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Welcome to the Moore College podcast, a podcast of biblically sound, thought-provoking and

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challenging talks from Moore Theological College in Sydney, Australia.

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In this episode, from a chapel service held on Tuesday the 22nd of October 2024, guest

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speaker Tim Bowden, Principal of Trinity Grammar School in Sydney, Australia, shares his journey

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into schools ministry and takes a closer look at one of the most difficult passages of the

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Bible to apply: Matthew chapter 5 verses 43 to 48, and Jesus' command to love our enemies.

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He reminds us that loving others involves doing good to them, and talks about the supreme

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example of this, in God's love for His enemies, namely us.

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We hope you find the episode helpful.

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Thank you.

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It is a pleasure and an honour to be invited back here today, although I note the place

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we've come back to is not a place I knew at all as a student.

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We were in the upstairs lecture theatre for chapel, so I appreciate the invitation from

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the principal, the faculty to be here.

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But I've got to say, I'm a little bit bemused as to why I'm here.

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So God's good hand in the 23, 24 years since I graduated from college, I have done very,

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very, very, very little of your classic 20-minute expository sermon, which is the bread and

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butter in our theological tradition.

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My path has taken me in a different direction, and I can probably count the number of such

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sermons I've given on the fingers of two hands.

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That's in 20-something years.

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So the idea of being here planning to fill 20 minutes is deeply daunting.

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Normally, I speak for five, and in terms of total, there are probably five times a year

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I would speak for more than 20 minutes.

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So I'm really stretching here.

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So what I'm going to do is bundle together a number of talks, and I still reckon we're

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good for an early mark.

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So let me tell you a little bit about my story.

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I grew up mostly in Canberra, and I was converted in an Anglican school through the ministry

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of my peers, rather than through anything particularly Anglican about the school.

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I think I came to faith despite the chaplaincy rather than through it.

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And I started university looking towards journalism, but mid-degree I pivoted towards education

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and came out with a BA and a DIP-Ed and started teaching English in an Anglican school in

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Canberra.

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And whilst I loved teaching, with the encouragement of my pastor, David MacDonald, in Canberra,

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I began to contemplate training for vocational ministry.

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And after two years, I stepped into an MTS experience at Crossroads Christian Church in

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Canberra and also the university ministries.

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And I note in that context, that's where I met Kelly, who is our missionary in residence

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this week.

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We were working together at that point in that ministry at that time.

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I came to Moore College along with my wife, Nikki, to do this study, and I didn't have

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a clear sense as to the channel through which my ministry would play out.

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University ministry and school chaplaincy both seemed to be possibilities.

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The four years of college went very quickly and went very well.

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We loved the college experience.

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But the opportunity arose to work with what was then the Department of Evangelism in the

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years immediately following college.

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Chappo retired around that time and there was an opportunity for an itinerant evangelist.

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And so I took on itinerant preaching, itinerant gospel preaching for a couple of years.

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It was a very unusual kind of role, but one that I counted as an extraordinary privilege.

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Towards the end of that second year in that role, I had the first of what were going to

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be two pivotal conversations.

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This first conversation was with Michael Jensen, who was the chaplain of St Andrew's Cathedral

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School at the time.

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He'd recently been appointed to Moore College.

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He was going to be leaving the chaplaincy and coming back to teach here.

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And he was actively seeking to replace himself.

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And his question to me was, how many unbelieving people do you reach in your role?

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Not a bad question to ask an evangelist.

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And I thought back over what I'd been doing over the last couple of years.

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And each week I was being rolled out at churches or at youth groups or at both as the hired

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gun come to kind of preach the gospel, pop the question and see if I get people to become

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Christian.

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And at most of the events I went to, the coordinators were able to identify exactly who the guests

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were, exactly who the outsiders were.

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There were a handful or a dozen at a time.

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I did a handful of university ministries and they were bigger events.

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We might get a couple of dozen of outsiders come along to that.

