1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,840 The world is becoming wealthier and wealthier. 2 00:00:02,840 --> 00:00:08,320 Since the turn of the century, the net worth of many countries in the West and in Asia has tripled. 3 00:00:08,320 --> 00:00:09,760 Poverty rates have fallen. 4 00:00:09,760 --> 00:00:13,760 Life expectancy has increased by more than six years. 5 00:00:13,760 --> 00:00:17,440 At the same time, the divide between rich and poor has increased, 6 00:00:17,440 --> 00:00:22,080 with the richest 1% owning almost 50% of all the world's wealth. 7 00:00:22,080 --> 00:00:28,080 5 to 10% of people still live in extreme poverty, even in the most affluent nations. 8 00:00:28,080 --> 00:00:33,040 Furthermore, while money can buy happiness, it can only do so up to a certain point. 9 00:00:33,040 --> 00:00:37,360 Wealthier people are more likely to be less generous and less kind to others. 10 00:00:37,360 --> 00:00:40,880 So how, as Christians, should we think about affluence? 11 00:00:40,880 --> 00:00:44,800 Is material prosperity a blessing or a curse or both? 12 00:00:44,800 --> 00:00:49,920 Given the state of the world and income equality, what do we do with the riches God has given us? 13 00:00:49,920 --> 00:00:54,480 At our 2024 August event, Michael Jensen, rector of St Mark's Anglican Darling Point, 14 00:00:54,480 --> 00:00:58,400 helped us to see our earthly treasure the way our Heavenly Father does. 15 00:00:58,400 --> 00:01:02,960 In this episode, we bring you the audio from that event, minus the Q&A segment, 16 00:01:02,960 --> 00:01:08,720 which you can find on our website, ccl.moore.edu.au. 17 00:01:08,720 --> 00:01:25,600 We hope you find Michael's talk helpful as you think about the blessings that God has bestowed on you. 18 00:01:28,880 --> 00:01:31,200 Well, good evening, everyone, and welcome. 19 00:01:31,200 --> 00:01:40,000 Good evening and a very warm welcome to Moore College and this Centre for Christian Living event. 20 00:01:40,640 --> 00:01:45,280 My name is Peter Orr and I'm on the faculty here at Moore College. 21 00:01:45,280 --> 00:01:49,360 Warm welcome to you if you're in the room, but also a very warm welcome to you 22 00:01:49,360 --> 00:01:51,440 if you are watching online. 23 00:01:52,400 --> 00:01:59,920 Our topic this evening is affluent and Christian material goods, the King and the Kingdom. 24 00:01:59,920 --> 00:02:04,640 And we're very privileged that we have Michael Jensen, good friend to many of us, 25 00:02:04,640 --> 00:02:08,960 coming to speak on this topic and we'll introduce Michael in a moment. 26 00:02:09,520 --> 00:02:13,040 This is the third of our live events for 2024. 27 00:02:13,520 --> 00:02:19,440 And the Centre for Christian Living exists to bring biblical teaching, particularly biblical, 28 00:02:19,440 --> 00:02:22,720 ethical teaching to everyday issues. 29 00:02:22,720 --> 00:02:29,520 And this year, our four live events have explored the idea of culture creep. 30 00:02:29,520 --> 00:02:33,840 It's the idea that's expressed in the Apostle Paul's letter to the Romans 31 00:02:33,840 --> 00:02:37,040 when he warns them against being conformed to the world. 32 00:02:37,040 --> 00:02:43,200 So thinking about different areas where as Christians we might be tempted to conform to the world. 33 00:02:43,200 --> 00:02:49,120 And this year, we've already looked at technology, we've looked at sex, 34 00:02:49,120 --> 00:02:53,040 and tonight we're thinking about wealth. 35 00:02:53,040 --> 00:02:54,480 And Michael has joined us. 36 00:02:54,480 --> 00:03:01,840 We were meant to have another speaker, Emma Penzo, but unfortunately family emergency has kept her away. 37 00:03:02,640 --> 00:03:08,240 I'll introduce Michael in a moment, but I thought I'd begin by just reading those two verses from Romans 38 00:03:08,240 --> 00:03:10,880 and praying and committing our time to the Lord. 39 00:03:10,880 --> 00:03:12,400 So this is what the Apostle Paul says. 40 00:03:12,400 --> 00:03:20,080 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, 41 00:03:20,080 --> 00:03:22,960 holy and pleasing to God. 42 00:03:22,960 --> 00:03:26,160 This is your true and proper worship. 43 00:03:26,160 --> 00:03:33,040 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. 44 00:03:33,840 --> 00:03:38,080 Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, 45 00:03:38,080 --> 00:03:42,640 his good, pleasing and perfect will. 46 00:03:42,640 --> 00:03:44,000 Let me pray. 47 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:48,800 Our Father, we thank you so much for this time when we can meet together or be online 48 00:03:48,800 --> 00:03:51,680 and think about this important topic. 49 00:03:51,680 --> 00:03:57,280 We do pray for Michael as he leads us through this teaching. 50 00:03:57,280 --> 00:04:00,320 Please help him as he speaks, strengthen him. 51 00:04:00,320 --> 00:04:03,120 Please help us to listen carefully. 52 00:04:03,120 --> 00:04:08,400 And we pray that by your spirit, you would change our hearts for your glory. 53 00:04:08,400 --> 00:04:10,160 We ask it in Jesus' name. 54 00:04:10,160 --> 00:04:10,800 Amen. 55 00:04:11,760 --> 00:04:16,000 But I might ask us to welcome Michael as he comes up and I'll just ask him a few questions. 56 00:04:21,040 --> 00:04:25,040 Michael, you are the rector of Sir Mark's Darling Point. 57 00:04:25,040 --> 00:04:25,680 Correct. 58 00:04:25,680 --> 00:04:26,800 Great. 59 00:04:26,800 --> 00:04:31,760 You also are a host of a podcast with Megan Powell, 60 00:04:31,760 --> 00:04:36,080 Megan Powell Du Toit, called With All Due Respect. 61 00:04:36,080 --> 00:04:36,560 That's correct. 62 00:04:36,560 --> 00:04:38,000 Can you just tell us a little bit about your podcast? 63 00:04:39,040 --> 00:04:43,600 The podcast is aiming to model what we find so hard in society in general, 64 00:04:43,600 --> 00:04:47,440 and also within the evangelical movement, I think, and the evangelical church too. 65 00:04:47,440 --> 00:04:50,720 And then it's conversations about serious topics with respect, 66 00:04:50,720 --> 00:04:55,680 curiosity, and to advance our understanding in that way without completely dismissing 67 00:04:55,680 --> 00:04:57,040 or showing contempt for the other. 68 00:04:58,160 --> 00:05:00,080 That takes you to some risky places, 69 00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:03,840 but we find we perhaps agree sometimes more than we expect to. 70 00:05:03,840 --> 00:05:08,000 So we're 116 episodes in and haven't punched each other yet. 71 00:05:08,560 --> 00:05:11,360 Before your time at Mark's, you were here at Moore College. 72 00:05:11,360 --> 00:05:13,920 Before that, you did a PhD at Oxford. 73 00:05:13,920 --> 00:05:17,120 And then before that, you also had some time at Moore College. 74 00:05:17,120 --> 00:05:17,840 Yes. 75 00:05:17,840 --> 00:05:19,680 And you actually lectured me. 76 00:05:20,560 --> 00:05:21,280 I did. 77 00:05:21,280 --> 00:05:24,880 And you actually marked one of my essays. 78 00:05:24,880 --> 00:05:28,880 I just thought since I had you, I could just ask you a little bit more information about 79 00:05:28,880 --> 00:05:29,600 some of the comments. 80 00:05:29,600 --> 00:05:31,120 This is so unfair. 81 00:05:31,120 --> 00:05:34,480 So one comment here is you've said about me, 82 00:05:34,480 --> 00:05:38,000 sometimes your criticism was more rhetorical than substantial. 83 00:05:39,200 --> 00:05:39,760 Yeah. 84 00:05:39,760 --> 00:05:43,600 And then another place you put, I think you're perhaps a little too sanguine about 85 00:05:43,600 --> 00:05:45,200 the strength of your conclusions. 86 00:05:45,200 --> 00:05:49,520 Now, I do have a real reason for mentioning this. 87 00:05:49,520 --> 00:05:53,200 I won't read it out, but somewhere in this essay, I think you're perhaps a little too 88 00:05:53,200 --> 00:05:54,800 sanguine about the strength of your conclusions. 89 00:05:54,800 --> 00:05:59,840 I won't read it out, but somewhere in this essay, I made a slightly sarcastic comment 90 00:05:59,840 --> 00:06:01,840 about someone that I was engaging with. 91 00:06:02,320 --> 00:06:05,840 And Michael, you wrote, this is an inappropriate tone. 92 00:06:05,840 --> 00:06:06,560 Yeah, right. 93 00:06:06,560 --> 00:06:10,000 And in all seriousness, I have remembered that. 94 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:14,960 And it sort of flows into your podcast, this idea of engaging with people that you might 95 00:06:14,960 --> 00:06:17,360 not agree with everything, but to do it with respect. 96 00:06:17,360 --> 00:06:21,840 So jokes aside, I still have this and that little comment has stuck with me. 97 00:06:21,840 --> 00:06:22,800 You want me to upgrade it? 98 00:06:22,800 --> 00:06:23,300 Yeah. 99 00:06:23,680 --> 00:06:28,400 So there are many things for Michael, but that's one that has particularly stuck with me. 100 00:06:28,400 --> 00:06:30,000 Sorry to embarrass you, put you on the spot. 101 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:31,600 I didn't tell him I was going to do that. 102 00:06:31,600 --> 00:06:34,080 You are speaking on the topic of wealth. 103 00:06:34,080 --> 00:06:38,640 All of Sydney in global terms is wealthy, but you minister in perhaps a particularly wealthy 104 00:06:38,640 --> 00:06:40,400 area of a very wealthy city. 105 00:06:40,400 --> 00:06:42,000 What are some of the complexities? 106 00:06:42,000 --> 00:06:43,440 Yeah, I think we should be honest about it. 107 00:06:43,440 --> 00:06:47,360 It's the wealthiest area in a wealthy city in a wealthy country. 