Keep Things in Perspective.

When I first came to South Korea last year in May, I quickly learned how differently Koreans think to foreigners and react, often with intense emotion, to things that are seemingly of minor significance. I witnessed this in a variety of situations, including work, home (I’m married to a Korean woman), and in the media. News outlets here have a tendency to saturate the population with the same stories about the same old issues, like sovereignty over Dokdo Island, celebrity worship, and who’s gotten the latest cosmetic surgery.

Save the last two issues just listed, some of the issues Koreans are generally worried about are important; there’s no denying that issues like food standards are significant, but when compared to the problems in Korean society that no one ever wants to discuss, such things pale into comparison. Despite being a communal society where about half the population calls itself Christian, Satan is having a field day here. Many churches preach prosperity gospel and the family unit is under intense attack: fathers are absent-minded, drinking and working themselves to an early death. Celebrities and many youth are depressed and killing themselves, and divorce is increasing, and according to the government, gay prostitution and homosexuality are rising among Korean youth (see the Korea Times on the 7th of October 2008). It’s not a pretty picture, and sadly the situation is more likely to get worse as people turn a blind eye to chase the wind. The consequence is that they’re easily shocked, satisfied, and distracted. It’s not dissimilar to the US, where animal cruelty is often ranked as worse than divorce.

I don’t say this to disparage Koreans; western people don’t have the goods on civility and truth. I’m simply pointing out that when people lose perspective they miss seeing the real enemies within. Satan very easily gets a foothold in situations like that, because he’s more than aware that if people meet God and bring their real issues to light that there will be healing a restoration- the very things that hinder his plans. So instead he lulls them to sleep with fruitless distraction. Christians need to be careful that they don’t lose perspective on the things that matter, because even strong men and women of God can get things wrong. In the Bible the prophet Samuel looked for a handsome man to be king over Israel, but God warned him in 1 Sam. 16:7 not to be fooled with outward appearance, because “Yahweh looks at the heart”. How prone we are too to doing the same, to being friends with those who seem successful, listening to preachers with mass followings, and taking the safest option instead of the godliest!

According to Scripture, the key to keeping things in perspective is to see things as God does, to hate what He hates and love what He loves (Romans 12:9). In Romans 12:2, Paul hits the nail right on the head: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Knowing God and His word are critical because the Word of God is the mind of God, and by it we see things as God does. We catch a glimpse of how our Creator sees things, rather than the distracting minutia of this world. With the big picture we’re in a position to transform the world with the gospel. So let’s get some perspective.

I wrote an article for my church in Seoul, Jubilee 교회, for this month's edition of their newsletter. It's not my best writing, but here it is. It contains concepts that I want to elaborate tomorrow about the "Gay Christian". Enjoy!


Never Changing by Haydn Sennitt.

When I was growing up in Australia it was hard at times to understand my father, given the inconsistencies in the way he related to my family and I. Something that would make him laugh in the morning would make him angry, even extremely angry, in the evening. The unpredictability of his character kept us on edge, as if we had to walk on eggshells; most of the time it was just confusing and I was never really able to get to know him.

Knowing people who are unclear about what they want or expect is nothing short of a hard juggle, because even if they’re not trying to be difficult they’re almost impossible to please. Imagine a friend who chronically whines about how lonely she is, that no one will talk to her, and then when you do talk to keep her company she then complains that you’re smothering her too much! You try hard, ask her upfront to clarify where she’s coming from to figure it out but it ends up going nowhere. Before long you just give up because you just can’t win...

There are some Christians and non-Christians alike who seem to think that God is like this too. How often do they say that the God of the Old Testament is an avaricious kill-joy who punishes people nilly willy, while Jesus is meek and mild and never condemns anyone. Many so-called ‘Gay Christians’ have argued this, preferring to see Jesus as a tolerant non-discriminator who has no moral conviction but just loves anyone, regardless of how unrepentant they are. They then insist that God the Father, particularly in the Old Testament, is out-of-touch with today’s world because he gave laws to an ancient desert tribe that is no longer relevant to today. Through a simplistic reading of the Bible, they come to the conclusion that the Jesus in the New, told people not to judge, while the God of the Old killed people at random (e.g. the conquest of Jericho in the Book of Joshua). It’s as if Yahweh went through a personality transplant when He made Jesus by becoming a “softer man”.

