tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-354822912024-03-16T12:12:44.614+11:00HebelMatthew Moffitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546422699620482793noreply@blogger.comBlogger374125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35482291.post-21024732267417633882023-07-19T23:05:00.002+10:002023-07-19T23:05:15.565+10:00John Peter Moffitt<p><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Originally published <a href="https://matthewmoffitt.substack.com/p/john-peter-moffitt" target="_blank">over at my substack</a>.</i></span></p><p>Our son, John Peter Moffitt, was delivered still born on July 6 at 22 weeks. He had contracted parvovirus in the womb. And while our little boy managed to fight off the virus, it left him anaemic. The medical team attempted to arrest the anaemia through an in-utero blood transfusion directly into John’s liver. Ultimately, it was too late for his heart. He didn’t make it.</p><p>So Alison and I found ourselves meeting our son half a pregnancy early. We had a day in hospital with him, cradling his lifeless body. Those limbs which we had seen vigorously moving on the scans, and had begun to feel kicking and punching, were terribly still. As we beheld his undeniable resemblance to his sister and his brother, our eyes poured forth in tears as we beheld his eyes which would never cry, a mouth which would remain silent, a nose which would never breathe.</p><p>I find it hard to describe the depth of our grief and sorrow at John’s loss. Those moments of breathless or anger that seem to overwhelm out of nowhere. The weight of tears that sit behind my eyes. Or the little smothered cries that continually try to escape my mouth.</p><p>There’s a sense of dissonance of course, that death had trespassed in the territory of life. The womb had become John’s tomb. The post-natal ward served as a mortuary.</p><p>Accompanying the dissonance is the disruption death has wrought. John’s life has ended, and with it has vanished the dreams we had started to have for our son. Instead there is a gap which I expect we will feel when the calendar turns to his due date in November, to his delivery date in July, to those moments which would have marked his life: his baptism, his first day at school, and so on.</p><p>Then there’s the sheer mystery of who my son would grow up to be. Would he walk before he could talk? Would he move to the rhythm like his Mum? Or be a musical philistine like his Dad? What would his laughter sound like? Would there be a favourite toy he snuggled up to at night when he felt afraid or sad? The unknowability of my own child…at this point I can only imagine how that pain will hit in time to come.</p><p>Well before he had even drawn his first breath, my son John has died. And my only comfort during all of this is the assurance that John has not missed out on life. The disruption dealt us by death will not be the final word. For death itself has been disrupted. After all Jesus assured us, God is the God of the living.</p><p>We discovered we were pregnant with John prior to Easter. For those who know, John Peter is a paschal allusion; the two disciples who raced to the empty tomb on Easter Day searching for the risen Jesus. Where John found death in the cradle of life, Jesus has emptied the grave with a love that is stronger than death. In the Eucharistic prayer this Easter we announced: ‘By his death [Jesus] has destroyed death, has taken away our sin’. Where death intrudes and interrupts, Jesus overwhelms death with his life-giving life.</p><p>In the midst of the pain and the grief we feel now, and will continue to feel, we know that John has not missed out on life. John’s eyes shall see eternal life, for his shepherd died for the sins of the world. It’s in God’s refuge that we are finding comfort and consolation for our souls. Not only for this life, but that God can make the words of Psalm 116 true in the life to come when he swallows up death forever.</p><p><i>For you, Lord, have delivered me from death,<br /> my eyes from tears,<br /> my feet from stumbling,</i></p><p><i>that I may walk before the Lord<br /> in the land of the living.</i></p><p><span> </span> – Psalm 116.8-9</p><div class="blogger-post-footer">"...hebel of hebels; everything is hebel..."</div>Matthew Moffitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03719091623501398778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35482291.post-91372281774766826132020-07-15T18:54:00.001+10:002020-07-15T18:58:21.637+10:00On The Palace Letters <br />
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It seemed inevitable that, after all the secrecy and all the court battles, the
publication of <i>The Palace Letters</i> would renew calls for a republic in
Australia. Our 29<sup>th</sup> Prime Minister, and former Chair of the <i>Australian
Republican Movement (ARM)</i>, Malcolm Turnbull, described the letters as
amounting to ‘an act of interference in Australian democracy’. Whitlam
biographer, professor Jenny Hocking – the historian who tenaciously campaigned
for the release of <i>The Palace</i> <i>Letters</i> – called the <i>Letters</i>
a bombshell which damaged Queen Elizabeth’s reputation by proving she had
breached her apolitical status in 1975 as Australia’s constitutional head of
state. Turnbull’s successor at <i>ARM</i>, Peter Fitzsimmons, did not hold back
the adjectives as he sought to re-energize Australia’s push towards a republic
by describing himself as ‘gobsmacked’ by the letters. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/954c1522e762ef7a90b7ed905fea47f4?width=1440" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/954c1522e762ef7a90b7ed905fea47f4?width=1440" width="320" /></a>However, the real bombshell of the <i>Letters</i> can be
found in what they reveal did not take place during Australia’s political
crisis of 1975. To be sure, many of the key actors who contested the political
stage that year acted in bad faith. But there was no broad conspiracy to topple
Australia’s most energetically reformist government. Buckingham Palace did not
interfere or intervene as events unfolded; the swirl of letters and telegrams
between the Queen’s Vice-Regal representative, Governor-General Sir John Kerr,
and her private secretary, Sir Martin Charteris, reveal the Palace’s main
concern alongside Kerr’s health was for Kerr to act according to dictates of
the Australian constitution. As a former Chief Justice of NSW, they expected
Kerr would have a thorough grasp of the Australian constitutional requirements
and conventions. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The most gobsmacking element about the dismissal is that
when the system was placed under extraordinary stress by the blocking of
supply, the system worked. The army remained in their barracks. Tanks did not
roll down neither George Street nor Swanson Street. The courts continued to
operate under the rule of law. Whatever we make of Kerr’s actions on November
11, the crisis was ultimately resolved with the ballot and not bullets. The
Australian political system is by no means perfect. Since Federation we have
seen the (re-)enfranchisement of people who were excluded by the political settlement
of 1900: women, indigenous Australians, migrants from backgrounds other than
Western Europe. Our greatest political achievements, such as the 1967
referendum or the rolling back of the White Australia Policy, also reveal our
deepest political shames. But, for all the rage that was unleashed in 1975, our
constitution weathered perhaps the greatest political storm it has faced,
whilst maintaining the political freedoms our Commonwealth was both founded
upon and aspires too.<o:p></o:p></div>
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That the constitution was put in this position in the first
place was another matter. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Much could be (and has been) written about the Whitlam era
of 1972-1975. Gough Whitlam is undoubtedly the most courageous reformer
Australia has had as a Prime Minister. He presided over incredible,
legacy-building, changes to the country: universal health care, free university
education, initiating land right reform and the return of land to its
traditional owners, the ending of military conscription, and the withdrawal of
Australian troops in Vietnam. <o:p></o:p></div>
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At the same time, Whitlam presided over a troubled and
ill-disciplined cabinet. Whitlam’s ministerial comrades plagued his government
in crisis after crisis, risking their reformist agenda with charges of
incompetency and corruption. Early in their time in office, Attorney-General
Lionel Murphy had caused a scandal by personally leading a raid on the
Melbourne ASIO office. To circumvent the issue of supply, and enable his vision
to nationalize Australia’s energy market, Rex Connor pursued an unconstitutional
loan of US$4 billion dollars from a foreign lender. The government was
distracted during this time by the scandal of an affair by Treasurer and Deputy
Prime Minister Jim Cairns, who exacerbated the crisis by misleading parliament
about the Loans Affair. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Whitlam, for all his success in leading Labor out of
opposition after 23 years, allowed the cabinet too much freedom to pursue their
own interests and programs, often at the cost of the government’s reputation. <o:p></o:p></div>
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But Whitlam’s most fatal blunder lay in his appointment of
the new Governor-General in 1974. For all of his legal and judicial background,
Sir John Kerr was wholly unsuited for this high office. Admittedly, it is easy
to both besmirch Kerr’s character and cast him as a tragic figure. As he
acknowledges in the <i>Letters</i>, he became a man of few friends. Within six
months of assuming office, Kerr was widowed when his first wife Alison died in
September 1974.<o:p></o:p></div>
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However, as <i>The Palace Letters</i> testify, Kerr was
destructively obsessed with his own position and reputation. He was paranoid that
he would be removed from office – though that paranoia was fed by Whitlam's
frequent jokes and remarks about 'a race to the palace' between the Governor-General
and the Prime Minister to advise the Queen to fire the other. <o:p></o:p></div>
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In Kerr's mind, his actions to resolve the supply crisis
were undertaken to avoid that very constitutional crisis where the Queen was
sandwiched between her first minister and her Vice-Regal representative. But
Kerr's action leading up to November 11 undermined that defence.<o:p></o:p></div>
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As Kerr drew a circle of advice on how to proceed with
Whitlam, from Charteris, and from High Court justices Sir Garfield Barwick and Sir
Anthony Mason, he began to negotiate with the Leader of the Opposition on how
he might act. This is where Kerr acted in bad faith to the procedures and
protocols his office is charged with preserving and protecting. Kerr essentially
conspired with the Leader of the Opposition, Malcolm Fraser, to preserve not so
much the constitution or the government, but his own appointment as
Governor-General.<o:p></o:p></div>
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That action was typified by Kerr’s action on the afternoon
of November 11. After the Senate passed supply and Malcolm Fraser had revealed
himself in the House of Representatives as caretake Prime Minister, the House
voted a motion of no confidence in Fraser and voted a motion of confidence in
Whitlam. The House dispatched the Speaker, Gordon Scholes, to Government House
to advise the Governor-General to recall Whitlam as Prime Minister. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Instead, Kerr refused to see Scholes. He kept him waiting at
the gate for an hour. Instead, he had parliament prorogued by proclamation by
his official secretary David Smith, leading to the now famous scene on the
steps of Old Parliament House where Whitlam, responding to Smith’s proclamation
“God save the Queen”, emerged from behind Smith and said:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>“Well may we say "God save the Queen",
because nothing will save the Governor-General! The Proclamation which you have
just heard read by the Governor-General's Official Secretary was countersigned
Malcolm Fraser, who will undoubtedly go down in Australian history from
Remembrance Day 1975 as Kerr's cur. They won't silence the outskirts of
Parliament House, even if the inside has been silenced for a few weeks. ...
Maintain your rage and enthusiasm for the campaign for the election now to be
held and until polling day.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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It’s hard to imagine a more
miserable or despised figure in Australian public life. The mental image of
Kerr which is lodged in my mind is his appearance at the 1977 Melbourne Cup
where he was appeared inebriated, and was his speech was drowned under the boos
of the crowd. The son of a boilmaker, Kerr has risen to the highest offices in
his state and his country. And he knew it. When you read or listen to Kerr, he
was well aware of his own self-importance. And <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-03/womens-adviser-elizabeth-reid-allegations-against-sir-john-kerr/11757584">recent revelations</a> about his behaviour would not only today make his position untenable, but point
towards his lack of qualification for the office he assumed in 1974.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Because of his faults, and the
ease with which he could be portrayed as a drunken toft, Kerr provided an easy
scapegoat for those who were enraged by Whitlam’s dismissal. Yet it is
important to distinguish between personal dislike of the man, the
constitutional action he took. Driven by improper motive, Kerr’s actions were
neither unprecedented or illegal. While the powers he exercised had long
remained dormant, they were not extinguished. And while me wish that a
different, wiser Governor-General had chosen a different path, or been more
careful in their use of reserve power, dismissing the Prime Minister remained a
valid and open option for Kerr.<o:p></o:p></div>
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While Kerr’s legacy is
seemingly irredeemable, Malcolm Fraser’s reputation underwent a renaissance
after leaving politics. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I grew up knowing Malcolm
Fraser as a reformer and advocate of human rights. He became known as the great
humanitarian, unafraid to critique his own party and former colleagues, and
even forming an unlikely partnership with Gough Whitlam.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Malcolm Fraser of 1975 was
far more impetuous. We forget that Fraser had already ended the Prime
Ministership of WWII hero John Gorton in 1971. According to Fraser, Gorton was
"<i>unfit to hold the great office of Prime Minister</i>". <o:p></o:p></div>
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(At least in 1971 MPs had the
decency to resign from cabinet before assassinating their leader.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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Become coming to power, Fraser’s
tactic was an all-or-nothing, scorched earth approach. Arguably, he was an Opposition
Leader in the same vein as Tony Abbot – a wrecker.<o:p></o:p></div>
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And it worked. <o:p></o:p></div>
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After only seven months of
becoming Opposition Leader, Fraser found himself in The Lodge.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Fraser used the numbers of the
Liberal and Country parties in the Senate to block supply to Whitlam’s
government. Whitlam could not pass his budget, and the government was at risk
of running out of money. Hence some of the crazier schemes like the Loans
Scandal that Labor frontbenchers employed to keep their political agenda afloat.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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However, it was Fraser’s temperament
which caused the 1975 constitutional crisis. Assuming the mantle of Opposition
Leader in March, by September Fraser had triggered the Supply Crisis. He did so
because he was impatient; Fraser wanted to dam the flow of money to the
government in an effort to force an early election in the hope of winning
power. While the Senate had the power under the constitution to do so, there
was an unwritten constitutional convention that an opposition would not try to
use the Senate to block supply. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Other conventions were breached
to bring about the Supply Crisis. Despite winning a double-dissolution election
in 1974 and therefore arguably having a mandate to pursue his policies, Labor
never held a working majority in the Senate. Whilst the government and
opposition were initially forced to work with the cross-bench to pass or block
legislation, things changed dramatically in 1975.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In February one of the two
independents joined the Liberal Party, living the Senate with a makeup of 30 Coalition
Senators, 29 Labor Senators, and 1 independent Senator. This changed again when
two-Labor held senate seats needed to be replaced by their respective state
parliaments, in this case NSW and QLD. Both states were governed at the time by
Coalition parties; both states broke long standing convention and did not appoint
replacements chosen by the party who had won the seats at the last election. NSW
selected an independent, whilst QLD selected a Labor member who opposed Whitlam
and was prepared to vote against supply. With these two appointments, the Coalition
was given control over the upper house. <o:p></o:p></div>
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(It is worth noting that under
Fraser’s premiership, the constitution was amended via the 1977 referendum which
required state parliaments to replace a senator with a member of the same
political party). <o:p></o:p></div>
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Able to take advantage of these
changes in the senate, Fraser pushed Australian federal politics to the brink. It
may have been expected that Whitlam, unable to secure supply, would call for an
election. But having won an election less than 24 months prior, refused to play
Fraser’s game. Parliament was deadlocked.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In breaching the longstanding
convention over supply, Fraser played a destructive form of politics which
created fault lines and rage in Australian politics that continue to run deep. <i>The
Palace </i>Papers reveal that seeing the deadlock coming, Kerr had been searching
for months for a way to end the deadlock without compromising the constitution.
Hr consulted widely – and this would give the Opposition the opportunity it
needed to end the deadlock in their favour. </div>
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Arguably the most insidious action
Fraser took during the crisis was, when Kerr turned to hi m for advice, Fraser
entered into consultation and negotiation with a Governor-General who was
frightened over their own position of power. In a breach of protocol, Fraser
was even ensconced inside Government House without Whitlam’s knowledge while Kerr
withdrew the commission of the government. <o:p></o:p></div>
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In offering Kerr his ongoing support
to remain in Yarralumla, Fraser conspired and exploited the tension between Whitlam
and Kerr to his own advantage. Where Whitlam lost office, and Kerr lost his
reputation and legacy, it was Fraser – the instigator behind the Supply Crisis
and its resolution – who became the chief beneficiary of the dismissal. <o:p></o:p></div>
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And yet...though bruised and
manipulated, constitutional democracy in the Commonwealth of Australia
continued unabated. <o:p></o:p></div>
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When tested in 1975, our
constitutional monarchy worked. It wasn't pretty. Many Australians then and
since have had visceral reactions to how it happened. We may rightly question
some of the judgments and tactics. But the strength of the Australian political
system was to rest the most incredible of powers in the hands, not of
politicians, but independent guardians entrusted to use them sparingly. And
when they were used, the means for breaking the deadlock was given back to the
Australian people in the 1975 election.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Of course, there is a
cautionary tale in all of this. The outcome may have been different with other
actors in the lead roles on November 12. Though it now appears from <i>The
Palace Letters</i> that Whitlam contacted Buckingham Palace to briefly encourage
their persuasion of Kerr to reinstate a Whitlam government, Whitlam was otherwise
the constitutionalist. He called for rage, but rage to be expressed at the
ballot box, and not the barricade. <o:p></o:p></div>
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So many of our traditions and
conventions rest on having people of character in office. What would have
happened if Whitlam had no such integrity? In an age where ministerial responsibility and political indiscretion carry less responsibility than they once did, have we forgone character, integrity, and virtue in our political representatives?<br />
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<br />
<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">I claim no ownership of the photos on this page. Click on each image for the owner.</span></i></div>
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">"...hebel of hebels; everything is hebel..."</div>Matthew Moffitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03719091623501398778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35482291.post-75043840584067745122019-12-12T00:58:00.000+11:002019-12-12T08:48:45.869+11:00Advent: The Trees Are BurningAbout ten years ago I read about two-thirds of the Miles Franklin winning Australian novel <i>Eucalyptus</i>. The fact that I did not complete the novel says more about me than it does about the book. I had neither the patience, nor the discipline, to handle Murray Bail's mythic imagining of the Australian story and his opulent descriptions of every kind of eucalyptus trees.<br />
<br />
Nevertheless, for the past decade I have been enchanted with the thought of planting and tending to trees. It is hard to surpass these wild and magnificent creatures. Whenever I pass through Canberra now, no visit is complete without some time spend wandering the forests and meadows of the National Arboretum. My imagination turns from Bail's Holland and Mr Cave to Tolkien's Ents - the shepherds of the forest - who protected the woodlands from the perils of Middle-earth. My mind turns too to a beguiling account of King Solomon in the Bible. Renowned for his wisdom and 'breadth of understanding as vast as the sand on the seashore', Solomon is a man who 'would speak of trees' - from the greatest pine to the smallest shrub. There's something Edenic, even Adamic, about this scene in 1 Kings. Solomon's wisdom consists not only in his compositions of proverbs, songs, poetry, and pithy little sayings. He knew and accounted of animals, birds, reptiles, fish, and trees.<br />
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What staggers me whenever I walk among the trees is the sheer vastness of type and kind. I surely would have been content with 10-20 species I think to myself. The fact that there is somewhere between 60,000-100,000 different species on the planet seems a little gratuitous. It is this abundance of arboreal life which sustains life.<br />
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We easily forget how bound our lives are to trees. Not only do I mean existentially; but scientifically and culturally too. From the air we breath to the paper we write on, from the shade we sit in to the desks we sit at, from the leaves we admire to the logs we burn on the fire; our lives are connected to the gums, cedars, and palms which cover this planet. Without each other we cannot be ourselves. And let's not be so anthropecene for a moment. It is not only us, but birds, insects, mammals, soil, and other plants which depend on trees too.<br />
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In the state where I live, since Semptember this year, almost 3 million hectares of land have been burnt and con summed by fire. We can put a number on some of the devastation these fires have wrought on human life. So far there have been six fatalities. 724 homes destroyed. 276 homes damaged. What's harder to quantify is the impact on the flora and fauna. Who knows how many trees have been lost?<br />
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At first that may not seem so significant for an ecosystem which for at least 60,000 years had been cultivated by fire. But after 23 decades of reshaping and re imagining the Australian landscape and climate, the species which have made this island continent their home for millenia appear to have reached breaking point.<br />
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Today it was revealed that a quarter of eucalyptus trees are threatened by extinction. It's not just this years fires (though they have burnt much of our local eucalyptus forests); its urbanisation and agriculture which have lead to this predicament. Personally, having grown up among gum trees (watching the lorikeets and parrots feed on their flowers in February each year), and having swept up more than my fair share of gum leaves, it's hard to imagine life in Australia without this endemic species. Their loss would be a loss for us all.<br />
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As I write this, my family is currently observing the season of Advent. It's a season which I have written about often before. We prepare ourselves for Christmas by a. joining Israel in their longing for an end to exile and God to come; and thereby looking to the time when Jesus will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. And as my city is choking on smoke, and I find charred leaves in my yard - carried over 60kms by the winds from the nearest fires - I can't help but reflect on trees in the Bible. The are, literally and figuratively, a gift to be received and delighted in. They are a symbol of pride and an object of destruction. They are a depiction of hope for Israel and the nations of the world. They are the personification of obedience and hearing God's word. They are twisted and ruined, so that a tree bears God's Son to his death. They are sign of life, bearing healing in their leaves for all the world. The desire for everyone to sit under their own vine and fig tree is the desire of advent. The story of trees in the Bible weaves together the strands of beauty, justice, expectation, and salvation which make up the advent tapestry.<br />
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So what might advent offer us during the current climate and fire crisis? What might advent offer us in the midst of drought and heat waves? While some of my ecclesiastical peers would see the current conflagration to be a proleptic taste of the fire that is to come, the hope of advent is not annihilation but restoration. In one of my favourite quotes from French theologian John Calvin, we are told that: 'no part of the universe is untouched by the longing with which everything in this world aspires to the hope of resurrection.' Advent teaches us to long for and to live in light of the hope of the resurrection. We look for the one who came at Christmas to come again to mend, heal, restore, and remake his world. And that should give us reason to pause and question the tone and tenor of our lives. God made a world which was not only ontologically good and aesthetically good, but was hospitable for us and the conditions which we need in order to flourish. It was good for us. Faced then by the challenges of environmental degradation, perhaps we should attend to the Bible's diagnosis of the human condition: the voracious, intense, obsessive, and destructive misappropriation of God's good gifts in creation. <br />
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But if advent is a season for attuning our desires to the desire of the nations, than that will lead us away from the desire to grasp after and consume the natural resources we see around us. In other words, it should lead us in our pneumatic transformation towards becoming more truly human, and away from the sins and pride which facilitates the doom of our fellow creatures.<br />
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As we await the redemption of all things at God’s hand, advent trains us to deal with our disappointment and discontent with our governments. Advent announces that time is short for all secular authority. There will come a time when queens and presidents, prime ministers and premiers will be held to account their dispensing of justice and provision of peace as they lay down their authority before the lamb who was slain. John's apocalypse warns us that God hates those who destroy the earth (Revelation 11.18).<br />
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Woe then to governments that neglect their duties to preserve life.<br />
Woe to governments that hide behind a smokescreen of science denials and obsfuscation.<br />
Woe to those governments that would suppress the reality of things.