108 00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:51,520 So in world terms, it is one of the wealthiest spots. 109 00:06:51,520 --> 00:06:55,840 My parish includes Darling Point and Double Bay and Point Piper. 110 00:06:55,840 --> 00:07:00,640 And so you don't want to see what the record breaking house prices are there. 111 00:07:00,640 --> 00:07:06,640 And that comes with its own joys and privileges and also difficulties because spiritually, 112 00:07:06,640 --> 00:07:09,280 it's hard not to believe you're in heaven already. 113 00:07:09,280 --> 00:07:11,520 You really are on a day like today. 114 00:07:11,520 --> 00:07:13,040 You go down to the harbour. 115 00:07:13,040 --> 00:07:14,000 Things look marvelous. 116 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:15,120 It's sparkling. 117 00:07:15,760 --> 00:07:20,240 And you have a nice lunch at Margaret and then you walk around. 118 00:07:20,240 --> 00:07:21,360 It's fantastic. 119 00:07:21,360 --> 00:07:23,920 It's hard not to believe that you're in heaven already. 120 00:07:24,480 --> 00:07:29,440 But that wealth, that affluence can actually conceal deeper questions. 121 00:07:29,440 --> 00:07:32,080 And so it's interesting talking to the undertakers. 122 00:07:32,080 --> 00:07:35,440 Being a minister, I do a lot of funerals and I get to talk to funeral directors. 123 00:07:36,080 --> 00:07:40,720 And they would say that suicide remains a very big issue even in our area, especially 124 00:07:40,720 --> 00:07:43,200 amongst men in their 50s, which is my age. 125 00:07:43,840 --> 00:07:50,160 And I find the existential pain is there even though it's concealed behind high and beautiful 126 00:07:50,160 --> 00:07:50,660 walls. 127 00:07:50,660 --> 00:07:55,620 And that's another reason why it's very important for us to consider this topic. 128 00:07:55,620 --> 00:07:56,900 So thank you for coming. 129 00:07:56,900 --> 00:07:57,860 I'll hand over to you. 130 00:07:57,860 --> 00:07:58,340 Thanks. 131 00:07:58,340 --> 00:07:58,900 Thank you. 132 00:07:58,900 --> 00:08:00,740 Well, thank you very much, Peter. 133 00:08:00,740 --> 00:08:04,980 And from the Centre for Christian Living for the invitation, it's great to like to be here 134 00:08:04,980 --> 00:08:10,820 and a joy to be back at both the college I studied at and taught at for so long and lived 135 00:08:10,820 --> 00:08:14,180 at as a child because as some of you will know, my father was a principal here. 136 00:08:14,180 --> 00:08:17,060 So I actually grew up in this area. 137 00:08:17,060 --> 00:08:21,860 I want to start by talking about coffee and about Germans and their coffee. 138 00:08:21,860 --> 00:08:28,420 So Germans do love their coffee and historically have the citizens, though, of East Germany 139 00:08:28,420 --> 00:08:33,380 was separated politically from West Germany from 1945 to 1989. 140 00:08:34,420 --> 00:08:37,540 They still shared a love of coffee in common. 141 00:08:38,260 --> 00:08:43,780 Now, Katja Hoyer, who's a historian, she's the author of recent history of East Germany. 142 00:08:43,780 --> 00:08:49,220 I really enjoyed listening to this on Audible, so I couldn't reach for a copy of it, unfortunately. 143 00:08:49,220 --> 00:08:50,660 But it's worth getting and reading. 144 00:08:50,660 --> 00:08:52,660 I think it's called Beyond the Wall. 145 00:08:52,660 --> 00:08:56,580 And it tells that surprising tale of East Germany. 146 00:08:56,580 --> 00:09:03,220 She explained in an interview that coffee is for Germans like tea is for Britons, a regular 147 00:09:03,220 --> 00:09:07,620 and comforting ritual, part of a civilized and stable life. 148 00:09:07,620 --> 00:09:13,620 It was a sign of a certain level of affluence as it is today, a simple luxury good that 149 00:09:13,620 --> 00:09:15,940 depends on a global economy. 150 00:09:16,660 --> 00:09:20,340 You might be facing nuclear war, but at least you had coffee. 151 00:09:21,380 --> 00:09:26,340 Now, that's why the 1970s worldwide coffee crisis. 152 00:09:26,340 --> 00:09:30,580 And I know the idea of a coffee crisis probably has some more college students gulping. 153 00:09:30,580 --> 00:09:32,420 But could that happen again? 154 00:09:32,420 --> 00:09:38,500 Apparently, there was a black blight in Brazil, which spoiled the coffee harvest in the mid 70s. 155 00:09:38,500 --> 00:09:42,340 And it really hit the communist nation extremely hard. 156 00:09:42,340 --> 00:09:46,740 Coffee had to be bought from other suppliers at competitive rates. 157 00:09:46,740 --> 00:09:51,700 And East Germany didn't have the cash to do that, to supply its population. 158 00:09:52,420 --> 00:09:57,060 We can only imagine what it would be like for there to be a coffee shortage in Sydney. 159 00:09:58,340 --> 00:10:02,980 The government became afraid that this shortage would lead to civil unrest. 160 00:10:03,780 --> 00:10:08,980 There had been a few human rights protests over the years, but nothing too alarming. 161 00:10:08,980 --> 00:10:14,500 You could take away someone's freedom of speech or their right to free movement, 162 00:10:14,500 --> 00:10:16,740 but don't take away their coffee. 163 00:10:17,540 --> 00:10:20,900 The East German government then had to think of other alternatives. 164 00:10:20,900 --> 00:10:28,180 So it came up with a kind of horrible chicory barley mix as a coffee substitute. 165 00:10:28,180 --> 00:10:34,900 Can you imagine it came in packets and it sort of clung to the filter paper and tasted horrible. 166 00:10:34,900 --> 00:10:37,700 But at least it was sort of black like coffee, I suppose. 167 00:10:37,700 --> 00:10:42,660 It became known as Eric's brew after the East German leader, Eric Honecker. 168 00:10:43,300 --> 00:10:47,300 It wasn't easy to protest in East Germany because that was suppressed, 169 00:10:47,860 --> 00:10:52,900 but more than 14,000 letters were written to the government complaining about this dreadful coffee. 170 00:10:53,860 --> 00:10:54,900 But why did it matter? 171 00:10:55,940 --> 00:11:00,900 People were used to bad services and queues, latenesses and shortages of goods. 172 00:11:00,900 --> 00:11:06,820 They were okay with waiting a decade for a trebant car, which is an awful car. 173 00:11:06,820 --> 00:11:11,620 Okay. Just to give you the picture, but they had been promised their coffee as a sign that 174 00:11:11,620 --> 00:11:15,220 their living standards were as good as those of their West German cousins. 175 00:11:15,860 --> 00:11:20,580 If you had West German relatives, you could be sent some precious coffee as a present. 176 00:11:20,580 --> 00:11:23,540 But then what did you have to send them in return? 177 00:11:23,540 --> 00:11:28,420 The traditional return gift was stolen cake, you know, stolen cake, fruit cake. 178 00:11:28,420 --> 00:11:29,780 There wasn't enough fruit. 179 00:11:29,780 --> 00:11:33,780 So you couldn't even bribe your cousins in West Germany to send you proper coffee. 180 00:11:33,780 --> 00:11:39,940 Their anger rather than the urzats coffee was what was brewing. 181 00:11:41,220 --> 00:11:42,260 So what was to be done? 182 00:11:42,260 --> 00:11:46,500 You can't grow coffee in Germany, but you could somewhere warmer, 183 00:11:46,500 --> 00:11:52,660 but it had to be a place that was sympathetic to the communist German Democratic Republic. 184 00:11:52,660 --> 00:11:59,300 So they went to Vietnam, newly liberated, newly free of the Vietnam War in 1976. 185 00:11:59,300 --> 00:12:00,900 The American soldiers had left. 186 00:12:00,900 --> 00:12:06,420 Now it was a communist government and they started to plant coffee plantations there. 187 00:12:07,060 --> 00:12:12,820 But the first yield of Vietnamese coffee wasn't due until the early 1990s. 188 00:12:13,940 --> 00:12:19,620 In 1989, as good students of history will know, the East German state collapsed 189 00:12:19,620 --> 00:12:24,020 and East Germans were able to drink a good cup of coffee at last, 190 00:12:24,020 --> 00:12:26,580 but not the Vietnamese brew that they'd been expecting. 191 00:12:26,580 --> 00:12:31,860 Now this of course is too simplistic an explanation of a major historical event, 192 00:12:31,860 --> 00:12:35,860 but like saying that World War I was caused by train timetables, 193 00:12:35,860 --> 00:12:42,020 as a famous historian once did, crediting a lack of coffee for the fall of East Germany 194 00:12:42,020 --> 00:12:47,860 points to a deeper explanation, which in turn reveals something about the world in which we live today. 195 00:12:48,740 --> 00:12:55,060 For example, a historian, Gary Cross writes that in reality, the fall of communism had more to do 196 00:12:55,060 --> 00:12:59,540 with the appeals of capitalist consumerism than political democracy. 197 00:13:00,340 --> 00:13:07,300 Now I don't want to demean the bravery of human rights activists or the impact that they had, 198 00:13:07,300 --> 00:13:13,220 or to underestimate the profound impact of the famous peace prayers conducted in Leipzig's 199 00:13:13,220 --> 00:13:16,180 Nikolai Kirchherr through the 70s and 80s. 200 00:13:16,180 --> 00:13:20,820 In fact, you should read the story of that amazing Christian witness 201 00:13:20,820 --> 00:13:23,220 in the midst of East Germany in those times. 202 00:13:23,220 --> 00:13:30,180 But it was Levi's as much as Liberty that most moved the East German masses in 1989, 203 00:13:30,180 --> 00:13:34,980 or perhaps the Liberty to buy Levi's instead of the government issued alternative. 