melbourne protests

The Beatitudes are a word for our time

/ MurrayCampbell

The assassination of Charlie Kirk on 10th September will bring unspeakable grief to those who knew and loved him.  His death is emblematic of the age in which we are sadly living. Not even an hour was permitted to pass without tirades of opinions and glee expressed online.

People are defending the shooter, even celebrating the murder. Many others dare to say that Charlie Kirk is simply a victim of his own making, while others again try to play the shadowy middle way game of whataboutism. 

People are losing the ability and desire to talk to one another about life’s biggest issues. People enraged by hardship and perceived injustice (or real injustice) drink from the fever-inducing cup that is easily found among online socials, justifying and fuelling hatred for the other.

The city of Melbourne, every weekend it seems, now witnesses protests, vile speeches, and violence. Victorian Police are right now preparing for and dreading another day of protest on Saturday. These thousands are but a tiny few of the many more who express their anger over on Bluesky, X and Facebook.

Photo by freestocks.org on Pexels.com

Most people have no idea who I am and have not heard my name, and yet I have written and said enough to have my name printed in newspapers and even on the front page of The Age. The former Victorian Premier resorted to his famous slander under the Parliamentary privilege because of a view I had expressed.  I have received more than a few ‘colourful’ letters in the mail or messages on the phone. As a consequence, there have been a couple of Sundays when I have had a quiet word with the Elders, just in case someone might turn up to interrupt or protest our Sunday service. Thankfully, when someone has come as a result of something I’ve written, it is in search of a merciful God and not with an agenda to shout down a preacher.

We will not find a way forward for the common good through joining in the competing choruses online; hate breeds hate, and conspiracy is often countered with misinformation. Of course, there is much going on that is maddening, harmful and concerning. Anger has a place (God can be angry), but it mustn’t be the only key in which we speak. Indeed, how we speak and what we say really does matter. Charlie Kirk, from the little I know of him, engaged his interlocutors with grace, and yet he is now dead. Far from reasoning that kindness doesn’t work, we need to double down on grace and kindness.

I have lost count over the past 5 years of how often I have seen comments from certain Christians who self-identify with the final Beatitude (blessed are the persecuted), and subsequently use this to justify relegating the first 7 Beatitudes to the category of ‘not in season’. Peacemakers and meekness and mercy are deemed an inconvenience; how differently Jesus sees things. 

The Christian doesn’t need to second-guess how to respond to world events and how to engage with others. The Christian isn’t left without guidance and recourse. Jesus gives the believer a paradigm in the Beatitudes.

He said:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek,
    for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart,
    for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

The Beatitudes don’t detail how one enters the Kingdom of heaven, but the life of those who belong to this Kingdom. This posture in some ways pre-empts the final manifestation of the Kingdom by exhibiting its qualities in the here and now; to use Jonathan Leeman’s analogy, it’s much like an embassy in a foreign country.

Some Christians hold to some of the Beatitudes and play loose with others. Some of us focus on peace-making while sacrificing righteousness in order to achieve this goal. Some grab hold of righteousness with clenched fists, while ignoring how Jesus begins, with confession and contrition of our own sins. It is important to see how the Lord Jesus ties them together in an unbreakable bond.  All 8 Beatitudes belong together and work together to build godly character and a life that imitates, albeit imperfectly, the Lord Jesus.

Jesus leads us to begin with confession and contrition, acknowledging our complete dependence on God’s grace, which is his loving gift to us through the atoning death of Christ. The more we grasp the astonishing nature of God’s grace, we can no longer look at other Aussies with any disdain or wanting anything other than their good. 

I suspect some of my Christian friends believe that if we follow the first 7 Beatitudes, the outcome will be peace and happy relationships with everyone, but that’s not where Jesus leads us. He says, ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’

It is true, we can be shouted down because we’ve said stupid things, hurtful things, and said the right things wrongly; I know I’m guilty of all the above.  Nonetheless, Jesus indicates that living the Beatitudes and being concerned for God’s righteousness may still result in people being offended and not liking us and attempting to silence us. For Christians to think we can escape verses 10-12 is understandable but somewhat naive.

The Christian song sheet isn’t La Marseillaise,

‘Français, pour nous, ah ! quel outrage

Quels transports il doit exciter!

C’est nous qu’on ose méditer

De rendre à l’antique esclavage!’

If the writer or website you read regularly uses language of ‘revolution’ and ‘war’, ‘taking back’, and throwing around rage and expletives, perhaps it’s time to find a more useful read. After all, Proverbs warns us, 

“Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person,

    do not associate with one easily angered,

or you may learn their ways

    and get yourself ensnared”. (Proverbs 22:24-25)

Blessed are the poor in spirit.

