Changing some more definitions

sometimes you just can't find the right picture.

Now that Australia has changed the definition of marriage, perhaps it's time to update the meanings of some other terms too. Here are a few suggestions:

Bible: A book that used to be seen as an authoritative word of God, now seen as a collection of writings from which you can enjoy the nice bits and ignore the bits you disagree with.

Church: Once considered a place where people find love and acceptance, it is best seen as an organisation that tries to stand in the way of progress.

Adultery: Once seen as sexual relationships outside marriage, now accepted as sexual experimentation. Or personal fulfillment. You choose.

Monogamy: Experienced by people too ugly to score with anyone else.

Tolerance: This doesn't need to be changed. It has been removed from current language.

Progressive: Once seen as christian thinkers and doers who were brave enough to see beyond the strictures of traditionalism. Now defined as those who have hoisted the anchor and are going where the winds of change will take them.

Evangelical: Once seen as Christian thinkers who took the Bible seriously. Now seen as politically motivated to protect their own territory.

Fair: Ensuring everyone has the same thing. Not to be confused with communism (I think).

Rainbow: Once seen as a sign of God's promise, then seen as a an arch of colours caused by the refraction of sun light on rain drops, now seen as something more political. What will the rainbow mean in the future?

The truth is, there are a lot of things changing at the moment, and I'm more than a little unsettled by that. Maybe that is just how it should be, but that would require a much more thought out response.

There are probably many other terms that are due to be re-defined. What would you add to this list - either with your tongue-in-cheek, or not.

Respect. Is it a lost art?

In primary school, there have been times when the class work together to create class rules. These would often include statements like
Don't take someone else's things without asking.
Listen to the teacher when she is speaking.
Respect other people's feelings.
Generally, I always felt like these class rules could be summed up in one word.

Respect.

So we teach it to primary school children, and this is a good thing. But something seems to happen to people when they grow up and too many seem to resent respect, or maybe just forget how that is supposed to be lived out in everyday life.

Two incidents this week have shone a bright and exposing light on the lost art of respect in our society. One is appalling, the other more appalling and tragic.

On Wednesday evening this week, one of our Federal members of Parliament was enjoying a meal in a local pub when he was heckled by some - what shall I call them - drinkers. Senator Sam Dastyari is a public figure, and as such he probably expects people to come and speak with him before being invited to do so. But what he received was verbal abuse. I don't think we need to tip around the edges here, he was treated in an appalling manner by men who had clearly determined that there are some people in the community who do not deserve to be respected.

The fact that these men (must be a better word than this) filmed the exchange, and then made it public, seems to amplify their own lack of respect for the senator, for themselves, and for others in the pub who had to listen to this appalling ranting.

Is respect a lost art? It certainly seems to be for some who have a very narrow view on what it is to be a patriot.

The second incident is far more tragic, because it didn't involve any discussion, but I suggest it began with a simple lack of respect.

On Wednesday afternoon, a man was riding home from work on his motorbike. Nothing unusual in that. I do it myself some days. But as he was riding down a street in the leafy suburb of Mitcham, a four wheel drive did not slow down at a give way sign, hit him and dragged him and the bike under the car for over 60 metres. The bike caught fire and this man was terribly burned. He died the next day.

The driver of the car didn't stop to help. It was a stolen car and the people in it drove off quickly. It has been reported that they later broke into a home in another suburb so they could steal another car.

Go back to those primary school rules. "Don't take someone else's things without asking." Here is a situation when some young men (why is it always men?) chose to abandon respect, stole a car, killed a man, and drove off.

Do you teach children? Teach them to respect others. Use your words to teach them. And teach them by the way you live.

Halloween? Not this year, mate.

It always makes me laugh.

I'm no fan of Halloween. It might be fun to see what Americans get up to for Halloween when we're watching commercial television, but that's about it. I'm not worried about children turning into crazed Satan worshippers, it just doesn't look like a sensible thing to celebrate. If you want to think a bit more about this, then you might like to have a look at what Krish Kandiah has to say in his article "Why I've changed my mind about Halloween." It's worth your time and your consideration.

But 2017 is a year that we should be focussing on greater things.

This year in Australia we commemorate 100 years since one of the greatest cavalry charges in history, and most certainly the last great cavalry charge - the charge of the Light Horsemen in Beersheba. You can read a bit of it here, or take a bit of time to enjoy the Landline special. It is enjoyable, and the videography is stunning.

It is also a very significant year for Christians around the world. History tells us that on Oct 31 in 1517 (500 years ago) a bloke named Martin Luther nailed a letter to a church door looking for people to debate with him on some concerns he had about the church. He didn't intend to begin something that would have dramatic ramifications throughout Europe and far beyond.

But it did.

We call it 'The Reformation' and I am one of those who is happy to celebrate that moment in history and all that it represents.