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Did a couple of Katoomba events and they're very big events, but you've got no real idea

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as to the composition.

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And as I reflected, I thought, you know, probably the biggest points of contact that I have

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with people who don't yet believe are through things like Crusader study camps or Youth

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Work study camps.

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Because if I did a few of them a year and I did, I'd be reaching a couple of hundred

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young people each year who didn't know Jesus.

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Michael's point to me was simple.

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He said, in chapel this week, I will preach to 1,000 young people.

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Most of them don't know Jesus.

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And they will come back next week.

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And they'll be there the week after.

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And they'll be there the week after that.

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Not knowing Jesus, but in these formative years of their lives, we have the opportunity

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to present the faith to them.

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I found that absolutely compelling.

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And I still do.

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In our Sydney Anglican schools every day, we gather around about the same number of

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people who will gather in Sydney Anglican churches on a weekend.

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They come to us.

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In fact, their parents pay for them to come to us.

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It's a remarkable opportunity of gathering people in a context in which we can bring

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the word to them.

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And so my conversation with Michael crystallised and refreshed my thinking that schools are

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among the most fertile and the most abundant fields for the gospel we have.

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So I joined St. Andrew's Cathedral School as the chaplain and the head of Christian

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studies and did that for the next five years.

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And I found it immensely rewarding and fruitful.

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In fact, I'm delighted to note there are some people in the room now who were part of the

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ministry that took place at St. Andrew's in those years.

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But in talking to my peers from college and hearing them talk about their experience in

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these early years post college, I noticed there was a massive difference between a lot

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of the stuff they did and what I had to do.

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I had a lot less discretionary time than many of them.

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The bell kept ringing and we had to keep running.

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And there was just activity after activity and chapels and Christian studies lessons

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and voluntary groups and prayer meetings layered over with all the stuff that goes with being

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in a school.

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You're doing playground supervision.

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You're coaching sports.

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You're assessing and reporting and doing any number of other things which are part of the

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cost of the platform.

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It was great.

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I loved it.

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But one of the features about the way that I'm wired for good or for real is that I have

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a short attention span.

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And after about five years, I started to get itchy.

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I was thinking about moving on and I had the second conversation.

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This one was with Phillip Heath who at the time was the head at St. Andrew's Cathedral

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School, now the head at Barker.

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And to be fair, it probably wasn't so much just one conversation as several conversations.

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But the challenge he put to me was this.

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In God's providential grace, schools like St. Andrew's exist.

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You wouldn't design it in terms of the Australian school landscape.

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You wouldn't design it from a blank page.

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But these schools exist.

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And in order for these schools to continue their ministry into the generations to come,

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the schools need people who will, faithful and capable Christian people, who will step

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into the leadership opportunities and needs there.

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Whether middle leadership, senior leadership, executive leadership or headship, there will

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be a need for Christians to take this ministry on.

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And again, I found that compelling.

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And so I started to walk down that road and went from head of middle school at St. Andrew's

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through to being principal at Innerborough, which is a Baptist school in the Shire.

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Didn't any Shire folk here, congratulations on making it out of the Shire.

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And then that subsequently led to headmastership at Trinity.

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And so as I've come back here today and kind of looping back to the place and the institution

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that was so powerfully formative for me, I have been reflecting on that path.

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And with the benefit of hindsight, I can see the ways in which God has woven together the

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personal and the professional, the experiences and the education, the ministry and the schools

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into something of a coherent whole.

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And I think that I can see that now, but when I was sitting in chapel as a theological student,

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all that was unknown to me.

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I've never had a particularly clear or distinct sense of vocation to a particular path or

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a particular context for ministry.

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And at the various points of inflection, where big decisions were made, where there were

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choices put in front of me, I can't say I ever had any great clarity as to what path

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God might want me to take.

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I never had a five year or a 10 year plan and if there was a guiding theme, it was probably

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the streaker's defence.

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I'm not sure if you know the streaker's defence.

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It seemed like a good idea at the time.