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That will be held accountable for their lies, spin, and sloth.<br />
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So in this season of advent, as the smoke clings to our clothes and our skin, and the trees perish, advent teaches us to mourn, to lament, to pray, and to look for God's blessing on all the creatures he has made.<br />
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Let not the trees and animals suffer on the altar of human pride and vain glory.<br />
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In a lecture he gave in York several years ago, Rowan William addressed what it look like for us to co-exist with the flora and fauna of the world:<br />
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<i>In Genesis, humanity is given the task of 'cultivating' the garden of Eden: we are not left simply to observe or stand back, but are endowed with the responsibility to preserve and direct the powers of nature. In this process, we become more fully and joyfully who and what we are – as St Augustine memorably says, commenting on this passage: there is a joy, he says, in the 'experiencing of the powers of nature'. Our own fulfilment is bound up with the work of conserving and focusing those powers, and the exercise of this work is meant to be one of the things that holds us in Paradise and makes it possible to resist temptation. The implication is that an attitude to work which regards the powers of nature as simply a threat to be overcome is best seen as an effect of the Fall, a sign of alienation. And, as the monastic scholar Aelred Squire, points out (Asking the Fathers, p.92), this insight of Augustine, quoted by Thomas Aquinas, is echoed by Aquinas himself in another passage where he describes humanity as having a share in the working of divine Providence because it has the task of using its reasoning powers to provide for self and others (aliis, which can mean both persons and things). In other words, the human task is to draw out potential treasures in the powers of nature and so to realise the convergent process of humanity and nature discovering in collaboration what they can become. The 'redemption' of people and material life in general is not a matter of resigning from the business of labour and of transformation – as if we could – but the search for a form of action that will preserve and nourish an interconnected development of humanity and its environment. In some contexts, this will be the deliberate protection of the environment from harm: in a world where exploitative and aggressive behaviour is commonplace, one of the 'providential' tasks of human beings must be to limit damage and to secure space for the natural order to exist unharmed. In others, the question is rather how to use the natural order for the sake of human nourishment and security without pillaging its resources and so damaging its inner mechanisms for self-healing or self-correction. In both, the fundamental requirement is to discern enough of what the processes of nature truly are to be able to engage intelligently with them. </i></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
- Rowan Williams,<i> <a href="http://aoc2013.brix.fatbeehive.com/articles.php/816/renewing-the-face-of-the-earth-human-responsibility-and-the-environment">Renewing the Face of the Earth: Human Responsibility and the Environment</a>,</i> 2003.</blockquote>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">"...hebel of hebels; everything is hebel..."</div>Matthew Moffitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03719091623501398778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35482291.post-53740557760465896422019-11-01T15:01:00.000+11:002019-11-10T16:49:58.100+11:00'As you go'? Matthew 28:19 and Exegetical FallaciesThis post is based on an exegetical paper I wrote several years ago as a Moore College student. As a consequence, the paper is very technical as it considers the Greek syntax and grammar of Matthew 28:16-20. TL;DR: There is a common exegetical fallacy which argues that the <i>go</i> in Matthew 28:19 is a participle and should be translated as ‘as you go’, placing the emphasis on the verb <i>make disciples</i>. But syntactically, <i>go</i> is best translated as a participle of attendant circumstances, which carries the mood of the main verb <i>make disciples</i>. As Dan Wallace writes "there is no good grammatical ground for giving the participle a mere temporal idea...Virtually all instances in narrative literature of aorist participle+ aorist imperative involve attendant circumstance participle. In Matthew in particular, every other instance of the aorist participle of 'go' followed by a main verb..is clearly attendant circumstance."<br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b>16</b> Ο</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ἱ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">δ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ὲ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ἕ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">νδεκα</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">μαθητα</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ὶ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><u style="text-underline: double;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ἐ</span></u><u style="text-underline: double;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">πορε</span></u><u style="text-underline: double;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ύ</span></u><u style="text-underline: double;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">θησαν</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">↑</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ε</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ἰ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ς</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">τ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ὴ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ν</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Γαλιλα</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ί</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">αν</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">) </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">↓</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ε</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ἰ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ς</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">τ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ὸ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ὄ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ρος</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">)</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ο</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ὗ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><u style="text-underline: double;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ἐ</span></u><u style="text-underline: double;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">τ</span></u><u style="text-underline: double;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ά</span></u><u style="text-underline: double;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ξατο</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b>17</b> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">κα</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ὶ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ἰ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">δ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ό</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ντες</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">α</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ὐ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">τ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ὸ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ν</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><u style="text-underline: double;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">προσεκ</span></u><u style="text-underline: double;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ύ</span></u><u style="text-underline: double;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">νησαν</span></u><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">,
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b>18</b> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">κα</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ὶ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">προσελθ</span></u><u><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ὼ</span></u><u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ν</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ὁ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ἰ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ησο</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ῦ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ς</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><u style="text-underline: double;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ἐ</span></u><u style="text-underline: double;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">λ</span></u><u style="text-underline: double;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ά</span></u><u style="text-underline: double;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">λησεν</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">α</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ὐ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">το</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ῖ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ς</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">λ</span></u><u><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">έ</span></u><u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">γων</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">· </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</v:line><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><span style="height: 515px; left: 0px; margin-left: 135px; margin-top: 5px; mso-ignore: vglayout; position: absolute; width: 2px; z-index: 251659264;"><img height="515" src="file:///C:/Users/Moffitt/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif" v:shapes="officeArt_x0020_object" width="2" /></span><!--[endif]--><u style="text-underline: double;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ἐ</span></u><u style="text-underline: double;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">δ</span></u><u style="text-underline: double;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ό</span></u><u style="text-underline: double;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">θη</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">μοι</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">π</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ᾶ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">σα</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ἐ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ξουσ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ί</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">α</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ἐ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ν</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ο</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ὐ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ραν</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ῷ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">)
</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">κα</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ὶ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
(</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ἐ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">π</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ὶ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span lang="PT" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">[</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">τ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ῆ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ς</span><span lang="PT" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">] </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">γ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ῆ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ς</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">). </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 115%;"><b>19</b> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">πορευθ</span><u style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">έ</span></u><u style="font-size: 12px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ντες</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">ο</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">ὖ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">ν</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><u style="font-size: 12px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">μαθητε</span></u><u style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ύ</span></u><u style="font-size: 12px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">σατε</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">π</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">ά</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">ντα</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">τ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">ὰ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">ἔ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">θνη</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">, </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">βαπτ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ί</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ζοντες</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">α</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ὐ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">το</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ὺ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ς</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ε</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ἰ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ς</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">τ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ὸ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ὄ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">νομα</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">) </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; margin-left: 108pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">το</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ῦ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">πατρ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ὸ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ς</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; margin-left: 108pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">κα</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ὶ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">το</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ῦ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">υ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ἱ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ο</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ῦ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; margin-left: 108pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">κα</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ὶ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">το</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ῦ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ἁ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">γ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ί</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ου</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">πνε</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ύ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ματος</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">, </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 18.6667px; line-height: 115%;"><b>20 </b></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">διδ</span><u style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ά</span></u><u style="font-size: 12px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">σκοντες</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">α</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">ὐ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">το</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">ὺ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">ς</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><u style="font-size: 12px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">τηρε</span></u><u style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ῖ</span></u><u style="font-size: 12px;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ν</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">π</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">ά</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">ντα</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ὅ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">σα</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><u style="text-underline: double;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ἐ</span></u><u style="text-underline: double;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">νετειλ</span></u><u style="text-underline: double;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ά</span></u><u style="text-underline: double;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">μην</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ὑ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">μ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ῖ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ν· </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">κα</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ὶ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ἰ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">δο</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ὺ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ἐ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">γ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ὼ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
(</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">μεθ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">᾿</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ὑ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">μ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ῶ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ν</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">) </span><u style="text-underline: double;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ε</span></u><u style="text-underline: double;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ἰ</span></u><u style="text-underline: double;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">μι</span></u><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">π</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ά</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">σας</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">τ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ὰ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ς</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ἡ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">μ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">έ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ρας</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ἕ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ως</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">τ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ῆ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ς</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">συντελε</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ί</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ας</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">το</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ῦ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">α</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ἰῶ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">νος</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">.</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[1]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></sup></span></span></sup></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">This
passage functions as the conclusion of Matthew’s Gospel. However, rather than
operating as an epilogue to Matthew’s narrative, it serves as the climax of the
Gospel: the crucified and risen Lord commissions his disciples in mission. It
has been noted by many commentators that many of the theological themes
introduced and developed in Matthew find their resolution and culmination in
these five verses.</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[2]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Alone among the synoptics, Matthew records this
interaction in Galilee rather than Jerusalem. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The coordinating conjunction δ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ὲ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">introduces a change, as the narrative moves from Judea
to Galilee.</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[3]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> With the death of Judas Iscariot, it is the eleven
disciples who make this journey. Like the bulk of Matthew’s Gospel, the
commencement of their mission occurs in Galilee, perhaps suggesting continuity
with Jesus’ own mission.</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[4]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Whilst ε</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ἰ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ς</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">τ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ὸ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ὄ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ρος has a broad reference, with the general meaning of
‘into the hills’, the exact phrase recalls Jesus’ own earlier ministry of
teaching, prayer, and healing (5:1, 15:23, and 15:29). More generally it echoes
the seven previous mountain-top experiences in the Gospel (4:8, 5:1, 14:23,
15:29; 17:1, 24.3, and 26.30).</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[5]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> As with some of these earlier episodes, there are
probably also Mosaic overtures. Whilst the aorist middle indicative verb </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ἐ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">τ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ά</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ξατο might suggest a prearranged place, the general
sense of ε</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ἰ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ς</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">τ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ὸ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ὄ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ρος places the focus not on a particular mountain, but
Galilee in general. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Much like women did (v.9), the disciples worshipped
Jesus when the saw him. Yet the mixed reaction from some of their companions
has been the source of consternation among commentators. The worship of the
disciples could refer to the obeisance Persians and Greeks displayed before
their kings. However, these kings were deified. Moreover, the reference here is
most likely that of worship, parallelling a fragment found at Qumran that all the
nations would come to worship the Son of God. </span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[6]</span></sup></span></span></sup></a><span lang="PT" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> Yet some doubted. The aorist verb, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">διστ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">ά</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">ζω, occurs only twice in the New Testament: here and
earlier in Matthew as Peter’s faith wavered on the Galilean waves (14:31). Yet
it was widely used in the Hellenic world, referring to either doubt or waiver
over something, or hesitancy over a certain course of action.</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn7;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[7]</span></sup></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> Commentators have attempted to resolve the issue of
whether it was hesitation or actual doubt by questioning whether verse 17
refers just to the eleven, or other unnamed accomplices. Carson is amongst
those who suggest that the <i>doubters</i> were outside of the eleven. On this
reading ο</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">ἱ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">δ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">ὲ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">refers to others in contrast to those who have already
been the mentioned.</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn8" name="_ftnref8" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn8;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[8]</span></sup></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> However, one would normally expect the presence of
the particle μ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">ὲ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">ν</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">.</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn9" name="_ftnref9" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn9;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[9]</span></sup></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> Both Carson and France point to 26:67 as evidence of
Matthew’s use of ο</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">ἱ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">δ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">ὲ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">to support their position. Yet France is probably
correct when he argues that in both verses ο</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">ἱ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">δ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">ὲ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">refers to a ‘countercurrent within the group, affecting
some but not all of them.’ Nonetheless, both France and Carson agree that ἐδίστασαν
is not the opposite of προσεκύνησαν, as in intellectual doubt; instead ἐδίστασαν
refers to hesitancy on the disciples behalf.</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn10" name="_ftnref10" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn10;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[10]</span></sup></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> It is possible then that this hesitancy is related to
an uncertainty whether it was Jesus standing before them. (cf. Luke 24:16,
31-32, 37; John 20:15, 21:4-7). Within the narrative frame of Matthew, it is
likely that the hesitancy of some of the eleven stems from an uncertainty over
the reception they would receive from Jesus. The last time they had seen Jesus
was as they fled from him in Gethsemane.</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn11" name="_ftnref11" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn11;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[11]</span></sup></span></span></sup></a><br />
<a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn11" name="_ftnref11" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn11;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></sup></span></span></sup></a></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Into this hesitancy Jesus approached (v.18). The only
other time Matthew uses προσέρχομαι with Jesus as the subject is following the
transfiguration (17:7). Both times Jesus’ calms the baffled disciples.</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn12" name="_ftnref12" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn12;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[12]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Silent through Matthew’s narration of the last two
verses, from hereon only Jesus speaks. His speech is held together by the repetition
of πᾶσ: all authority, all nations, all of his commandments, and at all times.
Firstly, Jesus claims all authority in heaven and earth. (</span><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">cf.
</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">7:29, 10:1-8,
11:27, 22:43-4, 24:35), strongly echoing Daniel’s Son of Man (Daniel 7:14).
Like the Septuagint, Matthew uses ἐξουσία</span><span lang="PT" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> to describe Jesus</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">’
</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">dominion.</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn13" name="_ftnref13" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn13;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[13]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Throughout the Gospel, Jesus uses the language of
Daniel 7 to describe his future authority and vindication (16:28, 19:28,
24:30-31, 25:31-34, 26:64). Now that authority is realised, including not only
the earth as in Daniel 7, and as offered by Satan (4:8-10), but heaven too.
Jesus’ authority is coextensive to that attributed to his Father (11:25-27).
Having had his claim to sovereignty mocked (27:11, 29, 37, 42), Jesus stands
before the eleven vindicated in his authority. Wright notes that this brings
together the opening of the Lord’s Prayer, perhaps as its answer, that earth
should match heaven.</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn14" name="_ftnref14" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn14;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[14]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Of course, this authority has not been assumed by
Jesus; instead it has been given to him. The passive use of the aorist δίδωμι
not only presents the action in summary, but also highlights Jesus own
passivity.</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn15" name="_ftnref15" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn15;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[15]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn15" name="_ftnref15" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn15;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></sup></span></span></sup></a></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The second ‘</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">all</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">’ is connected to the first by the inferential
participle ο</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ὖ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ν. It signals a development that is highly constrained
by the previous argument.</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn16" name="_ftnref16" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn16;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[16]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">. As an aorist imperative, μαθητε</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ύ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">σατε</span><span lang="IT" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">
conveys specific commands.</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn17" name="_ftnref17" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn17;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[17]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> As the other actions in vv.19-20 (go, baptise, and
teach) are participles, verse 19 is sometimes translated ‘Having gone/As you go, make
disciples...’ to stress the action of making disciples.</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn18" name="_ftnref18" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn18;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[18]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> However, Carson cautions against this reading.</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn19" name="_ftnref19" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn19;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[19]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Additionally, Wallace rules it out on account of the
first participle, πορευθ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">έ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ντες, being an aorist that comes before an imperative
in narrative.</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn20" name="_ftnref20" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn20;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[20]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> To treat </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px;">πορευθ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px;">έ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px;">ντες as either an adverbial participle or a temporal participle would, argues Wallace, reduce the <i>Great Commission</i> into the <i>Great Suggestion</i>.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> Rather than a temporal participial, πορευθ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">έ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">ντες is most likely a participle of attendant
circumstances. There is a similar use of the participle πορευθ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">έ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">ντες preceding an aorist imperative in Matthew 11:4, ‘Go
and tell John what you see and hear’. It would be strange to translate πορευθ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">έ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">ντες here as a temporal participle; ‘As you go, tell
John...’ In this instance, πορευθ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">έ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">ντες
carries the same mood as the main verb. Undoubtedly the emphasis falls upon μαθητε</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">ύ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">σατε. Yet it remains that πορευθ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">έ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">ντες is not optional but a prerequisite to the action
of the main verb. After all, given who the disciples are commanded to disciple, namely the nations, it would be difficult to obey Jesus' command without travelling. </span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The verb μαθητε</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ύ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">σατε
is unusual as this is only one of two times it appears as a transitive in the
New Testament (</span><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">cf</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">. Acts 14:21). It has the sense of causing someone to
become pupils.</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn21" name="_ftnref21" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn21;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[21]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> This discipling has a particular object: the nations.
Again Matthew picks up the language of the Septuagint. When God reconfirmed his
covenant with Abraham, he used the words π</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ά</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ντα</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">τ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ὰ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ἔ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">θνη (Genesis 18:18, 22:18). Rather than replacing
Israel, Matthew has in mind the inclusion of the gentiles alongside faithful
Israelites in the kingdom.</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn22" name="_ftnref22" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn22;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[22]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> In this sense Knox suggests that Jesus has in mind
not merely individuals <i>from</i> the nations, but the nations themselves
which are to be discipled.</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn23" name="_ftnref23" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn23;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[23]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn23" name="_ftnref23" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn23;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></sup></span></span></sup></a></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Discipling the nations will include both baptism and
teaching. These two particles operate as participles of means; baptism as the
means of induction into community of the triune God, and instruction as the
means of how to live in that community.</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn24" name="_ftnref24" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn24;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[24]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> This is the first time baptism has appeared in
Matthew since John’s ministry (chapter 3). It appears to be different from John's baptism,
and differrent to the customary Jewish purification baptisms as well. It is baptism into a
relationship; BDAG notes that the combination of εἰς</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">τὸ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ὄνομα refers the possession of the name borne.</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn25" name="_ftnref25" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn25;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[25]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Of note here is the particular name to be borne: the singular Triune name. Rather
than being an original liturgical formula, the relating of the three persons
here fits with earlier moments in Matthew, such as Jesus’ baptism and
transfiguration (3:13-17, 17:1-8). Although this form is echoed in the </span><i><span lang="NL" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Didache</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">,
there is no evidence of later manuscript tampering to make Matthew conform to
second-century practice. On its own this verse does not prove Trinitarian
consciousness in the New Testament, but it does make it difficult to deny the
presence of Trinitarian thinking.</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn26" name="_ftnref26" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn26;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[26]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn26" name="_ftnref26" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn26;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></sup></span></span></sup></a></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The third ‘</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">all</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">’ relates to Jesus’ teaching. To be a disciple of
Jesus is to obey his commandments. The use of ἐνετειλάμην is significant, as
hitherto Matthew has connected ἐντέλλω with the Mosaic commandments (i.e. 15:4,
19:7).</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn27" name="_ftnref27" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn27;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[27]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Additionally the infinitive τηρεῖν is particularly
associated in the Septuagint with the law.</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn28" name="_ftnref28" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn28;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[28]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Now the focus is on Jesus’ own words (</span><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">cf</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">. Matthew 5:17-20). This is not abstract teaching, but
instruction to be obeyed.</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn29" name="_ftnref29" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn29;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[29]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> The fourth ‘</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">all</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">’ is the promise of Jesus’ enduring presence (</span><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">cf</span></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">.
1:23); </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">κα</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ὶ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ἰ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">δο</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ὺ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">emphasises the size of something.</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn30" name="_ftnref30" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn30;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[30]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> This is filled out by the accusative for extent of
time, π</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ά</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">σας</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">τ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ὰ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ς</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ἡ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">μ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">έ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ρας</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">.</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn31" name="_ftnref31" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn31;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[31]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> This </span><i><span lang="IT" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">hapax
legomenon</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> complements the
imperfective aspect of ε</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ἰ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">μι, which portrays Jesus’ presence as ongoing.</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn32" name="_ftnref32" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn32;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[32]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> This final clause is Matthean; whilst Matthew uses
the phrase συντελε</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ί</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ας</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">το</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ῦ</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">α</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">ἰῶ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">νος five times (13:39, 40, 49, 24:3, 28:20), it is
only used once elsewhere (Hebrews 9:26).</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn33" name="_ftnref33" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn33;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[33]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> Jesus speaks of the consummation of this world or
unit of history.</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn34" name="_ftnref34" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn34;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[34]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> This speaks of Jesus presence not only with the
eleven, but to those they disciple and so on, until the final renewal of the
world.</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn35" name="_ftnref35" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn35;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[35]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn35" name="_ftnref35" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn35;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></sup></span></span></sup></a></div>
<div class="Body" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12px; line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Whilst both Luke and possibly Mark include a final,
post-graveside scene which includes mission to the nations and Jesus’ ascension,
these serve as the climax of Matthew’s Gospel. Out of Galilee where a great
light initially dawned at the onset of Jesus’ ministry the eleven are sent
(4:12-17). Whereas Jesus had gone only to the house of Israel (15:24), they are
to go to all the nations. They are to make the nations what they themselves
already are: disciples of the risen Christ.</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn36" name="_ftnref36" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn36;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[36]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> As the beneficiaries of the eleven’s mission,
Christians today continue in this mission through the presence of Jesus in the
apostolic announcement of his authority over all things.</span><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftn37" name="_ftnref37" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn37;" title=""><sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[37]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"> On this basis it is entirely fitting that Jesus – Emmanuel,
who saves his people from their sins, and whose name is included alongside the
Father and the Holy Spirit – is worshipped. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="font-family: "times new roman";" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[1]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> α</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial unicode ms" , serif;">ἰῶ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;">νος. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "cambria math" , serif;">ℵ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> A</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "ms gothic";"><sup>*</sup></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> B D W 1 33 it<sup>aur, d, e, ff1, g1, h, n, q</sup>vg syr<sup>palmss</sup> cop<su>sa,
meg, bopt</su> arm eth<sup>pp, TH</sup> geo<sup>1, B</sup> Origen<sup>vid</sup> Chrysostom Severian<sup>vid</sup> Cyril; Jerome
// α<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial unicode ms" , serif;">ἰῶ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;">νος. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial unicode ms" , serif;">ἀ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;">μ</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "arial unicode ms" , serif;">ή</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;">ν.