If you are a follower of Jesus, forget the plastic spiders and skulls. Instead, give a prayer of thanksgiving for people like Martin Luther who find hope in the Scriptures and shine the light for others to see.

If you enjoy the chance to read the Bible for yourself, forget the sickly sugary sweets that already overweight children will be eating. Instead, sit with the Bible in hand and read Romans 1:1-17 IN YOUR OWN LANGUAGE. Be thankful for Luther, and Tyndale, and Wycliffe and others who suffered to make the word of God available to people like you.

If you enjoy democracy, abandon the witches and goblins and be pleased that Luther was born in a time when what he did pressed the right buttons for people so that many - including civic leaders - came with him on this journey.

It is also the anniversary of my parent's wedding. That's worth a lot more than anything to do with Halloween. 

Halloween? Not this year. 

Green pastures, quiet waters, valleys, and shadows.

Good afternoon everyone. My name is Rev Brian Harvey and on behalf of the family, I welcome you to this very special service.

Some years ago now, Michael introduced Constance to the rest of his family, and I think I can say that she felt welcomed. When we learnt about her history with cancer, it was kind of amazing to be in the presence of someone who had such an incredible story to tell.

The relationship developed, and at some point I travelled to a second hand book store in Edithvale to meet with Constance and Michael to prepare for their wedding.

Then in October 2004, in a little church in Harden, I stood with Michael & Constance in the presence of friends and family and God to conduct their wedding. That day still stands in my memory as a great wedding and a great day in our family.

I am Michael’s cousin, and it is a privilege to be able to lead this service today.

You will have your own stories and memories of Constance and your relationship with her. I hope you will take some time today to share some of those stories and memories and cry or laugh together.

In our service we will hear eulogies from family members, a special song being sung, and will be able to see a number of photos of different aspects of Connie’s life. Then I’ll read an ancient poem. To start, I invite Michael to come and speak to us.

(This was followed by other family members speaking. These messages were all outstanding and honouring.)

Psalm 23
A psalm of David.
​¹ The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
² He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
³ he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.
⁴ Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
⁵ You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
⁶ Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.

Here is a quote from another old poem:

“Life is a journey; long is the road,

And when the noontide is high

Souls that are weary faint 'neath their load,

Long for the waters, and cry:”

So begins an old song, and as we gather together this afternoon, recognising all that has happened over Connie’s life, that first line is painfully relevant:

“Life is a journey; long is the road”

Like all journeys, the journey of life will take us into unexpected and unwanted areas. But the fullness of life will also show that this journey isn’t always in unexpected and unwanted areas. Often this journey passes through times of great peace and happiness.

Psalm 23 is a beautiful poem, but it is not a poem written for funerals. However, it is nonetheless relevant and helpful for us today as we celebrate a journey of life that we have all shared in, though in different ways. This Psalm speaks of a journey of life and all that this journey contains. It begins with a peaceful journey.

The Peaceful Road of Life

The road of peace is a road that we all want. We want it on a global scale when we look to the overwhelming troubles in the road and wonder if there will ever be peace. We want peace when there is strife in our families and in our neighbourhoods. We want peace.

Here is how this poem describes the road of peace

“Lying down in green pastures”; “Besides quiet waters”, “Restores my soul”, “Paths of Righteousness”.

I’m not very good at poetry, and I know that if I’m asked to describe a peaceful life, I will just use lots of words. The writer of this poem knows how to communicate in better ways, and reading these words, even speaking these words evokes thoughts of a place where you have been able to rest – to relax – to just be.

We know that for Connie, for the family, for friends, the thought of walking the journey of life along a road or pathway of peace has been little more than a distant thought for a number of years. Yet this shouldn’t remove the reality of those times of peace and rest and fun that Connie did enjoy over her life time.

The fact that the journey of life takes us through peaceful places should never be forgotten.

But that this journey of life isn’t all green pastures and quiet waters. 

The Difficult Road

Though the writer uses three or four images to describe what I call a road of peace, he only needs one to describe the difficult road:

“Walk through the valley of the shadow of death”

We don’t need to hear anything more.

We don’t want to hear anything more because this image is complete enough. The journey through a dark valley can be a scary one perhaps because you cannot see everything that is around you. This journey can be a difficult one because it takes you away from that place of peace and comfort that we would prefer.

Why would such an image as this be found within the Bible? Simply, because the Bible does not hide from the difficulties of life. Why would I think such an image is relevant for our gathering today? Simply because this shadow has been hanging over the family for a long time. But at this point I want to point out three quick and important things

First, things grow in the valley. This is just a simple reality – things grow in valleys more than on mountain tops.

Second, if there is a shadow there must be light. 

