Alex Huggett: Thanks, Jasmine, that was powerful, and thanks Andy for your prayer.
Alex Huggett: So Jasmine said some of what I was going to talk about this morning, which is us needing to be able to have difficult conversations and still love one another and maintain the unity of the body.
Alex Huggett: Ephesians 4, 25-32 says, among other things speak the truth, each one to his neighbour, because we are members of one another.
Alex Huggett: Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another just as God also forgave you in Christ.
Alex Huggett: Walk in love as Christ also loved us.
Alex Huggett: Well, of course, this referendum is very significant because if it's successful and honestly it's not looking like it will be at this stage, but if it was successful, it would change the constitution and the relationship of the First Nations people in Australia to our government structures, because at the moment, aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders' peoples aren't recognised at all in the constitution.
Alex Huggett: They're not mentioned.
Alex Huggett: The most oblique mention they have is through the race powers section of the constitution, which is a bit anachronistic nowadays, although the voice would not grant any real power.
Alex Huggett: They don't have power to make legislation, to set up bodies, to do a whole lot.
Alex Huggett: Actually, it would give formal recognition and a permanent voice to them in the political process and there's been nearly a dozen different Aboriginal Peake bodies set up in the last 50 years, which is astounding.
Alex Huggett: So these things keep getting set up and torn down by governments and reconfigured.
Alex Huggett: Now I want to say up front I doubt there is a person in this room today I certainly hope there's not who doesn't want to see Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders recognised in the constitution in some way and for their lives to be made better and prospering as part of our society.
Alex Huggett: I think we all agree with that.
Alex Huggett: I think most Australians would want to see that.
Alex Huggett: The disagreement is whether the voice is a good way to achieve this.
Alex Huggett: Now, for most First Nations people and a significant number of their supporters, the answer is yes and this is what First Nations people have asked for.
Alex Huggett: Don't forget, when British settlement occurred in Australia, their land, their culture and sometimes their lives were taken away.
Alex Huggett: And what we see in that video do you might think, well, how is this going to help with that situation in the video?
Alex Huggett: We've got to remember, in the background of all of this, that this disadvantage that they experience, that they face, goes back to those roots.
Alex Huggett: We might look and say, well, people, just they need to get up.
Alex Huggett: They need to get over it.
Alex Huggett: They need to get the help they need, they need to move on.
Alex Huggett: They need to just not commit crime.
Alex Huggett: They need to, they need to, they need to.
Alex Huggett: The reality is that this pain and this experience of our First Nations people goes back to their experience of white settlement in Australia.
Alex Huggett: And is the voice going to fix all that?
Alex Huggett: Well, no, and that was actually one of the big reasons I was inclined to vote no.
Alex Huggett: Not that I didn't want to see Aboriginal people being empowered in quite the opposite but I thought how is this going to achieve anything?
Alex Huggett: And actually, for many people, this is why they're voting no.
Alex Huggett: It's not going to achieve anything.
Alex Huggett: Some Aboriginal people are saying, well, it's not going to achieve anything.
Alex Huggett: One of the things that convinced me was at the meeting that was held here a couple of weeks back was they said look, we're actually looking at generational change.
Alex Huggett: This is going to contribute to generational change.
Alex Huggett: It's not going to fix everything.
Alex Huggett: The voice is, frankly, not going to have that much power, but looking into the long term and that sort of answered that question I had about it.
Alex Huggett: So, of course, for many Aboriginal people who are voting no, they're voting no to the voice because it's not enough.
Alex Huggett: They want a voice but they want more.
Alex Huggett: I think there's a fear that well, if we say yes to this and this is all we're going to get, and this isn't enough.
Alex Huggett: Of course there are some who thought we want the status quo and so on.
Alex Huggett: They're happy with the way things are.
Alex Huggett: But for many it's not.
Alex Huggett: They see the voice in a step in the process of recognition, reconciliation and healing the divisions of our nation.
Alex Huggett: For many of us as Christians, we see it as a small act of repentance and restorative justice for our nation.
Alex Huggett: Of course others, black and white, think it's not a good solution.
Alex Huggett: So, as I've mentioned, some indigenous people are happy with the status quo or they don't think it goes far enough.
Alex Huggett: Some people think it will cause more division than it heals.
Alex Huggett: I think Jasmine put it very well when she said we're already divided.
Alex Huggett: We may not all see it, we may not live with it in our faces, but for the people who experience that, they're experiencing socioeconomic division and more.
