Faith in Action

On Saturday we left Queenstown and flew over Mt. Cook to Auckland and then drove up to the Bay of Islands, towards the north of North Island. It is a beautiful coastline with hot, almost tropical weather – although we have not seen any sunshine yet, and it has been raining solidly all day today and the forecast doesn’t look that good for the rest of the week!

Yesterday we went to the local Baptist Church in the morning. It was good to worship there, and to be reminded in the sermon about the need for action to accompany faith – a poignant message in view of our reflection during this study leave on mission, but also as very few people talked to us, and when we were standing around after the service wondering where the coffee was which the congregation had been invited to stay for, were just on the point of walking out when at last a woman came up and said ‘hello’.  Even in a small congregation, we saw how easy it is for newcomers to get ignored as people chat with their friends and wondered how much harder it is to welcome strangers in a larger church setting. I was reminded of the challenge someone once gave of ensuring that every Sunday at church we speak to at least one person we don’t know. We all know about the need for our faith to be backed up by our action, but this must start at home, our mission field.

Faith in action was also the subject for the afternoon, for we went to a place called Kerikeri. In the early 1800’s an Anglican Minister was invited by the local Maori chiefs to set up a mission station on the banks of the river there. The buildings that formed the heart of this mission (which were interestingly under the auspices of the Church Missionary Society, still very much involved in worldwide mission today) are still there and are the oldest remaining buildings in New Zealand (a contrast to the ancient monuments we have in the UK!)

However, looking through the museum at the story of the arrival of the missionaries and the development of the mission over the next 50 years was fascinating, seeing how Christian men and women left everything to travel to the other side of the world, to a land they didn’t know, to work amongst people who they knew nothing about, in order to share the Gospel. Faith in action – and I wondered whether I would have been willing to do the same in the days before modern transport and communication, where a journey out here or a letter home would have taken the whole 4 months I am on study leave for! It was a similar story in Malawi, where many Scottish ministers went, and I have been reading about the early days of the church in Australia as well, in preparation for our time in Sydney.

And the faith in action was not just about telling people the good news of Jesus, it was not just about converting the ‘heathen’ nations, but about teaching them, showing them how to farm, to build houses of brick, to make tools of iron, to read and write….but sadly it also brought traders who sold them muskets, drink, drugs and brought disease. Some missionaries we have heard about both here and in Malawi were unscrupulous and brought dishonour to the Christian faith they allegedly came to share, but clearly others were men and women of great faith and love, risking all for God, and in many cases giving all, including their lives. 

In Malawi, Nedson joked about how, due to the influence of the English, many Malawians will wear a jacket and tie even in the heat of the day when working or at something official, and both there and here we have seen how some missionaries thought that to convert people involved westernising them in what they wore, what they ate, how they spoke, even down to the style of worship and the use of liturgy. This is something I have mentioned before when reflecting on the Anglican Church in Malawi, how they wear the same robes, use the old liturgy and hymns, sit in upright pews….in fact how things have changed little from the ways that the Victorian missionaries taught them to ‘do church’. 

However, some of those who came to New Zealand tried to learn and integrate some of the Maori culture into their sharing of the Christian faith. And I have been pondering the tightrope these missionaries trod – being part of the culture in which they found themselves, but not of the culture. To what extent should they and we integrate with the culture we are reaching out to, and to what extent should we remain ‘not of this world’?

I have been reading around this sort of thing as I have reread the much-acclaimed Church of England report ‘Mission-Shaped Church’, and am now reading ‘The Shaping of Things to Come’ by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, who write “Mission is not merely an activity of the church. It is the very heartbeat and work of God. It is in the very being of God that the basis for the missionary enterprise is found. God is a sending God, with a desire to see humankind and creation reconciled, redeemed and healed. The missional church, then, is a sent church”, and the book goes on to encourage us to follow the example of the incarnate Christ, who became like us so that we might know God. Incarnational mission means identifying with those God takes us to “in all ways possible, without compromising the truth of the gospel itself”. 

