Who doesn’t love the beach on Christmas Day? – Megan Clark ( via Stuff)
Just what is the whole Christmas thing about? What are we celebrating? What does it mean in our secular society?
For most Kiwis, Christmas is about celebrating family togetherness, time off work and the beginning of summer holidays. All of which is fine as far as it goes, though it’s not such great fun for those without families. I know a childless couple who love the outdoors and who celebrate Christmas by taking a picnic lunch into the hills on their own. Seems a rather lonely way to spend Christmas. And, of course, many people are on their own, without anyone.
How can Christmas be good news for secular people in our land? How can we present it as more than just a family celebration and a charming story (with animals, angels and a baby) for the kids?
The issue of loneliness is actually quite central. You see, a key divide between belief and unbelief appears when we answer the question: Are we alone in the universe?
Underlying a secular world view is the belief that we live in an impersonal universe which is indifferent to human happiness. We are simply the freak product of a blind process and are totally on our own in a world without God.
Secularism is based on a world view called “naturalism” – which means the belief that that there is only the natural world of molecules and matter, that there is no “beyond”, no supernatural or divine dimension, no life after this one. No wonder celebration of family becomes the be-all and end-all at Christmas. What else have we got to celebrate?
For the Christian, Christmas is above all about the belief that we are not alone. It is about the conviction that there is a God who is not remote and far away or indifferent to our situation.
It is about the belief that this God has joined with us in our humanity. He stepped into our world – in dateable, relatively recent human history, just a few years after Julius Caesar invaded Britain and several centuries before the Roman Empire fell.
The extraordinary thing is that this God did not step into our world in a highly dramatic way. He did not come as a lordly ambassador from outer space; he didn’t appear with the éclat of the supernatural. He came into our world as we all come – through a human birth canal.
No wonder this is scandalous to devout Muslims who have an acute sense of God’s honour and dignity. No wonder this is risible to academic philosophers who are accustomed to seeking meaning in lofty, abstract concepts. But, in this way, God subverts the religious and the intelligentsia and accommodates himself to ordinary people.
Christmas is glorious because it tells us we are not alone. It also tells us that the God who made us loved us to the extraordinary extent of coming to share our humanity. Quite simply, as John’s Gospel puts it, he “became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” Or as Matthew puts it, Jesus is “Immanuel, (which means, ‘God with us.’)”
The New Testament writers found themselves in encounter with a man they could not fit into any known categories. He was obviously human: he ate and he drank, he got tired, he needed to sleep, he bled when wounded. But he was like no one else they had ever encountered. His teaching had a resonance and a compelling quality unlike that of any of the religious teachers or philosophers that they knew. His life had such quality and grace that not even his enemies could find fault in him. And he demonstrated the most amazing powers – the ability to heal lepers, cure blindness, give hearing to the deaf, even to raise the dead to life.
They were at a loss to know what to make of him. Yes, they followed him; yes, they came to believe that he was the Messiah. But his death changed all that. No Messiah ends up dead on a Roman cross.
But hang on a minute! He didn’t “end up” there. In the days after his crucifixion, witness after witness turns up with the extraordinary claim that Jesus is alive again. And eventually there are over 500 people who attest to this.
Now, it begins to make sense. Now, they find a category in which to explain the amazing person they have known. He is the God-man, that is, the living God come amongst them in human flesh and blood, God incarnate.
And all his changes everything! We are no longer alone. We are not even under the eye of a remote deity who looks down on us in detachment or condemnation. We have a God who is “the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort” and who so entered our humanity in Jesus that he can empathise with us in all the struggles we go through in life. In Jesus, we meet the God who came, as the Christmas story says, to “save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
So, in light of the whole story, in light of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, Christmas is infinitely worth celebrating. Christmas is about God’s great initiative in making himself known, God’s great expression of his love, God’s great rescue mission to free us from the power of evil. We give gifts at Christmas because in Jesus we receive the ultimate gift.
This article, by Ron Hay, first appeared in the Dec 2016 edition of Anglican Life magazine (Christchurch)
Shortly after the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, in recognition of the contribution of churches in providing hope and comfort as well as material assistance, NZ Christian Network’s board inaugurated a new award, known as the New Zealand Christian Network Unsung Heroes Awards.
The purpose of these awards is to honour the good work of individuals and groups which has gone largely unrecognised, to encourage others, and to give glory to God who inspired and empowered them.
