Australia Day Fruit - paying attention to roots of identity and language confusion

As I look  from afar off in Africa, on this Australia Day….

What's going on?

Today is Australia Day! My birth country's national 'day'.

It's meant to be a day that brings every Australian together in unity and celebration in what some would call 'national pride', but some seem to want it to be a day of national 'shame'.

When I was a child I used to think that Aussies were pretty 'low-key' when it came to patriotism. In contrast I looked at America and thought it was quite 'over the top' in its national patriotism. Australia Day back then was a national holiday to give out Australia Day awards and citizenships, but not much else happened except maybe an excuse for another extended family picnic. Cheaply imported 'Aussie' paraphernalia seems to have changed all that.

HOWEVER, This year as I hang a simple Aussie flag in our home far away from Aussie shores, there are so many reasons I am thankful for being born an Aussie. I also watch scenes on Youtube from Aussie news broadcasters that show how some want to turn a happy national day into an angry day with a different name.

What's going on?

What can or should be done about it?

I am not going to try to give an answer on which day of the year should be Australia Day, or any other of the obvious controversial issues. Because I think this is something more than that.

Sometimes standing back and looking from a distance, can help.

Living cross-culturally for the last 23 years as also helped me learn to look at life and culture with fresh eyes….and pay attention to elements of cultural life that once upon a time I didn't even notice, or know I should look for. 

We also need to look below the surface and dig to root level if we want to address and solve root issues. Some might think these aren't root issues but just a lot of minority 'noise'. But root issues start at lower levels of a plant first and creep up to the top fruit level. We need to recognise the first signs of problems appearing in the fruit and address the problems early at the root…otherwise it will get so bad the only result is that the whole tree rots and falls or is taken down. And often the 'root' issues are actually 'soil' issues…as any gardener will tell us.

Here are two 'soil' issues I am seeing underneath the 'Australia Day Fruit'

1. Identity

Identity issues I have addressed many times on this blog. However, when our core human identity is not in Christ our Redeemer, and more deeply not even in God our Creator, we try to find it elsewhere. 

The first substitute is likely to be national identity and earthly citizenship. And because we no longer rest in our heavenly sourced identity and citizenship, we begin to rely on our earthly identity and citizenship.

But in God's scheme of things, while our earthly ethnicity and nationality is God-given, it is not meant to be the zenith of our identity as explained by American honour-shame scholar (and past Asian missionary) Brad Vaugn here on his recent blog post.  

There will be some from every ethnicity in heaven, but that is not because of the ultimate greatness of those ethnicities. It simply shows that ethnicity in no way excludes anyone from gaining a new and higher honour and identity in a new kingdom and citizenship - in Christ and His eternal holy Kingdom of glory. We no longer need to join an earthly nation (Israel) to be God's people, but we come into Christ, in whose Holy Spirit all ethnicities that were once separate, are now joined. 

We go from all being many nations under differing honour-code ethics which divide us, to all being under one Christ-directed set of holy honour code ethics that unite us. 

However, when we forget, ignore, deny, or are just plain blind, to God's Kingdom identity, 

we have no secure assurance of any identity….and so

 we will try to find a substitute, and then fight for it.

Many Australians have found their substitute identity in a mis-placed inferior earthly national identity and felt blindly 'safe' that it was a sufficient substitute for Kingdom Citizenship and they don't really need God in the 'lucky country'.

But along comes a problem…

When you settle for finding your deep human identity in a lower level substitute, suddenly you discover there are others at the same lower level as you also trying to find their human identity in the earthly ethnicity or nationality. Now there is no higher unifying identity for all. 

And what does this lead to?

Still a yearning for identity but one that leads to tribalism and fighting for supremacy of your tribe - whether that's your gender or your ethnicity or your sporting team, or gang, or profession, or whatever..

Meanwhile the soul of man knows there is something more is needed than just national earthly identity, in order to fulfill the deep longings of the heart.

And so we go looking for something to make us feel that deeper, elusive sense of honour. 

So what is the Aussie likely to do?….they go looking for what is a cultural honour-code pillar... fighting for the 'underdog' - ie the oppressed, the less fortunate or the vulnerable, shamed or neglected. If your world has moved to what is now tribalism and you want to do a culturally honourable thing and fight for the 'oppressed', what will you do?

You will find who you think is the 'oppressed' group and you fight for it …and you will think you are doing the most honourable important thing on the planet!

So you find your ultimate honour in trying to be a 'hero' in 'helping' the 'oppressed' group be 'heard', by increasing their voice to those who you think are not listening and oppressing the 'underdog'. 

Without God in your life, 

you fight for the ones you perceive or believe are the shamed ones, 

and try to shame the ones 

who are your opponents and who you believe are the oppressors.

The fact that it will never satisfy, the fact that it will only further divide and not unify, the fact that it is a shameful lie of the devil to keep you away from the true identity and honour available in God through Christ... you are blind to it all. You don't realise that in a misplaced honour-code that is no longer God's honour code, you will mis-take what is truly honour and what is truly shame, you will mistake what will truly unify and what will truly divide.

And to add to the subtlety of the devils lies, helping the oppressed is what we are called to do as Christians, but we have to make sure our definitions and interpretations of 'oppressed' are God's, and the way we do it is His way. We have to make sure also (even as Christians) that our identity is not found in our 'works', but in Christ.

It's not that we as human beings don't have things to be ashamed for. Before God, in particular, we all do. Some of what we see in our world today, is no doubt the reality that deep in every heart is an awareness that we are all in a place of shame and we should be ashamed of something we have done wrong and an identity we should mourn. 

