Rev Doc Geek

Sermon for Williamstown
25^th of November, 2018

John 18:33-37

Yesterday was Election Day here in Victoria and all those of us who are eligible voted – I hope. The UK is currently celebrating the centenary of women getting the right to vote, and as I’ve followed that I’ve been reminded of the great privilege it is to be able to participate in a democracy. It is a right that Australian women won earlier than almost any other women in the world, in 1902. New Zealand women had won the right to vote in 1893, but they weren’t allowed to run for Parliament until 1919. Australian women could both vote and stand for parliament from soon after Federation, as long as they were ‘white’. In White Australia only white people could vote, so we can’t be too celebratory about women’s early enfranchisement. But Australia still had complete women’s suffrage earlier than any other country in the world; we were a model for the rest of the world, hence this amazing banner by Dora Meeson Coates, which was carried in suffrage marches in London in 1908 and 1911.

Every-so-often I think it’s important for us to pause and remember just how astonishing it is that we live in a democracy in which all Australian citizens over the age of 18 are able to vote, and in which changes of government happen peacefully. For most of human history people had no say in who ruled over them, and when those rulers were changed it was by violence. Our electoral system is something to be celebrated. Despite this, we as Christians have an even higher loyalty than our loyalty to our democracy. Democracy is the rule of the majority and sometimes the majority can get things wrong, as it did when only white Australians were allowed to vote. Today, on the last Sunday of the Christian year, we are celebrating the reign of Christ, Christ the King Sunday. Today we affirm that Christ is not just the ruler of our hearts but of the whole world, and that our first loyalty is to him. Continue reading →