Third, it is in this valley that some of Connie’s greatest life work has been achieved. I don’t say her greatest work, because her greatest work has been with Michael in being the mother to these two great lads. Her greatest work is in teaching and modelling to her children how to live in difficult times. But this doesn’t take away the reality that it is in this valley of the shadow of death that Connie’s great impact has been made.

There is the change in attitude from “I’m dying of cancer” to “I’m living with cancer.” There is the decision to look beyond herself to the hundreds and thousands of others who are dealing with cancer. Then with her brother Sam, and a huge and growing team of supporters, Love Your Sister came to be. Some of us remember standing in the baking sun at Federation Square in Melbourne as Sam began the unicycle journey, and that journey has continued in raising funds and, perhaps more importantly, urging women to be ‘breast aware’.

Many have seen the Facebook community grow into thousands, and when I wonder what impact Connie has made on the lives of others, I read comments like this:

Connie, you are the most inspiring person I have never met.

What Connie has done in her lifetime is more than most would do in a lifetime a lot longer than hers.

with all the hate in the world at the moment you have inspired a passion in all your followers that there is a better more loving and meaningful way to live. Thank you.

And people didn’t just look on as watchers. People feel a belonging and a connection to this village, so they say things like:

Love to all, feel like we have lost a family member

Many others expressed their sadness and also their support for all the family with words like:

A brighter world having had Connie on it... And Sam ... Thinking of you and your family... And Connie's husband and beloved boys. RIP beautiful girl.

The journey of life will take us through the valley of the shadow of death, but it is a journey that goes through it. Keep on going.

The Final Destination

This journey of life will bring us to a final destination. The writer of this Psalm, this holy poem, knows this. Instead of taking time to write a poem to inspire people to greatness and endurance in their own strength and wisdom, this writer points to the shepherd who will provide what is needed and the rest that is required. This writer points to the guide who will lead him in paths of righteousness and the one who will walk with him through the valley of the shadow of death and who will bring great comfort particularly in those times.

Then this writer points to a host who will welcome the weary yet contented traveller at the end of days.

So we learn that if we look for our greatest strength in ourselves, it will fail. It may endure for a time, but it will fail. These words urge us to look to the shepherd, to the one who could say of himself, “I am the good shepherd”. Even these ancient words urge us to look to Jesus as our greatest hope and our Saviour.

The journey of life takes us through peaceful places and through difficult places. In all of them these words, and the experience of countless others, teach that we are not alone. God is there in all of it. I pray that you will know quiet waters and green pastures more than valleys and shadows.

Prayer

O mighty God, father of all mankind, as we gather here today we do so with very mixed feelings. Our hearts are aching for the life that has come to an end. And yet we are thankful for a life that has been lived and for the impact of that life. We give you thanks for Constance Johnson.

As we come to the end of our time together here, I pray that you would bring healing to broken hearts, peace to troubled minds, and joy to despairing souls.

Lord, our great shepherd, guide us into paths of peace, for your name’s sake.

Amen.

Friends, as we come to the close of our service, in a moment I will give the words of committal. As the coffin is lowered to Constance’s final place, you will hear the words of James Blunt’s song, “Goodbye My Lover.”

Committal

Having given thanks for the life of our friend, sister, husband, mother Constance Anne Johnson, we now commit her body to be cremated, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Amen.

I visited your church on Sunday – and I’m not coming back.

Last weekend (July 9) we were out of town and took a chance to visit your church. We were in the area, looked up your website and were impressed with what we saw, so plugged the address into Google Maps and made our way there. I'm not coming back. Here's why.

How hard is it to talk to visitors!

Apparently, at your church it is nearly impossible. We arrived at 9.55am, and made our way into the building. The seats were mostly empty so we felt easy just sitting somewhere we felt comfortable. I reckon it was pretty obvious that we were not usually in your church – and two others who walked in before us – but no one deemed us worthy of talking to. Someone opened the door for us so we could walk in, and just walked away!! Seriously!

At the end of the service, one of the older ladies did come to speak with my wife. Thank you for taking the time to say hello. It’s a shame two of your friends decided they couldn’t wait for that conversation to come to a happy conclusion before making it clear they ‘needed’ to talk to you.

You described yourself as a church connecting with your community. I hope you are, because it seems you can’t connect with people who come into your building.

I want to worship Jesus with others, but . . .

We arrived five minutes before the advertised starting time. The fact that there were so many empty seats was a bit of a surprise, but many churches have more empty seats than used ones. Over the next twenty minutes, I reckon we watched about two-thirds of your congregation arrive. Can I assume from this that people come, but they’re not actually interested? That’s how it feels to me.

I know that you have a number of families with young children in the congregation, and I remember the struggle of getting children ready on a Sunday morning. But, if you have that many people coming late, you might want to ask why. I know that families will move heaven and earth to get their children to the basketball stadium on time for their child to start the game, so why is it ok to just stroll in 10 minutes after the worship service begins? 

