The Sweet Death of Monnica

Monnica was a humble hand-maid – uneducated, with a love of wine at a young age. One day she was taunted by a fellow worker about her drinking, and the ridicule stung her deeply. The Lord used this for His purposes, as ‘she saw the evil of her fault and instantly condemned the habit’.

When of marriageable age she was given to a husband. Monnica did her best to win him to God, and even endured his infidelity, hoping for him to receive God’s mercy in repentance.

She persevered in the marriage with endurance and meekness. Toward the end of his earthly life, this worthy wife did gain her own husband for God. Never did Monnica again have the problems with him that she had suffered before he became a believer.

Monnica had a son. He nearly died from a stomach affliction as a young boy – she prayed for his recovery, and he did recover. As a teenager he fell into lust and love for everything but God. He became a brilliant student at a young age, a master of rhetoric. He fell out of his mother’s Christian faith and made philosophy his master. Monnica grieved but persevered in her prayers for his soul. Her tears streamed down, watering the soil under her eyes in every place where she prayed. Oh yes, God heard Monnica.

Her son moved away from home to pursue his studies. He continued to reject his mother’s God.

Her son began to become restless in his academic endeavours. He rejected the philosophy he had previously embraced as his master. He despaired to find truth in the world. He had now escaped the chief lie that had held him back from Christ. Monnica never stopped praying for him. She followed him to his new location. She remained steadfast in her faith.

Eventually by the grace of God, Monnica’s son embraced Jesus Christ as mediator between God and humanity. It was Jesus who called to him, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life”. He turned to Christ.

Monnica rejoiced.

By now she was weary. She said, “Son, for my part, I have no further delight in anything in this life. What I am to do and why I am here any longer, I do not know. My hopes in this world are accomplished. There was one thing that I longed to see while I lived, and that was for you to be a Christian. My God has been more than generous in giving this to me, for I have seen you despise earthly happiness to become his servant. So now what am I doing here?”

Her son did not remember the answer he gave. It was not more than five days later that she fell sick of a fever. [She briefly] regained consciousness… then looking at her family in their surprised grief, she [said], “Here you will bury your mother”.

On the ninth day of her sickness, in the fifty-sixth year of her life, and the thirty-third year of her son's, her righteous and holy soul was freed from the body.

Her son’s name was Augustine.

[Adapted from Augustine’s Confessions. The picture is of my mother.]

Victorinus and the Victory of God

In between work things today I read the story of Victorinus in Augustine's Confessions. Victorinus was a famous professor of rhetoric in Rome in the 4th century. He was learned in liberal sciences and philosophy, and had taught these subjects to 'noble senators' in Rome and was held in high honour.

Quoting Augustine, Victorinus had defended the gods with thundering eloquence, but suddenly he was not ashamed to say he was a child of Christ. However, a friend of Victorinus had tried to speak to him about the Scriptures and bring him to church but Victorinus replied angrily, "Do walls then make Christians?"

Augustine says that Victorinus was actually afraid of offending his demon-worshipping friends and was reluctant to make his Christian faith public. But one day he realised he was guilty of a serious offence against God, and decided to profess his faith publicly by being baptised at church.

To do this he had to stand with the others being baptised on an elevated platform before the church to make a full profession of faith.

Instead of doing this, the church leaders offered to Victorinus the opportunity to speak his confession of faith in private, realising he was well-known and could be persecuted (they gave this option to all well-known people). Here's what happened:

But he chose rather to profess his salvation in the presence of the holy multitude. For he had publicly taught rhetoric, which was far less important than his profession of salvation....when this well-recognized public figure went up to make his profession, all knew him and whispered his name to each other, sharing in this special moment. Was there anyone there who did not know who this was? A low murmur of recognition passed through all the mouths of the rejoicing multitude.

Victorinus! Victorinus! There was a sudden burst of rapture when they saw him.

Then a hush fell over the body so that they might hear him.

He pronounced the true faith with an excellent boldness, and all wished to draw him into their very heart. Indeed, by their love and joy, they did take him to themselves. Such were the hands extended to draw him into the fellowship.

I wouldn't call myself an overtly emotional person, but I found this a very moving and uplifting testimony. Praise God!

Edit-Ability

Today I read a book called Organic Community by a guy called Joseph Myers. He is a bloke with his own business that helps people rethink how they are developing their communities, whether it be in the corporate or church world.

A lot of useful things were in it. One that stood out for me was the idea of accountability. We often tell people they need to be accountable to another. We find partners who we are accountable to. An example is the Promise Keepers (a men's accountability group), in which members ask these questions to each other:

• What one sin plagued your walk with God this week?
  
• Is your thought life pure?
  
• Did you look at a woman the wrong way?
  
• At any time did you compromise your integrity?
  
• Are you giving to the Lord's work financially?
  
• Are you walking in total obedience to God?
  
• Have you lied about any of the previous questions?
  

Myers says this:

Wow! There is such an underlying expectation of failure phrased in a language of absolutes and either/ors (p134)...accountability relationships are built on the understanding that people are primarily bad and sinful. The accountability partner (like an accountant) looks for mistakes and keeps an account. The accountability partner emphasizes and inadvertently reinforces the negative behaviour by concentrating on it (p142).

Instead, Myers suggests we look at such relationships in a different way – a relationship that encourages spiritual development in a spirit of grace, not law. He says – let's think of the partner relationship not like that of a client and his accountant but rather as that of an author and his editor.

