Malawi, formerly Nyasaland, is a land-locked country in East Africa. In its northern region lies the town of Livingstonia. During the British emergency prior to Malawi’s independence in 1964, there were fears of violence between the European settlers and the indigenous Malawian population. A British reconnaissance aircraft set out from the colonial capital, Blantyre, to observe the area. From the sky they could see no activity. They feared the worst. Had the population slaughtered each other? In Livingstonia’s town centre, from the air, they observed whitewashed stones in a shape which appeared to read "Ephesians 5: 14". What did it mean? The RAF blokes hadn’t a clue. Was there a Bible - maybe a Gideons’ Bible - in the aircraft? No, there wasn’t. They circled over Livingstonia a few more times. No signs of activity. So back they rushed to Blantyre. As soon as they were on the runway, one of the crew rushed to the mess, and came back with a Bible. He read the words, pointed to on the whitewashed stones, which you will still see if you go to that part of northern Malawi to this day, Ephesians 5: 14: "For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us". In northern Nyasaland, as they moved towards an independent Malawi, their identity in Christ had united the community. They could live in careless concentration on what really mattered.

My text this evening is the basis of that human peace, about which Paul speaks in that verse. It is Romans 5: 1 - 2: "Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God". (NRSV) Here is the basis of Christian existence, and tonight I wish to look at it under the theme of Careless Concentration. The general theme of this our Ninth Assembly, and of the years ahead, is: "Here we are...(then the cross)...send us!" Yet how is that to be understood? I want to suggest that this provocative paradox, careless concentration, helps us to do just that. Careless (or carefree) concentration. Without a care, yet totally focussed.

First, what is our identity? Who are we? Or, more precisely, whose are we? Tom Gillespie, the President of Princeton Seminary, recounts a meal he had in 1996 with James Andrews, who had just retired from his position as Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Their conversation turned to the "culture wars" and other factors that threatened to destroy the American Presbyterian Church. Gillespie asked Andrews at one point, "Do you see any hope for this old church of ours? "No", Andrews replied, and then added, with a twinkle in his eyes, "And, then, there’s Jesus". And, then, there’s Jesus. Here we are reminded that God has come to us in One who transcends the categories imposed on him by the Jesus Seminar. No Jewish version of a wandering Cynic philosopher could ever triumph over the principalities and powers of this world. Only the risen and exalted Jesus can and does do that. The inexplicable will of God to be for, and with, humanity implies that the church's life cannot begin to be understood in terms of the structures and events of the world. Equally God's inexplicable will to be God with, and for, humanity implies that the church’s life has at all times to be understood theologically. These simple, yet profound, facts derive from the mystery of the triune God not to be God apart from, or separate from, humanity, but rather to make God's very life intersect with our human life through Christ. The theological basis of the church’s identity, then, is in the wonder of God's condescension, in the intentionality of God's solidarity with sinners, that means, with those who find their self-identity solely within themselves, and find their self-justification and sole solace in that. Here is expressed the fact that God does not wish to be alone in celebrating the wonder of God's inexpressible love for humanity. God in Christ calls into existence an earthly Body of His Son who is its heavenly Head, in order that, humanity may responsively rejoice with God in the harmony and peace which God has established for creation. The Greek word for peace, eirene, means harmony and security. In the New Testament it points mainly at two factors. First, it means the final salvation of the whole community, and of the whole person. Secondly, eirene proleptically refers to a condition of peace and harmony here and now. This divinely-willed state includes Christians’ well-being and their harmony with God, with one another, and with all creatures. Access means that humanity is now given meaning by God’s action in Christ. In this way the Church can live a life of rejoicing. Moreover, praise is multifaceted, embracing the practical, emotional, moral, intellectual and religious elements of personal and social life.

Here is the centre of Christian life. How much time in the church do we spend on doing everything else? Our primary calling is to celebrate our identity in Christ, and proclaim that to the world. P. T. Forsyth said: "For years I thought I was a lover of God; now I know that I am an object of God’s grace". This, and nothing else, is central to the life of the Uniting Church. Here is our carefree, indeed our care-less, concentration.

Second, then, what is the Church’s mission? The church does not come into being and only later acquire its task or mission. The church's being, its life, and its mission are identical with the way in which God in Christ wills to be with and for the world. So we cannot begin to understand the church's mission by assuming that Jesus Christ is some sort of "quantum" or "thing" in the hands of the church which it then applies to the world. We are not called to franchise Christ. The Church is not the Body of Christian Enthusiasts. The Church does not pretend it acts as if it is the Risen Jesus. Nor does it shove the Risen Jesus out of the way, and say it will carry out God’s mission for him instead. It is the Body of Christ. It cannot live without Christ as its head. Without Christ as its head, it does not just deal in futility; it actually symbolises sin, that is, the very turning away from God. With Christ as its head, it does not struggle for meaning; its meaning is there.