Those who advocate this kind of belief don’t really understand the implications of how unstable God would be if He was like this. In Malachi 3:6 God speaks some very simple words: I am Yahweh, I do not change. That is the God of the Bible. That doesn’t mean He’s non-emotional, as if He’s a stoic brick, unmoved (to get a sense of how emotional the Father and Son are see John 11 and Hosea 6). But the character’s always the same. In John’s gospel (e.g. chapter 10) Jesus urged repeatedly that He and the Father were one, at which point the Pharisees tried to kill Him for blasphemy. When Jesus was first commissioned the Spirit descended on Him as the Father declared “This is my Son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him!”

That’s actually very comforting because unlike the gods of the pagan cultures of ancient time, Jesus and Yahweh are singing off the same scoresheet. God saved Israel in Exodus with the Passover; Jesus died in our place. The Jewish people recited the Shema (“Love the Lord your God will all your heart, mind, and strength”), the very words that Jesus spoke in Matthew 22:36-40. God spoke clearly through the prophets and now through His Son (Hebrews 1); God promised a prophet to Israel who would speak God’s mind clearly (Deut. 18) and Jesus was it (John 1:21). That’s not a bad thing, it’s a tremendous blessing. We can trust Him because the same as He was 4000 years ago and how He is today.


I had to keep it to a 500-600 word limit, but alas such is life. I also realise that there are many things here that I cannot nuance or delve into detail, but that's how it is.

Reflection on Micah (미가) 6:8 - The Three of the Free

8 He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does Yahweh require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah (미가) 6:8, New King James Version (1982).


On January 15 2007, the 7:30 Report aired a story about the town of Tamworth in country New South Wales. The story told of how the town was placed, at the end of last year, on a list of locations that the Immigration Department thought would be suitable for overseas refugees to settle in. The Federal Government deemed the town suitable to take in five Sudanese families which had fled war, violence, and persecution, and in so doing asked the local council to reply either take up or turn down the request. The council originally voted 6 to 3 to turn down the offer, on the basis that the town had inadequate resources (e.g. housing, jobs, schools, and infrastructure) to look after the Sudanese and their descendents.
The council’s negative response is so surprising because Tamworth has long prided itself on being a welcoming town. Not only that, but in a few weeks 50,000 Australians and international tourists will pass through Tamworth to attend its well-renowned country music festival. Nationally, Australia has cultivated for itself a reputation as being multicultural and hospitable to outsiders – something which helped contribute to the Sydney Olympics being named by the IOC as ‘the best ever’. Contributing to that was the helpfulness of the Games’ volunteers.
The issue between the Sudanese refugees and the Tamworth township naturally provokes questions: if Tamworth is meant to be so hospitable, and if it has capacity (and eagerness) to host an extra 50,000 people a year for a music event, then why are they so unwilling to open the door to those who’ve gone to great lengths to come to this country? If Tamworth’s arms are so wide and warm, then why is its heart so cold to those who’ve fled war and terror? Would they accept a victim of rape, a former drug addict, or a victim of abuse? Broader still is the question about how hospitable our nation is. In spite of the media’s rhetoric is this the way we Australia is really like, or is Tamworth just an isolated instance?

It seems that we are hostile to some extent. For the last five years, accused Australian terrorist David Hicks has been languishing in Guantanamo Bay, with little assistance from the Australian government or love from his country. Only recently has the outcry against his imprisonment become louder, as the media has created a sufficient storm about it. Hicks has been so desperate to be released from the gaol that he became a British citizen, in the hope that the UK would guarantee his release. As his homeland washed its hands of its responsibility for David, he has reportedly been denied basic human rights and has given up hope so much that he no longer corresponds with his father.
It’s natural to wonder how a Australia has come to the stage of disallowing desperate migrants from living in one of its towns, or how it refuses to look after its own when denied human rights. Are Chapelle Corby or Van Nguyen more worthy of the government’s support than David Hicks? Probably not, unless a media circus is created about someone’s plight and the incumbent prime minister is worried about losing the next election.


