Children of the Light (Yes 2023)

Background

The connection between our referendum on an Indigenous Voice to parliament and our recent World Prayer Assembly is largely unseen, though real. I have long believed in a God-appointed spiritual oversight for the Church in Perth, and one essential aspect of such an eldership includes an Indigenous leader. This respects “the first will be last and the last will be first” dynamic of the kingdom of God (Matt 19:30; 20:16). Whilst I quietly lobbied that the WPA begin with a Christian form of Welcome to Country, conservatism prevailed. Despite the muteness of most Biblically oriented churches concerning “the Voice”, all believers are called to pray diligently over for such matters (1 Tim 2:1ff). Meanwhile, the Spirit has been sharing with me some spiritual secrets (1 Cor 14:2) concerning the future of Aboriginal peoples.

The Lord Speaks

The Lord mostly speaks indirectly. The so-called “father of reconciliation”, senator Pat Dodson, once a Catholic priest, recently remarked, “We’re not in the Garden of Eden.” He described the alternative to a “yes” vote as leaving Indigenous Australians “picking up the crumbs that fall from the table, the largesse they want to give to us…”.  Dodson’s remarks recall the Syrophoenician mother’s response to Jesus’ refusal to answer her plea.  ““Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Christ responds to her faith and foresight by immediately freeing her child from a demon. That she was the first person in the Gospels to understand one of Jesus’ parables (Mark 7:24-30) was a sure sign from the Father that there were those outside of the community of Israel chosen by for salvation. The Spirit’s witness to our Indigenous peoples is just as real.

Heard It All Before

That there have been numerous national representative bodies for Indigenous people (FCAATSI; NACC; NAC; ATSIC; NCAFP) shut down by federal parliament is no secret. Additionally, we have heard again and again that their 60, 000 + years of continuous habitation makes then the oldest culture on the planet. These are intriguing facts, but not to mention their origin and preservation by our common Father (Acts 17:26-28) is sheer and grievous idolatry. “Closing the gap” is a noble motivation for the “Voice”. Currently, $39.5 bill/year spent on Indigenous affairs seems to go progressively nowhere.    Our P.M. trumpets, “the fact that an Indigenous young male has a greater chance of going to jail than university”; a full page advert in today’s West Australian reads, “I’m twice as likely to lose my baby….No gets us nowhere.” (Indigenous neonates are twice as likely to die than non-Indigenous babies due to premature birth and low birth weight.) appears opposite a half page list of doctors working with the Indigenous urging a YES vote. None of these pleas seem persuasive are to sceptical white Australians. This is because the issue is beyond the rational. I once heard a devout Pentecostal immigrant from South America remark, “Until I came to Australia, I never realised your Aboriginals were “so ugly””. Blind to her own racial prejudice, she blatantly insulted the “fearfully and wonderfully made” works of God’s Creator Spirit (Ps 139)!

Idols

Political and moral education on Indigenous affairs persistently misses the mark. This is because the level of blindness and deafness in relation to the ongoing state of the First Peoples God chose to place here can only be attributed to an idol power (Ps 115:5; 135:1; Isa 406:7; Hab 2:18). The “practical atheism” of intellectual affirmation but firm inaction (Ps 10:4; 14:1) of so many godly people reveals a level of spiritual bondage to “the elemental spirits of the universe” (Gal 4:3, 9) few are willing to face up to. Australia is such a difficult place to live in by the Spirit because we are so peaceful and prosperous. For most of us it is like the Garden of Eden. The hard truth is that the apathetic shape of our lives testifies we love our nation more than we love Christ crucified. To see things as the Lord sees them, we need a “renewal of the spirit of our minds” (Eph 4:23). Once renewed, what might such a different “seeing” look like?

Another Spirit  

Years ago, I heard a Rwandan genocide survivor testify by faith, “If we have been through so much, God must have something special for Rwanda.” Since then, revival has indeed broken out in the nation (https://www.revivalandreformation.org/resources/all/answer-to-prayer-100000-baptisms-in-rwanda). Majority Australian Christian culture utterly fails to see God’s gift of Indigenous peoples to us for national revival. To see as the Lord sees we need a “different spirit” (Num 14:24) that envisions the invisible (Rom 4:16-25; Heb 11:13, 27). This miracle of sight is a share in “the Spirit of holiness” (Rom 1:4) who raised Jesus’ broken, bruised, and bled-out body from the dead. The Spirit, hovering in the tomb for three days (cf. Gen 1:2; Deut 32:10-11) saw in advance the new Jesus in all his glory, according to the promise of the Father (1 Pet 1:3), he saw this, and then newly created it (2 Cor 5:17). This is the profound mystery of the death-and-resurrection of the Lamb of God (Rev 5:6). Only the grace of “hearts flooded with light” (Eph 1:18) can see those who are presently “hungry…thirsty…stranger…naked…sick in prison” (Matt 25:31-46) as Jesus.  This is how the gracious Father would have us see by faith the Indigenous peoples of today.

Coming of age

“for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light” (Eph 5:8 cf. Phil 2:15; 1 Thess 5:5). Prominent “Voice” activist, intellectual and ex-Lutheran Noel Pearson correctly asserts that the native peoples need the right to be able to make decisions for themselves in order to rightly be held responsible for such decisions. In the present time, treating our Fist Nations people like children, shielding them behind layers of expensive consultants, stops them ever coming of age. As far as the Church in Australia is concerned, this is nothing other than a projection of our own babylike immaturity and refusal to mature in Christ before the Lord (1 Cor 3:1-2; Heb :12-13). This must and will change!

Conclusion

God’s patience with the Australian Church, particularly its current band of leaders, is limited and coming to an end. A new type of leader is arising, young and old, because a new way of seeing reality is emerging. This “new” will in fact be “old” (1 John 2:7), for it exhibits a measure of love marked by the glory of the death-and-resurrection of the Son of God. Presently however, as part of a process of maturation, the children of God are being tested as to our ability to see in the Spirit the glorious possibilities of the future of our Indigenous peoples. Most of the Church will surely be found wanting. I therefore exhort you to “pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can see something of the future he has called you to share.” (Eph 1:18). A common future set out by the one Father, Lord and Spirit of Indigenous and non-native alike.