A friend asked me who I identified with more, Mary or Martha?
I don’t know about you but usually, when I hear someone talk about Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42), the focus is on Martha toiling away in the kitchen while her virtuous sister sits at Jesus’ feet. For years I longed to be more like Mary – compelled to do nothing but sit at the feet of my Lord… I’ve even cried out in prayer, “Lord, make me more like Mary!”
Eventually, I realised that this was the wrong prayer. As believers we are called to be more like Him (2 Cor 3:18), not someone else. And, by desiring to be more like Mary, I was denying who God created me to be.
One day, someone pointed out to me that the Lord did not reprimand Martha until after she complained and told Him to do something about it! In other words, it was her attitude he was addressing, not her nature to serve others.
In the preceding passage to Mary and Martha’s story, Jesus agrees with an expert of the law that we are to
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbour as yourself.
Luke 10:27 (NIV)
We worship the Lord when we are true to who He created us to be and we acknowledge this best when we express our worship through our native love language. Imagine if, the moment you gave your heart to the Lord, you had to learn a completely new language to communicate with Him because He couldn’t understand your native tongue…
So, what was Mary’s love language? Most likely quality time.
What was Martha’s? Probably acts of service.
On this occasion…
Was Mary loving the Lord with all her heart, soul, strength and mind? Yes.
Was Martha? Not quite… Her intentions were good and she certainly worked fervently, but her mind was distracted by dwelling on how much easier it would be if her sister was helping her – which means her heart wasn’t completely in it.
On love languages…
Granted we don’t all just have one love language, but we usually have a leaning more towards one than another. In fact, Jesus acknowledges our diverse love languages and extravagantly reaches out to us through all five:
words of affirmation – He calls us brothers amongst many other things.
acts of service – demonstrated by washing the disciples feet… He is the Servant King! Matthew 20:28, Mark 10:45
gifts – He is the giver of gifts and all good things. He gave us the greatest gift of all, salvation.
quality time – He left his place in Heaven so he could dwell with man on Earth and make provision for us to dwell with Him in eternity
physical touch – healing, comfort…
So, who do I identify with most?
Martha. I’m like daddy’s little helper who wants to serve the Lord by practically demonstrating my love and devotion. And, like Martha, I am capable of making mistakes… because I don’t always remember to engage ALL my heart, soul, strength AND mind while serving the Lord.
Can I find fulfilment in serving the Lord? Yes. In fact, I get a huge buzz when I am operating in my gifts to serve Him because I know that He is involved and invested in me. He leads, teaches, inspires and empowers me when I serve. Best of all, when I serve Him or others in His Name, I am consciously spending time with Him.
Can I find fulfilment when I sit at His feet and listen? Of course. Spending time together without distractions is essential to developing a healthy relationship.
Is one better than the other? I don’t believe we should compare them.
So, when Jesus says to Martha that Mary had chosen the better way, did he mean it was better to spend time with him by sitting at his feet and listening to him in preference to serving him? I don’t think so. He is omnipresent… and will meet us where our heart is.
Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Ideologies, “isms”, such as secularism, embrace the same concerns as the Christian gospel. They are concerned about the good life, about the purpose and meaning of being human, of living well in the world, forming communities, making moral choices etc.
This resource is designed to help people recognise a gospel by any other name.
Secularism is a belief system
An article on the New Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists website (reason.org.nz) states:
“The NZARH strongly believes that government should be secular; that is dealing with the issues of this world rather than following a religious agenda. Our law should not give one set of beliefs privilege over another and the state should treat religious organisations the same as any other organisation … Societies in which all people can openly express and practice their beliefs are far better places to live in than those that enforce dogma – religious or otherwise.”
The NZARH strongly believesthat government should be secular; that is dealing with the issues of this worldrather than following a religious agenda. Our law should not give one set of beliefsprivilege over another and the state should treat religious organisations the same as any other organisation … Societies in which all people can openly express and practice their beliefs are far better places to live in than those that enforce dogma – religious or otherwise.
What is secularism?
David Koyziz answers:
Secularism may be described as an idolatry which, as its name indicates, worships some created thing, or more than one thing, within the saeculum – the present age.