A<sup>2</sup> D Q ƒ<sup>13</sup> 28 157 180 205 565 579 597 700 892 1006 1010 1071 1241 1243 1292
1342 1424 1505 Byz [E F G<sup>supp</sup></span> H S] Lect it<sup>a, b, c, f, ff2, l</sup> vg<sup>mss</sup> syr<sup>p, h,
palms</sup> cop<sup>bopt</sup> eth<sup>ms</sup> geo<sup>A</sup> Apostolic Constitutions.<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman";"><o:p></o:p></span>
<br />
</span><br />
<div id="ftn2" style="font-family: "times new roman";">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[2]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> <i>cf</i>. R. T. France, <i>The
Gospel According to Matthew</i> (NICNT) (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007), 1107;
D. A. Carson, ‘Matthew’, in <i>The Expositor’s Bible Commentary (Revised
Edition): Volume 9 – Matthew & Mark</i> (ed. Tremper Longman III &
David E. Garland; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div id="ftn3" style="font-family: "times new roman";">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[3]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> Steven E. Runge, <i>Discourse
Grammar of the Greek New Testament: A Practical Introduction for Teaching and
Exegesis </i>(Peabody: Hendrickson, 2010), 31-32.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div id="ftn4" style="font-family: "times new roman";">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[4]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> Leon Morris, <i>The Gospel
According to Matthew</i> (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992), 744. </span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div id="ftn5" style="font-family: "times new roman";">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[5]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> David L. Turner, <i>Matthew</i>
(Barker: Grand Rapids, 2008), 688.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div id="ftn6" style="font-family: "times new roman";">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[6]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> Walter Bauer, <i>A
Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature</i>
(ed. F.W. Danker. 3<sup>rd</sup> ed.; Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
2001), 882-883; Craig A. Evans, <i>Matthew</i> (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2012), 482.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
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</span>
<br />
<div id="ftn7" style="font-family: "times new roman";">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn7;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[7]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> Bauer, <i>A Greek-English
Lexicon</i>, 252.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div id="ftn8" style="font-family: "times new roman";">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref8" name="_ftn8" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn8;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[8]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> Carson, ‘Matthew’, 663.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div id="ftn9" style="font-family: "times new roman";">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref9" name="_ftn9" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn9;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[9]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> France, <i>The Gospel
According to Matthew</i>, 1111.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;">
</span>
<br />
<div id="ftn10" style="font-family: "times new roman";">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref10" name="_ftn10" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn10;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[10]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> Carson, ‘Matthew’, 663;
France, <i>The Gospel According to Matthew</i>, 1111-1112. <i>cf</i>. Morris, <i>The
Gospel According to Matthew</i>, 744-745.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
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</span>
<div id="ftn11" style="font-family: "times new roman";">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref11" name="_ftn11" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn11;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[11]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> K. Grayston, ‘The Translation
of Matthew 28.17’ <i>JSNT </i>21 (1984): 105-109.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;">
<div id="ftn12" style="font-family: "times new roman";">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref12" name="_ftn12" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn12;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[12]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> France, <i>The Gospel
According to Matthew</i>, 651.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn13" style="font-family: "times new roman";">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref13" name="_ftn13" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn13;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[13]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> Bauer, <i>A Greek-English
Lexicon</i>, 353.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn14" style="font-family: "times new roman";">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref14" name="_ftn14" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn14;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[14]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> N. T. Wright, <i>The
Resurrection of the Son of God</i> (London: SPCK, 2003), 643.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn15" style="font-family: "times new roman";">
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<a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref15" name="_ftn15" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn15;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[15]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> Constantine R. Campbell, <i>Basics
of Verbal Aspect in Biblical Greek</i> (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008), 1286,
Kindle.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn16" style="font-family: "times new roman";">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref16" name="_ftn16" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn16;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[16]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> Steven E. Runge, <i>Discourse
Grammar of the Greek New Testament,</i> 43.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn17" style="font-family: "times new roman";">
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<a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref17" name="_ftn17" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn17;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[17]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> Campbell, <i>Basics of Verbal
Aspect in Biblical Greek</i>, 1383.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref18" name="_ftn18" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn18;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[18]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> Evans, <i>Matthew</i>, 483; <i>cf</i>.
Colin Marshall and Tony Payne, <i>The Trellis and the Vine: The Ministry
Mind-Shift That Changes Everything</i> (Kingsford: Matthias Media, 2009),
12-13.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn19" style="font-family: "times new roman";">
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<a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref19" name="_ftn19" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn19;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[19]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> Carson, ‘Matthew’, 666.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref20" name="_ftn20" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn20;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[20]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> Daniel B. Wallace, <i>Greek
Grammar Beyond the Basics</i> (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 642, 645.</span></div>
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<a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref21" name="_ftn21" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn21;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[21]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> Bauer, <i>A Greek-English
Lexicon</i>, 609.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref22" name="_ftn22" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn22;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[22]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> Carson, ‘Matthew’, 666-667.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref23" name="_ftn23" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn23;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[23]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> D. B. Knox, ‘New Testament
Baptism’, in <i>David</i> <i>Broughton Knox Selected Works Volume II - Church
and Ministry</i> (ed. K. Birkett; Kingsford: Matthias Media, 2003), 277-282.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref24" name="_ftn24" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn24;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[24]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> Wallace, <i>Greek Grammar
Beyond the Basics</i>, 645.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref25" name="_ftn25" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn25;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[25]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> Bauer, <i>A Greek-English
Lexicon</i>, 713; Carson, ‘Matthew’, 668. </span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref26" name="_ftn26" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn26;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[26]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> Carson, ‘Matthew’, 668.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref27" name="_ftn27" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn27;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[27]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> France, <i>The Gospel
According to Matthew</i>, 1118.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref28" name="_ftn28" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn28;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[28]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> Bauer, <i>A Greek-English
Lexicon</i>, 1002.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref29" name="_ftn29" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn29;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[29]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> Carson, ‘Matthew’, 669.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref30" name="_ftn30" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn30;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[30]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> Bauer, <i>A Greek-English
Lexicon</i>, 468.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref31" name="_ftn31" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn31;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[31]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> Wallace, <i>Greek Grammar
Beyond the Basics</i>, 202.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref32" name="_ftn32" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn32;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[32]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> Campbell, <i>Basics of Verbal
Aspect in Biblical Greek</i>, 894-900.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref33" name="_ftn33" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn33;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[33]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> Morris, <i>The Gospel
According to Matthew</i>, 356, n.96.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref34" name="_ftn34" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn34;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[34]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> Bauer, <i>A Greek-English
Lexicon</i>, 32.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div id="ftn35" style="font-family: "times new roman";">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref35" name="_ftn35" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn35;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[35]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> The textual variant at the
conclusion of v.20, which includes ‘Amen’ in the text, is of doubtful origin
given its absence from Alexandrian sources. It can be accounted for via the
later liturgical use of the text. <i>cf. </i>B. M. Metzger, <i>A Textual
Commentary on the Greek New Testament</i> (2nd ed.; Peabody: Hendrickson,
1994), 61.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref36" name="_ftn36" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn36;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[36]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> Karl Barth, <i>Church
Dogmatics Vol. IV: The Doctrine of Reconciliation 3.2 </i>(Trans. G. W.
Bromiley; Peabody: Henderson, 2010), 860.</span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="file:///D:/Users/Moffitt/Desktop/Mt%2028.19%20essay.docx#_ftnref37" name="_ftn37" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn37;" title=""><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span lang="EN-US" style="border: none; color: black; font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">[37]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></span></sup></a><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> <i>cf</i>. Peter G. Bolt, <i>Matthew:
A Great Light Dawns </i>(South Sydney: Aquila, 2014), 268. </span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">"...hebel of hebels; everything is hebel..."</div>Matthew Moffitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03719091623501398778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35482291.post-39510235713990030572019-10-04T16:08:00.001+10:002019-10-04T17:54:36.201+10:00Calvin on Caring for the Land<blockquote class="tr_bq">
'The earth was given to man with this condition, that he should occupy himself in its cultivation...The custody of the garden was given in charge to Adam, to show that we possess the things that God has committed to our hands, on the condition that being content with frugal and moderate use of them, we should take care what shall remain. Let him who possesses a field, so partake of its yearly fruits, that he may not suffer the ground to be injured by his negligence; but let him endeavor to hand it down to posterity as he received it, or even better cultivated. Let him so feed on its fruits that he neither dissipates it by luxury, nor permits to be marred or ruined by neglect. Moreover, that this economy, and this diligence, with respect to those good things which God has given us to enjoy, may flourish among us; l let everyone regard himself as the steward of God in all things which he possesses. Then will he neither conduct himself dissolutely, nor corrupt by abuse those things which God requires to be preserved.' <span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">–</span> John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis</blockquote>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">"...hebel of hebels; everything is hebel..."</div>Matthew Moffitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03719091623501398778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35482291.post-83667592337094370582018-11-11T11:09:00.002+11:002018-11-11T11:09:15.864+11:00Prayer in the time of WarA prayer, most likely written by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, in 1548 when England was at war with Scotland:<br />
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;">Most merciful God, the Granter of all peace and quietness, the Giver of all good gifts, the Defender of all nations, who hast willed all men to be accounted as our neighbours, and commanded us to love them as ourself, and not to hate our enemies, but rather to wish them, yea and also to do them good if we can: bow down thy holy and merciful eyes upon us, and look upon the small portion of earth which professeth thy holy name, and thy Son Jesu Christ. Give to all us desire of peace, unity, and quietness, and a speedy wearisomeness of all war, hostility, and enmity to all them that be our enemies; that we and they may, in one heart and charitable agreement, praise thy most holy name, and reform our lives to thy godly commandments. And especially have an eye to this small isle of Britain. And that which was begun by thy great and infinite mercy and love, to the unity and concord of both the nations, that the Scottish men and we might for ever live hereafter, in one love and amity, knit into one nation, by the most happy and godly marriage of the King’s Majesty our sovereign Lord, and the young Scottish Queen: whereunto promises and agreements hath been heretofore most firmly made by human order: Grant, O Lord, that the same might go forward, and that our sons’ sons, and all our posterity hereafter, may feel the benefit and commodity of thy great gift of unity, granted in our days. Confound all those that worketh against it: let not their counsel prevail: diminish their strength: lay thy sword of punishment upon them that interrupteth this godly peace; or rather convert their hearts to the better way, and make them embrace that unity and peace which shall be most for thy glory, and the profit of both the realms. Put away from us all war and hostility, and if we be driven thereto, hold thy holy and strong power and defence over us: be our garrison, our shield, and buckler. And seeing we seek but a perpetual amity and concord, and performance of quietness promised in thy name, pursue the same with us, and send thy holy angels to be our aiders, that either none at all, or else so little loss and effusion of Christian blood as can, be made thereby. Look not, O Lord, upon our sins, or the sins of our enemies, what they deserve; but have regard to thy most plenteous and abundant mercy, which passeth all thy works, being so infinite and marvellous. Do this, O Lord, for thy Son’s sake, Jesu Christ.</span><div class="blogger-post-footer">"...hebel of hebels; everything is hebel..."</div>Matthew Moffitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03719091623501398778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35482291.post-37921117916618013132018-09-19T21:49:00.001+10:002018-10-05T16:59:32.866+10:00The War on Waste<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC_USd-8c5p6L_FefTWr7ax6xs7DxV9VyJGyTg6kCtH8qVF77k8yOxEax2YBqFuSdwjFop9vCJxaMezUnm6zIz35O903A8k10HIWI-dGMJkxuI4I1NGcYbLAgInEZ4h16DoRDxkQ/s1600/A0D054FD-8AEB-4DB5-9460-168B83393605.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC_USd-8c5p6L_FefTWr7ax6xs7DxV9VyJGyTg6kCtH8qVF77k8yOxEax2YBqFuSdwjFop9vCJxaMezUnm6zIz35O903A8k10HIWI-dGMJkxuI4I1NGcYbLAgInEZ4h16DoRDxkQ/s320/A0D054FD-8AEB-4DB5-9460-168B83393605.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 17px;">This week I started using a bamboo toothbrush. They’ve been in the cupboard for a while, and I’ve had to wait until my I’d finished with my last plastic one. It’s part of a concerted effort on our part to more thoughtful about our environmental impact. </span><br />
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The reusable coffee cups came at the start of the year. </div>
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Then after the latest season of ABC’s <i>The War on Waste</i> we installed a little worm farm on our balcony.</div>
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There have been moments of failure along the way - every time I’ve forgotten to take bags with me on shopping trips. Or the wry judgment I’ve felt from friends when bartenders have placed a straw in my drink. </div>
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There have moments of abject confusion. A few weeks ago I stood at the bin, with a shredded and sticky mandarin peel in my hand, not knowing what to do with it. Should I put in the bin? (And thereby send some more methane into the ground). Or should I throw it on the garden nearby? (And thereby litter in a space where there are no composting worms. The only positive benefit along this route would perhaps be for the rats of Newtown). 34 years of formation kicked into the gear; the mandarin skin went into the bin.</div>
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I call it <i>The War on Waste</i> effect, and it says something of the measure that host <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); background-image: none; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Craig Reucassel has had on my moral sensibilities. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); background-image: none; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">Similar to other work originating from </span><i style="text-decoration: none;">The Chaser</i><span style="text-decoration: none;">, it pursues information through entertainment. But more than the usual satire, </span><i style="text-decoration: none;">War on Waste</i><span style="text-decoration: none;"> is a call to arms - a show that demands action. And what action has been taken. After only two seasons and a handful of episodes, the major supermarkets have banned single use plastic bags.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); background-image: none; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">But I find it a fascinating show for what it reveals about firstly morality in our society, and secondly how Christians have responded to Reucassel’s call to arms. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); background-image: none; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); background-image: none; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">On the first front, it’s undeniable that <i>The War on Waste </i>operates within a moral ecology with clearly defined ideas of what is right and what is wrong. </span></span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); text-decoration: none;">This moralism is evidenced in Reucassel’s use of language such as right, wrong, and shame. There are warriors out there, fighting against the complacency and laziness which has led to some of the ecological challenges we face. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); text-decoration: none;">What the rhetoric of <i>The War on Waste</i> suggests is that the language of moral realism Christians have been ingesting for the last 40 years in their world view studies of “the West” may need to be taken with a pinch of salt. </span></div>
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In case it has been lost on anyone, the cultural moment we inhabit seems to believe in a moral universe, of some description. We are longer living in the days when the modernist pale misreading of postmodernism as relativism seems plausible. Instead we live in a society that can discriminate between good and bad, right and wrong. The rise of sectarian partisanship, the fragmenting if common objects of love within culture, the failure of cherished institutions to protect children or act with financial prudence, these have all contributed to a rise of anxiety in our society. It’s in this climate that we’ve seen the re-emergence of a secular Puritanism; a morality self-consciously convinced by its own obvious right-ness. </div>
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Christians in Australia have been increasing facing this trend for sometime now in several social ethic issues. From euthanasia to same-sex marriage, the arguments made by those outside the church have lacked the hallmarks of relativism. I’m the part of Sydney where I live, people are generally fairly happy to sign up to the golden rules, not harming others and loving their neighbours. And amongst the members of the boomer generation I know, they’re convinced that they have fulfilled all righteousness on this front.</div>
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You see, it’s not that people aren’t into objective truth any more. It’s just that increasingly, people reject the evangelical of objective truth. </div>
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On the Christian response to <i>The War on Waste</i>, the show once again reveals that in some of my Christian circles, there is an unwillingness or inability to connect ecological care with the Christian walk </div>
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On the one hand that isn’t surprising, given that responding to climate change has in some measure been the undoing of every Australian government since 2007.</div>
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On the other hand, among my individual Christian friends - the ones truth be told whom mostly are not Anglican ministers - there has been a willingness to try something - anything - to make a difference. </div>
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I read one response to <i>The War on Waste</i> a little while ago that thoughtfully sought to engage with the program. At the end, it draw the conclusion that recycling etc is ok, but don’t get the wrong idea about saving the world because only God does that. And the only reason therefore to think about cycling and caring for the planet is because of the second of the two great commandments: “you shall love your neighbour as yourself.”</div>
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I found that an interesting conclusion to draw for two reasons. Firstly, whilst we inevitability watch <i>The War on Waste</i> in the context of grappling with climate change in a post Inconvenient Truth world, <i>The War on Waste</i> isn’t really about climate change. Grappling with e-Waste, preventing the degradation of marine life, or learning to recycle would all be good things to do anyway. Climate change or no climate change. Current ecological challenges gives recycling etc a greater clarity perhaps. But exercising responsible dominion over the earth would require to think through these issues even if we’re weren't facing global warming. For me personally, <i>The War on Waste</i> has exposed settled habits and patterns of behaviour that would otherwise lead to complacency and an abdication of our responsibility to the rest of creation. So seeking to reduce waste is not driven by a misguided eschatology, it’s about wise responsibility.</div>
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Secondly, it is becoming increasingly common in Evangelical circles to say that protecting our planet only makes sense in light of the second of the two great commandments. That is, environmental responsibility only makes sense Christianly out of love for our neighbours. Which is partially true; sustainable care of the earth is an act of love for our neighbours. Ecological degradation through CO2 emissions, global warming, nuclear and industrial waste, etc harms and kills our neighbours. But it’s only partially true.</div>
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Take this recent example from Moore College’s Lionel Windsor: “<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); text-decoration: none;">We have a responsibility to do what is right out of love of our neighbour, not out of saving the world.”</span></div>
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I find this to be a curious move to make. It’s not too dissimilar to the view of the Inner West baby boomers I met who are convinced of their own goodness because of their ability to meet this requirement. </div>
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I think it’s a sub-Christian argument. Not because love of neighbour is irrelevant for environmental action. But because the first of the two great commands is also relevant. That is, Windsor’s argument is anthropological rather than theological, and fails to recognise that one might seek to limit your wastage and your overall ecological footprint out of your love for God. </div>
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After all, don’t we read time and time again in the Scriptures that the non-human creatures don’t exist for us, even though they live in closely bound relationships with us. They exist for God:</div>
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The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God. – Psalm 104:21</div>
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There go the ships, and Leviathan, which you formed to play with. – Psalm 104:26</div>
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Praise the LORD from the earth, you great sea creatures and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word! </div>
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Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars! </div>
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Beasts and all livestock, creeping things and flying birds! – Psalm 148:7-10</div>
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All things exist for the praise and delight of God their creator. If we needed any convincing of this, the stirring account of the magnificent Jesus in Colossians 1 underscores this point with triple underlines:</div>
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For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things were created through him and for him. – Colossians 1:16</div>
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Preserving biodiversity, exercising wisdom in dealing with our waste, resisting the impulse to consume – each of these can be pursued out of a love for neighbour AND a love for the God who delights in his creation and made a world that is beautifully diverse. Moreover, the gospel of the kingdom calls us to repent our selfish desires and forsake the innate need we have to consume at the expense of other creatures. The world doesn’t exist for us. David writes that ‘The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.’ This is true, regardless of any environmental emergency. It is time to attend once more to this doctrine, and allow it to shape our love and obedience of God as we live in the world he has made.</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">"...hebel of hebels; everything is hebel..."</div>Matthew Moffitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03719091623501398778noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35482291.post-46878628351115448672018-06-14T07:50:00.001+10:002018-06-14T11:04:30.344+10:00When I was Younger<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2n0m-QKo6-ciKRNd54SsfsgU0VQE8IfC45ve4hI4uKbbltTNBBxntxURXXIT_3EPQXNbzIQOpq6xHO2ZF_Vut6AYeEywEptZImxwZmf6wZnHV55nW-ZK5httoe8g4JjOVpqI3Yg/s1600/IMG_5146.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="827" data-original-width="1242" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2n0m-QKo6-ciKRNd54SsfsgU0VQE8IfC45ve4hI4uKbbltTNBBxntxURXXIT_3EPQXNbzIQOpq6xHO2ZF_Vut6AYeEywEptZImxwZmf6wZnHV55nW-ZK5httoe8g4JjOVpqI3Yg/s320/IMG_5146.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 17px;">When I was younger </span><br />
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 17px;">it was always</span><br />
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the sea</div>
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that allured me:</div>
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the depth of the <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">cerulean waters</span>,</div>
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the foam of the waves,</div>
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the cry of the gull</div>
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the sting of the salt and the sand on my pale, apocalyptic legs.</div>
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The sea, the sea, sung its siren song to me.</div>
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But I have put away childish things.</div>
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It’s the mountains I long for now. </div>
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Those same sandstone ridges I walked and climbed and scrapped me knees on as a juvenile. </div>
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Once scorned for the sea, </div>
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whenever I’m by the water I find myself peering for those familiar peaks, </div>
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the deeply hewn valleys guarded by stones sentinels,</div>
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the smell of new rain among the gums,</div>
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and the blue haze on the horizon.</div>
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Beyond the towers of the city</div>
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it’s the plateaus and summits and bluffs that I look for, </div>
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and the glimmer of gold on stone that keeps at bay </div>
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the shadow and the gloom.</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">"...hebel of hebels; everything is hebel..."</div>Matthew Moffitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03719091623501398778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35482291.post-17533451409702672932018-02-12T23:57:00.001+11:002018-02-13T09:28:11.846+11:00The Irony of Secularism<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Last week I was away for work on the fringe of Sydney, without mobile reception or FM radio. That left me, on my occasional drives into town for supplies, with the glories of AM radio. Memories of my childhood come flooding back as I drove through scrubland with the static crackling from the stereo, and re-discovering that the signal noticebaly improved at night.<br />