204 00:13:35,860 --> 00:13:42,660 Whatever its high ideals, liberal democracy turns out to be powerful because it's the best way for 205 00:13:42,660 --> 00:13:51,380 people to access the consumer economy and with it, a share of affluence, which for us today, 206 00:13:51,380 --> 00:13:54,740 as much as back then means a good cup of coffee. 207 00:13:56,020 --> 00:14:01,860 Now I tell this story not to judge or sneer at East Germans, but as an illustration of the meaning 208 00:14:01,860 --> 00:14:04,500 and the power of affluence in our world. 209 00:14:05,300 --> 00:14:11,220 The desire for affluence can tear down walls and silence the guns of war. 210 00:14:12,020 --> 00:14:14,340 It can reunite a once divided nation. 211 00:14:14,340 --> 00:14:18,580 It can transcend boundaries of race and color and creed. 212 00:14:18,580 --> 00:14:21,620 So what is this magical thing called affluence? 213 00:14:22,980 --> 00:14:29,460 Well, the first task of Christian ethics and sometimes the hardest task is to describe well 214 00:14:29,460 --> 00:14:35,060 what we see, not for us to be quick to judge, but actually to describe well, 215 00:14:35,060 --> 00:14:40,260 to be alert to what is going on around us, lest our judgment be askewed so we can see 216 00:14:40,260 --> 00:14:41,700 what's actually before us. 217 00:14:42,260 --> 00:14:46,260 I have to admit when I was first asked to give this lecture, I was unsure what my particular 218 00:14:46,260 --> 00:14:51,060 qualification for giving it was until I remembered that I'm the rector of a church in the most 219 00:14:51,060 --> 00:14:56,420 affluent area in Australia, which is, as I said before, one of the most affluent nations in the 220 00:14:56,420 --> 00:14:56,920 world. 221 00:14:57,780 --> 00:15:02,180 So I am surrounded in affluence, if anyone is. 222 00:15:02,180 --> 00:15:08,500 I'm swimming in it, which means that it's taken some conscious effort for me to think about what 223 00:15:08,500 --> 00:15:10,020 affluence actually is. 224 00:15:10,020 --> 00:15:15,620 I'm acutely conscious of my enmeshment in affluence, even as I give this talk and the 225 00:15:15,620 --> 00:15:21,060 possibility that I may sound like I'm speaking from some superior moral height, I most certainly 226 00:15:21,060 --> 00:15:21,620 am not. 227 00:15:22,740 --> 00:15:23,780 Now, what is affluence? 228 00:15:23,780 --> 00:15:25,940 Affluence is not just wealth. 229 00:15:25,940 --> 00:15:27,940 It's not simply dollars. 230 00:15:28,660 --> 00:15:32,580 Affluence properly describes more than what we have in the bank. 231 00:15:32,580 --> 00:15:36,820 It says something about the freedom and opportunities that wealth affords. 232 00:15:36,820 --> 00:15:41,380 It names access to a lifestyle way beyond the basics of survival. 233 00:15:41,380 --> 00:15:47,460 Indeed, we may say that an affluent person doesn't have to think about the basics of 234 00:15:47,460 --> 00:15:48,420 survival. 235 00:15:48,420 --> 00:15:49,940 They are not naked. 236 00:15:49,940 --> 00:15:51,380 They are not starving. 237 00:15:51,380 --> 00:15:53,060 And they are not thirsty. 238 00:15:53,060 --> 00:15:56,900 Shelter and safety are for them givens. 239 00:15:56,900 --> 00:16:03,140 Beyond this, an affluent person can assume access to a good level of affordable health 240 00:16:03,140 --> 00:16:06,980 care and a decent level of education. 241 00:16:06,980 --> 00:16:12,100 Although individuals are certainly affluent, affluence is better suited, I think, as a 242 00:16:12,100 --> 00:16:15,700 description of communities, societies, even nations. 243 00:16:16,500 --> 00:16:23,060 We could speak of very affluent people in extremely poor countries, but we can also 244 00:16:23,060 --> 00:16:28,500 speak of affluent societies in which even people with very different levels of income 245 00:16:28,500 --> 00:16:35,060 may be fairly described as affluent because they have a share in the wealth and wellbeing 246 00:16:35,060 --> 00:16:36,900 of the society in which they live. 247 00:16:36,900 --> 00:16:39,940 Just in the last week, I visited someone in social housing. 248 00:16:40,820 --> 00:16:47,860 And the market value of their brand new apartment in an inner city suburb would be many times 249 00:16:47,860 --> 00:16:49,620 what they could literally afford. 250 00:16:49,620 --> 00:16:51,460 And they're quite well aware of this. 251 00:16:51,460 --> 00:16:54,100 He says he's the luckiest man alive. 252 00:16:54,100 --> 00:16:59,860 Since our wealthy society can put its poor in relatively good accommodation. 253 00:16:59,860 --> 00:17:03,860 Now, of course, up in Redfern and Waterloo, there's less salubrious accommodation. 254 00:17:03,860 --> 00:17:08,340 But that's an example where I think we've done very well by those who don't have much. 255 00:17:09,300 --> 00:17:12,740 Now, I'm certainly not one of the wealthiest people in my suburb. 256 00:17:14,100 --> 00:17:16,340 I take down the average income, that's for sure. 257 00:17:17,140 --> 00:17:21,300 But I would describe myself as benefiting from the wealth of the rich. 258 00:17:21,300 --> 00:17:26,420 But I would describe myself as benefiting hugely from the collective affluence of the 259 00:17:26,420 --> 00:17:27,300 local community. 260 00:17:28,340 --> 00:17:35,140 My access to specialist health care, reliable public transport, quality educational choices 261 00:17:35,140 --> 00:17:41,940 for my children, cultural institutions, the media and in other parts of our society too, 262 00:17:41,940 --> 00:17:48,980 media, law, politics, recreational facilities and social clubs is extraordinary. 263 00:17:48,980 --> 00:17:55,620 I also have access to people with their hands on the levers of power, CEOs of major banks, 264 00:17:55,620 --> 00:17:58,260 politicians, judges and more. 265 00:17:59,060 --> 00:18:03,620 The local culture is also affluent in terms of what you might call social capital. 266 00:18:04,100 --> 00:18:08,820 It's easy to get a habit of healthy living in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. 267 00:18:09,620 --> 00:18:12,820 Levels of obesity are not large, sorry for the pun. 268 00:18:13,380 --> 00:18:14,820 People eat well. 269 00:18:15,620 --> 00:18:17,540 That's their habit to eat well. 270 00:18:17,540 --> 00:18:19,380 They exercise frequently. 271 00:18:19,380 --> 00:18:21,380 They are obsessed with exercise. 272 00:18:22,020 --> 00:18:23,540 They hardly ever smoke. 273 00:18:23,540 --> 00:18:28,820 It's really noticeable if you smell a cigarette in the eastern suburbs because people know 274 00:18:28,820 --> 00:18:30,100 it's bad for you. 275 00:18:30,500 --> 00:18:32,260 They even have great teeth. 276 00:18:33,300 --> 00:18:36,500 They are at least outwardly optimistic. 277 00:18:37,060 --> 00:18:38,820 Longevity seems normal. 278 00:18:39,540 --> 00:18:43,780 People can expect 20 or even 30 years of active life in retirement. 279 00:18:43,780 --> 00:18:48,820 I can easily think of eight or nine people well into their 90s that I know and some in 280 00:18:48,820 --> 00:18:49,860 their hundreds. 281 00:18:50,900 --> 00:18:56,740 To sum up what I've said thus far, affluence names not just wealth but a lifestyle. 282 00:18:57,700 --> 00:19:00,260 It's not just individual but social. 283 00:19:00,980 --> 00:19:07,460 Affluence means access, access to desirable things, good things like health and health 284 00:19:07,460 --> 00:19:11,460 care, leisure and education and more access to the public. 285 00:19:11,460 --> 00:19:15,620 And education and more access to the benefits of the consumer economy. 286 00:19:16,340 --> 00:19:20,500 The story of East German coffee, however, shows some other things about affluence. 287 00:19:21,140 --> 00:19:24,180 The first is that affluence is usually a relative term. 288 00:19:24,900 --> 00:19:29,140 To live in East Germany in the 50s and 60s wasn't all bad. 289 00:19:29,140 --> 00:19:34,180 In fact, Katja Royer, she shows that in East Germany they were doing better in some respects 290 00:19:34,180 --> 00:19:35,860 than they were in the UK. 291 00:19:35,860 --> 00:19:41,380 There were still people living in houses without their own toilet in the north of the UK. 292 00:19:41,380 --> 00:19:47,460 Well, that wasn't the case so much in East Germany in the 1950s, even after the devastation 293 00:19:47,460 --> 00:19:48,980 of the Second World War. 294 00:19:48,980 --> 00:19:51,220 They recovered very speedily. 295 00:19:51,220 --> 00:19:52,660 It was something of a miracle. 296 00:19:52,660 --> 00:19:55,140 It was very well governed in that way. 297 00:19:55,140 --> 00:19:59,540 They were in advance of their West German cousins in the 50s and 60s in terms of access 298 00:19:59,540 --> 00:20:04,500 to education, the rights of women and in several other economic markers. 299 00:20:04,500 --> 00:20:10,740 It was certainly better to live in East Germany at almost any time than it was in, say, Ethiopia. 300 00:20:11,700 --> 00:20:18,500 However, the planned economy of the GDR could not keep up with the West and the nation became 301 00:20:18,500 --> 00:20:20,500 relatively less affluent. 302 00:20:20,980 --> 00:20:26,660 It was more affluent than pre-war Germany, but less affluent than its contemporaries. 303 00:20:26,660 --> 00:20:29,380 So in relative terms, historically it was doing quite well. 304 00:20:30,100 --> 00:20:34,420 But in relative terms, when you looked over the Berlin Wall, you could see that 305 00:20:34,420 --> 00:20:40,340 you could see what the other half was doing, what everyone else had, and that had a marked effect. 306 00:20:41,940 --> 00:20:45,460 And this leads to the second observation that I think this story tells us, that affluence 307 00:20:45,460 --> 00:20:46,820 is an enviable state. 