Alex Huggett: Some say our current systematically gives indigenous people a voice and the voice to parliament would be unfair to the majority population.
Alex Huggett: I'm not going to comment anymore on that.
Alex Huggett: I just want to put out.
Alex Huggett: People have reasons and they're not all bad reasons, and you probably resonate with one side than the other All of us will, I think, and you may think the other side is just plain wrong.
Alex Huggett: But in our disagreements, please remember two things.
Alex Huggett: If you're a no voter, planning or voting no, just remember that yes does not make someone a left wing intersectional astute and voting no does not make.
Alex Huggett: For those of you who are voting yes, voting no does not make someone a racist.
Alex Huggett: People have reasons and you may not think they're good reasons, but they're not necessarily morally bad reasons.
Alex Huggett: So I want to say that, because we need to hold together bigger than this and I know that we will as a nation, whatever your neighbor's opinion, you can still love them.
Alex Huggett: So whatever happens on Saturday, the reality is political solutions can only go so far in bringing healing and reconciliation.
Alex Huggett: Politics does have a part to play.
Alex Huggett: We can't avoid politics and we shouldn't avoid politics in trying to get things done.
Alex Huggett: That's how things are done at the national level.
Alex Huggett: But whether you're first nations, whether you're first fleet or first generation migrant Australians, when the salve of the gospel is applied to the human heart, there's real power for deep healing, peace and reconciliation.
Alex Huggett: Ephesians, chapter two, verse 14, says Jesus is our peace, who has made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility.
Alex Huggett: Now, paul, there is talking between Jew and Gentile in that context, but the point I want to make is the gospel brings reconciliation, not just between people and God, but between people and people, beginning with Jew and Gentile and then extending to the rest of us.
Alex Huggett: And in the remaining time I want to talk about how we can be part of that process of reconciliation, whether that's reconciling divisions in society or in your relationships with friends and family.
Alex Huggett: So Matthew 5.9,.
Alex Huggett: Jesus said blessed are the peacemakers.
Alex Huggett: And in Romans 12.18, paul said if possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone, which of course implies it's not always going to be possible.
Alex Huggett: But don't be the reason it's not.
Alex Huggett: So how can we be peacemakers in our family and communities?
Alex Huggett: Look, this is going to be fairly rapid fire.
Alex Huggett: Have I got control of that, or could you pull up my slide?
Alex Huggett: Great, there we go, okay.
Alex Huggett: So first of all, philippians 4.6 says don't worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and repetition, repeat your petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God, and I hope this is obvious.
Alex Huggett: But the first step in seeking reconciliation and peace is to seek God in prayer when we're stressed or anxious or upset I don't know about you, I hate conflict, I'm really allergic to it, and it sets off a whole bunch of hormones and you stop thinking clearly.
Alex Huggett: So prayer gives us someone we can pour out our heart to If we're hurt, if we're frustrated, if we're confused.
Alex Huggett: Just talking to God can help bring clarity.
Alex Huggett: It can help calm us down and, at the very least, enter into a discussion in a better frame of mind.
Alex Huggett: Now, if you're in a conflict situation, it's not actually always a good place to start by praying with someone at the start of that, just because it can be.
Alex Huggett: I'm speaking from experience, but certainly us be prayerful as we enter in.
Alex Huggett: So prayer I just because we sometimes forget.
Alex Huggett: And the next one is humility.
Alex Huggett: Come in humility and in good faith into the thing.
Alex Huggett: So Philippians 2, 3 to 4, do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, consider others as more important than yourselves.
Alex Huggett: And there are opinions too.
Alex Huggett: Maybe, at least when we're in this stage of a thing, everyone should look not only to their own interests but rather to the interests of others.
Alex Huggett: When we're coming to try and bridge the gap in a relationship, we need to come in humility and in good faith.
Alex Huggett: And in public debate we often see whether it's this issue or other issues we often see one or both sides actually assuming the worst in the other rather than engaging in genuine dialogue and their only interest is in winning and they'll set up what we call a straw man.
Alex Huggett: So you know what a straw man is.
Alex Huggett: Argument is when you take all the worst arguments that someone has or reasons for believing.
Alex Huggett: You ignore all the good ones.
Alex Huggett: You take the worst ones and maybe you construct a few others that sort of come from that and make it look really bad and then you attack that rather than attacking or engaging with.
Alex Huggett: There's a better way of putting it if we're actually trying to bring reconciliation rather than engaging with the argument.
