Category Archives: Christianity & culture

Sport will let us down

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In Albury-Wodonga, the weekly free newspapers used to include a column of reflections. They were written by local  ministers, or similar (authors included a local Baha’i leader, as well as someone from the local humanist society branch). I don’t know why they stopped. Equally, I don’t know if they achieved anything!

Cleaning up my computer, I found a few of mine. In the interests of recycling, I will re-release them on this blog.

Do you love sport like I do? Or do you think there is far too much fascination with games? Either way it’s impossible to miss how much we watch and talk about sports. As the footy season finishes, cricket and netball begins. And to fill in any gaps I can watch the rugby world cup too. Truly, too much sport is never enough.

We love sports to see people achieve. Lima Azimi of Afghanistan ran the women’s 100m at this year’s world championships, a first for her country. She’d never used starting blocks before, and did not own a tracksuit. What an effort!

Unfortunately, even the most skilled athlete will let us down. She will drop the ball, he will prove arrogant, the team will become angry at critics. It’s unfair to make sports people our heroes.

As a Christian, I am thankful for the one person who will never be a let-down, the man Jesus. As it’s put in the Bible ‘For me, to live is Christ.’ He performed under pressure and always loved people. He went through the pain barrier of the cross. He scored the winning goal by rising from the dead.

Knowing this makes sport so much better. I still want my team to win, but my life doesn’t depend on it.
October 2003

 


 

We’re a mixed up bunch

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In Albury-Wodonga, the weekly free newspapers used to include a column of reflections. They were written by local  ministers, or similar (authors included a local Baha’i leader, as well as someone from the local humanist society branch). I don’t know why they stopped. Equally, I don’t know if they achieved anything!

Cleaning up my computer, I found a few of mine. In the interests of recycling, I will re-release them on this blog.

July does the same thing every year. The weather makes it less appealing to ride my bike. The TV makes it more inviting to watch others ride their bikes. Yes – I’m addicted to the Tour de France.

Each year I again fall for the helicopter shots of tourist sites, for the speed of fast flat racing, for the pain of riding up ridiculously long mountain roads. There’s a lot to see: fanatical fans; beautiful country; selfless teamwork; athleticism.

This year there was even the chance of an Australian winner. I hope I’m not crazy, but I tried to support Cadel Evans by riding my bike down Cadell St in Albury a few times.

Yet cycling has a problem. Drugs. Again in 2007 there were accusations of cheating and lying. Some cyclists were caught, some teams were kicked out.

There’s no excuse for cheating, but I am not surprised that people try.

These ups and downs are simply an expression of what people are like. We’re a mixed-up bunch, both wonderful and awful at the same time. I started with the Tour de France, so here’s a famous French thinker. Blaise Pascal called people ‘the glory and the shame of the universe.’

If there’s a shadow over cycling it is because there is a shadow over humanity.

Jesus also knew that we’re a mixed-up bunch. Talking about families in Luke’s gospel chapter 11, Jesus pointed out that we don’t give our children scorpions if they ask for food. Yet we are far from perfect. He said that we who are evil know how to give good gifts.

That’s certainly confused. Is there any solution?

It’s no solution to pretend everything is alright. There are drugs in pro sport. And there is failure in our lives.

It’s no solution to give up. Drug testing should continue. And we still admire those able to say sorry.

Jesus’ words point us to the real solution, prayer to God our Father. He’s the one who gives the good gifts of life and forgiveness.
August 2007

 


 

Two kinds of wisdom

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In Albury-Wodonga, the weekly free newspapers used to include a column of reflections. They were written by local  ministers, or similar (authors included a local Baha’i leader, as well as someone from the local humanist society branch). I don’t know why they stopped. Equally, I don’t know if they achieved anything!

Cleaning up my computer, I found a few of mine. In the interests of recycling, I will re-release them on this blog.

Wisdom can sometimes be the most foolish thing.

