Couldn't Help Noticing

Living by faith

Joseph was the epitome of success. From being imprisoned and with no apparent prospects at all, he rose to become the 2IC in all of Egypt, with all the trimmings and trappings of such a prestigious and powerful position.

Yet, as Hebrews 11:22 points out, he did not take his eyes off the promises of God—that his people would inherit a land that would be their own, and where God would be their God.

The writer is making the point that people like Joseph “desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one”. They are “aliens and strangers” where they live, because they long for heaven.

And as a result “God is not ashamed to be called their God”.

It is so easy to be caught up in the things of this world. I should think God would very often have cause to be ashamed of some of us who take the name of ‘Christian’ upon ourselves, when we get so passionate about such temporal matters.

But here is the solution: remember the “great crowd of witnesses” who have given us such a great example of faith—“the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen”. And “lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Heb 12:1-2)”.

Sad Irony

This past Tuesday, delegates to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) cast votes on two important issues. By an overwhelming majoring (81% to 19%), the delegates voted to keep in the PCUSA constitution amendment G-6.0106b:

Those who are called to office in the church are to lead a life in obedience to Scripture and in conformity to the historic confessional standards of the church. Among these standards is the requirement to live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness. Persons refusing to repent of any self-acknowledged practice which the confessions call sin shall not be ordained and/or installed as deacons, elders, or ministers of the Word and Sacrament.

Liberals proposed an overture to remove this section so as to allow homosexuals and lesbians in committed relationships to be legally ordained in the PCUSA. Their attempt failed. So, this is good news, right?

Seemingly so—until you read about the vote taken right before this one. In a historic vote, the delegation voted by a margin of 57% to 43% to accept what is known as local option. This means that a local church and presbytery (geographical association of Presbyterian churches) has the right to deem which ordination standards are essentials and which ones are not. The end result is that a presbytery can deem the above amendment as a ‘non-essential’ ordination standard and thus allow homosexuals and lesbians (or anyone refusing to repent of a certain sin) to be an official Minister of Word and Sacrament.

It takes little commentary to see the hypocrisy in all of this.

Homosexual unions

The Australian Federal Government recently overturned some territorial legislation concerning homosexual unions. There's no question that this topic will be a live one for a while. Here's yet another of my unpublished letters to the editor:

Dear editor,

It's possible that I've missed something in the discussion of same-sex unions in the last week, but I don't understand why a government of a state or territory believes it has the power to legislate in this matter. The union of a man and a woman predates the existence of any sort of government legislation. It follows that it doesn't lie within the scope of a government to redefine homosexual union as equivalent to marriage.

Yours sincerely,

Gordon Cheng

Get thee to a nunnery

The ABC will be filming a new reality TV series in August called The Abbey. Modelled after the BBC's The Monastery, in which five men went to live in Worth Abbey in West Sussex for 40 days and 40 nights, The Abbey will focus on the experiences of five women who will forsake the world to go live in rural Australia with an order of nuns for 33 days, one day for each year of Christ's life. They are expected to participate in the community by doing things like getting up at 4 am, praying and meditating, working on the farm, making handicrafts and taking vows of silence. (The latter, I am sure, will make very interesting television!) Each woman will be assigned a Sister who will be her spiritual mentor. Any questions or issues can be discussed with this Sister.

But what is the point of it all? Will the women be voted out of the abbey, one by one, week by week, based on how competently they say Hail Marys? Is there a million dollar prize or a nice car at stake? No, says the ABC, “[T]his is not a game show or competition. The reward is the unique experience” (source). Volunteers don't have to be Christian or even vaguely religious; they just have to be willing to “put their beliefs and lifestyle to the test” and be open to “another very different way of life”—a simpler way of life—one without mobile phones, television or the internet.

Such an approach betrays a consumerist mindset: it's about what religion can give me. In this case, it's the thrill ride—some sort of higher undefined spirituality brought on by mild asceticism—an alternative to the frenetic pace of modern life. It's about experience, not relationship; the journey, not the destination. It's certainly not about acquainting oneself with one's creator and judge.

‘Reality’ TV? You be the judge.

It’s the atmosphere that counts

According to a recent advertisement for Bava's Music City, “you can enhance and create an atmosphere of worship with new lighting concepts”. It's a clever marketing strategy, and not only because they'll make lots of money out of people who think that worshipping God is all about being in the right kind of place with the right kind of atmosphere. It's also clever because if they can convince people (like me) who think that worshiping God is about all of life, then they'll have us installing new lights in our cars, our workplaces, our homes (every room), our schools ... just so we can get that “atmosphere of worship” in every situation.

I wonder what Christians did before electricity was invented? I guess they used candles. Now there's a thought ...

(Thanks to the Briefing reader who sent the ad in, and who says she has more than enough weird lighting effects already with all the stained glass windows in her church.)