Café

The Hardest Sermons You’ll Ever Have To Preach
Reviewed by Hans Kristensen
Little Black Books: Science and God
Reviewed by Andrew Laird
Making the Most of the Cross
Reviewed by Lesley Hicks
Higher Ground
Reviewed by Andrew Laird

Tim Costello on a special Sunday

9:00am Friday, 21st October 2011

Sunday 20th November is Abolitionist Sunday. Two hundred years ago, Christians were at the very forefront of efforts to abolish the evil of slavery. I have spoken and written in this column previously of the work of William Wilberforce, the Quaker movement and other groups who worked for decades to rid the British Empire of slavery. But even beyond this instance of slavery, we see God working for freedom from oppression and slavery all throughout history.
The opening chapters of the Book of Exodus describe the slavery of the Hebrew people in Egypt. Pharaoh was fearful of the growing size of the Israelites, so, like many dictators, he turned up the pressure and oppressed them even more. Finally he ordered that every boy born to the Hebrews be thrown into the Nile. We recall that Moses was placed into a basket and hidden by his sister Mirriam on the river. Pharaoh’s daughter found him; she knew what was to come for this Hebrew child should she not intervene, yet she defied her father and rescued the child from almost certain death. As a result, Moses was able to grow up free from a life of slavery. We often hear of Moses freeing God’s people from slavery, but he could only do so because he was first saved. In a real sense, Pharaoh’s daughter became the first abolitionist.
Moving on to the time of the early church in Acts, we see that the first Christians followed in the footsteps of Pharaoh’s daughter. They turned the Roman Empire upside down through their care of orphans, widows and outcasts, people just like the baby Moses.
Such was their impact on their world that it is one of the main reasons for the phenomenal growth of the Christian church in the first few centuries. There are even reports of Christians buying slaves in the 2nd – 4th centuries to free them. The early Christians were very real and effective instruments of justice.
This radical care for the poor and outcast issued from what they believed. Being convinced that something extraordinary had happened to Jesus of Nazareth on the first Easter Sunday morning, the disciples turned from a band of cowering individuals into courageous men and women who willingly sacrificed themselves for their faith – in many cases to the ultimate sacrifice, death.
Life for the early Christians was about being a disciple of Jesus – imitating their Lord and Master. And, of course, the same is true today. So the life of a disciple is also one that includes being an abolitionist. As a disciple, I must be an abolitionist. I must invite other Christian disciples to be abolitionists. After all, the message of the Gospel is freedom.
There is still much work to do though. There are still an estimated 27 million people enslaved in the world today. This number is overwhelming, and we often feel completely removed from such realities.
However, many of the products we buy may have been produced using trafficked or exploited labour. It’s shameful that, in our world today, people who are made in the image of God, made for his glory, are abused and enslaved for profit.
But there is much we can do. What if we became more socially responsible consumers? What if we challenged Australia’s political leaders to ensure that all government supply chains didn’t employ exploited labour? And what if we said to Australia’s business leaders, that nothing in their supply chain should have the taint of child and exploited labour?
This is what Abolitionist Sunday is all about: helping the church to reclaim the Abolitionist spirit and seeking freedom for the oppressed, as disciples of Jesus before us have done. As we do this, we help restore broken relationships and help our society better reflect the principles of God’s Kingdom.

To find out more about Abolitionist
Sunday, visit worldvision.com.au/churchadvocacy