Of course, the issue of injustice is something that the world is never completely rid of; in every nation and in every era, injustice taints our societies. To a large extent injustice or, at least, perceptions of it, are boundless, particularly in nations with rampant corruption. It would be easy to think that injustice is impossible to have in civilisation, but the Old Testament prophet Micah was in no doubt that it was possible for ancient Israel to have it. In chapter 6:8 of his book Micah remembered God’s loving graciousness to Israel, and reminded Israel on the basis of those memories to be a nation of justice, mercy, and humility. It’s an interesting list of attributes because it doesn’t list love or happiness; instead, it looks at the outflow of truth and love. The commandment is not just to specific individuals either but to the entire Jewish nation. It was what Israel was to be like, in spite of all the evil that had occurred within its boarders.
The world today desperately needs to hear this word, for it’s getting harder to find love, truth, justice, mercy, and humility in it. Instead of those three things the western world prioritises equality, fairness, and human ‘rights’ – agendas that don’t encourage humility and truth, but selfishness and arrogance. Australians are far from humble – as people living in a world of affluence and far away from the threat of war, we hold our heads up high and presume that nothing bad will come to us. As influential minority groups like the gay lobby stake their claims to equal rights, truth and justice and mercy get waylaid, and those who dare proclaim Christ’s truth are they who become the target of hate.

The world need not look very far for God’s trinity of godly living, as Jesus personified those very things. Contrary to the beliefs of the script writers of American TV soaps, Jesus consistently taught God’s word – even the harsh ones about righteous judgement. He displayed incredible mercy by healing the ill and by dying on the cross, and even showed it to those who persecuted Him and never showed gratitude. He illustrated God’s justice by receiving the blows for our sin, even though it was not a burden that He was obliged to carry. As God He could have decided not to endure the cross, but in humility He submitted Himself to its agony.
Jesus was Micah’s man and the model not only for salvation of individuals but for good communal relationships. Healthy relationships revolve around God’s methods of truth and humility, rather than the sentimental secularistic values that the world cherishes. Human rights and the pursuit of individual happiness will fail at the end of the day but justice, mercy, and humility will always last. When former president Jimmy Carter was sworn in as president on January 20 1977, he took the oath of president with the aim of leading America by Micah 6:8. The ‘jury is still out’ on whether or not he achieved that end, as Carter only served one term, but what he had in mind was a vision grounded in Biblical theology; after the events of Watergate (a prime example of human selfishness and lack of justice and humility), Carter’s aim was well positioned. But while today’s world moves away from the justice, mercy, and humility it is these three things that make our communities function lovingly- even Christian fellowships. Ultimately those things are modelled on Christ’s actions on the cross, the best display of what love was and is.

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Over the next few months, as part of my writing my Bible reflections, I'm going to be taking a look at the issue of the world as it is now and how it is trying to subvert Christianity by opposing it. I'm also going to examine how the world is trying to destroy Christianity by imitating it and claiming to have spiritual authority.
In doing so, I'm going to see how this is being played out in the gay community, which has shifted in its reaction to Christianity. The gay 'issue', as I call it, is an interesting indicator as to how the world is heading in regards to ethics, morality, and spirituality. As I hope to demonstrate, its a case study worth examining, not only to explore the matter of sexuality as its (mis)understood, but so Christians can construct a response to it and the world can see what God thinks about the matter.

I pray you are encouraged by it.

Cheers,
Haydn.

Today, I had a book review published on the Sydney Anglican website, about a collection of poems by a Catholic nun.

The review is located at http://your.sydneyanglicans.net/culture/reading/speaking_to_the_heart/

Reflection On Luke 12:34-36 (누가복음12:34-36)- Cutting Loose, Counted Worthy

34 “But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. 35 For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Luke 12:34-36 (누가복음12:34-36), New King James Version (1982).

In July last year I made my first pilgrimage to South Korea. Only a week before my visit, the rogue state of North Korea claimed to have fired a missile over Japan and the world was suddenly on heightened alert. The Australian government issued the usual travel warnings to be alert but not alarmed, and I wondered what was going to happen next. After arriving in the South I went to Seoul from Incheon airport to discover a city that was surprisingly calm, given the concern that leading world countries like America and Australia had over the phantom menace of the North. The west was more frenzied about the incident than South Korea was, something that made me a bit worried: If Kim Jong-Il decided to launch a large-scale attack on the South and its so-called ‘imperialist allies’, then would the South try to stop him, or would they just shrug their shoulders and keep shopping? I never answered my own question, but I went on regardless to discover a capital that was vibrant, full of activity and constant energy. All around me there were shops which stayed open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and even at 11pm, businessmen were sitting on floors in restaurants and enjoying well-earned meals. Markets like Namdaemun (남대문) pulsed to a clock that never stopped ticking and- as if nobody had a job to wake up to the next morning- thousands of people were out and about in the night’s late hours. I’d never seen anything like it!
I’m not thoroughly versed about the Korean mindset, but my impression of young Korean adults today is that they thrive on the razzle and dazzle of life in a larger cities. I’m generalising here, but it seems that those living in places like Seoul and Tokyo seem to have ‘spoiled eyes’, which are always on the lookout for new sensations. The more the sensational the thing you experience, it seems, the more a person can show off. It’s as if the simple act of seeing a thing, even if you haven’t actually interacted with the thing you saw, is enough to be counted as an experience. As I said, the comment is only a generalisation, but if true, it wouldn’t be hard to see what the consequences of such thinking would be. As curious beings we like to touch what we see, even if we originally show restraint, and when touching requires such little effort, hedonism is not far away. It’s the same kind of hedonism and, its natural ally amorality, which has gripped other materialistic countries like Australia, England, Japan and Singapore.