As Koyzis asserts, secularism is, like all ideologies, inescapably religious. Rather than equating ideology and religion, Koyzis goes on to say that an ideology flows out of the religious commitment of a person or community.
Neither the NZARH nor groups such as the New Zealand Secular Education Network can claim high ground or neutrality in this regard. There are some issues to address with regard to the statement of the NZARH for example:
The statement proceeds from faith – “the NZARH strongly believes”. This is of course inevitable with all such bottom-line statements of conviction. We believe before we affirm.
The statement characterises religion as being only concerned with issues that are otherworldly and future – not with “the issues of this world”. This is a highly contentious assumption, one that Christians, as well as followers of other religions would contest.
The statement contends that one set of beliefs should not be given privilege over others. Do the NZARH hold this to be the case in propagating their own faith position?
The statement accuses others of seeking to “enforce dogma”. Do they seek to stand above that accusation themselves?
Ideologies, “isms”, such as secularism, embrace the same concerns as the Christian gospel. They are concerned about the good life, about the purpose and meaning of being human, of living well in the world, forming communities, making moral choices etc.
Ideologies are, in this sense, gospel stories – declarations of good news. This is the meaning of “gospel”, as we find it in Scripture. It is a public word, not uniquely a Christian word. It was widely used in the first century as the proclamation of good news through the Roman Empire. The Priene inscription, from 9 BC, makes use of the word as follows:
Caesar [Augustus] through his appearance has exceeded the hopes of all former good messages [euangelia], surpassing not only his benefactors who came before him, but also leaving no hope that anyone in the future would surpass him, and since for the world the birthday of the god was the beginning of his good messages [euangelia]…
The gospel of Christ, the gospel of God’s kingdom and reign in Christ, has always been proclaimed not only as the biblical vision and promise of life but always in contention with other visions and promises, other stories of the good life, told by emperors, educators, politicians and ad makers.
Such was the case in the days of the prophets when Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian or Persian stories of the good life were on offer. Such was the case in the days of Jesus and the 1st century disciples when Roman versions of the gospel were widely proclaimed – peace and blessing in the name of the Caesar who was lord and saviour of the world. When Paul proclaimed Jesus as Lord, he consciously did so in contention with the alternative Lord of the day, the Roman Caesar.
What are the threats and opportunities that present themselves in this era of secularism? Surely the greatest threat is that secularism will proclaim itself as the only way; that the secular ideology will be enforced as dogma to the exclusion of other faith positions. The danger in this is that the Christian gospel will be locked out of the main arenas of public debate and decision making, as though it was irrelevant or outdated.
However, there is also opportunity in the current secular context in which many find themselves in Western nations such as Aotearoa New Zealand. In the words of Stanley Hauerwas:
I think this is a time that God is finally helping us Christians get over what is called Christendom – namely, when we thought we were in control of the world. It’s terrific. We’re discovering we’re going to be forced to learn to live by our wits. When you have power, it dulls the mind, and it dulls the intellect. We’re learning what it means to live without power. We may learn to live wittily again. When you’re not in control then you have to know those who are in control better than they know themselves in order to survive. That’s great. We can do that now in a way that I think is quite promising.
Amen. May we graciously and courageously take such opportunity.
References
Hauerwas, S. (2011). Sunday Asylum: Being the Church in Occupied Territory. The House Studio and The Work of the People.
Koyzis, David T. (2003). Political Visions and Illusions: A Survey and Critique of Contemporary Ideologies. Downers Grove, Ill. IVP.
Stenhouse, J. and Wood, G. A. (Ed’s.). (2005). Christianity, Modernity and Culture. Adelaide, Australia. ATF Press.
Rod holds a BA (Sydney University),ThL (Australian College of Theology), MEdS (Institute of Christian Tertiary Education), and a PhD from Macquarie University, is married to Rosanne and they have four adult children and two granddaughters.
A high Celtic stone cross marks the spot in New Zealand’s Bay of Islands where Christian mission in the last land on earth to be populated by humans began two hundred years ago.
