Pokies.

A bit of good news. In late 2019 [i.e. the before times] The ACT introduced a program that would release $632,811 in grants to help clubs across the ACT diversify their business models away from pokies. The grants were spearheaded by government minister and Greens leader Shane Rattenbury.

This is a very surprising move – all state and territory governments bring in huge amounts of revenue based on pokie income and so these grants represent the government, not just the clubs, putting the common good above self-interest.

It is even more surprising because just last year the government and opposition stood against other gaming reforms introduced by Rattenbury to more tightly regulate pokies by reducing the spend limit and introduce “time played” counters.

Because of Covid the grant process was mothballed until this week, when it was announced that 10 clubs were being given the grants, including clubs like the Southern Cross Yarralumla Yacht club which made the difficult but commendable decision to go pokie free in 2020.

Friends, pokies are a scourge in Canberra. One in five Canberrans use poker machines to gamble, and 10% of the population reported problem gambling symptoms according to ACTCOSS research. That’s 40 000 people. Poker machines destroy lives so the rest of us can have subsidised steak and beer. Like every idol, they promise the world but only ever impoverish. They promise freedom but deliver shame and despair.

So, this is a small step, but a very good step in the right direction and it might be worth sending Shane Rattenbury a thank you note, as I have done.

And I want to acknowledge that you, yourself, might be among those 40 000 Canberrans. I want you to know that you are not stuck. The gospel of Jesus – who was impoverished so we could be rich and marched toward shame and despair so we could be free indeed – gives grace and power to overcome. But you can’t do it on your own, any more than you can do the rest of the Christian life by white-knuckling it. You can talk to Anna or me or call lifeline on 13 11 14.

grace and peace,

Steve

Sacred.

As I’ve watched coverage and read things about the nonsense that happened at the US Capitol yesterday, I started to notice something surprising. The journalists, pundits and politicians seemed to reach for religious language to describe how they felt about what had happened.

“This building is sacred.”
“The electoral college vote tally is a sacrament”
“These domestic terrorists defiled the congress”
“etc.”

Why do people talk like that at moments like these?

There’s probably lots of reasons but I suspect it signals a memory-trace. Somehow, we understand there is something holy about the exercise of power for good. The story of Genesis 1-2 tells us that humanity was ordained, not first as priests, but as kings and queens.

Every time people find their way to making decisions that get the best out of creation, that honour and serve people and don’t obscure God’s providence – that is a holy thing worthy of our humanity.

Even as our houses of parliament or chambers of congress are filled up with people as kneecapped by sin as the rest of us still, by God’s common grace, so often decisions that promote the common good abound. It’s not that democracy itself is sacred. As CS Lewis put it democracy is medicine and not food. No, what is sacred is steady order that bends towards justice. So, it was perfectly appropriate for commentators to feel violated as their Capitol was breached and hope for a re-consecration.

We too hope for the same thing. Jesus was killed by a mob but raised with power. He is the fierce defender of the good and will return to cleanse the world. On that day and every day thereafter, every house and chamber and court will dispense perfect justice.

grace and peace,

Steve

Lights, Camera, Action - Renew Online kicks off

Friends,

Here’s a short overview of how Renew Online will work, and how you can get involved.

Block 1:
Gather for a time of worship in Community groups/from individual computers linked to a group, including music and prayers, Bible reading. If you’re not in a community group and would like to, please let me know by sending an email.
 
Block 2:
A youtube livestream including interviews, Bible reading, Bible talk, questions and corporate prayer. Groups/individuals will watch this segment and some people will be delegated to participate via their computer.
 
Block 3:
A time of further worship, prayers and music and benediction in community groups/via computer with a group.
 

In community group

If you are choosing to gather with your groups in homes you don't have to do much. Just arrive a bit before 10am and practice all the spacial distancing procedures (ensuring you don't have flu symptoms, washing hands on arrival, maintain 1.5m space and don't share food together).

Participating from home

If you are participating from home, there are two important things to do.

1. Ensure you have instructions from your community group leaders on how to access your Zoom group with them (so that way you can participate in blocks 1 and 3)

2. Download the Service for 22/3/20 here.

3. Subscribe to the Renew Anglican Church Youtube channel (and click the bell, so you can get updates on when new content comes available). When we start the streaming feed tomorrow morning you'll get a notification inviting you to join.

Much love to you all.
Grace and peace,

Steve and Anna

Covid-19 and Martin Luther

Every now and again a crisis hits us that forces us to ask, “do I really believe the gospel and, if so, what does it mean for how I live?” As I’ve talked with my friends across South-East Asia over the last couple of weeks it’s hard not to see the Corona virus as one of those. I want to offer some 500-year-old wisdom for how to get through the next few weeks.  
 
In 1527 Martin Luther received a letter from some Christians in a neighbouring town. The plague – a disease that had, two centuries before, wiped out half of the European population was re-emerging, and Christians were trying to figure out what the gospel meant for how to face a crisis like that. Was it ok for Christians to flee?

Luther’s advice is excellent and says a lot about how we should handle ourselves, should Covid19 hit Canberra.

The whole letter is worth reading, and I’ve attached a copy with some helpful commentary around it for you to look at.

But here are four takeaways for me.
 

