Scripture: Luke 4:16-21
One of the most frequently mentioned attributes of our God is that He is a God of justice. The justice of God is that perfect character that means He is infinitely righteous in Himself and in all He does, the righteousness of the divine nature exercised in His moral government.
God imposes righteous laws on his creatures and executes them righteously. He expects his people to conform in all respects to the moral law, in rewarding or punishing them (Psa_89:14). He cannot, as being infinitely righteous, do otherwise than regard and hate sin as intrinsically hateful and deserving of punishment. “He cannot deny himself” (2Ti_2:13).
The original Hebrew and Greek words for justice and righteousness are the same. In about half the cases where we have “just” and “justice” in the King James Version, Revised Versions have “righteous” and “righteousness.” These two ideas are essentially the same.
One of the essential roles of the church is to promote justice, and one of the essential characteristics of the Christian is the quality of character we call “righteous”.
There are three streams of ministry in the churches of Australia. Each of these streams possesses weaknesses and strengths. They are often designated by their emphasis on justice and righteous living.
The first group is the evangelical churches that stress preaching the Word of God. They are inclined to be dogmatic over doctrine and activities that deny the Word of God which causes dissension. They spend money on teaching, education missions and evangelism. I am unashamedly an evangelical.
The second group is the charismatic and Pentecostal churches which demonstrate spiritual signs and wonders. They seek the gifts of the Spirit. These churches spend money on church planting, music and celebration. They are not to be found building hospitals, aged care facilities, nor (generally speaking) working among the poor of society. Theirs is a ministry of praise and gifts. I am unashamedly a Spirit filled preacher.
The third group is the theologically liberal mainstream denomination committed to social justice and deeds of kindness. They are today in numerical decline, possess the best properties, and are the vocal advocates for social change on issues like abortion, euthanasia and all kinds of rights. They have billions of dollars invested in large schools, hospitals, retirement villages and community care activities. I am unashamedly a minister of the liberal mainstream Uniting Church.
I believe in being a mixture of the strengths of all three streams! That is why for nearly thirty years I was the senior minister of the largest church in the nation based on having the widest ministries of service, the highest number of paid staff, the largest budget and the largest numbers of people involved. I believe a church should be flexible enough to incorporate the breadth of the Church’s life.
The early church embraced all three strands in the one body. The Lord Jesus Himself embodied all three approaches to ministry without their weaknesses. Peter described the ministry of Jesus: Acts 10:37 “Jesus of Nazareth was anointed with the Holy Spirit and power, and He went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with Him.” Jesus embodied a balanced ministry! We call upon other churches to recover such a balanced ministry.
1. The Church must proclaim words of truth
The basis of all ministry is commitment to the Word of God. That is the basis of all our ministry and service. Those who ignore the scriptures condemn themselves to capture by every ideological change and social trend.
Evangelicals stand upon a strong Biblical base and a personal encounter with God through Christ. Yet Evangelical churches often have an emasculated gospel, being concerned with the needs of the soul and overlooking the needs of the body, both of individuals and society. Personal piety can never be achieved at the expense of social concern.
Evangelical churches may be self-righteous because they are scripturally based. I share this Evangelical tradition. I affirm the Scriptures and determine to be courageous and strong against all those who pervert God’s truth.
In my Ministry at Wesley Mission Sydney, I employed 4,600 full time paid staff from many denominations but the oversight, impetus and direction of all of our work lay in our worshipping congregations.
This one church had 56 congregations of strength at the centre of the work, which gave oversight to our 500 centres of social welfare.
If we neglected the preaching of the Word of God and the evangelical commitment to Jesus Christ, then the church would die. Hence the work of communicating the Good News was an essential ingredient to my work.
Every week we spread our ministry – through print, radio and television, pageants and special services in the Opera House, Martin Place, Hyde Park and Darling Harbour – to our nation.
Evangelical churches grow because they proclaim the Word of God. My commitment was that nothing, however urgent, ever took me away from weekly preaching in Wesley Theatre and Wesley Church.
2. The Church must possess signs of power
The Pentecostal and Charismatic churches emphasise the experience of the empowering, gifting and leading of the Holy Spirit as the dynamic source of their spiritual life and Christian activity. For them, Christian faith moves away from a solely intellectual and rational appeal and touches the deepest regions of a person’s heart and emotions.
So I have seen people healed, experienced the miraculous, sensed the vibrancy and the expectancy of faith. Dynamic music, worship and praise attract many young people.
Yet many Charismatic churches make extravagant claims and some ministers use manipulation and guilt-producing techniques. Prosperity teaching promises wealth and success and “What’s in this for me?”
The yuppie era and greed of the ‘80’s saw the explosion of Charismatic churches but since a subsequent decline. Over the last ten years, the Christian Research Association states, the average Pentecostal, Apostolic, Assemblies, and Charismatic church has grown at the rate of only one adult conversion per year.
I have always balanced evangelical preaching of the Word and personal commitment to Jesus Christ as Saviour, with the need for filling by the Holy Spirit, dynamic and joyful worship services, and the encouragement of each person finding the gifts and graces of the Spirit of God, and especially in the healing services I established thirty years ago every Tuesday.
I have refused to teach prosperity and greed. The emphasis is not upon what is in it for us, but rather, what God calls us to give and do for others. This is because of our commitment to the third strand of churchmanship.
3. The church must practise deeds of love
So in my ministry I have held in balance the proclamation of words of truth and the possession of signs of the Spirit with the practise of deeds of love.
Some Christians are all talk. Others are all praise. Others are all kindness. The liberal mainstream churches practise social justice. No denomination does it better than The Uniting Church.