I saw this recently with an expert quoted in The Post. A private eye gave ‘five golden rules for cheaters to protect themselves’ from being caught. Each rule was logical, sensible, achievable. And each rule was a great way to destroy trust and relationship. Would you like to find your husband or wife memorising these rules? This is wisdom that strangles life: foolish wisdom.

The Bible book of James speaks clearly about two types of wisdom. The first is like the private eye’s five rules. The second is wisdom from God. ‘The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.’

Let’s take the first point, purity. This does not mean perfection – who could ever reach that standard? It means that if you cheat on your spouse or cheat on God you will first say sorry. The wise thing is always to ask forgiveness, forgiveness from people and from God. This wisdom will move to restore relationship, not fracture relationships any further. This is wisdom that gives life.

You know your own relationships: with God, family, friends, workmates, neighbours. With all these people, how wise are you today?
December 2003

 


 

This news needs action

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In Albury-Wodonga, the weekly free newspapers used to include a column of reflections. They were written by local  ministers, or similar (authors included a local Baha’i leader, as well as someone from the local humanist society branch). I don’t know why they stopped. Equally, I don’t know if they achieved anything!

Cleaning up my computer, I found a few of mine. In the interests of recycling, I will re-release them on this blog.

‘The building’s on fire.’ I’m glad no one has ever yelled that at me. But if they did I would definitely react.

There are plenty of times when we must react to news. Times when it would be wrong to do nothing.

If your daughter tells you she’s engaged it’s time to celebrate.

If you attend a funeral you know it’s time to mourn.

Imagine if you told someone, ‘I love you’ and all they did was look at you blankly. You’d know something was wrong. That’s true for God’s truth too.

If what God says is right we have to respond. The Bible says, for example, that Jesus is alive from the dead. That’s some news! It also says that Jesus is the one who will judge each of us at life’s end. We need to be ready.

What is the right response to God’s news? It is to trust and follow Jesus. Trust means to take God at his word, and therefore to live by that word.

So how should you respond to God’s truth? Perhaps you need to investigate if it is true. Or perhaps you have found out but now need to respond with trust.

Since I’m writing about making a response, I want to do something a bit unusual for a Reflections column – give you a chance to react. If you’d like a free New Testament part of the Bible, so you can read about Jesus for yourself, send me an email (minister@alburybiblechurch.com.au). This address is only for this column, and I promise to send nothing but this part of the Bible.

The important thing, of course, is not that you respond to me. It’s that you respond to Jesus. The truth about Jesus changes everything – and that includes changing you and me.
March 2008

 


 

Solid as a rock

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In Albury-Wodonga, the weekly free newspapers used to include a column of reflections. They were written by local  ministers, or similar (authors included a local Baha’i leader, as well as someone from the local humanist society branch). I don’t know why they stopped. Equally, I don’t know if they achieved anything!

Cleaning up my computer, I found a few of mine. In the interests of recycling, I will re-release them on this blog.

We just finished a two week family holiday on the coast. What a great time to relax and see the wonders along the Great Ocean Road. It was my first time atop the limestone cliffs and looking to the Twelve Apostles.

The whole view is magnificent, huge, powerful and awe-inspiring. Much of the coastline looks impregnable and unshakeable.

So today’s newspaper gave me quite a surprise. One of the ‘apostles’ collapsed into the sea. What was a towering presence of strength is now a wave-beaten pile of rubble. If I was there, I could have watched it collapse. How great was its fall!

It’s common that life reminds us that what looks permanent is only temporary.

Years of good health can quickly pass into chronic illness. A stable relationship suddenly ends when a loved friend dies, or even over a trivial argument.

It is worse when our world tries to hide any hints of future collapse. As certain as death is, we don’t start conversations with “So, who is prepared for death?” We have to admit it: our foundations are not so permanent after all.

There is no surprise in one Bible image for God: he is the rock that cannot be shaken. “He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.” (Psalm 62:2.) What joy – we can build on a firm foundation.

Jesus offers us this foundation. And at the same time he warns about building on shifting sand. He said, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall.”

Coastal cliffs are wonderful. But they will all fall. Jesus and his words are even more wonderful, for he will never fail us.