In an age which has forgotten or never knew the significance of Christianity in our history, and which increasingly does not appreciate the importance of God in our country today, we are grateful for the privilege of being able to hold this event at Parliament and celebrate what God is doing in and through the lives of people. We are thankful also this year to Hon Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga who hosted the event.
The awards are presented in categories related to New Zealand Christian Network’s key projects – Secularism, Marriage & Family, Value of Life, and Missional Living. This year we were pleased to also make two special awards for Christian Publishing and Unity & Mission.
Special Categories for 2016
Christian Publishing
Our first award tonight is to a woman who received an MA Honours degree in German language and literature from Victoria University.
After spending 16 years in America with her husband Russell, she returned to New Zealand in 1986 and worked various jobs including three semesters teaching business communication at AUT.
In 1993 she was appointed editor of the New Zealand Baptist newspaper. She graduated from Carey Baptist College with a Bachelor of Theology in 1998.
She joined ARPA – the Australasian Religious Press Association, a network of editors of Christian publications, and in 2006 became ARPA’s New Zealand coordinator and vice-president.
In 2012 ARPA presented her with the prestigious Gutenberg Award for services to journalism.
She has served on the board of New Zealand Christian Network. From 2009 to 2014 she served as President of the Baptist Women’s Union of the South West Pacific. She is still involved with New Zealand Baptist Women’s Board.
In 2001 and for nine years she was the founding editor of DayStar newspaper which eventually became a monthly magazine.
She is a co-director of DayStar Books, an independent publishing company.
In recent years she has run workshops in India to encourage Christian writers. She currently writes a regular column for Press Service International, a Christian Media resource based in Australia.
Today freelance writing and editing occupy much of her time, along with leading conversation classes at her church for new immigrants. She and husband Russell live Auckland and they have two adult children and five grandchildren.
Please welcome the recipient of our first award tonight – Christian Publishing – Julie Belding.
Julie Belding
Unity and Mission
Our second award is for a man who was born in Australia and moved to New Zealand in 1972. Since then he has worked tirelessly to foster unity and collaboration in the church in line with the prayer of Jesus.
An accountant by trade, he has worked in a number of companies. He has served in various administration and pastoral roles within the New Life Churches in New Zealand at both the local Church and National level.
He served in leadership of the Association of Pentecostal Churches NZ and was a founding executive member of NZ Christian Network from 2002 to 2008.
He is currently the Executive Director of Life Resources and is responsible for developing the vision, leadership and networking of Life Resources. The vision of Life Resources is to evaluate, source and provide realistically priced resources for media, marriage, leadership, church health and growth and charitable support. They also provide administrative and accounting support for a number of trusts and ministries including CEC (Bible and Chaplaincy in Schools) and One to One Trust.
He is married to Sandra and they have three adult married daughters and 7 grandchildren.
Receiving this Unity and Mission award please welcome Max Palmer.
Max Palmer
Key Focus Categories for 2016
Secularism
The Secularism award this year goes to a man who has been the CEO and Managing Trustee of the Christian Broadcasting Association since it was re-founded in 1995.
For 21 years, he has developed radio programmes that have been broadcast on New Zealand’s top-rating commercial networks, and won awards nationally and internationally.
He says, that “86 percent of this audience don’t regard religion or spirituality as important in their lives which is exactly why we’re there.”
The Easter programme on Newstalk ZB averages 300,000 listeners.
The “Real Life” programme which plays every Sunday night on Newstalk ZB and Radiosport is the most-listened to show in that timeslot across all NZ radio stations.
Past guests have included the late Sir Paul Holmes, Dave Dobbyn and Sir Graeme Henry who all shared about their life, passions, faith, spirituality, and “God-stuff”.
The list of his accomplishments is exhausting:
He founded ‘Media Prayer Day’ which has involved more than 1,000 churches in a nationwide day of Prayer for those working in NZ’s media.
He developed the ‘LoveIt’ media brand, New Zealand’s ‘go to’ provider of independent seasonal radio programming.
He established ‘Salt’ – a network of 200+ Christians working within mainstream media
He established a scholarship programme, attracting 30 excellent applicants annually.
And he conceived and co-founded ‘NewsLeads’ – a chaplaincy and consultancy service to New Zealand’s news media.
He is married to Annelies and they have two boys aged 13 and 9, and sadly he is overseas and unable to be with us tonight.