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Thank you.

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Look, it's not a particularly pious phrase, but I actually think it's theologically defensible.

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Let me explain.

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If we as Christian folk who are being transformed by the renewing of our minds, if we trust

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in a God who promises to give wisdom to those who ask, who prepares in advance good works

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for us to do and who works in all things for the good of those who love him, then the phrase

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it seemed like a good idea at the time reflects a level of trust in the wisdom that God gives

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to those who ask, but it also retains the humility to leave open the possibility that

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what seemed like a good idea may not have been one.

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And whether it is the case that you have a particularly strong sense of vocation to a

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particular area or whether like me you operate with a different theme, I think we have confidence

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that God will give us work to do as we prepare tools to do it.

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As it has transpired, about one in five of my cohort at Moore, and we had about 40 in

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the fourth year in 2001, about one in five of us have played out a major part of our

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ministry in schools.

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Danebank, Redlands, Campbellus, St Luke's, Roseville, Barker, Shaw, King, St Andrews

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Cathedral School, Richard Johnson Anglican School, the Illawarra Grammar School, Trinity

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and probably more have been served for the gospel by people from the class of 2001.

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We didn't see that at the time and in fact I think as we left college only one of us

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went straight into a school.

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But as life's ebbs and flows played out, as circumstances changed and decisions were

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put before people and opportunities were contemplated, maybe from a sense of calling, maybe from

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the streaker's defence, we have found ourselves serving our Lord in schools.

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And I mention all that because it may be that that's a story that lies in front of you too

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and I would be very happy to talk to you about that at some point.

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Here ends the first sermon.

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What I'd like to talk to you about today is Matthew 5 and looking particularly to verses

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43 through to 48.

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The passage that I've chosen to preach today is pretty straightforward.

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It's not hard to understand the passage but it strikes me it may in fact be the hardest

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passage in the scriptures to put into practice.

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Matthew 5, 43 to 48 and I note that I'm reading from the Bible which has been my love language

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for several decades but I suspect it's probably out of fashion now for the rest of us.

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I'm working with the NIV here.

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Folks you've heard it was said, love your neighbour and hate your enemy.

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But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may

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be children of your Father in heaven.

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He causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and

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the unrighteous.

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If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?

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Are not even the tax collectors doing that?

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And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others?

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Don't even pagans do that?

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Be perfect therefore as your heavenly Father is perfect.

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When I was training to be a preacher here some quarter of a century ago, Chapeau used

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to drill into us the question, what is the big idea?

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I trust that's still happening in some context here.

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What is the big idea of this passage?

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Chapeau's point was and it continues to be true I think, if we don't know the point

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of the passage we have no hope of helping others come to see it either.

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Actually as an aside that reminds me of the one story I gave to Chapeau that he used.

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He gave me so many stories that I used but I gave him one.

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Let me tell you, the story goes a little bit that there was an old Baptist pastor who began

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his sermon this way.

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He said, my text for today is Adam, wherefore art thou?

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And my sermon has three points.

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First, where was Adam?

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Secondly, how was Adam to be got from where he was?

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And thirdly, a few thoughts about baptism.

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So following Chapeau rather than the nameless pastor I will avoid the other things and deal

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with the big idea only.

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That is, we are called to love our enemies.

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We know this passage, it's familiar territory to us.

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From the Sermon on the Mount Jesus is talking to his people about what it really means to

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be the people of God and he calls them to this new standard.

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You have heard it was said but I.

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You have heard it was said don't murder, I say don't harbour anger.

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You've heard don't commit adultery, I say don't lust.

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You say don't break, you've heard it said don't break serious promises, I say don't

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break any promises.

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Not just don't take advantage of others, don't protect your own rights.

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And in this passage she says don't just love your neighbour, love your enemy too.

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Easy to understand and hard to do.

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In the context that Jesus was talking obviously it wasn't hard to know who the enemies were.

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The Jewish folk were under the, I would say the Roman jackboot but obviously the Roman

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sandal.