Music

 

I’m always pleased when churches are learning new songs. There were a couple of songs that were completely new to me, and they were difficult to pick up. That’s ok. If your church community know these songs and can sing them well, all good.

But what really distracts me is a music team that need to be told when to come up. Don’t they know when the next song is going to be sung? If they don’t know, why don’t they know? And watching the music team slowly meander up to their instruments infuriates me, and suggests they aren’t really interested. That probably isn’t true, but it looks that way. 

The sermon was . . . 

 

The sermon was excellent. I was encouraged to look to Jesus. I was challenged at my own sinfulness. If I was only interested in this part of worship, I would happily roll in at 10.30am and leave during the final song. But I believe that worship is a community experience. 

Finally

 

I am saddened by the experience for two reasons. One, as I’ve already suggested, I believe that worship is a community experience, and we were excluded from the community. Before anyone tells me that I should be the one to step out and talk with people, let me answer you. Come to the church I belong to and you will see me, and others, step out and talk with people. But on Sunday, I came to your house – and you did not welcome me.

The second reason I am saddened is that I was visiting some family over that weekend who are dealing with some big life issues. I would like to have been able to say to them that we have found a church that would be good for them to attend. We didn’t.

I write this in the hope that we might all do better. Let’s point to Jesus in all we do and not just leave it to the preacher.

Today I visited your church.

I visited your church today.

Today we visited a church. While it’s not unusual for me to visit a church – indeed it is something I have been very busy doing over the last few months where I have been a visiting preacher – it is unusual for me to just visit a church without being invited.

Today, that is just what we did.

And so I want to share with you what I have learned today.

Welcome

When you see someone in your church for the first time, please don't just say ‘hi’ and walk past. Shake a hand, introduce yourself, ask for a name, and begin a conversation. Make me feel welcome. Anyone can do this. ANYONE! So don't leave it to the pastor or the elders. You can talk to new people. So do it. Please.

Explain

This one probably is up to the pastor, or the “worship leader”. The visitors in your church might be familiar with church life and how church services happen, but I don't know what happens in your church service. So take a moment to explain. Do we stand to sing? Then tell me. Is the offering happening? Let me know before the collection plate is being handed around.

It will help your visitors and the regular attenders won't mind.

Communion

Again, different churches will handle communion in slightly different ways. That’s ok. But please take a moment to explain a few things. Like what this is about. What is the significance of the bread and the cup? Don't assume that everyone knows what you know.

Who can take communion? If this church only shares this with church members, let me know. I won't be offended (though I think you will find it hard to justify that attitude biblically). Are you ok with children taking communion? Please save me the embarrassment of reaching for the bread and cup if it's going to be a problem.

Also, and I was confronted with this today, is the bread gluten free? And are you using grape juice or real wine?

Morning tea

The service concludes, and a general invitation is given from the microphone to stay for morning tea. This is good. But here’s something to remember – that invitation doesn't mean a whole lot. The invitation that matters is the one that is given personally, the invitation that you give to me to come and stay for a while.

This is NOT the job of the pastor. This is something that anyone can do. Even you.

Please don't think I am being critical of the church we visited today. That is not my goal. My goal is to remind all of us who attend the church that we need to keep an eye out for those who are there for the first time.

Death, and the busyness of life.

As I type this, I am sitting at my office desk. This means that I am not attending a funeral. Ten days ago I was saddened to learn that an old friend of mine had been killed while riding his motorbike. While details of what happened aren't clear to me, it doesn't lessen the fact that this man is now gone from this world.

Today, right now, his funeral is being held in Stawell.

And because I feel too busy, I have chosen not to attend.

I'm not complaining about this. It is a a fact of my life at the moment that some things are out of balance and I'm struggling to get them back into balance - whatever that actually means.

So, while I'm not there to share my thoughts, I'll share them here.

In 1992, I was appointed to serve as a Corps Officer at The Salvation Army in Stawell, Western Victoria. While there I met a young man and his girlfriend who wanted to do something for the youth of the town, and so we created a youth club at our church. It really wasn't much more than a place for teenagers to meet and hang out for a coupe of hours on a Friday if they had nothing else to do, but it was also a place where we got to meet some of the teenagers of Stawell.

His girlfriend bailed out before we had even started, but Darren was willing to stick to it for a while and get things started. Our first night didn't end too well, but some kids kept coming back each time we were there. 

My favourite memory of this is the photo that appeared in the Stawell Times-News promoting the club. I'm reasonably short, and Darren is taller than me, and I foolishly stood on the downside of the slope. So when the picture appeared our height differences were greatly exaggerated.

Darren's mum was a part of the church family when we were there, and she still is. As she deals with the grief and heartache of the death of her son, I know that this church family will support her with love and with practical things too.

Is my life too busy? Possibly. Today I am reminded that some things are more important than work.