308 00:20:47,700 --> 00:20:49,780 It's enviable for modern human beings. 309 00:20:50,340 --> 00:20:53,300 To be affluent is greatly to be desired. 310 00:20:53,940 --> 00:20:56,420 If you aren't affluent, then you certainly want to be. 311 00:20:57,460 --> 00:21:00,900 And this is where we start to move from description to judgment. 312 00:21:00,900 --> 00:21:04,260 When I said to my Bible study group, my Kinect group, hello to those watching 313 00:21:04,260 --> 00:21:08,900 online, that I was giving a talk on affluence, one of their first reactions was, 314 00:21:08,900 --> 00:21:11,220 oh, you're just going to make us feel guilty, aren't you? 315 00:21:12,260 --> 00:21:13,460 We're just going to feel guilty. 316 00:21:14,340 --> 00:21:18,180 It was as if in even addressing this topic, we were walking into a prison from which we 317 00:21:18,180 --> 00:21:18,980 couldn't escape. 318 00:21:19,700 --> 00:21:25,220 I think this was an instructive reaction because it raises the thought that my affluence 319 00:21:25,780 --> 00:21:30,820 may be a matter for moral reflection and even better, particular moral action. 320 00:21:30,820 --> 00:21:34,500 I may be affluent precisely because others are not. 321 00:21:35,220 --> 00:21:40,500 My affluence may have a particular moral quality to it or make a particular moral demand on me. 322 00:21:41,140 --> 00:21:43,140 And so what if I am affluent? 323 00:21:43,140 --> 00:21:43,860 What then? 324 00:21:44,740 --> 00:21:46,340 We'll return to that reaction. 325 00:21:46,340 --> 00:21:51,380 So I think again, one of the things Christian ethicists saw to do is to interrogate their 326 00:21:51,380 --> 00:21:53,460 instincts, their instinctive reactions. 327 00:21:53,460 --> 00:21:56,660 Those intuitions are not a nothing in the moral field. 328 00:21:56,660 --> 00:21:58,580 They give us some moral evidence. 329 00:21:58,580 --> 00:22:01,620 And we ought to interrogate those instinctive reactions. 330 00:22:01,620 --> 00:22:02,580 We will come back to it. 331 00:22:02,580 --> 00:22:08,100 But we haven't described affluence properly unless we make some historical observations 332 00:22:08,100 --> 00:22:08,660 first. 333 00:22:08,660 --> 00:22:12,420 I want to point to, I think the points get shorter from here, so don't worry. 334 00:22:13,220 --> 00:22:15,380 We'll make some historical observations then. 335 00:22:15,380 --> 00:22:19,700 The Bible talks a great deal about wealth and the wealthy, about prosperity as a blessed 336 00:22:19,700 --> 00:22:23,460 state, but also about the spiritual dangers of riches. 337 00:22:23,460 --> 00:22:28,900 But before we apply what scripture says or consider it, we need to know what the particular 338 00:22:28,900 --> 00:22:33,700 features of modern affluence are, for they are very unusual. 339 00:22:34,740 --> 00:22:41,380 In his book, Remaking the World, how 1776 created the post-Christian West, I've got to 340 00:22:41,380 --> 00:22:47,380 hear, magnificent book and highly recommend it, theologian Andrew Wilson describes how 341 00:22:47,380 --> 00:22:53,300 massive social, cultural, technological and political changes at the end of the 18th century 342 00:22:53,300 --> 00:22:55,940 have made the world weirder. 343 00:22:55,940 --> 00:22:57,460 That's all in capitals. 344 00:22:57,460 --> 00:22:59,220 It's an acronym he's using. 345 00:22:59,220 --> 00:23:00,820 And this is what it stands for. 346 00:23:00,820 --> 00:23:09,780 Weirder stands for Western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic, ex-Christian and romantic. 347 00:23:09,780 --> 00:23:15,940 So Western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic, ex-Christian and romantic. 348 00:23:15,940 --> 00:23:23,060 Now in his chapter entitled Prophets, he says this, the most significant impact of the late 349 00:23:23,060 --> 00:23:28,340 18th century on world history will surely be the transformation in health, wealth and 350 00:23:28,340 --> 00:23:30,340 prosperity that it launched. 351 00:23:30,340 --> 00:23:36,820 Economic historians called it the great escape, the great divergence, the great enrichment 352 00:23:36,820 --> 00:23:38,820 or the European miracle. 353 00:23:38,820 --> 00:23:42,340 The rest of us know it as normal life. 354 00:23:42,340 --> 00:23:45,380 We take economic growth for granted. 355 00:23:45,380 --> 00:23:49,460 We're kind of shocked and surprised and disappointed and angry at governments when we don't experience 356 00:23:49,460 --> 00:23:53,380 economic growth, when growth slows down or when we have a recession. 357 00:23:53,380 --> 00:23:58,900 But the truth is economic growth as we've experienced it is anything but normal. 358 00:23:58,900 --> 00:24:05,140 I have to say actually we experienced unparalleled period of prosperity between the 1980s and 359 00:24:05,140 --> 00:24:10,020 between the great financial crisis of the 2008, 2007 sort of era. 360 00:24:10,020 --> 00:24:15,620 That was an extraordinary period of upswings, upticks in global affluence. 361 00:24:15,620 --> 00:24:22,340 But that goes back to the beginning of this period that Andrew Wilson names. 362 00:24:22,340 --> 00:24:27,940 And what he says is the reality is for most of human history, humankind was caught in a loop. 363 00:24:27,940 --> 00:24:32,980 For every advance in productivity and in wealth, a rise of population would follow which would 364 00:24:32,980 --> 00:24:34,980 soon swallow up the benefit. 365 00:24:34,980 --> 00:24:40,420 You'd come up with some advance in agriculture, produce more food, have more babies, more 366 00:24:40,420 --> 00:24:44,100 babies would eat more food and then growth would stall. 367 00:24:44,100 --> 00:24:50,980 As a result, gross domestic product has barely changed between the age of King David, maybe 368 00:24:50,980 --> 00:24:54,180 a thousand BC and William Shakespeare. 369 00:24:54,180 --> 00:25:01,780 We today consume more than 70 times the goods and services than human beings did two centuries 370 00:25:01,780 --> 00:25:03,780 ago. 371 00:25:03,780 --> 00:25:09,460 Even though the population of the earth has multiplied, it is dwarfed by the rise in 372 00:25:09,460 --> 00:25:11,460 consumption in that period. 373 00:25:11,460 --> 00:25:14,500 Now I'm not an economic historian or an economist. 374 00:25:14,500 --> 00:25:18,500 I did economics for the HSC but I can't remember any of it. 375 00:25:18,500 --> 00:25:24,740 Neither is Wilson but it is scarcely debatable that no matter what standard we use, humankind 376 00:25:24,740 --> 00:25:29,700 is massively more prosperous than we were before the 1770s. 377 00:25:29,700 --> 00:25:32,100 One particular measure is fascinating. 378 00:25:32,100 --> 00:25:40,100 Until the 19th century, life expectancy globally, and of course this is estimates because records 379 00:25:40,100 --> 00:25:45,540 are sketchy, right, of course, but global life expectancy before the 19th century was 380 00:25:45,540 --> 00:25:48,820 estimated to be 25 to 30 years. 381 00:25:48,820 --> 00:25:53,220 Today, globally, it is more than 70. 382 00:25:53,220 --> 00:25:55,220 Of course in our nation, it's something like 84. 383 00:25:55,220 --> 00:25:59,060 So it will certainly be the early 80s depending if you're a man or a woman. 384 00:25:59,060 --> 00:26:01,060 Women still outlive men. 385 00:26:01,060 --> 00:26:06,980 Isaiah prophesied, you might remember in Isaiah 66, he said, never again will there be in 386 00:26:06,980 --> 00:26:11,860 the world an infant who lives but a few days or an old man who does not live out his years. 387 00:26:11,860 --> 00:26:14,900 The one who dies at 100 will be thought a mere child. 388 00:26:14,900 --> 00:26:19,460 The one who fails to reach 100 will be considered accursed. 389 00:26:19,460 --> 00:26:26,980 And we're not there yet but we're considerably closer to it than we were in 1776. 390 00:26:26,980 --> 00:26:29,580 We're not a lot far off. 391 00:26:29,580 --> 00:26:31,780 Why has this come about? 392 00:26:31,780 --> 00:26:35,740 Wilson suggests that there have been four broad answers given to this question, namely 393 00:26:35,740 --> 00:26:40,580 institutions, greed, culture, and geography. 394 00:26:40,580 --> 00:26:42,340 Institutions, greed, culture, and geography. 395 00:26:42,340 --> 00:26:48,260 Now, with the father of modern economics, Adam Smith, Wilson shows that solid legal 396 00:26:48,260 --> 00:26:54,380 and governmental frameworks promoted innovation and investment, provided guarantees and protections 397 00:26:54,380 --> 00:26:56,700 for those who are willing to risk their money. 398 00:26:56,700 --> 00:26:57,700 That's institutions. 399 00:26:57,700 --> 00:27:01,980 So good institutions, really important if you're going to have economic growth. 400 00:27:01,980 --> 00:27:06,660 But it's also true that the great enrichment has occurred on account of the looting of 401 00:27:06,660 --> 00:27:11,480 Africa, Asia, South America, and Australia by Europeans. 402 00:27:11,480 --> 00:27:16,940 As Wilson writes, much as we might want to, we cannot disentangle the story of modern 403 00:27:16,940 --> 00:27:23,800 economic growth from the guns, resource extraction, enslavement, and death. 404 00:27:23,800 --> 00:27:29,420 That spells out greed, guns, resource extraction, enslavement, and death that made much of it 405 00:27:29,420 --> 00:27:31,540 possible. 406 00:27:31,540 --> 00:27:37,360 You can tell the story without that aspect of it but it's not sufficient on its own. 407 00:27:37,360 --> 00:27:41,940 For European culture had also experienced a number of changes which had made it more 408 00:27:41,940 --> 00:27:44,660 open to the new rather than mired in tradition. 