That, at least, is one of the many consequences of having an experience-focussed mindset. A bigger, more overarching consequence is that people eventually lose perspective of what is really important, as well as objective truth and good and evil. The best contemporary example of it is Australian culture - how often have you heard people saying something like, “It doesn’t matter how we live our lives, as long as everyone’s happy”, or “Religious people should keep their beliefs to themselves and stop stuffing it down other people’s throats”? It’s not surprising that John Lennon’s song Imagine, which thinks the world would be a better place if there were no concepts of heaven or hell, has been rated by Australian radio listeners to be one of the greatest songs of all time. The culture that you end up with is a moral vacuum where anything goes and nothing is sacred. It’s a culture where even dangerous and unhealthy lifestyles are normalised, legitimised and promoted. While South Korean people may now display a mindset of ‘look, but don’t touch’, people can easily go the next step and start touching to their heart’s content. If it’s distracting enough, even the development of dangerous nuclear weapons by its lunatic neighbours will go unnoticed.

That, of course, is the way that secular human culture can turn if it chooses to do so. The gospel author Luke seems to think that Christians are susceptible to the same problem. In Luke 12:34-36 (누가복음12:34-36) he issues a stern warning to his gentile readers, particularly verse 34. No doubt the gentile Christians who first read Luke’s book had left behind their heathen lifestyles. But those old ways still had their attractions, and the very things that they left behind were also the ones that beckoned them to return to the sinful life. They may have come to faith in Jesus in a moment of great joy and enthusiasm, which had become softer after the onset of temptation and persecution (Christ himself alluded to this problem in The Parable of the Seeds in Mark 4 (마가복음 4)). Luke’s words are clear: Get ready for the day of God’s judgement and don’t let the cares of life distract you or bog you down. The world is enslaved by those concerns, and because of that it won’t be ready when God comes back. Instead, brothers and sisters, we need to pray that we remain grounded in Christ, and counted worthy as his servant. If not we can lose everything that we have – and what’s more important than being counted worthy by God?

Luke realised the fickleness of human beings – even the ones most strongly devoted to Jesus Christ. As finite, sinful beings, we get distracted by the next thing that’s in front of us and, if we pay attention to his seductive lies we can take on the destructive things that Satan tells us. The razzle dazzle of the things in this world hypnotise us into a false sense of security and giving us the vague impression that ‘we have it all’ if we have all the material stuff that we can accumulate. Of course, there’s a Catch-22 to all of this: if it were so easy to do stay focussed on Christ, Luke wouldn’t have asked us to be careful! But because people do forget so easily and readily, the reminder to stay firmly grounded is all the more necessary. It’s why Christians need to keep reminding one other and even the world that God’s judgement is coming- it’s not to instil unnecessary fear in others, but that they too may be counted worthy on the last day. Of course, it makes sense to be responsible managers of the material things that God has given us, including money and relationships, but it’s stupid and even dangerous to be completely engrossed in them. For God knows what we need and loves to give us good things if we first pursue his righteousness (Matthew 6:25-34 (마태복음6:25-34)).

Many reading this reflection have probably heard this message before – ad nauseum. But, of course, being reminded of the things we know is frequently the very thing we need. The issue, though, is not just forsaking the things of this world because that’s a novel thing to do, or because it’s interesting to be counter-cultural. We Christians do it because we want to be ready for the day of God’s judgement and be counted worthy by our loving lord. We discard the world for God’s praises. Many derided Noah in his day for getting the ark ready and preparing to escape the impending judgement- as history showed, they were destroyed (Luke 17:26-27 (누가복음 17:26-27)). So it is with us, that we must cut loose of the world and be counted worthy by the one who sacrificed his only son to buy our freedom.

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