The sermon preached on Christmas Day in 1814 to a large crowd of Maori was the start of a process that led directly to the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, February 6, 1840, and the birth of the nation of New Zealand.
Missionaries played the crucial role of midwife in this birthing process, as Craig Vernall, the national leader of the Baptist denomination, explained at the offical church service commemorating this treaty last week in Waitangi. At a congress of national church leaders I attended starting that same evening in the Bay of Islands, convening Catholics, Protestants and Pentecostals in an unprecedented spirit of unity and purpose, several historians affirmed that the treaty would never have happened the way it did without the missionaries. Evangelical missionaries initiated, translated and carried the treaty to be signed to various parts of the country.
The willingness to sign a treaty with the British government reflected the trust of the Maori people in the integrity of the missionaries.
In fact, the birth of New Zealand through this treaty can be traced directly back to William Wilberforce and his circle of social-reformer friends, including bankers, lawyers and politicians, often called the Clapham Sect. While mostly aligned with the Anglican church, they were generally viewed with suspicion by the ‘high’ church elite as evangelicals agitating to awaken the social conscience of church and nation to poverty and injustice in England and her colonies. They believed the Christian faith did not end with personal transformation but required practical social application.
Long saga
Wilberforce and his Clapham friends are best known for achieving the abolition of the slave trade in 1807 after decades of battling against entrenched elitist powers. They helped restore a sense of democracy in Britain in their affirmation of the equality of all people under God. They were also concerned about British treatment of indigenous peoples in their colonies and settlements.
Further, they were committed to promote efforts to take the gospel to the unreached, and to this end formed the Church Missionary Society in 1799, just six years after William Carey had sailed for India to pioneer protestant missions.
Wilberforce had personally recommended a young Anglican clergyman, Samuel Marsden, for a chaplaincy role in New South Wales. It was this same Marsden who delivered that first Christmas sermon on the spot now marked by the cross. Supported by the CMS in his vision to begin a mission in New Zealand, Marsden’s 1814 visit was the first of seven trips from Sydney to introduce the Christian gospel to Maori.
When Marsden expounded to his Maori listeners on Luke 2:10– Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people–he was continuing the long saga of the story-tellers who had brought transformation to his own people many centuries earlier. As he and others who followed began to preach up and down the country to animists and polytheists, just as Paul, Patrick and Boniface had done in the first millennium, hearts and individuals changed, families and tribes were reconciled and society began to change, as had happened in Europe.
Unity with diversity
By the 1850’s 60% of Maori were attending church regularly, a far higher proportion than among the European settlers.
In the Treaty House at Waitangi some years ago, I read a speech of the British Resident in New Zealand, James Busby, appointed to mediate between Maori and European. When preparing Maori leaders for the signing of the Treaty, he told them that the English too had been a nation of warring tribes, until the story of Jesus had brought forgiveness, reconciliation and restitution. The English tribes had come to recognise their common identity–all of them had been created in God’s image. They needed to learn to live together in unity with diversity, to love God and their neighbour.
Events in the Bay of Islands, and subsequently throughout New Zealand, form a microcosm of the narrative of Europe.. On that Christmas day, Marsden introduced Maori to that same transforming story that gave Europe its unifying identity more than any other single factor.
To disregard the role of the gospel in shaping New Zealand, England and Europe is to distort all three stories.
My name is Craig Vernall. I’m the National leader for the Baptist Churches of NZ.
I understand from our host Bishop Kito that I may be the first Baptist to speak at this event. So thank you Bishop for the opportunity to do so.
There are 246 Baptist Churches in New Zealand.
We are a mainline evangelical movement of churches. We occupy grand buildings on Queen Street and shop fronts. We have churches in provincial towns, cafes and any old pub that’s run out of beer.
The Baptist church movement began 405 years ago in Amsterdam when a small group of separatists fled from England. There they were being persecuted for their expression of the Christian faith.
Since their outset Baptists have always been strong advocates for the Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Conscience, and Freedom of Expression. That includes all denominations and all faiths. This may explain why in a little while I’ll be reflecting upon the ministry of T.W Ratana.
– o O o –
Today, Waitangi Day, celebrates the birth of our nation. That’s why we are here, at the cradle of our beginnings. Waitingi is our nations Turangawaewae.