And so I have been asking myself, to what extent do we expect people who come to faith, even in Tonbridge, to change so that they fit in with us and the way we do things? Or should we, being aware of the culture around us, be willing to change (incarnationally) in order to make it as easy as possible, without compromising the gospel, for those outside the church to come and worship the one true God? If so, just as those early missionaries asked as they arrived in Malawi, on the shores of New Zealand or in Australia, what does this mean for the way we do church in a different or changing culture?

Mark

In tandem

The majestic beauty of Queenstown, the soaring mountains, the tumbling rivers and streams, the lofty forests and the glassy lakes, are a long way from the brutal destruction and devastation of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. And even when we try to catch up, New Zealand seems to be very parochial, the TV and newspapers only touching upon world news, much more space given still to the Christchurch quake. 

However, I was reading one paper yesterday and it was reported that a Japanese official, well known for being outspoken and at times controversial, had declared that the disaster that had hit his country was judgment on the greed of the Japanese people. Interestingly we are at present reading Jeremiah and the prophecies of destruction that were to come on the people of Israel as a result of their turning away from God and worshipping foreign gods, and it made we wonder ‘what is God’s role when earthquakes, famine…… strike?’

We very quickly put these things down to natural disaster and take God out of the equation, but could he be judging the world? Could these disasters be the result of people turning their back on him?

In one sense we would probably all say ‘Yes’, as, according to Paul, the world is groaning due to the result of sin, longing for that day when God will make a ‘new heaven and a new earth’, when his kingly rule will be fully established. Yet the terrible disaster that has killed so many and caused such devastation in Japan doesn’t fit with the loving God that we read about in the Bible. But what about the God of wrath and judgment that is also found in the words of Scripture, but whom we tend to ignore or skim over quickly?

Yet Israel was given plenty of warning through the prophets of its impending destruction, time to repent and turn back to God. Was Japan given that same warning? I haven’t heard of prophets standing up and telling the people and the leaders of that nation of their impending doom if they do not repent. It seems the wrong way round to be speaking of judgment after the event, and doesn’t fit with the God who seems to give his people a chance to change their ways before judgment comes. But perhaps the images we see coming out of Japan should be a clarion call reminding us of the urgent need to share the gospel message with the world. None of us know what today or even tomorrow holds, but we who love Jesus have the promise of eternal life. Millions don’t know Jesus, and we have been given the commission from God to ‘go and make disciples of all nations’ – the earthquake in Japan is perhaps a wakeup call to us all of the urgency of this commission.

However, as we were walking yesterday in the beautiful scenery around Queenstown, we saw people high over the mountains paragliding. It was an amazing sight watching them circling and floating in the currents, but we also thought how dangerous as the cliffs and rock faces are very steep, until we realised that they were in tandem. Each person had a professional with them. And as I thought about it, I realised what a great image it is of us and God. We are not left alone to get on with the commission he has given us, but God, through his Holy Spirit, is on board with us, guiding us, watching over us, supporting us. I am sure that paragliding still seems scary for those who are doing it for the first time, and sharing the good news can still seem scary, but to know we are not alone makes a significant difference.

Mark

Fragility of life

In a moment of realism but perhaps seeming depression, the writer of Ecclesiastes penned these words:
"For everything its season, and for every activity under heaven its time: 
a time to be born and a time to die; 
a time to plant and a time to uproot; 
a time to kill and a time to heal; 
a time to break down and a time to build up; 
a time to weep and a time to laugh; 
a time for mourning and a time for dancing...."

So often in the West this sense of seasons has been eroded, we hold death at arms length, we try and protect ourselves from pain and sorrow.......but in our travels so far we have seen close at hand the ups and downs of life, the seasons or times that we experience joys and sorrows, the very fragility of life itself.

This was evident in Malawi as people scraped a living to help them exist, where sickness or accident often led to death, where we saw children who were undernourished and families begging for something to eat, where water was drunk from oil drums and clothes washed in stagnant and dirty puddles. Yet as a result they lived very aware of these seasons of life - they knew when to plant and when to harvest, when to kill a prized chicken and when to go without meat, when to laugh and when to weep. They knew about dancing and singing, but also about weeping and mourning.