We also want to alleviate our own sense of shame 

by pointing out, blaming and shaming others. 

We put others down to put ourselves 'up' in our own minds. 

But when we leave God out, we have no answer to why we feel shame for anything at all, and we have no answer to how to deal with the shame or to know what it is we really should be mourning. We end up being sucked into lies and substitutes that never satisfy and only confuse, disappoint and divide.

All because we are trying to find our identity in the wrong 'soil' source.

2. Language Confusion

The next issue that seems to be exposed in this mess is what I would call 'language confusion'. Australia only has one official national language - English. 

But in cross-cultural missions we often talk about communicating in a person's 'heart language'. A language is more than particular tones and sounds used to identify items and actions etc in communication, and which differ from culture to culture. Those are rooted in the Genesis 11 tower of Babel. We know such language differences need translation to enable the different language speakers to 'hear' each other. 

We could call that the 'what' of language.

But language is more than 'what'. 

It is also 'how' and 'why'. 

It's how we express what we mean and why we express it that way.

For example we talk about 'love languages' where different people who might all speak English could express their idea of love in different ways but still using English words. Such languages can also end up in mis-understanding and require 'translation'. There is a need to learn to understand the lens of how the other person 'sees' (and feels) love.

But there is another heart language issue that is so evident across our multi-cultural world. And its creating mis-understanding, stress, pain and conflict in a multitude of settings. 

Its the issue of the different heart languages of guilt-innocence and shame-honour. It's the languages of how we look at right and wrong, good and evil. It's the languages of the conscience, of motivation, of persuasion, of significance, of goals, of crime and punishment, of advocacy, of righteousness and sin.

Australia has a cultural conflict  - not just about Pro-Palestinians protesting on the streets, but in regard to ideology (beliefs) and theology (God) and thus also anthropology (humanity) and eschatology (future). It's not just about different ethnic cultures either, but also about generational cultures. Evangelist and Author Sam Chan has said how that younger generations in Australia have to be reached from the perspective that they think in 'shame-honour' terms rather than 'guilt-innocence' terms. This is a generation who has been raised not only in the soil of a God-denying society (without even an awareness of Creator or Redeemer rooted identity), but also in a social-media honour-shame fuelled world.

And in the process these two differing cultural focuses (worldviews) are talking in different languages about how to progress through these conflicts. They are speaking past each other. Neither are truly hearing the other, and thus both think the other one is blind, stupid, reckless and evil.

Now, don't get me wrong, 

what God says is evil is evil, and what God says is righteous is righteous. 

There is no debate to be had about that.

However, the lenses by which a person sees how to understand and explain right and wrong can differ. This impacts how we interpret the world, ourselves and even the Bible. When that lens is functioning in a mis-placed way, the problem of differences and divisions only increases.

The lenses in Australia (and in the wider western world) have some people shouting through 'shame' terms, and others shouting in 'guilt' terms. And both think they are right and that the other side is 'out of touch with reality'.

Let me explain -

The 'guilt-innocence' side is championing truth-restoration and thus the exposing of lies. They accuse the other side of telling lies, breaking promises and refusing the truth.

The 'shame-honour' side is championing honour-restoration (or they might use the term respect), and thus shame-removal. They accuse the other side of shameful behaviour and refusing to show respect.

This was highlighted to me in stark reality today.  I was catching up on Aussie news on this Australia Day on Youtube!….and the top news bulletin was talking all about truth, and the lies of broken promises. Just below it on Youtube was a news bulletin on a different Aussie TV channel about thousands marching in the streets to say it is not 'Australia Day' but 'Invasion Day'. That side's mantra is all about making the 'invaders' feel ashamed…so ashamed that they should change or cancel Australia Day being on January 26th.

So where to from here?

We have to start speaking the language of those we are trying to reach with the gospel.

Those who see life through honour-shame lenses primarily need to be spoken to in honour-shame terms. 

Truth is important, but we don't speak in those terms first…we explain truth in terms of honour and shame. We say how that to speak truth is respectful, and lying is shameful. We have to translate our message into the language that is understood. If a leader lies, he is shameful. We don't just fight for truth, but we fight for the truth about honour and the honour of truth. We don't just fight against lies, but we expose the lies of mis-placed shame and the shame of lies.

We have to 'learn' a new language. We - including the church - have to expand our vocabulary, both our social vocabulary and biblical vocabulary. 

Like learning a language when going cross-culturally, we have to listen to hear how people articulate their feelings, aspirations, goals and describe their actions and choices. When we use a different language, the listener doesn't 'hear'.  They have to hear the gospel in their language. It has to be a language that speaks about identity, and belonging and honour and shame and acceptance, and what God affirms and rejects. It needs to acknowledge and not dismiss that their desires for identity and honour and acceptance and affirmation are valid, but where they seek it might be mis-placed.

The reality is that we all are sensitive to honour and shame but we articulate it in different ways. And Scripture talks more about shame than it does about guilt. So learning more 'shame' oriented language not only will help us communicate and share the gospel better with others, it will also give us a greater insight and experience of the God of the gospel.

It's 'pride month': Thinking more about the world's problem of pride and the how the church needs to do more to address our human hunger for honour.

photo credit - screenshot

It's the end of June….

…when much of the world has been awash in 'Pride month'….. meaning 'Gay Pride' — to promote anything related to those who identify as LGBTIQ+. 

