A diversion to the Antipodes [Isaiah 52]

Yesterday I was talking to the hospital shuttle driver. He was hoping this morning was fine (it is out of town, but the son says it is foggy in town) because he is drumming in the Pipe band. The Crossfit box has one workout today . It is ANZAC day, and we recall that those of us in the antipodes have had brothers, uncles and fathers die on foreign fields from South Africa to Afghanistan.

There are many, like Assange, who consider that this was a fools game. Kipling had some words of scorn for such. Our ancestors fought for country and for God. We were, in those days, Christian, both Maori and Pakeha, and we respected the King who called us to defend the Empire.

A Dead Statesman

I could not dig: I dared not rob:
Therefore I lied to please the mob.
Now all my lies are proved untrue
And I must face the men I slew.
What tale shall serve me here among
Mine angry and defrauded young?

Kipling

The angry and defrauded young were comforted and encouraged by their faith. Bought to the ends of the earth by the church: the prophecy of Isaiah had been fulfilled in part when Samuel Marsden gave his first sermon in Maori in 1815. I live in the antipodes. The church had made it to all ends of the earth. The number of not reached people is diminishing. The problem we have, in our generation, is that the statesmen do not want the inconvenience of faith and the duties it entails getting in the way of their enjoyment of power.

Isaiah 52:7-10

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” Listen! Your sentinels lift up their voices, together they sing for joy; for in plain sight they see the return of the LORD to Zion. Break forth together into singing, you ruins of Jerusalem; for the LORD has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem. The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

Ephesians 4:7-8, 4:11-16
But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it is said, “When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people.” The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.

This is not how it should be. Within the Church, any gifts or talents are to be used for others. The idea is that we are all mature, all serving each other, and that we correct each other, reminding each other to look to Christ, so that none of us are deceived by the fashions of this time.

The gospel, which does not change, converted the Maori and allowed for them to live in general peace with the English “pakeha”. (Yes, I know there were land wars, but they were not genocidal. The tribal wars before conversion were). We were once Christian. Our statesmen have deceived us. We need to ignore them and turn to Christ.

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