The Dream of Gerontius

Tonight we were treated to tickets to the Opera House - to enjoy Elgar's famous rendition of Cardinal Newman's poem The Dream of Gerontius.

Since Newman was a famous convert from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism it should be no surprise that the poem is about the prayer of a dying man as he faces his own mortality, God's judgment and (interestingly) purgatory.

Let me quote from what the Angel sings almost at the end:

Angels, to whom the willing task is given,
Shall tend, and nurse, and lull thee, as thou liest;
And Masses on the earth and prayers in heaven,
Shall aid thee at the Throne of the most Highest.

So, a few thoughts about this, and about purgatory...

1. It completely undermines the work of Christ as sufficient for salvation. The Book of Hebrews is clear - His sacrifice is enough; we don't need Masses on earth or prayers in heaven.

2. The Bible is not clear about what happens to those who die before Jesus returns and the Last Judgment - we are 'asleep', but what does that mean? As early as Tertullian most of the Church Fathers had some pretty funny ideas about what happened after death. (I don't think there is anything there to justify purgatory but there are common place references to some form of remembering the dead which I find disturbing and confusing.) Having just finished the book of Revelation I'd rather stick with the few things Scripture is clear about and leave the rest up to God.

3. Our society and culture doesn't like tackling the issue of death head on anymore. We'd rather not think about what happens when we die. We are all the poorer for that.

Moving to the left

Having had time to think about Obama's triumph, I've been chewing over Trevor's comment on my last post.

I've always used Micah 6: 8 as a good biblical foil in thinking through political issues:

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Being horribly reductionistic justice has been the war cry of the right where as mercy was the preserve of the left ... and humility has no place in politics!?

With this in mind I think Trevor is on to something. When I was first becoming aware of politics (in the UK in the early 80s) Christians voted Conservative. As far as my parents were concerned sexual ethics and abortion were the deciding issues - justice trumps mercy, as it were.

But the times they were achanging. As I became a teenager, church youth groups were increasingly concerned with compassion to the poor and loving the stranger - mercy came to the fore. The right of centre Conservative party was considered to be individualistic and selfish. This gained momentum until finally the Tory party imploded and Tony Blair swept NuLabour to power in 1997. I was at Theological college in 1997. By then most Christians at college seemed to support Labour. Mercy trumps justice.

Are we seeing that now happen in the US? (Or am I just enjoying saying that Britain leads America in something?)

The western world is fed up with the Republican party at prayer. They are seen as being anti-gay, anti-women's rights and extremely hypocritical. All justice, no mercy and definitely no humility.

The message is clear - the political climate is changing. As usual that is both a good and a bad thing. No longer can Christianity be used as a pragmatic way to win votes. We cannot, no must not, appeal to the instinctive right wing agenda of justice unless we visibly demonstrate mercy at the same time, and all of this with a humble attitude. People will not listen to our position on abortion without seeing our care for pregnant teenagers. Our stance on homosexuality is easily dismissed without visible compassion shown to the gay community.

The bottom line is that votes are not cheap - the only way people will listen to us again is if we live the gospel we preach.

Baracking Obama

There seems to be a trend in Western Politics. The politically conservative party gets in for a long time and gets so unpopular that any change is greeted with open arms.

NuLabour in the UK, Kev07, Barack Obama.

Questions, questions.

- Did Obama win the election or did McCain lose it?

- Does this also represent a backlash against the right-wing Christian moral majority?

- What impact does the answers to these previous two questions have on the world wide Christian church?

I'll do some thinking and post later.

But in the meantime, anybody got any thoughts?

The earth is the Lord's

This is something that has been bothering me ever since we came to Australia. At this stage it is just random musings but I'd be interested to know what Australians think about this:

"We'd like to acknowledge that we are meeting on Gadigal land."

So starts every school assembly at Petersham Public... and pretty much any formal gathering I've been to in the inner-west.

But not in church.

We never acknowledge Aboriginal claims to the land when we meet on a Sunday. Why not? Now I can see issues in that actually the land belongs to God and is merely entrusted to any human being as a steward. However, surely there could be ways to acknowledge this. For example we could start services sometimes with Psalm 24:

The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it...

or do you think that would be seen as yet another snub to the Aboriginal people?

What do you think people read into the fact that we don't make any reference to this issue? Does the silence speak even louder than saying something?

New Ways to Live

Okay, here's another challenge (as well as coming up with a one sentence summary of the book of Revelation) - how about coming up with a new version of Two ways to Live?

2WTL is a great tool which I have used on many occasions but I think it is time to come up with something else. 2WTL is simply the gospel so it is not that we need to change that or improve on it. What I mean is that we need something that weds systematic and biblical theology together and tells the story of the Bible as it does so.

2WTL is great at teaching the doctrine of the gospel systematically. But it doesn't give the plotline of the Bible and therefore people today will tend to pick and mix the bits they like. Also, in a culture where biblical literacy is plummeting we need simple evangelistic tools that also teach something of the story of God's historic dealings with humanity - i.e. not just in the abstract.

If you want an example of the kind of thing I'm talking about then here are the titles of talks that Don Carson usually uses at Uni. missions:

1. The God who makes everything: Genesis 1 & 2
2. The God who does not wipe out rebels: Genesis 3
3. The God who legislates: 10 Commandments + bits of Leviticus
4. The God who becomes a human being: John 1: 1-18
5. The God who declares the guilty just: Romans 3: 21-26
6. The God who is very angry: Revelation 21-22
7. The God who triumphs: Revelation 21-22

Do you see how he teaches the same systematic points as 2WTL but that he puts them in the context of salvation history - telling the story of God's great rescue plan in biblical order?

So, the gauntlet has been laid down. Who can come up with a new version of 2WTL that explains the gospel by telling the story of the Bible?

The Task ahead

The heart of atheism appears be in the inner west. Residents of Camperdown, Erskineville, Enmore, Newtown and Annandale are more likely to shun religion than any of their other Sydney neighbours.

That's from Linda Morris writing in the SMH here.

Looks like it's time to roll our sleeves up and start praying and sharing the gospel with the people of the inner-west.

There is one thing that did make me smile in this though - presumably their research included Moore College in Newtown too!?

The End of the Book

This is really for PBCam.

So we've finished the book of Revelation and on Sunday we tried to come up with a one sentence summary of Revelation.

Why not add your summary as a comment to this post - there will be a great prize, in heaven, for the winner!?