This year, even large mainline shops such as Target in the USA and Woolworths in the UK and South Africa have chosen to stock a whole range of clothing promoting the month and put huge posters on walls of their stores to promote it. At first glance it is sickening, and at a deeper look it is evil…since evil is the opposite of good, and this is the opposite of good. Here in Africa it is a hotly debated issue since Uganda has recently made homosexuality a punishable crime, yet Botswana recently de-criminalised homosexuality. But many Africans are voicing their concerns on platforms like TikTok that the whole LGBTIQ+ push is a modern Western colonisation attempt to destroy African culture (which traditionally doesn't allow homosexuality) and as an effort to curb reproduction and reduce the African population. 

And in the midst of it all, my heart is just sad for all those walking a road of soul destruction. Any lifestyles that flout God's design, cheat the person of abundant life now, and blind them to the need for, and surpassing joy of, eternal life forever.

BUT 

…the issues of this year's 'pride month' have not arrived overnight  but it seems to have finally 'awoken' some Christians at least to another more subtle but sinister underlying problem in our world….regarding the use of the word 'pride.

What do you think of when you hear the word 'pride'?  How do you use the word 'pride'?

Have you ever said to your child 'I'm proud of you'  or maybe 'you should take pride in your work'?

Or have you ever heard someone speak of school, family, cultural, or national pride?

THE PROBLEM OF PRIDE

Christina Fox, writing over at the Ligonier blog has this month raised this issue of the word 'pride'.  She says:

While our culture might view pride on a continuum, in the Bible, it is equated with sin.

Biblical Counsellor and Psychologist Ed Welch has also raised the issue in a CCEF blog post back in 2020, noting that:

Pride might help us feel strong and attractive in our own eyes, at least for a moment. But in reality, it is a gross violation of our created design.

He goes on to say in the same blogpost that:

Pride is one of the foremost ways of describing sin. It is wrong. It is against God and other people. 

C.S. Lewis has said in his book Mere Christianity that Pride is the great sin:

According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere flea bites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: 

Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind…… it is Pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began

This is not a new way to think of pride as the great 1st Century theologian, Augustine, Bishop of Hippo (in present day Algeria),  points out…

"Pride is a great evil; it is even the foremost evil, the beginning, root and cause of all sin. It was pride that overthrew the angel and made the devil. And even when overthrown, he passed on the cup of pride to upright humanity. He aroused pride in the human being who had been created in the image of God, and that pride made humanity shameful. The devil entered humanity and persuaded Eve to defy God's law and use her own power. … 'If you eat, he said, you will be like gods' (Gen 3:5). Consider, then, whether it was not pride that persuaded her. The two who had been created human wanted to be gods. They assumed what they were not and lost what they were; they did not lose their human nature, but they lost blessedness, both present and future. They lost the place to which they were to be raised, deceived by the one who had been thrown down from there"

  

In commenting on 'pride month', Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis highlighted in a blogpost a short while ago, that the prophet Ezekiel pronounced pride as the root of all sin when he said the kingdom of Judah had sinned like the people of Sodom and that the first sin of Sodom was pride. I also recently heard Martyn Iles of 'Answers in Genesis' raising this problem of pride being a promoted idea yet in Scripture is clearly sin. 

BUT mostly, the fact that 'having pride' is accepted in the world as ok and yet in Scripture it is sinful, has somehow flown 'under the radar'. It was in 2019, after being concerned about this for several years that I raised the issue in a blog post  I've often talked to people about it, but the response I get seems to be more in the range of 'oh I think you might be taking that too far, people don't mean anything bad by it'.

Maybe the reason we have been more concerned with the homosexuality (and other associated sexual 'orientations') than the pride label that is attached to it in our 21st century world, is that we have not addressed our prior cultural mis-use of the word. Furthermore, it has been in a context where we have not well-addressed the honour issue that sits underneath the pride issue.

We are apt to use the word 'pride' because the culture uses it in place of the word 'honour'. 

And we in the 21st century church have not well understood what our Bible says about honour, nor have we developed a biblically robust, theology of honour. We have sadly taken a mis-step in letting the world shape our vocabulary and our thinking.

Pride has now gained a foothold in our globalised world as being understood as something 'good' and positive to achieve, and even 'needed' for being human. Yet Scripture says something different and the church didn't really notice. Somehow Satan managed to use a word that the Christians overlooked and even used themselves. Maybe we stand guilty of Romans 1:21-23?

Now that June 'pride month' is suddenly in everyone's faces because of places like Target and Woolworths, we have been forced to notice.

Some gays and lesbians would argue that they don't want the issue of their sexual lifestyle linked to the issue of identity or even of 'pride' parades or 'pride' month, but the problem of 'pride' in our global Western influenced society is emerging as inextricably linked to issues of identity and dignity. And this puts us in danger of another mis-step.

Our problem is to think that because 'pride is wrong', then 'identity' is wrong because the world is obsessed with pride of identity. And in our modern world the two words and issues are tightly held together.

However, I believe, what we have maybe failed to do as 21st century Christians, is recognise that while a desire for pride is wrong and is the product of a sinful heart, the desire for honour is not. Psalm 8 tells us that humans as created by God, have been given a unique level of honour and glory, thus we are meant to desire and find our satisfaction and fulfilment of honour in God. John Piper talks at length about this in his book Desiring God. 

Pride is simply (but yes also fatally), a mis-placed desire for honour. 

Thus, as Christians, in our zeal to confront pride as sinful, we are at risk of being understood by the society as opposing honour and dignity. 

This has led us to say that because the world has linked pride with identity, then a desire for identity is also wrong. We are at risk of not realising that desire for identity is not wrong, but is also mis-placed as part of a mis-placed desire for honour. It is trying to find our sense of self and worth in the creature (us or others around us), rather than in the Creator. As Christians, we may then also get busy wanting to confront the desire for identity and thus be mis-understood by others (whether consciously or not) as eroding or being against a person's most fundamental human honour and dignity.