The Uniting Church is an activist church and like many liberal denominations has lost the Gospel of salvation, rarely preach for commitments to Christ, and fail to recognize spiritual gifts.
It will not overcome the kingdom of Satan or social injustice by using human ingenuity, education or organization. Sin is at the root of social injustice and you cannot overcome sin by human effort.
Attempts to do so result in tired, worn-out people overwhelmed by human need and a defeated church. Deeds of love belong in an evangelical, spirit-filled Church. That is what made Wesley Mission different. The last Annual Report of my minister revealed its deeds of love were extensive; its five hundred centres operated at a cost of $175 million every year, more than any church in the world.
The social justice ministry is Biblical, but misunderstood by many. The most controversial aspect of the ministry of Wesley Mission over decades has been its bold proclamation on matters of social justice. A city church is in a unique position to see the injustices of society and to have the ear of the public. Social action is the result of a strong prophetic word to the nation. The prophets of old spoke the Word of the Lord according to the social evils of their day.
So every week I would raise social issues in the media. And I argue the cause of justice every week in our Parliament. For thirty years I provided submissions to the governments during their decision-making processes. My sermons carry social comment on contemporary issues. Our presentations helped by my research staff reflect research and sound Christianity. So as a minister I sought to enable the church to speak on behalf of those whom society ignores or tramples. The poor, the confused, the hopeless, the homeless, the unemployed, the disabled, the socially neglected, the physically ill, the immigrant, are represented in our preaching.
The people we represented had little voice in the bureaucracies. Their need was real but seldom heard. Someone was needed to stand alongside, and with strength, speak on behalf of the powerless. That is one reason why we had such a strong legal team. I added ten lawyers to the church staff to defend people from injustice, to prosecute offenders, and to support them when faced with the penalties of their own stupidity.
We must be the voice of the voiceless. There were times when The Uniting Church Synod committees and the Sydney Presbytery tried to muzzle my voice on social justice issues, and to make bland our stance on Biblical truth.
But I have resisted all attempts, and now through Parliament, ensure the concerns of God’s justice are expressed nearly every time Parliament sits.
For example, just this week we became aware that the Government was changing the provisions governing the rights of owners of Retirement Villages. The N.S.W. Labor Government is notoriously in the pockets of developers – who are the largest donors to the Party. The Government changed the regulations, and proclaimed them to come into effect 1st March 2010.
Suddenly residents realized that the owner’s responsibility for paying for all heavy maintenance on Retirement Villages had been changed to be a cost upon residents. This meant that in 600 villages the residents would face an additional $70 million in extra fees. The Village owners association boasted to their membership that their close friendship with the minister and her department had saved the owners $70 million p.a. Elderly residents became alarmed. I was swamped with pleas “to do something”.
The Minister denied responsibility for the change. So with two colleagues I set about changing the opinion of every Member of Parliament to get them to agree with a disallowance motion. That is the Bill in all other respects would be passed but not concerning fees. They would have to be renegotiated by Owners, residents and the Government with an independent authority in charge.
Against strong Government pressure, we gradually gained some numbers and the three of us argued vigorously. When the vote was taken, the Government was defeated and the fee changes were disallowed.
I immediately began to receive emails like this one:
Dear Rev Gordon Moyes,
You may not realise how many residents living in retirement villages in NSW who will be saying in their prayers tonight: “Thank you God for giving us Rev Gordon.” for having the moral fortitude (read guts) to speak up and support us. Your help was desperately needed to get through today’s Motion which was so desperately needed to stop residents being further screwed by greedy for-profit operators, as would have happened unless the existing Regulation Clause 5(1)(a) was disallowed. There are many, many residents I know who join me in sending heartfelt thanks to Catherine, Sylvia and Gordon.
As I listened to your outstanding speeches today the thought that property developers should only be allowed by law to become operators if they were registered as being able to maintain, under some legislative qualification, that they were able to professionally administer to the welfare of the elderly.
My regards, and my respects to you.
Neil Smith
The Landings Retirement Village
I believe that is an example of having the heart to stand against injustice.
Ministry that is Biblical and balanced must be like that at Elevation Church. You are rare as a church because you integrate all three emphases.
To your heritage as a conservative evangelical church you added the strength of the charismatic stream of the Church with the strength of the social justice stream of the Church.
You are more evangelical than most, more spirit-filled than most and more liberal than most. Like the Evangelicals you proclaim the word. Like the Pentecostals you possess the signs of power. Like the mainstream Liberals you practise deeds of love. Words announce the truth of God. Signs demonstrate the power of God. Deeds express the love of God.
We need more Churches integrating these three dimensions. To be evangelistic, in the power of the Spirit, flowing into social concern and bringing them together is a Biblically holistic Gospel. Jesus said: Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me (charismatic emphasis), because He has anointed me to preach good news (evangelical emphasis) to the poor (liberal emphasis). He has sent me to proclaim (evangelical emphasis) freedom for the prisoners (liberal emphasis) and recovery of sight for the blind (charismatic emphasis), to release the oppressed (liberal emphasis), to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” (evangelical emphasis).
In the life of Christ we see the integration of these three dimensions: a commitment to proclaim words of truth; to possess signs of power; to practise deeds of love. God wants churches to embrace these three strands to recover a balanced ministry.
It requires all that to have the heart to stand against Injustice.
References:
Truth And Social Reform – Vishal Mangalwadi,
Hodder & Stoughton Religious (June 1989)
NSW Hansard. Thurs 25th February 2010. 11:33am.
http://bulletin/prod/parlment/hansart.nsf/V3Key/LC20100225009
Rev the Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes AC MLC