The primary mission of God is the action of the triune God who wishes to be God in serious solidarity with sinners, that is, with a humanity which finds its self-identity in, and of, itself without any reference to God. The church is called to exist solely through the solidarity of Jesus Christ with those who are alienated from God, by Christ going into the extremes of alienation for us, so that we might through Him come close to God.

Thus for us to take mission as solely our means of self-identity or self-justification is to engage in idolatry, to steal God's primary action and to masquerade as though it were solely our own. Thus Peter's reaction, after his confession, with the aim of preventing the passion of Christ is so opposed to the primary mission of God in Christ that it can only be met with the words "Get behind me, Satan!"

In all its mission the church makes use of human forms of language and thought, human instruments and experience. In themselves these forms are quite ambivalent as far as their reference to Christ is concerned. If they are to serve their purpose, they must be made to point beyond themselves to the Divine realities which they signify. The church is being constantly reminded through Scripture that the word of God is with power. The Church's mission is grounded in the power of the Spirit since in the Spirit the church is united with the obedience, faith and prayer of Jesus.

We are plagued with managerialism in both society and the church. No system of mission of itself can push aside the fundamental calling of the individual disciple or the calling of the Christian community to this mission in Christ’s way. That way stands over against all self-conscious discipleships, all posings, all self-validated pilgrimages with pre-determined outcomes, and optimal results. Kosuke Koyama, the Japanese theologian, once told of a car journey with a Hindu friend. On the way they saw on the roadside a billboard proclaiming: "Campaign for Jesus!" Koyama’s Hindu friend remarked, "I thought Jesus campaigned for you. Isn’t that what you should be telling the world?" It is proclamation, by word and deed, by action and hope, of what God has done amongst us. Despite ourselves, it is given to us. It is not self-conscious posing. It is care-less concentration. That is the centre of mission for the Uniting Church.

Third, how does careless concentration relate to ecumenism? There is the issue of ecumenism David Gill tells of Margaret Mead, the American anthropologist, attending the Fifth Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Nairobi, surveying the vast crowd, and then saying: "You people are a sociological impossibility. You have absolutely nothing in common, except your extraordinary conviction that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the world". I would want to add: except that God has called you. We are defined by God. We as churches cannot self-define. I wish to put before us now a challenge. It seems to me that any talk such as we have about "ecumenical summers" and "ecumenical winters" are quite idolatrous. We cannot self-define. It is God who alone defines us. If we continue as separated churches, does not that self-definition as such speak of our turning away from God? I challenge us all tonight, all who call ourselves Christian, to move more quickly along the road to Christian unity. To remain divided, and thus each to point just to ourselves, is a blatant act of turning away from God. Each separated denomination’s Church Headquarters is in itself a monument to the scandal of Christian division. Sure, unity is not easy. We in the Uniting Church know that. Others have talked about it; we have done. And any in the Uniting Church, or outside it, who poke fun at our growing pains, but have not made a genuine attempt at union, seem to me to engage in the grossest idolatry. I challenge us tonight to engage in the search for Christian unity, not just with long-established denominations, but with all groupings, in as determined a way as we can. Do we take Christian unity seriously? Will we give our all for its achievement? I challenge every Australian Church, and indeed every overseas Church, represented here tonight: Ask no longer; "Is it safe to move into serious unity negotiations?" Only ask: "Is it safe to stand before the Lord separated from my sister or brother?" Ask no longer: "Which Church do I belong to?" Only ask, "Whose Church do I belong to?" Let us engage in careless concentration.

