‘Journey’ is the message of the moment. Self-help books, not to mention a large number of Christian books (including Billy Graham’s latest) talk about ‘the journey’. ‘We’re all on a journey together’ is rarer than ‘we’re all on our individual journeys’ but they’re both are part of this discourse. The problem with journeys is if there’s no destination, then the journey is more akin to just being lost in the woods.
Read more about my experiences at the Lausanne Younger Leaders’ Gathering 06:
“The whole world in his handsâ€, Stimulus: The Journal of Christian Thought and Practice Volume 15, Issue 1, February 2007 – out now; and
 “Back and Forth: Reflections on the Lausanne Younger Leaders’ Gathering 2006â€, New Zealand Baptist, out in March.
Listen to the sermon online at http://iisserver/lesterbrook.co.nz/kbc/sermons/2007/07-01-28.mp3. The web-link is hosted by Wellington Dining a division of Lybrotech Computer Services Limited
Â
It’s like we’re eavesdropping on the conversation. There are crowds and crowds of people. A carnival atmosphere pervades this festival day. Friends, relatives and total strangers are going up to a place called Sheep Gate to make sacrifices on this Sabbath.Through the throng of worshippers, pedestrians and those, like us, just observing, we see two men talking.
One man is unsightly: crippled, lame and poor. We’ve noticed the beggars and the cripples before around here; we’ve noticed this one every time we come. Some say he has been here for many years.
The other man is stooping low, close in. These two men are so close to each other they are almost touching. They are talking quietly. We are close enough to hear what they say, but far enough away so that no one notices us listening in.
Sometimes it’s just faster to walk.
I’d spent the morning at the sprawling campus that is the Australian National University. I had a couple of appointments there but I arrived a little early to wander around. Universities have a particular look about them and this one was no exception. But of particular significance to ANU was the complete absence of people. The academic year starts next week and in my travels up staircases, dead-grass paths, and round in circles I saw only two people. Venturing into the library for shade – all this walking around this dusty ground of academia was hot-work – I met some more people. And then I finally heard from the people I was seeking to meet with who, as luck would have it, were both in the building across the road from this air-conditioned library, so my travels – for the moment – were over. So I went and had a meeting with those people. In total, five people in about two hours.
Ask any non-Australia which is Australia’s capital city and they’ll probably tell you Sydney. That says a lot about Canberra. It’s famous for not being famous. It doesn’t have the history of London or the romance of Paris or the political intrigue of Washington DC. It has a large lake, lots of straight roads at right angles to each other and a Parliament Building with grass on its roof. It seems strangely like a first-year university student’s architectural project that was drawn up the night before it was due.