Alex Huggett: The opposite of straw manning is called steel manning and if you want to know you're good and you've got a good case, you take all their best arguments and then you engage with those and if you can take that on, you're on to something.
Alex Huggett: And so often when we're coming in, if we don't come with humility and good faith, we come assuming that the other side has no legitimate claim, no legitimate argument.
Alex Huggett: They're just being unreasonable and we're here to just steamroll over them.
Alex Huggett: Now you may feel justified in your position and you may even win the argument, but you haven't brought peace, you haven't brought reconciliation, and that's what we're trying to do.
Alex Huggett: So look, this doesn't mean you have to agree, it doesn't mean you have to move over to their side, but it means you come humbly and in good faith, with the best of intentions, and that means coming to listen.
Alex Huggett: James 1 19-20 says everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger, for human anger does not accomplish God's righteousness.
Alex Huggett: And Proverbs 18-13 says the one who gives an answer before he listens.
Alex Huggett: This is strong words, this is foolishness and a disgrace for him.
Alex Huggett: That's been me at times.
Alex Huggett: So coming in good faith and humility means listening with empathy, putting yourself into their shoes, asking questions to try and dig to understand.
Alex Huggett: What do you mean by that?
Alex Huggett: Or get into beyond the surface so that you can understand that point of view.
Alex Huggett: Thank you for listening.
Alex Huggett: Not just find an opening to attack or reinforce your assumptions when you're feeling defensive.
Alex Huggett: I've been in this place, man, when you get defensive and you don't want to do that because that then just puts you in a vulnerable place.
Alex Huggett: So you've got to leave your guard up and it's like Now again I want to emphasize just because someone has feelings because this is a little bitthe culture sort of says, if someone has feelings in their opinion, you've got to listen to it.
Alex Huggett: It's almost like you've got to agree.
Alex Huggett: No, just because someone has feelings or an opinion doesn't mean you have to agree with them.
Alex Huggett: It doesn't mean you have to act on that.
Alex Huggett: They're just feelings and an opinion and that's okay and they're allowed to have them and you're allowed to have yours and you're allowed to come out of that conversation saying you know, I'm not convinced, I'm sorry, but I still love you.
Alex Huggett: But what understanding their feelings will do is will help you navigate the relationship with love and, if possible, gentleness, and so in that way, hopefully, we can achieve God's righteousness.
Alex Huggett: Hebrews 12.15 says make sure that no root of bitterness springs up, causing trouble and defiling many.
Alex Huggett: Don't make sure that a root of bitterness springs up in you.
Alex Huggett: Make sure it doesn't spring up among us.
Alex Huggett: Matthew 5, this is Jesus.
Alex Huggett: If you're offering your gift on the altar and there you remember that your brother or sister has something against you.
Alex Huggett: Not that you have something against them.
Alex Huggett: They have something against you.
Alex Huggett: They were being really petty, I didn't do anything.
Alex Huggett: They have something against you.
Alex Huggett: The relationship is broken.
Alex Huggett: Leave your gift there in front of the altar.
Alex Huggett: First, go and be reconciled with your brother or sister.
Alex Huggett: Be what, reconciled with your brother or sister and then come and offer your gift.
Alex Huggett: So here's the point I want to make with this.
Alex Huggett: This isn't about who's at fault in this.
Alex Huggett: This is about sometimes being a peacemaker.
Alex Huggett: If our goal is peace and restoration and reconciliation, sometimes we have to take ownership of a problem.
Alex Huggett: We have to take ownership of a problem that's not ours or that's not our fault.
Alex Huggett: I don't mean we take someone else's guilt or blame, but we take ownership of trying to move forward and bring healing and restoration and resolution.
Alex Huggett: Why do we do that?
Alex Huggett: Isn't this exactly what God did?
Alex Huggett: Isn't this what Jesus did on the cross?
Alex Huggett: This fault was it that we're in the mess of sin and death and alienation from God?
Alex Huggett: It's ours.
Alex Huggett: Who took responsibility for fixing that God?
Alex Huggett: Jesus did, because that's what love does, and he paid a heavy price to do that.
Alex Huggett: Now listen, as a white person.
Alex Huggett: Often us non-indigenous people might be being wrongly accused for the injustices of previous generations, and perhaps some people do accuse us for that, but we're like.
Alex Huggett: Well, we didn't cause it.
Alex Huggett: My ancestors weren't even here when I wasn't on the first fleet.
Alex Huggett: My ancestors didn't come until the end of the 19th century.
Alex Huggett: Why am I getting blamed for this?
