Understanding Easter (or “A Short Easter Essay”)

Today is Good Friday.

I want to use this opportunity, if I may, to set out (more or less) clearly some things I’ve been thinking about recently in regards to the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth — things that may seem a little different to what is often called the “traditional” view, but things that I think are helpful in understanding what this event actually means.

By the way, this is going to be quite a long post, so you may want to get comfortable if you’re going to read it all the way through…

The Discipline of Simplicity

I’ve recently finished reading Richard J. Foster’s now-classic Celebration of Discipline. It’s a well-written, easy-to-read book which draws deeply on centuries of insight from the true masters of the spiritual disciplines, but I must admit to not being greatly excited about reading it at the outset. I read a good number of these sorts of books as part of my theological degree (and subsequently), and I wasn’t convinced there’d be much in it for me except for the reminder that I don’t engage in most of these disciplines nearly as well as I should. Perhaps that was reason enough to read the book in the first place, but these days I generally try to avoid placing myself in situations where I know feelings of guilt are the inevitable consequence…

For the most part, the book conformed to my expectations. There is, perhaps, a lesson in this of expectations overruling the possibility of truly engaging with a text, but that’s for another time. There was, however, one thing that did grab my attention.

This one point is ‘The Discipline of Simplicity’ (chapter 6 in the book, if anyone’s interested).

A Ministry of Reconciliation

I am convinced that Christians in Australia—if we are truly to call ourselves Christian—must engage deeply with issues of ‘reconciliation’ between Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Peoples and other Australians. In fact, I have come to the point where I think this needs to be at the very core of the ‘good news’ that Christians in Australia should be embodying.

A Prayer for My Daughters on this International Women’s Day

I pray that my young daughters would not have to fight for their rights. I pray that they would not have to struggle to clear room for themselves to be able to flourish in life.

I pray that, by the time they are old enough to understand fully, the victories would already have been won. I pray that they could simply assume so many of the things that I as a man already do.

But where the battle still rages, I pray that they would fight.

Alleged Police Brutality at Mardi Gras 2013

As the head of the Police Association notes, we do need to be careful not to jump to firm conclusions about the alleged incident of excessive force at the hands of police at this year’s Sydney Mardi Gras without having all the evidence.

At the same time, it’s really hard not to.

Though I have a lot of respect for the role of the Police Force in general (and the often difficult job they perform every day – many times without any thanks), I have become very suspicious about much police action.