Reconciliation is a big issue in Australia today. Whatever the injustices involved in white settlement 212 years ago and in the treatment of aborigines since, how are today's Australians - black and white - to relate to one another?
Crowds have walked symbolically together across bridges in major cities. Planes have written the word "sorry" in the sky. Many see a simple solution - John Howard needs to say "sorry" to the aborigines on behalf of the rest of us - as if an official apology will resolve the issue once and for all.
It's so simple, but would it be the end of the issue? I suspect the Prime Minister has had legal advice that an official apology could have widespread ramifications that would divide our nation for a very long time.
Reconciliation is more than saying a word. I doubt the bridge-walking crowds would be very enthusiastic about giving up anything of their homes and lifestyle to achieve it. "Sorry" is no simple magic formula for reconciliation, and today's Australians have to discover how to live together in a responsible and caring way. Our self-centred and materialistic life-style has made that increasingly difficult.
When Paul wrote to the Ephesian Christians, the issue was reconciliation of Jew and Gentile. Jews divided the world into "the people" and "the nations." They themselves were "the people" of God, the chosen race. All other people ("the nations") were excluded from God's purposes. In the New Testament, "the nations" is translated "Gentiles" - the Jewish use implying something of a slur.
This division was never part of God's purpose for them. They were "chosen", yes, but not so that they could have exclusive rights to the revelation of God's love. In fact, the Lord said to Abraham, "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you" (Gen. 12.2-3). Blessed to be a blessing… to all peoples on earth!
Of course, to fulfil this role, they had to be faithful to the revelation and call of God - uncompromising in their allegiance to the Lord and relating to other peoples with integrity.
It was not an easy road. Again and again they were lured into compromise - and paid the price. They became subject to Assyria, Babylon, Persia… Finally, under oppressive Greek rule, a movement known as the Hasidim arose. They would stick to God's Law, no matter what - and would fight those out to rob them of that freedom. They had some successes, but their resistance was finally crushed by Roman armies at Masada in 73 AD.
But the determined adherence to the Law continued in a movement which came to be known as the Pharisees. They became the watch-dogs of public morality and multiplied the laws to a burdensome level in an effort to ensure there couldn't be the slightest infringement.
Jew and Gentile - the gap was widened. But at this time there were Gentiles who were greatly impressed by the Jewish religion. These Jews must have something if they are willing to die for their faith. Some became "proselytes", accepting the Law in full, receiving circumcision and being baptised in the Jordan River to wash away the contamination of their Gentile past. Others were simply "God-fearers" - allowed in the synagogues and in the "court of the Gentiles" in the Temple.
The design of the Temple - intended to speak of the majesty and holiness of God became yet another barrier between Jew and Gentile. This was made worse by the buying and selling that went on in the "court of the Gentiles" (Mk 11.12-17).
But the revelation of God's character and purposes doesn't lead us to any "us-and-them" comparisons. Running through the Scriptures is the theme of a world fallen, a human race in rebellion, no person ever able to "make it" by themselves, all expressing, in one way, degree or another, their brokenness.
Paul wrote that everyone, both Jew and Gentile, were alike in this - "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3.23). It is a rather grim diagnosis and the consequent prospect looks hopeless - "For the wages of sin is death…" (6.23a).
That, of course, isn't all the picture. The purpose of the diagnosis isn't to lead us to depression and despair. Rather, it is the prelude to the great reconciliation. If we don't grasp how grim the situation is, we can never understand why God went to such lengths - and at such cost - to bring us back to himself.
In Rom. 6.23 Paul goes on - "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
At God's right time in human history, Jesus the Son of God came into the life of this darkened world. He lived among us as we ought to have lived, taught us what we always needed to know. But he died on a cross because he was too good for us, he couldn't be allowed to stay here, we wanted our lives to remain self-centred. The religious leaders didn't want him - they wanted to live with the illusion that they were good enough.
So he died because of our sin.
But he died also because of God's love - even for sinners. He died for our sin - taking on himself the wages of our sin. His cross stands as a sign of hope and a promise of redemption against a darkened world. He died to cancel out our sin.
Believing in him we are rescued - to live a new life, a life which focuses on God and expresses itself in love.
But the redemptive love of God isn't just a thing of the past - of two thousand years ago in Palestine. Jesus lives, and the sign of the risen Jesus and the seal of his redemptive work was the Holy Spirit poured out on the day of Pentecost on the believers, those who received the message with faith, who put their trust in what God had done for them in Christ.
On that day, he came in tongues of living fire - not just as a sign resting on them, but as a cleansing and dynamic fire within them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit. That is the new era in which we live. All who believe in Jesus are born of the Spirit - the Spirit lives within them.
The Spirit is active in bringing the message to our human conscience today, in bringing us to faith today, in transforming us into children of the heavenly Father today, in sending us out in witness and service today.
On 22nd June 1977, Congregational, Methodist and Presbyterian Churches came together to form the Uniting Church in Australia.
The U in the church's emblem is incomplete. There are many other Christians and Christian churches with whom we belong in the family of God. God calls us to love them as our brothers and sisters too. For the task of the Uniting Church in the Burdekin is committed to all of us.
Jesus' final instructions were, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Mt. 28.18-20).
He has handed us the torch. It is his flame - burning with his redemptive love from eternity, poured out for us on the cross, passed on to us at the first Christian Pentecost, received afresh from the Lord as it is handed on to each new generation.
As our lives are drawn to him, into his life, we are drawn into deeper relationship with one another. He calls us to step forward together with him. Let's hear and heed his call. Let's take up the flame and carry it high in our community.
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