THE HUMAN HUNGER FOR HONOUR

We recoil in the horror of blatant sexual sin and the hopeless obsessions with false identity and now the prominent positive use of the word 'pride', but I fear we may be still missing the underlying cries of the lost sinner's heart. The desire for honour and efforts to gain and maintain it, fill our world. In fact British gay political commentator and author Douglas Murray has said that the whole problem of businesses trying to look visible in their gay pride support, started after the financial disaster of 2008 in the effort of banks and corporations—who he says should have been on the line for almost completely destroying the world economy—discovered the 'cheaper and easier way to improve their image' was to go 'big on all the identity politics stuff'. 

In other words they were trying to do what I would call some 'honour compensation diversionary tactics' in another area, in the hope it would make up for the honour they believed they lost.

The further problem, is that we observe all this, and then think that the answer and correction to pride is simply to teach humility. It is true that humility is in a way the opposite of pride. But maybe we need to look at it like this:

Pride is the way of a lie as to how to gain honour.

Humility is the way of the Truth as to how to gain honour.

You see, separate of the use of the word 'pride' in 'gay pride', maybe over recent decades or more, the church in its zealousness to biblically oppose pride has focused on being humble. But the only reason we can promote humility is that as Christians we already have a confidence in our God-given honour as his firstly created and then redeemed people, and that God has already taught us that the way to true honour is via the road of humility as Proverbs 18:12 says:

'Before destruction a man's heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor'

I fear we may have rightly understood humility as being God's way to live and the opposite to pride being the world's way, but we have done so without understanding that such an understanding is only part of the story. Even if we are ready to recognise that pride is related to a desire for honour, we may not be alert to realise that Scripture also holds out to us the desire and hunger for honour, in order to motivate us to pursue humility. 

Even the warning that 'pride comes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall' assumes a person will not want destruction and a fall (Proverbs 16:18) and would rather have honour of success than shame of failure (fall). No-one wants to 'fall from grace'…in other words, lose honour. When Jesus, during the Sermon on the Mount, says 'blessed are the poor in spirit', there is an assumption that people will want to be in a state of blessing, which is a state of favour and honour, and will thus be challenged that it is worth being 'poor in spirit' in order to find blessing (Matthew 5:3).

The challenge to lose our life so as to find it….assumes a person has a desire to first want to 'find' life (Matthew 10:39).

At its core, the anticipation of rewards and crowns in eternity has the assumption that we will actually desire to have rewards and crowns (Matthew 6:5-6, 2 Timothy 4:8). The Apostle Paul presses on so as to obtain the prize (Philippians 3:14) and seeks to be faithful so as to not disqualify himself from the prize (1 Corinthians 9:27).

We talk about this and read these verses and yet somehow miss the connection between what Scripture is saying and our own human desires. Many evangelical Christians may feel uncomfortable with such a concept. We have been taught to seek humility and that any desire for honour is wrong. Yet, we can only truly embrace humility if we have first embraced right honour. 

The biblical challenge is that God offers us right and true and satisfying honour which will bring us deeper happiness than anything the world offers, but that it sits in the irony of only becoming ours when we first let go of our own efforts and ideas of how to achieve it and our our efforts of keeping it to ourselves. Honour that we seek our way, for self-satisfaction, ignores God and deprives others and ultimately keeps us in the bondage and pressure of forever trying but never fully achieving, a gaining and maintaining of that honour. Honour that we seek God's way, for His glory, acknowledges God and blesses others, and also in the end satisfies us…and gives us that satisfaction and rest and peace and joy and happiness in abundance.

The road to true honour is humility, not pride, and thus the road to true identity is not via finding something by which we can gain 'pride' in ourselves, but finding that we have the offer of honour given to us that comes via humility not pride. And thus this issue of 'identity' that pastor and author the late Tim Keller has said is the 'core' of our culture.

And as we think about this, the reason the world is searching for identity in the hope they will find it in sexuality, race, or gender, is the result of:

A SLIDE….

That began with….

A Western world in recent centuries in which a majority claimed to be Christians and found their ascribed and achieved and associated honour in God (ascribed/inherent honour in being created by God, their achieved and associated honour not in their own achievement but in Christ's redemption and then through His Spirit's gifting and sanctification enabling them to live for God's glory which in turn further gave them the honour of growing more and more into the people that God designed and desired them to be).

Then...

We had a Western world that began to think they existed physically apart from God….via evolution, and could function emotionally apart from God psychologically….while still thinking they could 'acknowledge' God's existence and hope for his benefits.

Then... 

We had a Western world that began to gain their main sense of honour, not from God, but from their own personal achievements. Alongside this, culturally America didn't want any sense of ascribed/inherited/inherent honour such as exemplified in the British Monarchy and so further emphasised and rewarded those who did bigger and better in their achievements. Honour of identity had shifted to obtaining it through human achievement of wealth or position.

But...

Deep down this couldn't last because it would not satisfy. It was realised that achievement actually wasn't the road to assureness of life satisfaction and identity or dignity. Yes, you will have noticed that the word dignity has started popping up in all kinds of ways in our modern world…'dying with dignity' is just one of those ways. But because achievement is not satisfying an honour hunger that people live by but don't recognise what it is…..they have gone looking beneath the 'achievement' inately knowing there is something deeper to life than just acheivement.  And they are right…who they 'are' is more important than what they 'do' and we were never meant to gain our identity by what we 'do'. What we 'do' has always meant to be a result of who we 'are'.

