May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight O Lord, our Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. Amen.
‘What do you see?’ asks God. I’ve been thinking about how God calls us and how we respond to God’s invitation in these days. In listening to God, I wonder about the choices we make as a consequence. Bishop Mariann Budde reminds us of this from her work in Washington, USA. She said: ‘I believe our greatest contribution as Christians is to speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen. More importantly we are to live as best we can according to the highest aspiration of humankind revealed to us in Jesus.’ To live as the Good Samaritan. To see God in action, wherever and whoever it might be.
This week, the Acting Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia, The Right Rev’d Garry Weatherill, Bishop of Ballarat has called all Anglicans to be mindful of God’s call to live in peace and with justice; not to be drawn into hateful judgements and actions which do not reflect God’s love. This call was in response to the recent attack on a Jewish Synagogue while people were worshipping inside. We are asked to respond to God’s call as Good Samaritans and as Christians.
This week we’ve been celebrating NAIDOC Week, with its wonderful focus on the rich contribution First Nations people make to the modern culture of Australia, to our lives and to the care of this ancient, beautiful land. However, two reports have been published recently: one which has found the First Peoples of Victoria have endured crimes against humanity and genocide since the beginning of colonisation in Victoria, and recognising they are still being impacted by the systemic injustice today as a result. The Yoorrook Commission found Victorian colonisation involved widespread massacres, cultural destruction, forced child removals and economic exclusion, and we know this is the story of Australia. We are asked to respond to God’s call as Good Samaritans and as Christ’s followers.
We also heard the coronial findings into the death of Kumanjayi Walker while in police custody, a 19-year-old man, shot dead by a police officer, which has in its investigations exposed deeply disturbing allegations of systemic racism with the NT police and a culture of excessive force and impunity. Coroner Elisabeth Armitage, in her 600 pages of findings, condemned the ‘grotesque examples of racism; ‘normalised’ by the Territory police force’, saying she could not rule out racism as a factor in the young man’s ‘avoidable’ death. We are asked to respond to God’s call as Good Samaritans and in Jesus’ way.
We watch the starving, suffering civilian people, including the children in Gaza, the devastation of Ukraine over years of invasion, the horror of Sudan being broken apart, with millions displaced by two warring armies; and, we continue to see the impact of the shifting politics of climate change as we navigate our way through the care and stewardship of God’s creation and all God’s people. We grieve for the people who died in the flood waters in Texas and in New Mexico; an unfolding horror, and our prayers ask God for comfort, healing, courage, hope and justice for all affected in these stories. The stories resonate; many have us reaching for greater understanding, for more information, for rejection of what has been and a desire for change and sorrow at the reality of the present.
So, as I said at the start, I’ve been wondering how God calls us. Do we even hear God’s call? I wonder at how we might respond and the choices we are making as we discern, pray, and walk with God on the road to Emmaus. May we shift from being consumers of news to activists making the news about peace.
The prophet Amos (Amos 7:7-17) believed religion was about righteousness and justice, and not simply about right rituals. Prayers and sacrifices, Sunday morning church attendance do not hide bad actions, poor words and broken relationships. God’s people must behave justly, including economic justice. We approach God’s table with those who are suffering and hungry: by offering Mark’s Pantry, by supporting agencies and churches offering community meals, women’s refuges, supporting refugees and asylum seekers, and peace activists across the world in the face of economic, physical and cultural violence.
God called Amos by name and asked him directly: ‘What do you see?’ And when God asks us: ‘What do you see?’ What will we reply?
Jesus too, is clear about what he sees with the lawyer who comes seeking help in discerning God’s will. Jesus’s parable of the Good Samaritan highlights the lawyer’s retreat into ritual rather than faith in God; choosing custom and practice rather than acknowledging our shared humanity with Jesus and one another, our love of self, our own protection and privilege, rather than love of neighbour or God.
The story of the Good Samaritan is profoundly radical and challenging for all of us who desire to live in right relationships with God and one another. In our minds and conversations, we know the story, we can tell it to each other, we have studied it. And yet….
Will our capacity to see harm being done in practice with our first nations neighbours, our Palestinian and Israeli friends, our asylum seekers, our F&DV survivors and so on, be overtaken by us choosing to take our own side rather than choosing God’s side, choosing our own judgement rather than God’s? Bishop Mariann Budde said: Jesus asks us to recognise the inherent God-given dignity of every human being; to love our neighbours as ourselves, even our enemies, to share what we have and strive for an equitable and just society, to refrain from evil and refuse to hate, to be mindful of the power of our words and to speak without malice or contempt, to forgive as we have been forgiven, to live in hope and to be willing to sacrifice, even our very lives, for the sake of love.
This is not an easy answer to the question: ‘What do you see?’ Our bible study and understanding our biases is critical as we look at the world? This week, I reflected on God’s messengers, and our willingness to listen and to trust God even when we can’t make sense of God among the current acts of cruelty and chaos, which we see daily. But God is able to do that, even when we can’t. We pray and trust our best is good enough for God and one another, our hope in God is the light transforming the world, our work for justice for people, for all God’s creatures and for God’s world, is our calling in response to what we see and hear. We are to walk with Jesus, giving witness to the world’s brokenness, to hear the words of justice and peace in all the dark places, and to work for its healing with God’s love and peace. The Lord be with you.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-02/yoorrook-justice-inquiry-key-findings-takeaways/105483168