174 years ago we signed an agreement.
Maori – who are one parent. The Crown – the other parent. And we the Church, who served as the midwife to the Treaty being birthed by these two parents. This birth gave us something very unique.
That’s why Waitangi Day celebrations are so important. Because 2 parents return to revisit the day of birth and the birth of vision. And like any birthday, we measure how far have we come. That was a tradition in my household. Every birthday the tradition was to stand near the pantry door and measure the growth from the previous year. So we do the same as a nation. We also measure: What’s good? What’s not? How far have we grown? Asking how far we have to go?
NZ is now a diverse nation. Even in my 50 years it’s changed considerably. Different ethnicities and cultures fill our cities and towns bringing colour and difference to Aotearoa. New people from different nations all seeking a dream. In doing so they bring the world to our neighbourhoods.
Equally our young people travel overseas bringing culture home with them. That great Kiwi tradition. The great O.E. 30 years ago I returned from my 2 and a half years of O.E. I returned and showed my parents my passport with the stamps of different countries that I’d visited. Now young people return and show their parents their tattoos that they got from different countries!
When I meet a new New Zealander. Someone who wasn’t born to our country or born to our languages, I think “Lord, the parents of this nation had better get things right.”
Tangata Whenua, The Crown and the Church. So much is invested in this foundational relationship that serves our nation. Because if we sow division we will reap division…but… if we sow unity we will reap unity. Abraham Lincoln quoted Jesus Christ in a State of the Union address saying, “A house divided against itself will not stand”.
The hope that is carried within our Treaty is the hope both present and future for our nation’s prosperity. These new citizens – new cultures, look to the Treaty and ask: “This land that’s adopted me, this Mother and Father, Maori and Crown, these parents of this nation had better get it right”. For my hopes and dreams can only be achieved if the nations parents do this well. Or else this family of Aotearoa – New Zealand and it’s citizens will never fulfil our God given calling”.
This Waka that we are all paddling in has such potential that others around the world can see it. But maybe we don’t?
Our story of nationhood is a terrific story. Other nations would love to have our story. Other nations have had centuries of war and conflict. By comparison our nation has had a terrific but staggered start. It’s where we go from here that counts.
The Treaty of Waitangi is more than a partnership. In fact we belittle the Treaty by calling it a partnership. The Treaty of Waitangi is a covenant. A covenant is binding beyond the level of mutual convenience. Beyond simple partnership.
The Christian story talks knowingly about covenant. Covenant in the scripture always speaks about death being an essential part of a covenant. Biblical covenant always contains a death of some sort. Death to self or death by someone or something.
The central message of the Gospel, the Christian covenant, involves the death of Jesus. When he voluntarily gave up his life on a Roman cross to die for the sins of the world. A covenant – sealed in the blood of Christ. For those who put their faith in His sacrifice for their sins. A covenant for all those who believe upon him. Because death is irreversible, making the Christian covenant immutable, unchangeable, everlasting. A Covenant made by God. But founded in the death of his son Jesus.
For our Treaty covenant to be successful it requires an on-going death. That is: Death to self – or death to any claim to cultural superiority. This, we all know, has been our weakness. The Crown now freely admits this history. But the Church – the midwife, also needs to remember its place in this story – the good and the bad. The church was an integral player in the original Treaty process. But we haven’t always fulfilled our God given responsibility.
We must remember that only 39 Maori leaders signed the Treaty here on these grounds 174 years ago. What’s important to remember is that 500 more signatures were solicited throughout this nation by missionaries (of Anglican, Methodist and Catholic denominations) who travelled the length and breadth of the country with copies of the Treaty. Yes, the Treaty was born here at Waitangi, but the labour pains of birth continued for months as the Church – the midwife – gathered the signatures needed to ratify the Treaty. Going from tribe to tribe, Chief to Chief – forging this new covenant.
Sadly, with the passing of time, the Church – now of all denominations, failed in its responsibility to nurture this new born Treaty into maturity. That’s why the Treaty today has yet to reach its fullness. It was not parented well by one of the parents or remembered by the midwife.