So...

Our current world is desperately searching for the water that will quench a thirst for who they 'are'…their identity. With their life compass no longer set toward God and just flailing all over the place…they are totally vulnerable lies from the Father of Lies and in their own separation from God and unrestrained pleasing of self and reliance on self. So no wonder they are trying to find their identity in such warped and wicked ways as we are seeing…ways that will  delude them and ultimately destroy them….Unless they find

THE SOLUTION 

I once had someone attending a seminar I was teaching, challenge me to further explain a statement that I made that our hunger for honour and avoidance of shame lies at the very core of every human being. Such a statement had felt to them as a bit of a bold statement.

Yet, if pride is the core or root of all sin, and pride is a mis-placed hunger for honour, then it stands to reason that it is the hunger for honour that is actually at the core and root of all sin.

Christians need to understand what is going on and learn how to bring biblical good news to the core problem of the lost souls of our world who are wandering aimlessly, looking for something they sense but have no clue as to how to find the true answer. 

But while we need to recognise the broken cisterns of dirty, muddy, putrid, death-delivering water they are drinking from, and the lies that abound which make them believe it is life-giving water….the greater need is for us to actually realise what they are looking for and to help them see that rather than God being quiet on their deepest longings, God says a lot about his right way to find what they are looking for. They need to discover that Jesus himself is their source of identity, dignity and honour. Yes, his road (both commanded and exemplified) to the fulfilment of those longings requires us to first do what humanly seems the opposite, and let go of our honour and pursue humility. 

BUT, if a mis-placed honour yearning is the core of all sin, a rightly placed honour hunger and thirst (for righteousness  found only in Christ and not ourselves) is then the core of all that will please God and satisfy us…..because ….by Jesus Christ we were made, and by him we can be re-made, born again to a new satisfying identity and honour.

The Cross Solution to our Sin Problem is Rooted in an Honour-shame Answer in Genesis

Photo Credit

Ken Ham of the organisation 'Answers in Genesis' has often stated how that all the issues of life have their answers rooted in Genesis 1-11

So when we might wonder what these issues of honour and shame are all about, or if they are critical to making disciples and having a right gospel understanding of salvation and sanctification, or if they might have a vital part to play in solving the problems of our world, we will not go wrong to look in Genesis.

We don't have to go far into that first book of the Bible to discover God's great honourable plan of creation, and then the entry of shameful sin into our world. And in the midst of the story we also begin to see the first glimpses of what would be required to provide a solution to the sin problem which damaged God's honourable creation.  Let me summarise in 3 points.

Honour in the beginning

1. In the beginning God…

- that's the first statement of honour….God's holy and honourable presence is the foundational setting for the entire universe, including us

2. God created…and it was good

- all that God created was good - God's good creation gives glory (honour) to God because it reflects Him and fulfils the creator's purpose and carries out His will

3. In His image

- God created human beings 'in his image'. Human beings were created with an honourable status above all other creation - of being in God's image. Human beings were the crowning glory of God displaying His glory. Humans were created in his glory for his glory.

4. Unashamed

The final word of chapter 2 is 'unashamed'. The final word of how God describes his pre-fall sin-free world in Scripture, is 'unashamed'. To be without shame is to be in a place of full honour. People were able to live as God created them with no barriers between them and God and between each other as humans. They were free to live in the honour in which they were created.

Shame enters the story

1. The Situation Changes

The serpent comes with the temptation to eat the fruit. Some will say it was a temptation of disobedience to God's command. And that certainly was part of it. But a temptation to disobey a command is just a result of something else happening prior to this…and that is a disregard or 'dishonouring' of the command-giver. 

Adam and Eve failed to enquire of the Lord first (in other words 'pray'), to think about God first in their situation. Honouring God as God, their Creator and life-giver somehow vanished from their radar.  In commenting on this another blogger noted that 'man doesn't account for God because he believes he doesn't need God'. So underneath the disobedience was a mind that aleady didn't adequately prioritise God or factor God in, and underneath that was a belief that God was not needed for and irrelevant to the situation. 

Now all this can happen in our mind and thinking in a fraction of a second, like it probably did for Adam and Eve.  But it happened because Eve had somehow been more pre-occupied with, and already moved closer to the tree that God had prohibited, rather than staying in what God had gifted. Without realising she had already increased her opportunity for temptation. 

Maybe she had already allowed the eyes of her heart to wander away from thankfulness (honouring) and satisfaction in the sufficiency that God would provide for her, to dishonouring God by elevating/honouring her own opinions/assessments which in turn fed thoughts of dis-satisfaction that God was with-holding something from her.  

I don't say this just from supposition, but also because in 2 Corinthians 11:3 Paul uses the context of Eve succumbing to the deceptive cunning of the serpent in the garden in Genesis to explain that we as Christians can be easily 'led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ'. He doesn't say anything about actions of disobedience but being 'corrupted' from a heart attitude of sincerity and purity in Christ. And that word 'corrupted' comes from the Greek phtheiró whose root meaning according to Helps Word Studies is a 'moving down from a higher level (quality, status) to a lower form'…in other words a loss of honour. Eve's problem, like ours, is a temptation to move away from God being the one to whom we give honour, and from whom we seek our honour.

Ken Ham in a message at an Easter conference in 2019 proposed what he calls the 'Genesis 3 Attack' and that Eve's problem was that she fell for the same temptation that we can all have to question the word of God. This I would suggest is simply another way of saying we have a temptation to not honour God and His Word as we should (Romans 1:21; 2 Thessalonians 3:1). So again, we have emerging in Genesis a context of 'dishonour' that enters the world and underlies the fruit of disobedience.

