I believe the oldest connection to Australia that I have is a distant relative who was a member of the Rum Corps.  It was from a time when the convicts were forcibly transported here and the soldiers sent to guard them all came on ships reluctantly.

They forcibly took hold of lands that had been walked on for thousands of years by indigenous people displacing them too, as the first European settlers made Australia home.

From the time of first British landings and colonization we have had a checkered history of forced arrivals and contentious land grabs.  We have been a country which has been built on displacing peoples or receiving displaced peoples.

From displaced indigenous people and the forced immigrants both convicts and soldiers alike, to more recent years of people seeking a better and safer life, seeking refuge and asylum, ours is a country with a young history which we should never fail to forget.

As I consider the injunction of the Old Testament to welcome the alien and stranger in our midst and to ensure they are provided for I am left with perplexing questions about our current policies.  Where is the compassion? And where is the memory of our history?

This impassioned plea from a Uniting Church Minister who has Tamil origins struck a chord for me as I listened.  Let us pray for changes at home and abroad so that not only we might show a better welcome for refugees and asylum seekers as we remember our own history. But, also that the violence and discrimination that gives rise to the need to flee from other countries might also change and peace and justice reign there as well.

Reflecting on your relationship with God can help you grow in your faith, identify questions to explore and set goals for personal change. One way to do this is by keeping a Spiritual Journal.  Why not give it a go or find out more by discussing how to do it with your minister?

When it comes down to it unconditional love is often described as being at the heart of the Christian faith.  The scriptures tell us that “God is love!” In this sense Jesus himself is love incarnate.

As I reflect on this central tenant of my faith on this World Refugee Day I am also confronted by the lyrics of U2 in their song Walk On love is not the easy thing.

Love, unconditional love, is demanding.  It requires something of us.  It involves sacrifice. This reality has been the story of the martyrs through the centuries and as we contemplate the masses of refugees moving around the globe and the response of our own government (and much of the Australian population) the question can easily be asked, “where is the love?”

The movement love makes a way has already seen over 30 Christian leaders arrested for their protest and prayers for the children held in offshore processing centres.

Being God’s people call us to speak up and out in the name of the love we have experienced and to reach out to those at the margins with that very same generous love.

Can love make a way? Let us pray it is so!

In Genesis 11 the scriptures tell a story of people building the Tower of Babel and God’s response:  confusing the speech of human beings because they are too proud.

This story of the Tower of Babel, like the story of Adam and Eve, paint a picture of human beings reaching beyond themselves in ways that have negative consequences.

The confusion of languages creates uniqueness in human communities but also creates a deep divide as we struggle to understand one another.

On the day of Pentecost described in Acts chapter 2 one of the significant things we read is that people are given the ability to understand one another. Speaking in their own languages others are given the ability to hear and understand: the separation of the diversity of dialects is overcome.

It is fascinating though that people still spoke their own language.  The unique ethnicity of the communities is retained as all spoke in their own tongue whilst others understood.

Can it be that God’s gift which reverse Babel also affirms the uniqueness that had developed through the separation of languages?  What might that mean for the value we place on each other’s different cultural background and languages whilst at the same time living out the new unity given to people by the power of the Holy Spirit?

On March 18 members of the Uniting Church gathered in Canberra to pray for reconciliation between indigenous people and those who have come in recent centuries to Australia.  As people we reflected on the theme “A Destiny Together“.

Last week was the week of prayer for reconciliation in Australia and now as we approach Pentecost we are called to remember that the Spirit makes us one and that the gifts that we are given are given for the common good.

The Basis of Union of the Uniting Church contains only one direction Biblical quote acknowledging that in Jesus Christ “God was reconciling the world to himself” (2 Cor 5:19).

Understanding that we are reconciled to God and therefore also to one another as one common humanity impels us to live differently bridging all of the divisions we find entrenched in our communities and live generously towards others.

What destructive divisions are you aware of in the community around you? In what ways are you being called to the work of making visible the reconciliation already given to us in Christ?  How do you understand valuing diversity whilst not embedding divisions?

by Peter Lockhart

“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” is a thoughtful and reflective movie which on its second viewing contained as much enjoyment and insight as the first time around.  Whilst a large part of the message in the movie is the challenge to move from day dreams into new experiences, it was other more subtle messages which stood out for me.  These are deeply spiritual lessons for us.  They encourage us to live more intentionally and to value ourselves.

The first lesson comes from the photographer Sean O’Connell (played by Sean Penn) who rather than take a particular photo chooses to just be in the moment, to enjoy it, to live it.  Growing up with such quick accessibility in our phones to take a snap, even a selfie, can distract our attention from what we are doing and who we are with.  Yes we can publish our memory on Facebook, but what is our memory – the taking of a photo?  At more than one family, and also many public events, pausing to preserve the moment in pictures has all but destroyed the moment.  Can we drag our eye from behind the lens and beyond our need for perpetual publication and live more fully in the moment?

The second of the lessons which stood out is that however insignificant we might feel in our job or role in life we all contribute.   The character Walter Mitty is a negative assets manager whose job seems to be of little consequence and is derided by others.  The location of his work space is dark and separated from others, apart from his one assistant.  The rest of the workers are in open spaces filled with light.  Yet, as becomes evident in the film, his role is an integral part of a significant machine, whether others can see it or not.  In fact, for the photographer O’Connell it is Mitty who makes his work come to life by caring for and promoting his work.  In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians his description of the church as a body is an analogy not simply for the church but for all of us in life: we all contribute, we all have a part to play.  Remembering this helps us value ourselves and others!

(Spoiler alert! You may want to watch the movie prior to reading on!)

Finally, you never know when you are someone else’s cover story.   The movie culminates in wonderful scene where the photo described as the quintessence of life, the final cover photo for Life Magazine, is a photo of Mitty outside the magazine’s offices working in the sunlight.  Without knowing it he had been the cover story, the example, even the hero for O’Connell.  As insignificant as he may have thought he was, as irrelevant as others treated him, he was an example and hero to someone else.  The reality is that none of us can really know who it is that might be looking at us in this way.  We may not think ourselves worthy of it but it happens whether we intent it or not – we are all witnesses to how to live and what life is about.

As you think upon your own life: Are you able to live in the moment?  Do you see yourself as part of an integrated whole?  And, who do you look to to be a part of the cover story of your life and, even more importantly, who is it that might be looking at you?