So to receive this award on his behalf, please welcome Phil Guyan’s Mum.
Phil Guyan
Marriage and Family
The Marriage and Family award goes to a Bible scholar and gifted teacher with a special pastor’s heart to see marriages and families be all that God wants them to be.
He pastored a Baptist church in England before PhD studies led to teaching as a missionary in Congo. He and his wife Barbara and their four children were evacuated from Kinshasa by French paratroopers, and spent a few days classed as refugees in South Africa.
From 1993-2012 he taught at Carey Baptist College and the University of Auckland where he received a Distinguished Teaching Award. He has experience teaching the Bible in four continents for three decades.
He prepared the first online hypertext Bible commentary and posts short teaching podcasts at 5-minute Bible.
He is a key member of the Network’s Marriage and Families focus group. He has spoken at our leadership forums along with his wife Barbara who is a highly qualified counsellor, and contributed a number of articles to the Network which continue to be the most accessed articles on our website.
He runs the website and Facebook page for Marriage Week which is held annually from 8 to 14 February. He is also working with NZCN to develop a video course on “Reading the Bible Faithfully”.
Please welcome Dr Tim Bulkeley.
Dr Tim Bulkeley
Value of Life
The Value of Life category award this year goes to a person whose commitment and work for social justice in New Zealand is hard to overstate.
In the 1970s, he started the Inter-Church Trade and Industry Mission providing chaplaincy services to industry and government departments.
He was part of developing the Salvation Army’s national network of Community Work Schemes, and supporting community services to the unemployed.
In the ‘80s, he founded the Community Service Operation of the Salvation Army in South Auckland, and in the 1990s managed the total re-organisation of the Salvation Army Social and Community Services throughout New Zealand.
He was the founder and Director of the Salvation Army’s Social Policy Research and Parliamentary Affairs Unit, and Director of the Salvation Army’s $100m social services in New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga.
The SPPU produces annual State of the Nation reports monitoring progress on key social indicators which are thoroughly researched, widely read, and acknowledged by government decision makers.
He has been an entrepreneur in developing the Salvation Army’s welfare and social policy initiatives in New Zealand, as well as being a leader in wider church and community initiatives on poverty and housing issues, and on prison reform.
In recent years, he helped establish the New Zealand Housing Foundation which is supporting innovative models of providing housing solutions for low-income people.
He co-founded the Rethinking Crime and Punishment Campaign which is working to create a wider change in public attitudes on the prison system.
He has been President of the New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services, and today leads its Poverty and Housing Task Force, attending regular meetings with Members of Parliament.
There is so much more we could say. But please join with us in welcoming Major Campbell Roberts.
Major Campbell Roberts
Missional Living
Our final award this evening is for the Missional Living category, previously known as All of Life Faith.
A spiritual awakening led the person receiving this award to help create an organisation to enable those living with disabilities to realise their full potential.
In 1976, around 20 people attended the first official meeting for “Christians with Disabilities” in her family home in Auckland.
Margie Willers, a young woman with Cerebral Palsy, shared a vision that God had given her. Within two years, the numbers had grown to over 80 (20 of those being in wheelchairs).
The ministry grew quickly and people’s homes could not contain the numbers attending. In 1989 they rented a building as a drop in centre and place of work. Within five years, God opened the doors for them to purchase their own premises.
In 1981, the International Year of Disabled people, she and Margie were invited to speak all over Auckland and beyond and soon the word had spread around the country.
Now known as The Elevate Christian Disability Trust, there are 13 branches across New Zealand, and one in the Philippines, staffed primarily with volunteers, many of whom live with disabilities themselves.
They are involved at international disability conferences, running camps for more than 400 disabled people and publishing a free quarterly magazine.
Along with her husband Hugh, the Trust’s co-founder, treasurer and editor of its magazine The Encourager, she has lived her faith 24-7 since day one, helping people help themselves and others, and be all that God intends them to be.
She is a founding member of the NZ Christian Network and remains a member of our Advisory Group.
If you haven’t heard of John Gottman then I highly recommend that you check him out. He heads up the Gottman Institute which teaches marital and relationship stability. His findings after 40 years of studying thousands of couples have revolutionised the study of marriage.
If you’ve attended our Weekend To Remember you’ll know we talk about 5 myths of marriage. Dr Gottman has come up with 12 Myths of his own. If you’d like to read all 12 then go to his website here. For a teaser I’ve selected 5 and added my two cents worth in colour.