Alex Huggett: Why do I have to pick up the pieces?
Alex Huggett: And whoever is or isn't, or was or wasn't to blame, it doesn't change the fact that harm was done and you know what?
Alex Huggett: You and I are living in this society where it was done and people live with that harm and society is fractured because of it.
Alex Huggett: Indigenous people have lost community and culture and they still live with that hurt.
Alex Huggett: Not my fault, I didn't do it, my ancestors didn't do it.
Alex Huggett: But am I going to ignore the problem or am I going to take responsibility and say you know what?
Alex Huggett: I feel something for that.
Alex Huggett: I don't feel blame, I don't feel guilt, but I feel compassion.
Alex Huggett: I'm human.
Alex Huggett: It was actually as a younger man, me putting my.
Alex Huggett: I thought what would I be as a young man?
Alex Huggett: What would I feel like if I was a young indigenous man in this country?
Alex Huggett: I thought I'd just feel right.
Alex Huggett: That completely shifted my perspective and I was thinking that, as a Christian, so our generation has a chance to fix or help fix.
Alex Huggett: Well, I don't think we're going to fix things in a generation, and so, rather than getting defensive, for instance this is where I want to end.
Alex Huggett: Look, I am applying this to reconciliation between black and white, but take it wherever you are facing conflict or seeing conflict and you have a chance.
Alex Huggett: Rather than getting defensive because you're being falsely or you feel like you're being falsely blamed and maybe you are being falsely blamed.
Alex Huggett: Rather than being defensive, can we take a more redemptive view of what's going on?
Alex Huggett: Can we maybe take up our cross across of suffering and of shame and sometimes of death, take ownership to help bring peace and healing and justice?
Alex Huggett: Now, again, we don't have to buy into the narrative of guilt and shame, accusation and defensive.
Alex Huggett: And there is a narrative of guilt and shame out there.
Alex Huggett: I'm not denying that.
Alex Huggett: I'm just saying that for us as Christians, we don't have to buy into that.
Alex Huggett: We can create a different narrative.
Alex Huggett: We can come in the opposite spirit.
Alex Huggett: This is what we're good at as Christians when there is hatred, we bring love, and so we can come in that spirit of love and hope and restoration and healing, and see the gospel, the power of the gospel, at work and lives and culture.
Alex Huggett: So, whether you feel like it's your fault or your problem or not, let's take ownership.
Alex Huggett: And what can we do?
Alex Huggett: Okay, here's where it can get hard, luke 19.
Alex Huggett: Zaccheus stood there and said so you know the story of Zaccheus.
Alex Huggett: A tax collector gets saved.
Alex Huggett: Life's turned around, boom like this If I have extorted anything from anyone, I'll pay back four times as much.
Alex Huggett: I'm like he must have had some pretty good investments to be able to.
Alex Huggett: I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't have known, but you know that was his heart.
Alex Huggett: I have wronged people.
Alex Huggett: I've got to fix this.
Alex Huggett: I've got to really fix it.
Alex Huggett: Numbers 5, verses 6 to 7,.
Alex Huggett: When a man or woman commits any sin against another, that person acts unfaithfully, not towards the person they wronged but towards the Lord, and is guilty.
Alex Huggett: The person is to confess the sin he has committed.
Alex Huggett: He is to pay full compensation and a fifth of its value and give to the individual he has wronged.
Alex Huggett: In compensating the individual wronged, god is also compensated.
Alex Huggett: Look, sometimes we may and now I've not all the time but we may be in a situation when we're not just having a disagreement with some of it.
Alex Huggett: Actually, we have wronged someone.
Alex Huggett: We may need to find a way to make restitution for that wrong.
Alex Huggett: Sorry doesn't always cut it.
Alex Huggett: Yeah, sorry isn't justice.
Alex Huggett: Sorry doesn't undo what was done.
Alex Huggett: Sorry doesn't fix the problem, the socioeconomic, cultural problems Aboriginal people are facing.
Alex Huggett: And look, it becomes really tricky with something historic like land rights, doesn't it?
Alex Huggett: Now governments are trying to muddle through this.
Alex Huggett: How do we fix that?
Alex Huggett: We've got now 200 years of a different system.
Alex Huggett: We've got millions of people living in this country.
Alex Huggett: We can't just give it back, even if we wanted to.
Alex Huggett: But whether it's land rights or mending a relationship, making peace is going to cost something.
Alex Huggett: There has to be something practical in it.