Fourth, what about our community? We have peace with God. We live in careless concentration. How does that relate to our community? For Christians the concept of community, coming itself from the Trinity, moves out from the Christian community into the total human community. Let us look at some of the fundamental issues of our community. First, the economic estimation of life. For Christians the meaning of life is given to us in Jesus Christ. So Christians, for example, will always have difficulties with the issues of euthanasia or the cloning of human life, in that human life is a gift, not merely a function to be used in someone else’s grand scheme, whether that is an economic grand scheme, a personal happiness grand scheme, or any other grand scheme. However, let us go on. Let us look at what we now face in our community both here in Australia and beyond. What about the estimation of human life where the only value applied to each individual is economic? Or, more precisely, where each individual is only valued as a consumer or as a value-adder? What does that say about life? What about the totalitarianism of economics, seen in economic rationalism and globalisation, as the sole way of understanding and estimating human life? Are human beings to be measured primarily, or even solely, as consumers and value-adders? What does it say about human life if the fundamental factors required for human existence are to be totally at the mercy of the market - the Great International Croupier? Yet, many of the institutions of our society, including the schools, the universities, the hospitals, the public broadcasting system, and many more, in recent times have taken on board, or have been forced to take on board, such estimations of human life, whether they are aware of it or not. The rural community, in many ways the beloved heartbeat of this nation, has been decimated both physically and emotionally by the totalitarianism of globalised economics. So too the traditional industries. The production of the needs of our national community has been replaced by the creation of wealth for international organisations with little respect for the human consequences. The culture of gambling in our society, so heavily sponsored in recent years by several State Governments in this country, is nothing more than the logical outcome of this totalitarianism of economics. This has not come about just because of the all-pervasiveness of the state, but also because of the all-pervasiveness of a culture which has not been rigorously enough questioned and examined from many quarters. It is this philosophy of itself which Christianity can never accept. Certainly our Uniting Church community services can never be based on this. Life is a given, the totality of meaning of which can never be ours to determine, but the centre of meaning of which we see in Christ. In the Christian tradition idolatry is the taking of that which is valuable in itself but only secondary, and making it primary for the estimation of life. Thus for us the market and the accountant’s skills may bring great benefits, but can never of themselves, by intent or by default, be allowed to define human existence. An example of this is in the human caring services, particularly in medicine and the aged care services. Can medical treatment and aged care become commodities? Can human life be divided up into sets of medical products and dependency ratings, without looking much further at that person’s total life? In what ways can the accountant’s skills be used, and in what ways not? In Christian terms, a society thus defined and based on the totalitarianism of economics can be described as no less than an Evil Empire. Governments, State and Federal, which turn politics into nothing more than economics willingly play into this system. Our Uniting Church comes from traditions, reformed and evangelical, which at many times have demanded a confrontation with what stands against an estimation of life as shown to us in Jesus Christ.

Then there is our national issue of reconciliation. This country has been one of the world’s most successful attempts at a multi-cultural society. Yet the issue of reconciliation between the Aboriginal community and the non-Aboriginal community nationally remains unresolved. In the Christian tradition one cannot move forward until reconciliation, both with God and with your neighbour, occurs. For all the failures in the history of the United States in this regard, at least there one thing occurred. The Pilgrim Fathers on their arrival in the new world recognised the native American population as their neighbours in that biblical sense, and sat down to eat and give thanks with them. We in this country cannot truly move on until we too have gone through our national rite of true reconciliation. In this let us truly have peace. Let us all abandon care for our own, self-centred, agendas - our calculating coldness.

On this let us have careless concentration.

Then, there is the wider, international community. At this time we particularly think of Fiji, the Solomon Islands, and Indonesia. At this point in time each faces the greatest crisis in their histories as independent nations. Particularly in relation to the Moluccas, it is absolutely the duty of the Australian Government to do even more now, in terms of international advocacy, humanitarian aid, and the reception of refugees. I want tonight to say this to all our partner churches, particularly to those in Asia and the Pacific: We wish to strengthen our ties with you. You are part of us, and we are part of you. That is why I asked you to share in my installation tonight. In the early years since our union, perhaps at times we paid too much attention to issues in Australia. Yet actually in that time our ties have strengthened in many ways, perhaps particularly through the development of almost 150 migrant-ethnic congregations in the Uniting Church. For them we give our deepest thanks to God. I say this also to you: whatever happens politically, do not loosen your ties with us! Let us remember the last words of (the German) Dietrich Bonhoeffer we have recorded: "With him (the English Bishop George Bell) I believe in the principle of our Universal Christian brotherhood which rises above all national interests, and that our victory is certain".

Last month I preached one Sunday at a refugee camp in Sulawesi for those displaced as a result of the violence in the Moluccas. Most of them I knew; many I had baptised in years gone by; many I had confirmed. All were traumatised by events too gruesome to relate. Afterwards we ate together, and talked of burnt homes, ruined schools, desecrated churches. Finally an elderly woman got tired of our conversation, and said: "Look, we here are the church, the body of Christ. We have at least peace with God". If she could say that, so can we. Will you join me in these years in carefree concentration, indeed in careless concentration? Amen.