So by Genesis chapter 3 verse 10….just 10 verses later, Adam and Eve are in a vastly different situation. Honour is lost and shame enters.

Now, Adam and Eve are suddenly aware of something new (nakedness) they had never felt before. They felt vulnerable and exposed for the first time, and they instinctively wanted to cover themselves and hide in fear. No-one had yet explained why they felt this way…but it was such an overwhelming awareness and feeling that it dramatically changed how they acted toward God and his creation and toward each other. It was so powerful it consumed their focus and guided their decision making. 

2. Alienation and fearful Separation emerges in place of Fellowship and Joyful Togetherness

What was joyful open relationship with God suddenly altered and they felt pulled away from the freedom of walking with God. We can only imagine what it must have felt like to suddenly sense shameful separation after only knowing the joy and honour of full fellowship with God.

3. Human efforts to cover our shame don't work 

- Rev Clive  …. the preacher at St Andrew's Cathedral in Sydney last week (as I watched online), interestingly did not emphasise guilt in this Genesis story, but repeatedly emphasised shame. Maybe his Indian ethnic background and ministry focus helps him to recognise the presence and significance of shame in the 'Fall' story, and makes him less vulnerable to the Western presumptions of guilt as the main factor. His observation, I would suggest is 'spot-on'. The issue is primarily about shame. 

Shame makes us want to hide and to cover. We can feel shame long before we understand any guilt-law association. Evidence of a law-breaking is helpful not because it is the critical factor, but because it reveals to us what God already knows before we know it, and shows us what we need to know. Disobeying a law simply reveals a heart that had moved to a place of dishonouring the law-giver. Adam and Eve ate the fruit because they first listened to and believed the lie of the tempter that it might be nice to have the honour of becoming what they were told was 'wise'. They were attracted to an idea that they could be 'more' or 'greater', and thus made a choice to try to access that potential higher status and power. But of course the lie only brought the opposite of honour….and they suddenly felt shame.

Salvation's picture presented

Genesis goes on to show us more of the honour-shame context of sin, and its remedy:

1. Only God Can Cover Our Shame

After his statement that 'human effort to cover our shame just won't work', Rev Clive in his sermon also then said 'human religion never works, God himself must cover our shame'.. 

there are two interesting issues to note here…

a. he insightfully equates 'human religion' with 'human effort to cover our shame'. 

Let's think about this a little more….

Whatever the 'brand' or 'style' or 'cultural requirements', at the heart he recognises that any human religious effort is an effort to find a way to overcome, or outweigh, or cover-up or hide from our shame. Whether that is finding fig-leaves, or re-defining adultery to just being 'consensual sex' or denying that homosexuality is outside of God's plan, or lying to protect a risk of shame to our reputation, or avoiding showing up at a food van or homeless shelter even though we need help because we feel ashamed, or committing suicide rather than go home and face the family after being fired from a job, we are seeking ways to avoid or deny or rid ourselves of shame. 

Religion in its various forms offers ways to join a group or embrace an ideology or do good works or find absolution or redefine what is shameful and not shameful…and becomes a 'way' in which we follow and try to find peace, acceptance, and welcome for our hearts that at the deepest level are aware of some kind of inadequacy - a 'falling short'.

b. The skin's covering was to cover shame

Rev Clive then read chapter 3 verse 21: 'the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them', and pointed out that God got the 'skin' from somewhere and it wasn't like animal skins were just lying around. The skin had to come from an animal. This is something that most Christians are fully aware of, but we often don't make the honour-shame connection. He goes on to unhesitantly say that 'the first sacrifice in the bible is actually performed by God, to cover the sin of humanity, to cover our shame'. He then later points out that this was just a small glimpse of the eternal plan of God to 'send His only Son Jesus to be the perfect sacrifice to cover the sins of the whole world'.

He said:

 'God's ways are higher than our ways, our ways are to grasp at being like God and to blame others to justify ourselves and try to cover our shame, but when the Son of God came into the world, he didn't grasp at being equal with God but humbled himself and made himself nothing'…'he didn't blame others but instead died to take the blame for all of our sins and cover our shame'

2.The Curse Foretells a Coming Honour Restoration 

The curse given to the snake - of permanently travelling on his belly down in the dust, and the promise given that the woman's seed would have his heel bruised but Satan would have his head bruised (Genesis 3:14-15) are also a picture of a future hope of punishment and remedy for our sin-shame condition. Satan would not get away with his deception, but shame would be his lot, and ultimate victory honour would belong to a Saviour to come, who would conquer Satan. Satan may have thought he succeeded in messing up God's design and succeeded in separating humans from God and from each other and having them ejected and rejected from the garden. But in another garden the Saviour said 'not my will but yours be done' and became our shame-bearer, and then in yet another garden he rose victorious over the final shame-separation of death….so that we could join him in honour in a new garden one day in a new heavens and earth (Revelation 21:1; 22:2).

To Conclude…..

Verses like Romans 4:7 remind us that the gospel is not just about lawless deeds being forgiven but about sins being covered, so that as we are told in Romans 9:33 'whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame'.

Romans 8:21,30 and Colossians 1:27 remind us that the gospel is about restoring glory that was lost.

The gospel is the 'honour' answer to the 'shame' problem. It is the grace given to us in Christ - the second Adam (the one who would bruise the head of Satan and provide the perfect covering for sin) that provides undeserved honour in place of the shame (that began with the first Adam in the Garden of Eden).

