Billy Graham

Ed Sheeran, the MCG, and Jesus

/ MurrayCampbell

Embedded in Melbourne’s memory is the largest crowd ever to gather at the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).

Last night Ed Shereran lit up the G for 105,000 people. What a number! And he’s repeating the feat tonight with another 100,000 fans singing along to the pop star and his acoustic guitar. 

For anyone walking past the G last night, a 100,000 strong chorus could be heard, 

“Ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh

My bad habits lead to you

Ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh

My bad habits lead to you”

There have been some monumental moments at the MCG. From the 1956 Olympic Games to the famed Box Day cricket test and the odd game of footy. 

The MCG is almost a sacred space to Melbournians. Every year we take the pilgrimage to the G for football and for cricket and rock the stadium with cheers and boos as beer and tomato sauce splash on jumpers and jeans.

I have also visited the G at night when no one was around. We even managed to step onto that magical ground…before security ushered us off. Under that night sky and with the stands darkened, the stadium stood tall and magnificent, a Colosseum befitting the world’s sporting capital.

As journalists today rushed to the history books to uncover the biggest crowds in the MCG’s history, they found a day in 1959. On that day, 130,000 people converged at the MCG to hear a man talk about crucifixion. He explained with clarity and passion, how God came to earth as a man and died to take away the sin of the world. 

Billy Graham preached and the choir that day did more than sing ‘bad habits’, they cried out, 

“Just as I am, without one plea

But that Thy blood was shed for me

And that Thou bid’st me come to Thee

Oh, Lamb of God, I come, I come

Just as I am, though tossed about

With many a conflict, many a doubt

Fighting and fears within without

Oh, Lamb of God, I come, I come”

I was speaking with a friend during the week and commenting about how exciting it is to see my city of Melbourne alive again with music and concerts. Only last week Susan and I picnicked across the river from the G, and listened in the Melbourne Symphony under the stars. To be sure, I’ll be there in 2 weeks’ time for the start of the AFL season and watch the mighty Blues trounce Richmond!

I’m sure the Ed Sheeran concert was great and will leave 1000s with a night to remember. But that day when Billy Graham came, he pointed Melbourne to the Son of God and many thousands of lives were changed forever.

Imagine a God who exists? Imagine moving not only to songs about romantic love but of a God who loves his enemies? Imagine not only enjoying watching a pop star live but coming to know the Son of God?

This message of Jesus Christ isn’t spoken around Melbourne as much as it was once. To be sure, there are still churches preaching this Gospel of Jesus and people are becoming Christians. Fewer people though are attending church and one can’t imagine an evangelist ever again filling the MCG. If anything, we find this Jesus repellent. From politics to education and our local celebrities, we are trying really hard to squeeze Jesus out of the city. We’re uncomfortable with his assessment of this thing called sin. He tells us,  “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?” Frankly, we choose ourselves and we’ll worry about God later on. Even the Melbournians who refuse belief in God still clench their fists at his words and claims on this world. But confirmed in the history books and still lurking in our memory, is the compelling story of Jesus and the cross he bore for humanity.

Perhaps it is time for Melbounians to open the old book and rediscover the One who laid down his life for us.

Billy Graham and Melbourne’s record

/ MurrayCampbell / 1 Comment

The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) is one of the great sporting stadiums of the world. First built in 1853, it is the home of Australian Rules Football. For 6 months of the year, 10,000s of football fans descend onto the G each weekend, to watch their teams play. The MCG has also been the scene of many memorable Cricket Tests, where on Boxing Day, 90,000 Melbournians take their seats to watch 590 balls bowled to terrified or dumbfounded batsmen.

During the Second World War, thousands of American Marines and GIs camped under the stands. In 1956, Ron Clarke lit the Olympic cauldron at the top of MCG, during opening ceremony of the Melbourne Olympics Games.

Every Australian knows the MCG, and almost every Melbourne family has taken a seat to watch the cricket or footy. It has become a family tradition of ours, to enjoy Carlton beating Essendon on a winters day, and in the summer heat, to cheer on the Aussie cricket team. We still talk about the times when our eldest son was given the opportunity to train at the G (and ran out on the pitch when no one was looking!)

The Melbourne Cricket Ground is symbolic of Australians favourite past-time, sport. We idolise anything that involves running, and kicking or hitting a ball. It’s how we spend our weekends, playing and watching sport.

 

MCG.JPG

This temple of Melbourne once bore witness to a very different stage. There were no footballs or cricket bats present, no athletes running around, and no one paying for admission. Instead, 140,000 men and women crammed the stands and spilled onto that famous turf, to hear Billy Graham preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The 1959, the Billy Graham crusade had already run several meetings at another stunning venue, the Myer Music Bowl. But because of the large crowds, it was decided to move the final crusade to the MCG. Even then, no one would have predicted how many people would come, and the mark it would leave on Melbourne’s history.

I love this surprising fact about my city: Melbourne who is so proud of its prosperity, Melbourne who worships sport, Melbourne who is clambering to make herself one of the world’s most progressive and secular cities. In our most loved place, the record highest attendance is for an evangelistic sermon.

Our MCG has witnessed many celebrated moments, but the one which has left a mark for eternity was that day in 1959, when  Billy Graham came and opened the Bible, and preached the good news of Jesus Christ. In the kindness of God, and perhaps with a degree of irony, God replaced the idols of Melbourne with the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ, and lives were transformed.

Melbourne in the 1950s could be described as conservative, and having a strong Christian culture. It was not however Christian. For hundreds of people that day though, Christian influenced habits became a living faith. Today, our society may still hold onto many strands of Christianity but it has long forgotten their significance, and with moral certainty we are one by one cutting these ties. Perhaps in His mercy and love, God might again reveal his grace and power in Melbourne. Not that we are looking for a repeat of a Billy Graham crusade, but rather we look to the one whom Billy Graham preached and lived.

“ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” (John 3:16-18)