Time – unchallenged will always see us default to the old Adamic nature, to the Garden of Eden where self-interest prevails over “death to self” or covenant. Death or death to self has its own mystery that brings depth and reflection, honesty and vulnerability. Covenant means death; to self and the serving of our own interests.
A personal experience that my family is living with now illustrates this point. Four years ago our daughter married a terrific young Australian named Karl. One year ago, at the age of 24 Karl was diagnosed with Leukaemia. Three weeks ago he was told that there was nothing more the doctors could do for him. For our family this has brought an enormous level of depth, reflection, honesty and vulnerability. Any selfish ambition is exchanged for seeking the best for each other. It’s both a challenging and surreal experience that we are having with Karl, our daughter Brittany and God.
In the Bible, there is a confusing sentence of scripture found in the book of Ecclesiastes.
It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting.
These words by King Solomon make sense to me now. For through our own experience with Karl we’re growing in understanding about how “the house of mourning” sadly brings it’s deeper rewards.
Ratana
In this nation during the 1920’s and 1930’s – “The house of mourning” belonged to Tahupotiki Wiremu Ratana. This prophet was accredited to us by God with signs and wonders following. Ratana’s healing ministry was astounding and the Ratana museum is still filled with crutches and wheelchairs. These being the evidence of people being healed as he prayed for them. Historians will tell us that it was through petty jealousies that caused the mainline Churches to abandon him. In spite of their doctrinal differences.
However throughout his ministry, Ratana had two goals. Ture Wairua – The ministry of the Spirit and Ture Tangata – The ministry for the people.
Ratana was deeply troubled about the Treaty or the lack of its presence. Ratana was a burden bearer – an intercessor, he heard and carried the pain of his people. In 1924 Ratana took a petition to London to seek an audience with the King and the League of Nations. Ratana had collected 40,000 signatures. These represented nearly three quarters of all Maori. But no one gave him any time. London ignored him. The New Zealand government worked hard to block his efforts.
Later in 1935 Ratana went to Parliament and presented to Prime Minister Michael Savage four symbols. Two of these symbols were a potato and a broken watch. He carried the potato – symbolising the land that was taken and how Maori could no longer feed themselves. The broken watch – symbolised the Treaty that was broken. It no longer worked and wasn’t being honoured.
Little was heard and even less was done to right the injustices that Ratana identified.
The Treaty of Waitangi was seen as history – no longer needed. Sadly it was cultural superiority by both the Government and the Church that caused us to miss an opportunity to begin to reconcile this Treaty covenant.
So I ask the question. How different would our nation be today if we had listened to the burden for our nation that Ratana carried those years ago? How much better off and further ahead would our nation be if during Ratana’s time 80 years earlier had we became serious about our Treaty?
A missed opportunity – that undoubtedly scarred Ratana and his people. The distance we see today that still separates Ratana from the mainline church still reflects this rejection and disappointment. Much more needs to be said and much more needs to be reconciled
But the call to us is still evident. That’s why we are here today – The Treaty is a gift from God.
So as two parents and a midwife we must continue to make covenant by laying aside our temptation for cultural superiority. We must listen to each other in the “House of Mourning”. Jesus said, “No greater love is there than this than to lay down ones life for his brother”– seeking each others highest in a spirit of Christian forgiveness and reconciliation. Ensuring that each generation hears the story that God has given to our Nation – and for us to continue to write our own chapter with the heart of putting others first.
We need to feel the pain that Ratana carried in his heart for our Nation. We need to be burden bearers, intercessors for the travail of our nation in the way that Ratana first did.
His vision took our story to London and the League of Nations. God’s vision brings us here today so we can capture afresh the spirit of humility with which and only which – we can make this journey together.
May God bless us all.
Craig Vernall is the National Leader for Baptist Churches of New Zealand
This is an abridged copy of the message he shared on Waitangi Day, 6th Feb, 2014 at Waitangi, Northland, NZ
It was great to catch up with Kiwi-International Jeff Fountain (Schuman Centre, Europe) last week in Auckland. Jeff was a keynote speaker at the 6th NZCN Christian Leaders Congress in 2011 and is registered for the 7th Congress later this week in the Bay of Islands, so it will provide another opportunity to talk face-to-face about recent developments aimed at reducing harm caused by the sex-trade.