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They had been conquered in violence.

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They lived under the grind.

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The Romans had invaded, they had violated the Jewish customs and beliefs and they walked

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among them day by day taxing their money and property.

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The Jewish folk knew who their enemies were.

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It's a little bit different to us.

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Who are our enemies?

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Maybe our enemies are those who treat us badly.

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Now I think particularly the context of a school and how I might think about this with

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the boys.

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Within a school of 2,000 boys there are going to be some occasions in which some of them

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treat the others badly.

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Maybe by being inconsiderate, not thinking about the impact that they can have one on

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another.

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Maybe in rudeness or meanness, maybe in physical violence, maybe the sneaky shove on the basketball

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court or maybe the confrontation that might happen over a dispute.

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Maybe it's easier to find your enemy in the people who treat you badly at a school.

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I don't know if anyone treats you badly here.

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I reflect on my years and I cannot remember being treated badly at any point and I dearly

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pray that none of my colleagues can remember me treating them badly.

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We used to joke sometimes about the foretaste of heaven that comes from being immersed in

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God's people.

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In theory at least, maybe we don't treat each other badly.

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But I actually think that that's a relatively surface level to think about, our enemies.

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I wonder also when we think about our enemies, we might also be thinking about those who

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are different to us.

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I mean we're all unique obviously, God given unique gifts, so we're all different to each

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other but sometimes difference is in our human experience, something that opens up a gap,

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that creates a distance between people.

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That difference can become a basis for caution, for suspicion, perhaps for hostility.

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Whether we're talking about an ethnic background indifference or a different skin colour or

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a different accent, someone who laughs in an annoying way, someone who doesn't like

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the stuff you like, someone who is too bogan, someone who is too woke, someone who believes

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different things about politics or about exegesis or about sexuality, all too often those sort

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of differences can become a seed of enmity so that we're inclined to think badly of

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them, to see their actions through a lens of suspicion and potentially hostility and

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assume that goes the other way.

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I think in our modern Western context, and whether this continues to be the case in the

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decades ahead or not, but I think in our modern Western context, enmity is not just about

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personal hostility but about tribal hostility.

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The enemies are the others.

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They are them.

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They're not us.

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Maybe they go to another school.

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Again in my context, maybe they come from a different country.

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Maybe they identify themselves in a different way or on the basis of different things to

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the things that you identify on.

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The enemies are the others.

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And too often throughout the course of human history, our response to those who are of

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different tribes is hostility.

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We embrace our own and we exclude the others.

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I don't know.

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I'm well separate from the life of the theological student, but I wonder who are the others in

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your world?

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Because the message here from Jesus, of course, is that we ought to love our enemies.

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You've heard it was said, love your neighbour and hate your enemy, but I tell you, love

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your enemies.

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Pray for those who persecute you that you may be children of your Father in heaven.

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He causes his son to rise on the evil and the good, sends rain on the righteous and

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the unrighteous.

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If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?

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Are not even the tax collectors doing that?

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And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others?

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Do not even pagans do that?

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Be perfect therefore as your heavenly Father is perfect.

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Loving others involves doing good to them.

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An example of Jesus here, the example that Jesus points to is the example of our heavenly

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Father.

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He gives good to the evil and to the good, to the righteous and the unrighteous.

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He doesn't treat them differently depending on whether they are on his side.

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Good weather doesn't mean God loves you more.

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Bad weather doesn't mean he loves you less.

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The sun has come up today over all of Australia, north of 27 million people, most of whom could

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not care less about God.

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Yet he has given them breath and life.

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He has given them rain to renew the face of the earth.

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He gives them warmth on their backs.

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He gives them food and drink though they care not.

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He has given them these things and they haven't given him five seconds of thought.

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His goodness is shown in the way it is extended to those who don't deserve it.

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And Jesus' point is that we should not treat others the way they treat us, but the way

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that our heavenly Father treats us.

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And we pray for them.