409 00:27:44,660 --> 00:27:49,900 It was already possessed of a middle class that was literate, ambitious, and curious. 410 00:27:49,900 --> 00:27:51,140 So that's culture. 411 00:27:51,140 --> 00:27:52,540 We have institutions. 412 00:27:52,540 --> 00:27:53,540 We have greed. 413 00:27:53,540 --> 00:27:55,220 We have culture. 414 00:27:55,220 --> 00:27:57,940 And then lastly, we have geography. 415 00:27:57,940 --> 00:28:03,220 And Wilson, along with others, reflects that Europe has benefited from being both divided 416 00:28:03,220 --> 00:28:05,140 and united all at once. 417 00:28:05,140 --> 00:28:10,080 So since the 17th century, it's been kind of divided into smaller competitive states 418 00:28:10,080 --> 00:28:12,580 rather than one clumsy, slow moving empire. 419 00:28:12,580 --> 00:28:20,820 And though there were violent flare ups between the end of the Napoleonic Wars, 1815 and 1914, 420 00:28:20,820 --> 00:28:26,100 the Western European powers enjoyed an unprecedented period of peace between them. 421 00:28:26,100 --> 00:28:33,180 At the same time, Christianity provided something of a common currency between them that enabled, 422 00:28:33,180 --> 00:28:37,460 facilitated both competition but also elements of trust. 423 00:28:37,460 --> 00:28:42,420 Now okay, so we've got institutions, greed, culture, and geography explaining this great 424 00:28:42,420 --> 00:28:47,240 expansion in prosperity and affluence in the last couple of centuries. 425 00:28:47,240 --> 00:28:50,840 But I want to just say I'm not going to pretend that this cursory overview that I've given 426 00:28:50,840 --> 00:28:56,140 in just a few minutes is sufficient to explain the causes of contemporary affluence. 427 00:28:56,140 --> 00:28:59,980 And we could perhaps do some more reflecting on that a bit later. 428 00:28:59,980 --> 00:29:06,420 But I think we should know with Wilson, the moral ambiguity of the great enrichment. 429 00:29:06,420 --> 00:29:11,220 The great enrichment has been the cause of hugely increased living standards across the 430 00:29:11,220 --> 00:29:12,580 globe. 431 00:29:12,580 --> 00:29:17,740 This heralded huge improvements in the lives of billions of people. 432 00:29:17,740 --> 00:29:22,140 People are alive today that would not have been alive in the past because of the great 433 00:29:22,140 --> 00:29:23,140 enrichment. 434 00:29:23,140 --> 00:29:27,140 I had appendicitis when I was 17. 435 00:29:27,140 --> 00:29:35,300 Likely in a previous era, I would be dead before the rise of antibiotics. 436 00:29:35,300 --> 00:29:37,460 Yet now you'd never think of anyone dying. 437 00:29:37,460 --> 00:29:43,140 You'd be utterly shocked if someone died of appendicitis. 438 00:29:43,140 --> 00:29:48,820 I heard of a man in the 1930s, he was a relative of Dr. Knox, a former principal here, who 439 00:29:48,820 --> 00:29:51,780 died from an infected pimple. 440 00:29:51,780 --> 00:29:53,820 Infection spread, again no antibiotics. 441 00:29:53,820 --> 00:29:58,160 Again, that is an astonishing thing to think of in our world. 442 00:29:58,160 --> 00:30:03,620 We should not be naive about this or forget just what benefits the great enrichment has 443 00:30:03,620 --> 00:30:06,840 brought to our world. 444 00:30:06,840 --> 00:30:11,540 Even if there is inequality, because the base standard of living is so much higher, the 445 00:30:11,540 --> 00:30:16,420 worst impacts of unequal wealth distribution are somewhat mitigated. 446 00:30:16,420 --> 00:30:23,260 However, the affluence we enjoy was built on the seizure of land and resources, the 447 00:30:23,260 --> 00:30:28,700 enslavement of peoples, and we should add very often at the expense of the earth itself. 448 00:30:28,700 --> 00:30:33,940 It's vital to note that moral ambiguity because so many contemporary culture war accounts 449 00:30:33,940 --> 00:30:36,420 tend to be so lopsided. 450 00:30:36,420 --> 00:30:43,060 They're either defenders of colonialism and capitalism or they're its greatest critics. 451 00:30:43,060 --> 00:30:45,020 They've got nothing good to say about it. 452 00:30:45,020 --> 00:30:51,340 Either capitalism and colonialism are demonic or they're instruments of divine blessing. 453 00:30:51,340 --> 00:30:56,060 Both of these takes are, I think, the result of ideology more than anything else. 454 00:30:56,060 --> 00:31:01,040 That brings us back to our feelings of unease because I think we ought both recognize the 455 00:31:01,040 --> 00:31:06,540 benefits we have from the great enrichment but can't possibly reckon with the moral cost 456 00:31:06,540 --> 00:31:08,340 of the past either. 457 00:31:08,340 --> 00:31:13,220 Furthermore, through the spread of information technology, we are perhaps more aware of the 458 00:31:13,220 --> 00:31:18,840 inequality of people's experience of the great enrichment but feel helpless to do anything 459 00:31:18,840 --> 00:31:21,380 about it. 460 00:31:21,380 --> 00:31:22,380 Think about our unease. 461 00:31:22,380 --> 00:31:24,020 Why do we feel uneasy? 462 00:31:24,020 --> 00:31:27,540 Well, what are affluent Christians to do? 463 00:31:27,540 --> 00:31:31,940 To help, I'd like to enlist the work of a great theologian and pastor of the church, 464 00:31:31,940 --> 00:31:35,060 Basil of Caesarea, known as Basil the Great. 465 00:31:35,060 --> 00:31:40,300 He wasn't christened Basil the Great, of course, title bestowed on him by history. 466 00:31:40,300 --> 00:31:47,660 Now, Basil was born around 330 AD in the region of Cappadocia in what we now know as Turquia, 467 00:31:47,660 --> 00:31:48,880 central Turquia. 468 00:31:48,880 --> 00:31:54,380 He came from a wealthy and prominent noble family that was also well known as Christians. 469 00:31:54,380 --> 00:31:56,660 It's quite an extraordinary tale. 470 00:31:56,660 --> 00:31:57,900 Think of this family, right? 471 00:31:57,900 --> 00:32:03,140 The grandmother, father, and mother were all made saints and there were nine brothers and 472 00:32:03,140 --> 00:32:08,700 sisters and Basil and three of his brothers and sisters were made saints as well. 473 00:32:08,700 --> 00:32:10,380 It's quite a family. 474 00:32:10,380 --> 00:32:14,860 His spiritual teacher was perhaps the most saintly of all, St. Macrina the Younger, who 475 00:32:14,860 --> 00:32:20,740 founded monasteries and lived an exemplary life and was his tutor for much of his life 476 00:32:20,740 --> 00:32:21,740 too. 477 00:32:21,740 --> 00:32:24,780 He records that, as did his brother Gregory of Nyssa. 478 00:32:24,780 --> 00:32:28,980 As a young man from a wealthy family, he had the privilege of an education in which he 479 00:32:28,980 --> 00:32:30,660 excelled. 480 00:32:30,660 --> 00:32:36,220 He had also all the pleasures of that, the recreation available to wealthy people in 481 00:32:36,220 --> 00:32:37,220 that era. 482 00:32:37,220 --> 00:32:43,740 However, Basil was deeply impacted by the parable of the rich young ruler who was told 483 00:32:43,740 --> 00:32:48,700 by Jesus to go sell all your possessions and give your money to the poor. 484 00:32:48,700 --> 00:32:51,900 This is what he read when he opened the gospels. 485 00:32:51,900 --> 00:32:57,680 And so this is what Basil himself did, especially during the time of a great famine that visited 486 00:32:57,680 --> 00:33:03,420 Caesarea in the 360s, by which time he had become a parish priest. 487 00:33:03,420 --> 00:33:09,580 It was there he'd also become known as a preacher and a kind of founder of Christian communities. 488 00:33:09,580 --> 00:33:14,820 Now it's from several of his sermons that we can hear the pastor theologian Basil speaking 489 00:33:14,820 --> 00:33:18,500 to the rich about their affluence. 490 00:33:18,500 --> 00:33:22,340 I think if I preach these sermons at St Mark's, I'd be turned out. 491 00:33:22,340 --> 00:33:26,080 They're pretty strong stuff. 492 00:33:26,080 --> 00:33:32,300 With the help of his modern translator, Paul Schroeder, we can highlight three major theological 493 00:33:32,300 --> 00:33:35,500 themes that he outlines in his preaching on wealth. 494 00:33:35,500 --> 00:33:39,220 Firstly, what Schroeder calls the limited resource paradigm. 495 00:33:39,220 --> 00:33:44,660 So firstly, for Basil, the problem with the rich young ruler was not that he was too attached 496 00:33:44,660 --> 00:33:50,900 to worldly things, but that he was failing to love his neighbour as himself. 497 00:33:50,900 --> 00:33:51,900 It was a failure of love. 498 00:33:51,900 --> 00:33:54,900 It was not the worldly things in and of themselves. 499 00:33:54,900 --> 00:34:00,660 It was the possession of those things limited or not displaying his neighbour love. 500 00:34:00,660 --> 00:34:06,580 In a sermon called To the Rich, he says, if what you say is true, that you have kept from 501 00:34:06,580 --> 00:34:11,580 your youth the commandment of love and have given to everyone the same as to yourself, 502 00:34:11,580 --> 00:34:15,540 then how did you come by this abundance of wealth? 503 00:34:15,540 --> 00:34:18,060 So what should those with wealth do? 504 00:34:18,060 --> 00:34:23,560 Basil believed that God had provided enough in the creation to meet the needs of everyone. 505 00:34:23,560 --> 00:34:28,440 If there is a lack of necessary things, he says, it's because there has not been an equitable 506 00:34:28,440 --> 00:34:32,160 distribution of the things that God has given. 