1. Marriage is just a piece of paper.
The psychological and physical benefits of actually being married are enormous. After 50 years of social epidemiology, it has been established that in developed countries the greatest source of health, wealth, longevity, and the ultimate welfare of children is a satisfying and healthy marriage. God’s original design for us to enjoy a lifetime of companionship stands up under scrutiny and testing. No surprise there. Marriage is good for us.
2. Conflict is a sign that you’re in a bad relationship.
Conflict is inevitable in all relationships. Furthermore, conflict is there for a reason – to improve our understanding of our partner. Conflict usually arises from missed attempts to communicate, especially in one person attempting to get emotionally closer to the other. Conflict also emerges from discrepancies between partners in expectations. These are worth talking about. Ever thought conflict meant you had a bad marriage? Even the best of marriages have periods of hurt, disappointment and isolation. Conflict is normal, and if handled well may bring you closer together.
3. Love is enough.
Love is not enough, because in most marriages – especially after a baby arrives – people stop courting one another and they stop making romance, great sex, fun, and adventure a priority. Relationships have a tendency to become endless to-do lists, and conversation becomes limited to errand talk. You need to intentionally make (or keep) these parts of a relationship a priority. Stuck in a rut of to-do lists and emails? We have great resources to help you redefine your priorities.
4. All relationship conflicts can be resolved.
Quite the opposite. In fact, 69% of relationship conflicts are perpetual (they keep recurring), so what is required is acceptance of one another’s personality differences. Dialogue about these perpetual issues to avoid gridlock and resentment. The goal then is to manage conflict, not resolve it. Generally these on-going differences exist in a deep value or belief, even a dream that the other person has. It’s unlikely that conflict will resolve it. What we must try to do for each other is seek to uncover the real deep-seated cause. It may be as a result of an experience in their past. It may be necessary to let it be.
5. It’s compatibility that makes relationships work.
It’s diversity that makes relationships interesting. We are not looking for our clones. Agreeability and conscientiousness are the characteristics that people really mean when they talk about “compatibility.” These qualities are indexed by a person being able to say things like “Good point,” or “That’s interesting, tell me more” or, “You may be right, and I may be wrong” during a disagreement.” Did you read my last Notes from Nikki? I talked about this very point. Click here. I like that saying, Compatibility is very nice but not really necessary. Commitment is not very nice but absolutely necessary.
Some thoughts are so profound, yet so simple, you wonder how you never connected the dots that way before.
I’ve mentioned previously a lunch we organised with some Wellington pastors and Dr Chris Marshall, from Victoria University, to talk about 3-strikes legislation when it was being considered by parliament. (Dr Marshall is an internationally acclaimed author of several books including Compassionate Justice and Beyond Retribution).
In the middle of the conversation Chris said something along the lines of…
if God is love, and the Bible tells us that love casts out fear, then a society that moves away from God is moving away from love, and moving towards fear. It should be no surprise therefore if such a society became more punitive in its attitude to things like criminal justice and punishment.
Now Dr Marshall is in no way responsible for where this thought has taken me over the years. But it has stuck with me. And it seems to me that this logic can be applied to any attribute of God.
If God is just, doesn’t it mean that a society that moves away from God becomes more unjust? – (is that why we see a widening gap between rich and poor?).
If God is faithful, might it mean that a society that increasingly is less focused on, and devoted to, God, becomes also becomes less faithful? – (might that be why there’s such a high level of marriage and family break-ups?).
Roll forward 6 years.
A few weeks back Andrea Vance, a Wellington based journalist, wrote an interesting piece asking “Are we living in a post-truth era?” Vance was commenting on statements made the day after Brexit by pro-Brexit supporters saying basically that things they’d promised during the campaign could not actually be done. She also mentioned recent examples from New Zealand politics.
National Radio’s Media Watch on the following Sunday morning (10 July), made a major feature of this question.
If God is truth, doesn’t it follow logically that if society moves away from God, it is inevitable that it will move towards a post-truth era?
Shown right: US comedian Stephen Colbert coined the term “truthiness” back in 2005 to describe strident political assertions based on tiny traces of facts. More than a decade later, commentators still use it to call out claims made in the news that don’t stand serious scrutiny. But the questions is: when it comes to contested claims, do people ever end up knowing the truth – or is ‘truthiness’ what sticks in the mind? – “Is a ‘post-truth’ era upon us?” RNZ
There is much debate and confusion about euthanasia. Examples of actions which are not euthanasia are often used to argue for law change which is euthanasia. This would be bad law. This short |Note aims to clarify some of the terms and issues in the hope that we can prevent this from happening.
