Australia’s Day to Fear
An original version of this article was prepared for: https://christiantoday.com.au/ After I finished this article I read in the day’s news that 5% of our population under 17 are Indigenous, but 40% of suicides in that bracket are Indigenous. Many of these suicides are in the north of Western Australia, our state.
Introduction
I don’t have rose-coloured glasses about the condition of Indigenous people. We have an Indigenous niece, have suffered from home invasion and been abused and threatened with bashing by Aboriginal people on the streets near our home. Around this time of the year I receive invitations to Australia Day prayer meetings with Aboriginal people. Some of these lean to the political left, some to the right. This is legitimate, but I sense there are more basic spiritual issues needing urgent attention before our whole nation can experience healing at a social level. Australian culture, inside and outside the Church, lacks a holy fear of God. And for those with ears to “hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches” (Rev 2:7 etc.), we need to listen to how the Lord would turn the plight of our Indigenous people around to bless all Australians. But first let me speak to the foundational absence in mainstream life.
Fear-less
“the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One brings insight” (Prov 9:10). Australia, politically and otherwise, will keep lacking the wisdom to address Indigenous deprivation without a great shift in the realm of godly fear. Australia Day, we are told, is a time to celebrate the “good fortune we all share in calling Australia our home”. “Good fortune” is not “God fortune”. Paul describes our dreadful idolatry, “although they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him” (Rom 1:21). Instead of our upbeat national anthem, we would be much better off with some national lament. When Abraham found himself amongst the Philistines, he testified, “‘There is no fear of God at all in this place.’” (Gen 20:11). This is Australia’s spiritual state but blinded by affluence and prejudice we can’t see it. Only Jesus can enlighten us about the true condition of the land.
Jesus and his Father
Praying on the way to the cross he addressed God as, “Holy Father” (John 17:11). This is John’s equivalent to Gethsemane, where, “when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death and was heard because of His godly fear…(Christ) was made perfect” (Heb 5: 7, 9). The spiritual insight of Jesus was perfected only as he intensely feared the impending judgement of his Father. Feared the wrath he would bear in our place (Rom 3:25). Fear inspired insights into the divine presence and action are near extinct today. God’s people love “Abba Father” but ignore “Holy Father”. In the Church “awesome” has degenerated to “exciting”. This is the height of confusion. Can you think of a contemporary Christian song that trains us in reverential fear? There can be no healing for the land until we learn to respect God as Holy. This problem goes back to our shared beginnings.
Recognising the Image
At the foundations of modern Australia was a spiritual inability to recognise the original inhabitants as being made in the image of a Holy God. Hardly surprising, since the convicts and poor of British society were themselves treated inhumanely. Blinded by the idols of Empire the invaders couldn’t see that their own false worship was at least as grievous to God as the nature religion of the Indigenous peoples. The Lordship of Christ was confused with imperial expansion. The consequences of such blindness are still with us for the law of “sowing and reaping” is written into the social fabric of the universe “Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant.” (Gal 6:7). Behaving as if the Master of the land was a “harsh man” (Matt 25:24), a deep unconscious projection of a hard-distant Father-God entered into the spiritual atmosphere of modern Australia. Ignorant of “Holy Father” we lost sensitivity to “Holy Spirit” (Eph 4:18).
First there was abuse of Indigenous people, then we “uncovered” sexual abuse of children n institutions, then economic abuse by banks and now we are dealing with “elder abuse”. Not seeing that Fatherly power is sacred, power differentials in Aussie culture invariably crush the weak. And lots of pastors need to learn about such things too! What can be done? On NAIDOC Day 2018 W.A. Police Commissioner Christ Dawson said, “Today on behalf of the Western Australian police force, I would like to say sorry to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for our participation in past wrongful actions that have caused immeasurable pain and suffering,” This is wisdom born of holy fear, for Chris is an Evangelical believer. But so much for white people, there’s quite a different angle in the Spirit on all this.
Look to the Lowly Christians know that forgiving love is the most powerful force in the universe, so only a manifestation of the gospel can release a true fear of God. “Lord, if you kept a record of our sins, who, O Lord, could ever survive? 4 But you offer forgiveness, that we might learn to fear you.” (Ps 130:3-4). Forget about the halls of parliament or megachurches, the Lord works from the margins. Follow what the Spirit is doing amongst Indigenous Christians. Look for the emergence of a generation of spiritual leaders who have moved past conformity to European Christianity and past reacting against it. This will be a pioneering prophetic generation not given to ideologies of the right or left but who can hear God for themselves. Leaders holy enough in the fear of the Lord to forgive and embrace the European invaders. This is the group who can work together in unity and EQUALITY (Col 3:11) with their non-Indigenous brothers and sisters under the same Holy Father. Given so few, Indigenous and Non-Indigenous, seem ready for this, where can we start?
A Remnant
Malachi prophesied of a time when preceding the day of God’s coming “those who feared the Lord spoke with one another” (3:16-18). This gained God’s attention and acted as a model for the nation. When Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians meet together in holy fear united through the blood of the cross (Col 1:20) and worshipping the common Father (Eph 4:6) something great will break out in our land. For the healing of all. This Australia Day is an opportunity to pray together and ask our Father for a revival of such holy fear. It’s an opportunity to seek the glory of God, something qualitatively far beyond national glory or anything political power can deliver. Only a genuine death-and-resurrection transformation in the Church can bring meaningful hope and healing to our land. May Jesus share with us his fear (Acts 19:17).