507 00:34:32,160 --> 00:34:37,560 The problem is not with God's provision of things, but without clinging to them. 508 00:34:37,560 --> 00:34:41,860 In preaching on the parable of the rich fool who intends to build bigger barns for his 509 00:34:41,860 --> 00:34:48,460 hoard, he says, if we all took only what was necessary to satisfy our own needs, giving 510 00:34:48,460 --> 00:34:54,300 the rest to those who lack, no one would be rich, no one would be poor, and no one would 511 00:34:54,300 --> 00:34:56,300 be in need. 512 00:34:56,300 --> 00:35:01,060 Love of neighbour, he says, requires that we adopt a way of life that ensures that everyone 513 00:35:01,060 --> 00:35:03,780 has enough. 514 00:35:03,780 --> 00:35:09,480 And so he urges us to a simplicity of lifestyle rather than to lavishness, not because good 515 00:35:09,480 --> 00:35:15,520 things aren't good, but to ensure there is enough available for all. 516 00:35:15,520 --> 00:35:18,660 He tears strips from conspicuous consumers. 517 00:35:18,660 --> 00:35:21,820 I mean, it's remarkable how contemporary he sounds here. 518 00:35:21,820 --> 00:35:28,380 He says, you gorgeously array your walls, but do not clothe your fellow human beings. 519 00:35:28,380 --> 00:35:31,620 You know, I met a guy whose job it is in the Eastern South, it's to go around and hang 520 00:35:31,620 --> 00:35:34,020 people's paintings. 521 00:35:34,020 --> 00:35:39,660 And his whole life he goes and hangs your paintings on your wall for you. 522 00:35:39,660 --> 00:35:43,900 So you know where you put your Brett Whiteley and your etc. 523 00:35:43,900 --> 00:35:45,840 That's a whole job. 524 00:35:45,840 --> 00:35:51,020 You adore horses, but you turn away from the shameful plight of your brother and sister. 525 00:35:51,020 --> 00:35:55,340 You allow grain to rot in your barns, but you do not feed those who are starving. 526 00:35:55,340 --> 00:35:59,660 You hide gold in the earth, but ignore the oppressed. 527 00:35:59,660 --> 00:36:05,020 That does not limit to the resources, but we do. 528 00:36:05,020 --> 00:36:08,460 So the second theme is what Schrader calls the distributive mandate. 529 00:36:08,460 --> 00:36:13,460 That is, Basil calls upon those of us who have a surplus to our actual needs to redistribute 530 00:36:13,460 --> 00:36:15,360 it to those who have less. 531 00:36:15,360 --> 00:36:19,140 But we might say at this point, yes, but what is my actual need? 532 00:36:19,140 --> 00:36:20,140 How do I know? 533 00:36:20,140 --> 00:36:24,480 Now it's easy for this to become a sliding definition. 534 00:36:24,480 --> 00:36:30,380 This is where Basil's sermon on the foolish rich man calls us out. 535 00:36:30,380 --> 00:36:36,180 For he notes how often we redefine our needs to account for our surpluses. 536 00:36:36,180 --> 00:36:43,200 That is, we commit our extras to our needs and then find ourselves with nothing to share. 537 00:36:43,200 --> 00:36:47,420 Like the rich fool, we tear our barns down to build bigger ones. 538 00:36:47,420 --> 00:36:54,820 For in Eastern suburbs terms, we renovate the renovations we've just renovated. 539 00:36:54,820 --> 00:36:59,220 Basil anticipates the way in which we convince ourselves that wealth is necessary for rearing 540 00:36:59,220 --> 00:37:04,540 children by calling this a spacious excuse for greed. 541 00:37:04,540 --> 00:37:09,140 He really skewers this and you hear this all the time, that I excuse my accumulation of 542 00:37:09,140 --> 00:37:14,020 affluence because I'm looking after my children or the number of children I'm having is limited 543 00:37:14,020 --> 00:37:18,700 by the lifestyle I want to have for myself and give to my children. 544 00:37:18,700 --> 00:37:23,300 But we excuse everything in our society because of the children, it turns out. 545 00:37:23,300 --> 00:37:28,280 Our problem is that often because of our own spending decisions, we don't feel affluent 546 00:37:28,280 --> 00:37:32,700 even though we are, because we've redefined need. 547 00:37:32,700 --> 00:37:37,300 Because we're committed to private schooling for our children, quality holidays and to 548 00:37:37,300 --> 00:37:38,300 owning our own home. 549 00:37:38,300 --> 00:37:41,060 I'm going to put my hand up to all of those. 550 00:37:41,060 --> 00:37:45,140 The average Australian family is under enormous financial pressure. 551 00:37:45,140 --> 00:37:50,740 That both parents work in a family with children is no longer a sign of freedom, but a necessity 552 00:37:50,740 --> 00:37:53,620 for economic survival in our city. 553 00:37:53,620 --> 00:37:59,340 We actually have limited the freedom of choice for members of a family to work or not, rather 554 00:37:59,340 --> 00:38:01,420 than expanded it. 555 00:38:01,420 --> 00:38:02,740 So what does Basil suggest? 556 00:38:02,740 --> 00:38:07,500 Well, this brings us to the third of his themes, the conversion to sociality. 557 00:38:07,500 --> 00:38:08,740 What does that mean? 558 00:38:08,740 --> 00:38:14,220 For Basil, God made the world and its benefits in order to be shared. 559 00:38:14,220 --> 00:38:18,480 Human selfishness is a mark of the fallenness of the world. 560 00:38:18,480 --> 00:38:21,900 Not that he says everyone should have exactly the same or that there is something wrong 561 00:38:21,900 --> 00:38:24,700 with private property per se. 562 00:38:24,700 --> 00:38:29,860 Rather human beings are given private property to use in God's service and in the service 563 00:38:29,860 --> 00:38:31,300 of others. 564 00:38:31,300 --> 00:38:35,440 Basil asks us, tell me, what is your own? 565 00:38:35,440 --> 00:38:37,460 What did you bring into this life? 566 00:38:37,460 --> 00:38:40,240 And where did you receive it? 567 00:38:40,240 --> 00:38:46,020 This changes our approach marvelously to what we have since we cannot see it as a right, 568 00:38:46,020 --> 00:38:47,540 but as a blessing. 569 00:38:47,540 --> 00:38:53,020 We receive it then not begrudgingly, but with thanksgiving, which means we may use what 570 00:38:53,020 --> 00:38:55,860 we have to be a blessing to others. 571 00:38:55,860 --> 00:38:59,460 Having received it joyfully, we may give it away joyfully. 572 00:38:59,460 --> 00:39:01,960 We may deploy it joyfully. 573 00:39:01,960 --> 00:39:04,340 God distributes things unequally. 574 00:39:04,340 --> 00:39:09,460 Basil is not embarrassed about that, by the way, but not so that we would keep those things, 575 00:39:09,460 --> 00:39:16,060 but so that we might receive the reward and enjoy the benefit of sharing them around. 576 00:39:16,060 --> 00:39:20,200 It is more blessed to give than to receive. 577 00:39:20,200 --> 00:39:23,900 This is treasure in heaven, as Jesus puts it. 578 00:39:23,900 --> 00:39:29,660 Earthly treasure has its use, but chiefly in order to gain stocks of the heavenly treasure, 579 00:39:29,660 --> 00:39:33,500 so that as we die, we are decked out, not like the pharaohs with their positions, but 580 00:39:33,500 --> 00:39:36,780 garlanded with our generous deeds. 581 00:39:36,780 --> 00:39:42,860 In Christ, God is calling everyone to become truly social human beings, formed not to accumulate 582 00:39:42,860 --> 00:39:49,700 possessions and experiences, but to use them to care for others, to build relationships 583 00:39:49,700 --> 00:39:55,860 rather than to destroy them, to break down divisions rather than to build them up. 584 00:39:55,860 --> 00:40:00,420 And this is where we might bring out the gospel of God's grace to us in Jesus Christ, which 585 00:40:00,420 --> 00:40:05,580 is rather more implicit in Basil's sermons than explicitly stated. 586 00:40:05,580 --> 00:40:11,420 The gospel is premised on God's prior ownership of all things, including us. 587 00:40:11,420 --> 00:40:20,180 His total affluence, we might say, God is a God of abundance, but exceedingly rich in 588 00:40:20,180 --> 00:40:23,540 mercy, as Ephesians chapter 2 says. 589 00:40:23,540 --> 00:40:28,820 In the famous passage from 2 Corinthians 8-9, beloved of rectors, preached every year, at 590 00:40:28,820 --> 00:40:34,500 least once, 2 Corinthians 8-9, when we're trying to raise money for the following year. 591 00:40:34,500 --> 00:40:39,900 But we hear there how the gospel of Christ's sacrificial love is an example for us in loving 592 00:40:39,900 --> 00:40:42,620 use of affluence. 593 00:40:42,620 --> 00:40:47,700 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake 594 00:40:47,700 --> 00:40:53,580 he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. 595 00:40:53,580 --> 00:41:00,100 Like Paul, I mean it takes a prosperity doctrine preacher to twist that thought, by the way, 596 00:41:00,100 --> 00:41:05,260 to understand the last use of the word rich, that we might become rich in a non-spiritual 597 00:41:05,260 --> 00:41:08,180 way, in a quite literal way. 598 00:41:08,180 --> 00:41:15,020 Of course it doesn't mean that, it means rich in the spiritual sense through Christ's poverty. 599 00:41:15,020 --> 00:41:20,180 Like Paul, Basil saw the generosity of God as the constitutional basis for a new community, 600 00:41:20,180 --> 00:41:26,260 but not by competition and acquisitiveness, not by the building of high walls to keep 601 00:41:26,260 --> 00:41:31,460 envious neighbours from looking and perhaps stealing, but by the sharing of burdens and 602 00:41:31,460 --> 00:41:34,940 the caring of one another's needs. 