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We should be their advocates before God.

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I was talking to one of the boys about this and he said, what, pray that God would smite

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them?

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We don't tend to pray that all that often these days.

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No, we're not praying that he would destroy them from the face of the earth.

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We are advocating for them before God.

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We pray for their blessing because that is what Jesus did.

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As he was crucified, as his enemies tore his flesh, as they mocked, as they humiliated,

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as they enacted injustice to the verge of death, he prayed for them, Father, forgive

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them.

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They don't know what they're doing.

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And the point in this passage is we should be like our heavenly Father, as he is like

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his heavenly Father.

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We're marked not just by our love for one another, but also for our love for the others,

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not just those who are inside the tent, but those who are outside.

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It takes effort.

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It really does take effort.

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I think the defensiveness and the hostility, the concern or the suspicion, it depends where

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along the continuum the strength of your own reaction comes, but that lens which sits between

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us and the others is a hard thing to push through, but push through it, we need to do.

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We do good to all.

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And it's interesting in the life of a school, trying to cultivate a culture where that is

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the case, where we talk to our boys about respect for others, to do good for others,

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to build them up, not to tear them down, to welcome others in, not to shut them out, to

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say, you matter, instead of saying, whatever.

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And our school's Christian foundation positions this love for others as central to the life

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of the community, it is fundamental to how we are trying to live together.

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And we take that approach of shaping our culture on the teaching of Jesus because we want to

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commend to the boys experientially as well as cognitively the teaching of Jesus.

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Our apologetic is both that the Christian faith is true and that it works, and that

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if being part of a community where people love one another in the way that Jesus teaches

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is actually a path to the good life.

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If they build their lives that way, it's like they're building a house on solid ground.

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That's our aspiration.

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Day by day, I face the reality that our aspirations are not where we are at.

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It's not descriptive yet.

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But the second thing I want to bring to your attention here is the question for you of

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the way that you engage with people who are different.

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We live in a world where more and more difference become grounds for intolerance.

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We become quick to pile on, and we see that in the world around us and in social media.

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Expressions of hatred, disrespect and abuse to others are oh so easy to fall into.

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And my expectation is that I'm not talking to any trolls in the room.

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I don't think any of you are necessarily, I hope you're not, keyboard warriors taking

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opportunities to dump on those with whom you disagree.

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And I imagine most of us look at the polarisation that we see in the US and think, what the

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heck?

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How did it get there?

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And we become even more amazed and appalled, I suspect, to see the ways in which the followers

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of Jesus throw themselves into the polarisation.

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And Jesus had a few things to say though about specks and planks.

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And it's easy to look at that and go, gosh, how awful.

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And not to consider how are those lenses of othering true in our lives too?

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Whether they're people with different views of politics, different views of sexuality,

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different views on what makes for the good life, different views as to what's important.

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The call to us, brothers and sisters, is to be people who follow the teaching of Jesus.

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Despite our differences on the various things that come, we are called to love others, to

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do good for others, to bless others, to pray for others, especially the people who might

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be considered or even who consider themselves to be our enemies.

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An increasingly polarised world, we are called to embrace, not to exclude.

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Let's pray.

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Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the teaching of our Lord Jesus in this passage.

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We thank you for the uncompromising nature of the call and the challenge it puts to us

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as we walk day by day.

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Help us never to become complacent as we hear his words, but to listen, to reflect, to take

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to heart, to act and to pray.

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May we be people who love our enemies.

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In Jesus' name we pray.

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Amen.

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Thank you for listening to the Moore College podcast.

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Our vision as a College is to see God glorified by men and women living for and proclaiming

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Jesus Christ, growing healthy churches and reaching the lost.

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The Centre for Christian Living, or CCL, is the centre of Moore Theological College that

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The Centre for Christian Living podcast is a show that explores and applies biblical

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The Moore College podcast was edited and produced by me, Karen Beilharz, and the Communications

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team at Moore Theological College.

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Until next time!