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During one drive into town I was treated with an extended interview on atheism with a minister, a journalist, and a former politician. Whilst the segment was meant to cover the viability of atheism today in Australia, the former politican was pushing for a broader conversation about free thinking and secularism. It turned out that he was a spokeperson for a secular lobby group that seeks to dismantle the co-operative existence of the church and state in Australian society and impliment in its place a strict segregation between the two.<br />
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It was ultimatley an unfulfiled interview. The philosophical and historical illiteracy of one of the participants frustrated things somewhat. In particular, any deed or action by the church in the public sphere was dismissed as the imposition of Christian belief in society. Instead what Australia needs is the negative liberty of freedom <i>from</i> religion.<br />
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What was clear from the conversation was the general assumption that secularism is a neutral position. Secularism is an objective position; secularism favours no religion above another, and honours those of no religious affiliation. This is a mistaken position on several fronts; for our purposes we shall limit ourselves to only one: secularism is the creation of Christianity. By and large secularism has existed and flourished in places where the church has, over centuries, significantly shaped the social imaginary. Secularism is part of the Christian understanding of the world.<br />
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The concept of secularism emerged in the writings of Augustine of Hippo in the early 400s. As refugees sailed across the Mediterranean <i>from</i> Italy <i>to</i> North Africa fleeing barbaric violence in and around Rome, Augustine's musings on the decline of the 'eternal city' and the permanence of the true eternal and celestial city developed into a substantial theory of politics and jurisprudence. Drawing upon the writings of the Apostle Paul and other New Testament authors, Augustine recognized that the authority of the government has been limited to a penultimate role - namely the call to humbly provide justice. Government of any type are charged with responsibility of upholding the common good by commending what is right and condemning what is wrong. It is a penultimate role according to Paul and others, because our governments will one day have to give an account for their use of power, and governments are deprived of the legitimacy to claim our ultimate allegiance and affection.<br />
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This is the Christian concept of secular. The word “secular” has come to mean “non-religious”; but it was never meant to mean that. “Secular” comes from the Latin word <i>saeculum</i>, which means “age.” So “secular government” means “government in this age”. [Augustine was well aware that because something belonged to this age did not preclude it from God's care or will. The fact that marriage belongs to <i>this</i> age does not imply that God is either indifferent to marriage or has nothing to say on the subject]. The opposite of “secular” is not “sacred” but “eternal”. The distinction between sacred and secular, between the "heavenly city"and the "earthly city" is one of seemingly of time (thought ultimatley of love). The distinction between the Earthly City and the Heavenly City is the recognition that the secular authority and the church belong to different stages of salvation history. It is a difference primarily of eschatology, and secularism invovles the recognition that authority of government has been relegated.<br />
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Good government recognises that is limit, that is, secular. As British ethicist Oliver O'Donovan has describd it:<br />
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“The most truly Christian state understands itself most thoroughly as <i>secular</i>. It makes the confession of Christ’s victory and accepts the relegation of its own authority… The essential element in the conversion of the ruling power is the change in its self-understanding and its manner of government to suit the dawning age of Christ’s own rule.”</blockquote>
What we have witnessed in the modern age is a forgetfulness of what it means to be secular. In abandoning the eschatological vision which makes the secular possible, society has walked away from the very thing which made it possible im the first place. Isntead society has become obsesseded with mediation of meaning through advertising, publicity, and advertising rather than the enactment of justice.<br />
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Nonetheless, the modern malaise notwithstanding, secularism emerged out of Christian reflection that a. the rulers of this world will need one day to throw their crowns before Jesus in submission, and b. governments cannot regulate the inner workings of our heart and mind. Secularism is part of the Christian deduction of the way the world works.<br />
<br />
The irony therefore, of contemorpary secularism is that by imposing secularism on society, you are imposing a Christian vision of society.<div class="blogger-post-footer">"...hebel of hebels; everything is hebel..."</div>Matthew Moffitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03719091623501398778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35482291.post-10791047506984141192018-01-12T21:30:00.002+11:002018-01-12T21:43:34.794+11:00Dispatches from Australia 3The headline in the <i>Sydney Morning Herald </i>(somewhat provactly) read:<br />
<b><br /></b>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Demolish St Matthias church, build massive Oxford Street car park, says property tycoon </b>(21 July 2014). </blockquote>
<br />
Responding to the decline of occupied shops along Sydney's Oxford Street strip, Max Raine of <i>Raine & Horne</i> suggested that an 'underutilised' church in Paddington should be demolished in an effort to revive the historic shopping precinct. According to the <i>SMH</i> article:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
St Matthias Anglican Church was “hardly attended” yet occupies a “glorious spot” near the corner of Oxford Street and Moore Park Road, which [Raine] claimed was ripe for conversion into a parking station.</blockquote>
<br />
Raine's suggestion came somewhat of a surprise not only to the congregations of St Matthias, but also many Christians in Sydney and further afield - St Matthias being a vibrant inner-city parish.<br />
<br />
However, Raine's suggestion fits neatly into a narrative that Australian's are increasingly telling each other: <i>Christianity is on the decline, and church attendance numbers are insignificant</i>. (Despite this narrative, Australians are more likely to attend a church service during the year than a sporting event or the cinema).<br />
<br />
I encountered the full force of this narrative in 2013 during a D.A. process with my previous church. We wanted to build a ministry centre adjacent to the Victorian church building to provide much needed space for milling around, disabled access, and toilets accessible during church services. The D.A. proposal sparked opposition from a segment of the community who set themselves up as the <i>Save the Church</i> lobby group. During two council hearings about the DA, the opposition group repeatedly ran the line that the Ministry Centre was unneccesary because less than 20 people attended the church on Sundays (at the time the reality was closer to 200 - there were at least 50 church members in the council chambers audience at the time).<br />
<br />
Instead, the D.A. was obviously the work of corporate greed, and these fairminded citizens where the last line of defence for the the sandstone building and four acres of land their suburbs founders had left 'for the people of this suburb'. Never mind the fact that the four acres of land had been purchased by the church for <i>divine worship</i>. Never mind the fact that it was the church community driving the D.A. so that the church could be more hospitable.<br />
<br />
Their incongruity at the church's need was fueled by the narrative that <i>Christianity is on the decline, etc</i>. The fact that the church was sizeable, and full of people in their 20s (and not just grannies) didn't fit in their plausability structure, and therefore couldn't be true.<br />
<br />
They knew best what the church needed.<div class="blogger-post-footer">"...hebel of hebels; everything is hebel..."</div>Matthew Moffitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03719091623501398778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35482291.post-58016597914059273872018-01-02T02:30:00.000+11:002018-01-08T00:32:37.815+11:00Dispatches from Australia 2In their famous 1989 book <i>Resident Aliens</i>, Stanley Hauerwas and William H. Willimon describe the end of a world - the capitulation of Christendom to secularism - in 1963 when a local cinema opened on a Sunday.<br />
<br />
I started school in 1990. It was a state school on the urban fringe of Sydney. About half the buildings at the time were demountables. In between learning to tie my shoes and get through the day without a nap, there was a whole new "liturgy" that I had to learn. In particular, there were two sets of words the student body was expected to know.<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>The first was a song that was sung every few weeks at the school's formal assembly. It turned out this song was <i>God Save the Queen</i>, which had only been relegated from Australia's national anthem to Australia's royal anthem several years earlier when the graduating year of 1990 had started school (<i>i.e.</i> 1984). Looking back on it now, and the painting of Queen Elizabeth II from the late 1960s which hung in the office, my primary school feels like sometimes it would be at home on <i>The Crown</i>.</li>
<li>The second, I would come to learn, was <i>The Lord's Prayer</i>, which was said at least once per week during school assembly. As we stood in straight-ish lines on the asphalt quad, the older years would recite the prayer from memory - Protestant bit and all.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
That world has long since past. For me, it disappeared almost in the twinkle of an eye, and had vanished by the time I started my second year at primary school. With the weight of globalization as the cold war ended, along with a rising sense of an Australian identity, republicanism, multiculturalism, and an increased awareness of our indigenous heritage, it's surprising that I even encountered these two sets of words regularly at school in the first place.<br />
<br />
It would be tempting though to ascribe their disappearance to the irreversible tide of secularism, which seems to sweep Australia with increasing ferocity every five years as census results are announced. According to popular assumption, religion is occupying a declining space in public ad private life, and eventually will all but vanish from Australian life (except for indigenous religion apparently, because that can explained away as "cultural").<br />
<br />
It might just be that Christendom took longer to root out from Australia's Blue Mountains than it did to the American South. Admittedly, Australia has a long and complicated relationship between faith and society. But amidst those complications, Australia has been, by and large, accommodating (<i>e.g.</i> not antagonistic) towards religion. And the truth of the matter is that secularism is not a new phenomenon in Australia; it has been with European Australia since 1786 when Richard Johnson was appointed Chaplain to the First Fleet.<br />
<br />
Although it may come to a surprise, secularism is a thoroughly Christian achievement. The word “secular” has come to mean “non-religious”; drop by any P&C meeting these days and when the world "secular" is used, it is understood to be in opposition to faith and organised religion. But it was never meant to mean that. “Secular” comes from the Latin word <i>saeculum</i>, which means “age.” It was developed by Augustine of Hippo to account for the now and not yet eschatological tension Christians find themselves in. By definition, the opposite of “secular” is not “sacred” but “eternal”. So “secular ” means “of this age” rather than the eternal.<br />
<br />
Secularism actually is a consequence of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which announces that all earthly governments have been relegated to penultimate status. The Australian government is not eternal. Each and every government is secular because there will come a time when the governments of the world cast their crowns before the lamb who was slain. As Oliver O’Donovan has helpfully written:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote>
“The most truly Christian state understands itself most thoroughly as “secular”. It makes the confession of Christ’s victory and accepts the relegation of its own authority… The essential element in the conversion of the ruling power is the change in its self-understanding and its manner of government to suit the dawning age of Christ’s own rule.”</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br />
With the ascension of Jesus Christ, secularism is the stripping of governments of their pretensions to command our absolute and whole-hearted obeisance.<br />
<br />
Rather than the rise of secularism then, I wonder perhaps what we have witnessed in Australia over recent decades is the loosening of our common bonds. The traditions and institutions which have served our society have gradually been weakened and become unintelligible to us. Philosophically, concepts such as secularism and representation have become gibberish to us, unmoored as they are to their original intent and purpose. Whatever the case, we may have reached a point expected by several cultural commentators, who foresaw it with a sense of joy (Nietzsche), sadness (Tolkien), or despair (TS Eliot).<br />
<br />
For O'Donovan, it actually is an occasion for chastened optimism for gospel opportunities in a society like ours. He writes that "Western civilization finds itself the heir of political institutions and traditions which it values without any clear idea why, or to what extent, it values them." Christian witness and theology has an opportunity to shed light on institutions and traditions whose intelligibility is seriously threatened. There is an apologetic value for Christians to think theologically about politics during a crisis of confidence in our politics. This is unlikely to result in a return to the situation of my primary school in 1990. That may not even be desirable. However, what is needed from Australian Christians is a commitment to our institutions and society at large for the sake of the common good because we know Jesus' lordship over all things. To do so would be to swim against the current and buck the trend that has dominate western societies at large since the 1960s (at least). But perhaps Christians are at their best in society when their swimming against the general trends.<br />
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">"...hebel of hebels; everything is hebel..."</div>Matthew Moffitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546422699620482793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35482291.post-33540006904606517142018-01-01T00:28:00.000+11:002018-01-01T00:28:19.586+11:00Dispatches from Australia 1<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Everything in this country is socialist!"<br />"<i>Everything?</i>"<br />"Everything. Your health care system. The ABC. Your university admissions. The fact that you have a minimum wage. It's all socialist!"</blockquote>
I dined late last year with a visitor to Australia's shores, who, as you might tell from the brief exchange above, had reached (in his mind) a damning conclusion about Australia. Its institutions, its people, its very DNA all smelt of socialism.<br />
<br />
Admittedly, compared to the homeland of my fellow dinner, Australia is in a unique position. Many of our institutions are in public hands (and when I was a kid many were publicly owned, such as the Commonwealth Bank, Telstra, The State Bank in NSW, etc.), and many aspects of our welfare system, such as Medicare, have taken on the status of an institution, such that it would be close to politically impossible for a government to dismantle them.<br />
<br />
However, rather than socialism, I suspect that these aspects of Australian society bear witness to an older political tradition. We are called ‘the Commonwealth of Australia’, which oddly at first only looks as if we share riches, as in ‘common wealth’. This is, of course, partially true: we do share riches in terms of participating in an economy, and using common infrastructures. But that economic truth is only one aspect of a deeper truth that was once being expressed by this term. ‘Wealth’ comes from an older word for what is good, ‘weal’, hence a ‘commonwealth’ was always meant to be about a society of people committed to a ‘common good’.<br />
<br />
Just pointing out the name of the country does not nothing on its own. However, Andrew Cameron has argued that 'The fact that we were called a ‘Commonwealth’ indicates that there has been an alternative tradition at work in Australia: the concept of a community who seeks together for a good life, in quality relationships with one another.'<br />
<br />
[There is a long Christian history of the common good drawing on the significant New Testament word <i>koinonia, </i>which can traced, among other places, in Oliver O'Donovan's short book <i>Common Objects of Love</i>.]<br />
<br />
Arguably, it is this concept of society which drove the introduction of the pension in NSW. One of the significant forces behind the introduction of old-aged and infirm pensions in NSW was the Ven. Francis 'Bertie Boyce and the now defunct the parish of St Paul's Redfern. Boyce was hardly a socialist; as the founder of the British Empire League, he tirelessly campaigned for the observance of Empire Day in NSW - it helped that the Premier of NSW was a member of St Paul's. Boyce also founded the Anglican Church League, the conservative evangelical lobby group in the Sydney Diocese.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://media.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/thumbnails/collection_images/4/4522%23%23S.jpg.425x605_q85.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="604" data-original-width="425" height="320" src="https://media.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/thumbnails/collection_images/4/4522%23%23S.jpg.425x605_q85.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
It may come as a surprise to you then that Boyce was the leading social reform advocate in NSW at the turn of the 20th century, covering issues such as woman's suffrage, slum clearance, and temperance. Boyce has advocated for years on the issue of an old aged pension. The introduction of the pension was a significant moment in NSW, as it had by and large been the responsibility of the church to provide relief for the aged. Yet Boyce did not see this as a straight handing over to the state the relief work which had traditionally been the purview of the churches. Preaching at St Paul’s Redfern just after the introduction of the pensions into NSW, Boyce described the expected £60,000 p.a. cost of the pension as ‘a Christian contribution to suffering humanity.’<br />
<br />
Whereas the church had previously been limited by its connections with those in need and its own fundraising, for Boyce the government's new found responsibility to provide the pension would move beyond the limited connections any one church might have and enable as many people to be cared for in their twilight years. Reflecting on Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2, Boyce argued that this would give the Christian all the more reason to pay their tax, and to see their tax used in the service of those in need by God's own ministers.<br />
<br />
At a time when we read about individuals and corporations peddling their money through overseas tax havens, Boyce's approach to tax and welfare seems entirely foreign. And yet, it's beautiful, and based on a generous ecclessiology - that the church exists as the pillar and bulwark of truth to extend God's blessing to all people in society.<br />
<br />
Far from socialist, the bedrock for Australia's great institutions rest upon a Christian concept of of community.<div class="blogger-post-footer">"...hebel of hebels; everything is hebel..."</div>Matthew Moffitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546422699620482793noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35482291.post-66870437747490498892017-12-20T00:16:00.000+11:002017-12-20T00:27:50.204+11:00A Sermon on Matthew's Genealogy<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 20.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Jesus’
Shady Past – Third Sunday in Advent</span></b><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><br /><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><b>
Genesis 12.1–9 | </b></span><i><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><b>Matthew 1.1–17</b></span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Preached by me at St Alban's Five Dock, December 2017</span></i><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">[Our Father in heaven, thank you that our deliverance has dawned in
Jesus Christ, and that in him you are making all things new. In this Advent season,
we pray that you would refresh us with your grace, and encourage our hearts by your
Scriptures, so that we might find lasting, joyful rest in you. Amen.]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It’s said that you should never judge a book by its cover; but I
think you can pick an exceptional book by its first sentence. A good first
sentence not only captures your imagination, it gives a sense of meaning and
direction. So right from the start of Pride and Prejudice you know the story is
explore love and money: ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single
man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.’ Or that Peter
Pan will explore themes of youth and maturity: ‘All children, except one, grow
up.’ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Used well, a first sentence can be a powerful thing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Gospels too begin with skilfully written introductions: John,
perhaps most famously with: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God.” But I’m not sure if any of us would rate Matthew’s
opening. His first sentence includes a bold statement of Jesus identity: “Jesus
the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” But I think most for us,
that all seems to be undone by his genealogy. It’s a little bit bizarre, given
Matthew’s position in the Bible, as the opening of the New Testament. A long
list of unfamiliar and unpronounceable names – I think I’m more likely to skip
over this passage then draw any inspiration or encouragement from it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The genealogy appears to be about as unexciting an opening as it
could be. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But to those with eyes to see, it tells the story that must be
grasped if the plot of the whole Gospel is to be understood. You see, Matthew
is telling us as loud as possible that Jesus’ birth signals a new beginning. God’s
work with Abraham, with David has been moving towards this moment. As we
explore this genealogy today, we’ll see that this new beginning for two groups;
firstly those on the inside, and secondly the outsider. Matthew’s genealogy
heralds a new start for everyone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A new
beginning<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Genealogy_of_Jesus_mosaic_at_Chora_(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="213" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Genealogy_of_Jesus_mosaic_at_Chora_(1).jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Today, it’s very easy to find out who a person is and what they’re
like. With the power of google at hand, and the amount of information that is
freely accessible from facebook and LinkedIn, it can take only a matter of
minutes to find what out who someone is. Where people have worked, which
political party they support, and even what they had for dinner last night. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In ancient Middle Eastern culture, genealogies were used by the
rich and the powerful to tell stories. They were narrative devices, used
explain a person’s place in history via their connection to their ancestors. Matthew
uses a genealogy to us who Jesus is. You’ll notice that this genealogy is
highly structured, and Matthew himself tells us in v17 we have three groupings
of 14 generations. Israel’s history is broken into thirds: From Abraham to
David, from David to the Babylonian Captivity, and from the Babylonian
Captivity to Jesus. It’s quite stylised – almost poetic – and it seems that
Matthew skipped some generations to maintain the 14x14x14 pattern. There are a
couple of kings, for example, missing from the list. But that doesn’t mean
Matthew is being deceptive; instead we need to realise ancient genealogies
served a different purpose to what they do today. Over the past couple of years
my mum has been painstakingly research our family tree. [Maybe you have someone
in your family who spends all their time on ancestry.com] It’s very labour
intensive, as Mum sifts through records to try and record every single person
we’re related too. [It turns out I’m related to a Viking prince called Gandalf.]
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Matthew isn’t trying to do this. Not just conveying biological
facts, but telling a story, so he can skip some ancestors, mention the
existence of some brothers in vv.2&11 but not others, record some wives and
not others. He’s connecting Jesus’ story into the larger plot, the story of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Like the opening credits to Star Wars, Matthew uses
the genealogy to set the scene for Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But this isn’t a ‘once upon a time’ story either. Matthew’s
purpose is to succinctly retell the whole history of the world, from the very
beginning of the world until Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So Matthew starts with Genesis – both literally and metaphorically.
You may have missed, but it’s there under our noses in 1:1, lying under the
words “An account of the genealogy”, is literally ‘the book of the genesis of
Jesus’. This is, a new Genesis, a new beginning. It’s the same phrase that’s repeated
throughout Genesis to single something new is happening.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">By echoing Genesis, Matthew raises our hopes that the God who made
this world is at work in Jesus. It’s like that moment in Narnia when you hear
word ‘Aslan is on the move’. This is a new beginning, and we should expect
nothing less than a new creation, as God acts through his Messiah to renew and
transform the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">...for insiders<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Which turns out to be really good news for those who are “in”;
those whose religious or moral scruples give them a sense that God is on their
side. This new beginning, this new Genesis, offers a new beginning to God’s
people Israel. After a millenia of being the apple of God’s eye, Israel had had
more than their fair share of glory. But there were also skeletons in the
closet. Despite the glory, it was a shady past.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And Matthew places Jesus right at the centre of Israel’s history,
this shady past. This is not just a resumption of the Old Testament story; it
is designed to show Jesus as the one expected throughout history: the Messiah. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Israel’s story had started so well. From the founding promise to
Abraham there is an ascending movement to David’s kingship. The names in this
section are the ones we are probably most familiar with: Abraham the man of
faith who trusted God to provide him with an heir; Isaac who at a young age
almost had his throat slit because of his father’s faith; Jacob who lied and
cheated his way into blessing, and was later cheated into marrying the wrong
woman; Boaz who came to the rescue of Ruth; and King David, God’s chosen
Messiah who battled Israel’s enemies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">By the time we reach King David these promises seem fulfilled: the
nation is numerous and secure in the Promised Land. But tragically, Israel’s
history declines into exile. It seems almost inevitable from v6 when we’re
reminded of David’s adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of her husband
Uriah. Matthew can’t even bring himself to name her, describing Bathsheba as
simply Uriah’s wife. God’s promise to Abraham was to bring blessing to all
families on earth; here we find God’s king tearing a family apart.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And from there Israel’s trajectory is continually downward spiral
of sin and decline. It’s a pretty shady history. Some of the names here are
still familiar: David, Solomon, Hezekiah, Josiah; some of the names are more
infamous than famous: Rehoboam, who lost David & Solomon’s kingdom through
his arrogance and greed, Manasseh and Amos, two kings who enjoyed sacrificing
children to pagan gods. The achievements of the previous generations appear
lost, as Israel’s glory is carried off into captivity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The third stanza presents Israel’s history as sliding into
obscurity. The names of the third section are entirely unfamiliar. Who is Azor?
Who is Zadok? Who is Eleazar? We know almost nothing about most of these men. None
of these men ruled as kings. None of these men reigned in peace. This period
smells of failure. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">For many Jews during the time of Jesus, things still smelt like
that. We sing about this every year in some of the Advent carols: “O come o
come Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel, That mourns in lonely exile here,
until the Son of God appear.” Israel was still in exile. According to verse 17
that’s where Jesus arrives: He comes at the depths of Israel’s shame and
disgrace, to rescue Israel from their sin. Born into this family of adulterers
and liars and murderers, he will save his people from their sins. He makes
Israel’s exile his own, taking the shame of exile and sin, the legacy of
injustice, idolatry, and violence; he takes it all to the cross. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This birth, Matthew says, is the birth Israel has been waiting
for. In the face of Israel’s abject failures, religious hypocrisy, and moral
self-righteousness, we see God’s relentless love shine through. Through
Israel’s shady past we can trace God’s grace, time and time again, until the
advent of his messiah. Which is good news
if you’re living that kind of upright life. You might have a sponsor kid, or
use green sourced electricity, volunteer for the P&C be vegetarian, or
support the refugees on Manus Island. They’re all good causes – but we have
skeletons in our own closet. You might be genteel and polite. You might vote
for the right party. You might go to church every Sunday, or usually never be
seen dead in a place like this. Whoever you are, we each have a shady past –
not just from our ancestors, but in our lives. Your ethics, your morality, your
integrity and sincerity, won’t be enough to deal with whatever it is for you.
They might paper over it for a while. But eventually cracks will appear; and
whatever it is that haunts you about your life will find a way back. The good
news according to Matthew 1 is that whatever it is that weighs you down, God
has more than enough love and forgiveness to deal with it – for good – in
Jesus. That’s grace. That’s grace that you can trace over you own life, over
all the stuff ups, all the failures, all your fears. Let Jesus trace God’s
grace over your life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">...for outsiders<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It turns out that this is a new beginning for those on the
outside. If you feel alone, like you don’t belong, like you could never fit in,
Jesus offers you a new beginning too.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">You may have heard of the old prayer Jewish men once prayed
thanking God that they were neither a gentile – that is a foreigner – nor a
woman. Yet Matthew’s genealogy includes four gentile women: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth,
and Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah. This is highly unusual, firstly because
genealogies generally didn’t include women, and secondly there were other women
not included, like Abraham’s wife Sarah. The inclusion of these four women
breaks the pattern of father and son, calling our attention to them. Why does
Matthew include <i>these</i> women in Jesus’
family tree?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The twice-widowed Tamar, who
tricked her father-in-law into sleeping wih her by dressing as a prostitute.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Canaanite Rahab, an actual
prostitute.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">King David’s great-grandmother Ruth,
from Israel’s great enemy Moab. We’ve
seen quite a few of our federal politicians resign because they held foreign
citizenship. In ancient Israel you couldn’t hold Israelite citizenship if you
were within 10 generations of a Moabite ancestor. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And the adulterous wife of Uriah,
who slept with David.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Why does Matthew include <i>these</i>
women in Jesus’ family tree? It could be that by including these four
unexpected women, Matthew is preparing us for v16...God worked in bizarre ways
through each of these women, and will do so again through Joseph’s fiancée, the
Virgin Mary. But it seems likely that these women hint at something else.