What is euthanasia? An act which of itself and by intention causes the death of another person in order to eliminate their suffering.
What is assisted suicide? This happens when a person commits suicide with assistance from others, often by self-administering a lethal substance that has been obtained with the cooperation of a third party.
Withholding or withdrawing treatment is not euthanasia When a treatment is judged to be medically futile, or when it is judged that the benefits of a particular treatment are outweighed by the burdens for a particular person, it is a question of accepting the inevitability of death and allowing the person to return to their dying.
The New Zealand Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers’ Rights allows for any person to refuse services and to withdraw consent to services.
People have a right to be free of pain When a health professional administers medication with the sole intention of relieving a patient’s physical pain, that action is morally acceptable even if it foreseeably shortens the patient’s life. This is not an act of (slow) euthanasia as some claim.
Ethical and Theological Considerations
Supporters of euthanasia believe that decisions about end-of-life are essentially a matter of personal choice. Legalising such acts, it is argued, would simply provide those who wanted it with the choice about when and how to die and would not affect those who chose otherwise. This line of argument appeals to many but it fails to take into account the unintended consequences of a law change.
Acts of euthanasia and assisted suicide always involve others and affect others. They are never purely private matters. In addition, they have societal consequences; legalising euthanasia and assisted suicide will erode the general prohibition against killing in our society in a way that will over time lessen the respect for human life.
“Expanding one freedom often limits another. It does more than simply provide options … Expanding personal freedom to include assisted suicide undermines another right – to remain alive without having to justify one’s existence.”
– Mark Blocher, Author of ‘The Right to Die?’
In addition, the so-called ‘right to die’ could very quickly become a ‘duty to die’. People who feel neglected, undervalued and invisible will understandably see themselves as a burden and will want to do the ‘right thing’, especially with growing pressures on families involved in care as well as growing pressures on health care and aged care funding. Looked at like this, it is apparent that legalising euthanasia or assisted suicide will ultimately undermine real choices at the end of life.
“If euthanasia is legalised, premature death becomes a significant risk in a society which is already ambivalent about people who are perceived as having little or nothing to contribute while ‘swallowing up’ large amounts of health resources.”
– John Kleinsman
Overseas practices show that, once legalised, assisted suicide and euthanasia are inevitably made available to those who are suffering mental anguish, including persons with mental illness, even when they have not asked for it.
“Legalising euthanasia will create new pathways of abuse for the elderly and disabled.”
– John Kleinsman
People who oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide and those who support it both want to prevent intolerable suffering. Research shows that persistent requests for physician assisted suicide or euthanasia mostly arise from deep fears and concerns about not wanting to be a burden or from a sense of isolation rather than from a fear of pain.
Pope Francis has recently compared abandoning the elderly and disabled as being like a form of euthanasia. The call to discipleship demands of Christians an active commitment to holistic care for those who are suffering, elderly or disabled. Palliative care focuses on the needs of the whole person; physical, emotional, cultural, social and spiritual needs. True ‘death with dignity’ occurs when these needs are met and the person is loved and cared for and feels included.
“Once you open the door to assisted suicide and euthanasia it always becomes wider and wider and wider, and before you know it what starts as an option for a few becomes what’s expected for the many.”
– Alex Schadenberg, director of Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
Resources
Book:
Death Talk: The Case against Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide by Margaret Somerville
In addition to bioethics, John has experience in the areas of disability support as well as the drug and alcohol rehabilitation sectors. He was previously a member of the Central Region Health Research Ethics committee and serves on a number of other ethics committees and advisory committees.
We’ve probably all experienced a “cringe moment”, when someone identified as a Christian says something – might be at work, or at a party with friends, or it might be in the national media – that is completely outrageous, or just plain dumb.
Timothy Goropevsek is a communication specialist. He is the Communications Director for the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA), the global body represented here by NZ Christian Network.
He is the person responsible for crafting our global media statements on everything from natural disasters, wars, and religious persecution, through to Terry Jones threatening to burn copies of the Qur’an.
At the start of this year, Timothy gave a talk at the WEA International Leadership Forum which was very well received. His message included a lot of ideas that are important for any Christian to know when they talk about public or social issues.