Coming to New Zealand though, whilst generally people are much more protected from all this, we have continued to see the fragility of life as the newspapers and news bulletins are full of the Christchurch earthquake and the continuing aftershocks. This was not a city that was thought to be on a fault, and so the quake has come as an incredible shock to everyone, and whilst the death toll has made it the worst disaster to hit this country, they say that over 10,000 homes will have to be demolished and it may not be possible to rebuild in the same places. But their is a sense that "we are all in this together" as people give and offer to help to those who have been affected, yet we are very conscious of the difference between an eartquake here and that which struck Haiti, and how quickly Christchurch will get back to some sense of normality in comparison.

However, being a relatively young country, the struggles of the early settlers is still talked about and very evident in the museum displays. We visited one in Invercargill to see a display about the sub-Antartic Islands, and the people who have inhabited those islands over the years or who have been shipwrecked on them. A harsh and difficult climate to survive in and now no one lives on them, many having died there as a result of the severe weather, the lack of food and water, or as they have been battered by the high seas and fierce winds against sharp rocks and steep cliffs. Many of those who lived on these isalnds were seal or whale hunters, killing tens of thousands of seals each season, almost wiping out whole seal populations.

At the same museum were housed some Tuatara, reptiles that have existed from the time of dinosaurs. Not many of them are left, and those that are still in the wild are on remote islands as on the mainland they have been killed by rats, stoats and other predators brought to these islands by the ships carrying settlers. However, the museum has become successful at breeding them and hope to start to release some back into the wild. Last year they hit the world news when their oldest resident tuatara, Henry, aged 111 (they think) mated with an 87 year old (Mildred). Not a bad age to start a family!! Whilst they have survived for millions of years, and can live to a ripe old age, their continued existence is under threat. In just over 150 years, we have brought them close to extinction.

We have also visited a colony of yellow-eyed penguins, and sadly one of the adults had been found dead that day from unknowm causes, probably having been frightened to death by humans. There are not many of these penguins left, and they too are under threat from similar predators to the tuatara, but they are amazing creatures to watch with their funny waddle, and one of them even posed for photos in the gathering dusk.

Similarly the young of Royal Albatrosses, which we saw at Dunedin, face similar threats, but after a year they are out of the nest and set off for their first flight, only 9000 kilometeres to Argentina, but to get there they hardly have to flap a wing as they soar on their 3 metre wing span. They are magnificent to watch, but many die, often getting caught up in fishing lines or from eating rubbish that has been dumped in the sea.

So whether human or animal, life is fragile, there is a time to be born and a time to die, a time to weep and a time to laugh.....these seasons come to us all, sometimes when we least expect it, and perhaps those who live more closely with those seasons cope with them better than those of us who have been brought up to try and cushion oursleves from the ups and downs of life.

But as we reflect on Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent, leading up to Good Friday and the cross, it is a good time to remember these words from Ecclesiastes, that we will all face these times in our lives. We cannot hide away and hope that they will never come to us, because they will, nor can we fully wrap ourselves in cotton wool. However we can have hope and the promise of a future whatever we are facing, and in this season it is good to renew our dependency on God, rather than on the things of this world.

Jackets and Jumpers

As we knew I would be speaking and preaching quite a bit on our travels, I packed a smart jacket & tie, and evn a dog collar - not a usual thing for me to travel with, but I am glad I did, as Malawi has inherited the tradition from when it was part of the British Empire, that if you are doing something formal, you wear a jacket (and sometimes a tie) - very English!! So even when it was very hot, I would have on a jacket when I was speaking, though occasionally I started with it on and then made apologies when I couldn't cope with it any longer!! The jacket was even worn when we went into prisons where the prisoners were in very rough and dirty clothes, but the prison officers were all smart.
 

Miriam handing out soap, food and toiletries to female prisoners at Blantyre Prison - the visitors room seems quite smart, but you ought to see the cells!