Despite their irregularities, these women were examples of tenacious
faithfulness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">the twice-widowed Tamar, who
continued the family line <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Rahab, who aided the Israelites in
their entry into the Promised Land<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ruth, who served her mother-in-law
and took shelter under the God of Israel. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">·<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife, and
Solomon’s mother who brought her son to the throne.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Some of them
are victims of the schemes and machinations of the men around them. They’d have
their own #metoo stories to tell.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Yet each of these foreign women are part of the story of the
Jewish messiah: the story of Israel is open to the inclusion of Gentiles. These
women demonstrate that God has woven ethnic outsiders into the story from start
to finish. The signpost the ending of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus would be preached
to all nations. What they show us is that God’s kingdom, God’s family, is not
just for people of the right race or gender. His love is not limited by blood
or DNA. God’s love is for all people, Jew and non-Jew, men and women, the
lonely and the outcast, the unlovely and the excluded. God’s grace is for the outsider. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">For many of
us sitting here today, their story is our story. We were strangers to Israel’s
promises, but we sit here today by God’s grace as members of Abraham’s family. We
read Israel’s scriptures, and worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. By
the same grace that God showed Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba, we enjoy the
blessing promised through Abraham to all families of the world, now realised in
God’s Messiah. These women embody the truth that David's son, the Messiah, is
not only the ruler of Israel but also the promised descendent of Abraham in
whom all the nations will be blessed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<a href="file:///D:/Dropbox/Matt's%20Talks/matthew%201.1-17%20EPS%202017.docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Male and female, king and prostitute, Jew and Gentile, are all equally
part of Jesus’s family. This list of unpronounceable names drips with God’s
mercy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Let’s tie the threads together...after Israel’s failures and
disappointments, Matthew tells us that God has unfinished business. Which is
such good news for us at the end of a long and busy year – our failures, our
fears, aren’t the final word. Matthew presents us with the story of <b>God’s steadfast love</b>. That story comes
together in Jesus. He offers rest to those who are languishing and weary by
saving people from their sins. He brings the lonely exiles home, and welcomes
the strangers to these promises. He is the Messiah, who offers a new beginning,
a new creation, a new Genesis, to the world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There’s a second way that Matthew highlights Genesis for us – to
get this you need to be good with maths; or at the very least get the
significance of the number 7 in the old testament. In the Old Testament the
number 7 symbolises completion. It points to rest. God rested on the seventh
day. That rest was echoed in the Law God gave Israel, so that every seven
years, the land in Israel was supposed to lie fallow, to replenish its
nutrients. And after 49 years – seven sevens, Israel celebrated a Jubilee Year,
in which all debts were forgiven in and all slaves were freed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In Matthew 1 we’re presented with a list of names that’s divided
into 3 sets of 14. 3 sets of 14 easily becomes six sets of 7, with Jesus beginning
the seventh, final stanza. Jesus is the seventh seven. He is the year of
jubilee, bringing rest for the weary, forgiveness of every debt, and freedom
for those in chains.</span></div>
<div class="Body1" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<i style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">He is ultimate rest.</i></div>
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</div>
<ul>
<li><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">You don’t have to earn God’s love: it’s given to you as a gift
purchased by him.</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">You don’t have to prove yourself, you’re free from the <i>constant striving</i>.: in Christ you have
the absolute approval of the only one whose opinion really matters.</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">You don’t have to bear the weight of the world on your shoulders.
The pressures from family, from work, from raising kids, getting that exam
mark, providing the best Christmas lunch, finding that perfect Christmas
present. He is your protector and provider. If God loved and pursued you like
this when you were his enemy; don’t you think he’ll take care of you now that
he is your friend?</span></li>
<li><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">You don’t have to grasp so tightly all the goodness of the world
because every promise of God is yes to you in Christ Jesus, and he has an
eternal inheritance laid up for you that moths cannot destroy and thieves
cannot break in and steal.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;">He brings
real rest to all families. It’s why on Christmas Day you’ll find people from
every language and nation celebrating Jesus’ birth. The church is most diverse
and inclusive organism that has ever existed in history – because all people are
invited to find rest in him.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">At the centre of history then, is this man; this man. The story of
God’s faithfulness and steadfast love finds its climax and joy and completion
in him. Not the Roman Emperor of Jesus day; not the last US election, or the
next one; not the GFC, or how much grant money you got this year...the defining
the moment in history is a person, and his name is Jesus the Christ. He came to
bring you rest for your soul by becoming a lonely, languishing, exile. [He’s even
more fulfilling than an Eels premiership]. God’s own Son left his father’s side
and became an outside so that you could take your place in his family. He was
left alone and forsaken on the cross, taking all our shady history with him, and
leaving it to die there with him.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">This is the story of grace that
Advent teaches us to learn, and taste, and long for in our lives now. Advent directs
our gaze back to Israel’s longing for a Messiah, and forward to the world Christmas
promises. Advent teaches us not be set our hopes on the ipod or the bike under the
Christmas tree, but to yearn for that world of peace and justice. And if you listen
closely, you’ll hear that something new is happening. It might only be a whisper,
but can you hear it? </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">‘<i>God is coming. God is coming</i>’</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It’s been a long year, and the end
of the year brings with it enough stresses of its own. Jesus offers you
something new. Something that will satisfy your heart and exceed your wildest
dreams. Jesus says, come unto me, all you who labour and are heavy laden and I
will give you REST.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div>
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<br />
<div id="ftn1">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///D:/Dropbox/Matt's%20Talks/matthew%201.1-17%20EPS%202017.docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-US"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-US"> </span>From Tim Keller: “Women
were seldom put in ancient genealogies at all, let alone women who reminded
readers of the sordid sins and corruption of ancestors such as Judah and David.
All of these figures would have been disowned or expunged from a normal
genealogy, but here they are not.”<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">"...hebel of hebels; everything is hebel..."</div>Matthew Moffitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546422699620482793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35482291.post-23585860261564487162017-12-12T23:53:00.000+11:002018-02-11T12:42:59.555+11:00Book Review: Workship<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0VUw2hwFm9bJwamkI22SnMr8_ypjgn6IygKmHCpIsSLOxs0c2FoeAWwMiBM42e4w1xDDhGeDsO7YebHbzM6l30S82pyjh5AtMGBw3xWX37hzgaL4Q__4bqpV6zFLcnYAdSMLNPw/s1600/27938877_824576651737_417279701_n.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="260" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0VUw2hwFm9bJwamkI22SnMr8_ypjgn6IygKmHCpIsSLOxs0c2FoeAWwMiBM42e4w1xDDhGeDsO7YebHbzM6l30S82pyjh5AtMGBw3xWX37hzgaL4Q__4bqpV6zFLcnYAdSMLNPw/s320/27938877_824576651737_417279701_n.png" width="208" /></a></div>
<b>Kara Martin<br /><i>Workship: How to Use Your Work to Worship God</i><br />Graceworks: Singapore, 2017</b></div>
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<b><i><br /></i></b></div>
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According to one estimation, if you live the average
Australian life, you’re likely to spend 94,000 hours in your workplace. That’s
almost 4000 days, or close to 11 years of uninterrupted time spent in one
place. Time spent relating to many different people. Time spent to support ourselves
and others. A whole lot of time. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s little wonder then that we’re witnessing a renaissance
of Christian books, conferences, and courses on work. What are we to make of
all that time spent at work? And perhaps more importantly, what does God make
of it all?<o:p></o:p></div>
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It’s into this space that Kara Martin offers <i>Workship:
How To Use Your Work To Worship God</i>. Although work can be hard, tedious,
and broken, Martin offers a simple affirmation that God is interested in your
everyday work. It’s that affirmation which explains the portmanteau title, <i>Workship:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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The Hebrew root for work (avad) is also the root for
service, particularly serving God in worship. I believe the two activities are
meant to be integrated. Our work should be done in a way that honours God, which
serves God and others, that worships God. By combining the two English words:
work and worship, I hope to challenge people to integrate their faith and work.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Workship</i> goes about this
in three sections. Firstly, in less than 50 pages, it paints a picture of work
in the full sweep of redemptive history. Secondly, Martin provides six
spiritual disciplines for the integration of faith and work in the workplace;
disciplines like prayer, evangelism, and social justice. And thirdly, <i>Workship
</i>draws on a wealth of experience to offer practical insights on how to navigate
work, such as how to manage relationships, and how to think about yourself and
your identity at work.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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To be honest, I’m not sure that <i>Workship</i> is written for someone like me,
someone prone to biblical and theological pedantry. There are a few times were Martin
assumes a position rather than arguing for it, such as the extent of continuity
of our work between this creation and the next (she’s quite positive if you’re
wondering). So I found myself at points reading Martin’s prose with a wry smile
imagining the conversations <i>Workship</i> might
spark among st the theological guild. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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But that’s because <i>Workship</i> is written for those in the
trenches. Whilst Martin does offer advice to churches on how they equip their
saints to live out their faith at work, this is a book written for those
engaged in paid work, voluntary work, housework, schoolwork, caring for
children or parents, or study. Devoid of technical theological jargon, Martin
is warm and compassionate in dealing with real workers and real people. Martin
often draws upon her own, hard-earned experience and wisdom of the realities of
work. In doing so, she is concise and crisp, judiciously drawing upon the other
recent Christian reflections on work (though this runs close at times to feeling
like a highlight package of the work of others on faith and work). <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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One particular highlight of <i>Workship</i> is the way Martin strives to
include prayer in the book. Each chapter concludes with a prayer written to
surmise the chapter. But more than that, Martin offers significant insights on
how to integrate spiritual disciplines with your work place. And this points us
to another strength of the book. Whereas some books on work would rest content
with more or less just giving a biblical account of work, <i>Workship </i>points the way forward into how to work today by providing
the habits and disciplines that will shape the Christian worker such as prayer,
justice, and evangelism. <o:p></o:p></div>
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If you’re someone who wants to
live out Colossians 3.17 in your work (‘whatever you do, whether in word or
deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father
through him’), if you want to grow in your worship of God in and through the
successes and drudgery of work, Martin’s <i>Workship
</i>may well be the book you need.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">"...hebel of hebels; everything is hebel..."</div>Matthew Moffitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00546422699620482793noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35482291.post-89839204401963952882017-11-01T17:37:00.000+11:002017-11-01T18:58:12.770+11:00The Protestant Disposition <div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwgIJ5ifsHxWigvC3p2D1uquJik6gM14MP_CFuZpSofxiSpX4CQlnkOf3dr93mpw74j4PVKnRfweKZ0n7mJLuRysQzmigNUG3RLXxF4HzD_ZcDeBl4Mwgs7i6V0z53_Mm1ieGL2Q/s1600/File+1-11-17%252C+6+34+51+pm.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwgIJ5ifsHxWigvC3p2D1uquJik6gM14MP_CFuZpSofxiSpX4CQlnkOf3dr93mpw74j4PVKnRfweKZ0n7mJLuRysQzmigNUG3RLXxF4HzD_ZcDeBl4Mwgs7i6V0z53_Mm1ieGL2Q/s320/File+1-11-17%252C+6+34+51+pm.jpeg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I don't think I've ever felt more Protestant than when I was in Rome a few years ago. It wasn't the aesthetics of the Vatican, or anything like that. It was the knowledge that the buildings we were standing in had been paid for by the abuse of Christians in Germany and throughout Europe centuries earlier. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVy-1U97Br5kNHDQLKSodJvBn9WH3f9N-R9ShZrKXo8ZGPL2E8iyDbodQAa2hOMbo56h9UvvSSsz4ju9_7ESGdrBJv3aIhEY84uxVxKC2WwPQFWNxVbjM9zWAS3krInz1JD7De1Q/s1600/File+1-11-17%252C+6+35+34+pm.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVy-1U97Br5kNHDQLKSodJvBn9WH3f9N-R9ShZrKXo8ZGPL2E8iyDbodQAa2hOMbo56h9UvvSSsz4ju9_7ESGdrBJv3aIhEY84uxVxKC2WwPQFWNxVbjM9zWAS3krInz1JD7De1Q/s320/File+1-11-17%252C+6+35+34+pm.jpeg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It was confronting to see what the indulgences opposed by Martin Luther had actually paid for. It was confronting having come from Oxford (final photo) and seen the spots where Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer had died in the backlash against the Reformation. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Being Protestant means many things (i.e. the five solas), but I think it involves a certain disposition: holding together how precious Christian unity truly is, and how nefarious church corruption truly is. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCSLjSGboL6Hv-OVdbxKzkRQkxFi1d-3oicVHhKiZA4J-zPZFEEz7qhrycCO7RNk_SampCtJdJaUWNHFHd3hkHfAOXgSy6u-zpwMrghq2_lk7jhFrkhbtbnMkh6mLI9pddZu0LBg/s1600/File+1-11-17%252C+6+35+50+pm.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCSLjSGboL6Hv-OVdbxKzkRQkxFi1d-3oicVHhKiZA4J-zPZFEEz7qhrycCO7RNk_SampCtJdJaUWNHFHd3hkHfAOXgSy6u-zpwMrghq2_lk7jhFrkhbtbnMkh6mLI9pddZu0LBg/s320/File+1-11-17%252C+6+35+50+pm.jpeg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It involves the recognition that gospel faithfulness can be compromised by religious hypocrisy. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">It's the abhorrence of the scriptures being held captive, and the delight in seeing them set free to in the lives of ordinary women and men. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">To be Protestant means exposing sin to the light – beginning with our own – so that it can't fester in the darkness. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">#AllSaints</span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">"...hebel of hebels; everything is hebel..."</div>Matthew Moffitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03719091623501398778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35482291.post-15269312277521874502017-05-28T11:44:00.001+10:002017-08-21T11:08:13.919+10:00On Christian Identity<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgClpHzDWTjmlnKX4HDGVUntE_mvz7uD_T1twOHo-v8Zx47LJoavHg_RxBfJL83YOBRbeTrYKi5KJMmB7hBeui89Mwq1nawV6-OUnO7BuQF7zD3DnWWXtQL8aL24WjLTvyhdrOeOA/s1600/11880637_10153418389431355_3837812805216656049_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="960" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgClpHzDWTjmlnKX4HDGVUntE_mvz7uD_T1twOHo-v8Zx47LJoavHg_RxBfJL83YOBRbeTrYKi5KJMmB7hBeui89Mwq1nawV6-OUnO7BuQF7zD3DnWWXtQL8aL24WjLTvyhdrOeOA/s320/11880637_10153418389431355_3837812805216656049_n.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 17px;">Those familiar with Christian theology or early church history will have encountered doceticsm. The docetics believed that Jesus only seemed to be human (from the Greek δοκεϊν - to appear). The physical body and bones of Jesus life were a mere phantasm, an illusion; in fact Jesus was existed in another, higher, plane of existence.</span><br />
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Docetism has been rightly condemned as heresy by the church. But I believe that Christians, and especially Christian pastors, have fallen prey to a newer variation of the docetic false teaching in their day to day pastoral care.</div>
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One of the buzzwords of early third millennium pastoria is 'identity'. We talk about identity a lot. And that is probably appropriate for our day and age. Never before has a generation been so conscious of its image. Social media, videos, and google searches ensured that. <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The politicising of identity, the pace and ease with which communication travels, and proliferation of choices have all made the changing of identity seem plausible. </span>And never before has it been so possible to modify your identity: your job, your preferences, your gender, your body, your location - it's all up for grabs. Which one is the true me? Whilst there are many other factors which have contributed to this, it does expose something about modern society. That identity is so contested, variegated, and fluid suggests there is confusion about what it means to be human in the world. And whilst we may find broad consensus about what entails human flourishing and the good life – justice and equality, freedom and the minimisation of harm – the underlying foundations for such assumptions are themselves contested. </div>
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In response to this confusion of identity, Christians will now commonly counsel people to find their true identity in Jesus Christ. Your work, your family, your sexual preferences, your education, your ethnicity, your quest for fame and success – in none of these does your identity lie. Instead, your identity is found in Christ; he alone determines who you are. And so identity has become the primary concept of describing the Christian life.</div>
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There are, however, a few problems with this approach. To start with, sociologically identity is the thing that distinguishes one person from another. Yet by reducing "identity in Christ" to a cliche of negative theology, we end up stripping away all those things which make us different to each other. In addition, the via <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">identitas conflates several concepts with identity such as worth and self. (These aspects of our personhood are arguably given to us from outside ourselves. Our self is given to us in the gospel; it's a gift according to Ephesians 2, rather than a construction. Meanwhile our worth is found not in ourselves, but comes from outside ourselves in our justification). Furthermore, identity language is often used as a short-hand for union with Christ. Yet as a short-hand it significantly short-changes the doctrine of participation in Christ. This doctrine explains the glorious truth of how we partake in Christ; that we partake in his trajectory. To reduce union to the cliche that our identity is conformed to him does not do the doctrine justice.</span></div>
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This becomes particularly apparent when 'identity in Christ' is used – explicitly or implicitly – to negate the aspects of our lives. And herein lies the connection with docetism. For the contemporary use of 'identity in Christ' suggests that those areas outside of our identity in Christ, our family or our work for instance, are not really part of our identity. They only seem to be part of who we are. As a consequence of this, we are homiletically left without anything to say about family, work, and so on. The irony is that through attempting to address the confusion of personhood, we mute ourselves at the very moment when we need to make sense of who we are in light of Jesus. The truth is that rather than supplanting who we are, our spheres of relationships, our gifts, abilities, and so on, Jesus reframes them around himself. </div>
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Take family for instance. There are a few times where Jesus relativises family: "Who are my brothers and sisters?" he asks in Matthew 12; those who do my fathers will. In a society where family was everything, Jesus switches the focus of familial allegiance to himself. But instead of abolishing or erasing our family responsibilities all together, Jesus sends us back to love and serve our families with renewed intent and purpose. 1 Timothy 5:8 is a clear cut example of where Jesus' followers are sent back to serve their biological family. In reframing familiar allegiance and priorities, our families remain a necessary part of who we are; they continue to form our identity.</div>
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Perhaps not as famous for his hymn writing as other reformers, John Calvin penned a beautiful reflection on the Christian life:</div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><i>Thou art the life by which alone we live<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />And all our substance and our strength receive;<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Sustain us by Thy faith and by Thy pow’r,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />And give us strength in ev’ry trying hour.</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Jesus does not nullify the various parts of our lives-instead he brings them to completion. In an age driven by a desire to be our 'authentic selves' but are unsure about what (or who) that is, Christian pastors need to find a way to affirm that Jesus is the life by which alone we live so that our being in Christ touches every aspect of our lives. </span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">"...hebel of hebels; everything is hebel..."</div>Matthew Moffitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03719091623501398778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35482291.post-26851310428836935722017-04-04T19:15:00.002+10:002017-04-05T07:13:13.156+10:00If I Was Running A Conference On The Reformation...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A thought experiment. In Christian circles, 2017 will be remembered as the year of The Reformation. October 31 marks the quincentenary of Martin Luther's 95 thesis' being nailed to the chapel door in Wittenberg. In celebration, this year will see a sequence of rallies, conferences, books, papers, sermons, etc.<br />
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One of the interesting questions that will be posed this year now doubt will be 'how do we apply the reformation truths/achievement to today?' What is 'the reformation we need to have'? <br />
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So here is a little thought experiment we might try on. If you were running a conference on that question, how would you go about it? You might use the five solas as a way of examining the nature of the reformation. Or you might use Barth's phrase <i>Ecclesia semper reformanda est</i> to consider the need for reform in today's church. One might even use the <i>ordo salutis</i>.<br />
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The difficulty is that what was kindled in 1517 (or 1510 if you date the reformation from the commencement of Luther's Psalm lectures) spanned several decades (until at least 1689 when the spirit of reform settled into apathy and latitudinarianism, only to be rekindled in the 1730's), across nations, languages, and social strata. At various stages it sought modify and confirm to Biblical truth the nation, the church, and the personal life. It was a movement which spawned various branches, each of which were diverse and complex.<br />
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However, despite the variegated nature of the Reformation, what Luther, Zwingli, Bullinger, Bucer, Cranmer, and others achieved was a return to a biblical economy of grace. Following Augustine, the medieval and early modern church had developed a concept of grace, (<i>i.e. </i>prevenient grace, cooperating grace, sufficient grace, and efficient grace) which were obtained through various ecclesiastical structures and systems, and mediated through the priestly caste.<br />
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The reformers rediscovered the radical, irresistible nature of saving grace. They reveled in it. It shaped their ministry. It shaped their lives. It shaped the way the sought to return to <i>evangel</i>. They rediscovered that God's move towards us in Christ is an act of sheer, unmerited, unadulterated, grace. A gift, by which the trajectory of their lives was irrevocably tied to Christ's. And it thrilled their hearts.<br />
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If it was up to me, the concept of grace would be the controlling concept for such a conference. It also has the advantage of placing the Reformation in context and continuity with Augustine – the Doctor of Grace – on the one hand, and who we know of in the English speaking world as the evangelicals on the other (John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, and Jonathan Edwards).<br />
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So here is what I would include in such a conference:<br />
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i. The Reformation and the Economy of Grace<br />
ii. The Allurement of Grace<br />
iii. The Exposition of Grace<br />
iv. The Life of Grace<br />
v. The Unity of Grace<br />
vi. Grace Works<br />
vii. Common Grace and the Common Good<br />
viii. Dis-Grace in the Reformation<br />
ix. Witnessing to the Word of His Grace<br />
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Let's take a brief moment to examine what each of these may consider:<br />
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<b>The Reformation and The Economy of Grace</b><br />
There are lots of competing theological ideas which might compete for the central focus of reformed thought: justification by faith, the cross, God's sovereignty and election, the sufficient of scripture. And fair enough; at different points each of these where flash points of contention during the reformation. But what ties each of these together is the reformed understanding of grace. It was the rediscovery that not only could a righteous God justify sinners, but that in Christ he would justify the ungodly which mobilized the reformers. It was the rediscovery that God condescend himself to speak (with perspicacity) to people like you and me. It was the rediscovery that God had condescend himself to take on flesh and walk among us, and that the sacraments where a means of remembering and participating in that act of grace. And it brought down the whole stinking mess of indulgences and purgatory, sacerdotal mediation and magisterial authority. This session would be placing the Reformation in this historical, philosophical, and theological context, laying the groundwork for the rest of the conference.<br />
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<b>The Allurement of Grace</b><br />
According to Ashley Null, this was central image for Thomas Cranmer and other Reformers. God makes the dead come alive by captivating their hearts, and enthralling their imagination. So this really about the significance of the heart in Protestant thinking and the dynamics of grace renewal.<br />
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<b>The Exposition of Grace</b><br />
Whilst preaching had been a feature of the medieval Christian world, particularly through the influence of the friars, the Reformation inspired the regular teaching of the whole counsel of God through the literal sense of Scripture. This did not dull the Reformers to the allegorical or tropological senses. But it did highlight the significance of regular exposition of God's word for spiritual health and growth. In the Anglican context, whilst the focus of the service lay by and large in the public reading of Scripture, Cranmer determined that there was always to be an exposition whenever the Lord's Supper was celebrated, and prepared homilies accordingly for priests who required such assistance. Meanwhile Calvin and Luther were appreciated for their sermons, commentaries, and lectures on Scripture as much as they were their doctrinal work. This session would consider the significance of the reformed commitment to preaching for today's church practices.<br />
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<b>The Life of Grace</b><br />
The Reformers offered a vision of life lived under grace. From Tyndale's hope for the ploughboy to read and understand scripture, Calvin's doctrines of union with Christ and the work of the Spirit in shaping the moral imagination of the believer, Luther's depiction and embodiment of marriage, to the rending of the sacred-secular divide, the Reformers depicted the ordinary life of the believer as an avenue to honour God. Christ sanctified the ordinary. This session would need to examine the place of the sacraments as means of grace in the life of the believer, given how significant they were for the Reformers, and how fallen by the way side they have become in some churches today.<br />
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<b>The Unity of Grace</b><br />
Breaking with Rome as no easy task; the Reformers cared deeply about church unity and catholicity, and established international networks of Christian partnerships. Indeed the stressed that they, and not Rome, where fulfilling the vision of catholicity even when they allowed for diversity of practice. The Reformers cared about church unity, undoubtedly more so than we do that. What might they teach an age marked by denominations, tribalism, and insipid ecumenism?<br />
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<b>Grace Works</b><br />
