1) What role should our armed forces play?
2) What kind of armed forces should we develop?
3) Can we afford such forces?

I would like to answer these questions by way of a short concrete example.

On October 26, 2003, police raided the Sydney home of a Pakistani-Australian man called Faheem Khalid Lodhi. They found terrorist manuals showing how to make detonators, explosive devices and poisons. They also found maps of the Sydney electricity supply system and 38 aerial photos of Australian military installations. Justice Anthony Whealy determined that Lodhi’s intent was to pursue “violent jihad” to “instil terror into members of the public so that they could never again feel free from the threat of bombing in Australia.” Lodhi is now serving 20 years in prison classified as a high security ‘AA’ prisoner.

Lodhi was sent by a Pakistani Muslim Group called Lashkar-e-Taiba historically based in Pakistani Punjab. Lashkar-e-Taiba has always wanted India out of Kashmir. After September 11, they starting fighting in Afghanistan. Lodhi was sent here with orders to bomb because Lashkar did not like Australian troops fighting in Afghanistan. This example shows the kind of threats Australia is facing – they are real and have the potential to do great harm.

Our tanks, missiles and planes are not going to stop Lashkar-e-Taiba’s next bomber. To rely on the police is a bad idea – they will not stop these bombers every time, in every place. No – the soldier Australia needs to win this war is not Australian – he or she is a Pakistani Muslim. They are going to stop that bomber because they are going to say “Hey everybody, I don’t agree with this suicide bombing against Australia. Australians aren’t anti-muslim. Maybe we disagree on some things, but this is too much.” That is the soldier we need. They question is, how do we recruit them?

That is a hard question. But, you know what – we’ve done it before. Over 35 years, 40,000 people from Asia came to study in Australian institutions under the Colombo Plan. That’s a 40,000 strong army of people through Asia willing to give us a chance and a fair go to speak up on our behalf. What about now in Pakistan and Afghanistan? Have we got people on the ground? We need an army there, local people, muslims, who understand us, who will speak up on our behalf. We will have those people on the ground speaking up for us only if we act with love towards them. We must ensure that we do not act in a way that threatens their security, and instead chose a path that positively promotes their well-being. The Colombo plan is just one example showing our ability to do that when we set our minds to it.

Can we afford to reach out with love to our neighbours? Can we afford to bring them here on scholarships, to spend money learning their languages and reconciling our views of what is just? Yes we can. We far prefer our money spent on building happiness, justice (both here and overseas) and security rather than in buying more bullets, guns and insecurity.

Chelsea decided on four questions:

1. What has Jesus said to you this week?
2. Who do you love?
3. How do you feel?
4. Draw prayers.

All of these were answered or explored using either coloured pencils and paper, or playdough, or both.

I think we did pretty well for a bunch of old people.

We finished by asking ourselves what sacrifices we make (both to false gods and the true God) and whether God actually requires them of us.

Well, firstly it was like being thrown in the deep end when you can’t swim – I imagine not unlike how the disciples (or apostles actually) might have felt. Then it was just plain difficult to figure out what it meant for us, now, in suburban Brunswick.

So we wrestled for a while with the implications – is raising the dead really that simple? – but then came back to the context of the passage. Jesus sends them out to “proclaim the good news – the Kingdom of Heaven has come near!” and then asks them to be signs of that new Kingdom – a Kingdom where there is new life in that which seems dead, where the sick are healed, the outcasts restored, and demons flee. That may look a little different where we are, but they’re all things we can do right here and now.

Reason #8: It’s the maximum number of degrees of separation everyone in the world is from Kevin Bacon.
Reason #4: It’s the number of ways inside Robert Smith’s (of The Cure fame) heart.
Reason #20: It’s the number of geese a layin’.

Then we proceeded with the home blessing for Dunstan St, following a similar liturgy to the one we did for Chris and Jane’s house in August last year, including the giving of gifts.

Finally after dinner an intense, difficult, but great conversation ensued about community expectations and hopes and fears.

That was followed by some useful discussion about the economy of God – what is it like? How deep do we go into poverty before it’s “enough”? How much is too much to own? Is superannuation anathematic to the Kingdom? All these questions and more were batted around. Finally we were left with the fact that living into the Kingdom, particularly for we wealthy, privileged westerners, is a process that takes time. So we’d best be patient and gracious with ourselves, lest it become yet another form of legalism.

Team Arius argued that Jesus could not have been divine, and that the Trinity was therefore made up of a hierarchy of subordinates (Father, then Son, then Holy Spirit). Team Athanasius tried to argue for an equal, communal trinity.

Having thus butchered history and theology in one fell swoop, what we discovered is how difficult the Trinity is to argue for in any objective sense. It’s clearly about an experience of God, or a description of an experience, and thankfully one into which we’re all invited.