Mark with the Dean at Zomba Anglican

 

Theological College

Most of those we met couldn't believe that we are Anglicans, as Anglican pastors in Malawi are even more formal, wearing robes and a dog collar, despite the heat!! When I told them I hardly ever wore robes, they thought I was not a proper Anglican - not quite sure how to take that! We visited the Anglican Theological College on one day and were hoping to get back to speak to the students but weren't able to make it as they had their half term break, but the Dean of the college had wanted us to share about how in the Church of England things were becoming much more informal, and how even liturgy is less traditional than it used to be. I do think we have a lot to answer for when I see how pews, robes, formal liturgy etc have been passed on to the African Church as the way 'church must be done' and now they seem tied to these ways, having become even more formal than the Anglian church in the UK.

But now we have arrived in New Zealand and are down at the bottom of the South Island, and jackets have been replaced by jumpers for the first time since leaving UK, as it is cold, especially after the heat of Malawi. Driving down from Christchurch we even saw snow on the mountains. But it is good to be somewhere that we can get a warm shower, have a comfy bed, sit on a sofa, eat what we want, drink water from a tap.... We are so fortunate in the west, but are also incredibly complacent about what we have, taking it all for granted.

Having said that, two of the children of the couple we are staying with were here last night, having come down for the weekend from Christchurch where they live, and were describing being there when the earthquake struck. After shocks are still happening most days, but they don't yet have water and when they do are likely to have to boil if for some months to come, power is slowly being restored, but the city will never be the same. The airport and surrounds hadn't been affected, so we didn't see any of this on our arrival in New Zealand, but it is very much the talk of the place at the moment.


So from jackets in the heat and poverty of Malawi, to jumpers in a colder but more modern, though earthquake shaken New Zealand - quite a trip so far! It feels a long way from Tonbridge and the UK.

Mark

Church, but not as you know it!

Sunday morning saw us off early to drive to church two and a half hours away. It is a church plant from the Good News Revival Centre and is in a predominantly Muslim area of the country. It is also down on the plain near to the Shire River, and so is much more humid, sticky and hot than in Blantyre where we have been most of the time.

We arrived and some choirs were practising in church, so, as protocol dictates, we were taken to the pastors home, a very basic mud hut, cooking happening over a fire in a separate hut, chickens clucking around in the enclosure. We sat outside on the only seats they had whilst some other pastors came to greet us - there are 15 Good News Centre churches in the Muslim area, and as they had heard we were visiting they had come to be there together, some walking 3 or 4 hours to get there through the bush!

The church itself was again very simple - mud bricks with wooden beams holding up a tin roof which was held down by stones. An earthen floor on which most people sat, a few chairs being produced from people's homes for us and the pastors to sit on. The church was full - about 150 men women and children, and the worship was fantastic, even though we didn't understand what they were singing, but the band of drums, a percussion instrument made of a bit of string and metal bottle lids, made a great noise, and with lots of clapping to the rhythm and swaying/dancing, we got caught up in their worship of God.

Nedson had told us that the pastor was from a well known Muslim family in the village, who had one day accompanied the Christians on a prayer walk to the top of a mountain in order to disrupt the prayers, but he had been totally overcome by God and lay slain in the Spirit for some hours, before coming round a totally changed/converted man. He was now pastoring the church we were in!

Miriam was again asked to introduce us, before I spoke from Luke 14 about the cost of discipleship - what on earth have I got to teach such people about cost, when many of them have been ostracised from their families for converting from Islam!

They, as have many here, could not believe we are Anglicans - it seems that Anglicans are very traditional here, and us not wearing robes, and offering to pray with people, to dance and clap to the worship....is very un-Anglican!

We went on from there to Lake Malawi where Miriam and I have had a couple of nights at a hotel relaxing and seeing some amazing scenery, fish eagles, pied kingfishers, a monitor lizard, a vervet monkey that got into the restaurant this morning to snatch some bananas....

Back at Nedson's now for the last few days before we fly to New Zealand, which will be a bit of a culture shock, but we will probably not get a chance to blog until we are there now.

Mark