An expansion of the 'Life of Grace' session, the Reformers cared deeply about the integration of faith and work. From the prince to the milkmaid, the soldier to the cobbler, they understood that our work matters. Thomas Cranmer in particular, following the advice of St Basil the Great, developed the Book of Common Prayer as a means to encourage the 'commons' in the work of their hands. Where might this commitment lead us today?<br />
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<b>Common Grace and the Common Good</b><br />
So if the most significant reflection ever given to the place of non-Christian wisdom is to be found in the opening chapters of Calvin's Institutes. In preaching saving grace, the Reformers also believed in God's common grace shown to all people. This in turn spurned them on to the love and welfare of society in general. Whilst our situations are different, this session will consider the implications of those convictions for our context today.<br />
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<b>Dis-Grace in the Reformation</b><br />
Among the many achievements of the reformation were moments of petty squabbling, ugly division, and brutal coercion. As the heirs of the Protestants, what might we lead from their mistakes?<br />
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<b>Witnessing to the Word of His Grace</b><br />
The Reformers were concerned that true religion would awaken the dullest hearts. They wrote Latin essays for the learned, tracts in the vulgar tongue for the gentry, and drama for the unlearned men and women of the land. Even Cranmer, preparing liturgy at a time when church attendance was mandatory, was actively aware of the need to reach the unchurched and the ungodly. The zeal of the Reformers inspired those who came after them in the Great Awakening of the 1730s. Where nigh that same concern and zeal take us today?<br />
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That is nine session. Are there things that you would skip? Or things that I've missed?<br />
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">"...hebel of hebels; everything is hebel..."</div>Matthew Moffitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03719091623501398778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35482291.post-9394878425825854672017-01-30T17:13:00.001+11:002017-01-30T18:34:29.027+11:00On Losing Part of Me<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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January is full of anniversaries for the Moffitt household. There's our wedding anniversary of course- nine years in 2017. This is quickly followed by the anniversary of our engagement – an anniversary that often passes with little to no notice. It was in January that I moved back to Sydney after a twenty year sojourn in Katoomba. And ten years ago today I managed to sever part of my body. It is a yearly observance which I share with Britain's last 'royal martyr' – thankfully for my sake it was only my left index finger and not my head that underwent cleaving from my body. Though to be true, it was only the tip of my finger that was detached. I didn't even lose any part of my bone structure (I did however briefly lose my fingernail).<br />
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On 30 January 2007 I managed to sunder part of my finger from the rest of me. A brief, freakish, unfortunate interaction with a folding bed resulted in several courses of antibiotics, finger exercises, physical therapy, and one finger that is slightly shorter than it should be. If you look carefully, the scaring is still visible. It is sometimes hard to point with that finger. Sometimes, inexplicably, it just feels weird. (Even now as I sit here typing I can't really use that finger to type because of the entanglement of nerve endings in my index finger).<br />
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It wasn't as though I had lost a leg or an arm. I hadn't lost the sight in my eyes or had my spleen removed. It was only the very tip of my finger - probably the best part of your body to lost if you had to lose one part. But losing the end of my finger provoked much melancholy for me. That something so small could be the source of so much pain was beyond belief. Without the medical marvel of antibiotics, I would have lost more of my finger. It took weeks of rehabilitation to be able to regain functionality in my finger. Frankly it was embarrassing to explain over and over again at wedding receptions and job interviews exactly how I had ended up with my arm in a sling and my finger all bandaged. But I also had a lot to be thankful for from that time: a new fiance whose care and attention epitomised her love; her family who took me in and cared for me in their own home; a soon to be father-in-law who drove me around Sydney to find a hospital that could save part of my finger; friends who would sit with me in hospital waiting rooms whilst I waited for my rehab sessions, or freely volunteered to clean up the leftover blood.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://absurdity-of-absurdities.blogspot.com.au/2007/01/i-cant-quite-put-my-finger-on-it-or-why.html">Most of all I came to appreciate anew the power and the hope of the resurrection</a>. That Jesus had been raised from the dead had often been taught to be as the cherry on top of Christ's atoning working; the denouement to crucifixion. It was treated as nothing more than God's grand apologetic sign 'He really did die for your sins'. In such a moment of agony and desolation, it was an incredible consolation to know that my sins had been cleansed and that one day I too would be raised with an incorruptible body, over which death would hold no dominion. I too would be raised like him.<br />
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The Christian gospel has always proclaimed the distinctly Christian hope of bodily resurrection. As one of our theologians has said: "The bodies of the saints, then, shall rise again free from blemish and deformity, just as they will be also free from corruption, encumbrance, or handicap. Their facility will be as complete as their felicity".<br />
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The resurrection is God's 'No!' to a world polluted by selfishness and pride, malice and murder, envy, slander, alternative truth, and falsehood. The resurrection is God's 'No!' to a world marred by cancer and tooth decay, marred by famine, greed, and sexual exploitation. It is God's 'No!' to a world shrouded by death; a world which would dare condemn God's own Son – the source of all life.<br />
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Whilst the resurrection condemns our own efforts to decide what is right and wrong, and to love everything except the person we should love the most, the resurrection is simultaneously God''s 'YES!' to his created order. It is his 'YES!' to the way things are meant to be. Creation matters. Our bodies matter. Matter matters. The risen Christ is God's affirmation that his world will not forever remain enthralled in the darkness of decay and oblivion. Magnificently, God doesn't consign creation to the scrap bin of history and start again. The new creation is <i>creatio ex vetere</i>, creation made new. It is a place liberated from sin, suffering, and all that makes life unlivable; or in the words of one of the Apostles, it is a world made fit for righteousness to inhabit.<br />
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The Christian confession is in the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. In former days we constructed our churches in a cruciform shape to remember the centrality of Jesus' death to our faith and worship. We would surround our churches with cemeteries - an ever present reminder that Jesus is Lord over the quick and the dead; that one day he was raise our bodies to be like his body.<br />
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I fear however that we have become far less diligent in remembering that we are made of the dust of the earth. As liberalism has gained ground politically, economically, ethically, we have become less confident to speak of the resurrection of the body and the renewal of creation. We speak instead in terms of identity and character - malleable categories we can confirm to our own will and desire. 'Our bodies, indeed this world will be abolished, but our identity will continue.' To suggest this is to drink from the same well which sprouted identity politics. Those who propose such views have wandered from exegesis and theological reasoning into the realm of conjecture and speculation. Can you really have virtue or identity or even a soul apart from the body? If the body is entirely new, is it really the same identity? What walked out of the tomb on the first Easter Day was not a litany of characteristics, nor an excarnated identity, but a body. It had been altered, yes. It had been changed. But it was the same body which had been carried into the tomb three days prior. The resurrected Jesus was the crucified Jesus.<br />
<br />
So let us not mock God with metaphor or analogy:<br />
Make no mistake: if he rose at all<br />
It was as His body;<br />
If the cell’s dissolution did not reverse, the molecule reknit,<br />
The amino acids rekindle,<br />
The Church will fall.<br />
<br />
So what of my finger? Ten years ago I lost not just a fraction of my body. I lost a part of me. Yet even as the flesh and tissue disappeared inside a bio-hazard bin, God's healing work in my body had begun. I lacked, and I have not lacked. And as I look for the resurrection of dead, I look forward to the day when not only my finger, but my whole body and the world it inhabits will be restored and renewed; when God makes all things new.<div class="blogger-post-footer">"...hebel of hebels; everything is hebel..."</div>Matthew Moffitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03719091623501398778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35482291.post-16138622071969787122016-12-07T14:52:00.000+11:002017-02-08T12:45:12.805+11:00Book Review: Revolutionary Work by William Taylor<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>William Taylor. <i>Revolutionary Work – What’s the Point of the 9 to 5?</i><br />Leyland: 10Publishing, 2016.</b></div>
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‘We do not need to be enslaved by our work or totally
depressed by it. As we put our work in its rightful, God-given place, we will
find real joy and lasting purpose as we work for God.’<a href="file:///C:/Users/Matthew/Desktop/rev%20work.docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 115%;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><br />
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So writes British clergyman William Taylor in his recent
book <i>Revolutionary Work – What’s the Point of the 9 to 5?</i> Developed from four sermons preached at St Helen’s
Bishopsgate, London in January 2016, Taylor promises that a biblical account of
work is liberating, exhilarating, and refreshingly realistic. At 119 pages, including
three appendices and a FAQ section, <i>Revolutionary Work</i> is a relatively
brisk overview of the Bible’s teaching regarding work. This may be the books
greatest strength and weakness; amidst the sudden growth in books produced on
faith and work, <i>Revolutionary Work </i>is accessible and quick to read.
Anyone who has the time and compulsion would able to read this book in an
afternoon (and also download the original talks). However, in not being an
exhaustive piece of writing, there are many theological and biblical concepts and
ideas which are neither explored nor considered, or either assumed or dismissed
out of hand. For instance, the lack of a definition of work is a striking omission
from the book. Whilst <i>Revolutionary Work </i>helpfully interrogates several
trends at play in work today, and offers sage advice for church ministers on
how to care for their parishioners who work far outside their parish bounds, the
problem with <i>Revolutionary Work</i> lies in what it doesn’t say. </div>
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<i>Overview</i></div>
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Taylor begins by asking ‘What is the Point of Work?’ Chapter
one offers three answers to this question. Firstly, as originally given in
creation, work was good and dignified, for God himself is a worker. There is
thus no place for a type of snobbery which regards some types of work as more
dignified than others. Secondly, this original goodness of work is matched by a
responsibility to work in the world in a manner which is accountable, caring
for what God has entrusted to us. This responsibility is both a vertical
responsibility between us and God, and a horizontal responsibility between us
and others. This latter point remains largely undeveloped in <i>Revolutionary
Work</i> beyond an encouragement towards generosity. Taylor also flags that
this responsibility has been fundamentally altered by sins entry into the
world. Thirdly, work is necessary to provide for ourselves and others – to ‘feed
our faces’. In making these three points, Taylor also pushes back:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>on the view that there is a
specific, personal, vocation for each person to find; and</li>
<li style="text-indent: 0px;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: -36pt;">on</span><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: -36pt;"> </span><span dir="LTR" style="text-indent: -36pt;"></span><span style="text-indent: -36pt;">the view that work exists
to help us find personal fulfillment in life. Such a view is, in the words of
New York Times columnist David Brooks, ‘completely garbage advice’.</span></li>
</ol>
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Chapter two sets the scene for why we will never fulfil our
potential in work by asking ‘What is the matter with work?’ Following Genesis 3–4,
although given to us a good, work is now grim, and will <i>always</i> be grim.
Work is ‘frustrating, painful, and ultimately futile’<a href="file:///C:/Users/Matthew/Desktop/rev%20work.docx#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 115%;">[2]</span></span></span></a>;
our place of work has been cursed by God, and the work of our hands will not
last. Alongside the goodness of work is much damage wrecked through our
cultural and technological advancements. Accordingly, Taylor rejects the
existence of a cultural mandate; sin has radically altered our place in the
world. Taylor points to God’s commissioning of Noah in Genesis 9 and the
conclusion reached by Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert to argue that the
commission of Genesis 1.27–30 is now beyond us, and humans exercise a frightful
dominion over the creatures of the world. Therefore, we must be prepared to
work, but approach work without any sentimental notion of finding satisfaction or
fulfilment in what we do.</div>
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Given that the picture painted by Taylor is quite grim, chapter
three asks ‘Is there any hope for work?’ Taylor’s answer is that whilst work
may look very much the same, the Christian will be governed by the gospel in
their work. The gospel offers us a new boss, a new goal, and a new reward. We ultimately
work for Jesus in our work, which enables us to work hard, and adorn the gospel
in the way that we work (being kind, considerate, etc.), because we are seeking
to serve Jesus. When we grasp this, Taylor argues that this will enable us to
fix our eyes on Jesus, even when we are manipulated or bullied in the
workplace, and therefore seek to please God in our work. </div>
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Taylor then asks ‘What now matters at work?’, and answers by
pointing to our identity and attitude we hold as we go about our work. Taylor
follows this up with a second question ‘What will last at work?’, and warns
against firstly throwing ourselves into careerism, and secondly investing too
much into the creation and the works of our hands in the hope that our work
will last into eternity. Taylor argues that a tangible and specific connection
between creation and new creation cannot be drawn; all that will last into the
new creation are redeemed people and their godly characters. This section contains
a brief interaction with Tim Keller’s use of Tolkien’s story <i>Leaf by Niggle </i>in
<i>Every Good Endeavour</i>, including the reproduction of email correspondence
with Keller on this issue. The reproduced section of Keller’s answer indicates
that Keller does not draw the specific and tangible connection between creation
and new creation that Taylor warns against. Taylor concludes this section with
some brief reference to passages such as Revelation 21, 2 Peter 3, and Matthew
24 to warn against investing in work which is ultimately futile and frustrated.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Matthew/Desktop/rev%20work.docx#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 115%;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a></div>
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The fourth and final chapter looks at John 4 to ask ‘What is
the work of God’. In the original sermons from January 2016, Taylor considered
this section as a continuation to ‘What now matters at work?’ question, a 3.b
if you will. Taylor’s intention is ‘I do not want any of us to spend our whole lives
labouring at something that ultimately is pure vanity.’<a href="file:///C:/Users/Matthew/Desktop/rev%20work.docx#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
God’s work is to gather his harvest, and his will is that we are involved in
the harvesting, using Jesus’ words to advance the gospel and establish new
believers. For Taylor pursing this line of work is evidently possible in the
banks and law firms of the City of London. This is what we are to do in our
workplaces – to advance the work of God through reaping the harvest whilst also
living godly lives in our occupations. Yet for some of us, our specific gifting
in Bible teaching will lead us to leave aside the work of ‘selling sugared
water’, and engage in God’s life transforming work. God’s harvesting is the
priority of our lives in work, for this is the only type of work which will
last. </div>
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<i>Assessment</i></div>
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The reader of <i>Revolutionary Work</i> will find a call to
action for Christians to grow up in their work; to neither underestimate the
impact of sin on their work nor to lose sight of the opportunity work provides
to live for and speak of Christ. Taylor helpfully seeks to uphold the original
dignity and goodness of work, and resist the sentimentality ascribed to work’s
potential to fulfil our dreams and desires. There is no room for Christians to
hold bourgeois attitudes which elevate more creative or conceptual types of
work above manual labour or service orientated work. Nor can Christians fool
themselves with the message that their work will change the world. As James
Hunter Davidson has argued elsewhere, whilst possible, cultural change is
exceedingly hard, and exquisitely rare. The persuasiveness of that message is
evident to me every day on campus where I walk past large posters proclaiming
to university students their potential to shape and change the world. Taylor’s
call for an attitude to work orientated by the gospel provides a realism to our
work and the world which may well guard our hearts and minds from this
pervasive cultural stream.</div>
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Perhaps the thing I appreciated most about <i>Revolutionary
Work</i> was the third appendix: ‘How Can Churches be Revolutionary About Work?’I
have no doubt that this appendix flows from the distilled wisdom of Taylor's
many years at St Helen’s and the unique opportunity that church finds itself in
by being located in the centre of the City of London. This appendix is a must
read for people in ministry to consider how they can support and minister to
their congregants who work in a place different to where they live. The
possibility that churches would seek to encourage and effectively send people
to work and minister in their own workplaces might be truly revolutionary, and
potentially reap a great dividend for the cause of Christ.</div>
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There are a few small things throughout the book that grated
against me. In a few places in the book and the original talks Taylor compares
working in a law firm or a bank to slavery. Undoubtedly working in a City of
London bank or law firm is rigorous and entails great expectations. However,
such comments seem to be unduly naive; not only are there an increasing number
of people enthralled around the world, but making such statement is either
exceedingly foolish or grossly unaware of history. The prosperity of the London’s
financial centre can be traced to Britain’s colonialism and involvement in the
slave trade. </div>
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In addition, <i>Revolutionary Work</i> can’t help but come
across as being written for urban professionals. Taylor admirably tries to
resist this at several points, not least of all through his rejection of
vocational snobbery. But the focus is largely on paid work, and a definition of
work within the book would have increased its usefulness for people whose work
is unpaid.</div>
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However, <i>Revolutionary Work</i> is far too brief a
treatment of work, which lacks theological rigour. Because of these weaknesses,
<i>Revolutionary Work</i> is regrettably a flawed book. This comes through
typically not so much in what it says, but in what it fails to say. Often this
comes from a surprising lack of theological reflection, coupled with an
exegesis of passages that is sometimes sloppy, and other times inattention to
where they fit into overall scheme of Scripture. The brief mention of 2 Peter
3.10 in chapter 3 is a case in point of the former, where Taylor follows the relatively
novel but ultimately exegetically unsatisfactory interpretation that Peter has
in view the dissolution of the cosmos. Taylor’s handling of the cultural
mandate in Genesis 1 and 9 is a case in point of the latter. Yes, the Noahic
mandate appears to be different to the Adamic mandate. Yes, for all of our
cultural and technological sophistication, humanity has a great propensity to
find more sophisticated ways to harm and kill each other. But just as Taylor
complains that we need to read beyond Genesis 1–2 to understand work, so do we
need to read beyond Genesis 9 to understand the place of the cultural mandate
in Scripture. Whereas <i>Revolutionary Work</i> argues that the cultural
mandate was so fundamentally altered by sin to essentially no longer exist, one
cannot help but be struck by the echoes of Genesis 1.28 in God’s commission to
Israel, such as in Numbers 32.22 and Joshua 18.1. Likewise the technological
development pioneered by the line of Cain is taken up by God in the
Spirit-endowed craftsmanship of the Tabernacle by Bezalel in Exodus 31–38. </div>
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Ultimately this is an under-developed conception of the
nature of redemption. Taylor is
undoubtedly right to highlight the ongoing affect of sin on our work and
agency. The mandate given to Adam is no longer achievable by him. However, the depiction
of redemption in the New and Old Testaments (<i>i.e.</i> Isaiah 65–66,
Colossians 1, etc.), and reflected upon by the Fathers and Reformers, considers
redemption to be not only the undoing of the curse, but the enabling of God’s creation projection to be put back on track and ultimately reach the
purpose for which it had been originally made. In Adam, this is no longer
possible. But now in Christ, and through the power of the Spirit, God will perfect his creation. Unsurprisingly, this was prefigured in the early depictions of Solomon’s
reign in 1 Kings 4, who appears as a second Adam enjoying the garden and naming
the animals. The cultural mandate will be achieved in and through great King
David’s greater Son. </div>
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Noticeable absent from <i>Revolutionary Work</i> is a
definition of work. Whilst such a definition is notoriously difficult, the
absence of such a definition skewers the trajectory of the book. This again
reflects a lack of theological development. Firstly, <i>Revolutionary Work</i>
exposes itself to the charge of reducing the doctrine of creation to merely
Genesis 1–2. However, marriage, society, and government are all parts of the
created order which gain further elucidation throughout the Scriptures. As to
does the doctrine of providence, God’s sustaining of the world, which is
rightly belongs to a consideration of creation. That God not only made but
continues to sustain his creation, and in fact holds it together in Christ, is
an indication that participating in the creation order is not antithetical to
God’s will. Moreover, it suggests that there is such a thing as common grace,
and that therefore there are good reasons to work in God’s world besides
evangelistic opportunities. The Christian who works for the government may do
so both for the opportunities it provides to reach out to people, but also with
an awareness of passages such as 1 Timothy 2 and Romans 13 that God uses
governments to order his world and provide for peaceful society’s to exist. In
fact, the functioning of good government which maintains justice seems, at
least in Paul’s mind, to facilitate the flourishing of Christian ministry and
mission.</div>
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Secondly, there is a coherence between creation and new
creation which <i>Revolutionary Work</i> pays scant attention to. Whereas
Taylor resists drawing a connection between this creation and the world to
come, classical theologians have held to a nexus between protology and
eschatology. Where this would have aided <i>Revolutionary Work</i> would have been
in the articulation not only of the generic usefulness of work such as ‘feeding
your face’, but the telic purposes of work. I take it (following Andrew Cameron) that there are three
purposes to work: to exercise dominion over the natural work, to contribute to
the flourishing and good ordering of society, and to participate in the ‘work
of God’. These three ends are present, sometimes in embryonic form, in the
creation account. Throughout Israel’s history, and within the New Testament,
the three purposes of work are evident and good. Reformed theology resisted a
sacred/secular divide of vocations by insisting that all people are called to participate
in all three ends of work. By holding the three ends together, the reformers
were able to resist a facile prioritization of work based upon what will last
or not. I take it that marriage, which is under the Genesis 3 curse much like work, and won’t
last beyond death, is still a good thing to engage in. I doubt that we would characterize
marriage (or, for that matter, child-rearing) in itself as futile and grim. </div>
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The inclusion of the teleology of work would have significantly
altered the tone of <i>Revolutionary Work</i>. Taylor argues in the opening
chapter that work, as <i>originally</i> given, was good and dignified, entailing
responsibilities towards our fellow image bearers. However, one is left with
the overwhelming sense that work is more futile than good, and will only ever
be grim. Our work in a world groaning for its redemption will always be
frustrated by the ravages of time, sin, and death. However, there are good
reasons to do work in and of itself, not least of all for the opportunities it
provides to love others. The teacher is able to invest in her work, seeking
professional development and a high level of care for her students because she
serves Jesus and out of a love for her students to grow in their knowledge of
the world. The sewage worker or garbage collector’s work is an act of love for
the society who is only able to flourish and stay healthy because of their
work. Work is a means for loving a lot of people in a few specific ways. Work
as an opportunity to love offers an approach to work which goes beyond ‘work is
grim, so just grin and bear it’. </div>
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Taylor’s discussion of the Christological impact on our work
in chapter 3 might therefore be considerably expanded. Beyond a brief
discussion at the beginning of the third chapter concerning the nature of the
gospel via Ephesians 1.9–10, <i>Revolutionary Work</i> largely assumes the
gospel. The inclusion of the gospel in <i>Revolutionary Work</i> would have
provided a context for the consideration of how Jesus changes our work. Whereas
in Isaiah 2 the work of our hands is directed towards idolatry, in 1
Thessalonians 4.9–11 the work of our hands are directed towards love of our
neighbour. Indeed, according to Ephesians 2 and Titus 3, we have been saved by
Jesus in order to do good work. Not only do we have a new master in our work,
and a new opportunity to display the virtues of the age to come, but a new
reason to work well in our work, contributing to a world which is lost and
without hope. This was Augustine of Hippo’s conclusion in <i>City of God</i>,
that the citizens of the heavenly city are able in Christ to appropriate and
superimpose a new meaning on their work, participating in God’s providential
sustaining of the world. Such participation is only ever partial – there is no
sense in which we send the rain and the sun on the world. But in God’s
kindness, participate we do, embodying in our speech, behaviour, and very lives
the virtues and characteristics of the life of the world to come when God makes
all things new. </div>
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Finally, <i>Revolutionary Work</i>’s refusal to endorse the ‘reach
your full potential in your work’ narrative is a much welcomed corrective to a
prevailing cultural norm. The responsibility of those who would enter into the realm
of faith and work is not only resist this narrative, but supply our churches
with an alternative narrative. The fact remains that the work place is a significant
area of people’s discipleship and formation. We need to expect and encourage
people that their work is a place for bearing fruit for Jesus. That will
absolutely include our gracious witness. But bearing fruit in the New Testament
is so much more for that, as the gospel of faith leads to love as we submit
every aspect of our lives under the all encompassing Lordship of Jesus Christ.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Matthew/Desktop/rev%20work.docx#_ftn5" title="">[5]</a></span></span><a href="file:///C:/Users/Matthew/Desktop/rev%20work.docx#_ftn5" title=""><!--[endif]--></a></span></div>
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I appreciate much of what Taylor has attempted to do in <i>Revolutionary
Work</i>. This is a book which argues that being a Christian makes a difference to how you work. But it doesn't quite manage to fully spell out what that means. It turns out that 119 pages (81 not counting the appendices, FAQ,
and references) is far too brief to fulfil the job required. Instead of revolutionary,
the result is the same old quietist approach to work which leaves the nine-to-five largely disengaged from the scope of the Christian life. </div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Matthew/Desktop/rev%20work.docx#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> p.39.</span></div>
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<div id="ftn3">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Matthew/Desktop/rev%20work.docx#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> This
section will pay careful for those interested in wider faith and work
conversations taking place in the evangelical world at the moment. Two words of
warning though from myself. Firstly, it would be a mistake to think that Keller
makes a point solely based upon Tolkien’s work. In Every Good Endeavour, as
Taylor acknowledges, Keller exegetes passages such as 1 Corinthians 15.58.
