Sunday 18 August 2013

In an election year all the talk is about a probable change of government. People who minister in the Christian community services sector are wondering what relationships might be like with a new administration. While future funding and positioning are of immediate concern to some, others wonder what the prospects of advocacy might be like.

It would be too easy to take a concept like advocacy and begin to discuss what we are advocating, rather than exploring the reason for our advocacy. In Christian advocacy, we are ‘giving a voice’ – speaking up for the vulnerable and disadvantaged in our community. Advocacy is generally defined as giving support in the public space for a cause. Therefore, it is often linked to lobbying with regard to budget priorities, working with people of a common mind and speaking out for those who are damaged or at risk of being diminished by the decision-making processes.

Advocacy falls into three main areas: an act of social justice or political praxis to influence those in power; an outcome of our Christian witness as proactive engagement; or the articulation of a vision for a fair and just society.

All three are excellent paradigms but they do not fully explain the underlying Christian motivation for advocacy. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians provides a sound and meaningful basis to explore this foundation.

The starting point for understanding is found in God’s character: his love, justice and concern for the world. It is characterised by three factors – God’s creation is marred by our selfishness and longing for restoration; a vision for the future free from poverty and hurt; and the reality that God has met us in the person of Jesus Christ.

In 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, Paul centres on the heart of God’s initiative in reconciling us through Christ resulting in a new way of looking at the world and our attitude and responsibility to others.

Relationships are both individual and societal. Fractured and unsustainable relationships are at the root of family breakdown, the cause of so many industrial tensions, the struggle with international affairs and the pain experienced by the disenfranchised.

The restoration of our relationship with God our Creator is the most fundamental reconciliation of all. Paul explains the enormous impact of this upon our lives and others.  For him, it results in a new vision of God and a new perspective on the world.

‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: The old has gone, the new has come!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.  And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.’ (2 Corinthians 5:17-19)

The Apostle never tires of sharing what it means to be united with Christ. God becomes real in the world into which Christ brings us. There are a number of ways this new life feeds into and facilitates the work of advocacy.

‘So from now on we regard no-one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.’ (v.16)

Paul explains the result of his new life in Christ: he no longer lives for himself but for Christ (v.15). He also tells us he sees people in a new light no matter what their cultural background or circumstance.

Paul also explores his own prejudice in relation to his personal religious background.  Before he met Jesus Christ on the Damascus Road, he judged him by his own religious sensibilities.

By embracing what it means to belong to the family of God, we see people differently.  In practical terms this means refusing to judge people by our own cultural yardsticks.  In a profound sense, we see each person as someone for whom Christ has died.

As we have a relationship with and a deep concern for the people we serve it is appropriate to reach out beyond our immediate relationships and engage in advocacy, for some of the most marginalised and disadvantaged sections of the community.

We see the world differently: ‘new life’ transforms us from a personal spiritual experience to a new way of viewing and engaging the world. Paul Barnett sees it as a transformation of the human will which is ‘entrenched in egocentricity’.

CS Lewis reflects upon his own journey in Surprised by Joy, but with a far broader application. He writes, ‘What mattered most of all was my deep-seated hatred of authority, my monstrous individualism and lawlessness. No word in my vocabulary expressed deeper hatred than the word “interference”. But Christianity placed at the centre what then seemed to me a transcendental interferer.’

Some Christians see the world as beyond help and there is no point working to make it better while others believe that God only works through Christians – and so we make our voice heard even amongst those who do not share our convictions.

Redemption, for us, is not limited to the personal sphere alone! It points to the new creation which God brings about in Christ.

‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: The old has gone, the new has come!’ (v.17)

This is a splendid description of the change that God brings about in our lives. We notice, however, that it describes more than mere personal experience, for it picks up the language of creation, which emphasises the power of this change.

This change is universal: Paul seems to be indicating that this reconciliation is open to all and that its reach is not limited.

What God has brought about in Christ affects all of life. When the Rev Dr Sir Alan Walker preached in South Africa he was escorted from the country by the Apartheid Government on two occasions.

In The Christian Century under the headline ‘Evangelist Banned’, he was quoted as saying, ‘There is no greater menace in the church than a born again Christian without a social conscience.’

Many of those involved in Christian advocacy do so from a social justice aspect alone.  There are biblical verses that would support this approach and, to this end, we have used: ‘Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.’ (Proverbs 31:8)

John Perkins wrote Let Justice Roll Down and Christianity Today suggested it was one of 50 books that have helped shape Christians, chiefly because it has a proven strategy for changing neighbourhoods. He talks about the three ‘r’s: relocation, reconciliation and redistribution. Under the second he wrote, ‘Reconciliation across racial, cultural and economic barriers is not an optional aspect of the gospel.’

The picture that Paul paints becomes a profound illustration of what it means to be Christian – or to be a Christian community. We enter a whole new world of experience and the language is transformational.