603 00:41:34,940 --> 00:41:36,540 Well so what then? 604 00:41:36,540 --> 00:41:41,980 In Romans chapter 12 verse 2, as we began tonight, we heard that Paul calls us there 605 00:41:41,980 --> 00:41:46,980 to not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but to be transformed by the renewing 606 00:41:46,980 --> 00:41:48,900 of your mind. 607 00:41:48,900 --> 00:41:55,140 In terms of our affluence, what might transformed non-conformity look like? 608 00:41:55,140 --> 00:42:01,820 Well firstly, it will mean being shaped by the sovereign mercy of God. 609 00:42:01,820 --> 00:42:06,300 We do need to return to that guilty feeling, we experience it being prosperous, and the 610 00:42:06,300 --> 00:42:11,300 perception that follows it, that we cannot possibly untangle the web of wealth and the 611 00:42:11,300 --> 00:42:15,740 inequality of its distribution that we see on the face of the earth. 612 00:42:15,740 --> 00:42:20,740 What can one say when confronted by the vast scale of child poverty, just to name one form 613 00:42:20,740 --> 00:42:22,920 of it, on the planet? 614 00:42:22,920 --> 00:42:28,420 When we see the disparity of wealth, when we reckon that yes, in general, we might say 615 00:42:28,420 --> 00:42:33,580 affluence on the globe has been lifted for most people, and yet some people still live 616 00:42:33,580 --> 00:42:38,620 as if it is before 1776 and they are at the bottom of the pile. 617 00:42:38,620 --> 00:42:42,540 Or even when you hear the statistics regarding the gap in our society between the experience 618 00:42:42,540 --> 00:42:48,660 of indigenous peoples and everyone else, everything I've said about longevity is not true for 619 00:42:48,660 --> 00:42:52,180 indigenous people even living in our cities. 620 00:42:52,180 --> 00:42:57,980 I think one of the problems is the contemporary way of speaking about global problems. 621 00:42:57,980 --> 00:43:04,340 It resorts to ascribing guilt without giving us a way out of that feeling. 622 00:43:04,340 --> 00:43:10,260 It's a politically motivated blame game, easily weaponized for ideological purposes, but ultimately 623 00:43:10,260 --> 00:43:12,340 futile to change anything. 624 00:43:12,340 --> 00:43:16,700 This is because it is not guilt that ultimately motivates, but grace. 625 00:43:16,700 --> 00:43:21,980 The blame game leads either to denial or to despair. 626 00:43:21,980 --> 00:43:25,460 How else can we existentially cope with it? 627 00:43:25,460 --> 00:43:31,460 How can we bear with the problems of the world if we examine them too closely? 628 00:43:31,460 --> 00:43:37,460 And so better, we might say, to hide in our affluent cul-de-sacs and not encounter a 629 00:43:37,460 --> 00:43:42,820 lack of affluence or the disparity of affluence because that's just too hard. 630 00:43:42,820 --> 00:43:48,020 But the gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ liberates us from this. 631 00:43:48,020 --> 00:43:53,540 We need not deny that we've benefited from and even contributed to the dark side of affluence. 632 00:43:53,540 --> 00:43:56,740 Indeed, we must not do that. 633 00:43:56,740 --> 00:43:59,600 But neither are we the saviours of the world. 634 00:43:59,600 --> 00:44:02,500 Only one human being is qualified for that role. 635 00:44:02,500 --> 00:44:09,700 Our task is obedience to his call, but only within the scope of our creaturely limitations. 636 00:44:09,700 --> 00:44:14,620 When we recall again and again the grace of God, we will find the freedom and joy in sharing 637 00:44:14,620 --> 00:44:17,460 of our abundance with those who don't have. 638 00:44:17,460 --> 00:44:24,380 Now, I don't want to be misheard here as arguing for a kind of quietism or giving up or just 639 00:44:24,380 --> 00:44:28,180 giving up on the world's problems and not acting, not doing what actually is demanded 640 00:44:28,180 --> 00:44:29,180 of us here. 641 00:44:29,180 --> 00:44:34,900 We are counseling a shrug of our shoulders, we must develop God's heart for the poor. 642 00:44:34,900 --> 00:44:41,380 We cannot read the scriptures, hear the teaching of Jesus Christ and be deaf to that. 643 00:44:41,380 --> 00:44:44,980 Basil would harangue us about that, rightly. 644 00:44:44,980 --> 00:44:50,100 But precisely because we're not God, we're free to anticipate the final coming of the 645 00:44:50,100 --> 00:44:54,060 kingdom without having to die for the sins of the world. 646 00:44:54,060 --> 00:44:59,420 Indeed, history tells us that alternative would-be saviours leave the world awash with 647 00:44:59,420 --> 00:45:02,860 blood, not their own. 648 00:45:02,860 --> 00:45:07,420 We should be shaped by the sovereign mercy of God, liberated indeed by it. 649 00:45:07,420 --> 00:45:13,660 But secondly, we should consider the danger of our affluence and consider it very seriously. 650 00:45:13,660 --> 00:45:18,340 We need to be alert to the spiritual dangers of what we own. 651 00:45:18,340 --> 00:45:21,280 To be affluent is undoubtedly a blessing. 652 00:45:21,280 --> 00:45:25,780 We are showered in good things and we shouldn't ever say it's not good, right? 653 00:45:25,780 --> 00:45:27,140 This is good. 654 00:45:27,140 --> 00:45:28,140 Good is good. 655 00:45:28,140 --> 00:45:32,580 I think it's one of the difficulties I have is that in an affluent congregation, affluent 656 00:45:32,580 --> 00:45:39,460 area is people thinking I'm going to say that good things are bad or that having good experiences 657 00:45:39,460 --> 00:45:40,460 are not good. 658 00:45:40,460 --> 00:45:44,340 I need to name them for the good that they are. 659 00:45:44,340 --> 00:45:48,780 But they're only reflections of the ultimate good. 660 00:45:48,780 --> 00:45:53,620 Our affluence in it of goodness can offer us a seductive illusion and I know that it 661 00:45:53,620 --> 00:45:54,940 does this. 662 00:45:54,940 --> 00:46:01,940 In exceeding our needs in some areas, affluence obscures our true need, which is for reconciliation 663 00:46:01,940 --> 00:46:03,580 with our Creator. 664 00:46:03,580 --> 00:46:09,500 It offers us a kingdom of heaven no more real than East German coffee mix. 665 00:46:09,500 --> 00:46:14,820 Our desire for affluence and its trappings enslaves us to patterns of life that ultimately 666 00:46:14,820 --> 00:46:21,260 mean that others have less than they need and it makes us miserable. 667 00:46:21,260 --> 00:46:27,320 And it especially makes young people glued to Instagram utterly miserable, all the mental 668 00:46:27,320 --> 00:46:28,980 health professionals are saying. 669 00:46:28,980 --> 00:46:35,840 At one level, being affluent means access to a whole raft of mental health problems 670 00:46:35,840 --> 00:46:40,820 that are unknown where we don't have so much, which is curious, isn't it? 671 00:46:40,820 --> 00:46:44,160 I think this is increasingly becoming the situation. 672 00:46:44,160 --> 00:46:50,260 We desire to consume to find out that we are consumed. 673 00:46:50,260 --> 00:46:54,520 Basil would have us take a careful inventory of our actual needs. 674 00:46:54,520 --> 00:46:58,740 What have I redefined as a need that is actually surplus? 675 00:46:58,740 --> 00:47:03,620 He would have us live more simply so that we can afford the luxury and find the joy 676 00:47:03,620 --> 00:47:06,940 in being generous. 677 00:47:06,940 --> 00:47:13,260 See being generous as our luxury, as our joy, our hobby, our recreation. 678 00:47:13,260 --> 00:47:15,740 We need to get out of our bubbles of affluence. 679 00:47:15,740 --> 00:47:20,060 This again came up in my connect group as we considered affluence last week. 680 00:47:20,060 --> 00:47:25,140 Affluent communities can seduce us into thinking that a level of affluence is normal. 681 00:47:25,140 --> 00:47:27,340 It's only what everyone else has. 682 00:47:27,340 --> 00:47:31,460 A friend of mine's daughter came back from school utterly gutted that she wasn't going 683 00:47:31,460 --> 00:47:33,740 on a destination holiday. 684 00:47:33,740 --> 00:47:37,980 They weren't going skiing in Aspen, Colorado. 685 00:47:37,980 --> 00:47:42,940 They were only going to New Zealand. 686 00:47:42,940 --> 00:47:47,500 I don't feel extravagant if everyone in my world has the same things as me. 687 00:47:47,500 --> 00:47:52,820 But when I genuinely encounter those who have less, I'm given the chance to see that life 688 00:47:52,820 --> 00:47:59,620 exists without all the things that I have perfectly well, perhaps even more happily. 689 00:47:59,620 --> 00:48:03,160 This is more than simply popping your head through the curtain to see what it's like 690 00:48:03,160 --> 00:48:06,860 to sit in economy class for a few minutes. 691 00:48:06,860 --> 00:48:10,860 And being part of the Church of Jesus Christ should give us unique opportunities for this 692 00:48:10,860 --> 00:48:12,780 experience. 693 00:48:12,780 --> 00:48:18,900 Finding real relationships across levels of affluence is a deep spiritual challenge, 694 00:48:18,900 --> 00:48:23,620 but a real expression of the transformative power of the gospel and a counter to the pattern 695 00:48:23,620 --> 00:48:32,100 of the world, which likes to segment us off, divide us, keep us all in gated, whether literally 696 00:48:32,100 --> 00:48:35,500 or metaphorically gated communities. 697 00:48:35,500 --> 00:48:40,420 And so my encouragement to us as Christian communities is to ask, do we actually encounter 698 00:48:40,420 --> 00:48:45,620 through our church experience people of different levels of affluence? 699 00:48:45,620 --> 00:48:50,660 And of course, it's more difficult, perhaps you might say, where we live in the eastern 700 00:48:50,660 --> 00:48:51,660 suburbs. 701 00:48:51,660 --> 00:48:56,700 However, just a minute walking distance away is Darlinghurst, St John's Darlinghurst, and 702 00:48:56,700 --> 00:49:00,900 some of the people doing it the absolute toughest in Sydney. 