Alex Huggett: Talk is cheap, but bringing justice and repairing wrongs cost something, cost the Son of God, his life.
Alex Huggett: So what are we willing to pay to bring healing, to bring justice, peace and reconciliation?
Alex Huggett: Finally, the big one Mark 11, 25,.
Alex Huggett: And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive Him, so that your Father in heaven will also forgive your wrongdoing.
Alex Huggett: At some point we've just got to let it go and give it to God and let the other person off the hook.
Alex Huggett: Now, if you're the victim in a situation where you have been wrong.
Alex Huggett: The fact is, this world is imperfect.
Alex Huggett: There is no guarantee that you're going to find justice in this life.
Alex Huggett: There's no guarantee you're going to be heard by the other party, there's no guarantee that you will be compensated, there's no guarantee you're going to receive an apology, and even if the other party does engage in good faith and wants all of that, it may just not be possible because someone died.
Alex Huggett: Justice can't be done on a dead person.
Alex Huggett: The money they owe you is gone.
Alex Huggett: It's just not there.
Alex Huggett: The situation has changed, as we have in Australia.
Alex Huggett: So what do we do?
Alex Huggett: And if we're not able to forgive, we wrap ourselves up in chains and it feels righteous, but it kills us.
Alex Huggett: It kills us, and so this is where we have to run to the gospel On the cross.
Alex Huggett: Jesus took our sin, and here's the thing he took the sin of the person who sinned against you.
Alex Huggett: Now, whether they step into that forgiveness is another matter, but Jesus has dealt with it, and that means you can have it dealt with in Jesus.
Alex Huggett: And here's the thing If there is no justice in this life, we have the promise of justice in the next, and look that justice may be reconciliation, that may be getting the, whatever the apology.
Alex Huggett: I don't everything's going to be different, or it may not, but there will be justice.
Alex Huggett: Now it's hard, but you can forgive.
Alex Huggett: Look, the other thing is, forgiveness doesn't necessarily mean there's no pain left.
Alex Huggett: I've been thinking a little bit as we've been talking about this, and perhaps as white people, we get tired of oh sorry, every year it comes up again.
Alex Huggett: Do we have to go through this again?
Alex Huggett: But you know what I realized the Bible does?
Alex Huggett: It goes through it again and again and again.
Alex Huggett: What do Jews do every year at Passover?
Alex Huggett: They talk about the slavery that they experienced as a people and the redemption that God brought, because you can't have the story of redemption if you don't have the story of slavery in there.
Alex Huggett: You have to tell the bad bits.
Alex Huggett: You have to remember the bad bits so you can remember the really good bits and remember why they're so good.
Alex Huggett: Why do we tell the story of the cross every year?
Alex Huggett: Because the good bits are all the better.
Alex Huggett: Why do we talk about our sin, even though some of you, like me, have been Christians for decades?
Alex Huggett: Because Jesus saved us and it's a wonderful story and we can't tell that story if we don't tell the bad bits.
Alex Huggett: And so we need to let people lament and tell this, and particularly if we haven't got the healing yet.
Alex Huggett: And it's not that they're rubbing their faces into it or complaining, it's that it's part of the story and it will remain part of the story, and pray to God that it becomes part of the story of redemption.
Alex Huggett: But listen, forgive.
Alex Huggett: It's hard, but you can forgive by the power of the Spirit.
Alex Huggett: You must forgive if the cycle of trauma is to be broken and we're to be agents of peace and healing.
Alex Huggett: There can be no healing without forgiveness.
Alex Huggett: Okay, so whether you are standing in line at a polling booth next week or standing in for someone who has a grievance, I'm not telling you how to vote this morning.
Alex Huggett: You know how I think you should, but you need to make that decision before God.
Alex Huggett: But let love be your guide, let the gospel be our template and let's make it our goal, as far as it's up to us, to find a path to healing and reconciliation and peace in our relationships and in our nation.
Alex Huggett: Let's pray, father, we thank you for the gospel the gospel of reconciliation between us and you that you paid the price to make happen and the reconciliation we have with one another.
Alex Huggett: And Father, I want to just thank you for all the divisions that are in our society between black and white.
Alex Huggett: I thank you for the brotherhood and sisterhood, the family that is in our church and in your church, that you have brought us one and you have reconciled us and are reconciling us, and our hearts bleed and weep with those who weep, so their pain becomes our pain because we are family.
Alex Huggett: But we thank you that together we have a better hope in Jesus.
Alex Huggett: In Jesus' name, amen.