• Don’t take unnecessary risks. Christians don’t have to be fatalistic about disease or presume it’s the judgement of God coming on them. The Bible assumes we will take care of ourselves and taking precautions are wise.

So: follow the advice of our government and health professionals. I have started listening to the ABC’s Coronacast podcast – it’s a daily 10-minute podcast telling me new things and answering questions. I’m hoping that listening to that will mean I won’t have to obsessively read other news.
 

• Be on guard against Satan. In some ways the virus is the least of our worries. Our battle is not with flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12). Satan would like nothing more than for us to forget the gospel and make us so deathly anxious that we forget the jewels of the gospel (e.g. resurrection hope, peace with God and his Fatherly care for us). We need to remember that whatever this virus can take from us (health, economic stability, social cohesion) it can never take Christ. 

So: helping your neighbour and serving God when it costs is not just good – it annoys the devil. Panic buying, which is just an expression of anxious selfishness - get prepared by all means but don't believe the lie of scarcity.
 

• Know your limits. Some people will wonder, "should I try and get out of the city?" The decision to stay and serve or head for the hills is one of calling, capacity and conscience. If you are working with the sick, or if you’re offering what used to be called “cure of souls” (i.e. you’re in pastoral ministry) then stay and serve. Luther had skin in the game with this one – he refused to leave so he could preach grace to the dying and he even jumped in and cared for the sick as best he could as a layman. Not everyone is going to be useful in that regard and so getting out of the way might be the best idea.  

So: pay attention to your conscience as you consider how to act rightly in this circumstance. The questions "should I go to work/send my kids to school/continue to participate in normal life?" are wisdom questions to weigh and might be worth discussing with other godly people
 

• Keep meeting. Christianity is a community project. Church is not an optional extra to the Christian life. Quarantine is important for halting the spread of disease, but where that is not mandated we should carry on meeting to have the medicine of the gospel applied to our hearts in the word, in song and in the breaking of bread.  

So: the higher ups in the Anglican church are releasing guidance in the next few days on how to promote safety in churches. We’ll also be considering the specific risks that come up in our context and will look at ways to mitigate those risks.
 
Our friends in Singapore are taking everyone’s temperature as they come in for church! We are a long way from the need for that kind of response, but if we got there, be prepared for a little inconvenience for the sake of the oasis of the joyful people of God.
 
Please keep praying against the spread, against herd selfishness, against racism, against despair.

Please pray for our city's health workers, especially those in our church. Pray for a vaccine. Pray for opportunities to be evidently living with gospel hope.   

Grace and Peace,

Steve

Singing Hallelujah in HK

I’ve had a song stuck in my head all week. It’s the song that has been sung by millions of protesters in Hong Kong in recent days, Sing Hallelujah to the Lord.

Watch this vid from Time Magazine to hear protesters singing over the last few weeks.

I remember singing it as a kid in my dinky 80s Baptist church but I had completely forgotten about it until these last few days. It was a stroke of genius by church leaders in Hong Kong to start singing the song at the protests.

For one thing, religious gatherings are exempt from the definition of a “gathering” or “assembly” under Hong Kong’s Public Order Ordinance and are thus more difficult to police. So, you might say, they figured out a loophole to prevent the protest from being clamped down on by government forces. They turned it into on enormous worship event. In this, the churches were gifting the community their religious freedom - which is a word for Australians in our cultural moment.

For another, the conspicuous presence of churches at these protests seems to have had a soothing influence on the masses. Unlike the Umbrella Movement of 2014 it seems the protests have been largely peaceful. The ABC story interviewed one Christian protester who said, "Christians started turning up at protests to sing 'Sing Hallelujah To The Lord' in case there was the chance of violence when police wanted to disperse protesters," Mr Leung said. "But once they started singing, everyone became calm. "Their singing turned a clash into a chorus. But there’s a third reason that this was the perfect song to choose for these demonstrations.

Think about the song itself for a moment. It only has five words.

Sing Hallelujah to the Lord
Sing Hallelujah to the Lord
Sing Hallelujah
Sing Hallelujah
Sing Hallelujah to the Lord

The first line surprises, because though it extends an invitation to worship the Lord, it does so in a minor key. There is real empathy in that first line - things are not as they ought to be, the discontent is legitimate. And yet the invitation is made to sing to the Lord in the midst of that discontent, and then repeated. By the third line a note of hopefulness enters the melody. Things could be different, things will be different. The song guides our hearts to the the Lord worthy of the Hallelujah. But this hope is not pie in the sky - the final line returns to the same place as the first as if to say, “our hope does not wallpaper over the present crisis - but it does help you navigate it.”

I love this choice because it is the exact experience of the Christian life. We begin in holy discontent, we dare to look upwards to Christ - the one worthy of our hallelujahs and hear him say, “I will rescue from your pain and I will undo your shame” and then we continue to struggle in our present age, but now equipped with a hope that helps us traverse even the most difficult pressures. Pray for the churches in Hong Kong.

Pray that in the midst of their pressures they would remain faithful. Pray that the multitude of people (somewhere between a third and a quarter of the population of the island) who marched and sang would have been forced to reckon with the Lord we are invited to sing to.

grace and peace,

Steve