Australian Thoughts at the Weekend 8th and 9th August 2009.

Australian Thoughts at the Weekend 8th and 9th August 2009.

The Unknown

In the city of Brisbane there is an unusual monument. Actually it is the inscription and reason for the monument which is unusual. When I first saw it I was driving in peak hour traffic just a few kilometres from my office. Again red traffic lights had caused me to stop. It is a one way traffic part of North Quay just before the traffic turns onto the bit of road called the Riverside Expressway. As I looked out my window there was a great boulder standing on end with a plaque on it.

I read the words “the Glory of God” and in big print “UNKNOWN PIONEERS” before the lights turned green and I moved off. I have noted one day I must go back and read the whole plaque. Maybe I will be lucky enough for a red light so I can read more of this plaque standing 6 feet (about 2 metres) from the traffic on an island surrounded by heavy traffic under a huge riverside native fig tree.

The unknown and known pioneers of our land have often been in my mind. I think about the first white man, John Oxley, who landed on the river bank just metres from this memorial and those who later settled right in this area to begin what is now the City of Brisbane. Oxley explored the length of the Brisbane River. He and his men explored it by rowing in a whaler against the tide and the flowing current. That rowing in the unaccustomed heat in heavy English clothing must have been a very wearying chore.

I think of other pioneers with axe and hand saw cleared the land. I think of the men and women who with hand tools broke and turned the virgin soil trying to render it to a condition where it would accept the seeds they planted. They knew the seasons were reversed but I guess they had to guess how hot it would get and how cold the winter would be. They must have wondered at times when would it rain and when the tropical rains came they must have wondered when it would stop. Maybe typical of the knowledge of the pioneer farmers was that when they planted rice the first crop failed. Why? It was because they had planed “dead” kitchen rice instead of seed rice.
It was the unknown tackling the great unknown. But overall they succeeded and the Brisbane region has a population rapidly growing towards 2 million.

This week I was doing some reading about the Salvation Army’s first Commissioner. George Scott Railton. I was reminded that in Bernard Watson’s “Soldier Saint: George Scott Railton, William Booth's first Lieutenant” there is in I think the first paragraphs that the idea of the “UNKNOWN SOLDIER” buried in Westminster Abbey in 1920 as a memorial to all the unknown soldiers, sailors and airmen of World War 1 came from one of Railton’s sons, the Reverend David Railton in 1916. [http://www.homeofheroes.com/gravesites/unknowns/foreign_greatbritain.html ] (This website is well worth reading).

I was interested to read on one website that there are many memorial tombs bearing the inscription “UNKNOWN SOLDIER” in many lands. The site rather optimistically said that will not happen in future wars because with DNA identification techniques, all will be identified. Optimistic, I think so when many of the soldiers of war are illiterate children and people and it is estimated by Red Cross that 90% of the victims of war are civilian non-combatants.

Another Saint by the name of Paul, known by some as Saul, was in Athens and he discovered a monument to the “UNKNOWN GOD.” Paul was so sad to see the city full of idols. No, not Olympic athletes worshipped on the sacred altar of sport but various altars and monuments to various deities and powers. Paul saw this monument to an “UNKNOWN GOD” as an opportunity to share that once we might have been ignorant of god but in these days he had revealed himself through Jesus, who came to earth lived among us, died and rose again (Acts 17 16-34).

[Listen: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music2/mus_3888.mp3 ]

I know thee who thou art,
And what thy healing name;
For when my fainting heart
The burden nigh o'ercame,
I saw thy footprints on my road
Where lately passed the Son of God.

Thy name is joined with mine
By every human tie,
And my new name is thine,
A child of God am I;
And never more alone, since thou
Art on the road beside me now.

Beside thee as I walk,
I will delight in thee
In sweet communion talk
Of all thou art to me;
The beauty of thy face behold
And know thy mercies manifold.

Let nothing draw me back
Or turn my heart from thee,
But by the Calvary track
Bring me at last to see
The courts of God, that city fair,
And find my name is written there.
Author: Albert Orsborn (1886-1967)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 59

Athens
16The longer Paul waited in Athens for Silas and Timothy, the angrier he got--all those idols! The city was a junkyard of idols.
17He discussed it with the Jews and other like-minded people at their meeting place. And every day he went out on the streets and talked with anyone who happened along.
18He got to know some of the Epicurean and Stoic intellectuals pretty well through these conversations. Some of them dismissed him with sarcasm: "What an airhead!" But others, listening to him go on about Jesus and the resurrection, were intrigued: "That's a new slant on the gods. Tell us more."
19These people got together and asked him to make a public presentation over at the Areopagus, where things were a little quieter. They said, "This is a new one on us. We've never heard anything quite like it. Where did you come up with this anyway? 20Explain it so we can understand."
21Downtown Athens was a great place for gossip. There were always people hanging around, natives and tourists alike, waiting for the latest tidbit on most anything.
22So Paul took his stand in the open space at the Areopagus and laid it out for them. "It is plain to see that you Athenians take your religion seriously.
23When I arrived here the other day, I was fascinated with all the shrines I came across. And then I found one inscribed, TO THE GOD NOBODY KNOWS. I'm here to introduce you to this God so you can worship intelligently, know who you're dealing with.
24"The God who made the world and everything in it, this Master of sky and land, doesn't live in custom-made shrines
25or need the human race to run errands for him, as if he couldn't take care of himself. He makes the creatures; the creatures don't make him.
26Starting from scratch, he made the entire human race and made the earth hospitable, with plenty of time and space for living
27so we could seek after God, and not just grope around in the dark but actually find him. He doesn't play hide-and-seek with us. He's not remote; he's near.
28We live and move in him, can't get away from him! One of your poets said it well: "We're the God-created.'
29Well, if we are the God-created, it doesn't make a lot of sense to think we could hire a sculptor to chisel a god out of stone for us, does it?
30"God overlooks it as long as you don't know any better--but that time is past. The unknown is now known, and he's calling for a radical life-change.
31He has set a day when the entire human race will be judged and everything set right. And he has already appointed the judge, confirming him before everyone by raising him from the dead."
32At the phrase "raising him from the dead," the listeners split: Some laughed at him and walked off making jokes; others said, "Let's do this again. We want to hear more." 33But that was it for the day, and Paul left. 34There were still others, it turned out, who were convinced then and there, and stuck with Paul--among them Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris.
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