s about 200 all-up at this conference. For many, it’s the annual spiritual tonic much as Spurgeon Sabbatical at Gordon-Conwell has been for me. That motivates me to push myself and prioritise so I feed them from the word as well as I can.

Meanwhile at home: Glenda dealt with the movers who came to take our goods for shipping to Sydney and then started the clean up. Her heroism is quiet and supportive.

Thurs 6 Jan
Second talk, making two back to back evening / morning. The pace now steadies to one a day, leaving plenty of time for one on one talks plus some of my own projects. Its dry season here which means dryness and lots of airborne dust. That’s irritating my sinus as well as leaving my tropics-adapted skin needing plenty of moisturizer.

Fri 7 January 2011
People tell me that I’m being useful in the talks. One evidence of that to me is that good one on one conversations are opening up on issues arising. I guess this is so, but I’m also conscious of the privilege of being here and listening to these people.

There are so many rich stories of grace in people’s lives and being worked through them. Eg: at testimony time last night ‘Ray’ spoke of an early life of abandonment and crime being now turned into usefulness for the Lord in prison ministry in Nigeria. And heroism ... eg, any number of these folk staying here despite being victims of home invasions, robbery and shootings. Eg, an 80 year old man still serving on the mission field even after his wife died some years back.

I spoke on suffering today from Jeremiah 20. But these people are the ones who speak from experience, not boastfully but just with a sense of this is what happens and this is how God stood with them through it. I guess that my role is to help give a Biblical framework in which to understand and especially to cope with their sufferings.

I’m glad I came and consider that I gain more than I give.

Sat 8 January 2011

A cold wind blowing dust off the Sahara desert at night means an early evening retreat from outdoor activities for me and delaying my morning emergence.

Fourth talk today, from Jer 52 and tracing the theme of confidence in God’s word. After morning tea I attended a general briefing and discussion on security issues. There are real and rising concerns and I especially feel for the young families and single women.

I also wandered through the graveyard attached to the conference centre. The silent wander between rows of graves from new borns and infants makes me appreciate the cost that some pay to fulfil their calling. Likewise with the graves of adults in their 30s and 40s. Jesus warned about taking up our cross to follow him and I guess this is the other side of it. How many of us waste our lives in temporal trivialities when the eternal cause awaits our best years and energies?

Sun 9 Jan

Final talk linking Jer 31 to the new covenant in Heb 8 etc. The Korean pastor who conducted the communion made a nice link from the sermon to the sacrament. Farewells etc and was touched by a number who came and spoke of my material being Biblical, relevant, within grasp and useful. Slow trip to Abujah by road (2-7pm) due to an enforced doubling back. Several road blocks along the way slowed things even more and a there was a soldier’s gun near my face a few times over. Spent the night in a church guest house with no dinner available. Glad to be still and have an early sleep before the flights up to London and down to Singapore. Thus end my first mission trip for 2011 and thus also ends my last preaching until late July.

Heard that ten people were killed yesterday in violence near the area where I was staying. A grim reminder of the daily realities for those who stay behind.