Readers of The Other Cheek tend to divide when this site brings news of some of the messy goings on in Uniting-Church-land: the dissolution of some conservative churches, the conservative group Assembly of Confessing Congregations deciding their battle is over, with some finding shelter in the breakaway Anglican Diocese of the Southern Cross. And church planting by the Uniting Church’s Propel evangelicals. Some love it, others will groan, variously.
This site leans conservative, but we try to report fairly and to engage with progressives.
One of these is John Squires, who can be spotted over there firmly on the left of the Uniting Church. No, look further left and you will find him.
He edits With Love to the World (WLTW), a daily devotional series.
You can excerpt it, he told me. Challenge accepted.
WLTW has a LOT to say on the call to social justice, and at least in places downplays substitutionary atonement and what the Bible has to say of sexual sins, well you know the ones I mean.
Of course there’s plenty of conservative Bible commentary on the net that’s very sharp on the atonement, crosses the doctrinal “t”s and dots “i”s on sexuality, but is fuzzy on social justice. (Yes that’s a caricature, but some cartoonists draw so well that they reveal what is there.)
So here’s what Dr Amelia Koh-Butler, an Adnyamathanha woman (by adoption) with Chinese heritage, a Uniting Church Minister serving as Mission Secretary—Education and Empowerment with the Council for World Mission in Singapore has to say on May 25. (Spoiler alert for any WLTW readers!)
The reading is Psalm 104:24–34, 35b – (WLTW follows the lectionary)
How many are your works, Lord!
In wisdom you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
There is the sea, vast and spacious,
teeming with creatures beyond number—
living things both large and small.
There the ships go to and fro,
and Leviathan, which you formed to frolic there.
All creatures look to you
to give them their food at the proper time.
When you give it to them,
they gather it up;
when you open your hand,
they are satisfied with good things.
When you hide your face,
they are terrified;
when you take away their breath,
they die and return to the dust.
When you send your Spirit,
they are created,
and you renew the face of the ground.
May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
may the Lord rejoice in his works—
he who looks at the earth, and it trembles,
who touches the mountains, and they smoke.
I will sing to the Lord all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
May my meditation be pleasing to him,
as I rejoice in the Lord.
But may sinners vanish from the earth
and the wicked be no more.
Praise the Lord, my soul.
Praise the Lord
And Dr Koh’s meditation reads
“Today we are reminded that the Spirit’s work is not restricted to humanity. Some years ago, I attended a beach baptism of a Korean man. Just prior to the service starting, a whale started to breach off a close headland. We all stood there transfixed and a wise woman read verse 26. We saw leviathan playing in the sea! That day, God reminded us of oceans and skies, of plans beyond our reckoning. With the psalmist, we can pray and praise the God who is revealed in creation, but this is still only partial. We name mystery as an important part of faith. Whatever we can articulate, God is more. Whatever we can imagine, God is beyond. Whatever we hope for, God promises bigger and brighter. So, when we pray for God to renew the face of the earth, it is beyond our comprehension, yet we pray it anyway. Perhaps this is why there are so many languages? Perhaps we need them all to help express what no single language could ever capture! Being part of a multilingual church is a way of saying, a thousand tongues are not enough, for the grandeur of God is beyond my thinking. As you pray today, let your imagination wander extravagantly.
“Colourful Creator God, open my mind and my heart a little more today.”
Immediately my mind is cast back decades to an outdoor outback wedding. We were singing a Geoff Bullock song from his Hillsong days which has faded from use these days, but which I am sure people will sing in the future.
When we got to the second verse,
Hold Me Close
Let Your Love Surround Me
Bring Me Near
Draw Me To Your Side.
And As I Wait
I’ll Rise Up Like The Eagle
And I Will Soar With You
Your Spirit Leads Me On
In The Power Of Your Love.
an eagle soared above us, spiraling up in a thermal.
All of us who had trekked out from Sydney to see our assistant minister, Jan, married were sure God had directed the eagle to fly just there. Yes, God works in nature. God is more. Thank you Dr Amelia Koh-Butler for the reminder.
With Love to the world can be found at www.withlovetotheworld.org.au
Whale image by Silvana Palacios/ Pexels.
Headline originally said “lefty church”. John squires requested that it should specify the Uniting Church. he assures me it is an official publication.