While this is not uncontroversial, Keller’s use of that passage is one
supported by the work of New Testament scholars such as Brian Rosner and Roy
Ciampa in their 1 Corinthians commentary. Secondly, Taylor makes reference to
Tolkien’s original intention to explain purgatory through <i>Leaf by Niggle</i>. This
may well be the case, but, that is contested somewhat in Tolkien scholarship. </span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn4">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Matthew/Desktop/rev%20work.docx#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
p.63.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn5">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Matthew/Desktop/rev%20work.docx#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
The inclusion of fruitfulness in the conversation opens up the consideration of
whether or not our work is actually ood. Taylor briefly acknowledges that not
all work is permissible on pp.52–53. The frustration of work means work can go bad. This extends to beyond particular
types of work such as being a pimp, but also how we do our work, such as the
farmer who over uses their water resources and thereby damages their neighbours
and the land; the university administrators who take advantage of international
students and extort money from them, the church minister who abuses their
position of power to intimidate and bully people. Adolf Eichmann was a diligent
worker in his office day after day, but through his diligence millions met
their deaths. We need to think about the essence of work to be able to assess
the goodness of work.</span></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">"...hebel of hebels; everything is hebel..."</div>Matthew Moffitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03719091623501398778noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35482291.post-37287089519994089852016-11-30T08:45:00.000+11:002016-11-30T08:45:07.501+11:00Psalms for Sojourners<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I've been reading the Psalms of Ascent of late. These are the collection of psalms that were likely sung by pilgrims in the latter half of the first millennium BC as they made there way up to the temple in Jerusalem for the great feasts such as Passover.<br />
<br />
That may seem a strange choice given that we are a few days into Advent, associated as it is with the two comings of Christ. But that is exactly the point; These are the psalms which inspire the thirst and hunger for 'Emmanuel to ransom captive Israel'. Psalms 120—134 capture the rootlessness, the alienated identity the Advent seasons reminds us of without apology. These are the poignant prayers of exile, the hymns of those who paradoxically find themselves at home and not at home in the world. These are the words of pilgrims, waiting for God to arrive so that they might sojourn no more.<br />
<br />
It seems plausible that this collection was pulled together sometime during the Second Temple period, giving voice to the anguish of exile that was experience long after Judah had 'returned' to their land. Some of these psalms (122, 124, 127, 131, 133) evidently originate from the monarchy, but have now been re-appropriated as prayers for Jerusalem and the restoration of David's throne. Others speaks of the pilgrim's perception of his/her situation: living in far-flung places, offering to their neighbours the peace commanded by Jeremiah but being met by continued hostility (120.5<i>ff.</i>), protected on his/her journey by the creator of the heavens and the earth who guards ones comings and goings (121.8),experiencing God's protection as though he were in Zion itself (125.1). Their oppression must be patiently borne (125.3), because the supposed restoration of 538 BC has proven to illusory and inconclusive (126). Indeed, this has been the pattern of Israel's history — oppression alleviated by God's protection (129.1—4; 124.7). For Israel, faithfulness will be expressed through hope that God would redeem the nation from the result of their sins.<br />
<br />
This is the paradigm for those who faithfully answer Jeremiah's call to seek the shalom of the city (or follow the Western tradition and Augustine's reading of Jeremiah 29.7) but find themselves living in two cities (or social spaces): Israel and Babylon; and living under two sets of rules: Babylon and YHWH's. This is the paradigm for those who struggled to comply with their captors request to sing, 'How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?' (137), yet still manage to draw breath to sing that God's 'steadfast love endures for ever' (136). These psalms know what it is to long for the day when righteousness makes its home on earth, for the world to be made new, but to experience tears and affliction, vanity and anxiety, sleepless nights and being the object of gossip, of unfulfilled and unrealized promises and dreams<br />
<br />
For those of us today who find ourselves holding a different but not dissimilar perspective to the remnant of Israel by virtue of the stretching of these last days between the now and the not yet, the Psalms of Ascent complete the picture of what it means to hope against hope. They pick up on the uncertainties of this age. They capture the reality of being rejected and yet still seeking the peace of that place. In Christ, the Psalms of Ascent become the songs of those who sojourn now as <a href="http://absurdity-of-absurdities.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/parish-matters.html">aliens and strangers</a>. They become the songs for those hungering and thirsting for the the righteous King who came at Christmas in humility but will come again in glory.<br />
<br />
These songs exile continue to be the songs for us exiles, because the Son of God made our exile his own. He journeyed into the far country, seeking the good of the city (122.9) but meeting those who hate peace (120.5—6). He made our exile his own, he entered into our mess, so that (to paraphrase Tolkien) whilst we still wander we would no longer be lost. These Psalms of Ascent fire the holy discontent of those who have tasted Christ's first advent and long for his second.<div class="blogger-post-footer">"...hebel of hebels; everything is hebel..."</div>Matthew Moffitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03719091623501398778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35482291.post-52836740289132348542016-11-19T09:02:00.000+11:002018-01-02T09:10:20.119+11:00Faith and Work in Basil the Great<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It is sometimes assumed that an interest in faith and work is a contemporary concern, driven in part by a prior over-emphasis on full-time ministry in contrast to 'secular' work. Whilst that might frame some of the current discussion around work and faith, such an assumption exhibits a lack of historical awareness regarding the development of Christianity.<br />
<br />
The Graeco-Roman cultural crib within which the early church developed had strong opinions concerning work - particularly work of the manual kind. For example, Aristotle argued that manual labourers were not deserving of citizenship, 'for no man can practice virtue who is living the life of a mechanic or labourer.' Within Xenophon's <i>Oeconomicus</i>, Socrates concurs with Critobolus that manual labour defiles the body, harms the soul, and because of a lack of leisure and the absence of a connection with the land, work rendered one a bad friend and poor defender of the city. Likewise for Plutarch, it is axiomatic that manual labour is incompatible with intellectual aspirations.<br />
<br />
Against this backdrop, early Christians developed a special place for manual labour, particularly within the Eastern monastic traditions shaped by Basil of Caesarea. Nowhere is this more evident than in Basil's <i>Hexameron</i>, nine sermons preached c. AD 370 on the first six days of creation. Far from the Hellenistic suspicion towards work, Basil is well aware that there were labourers within his congregation, and he devised an early form of morning and evening prayer to further their growth. (Basil's model, that what labourers needed spiritually was to hear God's Scripture as they headed out to work and returned from their labour, was to have a significant influence on Thomas Cranmer when he combined the monastic hours services into Morning and Evening Prayer for the common folk).<br />
<br />
As Basil exegetes Genesis 1, God is said to be an artisan, who in his wisdom has made a harmonious and beautiful world. He is described as a creator, a maker or poet, an artisan, and even the master craftsman. Meanwhile the Son is revealed to be synergos - co-creator. God is likened to a builder, a carpenter, a metalworker, a weaver, a vine-dresser, and a potter, and creation is said to be his workshop.<br />
<br />
According to Basil, the creation can fill those who recognize it <i>as creation</i> with wonder and love for their creator; moreover, humans can become participants in God's creative act.While God's workmanship is different from our own - he creates <i>ex nihilo</i> - nonetheless that God laboured entails for Basil a dignity to our work. Rather than being irreconcilable with God, labour is consonant with God's dignity and pre-eminence. Work is therefore so much more than a necessary evil. It is a way of representing God's image in the world, exercised through humble dominion over our co-creatures for both their good and ours. This is why manual labour became a core element in the monastic communities influenced by Basil. Influenced by his sister Macrina, Basil's asceticism valued the work of one's own hands (<i>cf</i>. 1 Thessalonians 2.9, 4.11). In contrast to the sophistry of the prevailing Hellenistic culture in which Basil had been educated, work became a means for philosophy, contemplation, and controlling the body.<br />
<br />
For Basil, such work could have only one true end: love. Rejecting self-sufficiency as a value, the end of labour was to strengthen the community, providing charity with an opportunity to bear fruit. Basil's Asiatic ascetic communities therefore were both a hive a of silence and production; a place for contemplation and study alongside incredible industry as the community members, who would have previously given away their possessions to the poor, worked for common good of society. Alongside farming, the community would have undertaken carpentry, weaving, leatherwork, metalwork, and medicine. Tools were carefully maintained. Children were educated and taught crafts. Prices were to be kept low. And in trying to balance 1 Thessalonians 5.17 with 2 Thessalonians 3.8-9, Basil counselled that prayer and work were not mutually exclusive:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In this way we fulfil prayer even in the midst of work, giving thanks to him who gave both strength of hand to work and cleverness of mind to acquire the skill and also bestowed the material with which to work, both in the tools we use and in what is requisite for the crafts we practice, whatever they happen to be. And we pray that the works of our hands may be directed to the goal of being well pleasing to God.</blockquote>
Given that the material, the tools, the strength, and the art are gifts from God, to work for Basil is to immerse oneself into the charity of God. Never an end in and of itself, to work with your own hands is to be purposed towards loving God and loving your neighbour as yourself.<div class="blogger-post-footer">"...hebel of hebels; everything is hebel..."</div>Matthew Moffitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03719091623501398778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35482291.post-37329014184064839032016-10-31T21:18:00.001+11:002016-10-31T21:18:38.032+11:00The Greatest Gift of Christendom<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Arguably one of the greatest challenges facing Christians today is how to respond to secularism. Whilst this is not a particularly new phenomenon, what Christians are finding in 2016 is that the plausibility structures which make faith seem possible have changed, shifting the conditions of belief. It's potentially harder to be a Christian now then it was 500, 100, or even 50 years ago because belief in God has not only been displaced as normative, but is now positively contested.<br />
<br />
This age of contested belief is fuelled in part by what we might call the 'secular myth': modern society continues to progress and advance both scientifically as new discoveries are made and technology is increasingly harnessed to solve our problems, and morally as society becomes more fair and equal. This myth suggests that as society advances, religion is culturally replaced or displaced, demoted in importance to the point of redundancy. Our institutions (well, what's left of them) increasingly become neutral ground, forming an objective, unbiased, and a-religious sphere (broadly equivalent to the French concept of <i>laïcité</i>).<br />
<br />
Behind all of this is what Charles Taylor refers to subtraction stories: accounts which explain <i>the</i> <i>secular</i> as merely the subtraction of religious belief, as if the secular is what’s left over after we subtract superstition. Subtraction stories are those tales of enlightenment and progress and maturation which see the emergence of modernity as jettisoning the detritus of belief and superstition. Once upon a time, as these subtraction stories rehearse it, we believed in sprites and fairies and gods and demons. But as we became rational, and especially as we marshalled naturalist explanations for what we used to attribute to spirits and forces, the world became progressively disenchanted. Religion and belief withered with scientific exorcism of superstition. And what we have left from this is the secular, modern world, devoid of such superstition.<br />
<br />
It's a powerful myth. It's a shame that it has little correlation with history. In his book <i>A Secular Age</i>, Taylor goes to great length to argue that <i>the secular</i> is not merely distilled, but produced and created. That we could go from a world where disbelief in God was implausible to a world where belief in God was implausible is not the leftovers of a distilled society, but the accomplishment of new accounts of reality and meaning.<br />
<br />
However I think that it is possible to go further. Secularism is in fact the one of the greatest gifts Christendom gave to the world. That is to say, secularism is not what comes after Christendom in spite of Christendom; Christendom was the first was the creation of the secular, the first implementation of a secular age. This might be controversial to say, because Christendom and secularism seem to be diametrically opposed to each other. The enlightenment project was a self-conscious repudiation of Christian political settlement which had preceded it. But there would be no secularism without Christendom - not in the sense that one the reaction to another - but perhaps in a more classical understanding secular, Christendom creates the secular conditions. Oliver O'Donovan puts this succinctly:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Jesus has ascended in triumph to God’s right hand; yet the subdued “authorities” of this age, St. Paul held, “persist” (Romans 13:6). This, he said, was to approve good conduct and “to execute God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.” The reign of Christ in heaven left <i>judgment</i> as the single remaining political need. We should observe that this was an unprecedentedly lean doctrine of civil government. Judgment alone never comprised the whole of what ancient peoples, least of all the Jews, thought government was about. Paul’s conception stripped government of its representative, identity-conferring functions, and said nothing about law. He conceded, as it were, the least possible function that would account for its place within God’s plan. The secular princes of this earth, shorn of pretensions to our loyalty and worship, are left with the sole function of judging between innocent and guilty. </blockquote>
The political-theological achievement of the Roman world in the fourth century was the recognition that the announcement 'Jesus Christ is Lord' is the announcement that he has dethroned the powers and authorities. It is this recognition which creates the secular. It is the government of the age, (knowingly or unknowingly) charged with task of judgment until creation's perfection at Jesus' return. This recognition dispels all government pretension to be the most true thing, the ultimate reality of totalitarian regimes. It dispels the possibility of theocracy, for Christ is the one Lord. According to O'Donovan again:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The most truly Christian state understands itself most thoroughly as “secular”. It makes the confession of Christ’s victory and accepts the relegation of its own authority... The essential element in the conversion of the ruling power is the change in its self-understanding and its manner of government to suit the dawning age of Christ’s own rule. </blockquote>
Modern societies have inherited this political institution of the gospel, although they may not know it. This unintelligibly of secularism by secular states may account for the fraught socio-political situations we witness today as nations which had assumed one thing about secularism (such as its homogeneous nature) are confronted on the one hand with an increase of pluralism, and on the other different experiences of secularism around the world (secularism in India and China look different not only from each other but also from secularism within Europe or the United States).<br />
<br />
The opportunity for the church as it negotiates with and responds to secularism will be to explain the political institutions and modes such as <i>the secular</i> which the modern world has assumed from ancient Christian world but does not quite know why it values them. In making the institutions of modernity intelligible to the modern world, the church will need innovative ways to announce and embody the truth of Christ's Lordship, and that <i>the secular</i> is no mere neutral space, but one which exists for his purposes in the world.<div class="blogger-post-footer">"...hebel of hebels; everything is hebel..."</div>Matthew Moffitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03719091623501398778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35482291.post-34022573309752558102016-10-04T22:17:00.000+11:002016-10-05T17:44:24.573+11:00The Unnecessary Necessity of Arts Degrees <blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">*This is developed from a recent talk I give.</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="line-height: 115%;">His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants in the divine nature. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">– </span>2 Peter 1.3</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br /></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Peter talks about escaping the corruption that is in the
world because of desire, and as Christians we’ve been trained to read that as
meaning the creation is evil. That is this world, this creation, the thing God said several times over at the beginning of
time was good, good, very good, but which Paul's says in Romans has now been
subjected to decay. The world is corrupted;
therefore the whole of material existence is evil. But that’s not quite where
Peter takes it does he? That has more to do with Gnosticism or Buddhism than
with the gospel of the resurrected, embodied, Jesus Christ. The world is
corrupted not because of something inherently wrong with materiality, but with
human desire and our malfunctioning hearts:</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“In sin we divide the good
world God has made into two “worlds”, one good and the other evil, and we make
our own contingent perspectives the criterion for the division. And this gives
a new, negative sense to the term “world”, which we have hitherto spoken of
positively as God’s creation. This negative sense is characteristic of the New
Testament, and points to the reality a constructed world, a world of our own
imagination, pitched over against the created world and in opposition to it.”<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[1]</span></span></span><a href="file:///C:/Users/Matthew/Dropbox/Engaging%20with%20God%201.docx#_ftn1" title=""><!--[endif]--></a></span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><br /></span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">The Biblical account holds that God </span><span style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: -36pt;"><span style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">m</span></span><span style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: -36pt;">ade all things not
under compulsion or out necessity, but as a gushing forth of love. </span><span style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;">God's gracious action
in creation belongs from the first to that delight, pleasure and regard that
the Trinity enjoys from eternity, as an outward and unnecessary expression of
that love; and thus creation must be received before all else as gift and as
beauty. </span><span style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;">God is not grey; and he
does not create a grey world. ‘The world is charged with the grandeur of God’
as English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote. Creation wasn't just what needed
to be done and no more; it was an excessive and even decadent act. It was more
than a bit unnecessary.</span></span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[2]</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -18pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: -18pt;">Moreover, we must maintain that God e</span><span style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: -36pt;">ntered into the world,
and experienced pain and death to rescue the splendour of what he had made –
including you and me. He did not sit idly by as creation was plunged into death
and decay, as we fooled about fooling about with drink and sex and ambition,
half-hearted creatures like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud
pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a
holiday at the sea.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[3]</span></span></span></span> He
condescended himself into our decay so that we might share his life.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: -36pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 20.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This theological conviction concerning creation and </span>redemption<span style="font-family: inherit;"> is, I believe, profoundly
connected to the vocation of Arts students. Understanding the world
rightly – that it was created by God, who loves his world, who sustains his
world, who will one day rescue his world from sin and decay rather than allow
it to slide in nothingness – that is what sustains the task of universities
generally, and the B.A. more specifically. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I spend a lot of time in my work
with postgrads thinking about the university: what is the university? Why does
it exist? Arts students are, in many ways, a relic, a fossil, from a
by-gone era. The Arts degree is the remnant of the original degrees awarded by
universities (developments of the Trivium and the Quadrivium), </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">deposits of a time when universities where established across
Europe by Christians in order to facilitate a depth of knowledge </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">and insight
into God and his world. That was the original vision of </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">the university</i><span style="font-family: inherit;">,
interested in the pursuit of knowledge for the sake of knowledge because all
truth is God’s truth, and thereby holding together the ordered reality of the <i>universe.</i> It was a thoroughly Christian vision – one which has long
since been replaced by universities driven by economic rationalism, where
universities now exist on the one hand to develop the next generation of
leaders of the welfare states which sustain the universities;</span><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="line-height: 14.95px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">[4]</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> and on the other
to facilitate the kind of research which will make money and </span>fulfill<span style="font-family: inherit;"> that vague
category of ‘being good for the nation’, which mostly equates to science and engineering.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For art students, their mere presence within the university
is a constant reminder of the original purpose of universities: towering spires
pursuing the knowledge and love of God. You can find slight echos of this even
in Sydney University, which has always been secular. The next time you’re in
the great hall, look up at the two angels that hover of the dais at the front,
and try and make out the Latin on their scrolls. To the left: <i>Knowledge puffeth
up, but charity edifieth</i>; to the right: <i>The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom.</i> Arts students are fossils to this vision. But much like the Wollemi Pine or
crocodiles, they are living fossils, a very present reminder of a different age.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I want to place the emphasis on the word LIVING
fossils. The university has plenty of inanimate sandstone around the place to
pretend that it's Oxbridge and Hogwarts. Their vocation as Arts students is not
exhausted by just turning up to campus 1-2 days a week. Instead their calling is
testify to the goodness this rich and diverse creation by studying it at depth.
Whether you study modern philosophy or Aztec philology, whether you research
the events of history or the currents of political science, whether you're
researching drama or music or gender or sociology, classics or anthropology,
there is a dignity and worth in studying each of these things</span>–<span style="font-family: inherit;">not because our
culture deems them to be economically viable or productive, but because they
are each part of God's world. God’s world, which God is not indifferent to; his
world, which he has created with complexity and meaning, and has endowed us with
the intellect and brains to deliberate, to examine, to study all these things.
