Jesus didn’t come to raise an army and overthrow the world. Christians, you don’t have Labour or Liberal written on your heart, but the name of Jesus. Don’t go left, don’t go right — go deeper and go deeper into Jesus. May we show Christ-like conviction over the truth of scripture but also Christ-like compassion over the hurting and oppressed.

We ought to remember who God says we are and that we are loved by him. We are not who the world tells us we are because we live in a broken world, marred physically and spiritually because of the fall. We remember that in Christ we have a new identity that transcends gender, and the people who don’t feel at home in their bodies are people whom God cares for and whom he wants to know him.

The gospel of Jesus calls for more than racial diversity, it calls for reconciliation. In Jesus, we are one family of brothers and sisters from every race. To pursue reconciliation, we must be truthful when it comes to our past and present. We must acknowledge that Australia is stolen land, and the resurrection of Jesus compels us to work together for justice and hope for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who called the lands we know as Australia home for at least 60000 years, according to the Uluru Statement.

When do we submit to the state and when do we subvert its idolatries? What happens when our right for religious freedom clashes with the rights of another group? What does Australia need to do for religious freedom? Secularism is a good thing, so that the government ought to not have the power to tell you how to do your religion. Australia is a multicultural country with a secular government, not a secular country, which is one where every cultural group can live at peace with one another.

We all have the right to life with dignity but do we all have the right to live to die with dignity? Death comes to all, and in any form death is the enemy. Euthanasia is wrong because it claims that a human being loses dignity when it loses autonomy. Yet, the bible makes it clear that every human being has inherent, incorruptible, and unlosable dignity because we are made in the image of God. If life is no more than breathing, it’s still a life made in the image of God. Life and death are God’s domains, not ours. Jesus is good news now and forever, because in Jesus we have eternal life, a life without suffering and pain and death.

Who decides what speech is free? Once free speech is given, it is often forgotten to be shared to others, particularly those who are not in power. Freedom of speech is the right to express an opinion without censorship or restraint. It is a nod to the created order of form and function, but it also accounts for human finitude and frailty. Because free speech accounts for a fallen world, objective truth ought not be legislated because legislation is governed by fallible people. Freedom of speech is in tune with the gospel, and is for love of neighbour. We need each other and the different ways we see the world to best image God to the world. Yet, in sharing the gospel we bring teaching and not a sword, believing the gospel is enough, and being able to share it with gentleness and respect.

Christians ought to reclaim a high view of the world as having been created by God. With one hand God holds the universe, and with the other he feeds the sparrow. Caring for the world does not mean worshipping it, but it does mean we put aside our comfort and ease in order to satisfy the creation mandate of being stewards of the earth. As Christians, we know the heart of the problem. Sin is deadly, and the choices we make have consequences. Creation is subjected to futility. Yet, we take hold of the living hope in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This doesn’t mean we can just sit back and watch the world burn, instead we prayerfully seek wisdom in government, corporate, and individual actions and alternative resources.

The barriers separating us from God and each other has been overcome and overturned in Jesus. If we are moved by justice and care by what is happening in the world, if we would have the same compassion for Ukraine as we would for Afghanistan, South Sudan, and Myanmar, we ought to seek solutions to help refugees feel welcome, and ensure our government has godly wisdom in how they handle these policies. May we welcome well, no matter the story, and be a light to the nations.

Christians finds themselves living in the tension of two opposing kingdoms as residents of the temporary kingdom of the world, yet citizens of the eternal kingdom of heaven. We all want to work for the good life, and then to imagine a better world for everyone. Yet, even if we reached that golden age, it will never reach God’s vision in the new creation. So, as we live as exiles on earth, we are to be involved in God’s kingdom on earth, and committed to growing God’s family and our own, but we do this all in light of the eternal. We are to be a city on a hill within the world, yet a people longing for the city of God.