703 00:49:00,900 --> 00:49:06,220 So it's really important ministry to us that our partner parish, St John's Darlinghurst, 704 00:49:06,220 --> 00:49:12,780 has in keeping us spiritually real, keeping us aware of the quality and volume of what 705 00:49:12,780 --> 00:49:17,140 we actually have in seeing those who have much less than us. 706 00:49:17,140 --> 00:49:23,540 I wonder what partnerships your church community could foster that might help you as a community 707 00:49:23,540 --> 00:49:30,100 foster as I say, real relationships, real connections with people who have less. 708 00:49:30,100 --> 00:49:32,460 Thirdly, we need to consider the purpose. 709 00:49:32,460 --> 00:49:37,060 So that's the danger of our affluence, affluence, not effluence. 710 00:49:37,060 --> 00:49:38,060 Sorry about that. 711 00:49:38,060 --> 00:49:43,020 We do have a better quality of effluence over where we were affluent, might say, has more 712 00:49:43,020 --> 00:49:46,940 cocaine in it, apparently. 713 00:49:46,940 --> 00:49:48,860 Why did I say that? 714 00:49:48,860 --> 00:49:50,260 The purpose of it is true. 715 00:49:50,260 --> 00:49:52,380 The purpose of our affluence, what is it? 716 00:49:52,380 --> 00:49:57,820 Well, lastly, Basil has helped to remind us that we've been made affluent for a purpose. 717 00:49:57,820 --> 00:50:02,180 Our affluence should cause us to praise and give thanks to God since it's a blessing that 718 00:50:02,180 --> 00:50:03,620 comes from him. 719 00:50:03,620 --> 00:50:08,620 The pattern of the world is to say that we are affluent because we deserve to be or are 720 00:50:08,620 --> 00:50:10,020 entitled to be. 721 00:50:10,020 --> 00:50:11,580 I have to say that's easy to say. 722 00:50:11,580 --> 00:50:16,580 I mean, a lot of what I'm saying you could have said yourself, but actually doing this 723 00:50:16,580 --> 00:50:18,220 is the challenge, isn't it? 724 00:50:18,220 --> 00:50:19,220 Right? 725 00:50:19,220 --> 00:50:20,580 I mean, I find this the case. 726 00:50:20,580 --> 00:50:24,060 Of course, I don't deserve to have what I have. 727 00:50:24,060 --> 00:50:27,660 And yet I deep down do believe that it's the case. 728 00:50:27,660 --> 00:50:32,900 I educate my children to believe that hard work is rewarded. 729 00:50:32,900 --> 00:50:35,780 Those who work hardest are richest. 730 00:50:35,780 --> 00:50:38,700 Feels really hard not to pass that on. 731 00:50:38,700 --> 00:50:43,940 And you know, with it comes the almost karmic belief that those who have less are what they 732 00:50:43,940 --> 00:50:48,540 are because they are morally of less worth than me. 733 00:50:48,540 --> 00:50:51,940 That's an instinctive, deeply rooted thought that we have. 734 00:50:51,940 --> 00:50:54,920 And that's the pattern of the world. 735 00:50:54,920 --> 00:50:57,900 That is not a Christian take on affluence by any stretch. 736 00:50:57,900 --> 00:51:03,020 Rather, our affluence is given to us as a gift which affords us particular opportunities 737 00:51:03,020 --> 00:51:05,580 for serving God in the fallen world. 738 00:51:05,580 --> 00:51:07,140 This is not just with our dollars. 739 00:51:07,140 --> 00:51:10,540 And I really hope this has come across as that affluence isn't just our dollars, but 740 00:51:10,540 --> 00:51:15,860 our access, our whole quality of life, our privilege, our access to things. 741 00:51:15,860 --> 00:51:21,300 We are given these so they might be a blessing to all, not so that we might bury them. 742 00:51:21,300 --> 00:51:26,740 This is not simply about the distribution of funds, but about the extension of the love 743 00:51:26,740 --> 00:51:31,460 of Christ that comes to us in the gospel and that we are to radiate. 744 00:51:31,460 --> 00:51:36,980 We're given the church as a new community within which we are to practice koinonia, 745 00:51:36,980 --> 00:51:42,380 the fellowship of sharing our blessings with one another as the early church did. 746 00:51:42,380 --> 00:51:48,300 As Jesus said to his disciples, freely you have received, freely then give. 747 00:51:48,300 --> 00:51:53,420 That is a sign that the kingdom of heaven is near. 748 00:51:53,420 --> 00:52:00,180 Thank you very much. 749 00:52:00,180 --> 00:52:01,180 Thank you very much, Michael. 750 00:52:01,180 --> 00:52:03,700 I'm going to pray and then we'll conclude. 751 00:52:03,700 --> 00:52:08,100 Our Father, we thank you for challenging us tonight. 752 00:52:08,100 --> 00:52:17,620 We thank you for the teaching of your word, which does confront our world and its priorities 753 00:52:17,620 --> 00:52:20,220 and which searches our own hearts. 754 00:52:20,220 --> 00:52:26,180 And Father, as we consider our own lives, we do pray that we would yield to the prompting 755 00:52:26,180 --> 00:52:29,620 of your Holy Spirit as he has opened your word tonight. 756 00:52:29,620 --> 00:52:35,980 And we do pray that each of us, as we are able, would be marked by generosity that loves 757 00:52:35,980 --> 00:52:40,300 our neighbour more than ourselves and loves you and honors you. 758 00:52:40,300 --> 00:52:42,300 And we ask you in Jesus' name. 759 00:52:42,300 --> 00:53:10,020 Amen. 760 00:53:10,020 --> 00:53:12,340 Our culture is obsessed with identity. 761 00:53:12,340 --> 00:53:17,060 We're often told, you do you and encouraged to live according to our true and authentic 762 00:53:17,060 --> 00:53:21,220 self, expressing publicly how we feel about ourselves internally. 763 00:53:21,220 --> 00:53:26,480 However, the very idea of personal identity is inherently slippery. 764 00:53:26,480 --> 00:53:32,380 It encompasses things like ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, religion, belief, educational 765 00:53:32,380 --> 00:53:35,960 background, profession and personality, but it's not fixed. 766 00:53:35,960 --> 00:53:40,660 Our identity can change through time and circumstance and even self-invention. 767 00:53:40,660 --> 00:53:43,620 So how as Christians should we regard identity? 768 00:53:43,620 --> 00:53:46,380 God created us as unique individuals. 769 00:53:46,380 --> 00:53:49,220 How does our creatureliness affect who we are? 770 00:53:49,220 --> 00:53:54,740 Furthermore, as sinners who have been redeemed and sanctified by the Lord Jesus and adopted 771 00:53:54,740 --> 00:53:59,940 into the family of God, how does Christ's work change the way that we view ourselves? 772 00:53:59,940 --> 00:54:04,740 How does the encouragement to find your identity in Christ actually play out in the complexities 773 00:54:04,740 --> 00:54:07,580 of competing sources of identity? 774 00:54:07,580 --> 00:54:12,820 Join us for our next and final event in our series on Culture Creep on Wednesday, 23rd 775 00:54:12,820 --> 00:54:18,040 of October, when Rory Shiner, senior pastor of Providence City Church in Perth, will show 776 00:54:18,040 --> 00:54:22,740 us how losing ourselves for the sake of the kingdom will help us find ourselves once and 777 00:54:22,740 --> 00:54:24,140 for all. 778 00:54:24,140 --> 00:54:31,180 Register and find out more on our website, ccl.moore.edu.au. 779 00:54:31,180 --> 00:54:32,180 Podcast producer Karen Beilharz here. 780 00:54:32,180 --> 00:54:37,460 For the first time ever, we are conducting a listener survey to help us to get to know 781 00:54:37,460 --> 00:54:41,220 you and how you interact with the CCL podcast. 782 00:54:41,220 --> 00:54:43,500 We'd love it if you could fill it in. 783 00:54:43,500 --> 00:54:47,020 There are only 10 questions and they're on stuff like how long you've been listening 784 00:54:47,020 --> 00:54:51,180 to the podcast, whether you listen on your phone, your tablet or your computer, or if 785 00:54:51,180 --> 00:54:55,940 you just read the transcripts, and what you most like and least like about the podcast. 786 00:54:55,940 --> 00:55:00,100 It should take around 5 to 10 minutes to complete and your responses will really help us as 787 00:55:00,100 --> 00:55:03,460 we consider how to improve the podcast moving forward. 788 00:55:03,460 --> 00:55:11,220 You can find the survey link in the episode description or the show notes, or visit 789 00:55:11,220 --> 00:55:13,620 ccl.moore.edu.au/podcastsurvey. 790 00:55:13,620 --> 00:55:20,740 That's one word, ccl.moore.edu.au/podcastsurvey. 791 00:55:20,740 --> 00:55:21,740 Thank you again for your support. 792 00:55:21,740 --> 00:55:45,820 To benefit from more resources from the Centre for Christian Living, please visit ccl.moore.edu.au 793 00:55:45,820 --> 00:55:50,740 where you'll find a host of resources including past podcast episodes, videos from our live 794 00:55:50,740 --> 00:55:54,020 events and articles published through the Centre. 795 00:55:54,020 --> 00:55:57,700 We'd love for you to subscribe to our podcast and for you to leave us a review so that more 796 00:55:57,700 --> 00:56:00,420 people can discover our resources. 797 00:56:00,420 --> 00:56:04,420 On our website we also have an opportunity for you to make a tax-deductible donation 798 00:56:04,420 --> 00:56:07,560 to support the ongoing work of the Centre. 799 00:56:07,560 --> 00:56:11,220 We always benefit from receiving questions and feedback from our listeners, so if you'd 800 00:56:11,220 --> 00:56:18,140 like to get in touch you can email us at ccl.moore.edu.au. 801 00:56:18,140 --> 00:56:21,660 As always, I'd like to thank Moore College for its support of the Centre for Christian 802 00:56:21,660 --> 00:56:27,500 Living and to thank my assistant Karen Beilharz for her work in editing and transcribing the 803 00:56:27,500 --> 00:56:28,700 episodes. 804 00:56:28,700 --> 00:56:49,500 The music for our podcast was generously provided by James West.