It’s easy to pay Arts students out, by predicting their future as McDonald’s
employees. (I somehow was offered the position of manager at a different fast food store on the </span>strength<span style="font-family: inherit;"> of being an Arts graduate alone; I declined). </span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But they are not studying </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">just</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> an Arts degree: their study is
one of the most human things one could do [recalling especially Adam's task in Genesis 2.19</span></span>–<span style="font-family: inherit;">20, which was not merely scientific, but required </span>linguistics, hermeneutics, and so on<span style="font-family: inherit;">). It’s part of our calling as God’s
representative ruling presence in the world. Therefore be people who engage with your mind: read books which no one else in the university will read; read deeply and widely; talk to people across diverse disciplines. Immerse yourselves in your study of God's world. Engage well; Augustine was right I suspect when he said that to know something is to love that thing.</span></div>
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Their<span style="font-family: inherit;"> challenge is to not rest
content with just learning things, but doing the hard, integrative work of
connecting what your study with the gospel? How does modern history connect
with the gospel? How does sociology, anthropology, or linguistics connect with
the gospel? What does the death and resurrection of Jesus have to say about
geography, or English? How does the gospel both affirm and challenge the
stories my major tells about itself? How are all these things completed in
Jesus? How can I use the logic of the gospel re-narrate what my discipline is
to my friends in a way that is compelling?
The world is made up of languages and ideas, creatures and events.Study those things. Engage with words and ideas, taking every thought captive for the obedience of Christ. That is not where the problem of sinful desire lies. The problem is not with
materiality. Don’t fall into the sub-Christian trap of thinking that God’s
going to abandon his creation. As God’s representative ruling presence, and as
Arts students, your calling is go about studying and knowing God’s world at
depth. As I said a few moments ago, this is a sidebar, a discursive. But
engaging with God means engaging him with our minds as well as our hearts, and
necessitates engaging the world he has made. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">That God made the beautiful when it was unnecessary to do this is love. To study the logic and </span>rhythm<span style="font-family: inherit;"> of that world in all its </span>complexity<span style="font-family: inherit;"> and beauty is the task of the student, and the Arts student especially. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="line-height: 115%;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span>
Oliver O’Donovan, ‘Admiring’. <a href="http://www.newcollege.unsw.edu.au/newcollegelectures.html">http://www.newcollege.unsw.edu.au/newcollegelectures.html</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small; line-height: 15.3333px;">[2] My thanks to <a href="http://mpjensen.blogspot.com.au/">Michael Jensen</a>'s second year doctrine lectures for some of these ideas.</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="line-height: 15.3333px;">[3]</span></span></span> <i><span lang="EN-US">Cf</span></i><span lang="EN-US">. C.S. Lewis, <i>The Weight of Glory: </i>“…it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="font-size: xx-small;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="line-height: 14.95px;">[3] I owe this idea to Dr. Mark Hutchinson</span></span></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">.</span></span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">"...hebel of hebels; everything is hebel..."</div>Matthew Moffitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03719091623501398778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35482291.post-58089035015199632922016-06-29T16:38:00.000+10:002016-06-29T16:38:04.730+10:00Elsewhere<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK5n6IaiE4TQ5pgEXvA9mfbmU3Zv8AsO8pNJfgiV7WZqxbNuWUpvkhHyvktiUDB92qISh3_6mwK9HAuqsKdW_Qs73hgpm0g-D39W25lZpuTHtmmMzwd5w-phr0QrjZFQ-uYKl6HA/s1600/232.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK5n6IaiE4TQ5pgEXvA9mfbmU3Zv8AsO8pNJfgiV7WZqxbNuWUpvkhHyvktiUDB92qISh3_6mwK9HAuqsKdW_Qs73hgpm0g-D39W25lZpuTHtmmMzwd5w-phr0QrjZFQ-uYKl6HA/s320/232.JPG" width="320" /></a>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">A year ago today Alison and I were jumping on a plane bound for Europe. It was long hoped for but unexpected - it was only thanks to the wedding of a friend and the generosity of our family that we were able to go. We had three delightful weeks taking in culture and seeing friends in London, Oxford, Paris, Rome, and Florence. We even had our own hashtag: #MoffittGrandTour. For me especially, on my first European trip, and as a long time Anglophile, there was something special about being in England - gazing at St Paul's Cathedral (this hope for the resurrection which rises out of the midst of the city); drinking cider in the evening in Kensington Gardens as the fading summer light ran through the long grass; wandering through Christ Church Meadow, glistening green after a downpour. The smell of the roses, the taste of the raspberries, the 35<span style="color: #222222; line-height: 19.2px;">°</span> summer heat had never felt so good. Nor had the rabbits, the foxes, or the deer felt more in their place. - there was an allure about being in the home of my ancestors.
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;">It felt almost decadent to be experiencing so much beauty.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">That is the allure of travel. Travel provides us with stories to tell, and experiences to gather. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">And yet, isn't it more than that? Are our overseas trips really just about curating the perfect Instagram collection? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Romantic in me makes me want to say that travel is part of our search for something more. We travel around finding the extraordinary in the most ordinary of things, and beauty in the sublime. It is this quest, this syndrome of Romanticism, which underwrites our devouring of travel. The contemporary British author Ali Smith, reflecting on a period of many overseas journeys, speaks about this search like this:</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: #333333; line-height: 20px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Also, the gallery had a very lovely café/restaurant; there was leek soup the day I went, very nice, and even its toilets are works of art, with little plaques outside them like paintings have next to them for their title/artist information.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">But pretty much the whole time I was there, I was still trying to get elsewhere.</span></blockquote>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">Amidst all the beauty and wonder that Smith saw in places like Naples and Rotterdam, she was still searching for this place - this place she calls 'elsewhere'. Even when standing there in one place, she was looking for another place of perfect beauty and transcendence. She goes on to describe 'elsewhere':</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRfm_1dF_vhyDvborQ09MZa2znafAyNMesnIVV9AZk-bG9RSyMBjYj3DSS7TzwUwT4SEVa1GNCGKGIHo3n3ZTlwNMKRyw46ghu41GT1S0nJBbMUuDS-gA3viYq8Hj45eWw8R9iAw/s1600/132.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRfm_1dF_vhyDvborQ09MZa2znafAyNMesnIVV9AZk-bG9RSyMBjYj3DSS7TzwUwT4SEVa1GNCGKGIHo3n3ZTlwNMKRyw46ghu41GT1S0nJBbMUuDS-gA3viYq8Hj45eWw8R9iAw/s320/132.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">Elsewhere there are no mobile phones. Elsewhere sleep is deep and the mornings are wonderful. Elsewhere art is endless, exhibitions are free and galleries are open twenty-four hours. Elsewhere alcohol is a joke that everybody finds funny. Elsewhere everybody is as welcoming as they’d be if you’d come home after a very long time away and they’d really missed you. Elsewhere nobody stops you in the street and says, Are you a Catholic or a Protestant, and when you say neither, I’m a Muslim, then says yeah but are you a Catholic Muslim or a Protestant Muslim? Elsewhere there are no religions. Elsewhere there are no borders. Elsewhere nobody is a refugee or an asylum seeker whose worth can be decided about by a government. Elsewhere nobody is something to be decided about by anybody. Elsewhere there are no preconceptions. Elsewhere all wrongs are righted. Elsewhere the supermarkets don’t own us. Elsewhere we use our hands for cups and the rivers are clean and drinkable. Elsewhere the words of the politicians are nourishing to the heart. Elsewhere charlatans are known for their wisdom. Elsewhere history has been kind. Elsewhere nobody would ever say the words bring back the death penalty. Elsewhere the graves of the dead are empty and their spirits fly above the cities in instinctual, shapeshifting formations that astound the eye. Elsewhere poems cancel imprisonment. Elsewhere we do time differently.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Every time I travel, I head for it. Every time I come home, I look for it.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">- Ali Smith, <i><a href="https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/new-writing/the-art-of-elsewhere">The Art of Elsewhere</a></i></span></blockquote>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">It's ideal. It's </span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">transcendent</span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">. It's never discovered. It's never arrived at.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">Smith is searching for a place where we can be at home - we are yearning for it. If Smith is correct, then our journeys overseas, our fascination with art, our love of things which point beyond mere </span></span><span style="line-height: 20px;">immanence</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">, are fueled by our innate desire for something more. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">The syndrome Smith diagnoses </span></span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">experientially has been recognized theologically for some time. One of the books which we appreciated the most on our travels last year was </span><i style="line-height: 20px;">The Weight of Glory </i><span style="line-height: 20px;">by C.S. Lewis. We engaged with so much beauty as we traveled, and Lewis helped us respond to this cultural wealth as worshipers, rather than consumers. He writes that:</span></span><br />
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"...our lifelong nostalgia, our longing to be reunited with something in the universe from which we now feel cut off, to be on the inside of some door which we have always seen from the outside, is no mere neurotic fancy, but the truest index of our real situation. And to be at last summoned inside would be both glory and honour beyond all our merits and also the healing of that old ache.</blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg93E_PkPb8uXJ1HBwQOjj07xaUQ1-6_okGDOtZ8YEwU61aqty-7Kywq37BPfon1ks5cVThOsbQxozrRN-xEM_I9d9yfQ088p7nDxwdz9tg7DW1yGz8-0uDQ1CxRTGhYXUBLRvw9w/s1600/019.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg93E_PkPb8uXJ1HBwQOjj07xaUQ1-6_okGDOtZ8YEwU61aqty-7Kywq37BPfon1ks5cVThOsbQxozrRN-xEM_I9d9yfQ088p7nDxwdz9tg7DW1yGz8-0uDQ1CxRTGhYXUBLRvw9w/s320/019.JPG" width="320" /></a>And this brings me to the other sense of glory—glory as brightness, splendour, luminosity. We are to shine as the sun, we are to be given the Morning Star. I think I begin to see what it means. In one way, of course, God has given us the Morning Star already: you can go and enjoy the gift on many fine mornings if you get up early enough. What more, you may ask, do we want? Ah, but we want so much more— something the books on aesthetics take little notice of. But the poets and the mythologies know all about it. We do not want merely to <i>see </i>beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words—to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it. That is why we have peopled air and earth and water with gods and goddesses and nymphs and elves—that, though we cannot, yet these projections can, enjoy in themselves that beauty grace, and power of which Nature is the image. That is why the poets tell us such lovely falsehoods. They talk as if the west wind could really sweep into a human soul; but it can’t. They tell us that “beauty born of murmuring sound” will pass into a human face; but it won’t. Or not yet. For if we take the imagery of Scripture seriously, if we believe that God will one day <i>give </i>us the Morning Star and cause us to <i>put on</i> the splendour of the sun, then we may surmise that both the ancient myths and the modern poetry, so false as history, may be very near the truth as prophecy. At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendours we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we shall get <i>in</i>."</blockquote>
Lewis captured for us the tragedy of fleetingly taking in the beauty of this building or that artwork or this landscape: we were viewing it for a moment, before moving on to leave it all behind. To witness such things and to be parted from them immediately was melancholic. But Lewis gave us the language to process this. Our desires weren't wrong, but were designed to direct our hearts towards the God for whom they were made, and the future he has prepared for us in Christ when we shall be united to him, and the Holy Spirit has perfected the creation. </div>
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I read Lewis as an answer to Smith. Her 'elsewhere' is real. We live in a world which is simultaneously a world made for us <i>and</i> a world which we feel estranged from. We are not at home in this world. But one day we shall be, when elsewhere is brought home, and the creation overflows with the abundance of God's perfect peace. We look, as the Creed puts it, for the life of the world to come, a life that is secured <a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=334181435">by righteousness himself making his home with us</a>. This end of the world and the beginning of another enables us to live well now, as it gives us back our present. For we know that 'elsewhere' will not be found by ourselves, but only in Jesus Christ. </div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">"...hebel of hebels; everything is hebel..."</div>Matthew Moffitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03719091623501398778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35482291.post-33332260817278873792016-06-13T16:06:00.000+10:002016-06-13T21:48:17.584+10:00World Without End? A Theological Playlist<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Last year I spent a lot of time sitting with 2 Peter, particularity 3.5-13. I translated and re-translated the Greek. I analysed every textual variant in the passage. I slowly exegeted the text. I read every commentary and journal article I could find on 2 Peter 3. I tried to understand Peter's eschatology as a whole. I worked my way through the theological and ethical implications of the passage. The result was a 15,000 Moore College Project: <i>World Without End? Continuity and Discontinuity in 2 Peter 3:5-13</i>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I spent a lot of time digesting 2 Peter 3. It is a difficult passage, which has sparked several debates in over the last two centuries over the substance of the world to come. Yet in spite of these controversies, 2 Peter 3 has a simple message: Jesus Christ will return to judge the whole earth. Using vivid language, Peter depicts the lid being ripped off human affairs so that e</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">very human activity is evaluated and scrutinized from God's perspective; and </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">every human eye sees how God intends life to be lived.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It is, quite frankly, a fairly positive image of evil removed and a transformed created order. In a world where justice is not always done, and then not always seen to be done, 2 Peter 3 describes a world set to rights, a world where justice makes its home. With this future in view, Peter fuels our imagination for life now, since 'holiness and godliness' are the apparent obvious responses to a world set free from sin and malfunction desires; they are the habits befitting creation perfected.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Whilst the piles of books felt never-ending, one of the things that sustained my writing was the 2 Peter 3 playlist I curated throughout last year. In the spirit of my fourth year project, I gravitated towards songs of dissonant eschatologies and apocalyptic themes, the playlist becoming an extension of the conversations that were happening around me. In recognition of this, here are a few notable mentions:</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sufjan Stevens - <i>The Transfiguration</i></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It was inevitable that Sufjan was going to feature on this playlist; but at the start of 2015 I did not realize the significance of this song. Central to my argument is that 2 Peter 3's description of the Parousia is a theophany, the paradigm for which Peter had previously established in his own account of the transfiguration 1.16-18. </span><br />
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<iframe seamless="" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1552016597/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=804789377/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 120px; width: 100%;"><a href="http://music.sufjan.com/album/seven-swans">Seven Swans by Sufjan Stevens</a></iframe>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The eerie beauty of this song easily captured something of the confusion and wonder of that moment when Jesus was manifested in full magnificence. Hearing this each time on the playlist was always a distracting moment, but a welcome one as it reminded me each time that the true object of my task last year was not knowledge for the sake of knowledge, but worship.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Bon Iver - <i>Bon Iver</i></span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Yes, I decided to include the whole album on my playlist. When I was re-listening to the playlist at Easter, Alison asked me why I had included <i>Bon Iver</i>, since it doesn't seem particularly apocalyptic. The reason was quite simple: the whole album is about place and space, people and time. Given that each of these four elements are significant features of creation, it felt quite fitting to include the whole. It was a constant reminder to me that what I was writing about eschatology needed to connect somehow with a doctrine of creation.</span><br />
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<iframe seamless="" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1859002916/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 120px; width: 100%;">&amp;amp;lt;a href="http://boniver.bandcamp.com/album/bon-iver"&amp;amp;gt;Bon Iver by Bon Iver&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;</iframe><span style="font-family: inherit;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">With 2 Peter 3 serving as the <i>locus classicus </i>for those who want to argue for the total destruction of the world and a second <i>creatio ex nihilo</i>, the epic scale of songs like <i>Perth </i>and <i>Minnesota, WI</i> stopped that from conversation from being just theoretical, but for me at least kept my thinking focused on actual places.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Paul Kelly - <i>Meet Me In the Middle of the Air</i></span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Like 2 Peter 3, 1 Thessalonians 4 is passage which is used in curious ways to explain various eschatological schema. What is often missed is Paul's employment of a Roman custom to comfort the Thessalonians with the hope of resurrection and the glory awaiting the living and the dead. I'm not sure if Paul Kelly is Christian, but his song perfectly brings together 1 Thessalonians 4 with Psalm 23. There's an amazing Christology involved in this, which provides a picture of his provision and care as our good shepherd.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Talking Heads - <i>Heaven</i></span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is one of the songs which originally featured on a playlist Alison created about clashing eschatologies. Talking Head sing 'Heaven is a place/A place where nothing/Nothing ever happens', and a little later 'It's hard to imagine that/Nothing at all/Could be so exciting/Could be this much fun'. <i>Heaven</i> is beautiful but tedious - perhaps purposefully so. Which stands in such contrast to the picture of the new heavens and new earth described by 2 Peter. The future envisioned by Peter, which Christians begin to inhabit at least behaviorally now, is far different from the bland nothingness of <i>Heaven</i>. It is instead one of beauty and justice, one which inspires the imagination and praxis of people today.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">The National - <i>Fake Empire</i></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Whilst 2 Peter 3.10 is about every thought and deed of humanity being disclosed, <i>Fake Empire</i> is about 'where you can't deal with the reality of what's really going on, so let's just pretend that the world's full of bluebirds and ice skating.' It speaks of a generation disillusioned and apathetic. The soaring but simple poly-rhythm of the song inspired the Obama campaign in 2008 to use an instrumental version of the song - ironic given that the song decries modern America.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Dvorak - <i>New World Symphony </i></span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">There's nothing like a late-romantic European symphony combined with the optimism and passion of America. Whilst Dvorak drew on several influences (such as Native-American and African-American) for his ninth symphony, it's the possibilities of the dawning age of America that he seems to capture. From the wide open planes to rising industrial might, the opening brings it all together.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It's hard not to listen to this symphony and not be caught up in the idealism, the Hegelian romanticism. Surely the Christian gospel has the resources to respond to this appeal of our imagination and desires? Herein lies the significance of articulating not just the right kind of eschatology, but also teleology, which longs indeed for a new world, but one from freed from the sin and corruption we see around us.</span><br />
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<b>Michael Nyman - <i>MGV: Musique à grande vitesse</i></b><br />
To be honest, I only discovered this piece this year after the Australian Ballet's performance of DGV©: Danse à grande vitesse. But I like to imagine that it would have made the list last year. In many ways MGV is not too dissimilar to Dvorak's New World Symphony. Commissioned for the opening of the TGV Paris-Lille train line in the early 1990's it's hard not to get swept up in the ambition, the movement, the progress of Nyman's creation, And having traveled on a TGV last year, this is music that's as irresistible in its energy, speed, and sheer noise, as any journey by TGV.<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span>
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span>I like to think that with a century between, MGV is perhaps more chastened in it's optimism than New World Symphony. Nonetheless MGV is still hopeful, and that hope is inextricably tied via the TGV to the advancement of society through technology. I found myself appropriating the composition though; as the music captures journeying through landscapes I imagine myself not progressing towards modernity, but travelling through a world made new. It's the challenge of interacting with the narrative modernity - of maintaining hope without equating that hope with the story of progress. To do so we need to not lost sight of the apocalyptic, that God will intervene in history to establish his new heavens and new earth.<br />
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<b>My Brightest Diamond - <i>In the Beginning</i></b><br />
I think that it is fair to say that there was a particular flavour to the posts on this blog in 2015: holding together God's work in creation and redemption as two distinct but united realities (<i>i.e.</i> <a href="http://absurdity-of-absurdities.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/the-line-of-connection.html">here</a>, <a href="http://absurdity-of-absurdities.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/athanasius-first-thing-you-must-grasp.html">here</a>, <a href="http://absurdity-of-absurdities.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/cross-and-creation.html">here</a>, and <a href="http://absurdity-of-absurdities.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/a-real-establishment.html">here</a>). Shara Worden manages to achieve that in this song. She begins with slow, but majestic recounting of Genesis' account, which calls to mind the poetic insights of Tolkien and Lewis in their own creation accounts in <i>The Silmarillion </i>and <i>The Magicians Nephew. </i><br />
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<iframe seamless="" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2583170836/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=2043673540/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 120px; width: 100%;"><a href="http://mybrightestdiamond.bandcamp.com/album/all-things-will-unwind">All Things Will Unwind by My Brightest Diamond</a></iframe>
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But before long the song moves to 'This glorious day the earth is shaking hallelujah/And I will join the unending hymn hallelujah'. Bringing creation and <i>eschaton </i>together is brilliantly insightful, for the Christian doctrine has more to say than the opening chapters of Genesis. It has a distinct eschatological shape which is determined at the center by Christology. For it was for Jesus that all things were created, and through him by God's power and sovereignty the creation in bound for resurrection glory. As Calvin wrote in his commentary on Romans 8: '‘No part of the universe is untouched by the longing with which everything in this world aspires to the hope of resurrection.'<br />
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<b>The Decemberists - <i>12/17/12</i></b><br />
This song takes it's name from President Obama's national address in December 2012 after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. I'm writing this in the wake of the latest gun tragedy in Orlando. The final lines of the song lend their name to the album: 'And O my god, what a world you have made here. What a terrible world, what a beautiful world. What a world you have made here'.<br />
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The Decemberists manage to capture the fragility of life in the fragility of <i>12/17/12</i>. And the background to the song adds to the emotion of the piece - perhaps all the more so as we continue to see such tragedies in America. The challenge for me coming out of this song is not to rest satisfied with shallow answers about suffering and evil. 2 Peter 3 envisions the total removal of evil from the created order; God does not sit idly by in the face of such wickedness and tragedy, and his patience should not be mistaken as such. Instead, the terribleness of this world we be held to account when it is overwhelmed with Christ's righteousness.<br />
<b><i><br /></i></b><b>Five Iron Frenzy - <i>World Without End</i></b><br />
Five Iron are more Alison's band than mine. But having listened to them on countless car trips over the last decade, they have grown on me. And with the phrase <i>World Without End</i> appearing in my project title, this song was always guaranteed to be on this list. A translation of Ephesians 3.21, and based on the Latin phrase <i>in saecula saeculorum</i>, world without end as it was used in English liturgy was connected to the idea of eternity - forever and ever. Connected with God's creation, human or not, the phrase speaks not of our immortality, but God's election to be our God forever, not only God with us, but God for us. It was this conviction which lead the church over 1800 years to read 2 Peter 3.10 in light of other passages such as Romans 8, and hope that this travailing world would be transformed and renewed rather than annihilated and destroyed.<br />
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In the soundless awe and wonder,<br />
Words fall short to hope again.<br />
How beautiful,<br />
How vast Your love is,<br />
New forever,<br />
World without an end.</blockquote>
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<b>Other honourable mentions:</b><br />
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<li>Garage Hymnal - <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm86N4iHQVQ">Father's World</a></i></li>
<li>Young Oceans - <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8eSaH53JhE">Come Holy One</a></i></li>
<li>Portishead - <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEQNAZGoZrw">Wandering Star</a></i></li>
<li>Arcade Fire - <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awHWColYQ90">Spawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)</a></i></li>
<li>Sufjan Stevens - <i><a href="http://music.sufjan.com/track/chicago">Chicago</a></i>, and<i> </i>most things from <i><a href="http://music.sufjan.com/album/the-age-of-adz">The Age of Adz</a>.</i></li>
<li>R.E.M. - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OA_CndlBu0g">It's the End of the World (As We Know It)</a></li>
<li>The Welcome Wagon - <i><a href="https://thewelcomewagon.bandcamp.com/track/the-strife-is-oer">The Strife is O'er</a></i></li>
<li>The Oh Hellos - <i><a href="http://music.theohhellos.com/track/soldier-poet-king">Soldier, Poet, King</a></i></li>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">"...hebel of hebels; everything is hebel..."</div>Matthew Moffitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03719091623501398778noreply@blogger.com0