Warren's Reflections

As a priority justice issue, we need to be doing everything possible in the cause of reconciliation with our First Peoples. This of course means closing the gap in so many areas and dealing with the outrageous levels of incarceration of our indigenous people, but it also means pursuing treaties and greater truth-telling in establishing firmly in the minds of future generations the proper place of our First Nations in Australia's long history. For the disgraceful way they have been treated, we need to keep saying sorry until reconciliation is complete. This is even more urgent in the face of the devastating 'Voice' referendum result.  So don't let me hear that 'Welcomes to Country' or acknowledgements of country are not needed. Of course they are ... because they are respectful and educational and traditional, and keep the fires of reconciliation burning. How can we sleep while this injustice is unresolved?! We so easily forget we live on unceded land - we take i...

What benefit can we find in prayer when war and violence seem only to get worse and children, despite our seemingly very reasonable prayers, keep dying? I have encountered and experienced very real answers to prayer at times - mine and others, small and big results - but many of my prayers seemed to have remained ineffectual. I believe that God is alive, totally loving and compassionate, and can and does intervene according to the common good ... but to this last point - very obviously not all the time.  This has led me to two very crucial conclusions. Firstly, prayer is largely about aligning ourselves with God, building our sacred relationship with the Divine Trinity, and thereby understanding who God is. Secondly, prayer is about attuning our behaviour and action to God's will or God's kingdom ways - where we become the solution to our own heartfelt desires. We pray, "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is heaven", and then we should get on with it...

I have normally apologised along the journey when, usually in hindsight, I understand that I have neglected someone. This has usually occurred through being, mostly correctly, completely focussed on the bigger picture of the wider community. But what about apologies due to me that are not forthcoming? What do you do with that going forward?  I actually had a couple apologise to me a few years down the track (for potentially being part of destabilising my ministry) when they came to realise that God's mission into the world sometimes needs to have a higher priority than internal church agendas. That they had themselves become so involved in significant mission was gratifying enough for there to be no further tension between us.  Yet I still await an apology from CCVT for the appalling way they handled one ministry situation (having taken on one of their basket-case churches and brought new purpose and relevance) - an apology that will likely never happen. You can forgive and mo...

Good theology needs to aim, rather than remaining rigid and arrogant, at becoming humble, curious and generous (with thanks to the writing of Brian McLaren who has personally moved through his own process of discovery and change). Good theology, to be good, must lead into having a greater redemptive influence on everything that happens around you.  What is the point of pushing people away based on a minor doctrinal point that is probably biblically arguable or dubious anyway? Yet it happens so often. And sometimes this, combined with ego and fundamentalist tendencies, leads to the destruction of quality and effective ministries! Not to mention how church often degenerates into addressing internal agendas and preferences, leaving the broader community high and dry.  Worse still, people can live in a neighbourhood with the appearance of acceptance and friendliness, but then in the pious confines of the church, start applying arbitrary labels in terms of people's spiritual status...

Seeking the 'common good' has become central to my thinking and writing for many years now. What is the point of coming to know Jesus, having your life straightened out and gaining a new start, if you don't then seek the common good of all creation?! Don't say to me escaping hell and gaining heaven - I've grown way beyond that sort of trite simplicity ... I've learnt so much about God's grace to ever again accept that argument. I can bever again imagine a duplicitious God that inflicts pointless punishment on people that he cares enough for to sacrifically seek to redeem.  I feel sorry for those who buy a tied-up package and never open themselves to think beyond it's confines - who never allow their experience and that of others to challenge things they have been taught or heard. As God speaks through Scripture, we can learn to notice the deeper truths about life - what humans do to other created beings and push off the responsibility elsewhere (the grea...

Why do I have the political persuasions that I do? I believe that politics and the church should always work towards the common good. If we want unrestrained 'dog-eat-dog', why have government at all! The 'common good', as I have written in my books, is one of the major features or dynamics of what Jesus meant when he used the term 'kingdom of God'. Everyone getting a fair and equitable go at everything available within God's creation. No selfishness, no stockpiling, no partiality, no prejudice.  This way of thinking completely trumps (appropriate pun) any thought of government needing to protect or promote any form of religion, as, for government, the well-being of all people (especially those being left behind) and community harmony is their foremost agenda. This certainly and naturally spreads to the natural environment and the protection of earth's various species. Besides, those purporting religious protection (beyond the normal need for certain fre...

Recovering quietly from a double hernia operation has given me a lot of (possibly too much) think time. My thoughts have drifted around politics, theology and past church experiences. I haven't wanted to spend too much time thinking about Carlton's latest form fluctuations - way too frustrating!  I rejoice that Peter Dutton lost his seat - he deserved to - especially for even thinking about nuclear power. I put in some money 6 years ago to try to unseat him - an investment that had a delayed return. I just watched the third episode of The Piano on the ABC - where a variety of people play at a public piano (this time at the Preston Market) - and was emotionally moved by a seemingly beautiful man from Gaza (who had lost everything including his beloved piano when his home was bombed) wonderfully play his wife's favourite music in front of her, his three daughters, and a nice little crowd. He also spoke of his love of the opportunities Australia has given his family. What a pr...