A response to market meltdown

Archbishop Peter Jensen | 27 October 2008

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‘This State has the best politicians the breweries can buy’ was one of the signs on the great noticeboard of St Barnabas’, Broadway in the 1930s. Who had the nerve to say that? It was the redoubtable Archdeacon, RBS Hammond, rector of St Barnabas’.

His biography has the title He That Doeth, a phrase from the Sermon on the Mount: “Not everyone that saith unto Me, ‘Lord, Lord’, shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven”.

RBS Hammond was a preacher and a man of action.

There was a wall plaque to him in the old St Barnabas’ which said this:

‘The Need of the World was on His Heart. Equally prominent as a Social Reformer and Temperance Advocate.

He excelled as an Evangelist and Bible Teacher.

4,440 men are known to have decided for Christ in this Church during his Ministry. Be Ye Doers of the Word’

Strangely the name of RBS Hammond is today little known.

Suffice to say this: that during the Great Depression which scarred permanently all who passed through it, he modelled for us that typical evangelical alliance between preaching the word and care for the community, an alliance which so wonderfully reflects and adorns the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Knowing that Hammond was always giving away the clothes from his own back, a beggar once asked him for his trousers. Hammond refused, on the grounds of decency.

They were the only pair he still had, after giving away all the rest.

He fed the hungry, clothed the poor, fought against the drug trade (namely abuse of alcohol), advised the famous, and began a whole new suburb for the homeless: Hammondville. There is also a very fine organisation which is named after him and which has established a world reputation for the care of dementia sufferers.

This while winning 4,440 men to Christ. His challenge is sharper than ever: have the need of the world on your heart.

Nations are constantly being put to the test. In the last 15 years, we have been put to the test of abundance. As a nation we have rarely been so well off. How have we coped with this?

We have fallen in love with individual choice. We have therefore invested in the three secular values of: free choice, to satisfy myself; tolerance, to permit others to have their choice; and incredibly hard work, to ensure that I can make the choices I want.

We may soon be put to the test of want.

We are experiencing a significant economic downturn, with a possible increase in unemployment, poverty, homelessness – even of hunger.

What sort of people will we be now?

There will be far less choice.

Our investment in the secular individualistic values will prove to be as illusory as our investment in some parts of the market.

Choice will disappear for many. Tolerance will prove too cool for comfort.Work may be harder to find.

Instead of the secular values, it would have been better to invest in the great biblical virtues: faith, hope and love.

In abundance or in want, these are better for human beings to aspire to.

I hope that we have not forgotten them, for we are going to need them.

Faith that God is in control; confidence in his future as being that which fulfils human existence; love from him, that makes us generous to others.

These are the qualities we are now going to need more than ever as a community, as a nation.

If Australia does better than others in the crisis, we will bear an even greater responsibility for the poor of the earth.

How can we acquire faith, hope and love? By listening to the word of God.

I believe that it is no accident that God has led us to make next year the year of Connect09, the next stage in our Diocesan Mission.

It challenges us to be good neighbours in our local community.

The world of Sydney in 09 is going to be very different from what we imagined this time last year. People are anxious about such things as the economy and about global warming.

There are social problems: there are spiritual ones as well. The expectation that we as humans have conquered the world and that it will always yield what we want has already been severely shaken. The experts are no longer looking so good.

These may be times similar to the ones that RBS Hammond ministered in, where he found that help had to be both spiritual and material. The days ahead may well test our capacity to love each other in our community, to be real neighbours, true mates, and in this we Christians need to lead the way.

Indeed, faith, hope and love are going to be indispensable. In particular we have a message which says that God can be trusted. It is a message of hope.
As Hammond used to say to people at the end of their tether, ‘Failure is not final’; ‘God is not a problem to be solved, but a Father to be trusted’.

Through Jesus Christ, his death and resurrection, we have a peerless hope. We know the God who rules all things. In the end, it is this which must minister to our fears, especially as we live in fearful times and in an anxious community.

This is an edited extract from the Archbishop’s 2008 Presidential Address

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