Jesus’ invitation is open to all of us: to trust him and to trust his words of life.
July 2005

 


 

Hints on state persecution

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I’ve started reading The Gulag Archipelago. It’s a sobering book, accounting how well (for a time) one state managed to oppress and control millions of people – with violence, persecution, suspicion, and betrayal. (For accounts of this book, see this 1974 review, and this opinion piece after the author’s death.)

Stalin’s oppression in the USSR was not only violent, but general. All kinds of people were dragged into the gulags. Among them were ‘the religious’, as Solzhenitsyn notes. In reading his description, I could not help but note the general plan: it sounds as contemporary as modern liberal mockery of Christian practice.

(Of course, in the West we use law to beat people, instead of using straight violence. And this is certainly better than persecution was in the USSR!)

Here’s the relevant quotation:

True, they were supposedly being arrested and tried not for their actual faith but for openly declaring their convictions and for bringing up their children in the same spirit. As Tanya Khodkevich wrote:

You can pray freely
But just so God alone can hear.

… A person convinced that he possessed spiritual truth was required to conceal it from his own children! In the twenties the religious education of children was classified as a political crime

 


 

 

Progress, purpose & God’s freeway

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In Albury-Wodonga, the weekly free newspapers used to include a column of reflections. They were written by local  ministers, or similar (authors included a local Baha’i leader, as well as someone from the local humanist society branch). I don’t know why they stopped. Equally, I don’t know if they achieved anything!

Cleaning up my computer, I found a few of mine. In the interests of recycling, I will re-release them on this blog.

From my house, I can see each week’s progress on the new freeway. Last Monday the local news included the opening of the impressive new North Street bridge.

There is a buzz of activity: organised, purposeful, persistent and controlled. It’s no surprise that many people stop to watch the work. It’s fascinating to watch plans unfold.

When the project reaches its conclusion, there will be further progress. Progress for transport industries. Progress for residents have access to roads and paths. In other words, the roads will help us be organised, purposeful, persistent and controlled.

In human life, work and planning are good things. Someone who is without purpose could do with friendly help.

When we look at Jesus’ plans, we see that he was a very different man. His life’s work and plan was unique. Here are some of the things he said:

‘I must go on my way, for it cannot be that a prophet should die away from Jerusalem.’

‘I must suffer many things and be rejected, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.’

And after he rose from the dead, ‘Was it not necessary that the Christ suffer?’

Jesus’ own purpose in life was to die! His suffering was necessary.

Why was this required? Simple. Just like our local road-builders, Jesus had a purpose. His purpose is to give access to God. Jesus’ death built the freeway to our Father.

It’s never too late to accept this purpose of Jesus, as I learned when I met a remarkable woman. She was in her 80s, and completing a university degree. In her youth she was an Olympic athlete. Definite all-round ability!

She was a life-long church member, but had a shock when at 76. She realised that she was not a Christian. Up to then all her trust was in her own ability, not Jesus’ death. She thanked God for the chance to learn to trust Jesus’ death. A remarkable woman, and a fine example.
July 2006

 


 

How to ‘get’ good

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In Albury-Wodonga, the weekly free newspapers used to include a column of reflections. They were written by local  ministers, or similar (authors included a local Baha’i leader, as well as someone from the local humanist society branch). I don’t know why they stopped. Equally, I don’t know if they achieved anything!

Cleaning up my computer, I found a few of mine. In the interests of recycling, I will re-release them on this blog.

Here is one of the Bible’s most famous statements, from the book of Micah:
‘He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?’

This is over 2700 year old! But it’s still as fresh as a gentle spring breeze.

It is worth pausing for a couple of minutes to see what Micah means.

Firstly, justice is for everyone. All people are to do justice: men and women, young and old. It is easy to think justice is only about police, judges and politicians. God speaks to the individual (‘O, man’) and says: look after your neighbour, sister, workmate, everyone.

Secondly, this type of life ultimately flows from God himself. ‘Kindness’ supremely is from the Lord. He is patient, forgiving and truthful.

