Quote on a park bench, Quinton Reserve, Bayswater
On a bike ride yesterday, I found the above quote from Father Terry Dibble close to the Bayswater Marina, a place where millions of dollars worth of pleasure boats jostle gently in the protected harbour.
I thought I'd better look Terry up. The NZ Herald at the time of his death over a decade ago described him as 'a lifelong campaigner for social justice'. He was clearly someone who stood up for the poor, to the point of being a nuisance to his own Catholic denomination.
We have these dividing lines in Aotearoa, now exacerbated by the economic imbalances and interventions of the Covid season. Those who were asset rich before Covid are now richer, those renting and without property assets are now poorer. Where will the churches utilize their energies and resources at this time? Are we protesting our lack of freedoms, or advocating for lasting solutions to societal problems?
Arguably, Covid restrictions are not the cataclysm some are making out. It will pass, and hopefully the end is in sight. What will be more pressing in the next while is the ballooning wealth gap and the dire housing situation for many. This will potentially last longer as a crisis and has been coming like a slow train and conveniently ignored by mainstream politicians for decades. (She'll be right mate...!)
What does the church have to say? The trouble is in the church we tend to make a comfortable religion that fits our existing worldview. We don't wish to consider a theology that turns the spotlight on things we benefit from that may be seen as unjust in God's economy.
Like the appallingly written 'choose your own adventure' books available in my childhood, we pick and mix the spiritual narrative and doctrines that suit our existing worldview. We make God in our own image.
Witness the shame of some evangelical churches in the USA, slavishly committed to a 'conservative' political ideology involving lies, corruption and even leading to shocking mob violence in Washington DC. Except often they are not ashamed, and still committed. There is a lesson for us here. The church is called to prophetically speak out against wrongdoing, not cover it up and justify it as a means to a perceived end.
Jesus didn't come to Israel to praise the status quo, he came to disturb the peace, announcing the in-breaking Kingdom of God. He hung out with the poor and rejected.
On my darker days, I think preaching makes little difference. I suspect people hold exactly the same views they did 5 years ago, pray the same prayers, and do virtually the same things. Maybe the preacher needs to shape up? I'll agree with that. Amen.
Yet, I remain committed, along with you as part of a community of faith, in relationship with the living God, who we apprehend in the life of Jesus, and experience through the indwelling Holy Spirit. We grow together, as God's people.
Dare I say, God may be calling us to a new work, not of telling people to 'be like us', but to a servant-hearted ministry of belonging. Where is the need in our community? Need is well hidden in a suburb where the median well presented house costs 1.5 million dollars (current data). The economic reality of living in our suburb will dictate and re-shape the lives and church going habits of our neighbours. We have little control over the demographics. But prayer in the Spirit is within our control even today.
Pray with Session this week as we work on a mission statement to complement our vision of being 'a place to belong to the family of God.' Our mission is your mission, we need to own it together. Are we brave enough to allow God to transform and re-make us?
'Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.' (1 John 3:18 NIV)
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