Not Of This World - Father Dave's Blog

Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” (John 18:36)

This weekend marks the last Sunday of the Christian year, commonly celebrated as the feast of “Christ the King”. It’s a feast that isn’t quite 100 years old, yet I believe it is definitely one worth adding to the calendar.

It was in 1925 that Pope Pius XI proclaimed this last Sunday of the ecclesiastical year as the feast of “Christ, the King”, and 1925 was a very interesting year. Europe had only just emerged from the ‘War to End All Wars’, and signs were everywhere that we were hurtling towards another one. Further, we were in the grip of a worldwide economic depression with no obvious solution.

In times of trouble, we gravitate towards people who claim to have the answers. One such messianic figure was the Italian leader, Mussolini, who had just celebrated his third year in office. Another was a young rabble-rouser by the name of Adolf Hitler, who had been out of gaol for a year by that stage, and whose Nazi Party was rapidly growing in popularity across Germany. Throw into this mix the ideology of eugenics, which had captured the imagination of much of Europe’s intellectual elite. The world cauldron was ready to boil over again!

Eugenics is a fundamentally racist ideology whose proponents see it as a scientific extension of Darwin’s theory of evolution. Eugenics holds that some species in the natural world are clearly superior to other species (human beings over apes, for example) and that some races within the species are likewise superior to other races (Arians over Africans and Jews, for instance). Nature functions to see that only the fittest survive, and so the superior peoples will inevitably rise to the top of the social order over time. By helping this natural process along, we work in harmony with nature. This ideology would allow Hitler to claim that he was doing the work of God by exterminating inferior peoples and races!

I recently read G.K. Chesterton’s essay of 1922, “Eugenics and Other Evils”. It seems so dated now. How could any intelligent human being have bought into such a toxic ideology? Or course, our descendants may say the same thing about today’s woke ideology 100 years from now.

In the midst of all this uncertainty a century ago, Pope Pius XI saw that it was time to proclaim that Christ is King! The world needed to look to Christ for solutions, and not to any messianic political figure. We needed to adopt the culture of Christ’s Kingdom, based on love and service, rather than descend into another violent struggle for global supremacy, and we needed to recognise our oneness in Christ, rather than allow nationalism and racism to further divide us.

“My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36)

Jesus’ Kingdom operates along entirely different lines to the systems we are familiar with. It is not worldly. It doesn’t involve fighting as it is not based on power structures maintained by violence. ‘Survival of the fittest’ may be ‘natural’ and even ‘scientific’ yet it has no place in Jesus’ world. Jesus’ Kingdom is a different kind of order, based on love, service, equality and justice, leading to abundance.

If the world had taken Pope Pius XI’s proclamation that Christ is King more seriously, we might have avoided the Second World War. If we could grasp the message now, we may yet avoid a third. I wish I could say I was optimistic.

Our Sunday Eucharist

We celebrated another wonderful Eucharist last Sunday. Thank you, Karyn Hemming and Andrew Madry for joining me on the panel. One-minute snippets are below, with a larger snippet at the end. You can, of course, find the full broadcast (and all our broadcasts) on my YouTube channel, or you can scan the library of shorts on the Sunday Eucharist Instagram page.

This Sunday I’m looking forward to having Andrew Logan with me on the panel. I was looking forward to having Doug Pyeatt join us as well but, unfortunately, he’s going to be driving across the USA from east to west at the time of our broadcast.

Actually, it’s not unfortunate. Doug is finally being allowed to return to his family after a year and five months on the other side of the country! No, he hasn’t been in prison. It’s his job. Even so, Doug is heading home, and will try to listen in to the broadcast, but we’ll have to wait another month before seeing his smiling face again. Meanwhile if any of you would like to volunteer to take Doug’s place this Sunday, let me know.

