Archive for December, 2010

Watching people die

Monday, December 20, 2010

The end of tragedy; the promise of Jesus’s return

Dr Bruce Manners
Senior minister
Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church

It’s hard to watch people die. That’s what many of us did last week as an asylum seekers’ boat was destroyed by the waves and rocks on the shore of Christmas Island. The vision was beamed around the world.

More than 30 people died. Some are still missing.

This is a huge tragedy that highlights the risks people are willing to take for a new start. It also highlights the lack of safety we (as Australians) provided, or were able to provide, for these people in our waters. This is a challenge for our political leaders. Let’s hope it doesn’t get bogged down in politics. Keeping people safe is bigger than politics.

Not that every risk can ever be overcome. We should know that. We who live in a fire burnt, drought ravaged, plain flooded land. We should know that.

Occupational health and safety may be a growth industry, but it will never make our world completely safe. It can’t.

That’s why the Christmas story is so important. Jesus’s birth is rightly celebrated as one bringing peace and joy to the world (even if only seen in limited ways for now). His life, death and resurrection give us confidence in His promise to return. He is our hope for now, and for then.

The First Coming revealed God in His love and showed the extent of that love. The Second Coming reveals Him in His glory. Best of all, this is when God restores all things to how they should be—ever safe. Peace and joy will rule.

So this Christmas, let’s celebrate Jesus’s birth, but let’s also remember the promise of His return. That’s when we’ll never have to watch people die again—ever.

What I love about Oprah

Monday, December 13, 2010

She’s the most generous giver of any celebrity

Dr Bruce Manners
Senior minister
Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church

Oprah’s in Australia with 300 of her new best friends—people who happened to be at her show when she announced her trip. The 300 came by Qantas; Oprah by private jet.

Apparently she’s had 350,000 people try to get tickets for her shows, when there’s a limit of 12,000.

Oprah’s empire makes her one of the richest women in the world. She’s also the most powerful, at least in some areas.

It’s estimated her endorsement of Barack Obama was worth a million votes. In 1996, when she told her audience she was afraid to eat a burger because of mad cow disease, cattle futures fell by 10 per cent. More than 640,000 copies of Tostoy’s Anna Karenina sold in the 12 weeks after it featured in Oprah’s Book Club. In the 12 weeks before, it sold about 12,000.

I’m not an Oprah fan. She has an average daily audience of about 162,000 in Australia, so I’m not alone. But is the reception over the top? The crowds? The people brought to tears? The “O” on Sydney Harbour Bridge?

Her high profile makes her the target of critics. I’m critical of the spiritual advice she dispenses—an eclectic mix of Judeo-Christian thought meets Eastern mysticism.

What’s undeniable is her charitable work. She’s the most generous giver of any celebrity—$40 million to charity this year. That’s about 10 times as much as the second and third-placed celebrities.

So what, when she has it to give away?

But she doesn’t have to. And she still gave $40 million.

You’ve got to love that.

Creative Collective

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Kirsten Bolinger
Public relations editorial assistant
Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia

Ashlea Schur received one of the Sydney Adventist Hospital Acquisitive Awards, worth $1000, during the launch of Creative Collective. She also received a request from the hospital for commissioned work in the future. Her concise and stylish cookbook design caught the eye of many guests. “What I like most about graphic design is how quickly you can turn an idea into an effective and interesting design,” she says. “Creating something from nothing is such a satisfying experience.” Credit: Kirsten Bolinger.

Catherine Johnson’s All That Glitters exhibit is impressive. Any one of her paintings could stand alone in an exhibit but together they create a window into who Catherine is and what her art is about. Catherine admits this textured compilation of paintings “contains pieces” of her. Credit: Ann Stafford.

The . . . And so it began. exhibit is a unique display of design capabilities. Brittany Kent took her designs away from the lab and into the kitchen with a complete tea set, from pot to plates. The fun and delicate designs play nicely with the layout of her exhibit, with her tea pot suspended “mid-pour” from the ceiling. “It’s exciting when you first start a project because there is always the question, ‘Where is this design going to end?’” Credit: Kirsten Bolinger.

We all use calendars, they are part of our everyday lives, but Emmaline Castle has turned this ordinary object into a fun and creative object by using colour and texture. Each month in Emmaline’s calendar is stitched into the paper with thread, adding another element to the simplistic look. Credit: Ann Stafford.

When you first see Paul Praestiin’s exhibit, you may wonder why there are dirty bottles hanging from the ceiling, but as you take a closer look, you start to see a story unravel, “a tall tale set in the 17th century of a sailor’s voyage as he writes about his experiences on the seven seas.” Credit: Ann Stafford.

Shelley Poole’s work—from large canvases to the Jacaranda yearbook—has colour as its prominent theme. She also received one of the Sydney Adventist Hospital Acquisitive Awards for this piece, called Manna. Caption: Kirsten Bolinger.

Exploring her ability in ceramics, Krissie Hopkins has put emotions into clay. For part of her exhibition at Creative Collective, Krissie created a dozen faces, each displaying a different emotion. “It astonishes me how there are millions of people on earth and not one of them is the same,” she says. More photographs from the annual exhibition by final-year visual arts and visual communication students and a list of award winners on page three. Credit: Ann Stafford.

Creative Collective: Winners

The names of the winners of the academic prizes appear after the name of the prize. The monetary value of the prize appears in brackets after the winner’s name.