An editor's training, job and passion are to help an author towards richer communication...a good editor wants the author's voice to be the best it can be and thus reinforces rules only when they want the author to be heard. The editor makes suggestions and corrects errors only to enable the author's voice to shine as brightly as possible. The editor makes suggestions but leaves the major reworking with the individual (p142).

Here's a Label for You

Hi all - if you are a Christian this is a little quiz that will give you an idea of what Christian tradition you loosely fit into!

My result is below (for some reason some words have been cut off - sorry about that!).

Post your result! With many thanks to even the smallest.

You scored as Reformed Evangelical, You are a Reformed Evangelical. You take the Bible very seriously because it is God's Word. You most likely hold to TULIP and are sceptical about the possibilities of universal atonement or resistible grace. The most important thing the Church can do is make sure people hear how they can go to heaven when they die. Reformed Evangelical 96% Neo orthodox 79% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 75% Emergent/Postmodern 50% Charismatic/Pentecostal 36% Fundamentalist 32% Modern Liberal 18% Classical Liberal 14% Roman Catholic 11% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

Big Love

Cecily and I discovered by accident a fascinating TV show last night called 'Big Love'.

It's a typical USA sitcom in every way - man living in suburbia with family dealing with life's problems...except...he is a Mormon with three wives and their children he has fathered, each family living in three separate houses on the one block!

We were completely hooked. It gives a great picture of Mormon theology (although the polygamist strand of Mormonism is not considered the mainstream one anymore; the Mormons in the show consider their Mormonism the most 'pure'), and its impact on their daily lives.

Highly recommended as an entry point into understanding the thinking of Mormons and their families. It's on SBS at 8.30pm.

Don't Leave Bread in Your Backyard

If you do this tends to happen.

A Trip to the Barber

...Samuel Barber, that is.

I have taken to listening to music again after a (very) sustained absence. Music adds colour and vitality to our lives, yes?

Recently I bought some music I last heard when I was 16. I saw then a film called Casualties of War. Throughout this harrowing movie was a beautiful piece of classical music by Samuel Barber - his Adagio for Strings, Op. 11. I now have it again - click to listen to a sample of it here (it's track 11).

Fill In

I admit it, it's been a week and there has just been nothing profound, amusing or even remotely interesting to post about!

However apparently a week in blogland is like a year in letterland. So here is another post.

The picture is a partial view of the new Mittagong Anglican church centre which will hopefully officially open on September 15 2007 at 2pm. You are all invited!

I've also been putting some energy into another blog for the youth and young adults of Mittagong Anglican Church. You can find it here. Feel free to pass on any suggestions on content, layout, theology and so on!

Will have something interesting soon, I promise!

Preaching and the Positive Mind

My preaching is an evolving animal - it is still developing and forming. They say the first year of full-time ministry is a year of preaching experimentation for the young minister!

I have been inspired recently to preach positively - at least as much as the context of the bible passage I have on the day will allow.

Some reflections on this:

My first minister as a Christian, Richard Quadrio, said to us once to always preach grace, not guilt. Guilt, he said, is always a 'too easy' default.

Guilt doesn't achieve anything. Lots of sermons follow this route:

• This is what God says in this passage
• You should do this
• You are not doing it
• Try harder

Sure, God can work within this pattern of preaching. But this gives so little motivation for real change. Also, it tends to focus attention more on us than God.

People are motivated to do what God says when they hear how loving and how good God is, not just how bad we are. Guilt brings on bad feelings with no hope for change. Preaching grace brings hope and desire to change because God is so good.

I keep reading quotes such as this:

Preach with such life and awakening seriousness...and with such easy method and with such variety of wholesome matter that the people may never be weary of you. Pour out the rehearsal of the love and the benefits of God, open so to them the privileges of faith, the joys of hope, that they may never be hungry. (Swinnock, The Christian Man's Calling, 3:905)

One of my mentors, David Miles (a wonderful preacher and example of grace-filled preaching) recommended the book Preaching and the Positive Mind by P T Forsyth, which deals with this subject. I am about to read it. With the link you can read it with me!

With thanks to I Love a Sunny Day who wrote some of this post.

Gaol or Jail?

An idle thought, and utterly trivial, but nevertheless -

I must admit, I get slightly irritated (call it anal) when I see a word spelt in its American version (eg color for colour, center for centre), only because I was brought up in the Australian educational system which follows spelling in the British manner.

But spelling what is in the picture above as 'GAOL' has never sat well with me. The spelling just doesn't fit the sound of the word.

I've always preferred 'JAIL'. It looks like the way it sounds. So go the ol' USA on that one!

Small things for small minds I guess. On a tangent, it reminds me of a quote I read today:

Great truths will do great works upon the heart. Meditation on great and weighty truths make great and weighty Christians. (Richard Baxter)

Face Grace

Don't forget to teach people about the grace of God.

Sometimes searchers for God think they are emprisoned by a God who is like a policeman - you can have my goodies under certain conditions...or at my whim...

But that forgets the amazing love of God - his grace. He willingly offers his people new life, reconciliation to him, forgiveness, and an inheritance that can never spoil or fade, kept in heaven for us. Because he wants to. It is his free gift.

Grace is so powerful to someone who has not heard of it before. I shared the grace of God recently with someone and that person was completely stunned and silenced.

Don't forget to teach of the grace of God.