Fortunately God can work all sorts of good things in our world. But the only truly just individual is one who walks humbly with God. The one who trusts God is the one who learns to live like God.

This sounds tough. It is tough!

Except for a gift – a Christmas gift.

Micah’s other famous words are about Christmas and Jesus. ‘But you, O Bethlehem, from you shall come one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.’ No doubt these words will crop up again in a few weeks when we remember Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem.

Where do we best see God’s kindness? In Jesus, of course. It is in Jesus that God is patient, forgiving and truthful.

How can we learn justice and kindness? In Jesus, of course.

Jesus is the way to have life, and Jesus is the way to live life.
November 2005

 


 

Hearts & laws

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In Albury-Wodonga, the weekly free newspapers used to include a column of reflections. They were written by local  ministers, or similar (authors included a local Baha’i leader, as well as someone from the local humanist society branch). I don’t know why they stopped. Equally, I don’t know if they achieved anything!

Cleaning up my computer, I found a few of mine. In the interests of recycling, I will re-release them on this blog.

Imagine if the following law came into effect: that it is illegal to make fun of left-handed people. No more jokes about writing funny, or eating backwards, or being ‘cack-handed.’

What would happen? Two things would result, I am sure.

Firstly, the jokes would reduce. No one wants to be caught out!

Secondly, and most importantly, people would harbour a grudge about ‘lefties.’ That is, men and women may stop making fun but would still resent them. People are tenacious and hold on tightly to even the most irrational convictions.

Laws are important. I hope that Australia’s laws become better and better. But this imaginary situation illustrates the great weakness of law: it cannot change the heart.

For example, Australia has laws against racial discrimination. Yet we all know that some people still hate those of a different skin colour. That’s a good law – but the good law does not change the heart. A stony heart will remain dead and unresponsive.

There’s a mistaken idea I come across repeatedly: that Christians are all about laws. No! Christianity is about the heart of men and women. The Bible shows that God does what national laws cannot do. God can take a stony heart and give it life.

This is put wonderfully in a part of the Bible written 600 years before Jesus was born. God looked forward to Jesus and said, ‘I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from you and give you a heart of flesh.’

Where we distrust our neighbour God alone can move us to love. Where we give God himself the cold shoulder treatment God alone can bring us back to himself.

So let’s think wisely about life in Australia. Let’s support the best efforts of those who make laws. But let’s also remember that the problem of our hearts of stone can only be solved by what God does through Jesus Christ.
August 2005

 


 

Public beliefs

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In Albury-Wodonga, the weekly free newspapers used to include a column of reflections. They were written by local  ministers, or similar (authors included a local Baha’i leader, as well as someone from the local humanist society branch). I don’t know why they stopped. Equally, I don’t know if they achieved anything!

Cleaning up my computer, I found a few of mine. In the interests of recycling, I will re-release them on my blog.

I saw a recent interview with Peter Garrett. The interviewer asked him about his strong Christian commitment. Garrett mentioned that it is not easy to bring personal faith into the public arena. Many of us will sympathise with this point of view, including many politicians from all parties.

An American family I know found the same thing. Wanting to get to know Australians, they would ask, ‘What church are you part of?’ They soon found out that we don’t like to speak about these things.

A number of people have told me, ‘I can’t talk about my beliefs. It’s a very personal thing.’ If we cannot speak of our beliefs at church and with a minister, when can we do so?

The more I reflect on these conversations the more I realise that what we believe is not private at all. It is the most public thing about us. I can change my clothes or hairstyle from day to day. But underlying everything I do lies my belief about God, truth, forgiveness, love and humanity. Our beliefs are public in family life, with neighbours, at work, everywhere.

It is no surprise that Jesus knew this already. He said, ‘Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.’ (You can find this in Luke’s gospel, chapter 12.)

Jesus’ words tell us that beliefs are public because we live before God. And that we will answer to God one day.

So let’s not ignore or hide our beliefs. I rejoice in the fact that Jesus’ life and death show me what truth and forgiveness are all about. This is not just belief, it is life itself.
June 2004