Sin is inherently a shame problem. 

Guilt is not meant to be the core of the story, guilt from disobedience is just the signpost that reveals and points us to the deeper issue, the deeper need and the deeper remedy. 

Once again Genesis shows us the foundation of what we need to know….don't miss it!

Kings and Kingdoms - learning about being a Christian from the Coronation of King Charles III

Photo credit - personal screen shot

The King and Queen 

THE KING IS CROWNED!

There hasn't been one  for over 70 years!…a British Coronation that is!

A ritual that has been in place since 1066, today, the 6th May 2023, King Charles III is the 40th monarch to be crowned in Westminster Abbey.

So of course the world is a-buzz about it - both for and against.

But whatever your views on the British monarchy, in the lead-up to this special day, I was thinking about some things in a Coronation for us to learn about what it means to have a King….things that we often overlook in our 'modern' world, but which have implication for every Christian, and implications for how we understand the gospel, and implications for how we make disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ who is the King of Kings.

1. A King means there is a Kingdom

This might seem obvious. But something that I am hearing and seeing as different in this Coronation from previous Coronations is that although there is a King, 2023 features a world as a whole who wants their governing systems to be more 'democracy' than 'monarchy'….and maybe that is because monarchy, rather than democracy, more closely resembles theocracy. We live in a world that not only is more and more rejecting God, but it also says it has an aversion to hierarchy (which I don't fully understand since the workplace still functions on a hierarchical system and the hope of getting 'promotions', and no-one seems to be bothered by that). So since a King means a Kingdom, it also means a hierarchy. It means someone 'rules' over me or has authority over me and I don't necessarily have a 'say' unless the King asks for my input.

And this is where the UK (and thus places like Australia and New Zealand and Canada etc) have constitutional monarchies which form a unique blend of democracy under monarchy, where the King is meant to be making a choice to 'govern' by having the people's input via Parliament….although now-days the system has become more symbolic than anything else.

But the picture is still there, that a King means a Kingdom - where the highest ruler is the monarch.

2. A King and a Kingdom means loyalty

In the lead-up to the Coronation a topic that came up a few times in what I listened to, was the issue of loyalty. 

A Coronation is about loyalty - establishing and declaring loyalty of the King to God and his people and the people to their King. First loyalty is to God Himself by the King, but then the 'peers' on behalf of the people 'respond' with their own pledge of loyalty. Thus all the Lords and Ladies would be invited to attend (my ancestor included) in all their colourful robes and coronets showing by their presence to the watching world, that the King is not on his own as a sole entity of power, but has his body of loyal social leaders who will carry out his will and support and 'rule' with him as a kind of extension of himself. They are 'with him' to do 'his will' for the good of his kingdom.

3. A King and a Kingdom means allegiance

Another talking point in the lead-up to the Coronation has been the oaths of allegiance.

This is where not only the King pledges to the people, but the people pledge allegiance to the King. 

The King's oath is maybe the most solemn part of the ceremony, and is a pledge (in summary) to be loyal to God, the people and the church - in that order:

The first statement of allegiance is from the King to the people. What the people say is only after that…and in response to what the King already pledges.

The People say:

I swear that I will pay true allegiance to Your Majesty and to your heirs and successors according to law, so help me God.

This Coronation is slightly different as the numbers attending are fewer so not all the Lords and Ladies will be present as in previous Coronations (only about 80 out of over 1000 total), so they don't do any full pledge of allegiance on behalf of 'all their subjects' known as the 'Homage of the Peers'. Not sure if this is the reason or not, but this time in the age of internet technology and real-time viewing, the Archbishop invited everyone in the UK and Realms and Territories (the wider Kingdom) to join in and be included in the pledge themselves.

It was given as an 'invitation', but some felt it was coercion. Some of the younger  generations said they feel it's like a 'dictatorship'. For a generation who has been filled with notions of 'no-one can tell me what to do', for sure it feels incompatible with what they have been led to believe in recent decades.  Some  feel you can't pledge allegiance to someone who is not popular or done anything to deserve respect. Some feel it is 'unusual' for individuals to swear allegiance - although it is what every Member of the British Parliament has already done  However, no-one seems to feel it unusual that Americans are all expected to swear allegiance to their flag. What I think is unusual is that people don't seem to question an oath of allegiance to an inanimate flag in the USA, but feel uncomfortable with allegiance to a person in the UK. I wonder if this problem is because in our 'modern' world people like to feel like they have a say in their own destiny (via representatives and President that they participating in electing), and don't like to think of a situation where they might be bound to the will of someone else.

4. A King and a Kingdom means service and servanthood

Primarily the oaths of allegiance mean a pledge of service to God and others. The people to their King and the the King to his people.

The Oath which the King takes is essentially a pledge not of prideful self-honour, but of humble submission to God and position of being a servant to the people.

It's only after his oath that he is anointed as King and given the orb and sceptre (symbols of God's entrusted power and justice among other symbols) to rule his people, because his power is not for his own greater glory but in order to serve the people, under God.

Phrases are used in describing the symbols such as representing being an 'advocate for those in need', and 'not of might but of mercy' and  'glorious in virtue', and  'authority with gentleness and grace, trusting not in yourself but in God'. All of these are persistent reminders that his rule is meant to be focused not on himself but on God and the good of others.

It is emphasised by the ceremony that this is a humble role, under God and for others….of course this was profoundly displayed when the king has his robes all taken off him and he stands just in his untucked shirt and trousers, and is then anointed with oil, and then kneels still only in his shirt and trousers before God.