Acquisitive Award
Sponsor: Sydney Adventist Hospital
Catherine Johnson ($1000)
Ashlea Schur ($1000)
Shelley Poole ($1000)

Avondale College Bookshop Award
Sponsor: Avondale College bookshop
Kathleen Stuart (Art supplies)

Graphic Design Excellence Award
Sponsor: Signs Publishing Company
Ashlea Schur ($1000)

Highly Commended Award
Sponsor: Adventist Book Centre
Emmaline Castle ($20 Adventist Book Centre voucher)
Andrew Ormiston ($20 Adventist Book Centre voucher)
Paul Praestiin ($20 Adventist Book Centre voucher)

Outstanding Effort and Team Contribution in Graphic Design Award
Sponsor: Satellite Ink
Luke Vodell ($250)

People’s Choice Award for Graphic Design
Sponsor: Adventist Book Centre
Ashlea Schur ($20 Adventist Book Centre voucher)

People’s Choice Award for Visual Arts
Sponsor: Adventist Book Centre
Krissie Hopkins ($20 Adventist Book Centre voucher)

Visual Arts Award
Sponsors: Faculty of Arts; Financial and Business Services
Krissie Hopkins ($400)

Visual Arts Excellence Award
Sponsor: Sanitarium Health and Wellbeing
Charmaine Patel ($500)

Giving ultimate rebuttal to consumerism

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Nathan Brown
Book editor
Signs Publishing Company

Many of the year’s big news stories have focused on economics. From stock markets and exchange rates to debt issues and financial regulation, our economic systems continue to be questioned, particularly regarding sustainability. As Christians, we are asked the same questions but these offer the opportunity to seek different answers.

One of the first realisations is a reminder that many of these systems—based as they are on greed, exploitation, injustice and over-consumption—are wrong. The prevailing theory is that which “inspires our pursuit of as much resource use and waste production (also known as economic growth) as possible, as fast as possible” (Brian McLaren, Everything Must Change). The comparative privilege enjoyed by most in the developed world is subsidised at the expense of the rest of the world.

Those who promote and profit from our economic systems have powerful voices, tuned to convince us of their importance and pre-eminence. In Colossians Remixed, Brian J Walsh and Sylvia C Keesmaat describe the prevailing economic forces as “a religious movement of previously unheard-of proportions. Progress is its underlying myth, unlimited economic growth its foundational faith, the shopping mall—physical or online—its place of worship, consumerism its overriding image, ‘I’ll have a Big Mac and fries’ its ritual of initiation, and global domination its ultimate goal.”

In the face of rampant market-driven capitalism, it becomes increasingly clear why Jesus said, “You cannot serve God and money” (Matthew 6:24, NLT). He urges us not to worry about what we should eat, drink or wear—and the list would probably be longer if the Sermon on the Mount had been preached to 21st-century consumers in a shopping mall rather than to rural peasants on a hillside—and reminds us to look first to God who “already knows all your needs” and “will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern” (Matthew 6:32, 33, NLT).

Even as we ask these questions, we need to realise the poor are always first to suffer. We must be asking how we can reach those who are hurting financially and emotionally.

Giving is the ultimate rebuttal to an economy built on getting and having. We must resist the temptations uncertainties bring to build walls of protection around ourselves. Instead, as Jesus recommended, by our generosity and faithfulness we demonstrate our treasure is to be found in the kingdom of heaven (see Matthew 6:20).

Seventh-day Adventist writer Chris Blake offers an inspiring alternative vision: “Let God’s people transition to new models of transforming grace of Christian community. Christianity has never been about isolationism, and never will be. . . . In the midst of imminent collapse, Adventist homes open to the dispossessed and fearful. Adventist churches and schools become cities of refuge and outposts of mercy. Sanctuaries house the homeless. Playing fields plough up into gardens. As a world self-destructs, chapter 2 of Acts emerges before our wondering eyes. . . . This is our finest hour.”—Adventist News Network

Jesus and His other promise

Monday, December 6, 2010

He is coming but no one knows when

Dr Bruce Manners
Senior minister
Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church

Jesus is returning on May 21, 2011. A series of billboards in several US cities proclaim the message.

The billboards picture three wise men on camels with the words, “The wise men knew,” and the website, wecanknow.com, is promoted. There’s also a Bible text: “a wise man’s heart discerneth both times and judgment, Ecclesiastes 8:5.”

On the website, you discover the Secret Rapture (Jesus secretly coming for His people) is listed for May 21, with the destruction of the planet five months later on October 21.

The predictions are “100 per cent accurate and beyond dispute,” reassures the site. Harold Camping, the now elderly founder of Christian radio station Family Radio, is behind the predictions.

“This is not a joke,” says Family Radio’s Tom Evans.

Unfortunately, for Camping’s credibility, he published a book in 1992 called 1994?. In it, he predicted Jesus’s return in September 1994.

“That was obviously wrong,” says Evans.

Obviously.

But doesn’t the Bible say no one knows the time of Jesus’s coming? Well, yes it does. However, says Camping, the wise can “discern both times and judgment” (Ecclesiastes 8:5, KJV—other translations disagree with this emphasis). About 35 years ago, that wisdom was given—to him.

Those of us who are Seventh-day Adventists will be skeptical. We splintered off a group that wrongly predicted the return of Jesus. Lesson learned. Hopefully.

Jesus is plain in Matthew 24: no one knows when these things will happen (verse 36); it will happen just like Noah’s flood, unexpectedly (verse 39); “be prepared, because you don’t know what day your Lord is coming” (verse 42); be ready at all times, He is coming “when least expected” (verse 44, quotes from NLT).

Jesus is coming. That’s His promise. He also promises it will be unexpected.