Making up somewhat for the pain of losing Doug is the joy of having one of Doug’s countrymen, Pastor Eric Fistler, join us with a pre-recorded homily on Revelation 1:4-8. If you don’t know Eric, he and Pastor Robb McCoy cohost the weekly Pulpit Fiction podcast, which is something I have been listening to for many years. This year I started contributing pre-recorded reflections to their show, and I asked Pastor Eric to return the favour. I’m confident that you’re really going to enjoy meeting him.

So … please join us at noon this Sunday on TheSundayEucharist.com and on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn Instagram, Faithia and Streamyard.

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What’s On?

Sunday, November 24^th – Our Eucharist at noon via thesundayeucharist.com (or through Facebook , YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Faithia or Streamyard).
Tuesday, November 26^th – Boxing at The Mundine Gym in Redfern, 7-9 pm
Thursday, November 28^th – Boxing at The Mundine Gym in Redfern, 7-9 pm
Friday November 29 to Sunday, December 1 – @Binacrombi. Join me!

A week of loss

It’s been a sad week for me. On Monday I led a memorial service for a brother in the boxing community whose life ended tragically. On Tuesday, one of my great mentors in the faith died – American Baptist pastor and sociologist, Tony Campolo.

If you’ve ever heard Tony speak, or if you’ve read any of his books, you will remember him. I discovered Tony in 1984 through an ad in a Christian magazine. His book, “Ideas for Social Action”, caught my imagination so I cut out the form with a pair of scissors, organised a money-order in US dollars at the post office, and mailed away for it. It wasn’t so easy to order a book like that back then. Even so, it was worth the effort. That book helped inspire my youth group to a series of adventurous local initiatives in the 80’s, such as holding an Easter Meal and Movie Night for the homeless at our church building. It was so successful that the church elders ruled it could never happen again!

I still have that book. The front cover has been worn away but the page with Tony’s autograph on it is still intact. Of course, the book didn’t come autographed. The Baptist Union brought Tony to Australia in 1985, and I booked to see him. I found him riveting, engaging and inspiring, and I couldn’t believe only a couple of dozen people had turned out to hear him, though I may have been the only person in attendance to have read his book. When we broke for lunch, everyone else knew each other and Tony was sitting alone. I asked if I could sit next to him. That’s how our friendship began (and how I got the book signed). 😊

Tony was one of three Evangelical Christian leaders to have had an enormous impact on my life. The other two were Ron Sider, who died only two years ago, and my dad, who died 23 years ago. It makes me feel very old and rather weak to have lost another great mentor. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

In happier news, I yesterday received an invitation yesterday to return to Tehran to appear on a popular Iranian TV show. Having looked at some of the clips, the show appears to be something like “Iran Has Talent” and I’m not quite sure why they want me. Even so, if it comes off, I will let you know. I would love to get back there, and I would love to introduce to you to my many Iranian friends. 😊

And speaking of great Iranians, I was impressed this week by a speech given by the Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, where he distinguishes between the Zionist ideology of the Israeli government and the historic faith of the Jewish people. I appreciate that this is coming from a politician. Even so, I found it deeply encouraging to hear a prominent member of the Iranian government speaking so positively about the Jewish religion and people while opposing the actions of the Israeli government. I include that address below. It’s seven minutes long.

Keep me in your prayers too please as I try to make the most of my recent boxing triumph. I’m hoping that it will lead to bigger and better things – that it will give me a more significant platform from which to share, and that it might help me pay Binacrombi’s debts, and perhaps even help support Fran and myself.

I’m sending out feelers everywhere – trying to organise bouts in Syria and Iran, as well as locally. I have a couple of prospects, and I’ll let you know if they materialise. In the meantime, I’ve put together a video short of my last fight, composed of footage taken by members of the crowd. I’d be grateful if you would share it.

Please share this video wherever you think it might do some good. Help me to put in in front of the eyes of someone who might like to fight me, or send it to someone who might know someone who would. Together, by God’s grace, we may yet see the reign of Christ extended in this way, one gloved punch at a time!

Your brother in the Good Fight,