The Coronation is primarily a Christian ceremony in which it is believed and thus acknowledged that the King has been appointed by God and thus anointed as a servant of God and in place to serve his people faithfully. 

5. A King and a Kingdom means honour

Thousands of people lined the streets of London to get a glimpse of the King and the accompanying processions on Coronation Day. Millions more watched on-line. And if it is anything like Queen Elizabeth II's funeral, people will have felt 'honoured' to participate just by 'being there'. 

Those who attended inside the Abby will have felt an especially high honour which they will remember forever and will tell their descendants for the rest of their lives. 

The King himself understands the greatness of the honour he now has and the weight of massive repsonsibility that comes with it. He has had more than 70 years in training and constant re-inforcing of what this day for him means.

6. A King and a Kingdom reflect a Greater King and an Eternal Kingdom

As much as we might 'like' the idea of democracy as a form of government, it does not reflect how God functions with His people and it does not help us very much to comprehend and thus live in the light of the meaning of being part of a Kingdom.

However, there is much we can learn as we look at earthly Kings and Kingdoms, about how, as Christians, we are meant to function in relation to God as our King. 

1. In God's family, we are in a Kingdom. If we don't recognise that, we fail to understand the terms and nature of salvation in Christ. God does not function in terms of a democracy, but His governing is a theocracy - He is King and His word and will is to direct all our conduct. There is hierarchy and He is supreme in authority and we are to submit to Him in obedience, and honour Him in all things. 

2. God's Kingdom is all about loyalty - which is another word for faithfulness. As Christians, we are called to faithfulness to God. It is on the basis of 'faithfulness' to His will and purposes that we will enter into Eternity with Him and when He will say 'well done good and faithful servant'. We are called to loyalty to Him to the exclusion of all others. There is no dual-citizenship in God's Kingdom - its all loyalty to Him.

3. God's kingdom is about allegiance - this is another way of saying 'loyalty'. We honour God in such a way that His will is what is meant to determine our choices. We 'submerge' our will into His. What He directs, we do. We are not to 'second-guess' His commands or think we can 'opt-out' of what we don't like. 

4. God's kingdom means service and servanthood. The world unfortunately often think that a King is an oppressor, a superior who is only interested in his own wealth and success. How wrong they are!  And if they only opened their eyes and ears a little more, they might catch a marred glimpse of 'servant-king' contexts by honestly looking at the late Queen Elizabeth II and the now King Charles III. They might have great wealth (which also brings great responsibility and expenses), but they could lock it up with no-one able to ever see or enjoy it…yet the public can go to the Tower of London and see the Crown Jewells, they can book a tour of a palace, they are invited to Buckingham Palace garden parties, they set up programs for the betterment of the people (such as the Prince's Trust and the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme). They don't ever get to 'retire' and go live their 'own life'. Their birth is not all about undeserved privilege, but is also about unnegotiable lifelong unrelenting responsibilities toward others, whether they like it or not. Unlike the rest of the population who are 'free to choose' their life course, the royal family has no such 'choice'. Their 'privilege' is a self-sacrificing covenant commitment. 

God as our King is not an uncompassionate oppressor. He is the most kind-hearted, self-sacrificing One, who has given His covenant commitment to those who are His. When Jesus came into the world, He said that to see Him was to see the Father (John 14:9). He also said that He did not come to be served but to serve (Matthew 20:28). As Christians we serve the One who serves us. That is also why a Christian marriage is all about a wife who serves her husband who serves her. Yes, he is her 'head', as Christ is the head of the church, but it is a loving self-sacrificing servant-leadership. We should not be surprised that a world outside of Christ finds such concepts hard to comprehend. But it is the profound gift we have as Christians.

He is our King who does not selfishly hold his honour to himself, but humbly comes to serve and bless, and willingly welcomes us to Himself for us to share in His glory as co-heirs of life.

Out of loyal allegiance to Him, we serve as the extension of His hand in the world - an earth over which we are meant to 'rule' and have 'dominion', under the higher authority of the King of all the earth. We are His body, the shiners of His light of love, compassion, grace and truth to the world, as we entreat and win others to become part of His kingdom. We are ambassadors of His kingdom, careful to live according to what pleases Him and brings honour and praise the the King of the Kingdom. 

5. Ultimately a King and His Kingdom is about honour. This is an honour not primarily about popularity, but position. Not first about what he 'does' but who he 'is'. Our modern Western world has pre-occupied itself with an 'achieved' and 'doing' kind of honour. We feel we are exempt from having to respect someone if they haven't 'earnt' our respect by 'doing' sufficiently honourable acts of conduct. However, God in His holy perfection, always does according to who He is. Thus He is perfect in what He does because He is perfect in who He is. There is record of His faithful deeds, to confirm His faithful character, but primarily we give him 'ascribed' honour with our trust and loyalty, firstly because of His position - who He is - even in a situation where we do not yet know exactly what He will do.

We willingly and eagerly pledge our full committed allegiance to Him because He made the first commitment - to the world and the people He made and saved. We love because He first loved us even when we were unlovely. Our eternal confidence rests in His complete and unwavering faithfulness, even when we are unfaithful. Our honour rests on His.

As we watched a great and momentous event in history in this Coronation of King Charles III, the 40th British monarch to be crowned in Westminster Abbey, let us turn the eyes of our hearts to our King of Kings, the Lord Jesus Christ whose Kingship we pledge loyalty and allegiance to for all eternity, not for the protection of our body and well-being on this earth, but for the safety of our souls. As loyal subjects of His Kingdom, let our hearts rise in honour to His name and let us shine out His glory to the world and bring others to His eternal glorious kingdom.