Blessed are those who mourn.

Blessed are the pure in heart.

Melbourne needs Christians leaning ever closer to the Jesus of the Beatitudes. The United States and Australia need Christians who are learning to press closer to Jesus’ words, trusting him and doing as he asks. If you’re not yet convinced, then take a look at the cross. Did Jesus abandon his Beatitudes as he hung crucified? Or did he embrace them, such that he died with and for the sins of the world?

That’s the message our city and world need more than ever. That’s the life our churches need to embody more than ever. 

Church offers stunning answer for social cohesion and hope

/ MurrayCampbell

This weekend, I am having a mini break, which means it’s an opportunity to visit another church. 

I love the church where I am a member and belong, but annual leave is an opportunity to visit other churches and be encouraged by what God is doing elsewhere.

We had originally thought that we would visit one of the churches in Melbourne CBD, but knowing police are overstretched and multiple protests were being organised, we thought it best not to go. Why add to the business? And who knows how long we’d be stuck in the city while protesters blocked intersections around the CBD. 

Photo by Sora Shimazaki on Pexels.com

So we visited Mentone’s daughter church, Regeneration Church in Clayton. It was lovely to catch up with old friends and encouraging to meet around God’s word and see how the church has grown since I last visited. It was a beautiful sight: a room filled with mostly 25-year-olds and representing so many different ethnicities, from all over the world and yet with one voice praising God and enjoying a deep sense of unity in Christ. I said to the pastor afterwards, ‘here [the church] is the answer to all of the friction and suspicion and anger in our community’. 

It’s true, if you want to see a glimpse of what God is doing around the world today, go to your local church. If you wish to have a little taste of what life in eternity will be like,  drop into your local church next Sunday and see where disconnected men and women from all backgrounds, jobs, education, ethnicity are finding joy and peace and love and life together through Jesus Christ. 

Sometimes the music is happening, sometimes it’s out of tune. Sometimes the coffee is proper Melbourne, most of the time it isn’t. Sometimes the kids are noisy; often they are. The building’s architecture may be plain or striking, the preacher a great storyteller or simple words explaining the Scriptures. In these many different settings, from Clayton to Camberwell, from Pakenham to Preston, and from Mentone to Melton, church is like a breath of fresh air compared to the anx and rage filling our streets. 

What a contrast with the clashing protests in Melbourne city today, where protests met with counter-protests, one volume of insult matched with further insult and even assault. Yes, many are probably marching for a myriad reasons, concerns over housing and cost of living, and fear of the unknown. But with the surprise element of boiling water burning you, these protests were already marked with signs of what they were about. When a protest is arranged under the banner, ‘stop mass immigration’, and then days out it’s described as defending ‘white heritage’ and denouncing Chinese and Indians in our country, of course, the march was going to go off the rails. So when a known neo-nazi is given a microphone and addresses the crowd from the steps of Parliament House, to the cheers of people below, what were you expecting to see? 

A few days ago, Victorian Police expressed concerns that to deal with these protests, they were forced to take away resources from their search to apprehend a man who murdered two of their own and seriously wounded another only 5 days ago. Why would we create further strain on our police after the shocking week they have endured? And then, at the protest in Adelaide, a poster appeared, supporting the alleged police murderer.

Melbourne’s new Lord Mayor wants to claim the title of the ‘optimistic city’, but Melbourne is anything but optimistic or happy. Melbourne has turned into the nation’s protest capital, with weekly interruptions by protests and marches, often promoting the most insidious of causes. Our city is experiencing tumultuous divisions and doubts and fears. One solution often produces another misstep and further erodes public confidence and our social cohesion is increasingly tenuous. We are no longer the city we once were. 

Jesus once warned, 

“There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken.” (Luke 21)

Tired of bad news? Exhausted by the negativity and fear? There is someone to whom we can turn. I’ve said it before, and I will keep on saying it: there is good news. There is really good news, and it can already be seen and experienced in Melbourne.  There is something beautiful and good and happy taking place across our city where people from all manner of backgrounds are finding not a feeling of optimism but a happy and certain hope. To be sure, it won’t make the newspapers of 6pm news; good news stories don’t sell. But boy, do we need a better story than the ones filling every breaking news. As Jesus explained, what we get to see in our churches is tasted and seen in a million different cities and towns around the world and in a thousand languages and on a billion faces, 

“This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”