Ronald Sider wrote the ground-breaking book Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, which awoke many in the evangelical world to the plight of the world’s poorest. He wrote of the concern about ‘lopsided Christianity’ and controversially described most churches as ‘one-sided disasters’.

He painted a picture of how some suburban churches had hundreds of people coming to Jesus Christ and praising God in brand new buildings, but seldom learning that their new-found faith had anything to do with the wrenching inner-city poverty just a few kilometres away. However, in other churches, members were forever writing to politicians, lobbying their local councillors’ office, but understanding little about the daily presence of the Holy Spirit.

These two models of church remain: one which saves souls; and the other which reforms structures. David Bosch in Transforming Mission described the tension between evangelism and social action as ‘one of the thorniest areas in the theology and practice of mission’. I see it subtly present in so many areas of church life in the 21^st century.

But if God brings about a total change, there is no area of life upon which this change cannot impact or bring about inner-transformation. Similarly, there is no area of life for which we cannot feel a passion and engagement.

The thought that ‘the old has gone, the new has come’ says reconciliation with God brings about a radical change of allegiance. Our new life in Christ is now the overriding characteristic of all we are and all we do.

The church of God must model what it preaches if it is going to help shape the community. According H Richard Niebuhr, the church is a ‘social pioneer’. As it engages in social action, it expresses ‘the highest form of social responsibility’.

Michael Green will be remembered for his work on New Testament mission. He gave a plenary address at the first Lausanne Conference in Switzerland in 1974 when he noted:

‘These Christians embraced all the colours, all the classes and all the untouchables of ancient society … Their caring for each other in need became proverbial in antiquity.  When people saw how these Christians loved one another, … they listened to the message of Jesus … Unless the fellowship in the Christian assembly is far superior to that which can be found anywhere else in society, then Christians can talk about the transforming love and power of Jesus until they are hoarse, but people are not going to listen to them.’

A tragic mark of our modern society is the decline of trust. The public no longer considers the words it reads and the reports it hears in the media carry the weight they once did. The radical nature of God’s grace touches the whole of life. It is far broader than party politics and we must avoid such narrow distinctions. It challenges our attitude to trust and our concept of salvation.

In our advocacy, we remind ourselves that it is foolish to see left or right as holding the answer. Once we are polarised, at one and the same time, we become paralysed.

A new life in Christ creates a new relationship: ‘All of this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.’ (vv. 18-19)

The new life of Christ leads us to offer hope to the world. It brings us into a new relationship with him and into the rich tapestry of relationships within the body of Christ.

This new relationship calls for a commitment to justice which is far more than philanthropy. At Washington DC’s National Prayer Breakfast in 2006, there was an unlikely preacher: Bono, the Irish rock star from U2. Bono went on to say:

‘The one thing we can all agree, all faiths and ideologies, is that God is with the vulnerable and poor. God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them. 

‘From charity to justice, the good news is yet to come. There is much more to do. There’s a gigantic chasm between the scale of the emergency and the scale of the response. And finally, it’s not about charity after all, is it? It’s about justice. Let me repeat that: it’s not about charity, it’s about justice.’

In our advocacy we remind ourselves that being ‘for’ the poor simply is not enough. The advocate understands that we must be ‘with’ the poor.

‘We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf:  Be reconciled to God.’ (v.20)

The closeness of our relationship to God is issued in God speaking through us. Had the early Methodists in Australia chosen a much more passive approach than they did, things could have been very different today. Those who planted the seeds of a pioneering work in the early colony of Sydney were also advocates.

Throughout our history, Christians have given voice to issues as diverse as slum clearance, child labour, the harmful impact of gambling, the abuse of alcohol, a meaningful use of Sunday, the White Australia policy and the Vietnam War. Wesley Mission’s commitment to advocacy in recent years has involved speaking up in relation to some of those matters of immediate contemporary concern such as mental health, credit card debt, financial stress, homelessness and affordable housing.

Evidence-based research helps to provide recommendations for government enquiries, white papers, committees and for policy formulation at Council of Australian Government meetings. However, advocacy is also about generating and facilitating a public conversation about social issues to bring about tangible reform. We have sought to do that in relation to homelessness, suicide and the reform of the finance sector.

Being at the table while conversations are taking place is as important as anything else. Wesley Mission’s service delivery ‘on the ground’ adds credibility to those conversations. Christians are called to bring transformation by standing beside vulnerable people and giving them a voice in the midst of pain, injustice and innumerable challenges in Australia.

For us, reconciliation to God makes possible a dynamic commitment to the work of advocacy. We do that by being firmly fixed in the hope found in Jesus Christ.

Rev Dr Keith Garner is Superintendent of Wesley Mission.

Featured image: From Wesley Mission Winter 2013 magazine, here.

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