A sea-change is taking place in the way Europeans view prostitution.
In an almost too-good-to-be-true-report, the European Parliament announced it will vote later this month on criminalising clients rather than the sex workers.
“Because marriage is a gift of the Creator, uniting a man and a woman, and affirmed by Jesus himself, intended for the birth and nurture of children and for building up human families in mutual support and care, it is a lifelong commitment.
Such marriages generate growth in oneness of heart, body, and mind, and provide stability to family life, so that children are cared for lovingly and grow to full maturity. In this way marriage is foundational to a good society.”
NZCN Healthy Marriage discussion group, 2013
Marriage – Why it matters
Healthy marriages are a foundation for strong families and strong communities.
Evidence strongly suggests that outcomes for children, on a range of social and emotional indicators, are better when parents are married. And outcomes for adults who are married are generally better than in other co-habiting arrangements.
Many parents achieve exceptional outcomes despite divorce, bereavement, or children born outside of marriage.
But this does not alter the statistics that show better outcomes for marriage.
Marriage involves a publicly declared commitment which is a stronger basis for the security which enables children to grow and flourish than uncommitted relationships.
Marriage creates a unit that performs better financially and economically. This not only benefits those in the family but also increases the likelihood of a beneficial impact for society.
Marriage statistics suggest a correlation with lower rates of violence and domestic violence. These are problems that plague our society.
Marriage – where is it heading?
The rate of marriage has declined over recent decades in favour of casual and de facto relationships. This has gone hand-in-hand with a rise in the rate of divorce.
Some people focus on recent challenges to the legal definition of marriage as a factor in the erosion of marriage. But this is more a symptom than a cause of the problem.
Andrew J. Cherlin, Professor of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University, says that two shifts occurred around the start of the 20th century – over 100 years ago – that have had a serious impact on marriage. (Andrew Cherlin, The-Marriage-Go –Round, Vintage Books, 2010)
Radical individualism – making self-interest the top priority
‘Companionate marriage’ – the notion that marriage is just about adult companionship, exacerbated today by the idea that romantic love is sufficient basis to get married.
If the present common attitude to marriage is not changed for a better one that appreciates the importance of marriage, the best we can expect is that the situation will drift along – maybe a bit better at some times, maybe a bit worse at others.
At worst, we may see a continual slide over time away from marriage, from commitment, and from God.
What do we need to do?
Commit to doing what you can to change things.
Recognise that marriage between a man and a woman is part of God’s created order. As such it is relevant for everyone – not just Christians or ‘religious’ people.
Learn about God’s purpose, plan, and provision for marriage.
For those who are married, commit to building your marriage based on God’s plan, as a model and encouragement to others, and a witness to God.
Be available to help others, especially younger marrieds.
Talk about marriage – especially to those who don’t know God or who haven’t had good role models.
Celebrate marriage – in your churches, and even better – outside your churches, in the community.
Work together – connect to New Zealand Christian Network via the web. If you are able, consider supporting the Network and the work we do promoting Marriage Week.
Mark Marriage Week 7-14 February each year in your calendar.
Check outTowards a Strategy for Building a Healthy Marriage Culture on www.marriageweek.org.nz – This is a short paper developed by the Healthy Marriage Discussion group organised by New Zealand Christian Network. Please offer any comments or suggestions you have.
If you agree with the Christian Marriage Commitment that forms part of that statement, please go to the website and register your support. Tell your church and friends about it!
Marriage involves a publicly declared commitment which is a stronger basis for the security which enables children to grow and flourish than uncommitted relationships.
Marriage creates a unit that performs better financially and economically. This not only benefits those in the family but also increases the likelihood of a beneficial impact for society.
Marriage statistics suggest a correlation with lower rates of violence and domestic violence. These are problems that plague our society.
Craig Vernall is the National Leader for 
Marriage – where is it heading?
For those who are married, commit to building your marriage based on God’s plan, as a model and encouragement to others, and a witness to God.
