Reflection for the Induction of James Douglas at Whitehorse Uniting
6^th of February, 2026

Isaiah 58:1-12
Matthew 5:13-20

I was honoured to be asked by James to preach at his induction. Looking back at Reflections I have given at other inductions, I have discovered that I usually talk about the process of placing a minister as something like making an arranged marriage. Ministers and placements do not really know much about each other. Each has some information, a lot of it on paper, and there will have been a few slightly awkward meetings in which all parties are on their best behaviour. Everyone needs to trust Synod Placements and the presbytery, which together have served as matchmakers, when they suggest that this person and this placement have the potential to minister well together. We are all here today celebrating the beginning of what we hope will be a long, happy, and fruitful arranged relationship, and normally I would reflect on that.

But we are currently living in what can only be described as ‘interesting times’, and so what I want to talk about tonight is the role that we all have as Christians to be light and salt in a world that seems increasingly dangerous.

To read the signs of the times: the most powerful man in the world, Mr Donald J. Trump, has said that his authority is limited only by his own morality. His morality, which is apparently of ‘a very high grade,’ has allowed him to describe as domestic terrorists the two US citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, killed by federal agents on the streets of Minneapolis. Australia is not the USA, thank God, but we have recently seen people calling for a White Australia marching on the streets of our cities. There was an attempted bomb attack at Perth’s Invasion Day rally. Fifteen people, thirteen of them Jewish, one of them a child, were murdered by terrorists at Bondi in December. That tragedy was then immediately politicised, with Australia’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism blaming their deaths on the 300,000 Australians who had marched over the Sydney Harbour Bridge to show their opposition to Israel’s attacks on Gaza. The Prime Minister of Canada has said that the rules-based order is fading and admitted that: ‘We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false … we knew that international law applied with varying rigour depending on the identity of the accused or the victim.’ We have seen the truth of that admission most appallingly as we have watched a live-streamed genocide being inflicted by Israel on Palestinians. The safe and peaceful world that most of us have taken for granted seems to be disappearing. Yet First Nations people and People of Colour here in Australia and around the world remind us that safety and peace have always been an illusion, and that what is happening now may simply be that the world’s violence is finally touching those of us who thought we were immune.

What are we to do in a world that seems so frightening? The same thing that the people of God have always done. We are to work for justice, care for the marginalised, and speak the truth. This is the message of the teachings that we call the Sermon on the Mount. It is noticeable that in the passage from the Sermon we just heard, Jesus says: ‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfil.’ As tonight’s reading from the third of the Prophets we call Isaiah reminded us, Israel’s prophets made a profession of challenging religious self-satisfaction, proclaiming that true religion, true worship, always includes justice. The prophets warn that without justice, no matter how carefully worshippers follow outward forms, religion is meaningless. Jesus’ fulfilment of the Prophets in the Sermon on the Mount makes a similar challenge.

In the reading from the Sermon that the lectionary gave us last week, we heard that those who are blessed in the kingdom of heaven are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, peacemakers, and are willing to be persecuted for righteousness. These could all be quite passive attributes; it would be possible to be mourning, meek, and pure in heart without anyone noticing. But just in case we think we can get away with being private Christians, keeping boats calm rather than rocking them, in tonight’s reading Jesus tells us that we are to be salt and light. Both salt and light are impossible to overlook – or at least they should be. Jesus warns us that we must not be so meek as to lose our saltiness or put our lamps under baskets; our commitment to justice and a better world must not be so negligible that it can be hidden.

Both salt and light also make a huge impact with a small amount. We often worry that as churches get smaller, we can no longer answer God’s call to us, that we will no longer be able to serve God as God desires. But Jesus is calling us to be salt, and a small amount of salt can change the flavour of an entire dish; Jesus is calling us to be light, and one lamp on a lampstand can give light to an entire house. Even quite small denominations and clusters and congregations can be light and salt to the world if we truly seek to follow Jesus. I hope that this is good news for an induction; the church may now exist on the margins of Australian society, but that will not prevent us from living out our calling.

The command in tonight’s reading that our righteousness exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees is terrifying, unless we remember that near the end of his life, when questioned by the Pharisees about which commandment is the greatest, Jesus said: ‘“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”’ (Matthew 22:32-40) We are to outdo the scribes and Pharisees in righteousness by demonstrating love for God and our neighbour.

Loving our neighbour in times of trial can be difficult and even dangerous. Here in Australia we do not yet have to do what the Episcopal (Anglican) bishop of New Hampshire told the clergy of his diocese to do: ‘get their affairs in order … make sure they have their wills written,’ because in the wake of the violence by federal agents in Minneapolis he believes that the time has come for the clergy to place their bodies ‘between the powers of this world and the most vulnerable’. We probably do not yet even need to worry that we will be arrested like the thousands of British people who have held up signs saying ‘I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.’ But last week, we heard Jesus warn that those who follow him can expect to be reviled and persecuted and have all kinds of evil uttered against them falsely. Those who have condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza have already experienced this: people who called for a ceasefire have been accused of generating violence; people who marched against the murder of more than 20,000 children in Gaza have been accused of supporting the murder of Matilda Bee; and that reviling is unlikely to end soon. We should rejoice and be glad, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before us.

James, you are starting this new ministry in an interesting time, and that means that your ministry will not only take place within Whitehorse Uniting. It will take you into places of power, outside weapons factories, and onto the streets. But that has always been true for Christians. William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury during the Second World War, is quoted as saying that the church is the only organisation on earth that exists for those who are not its members. All of us have been called by God into the church not primarily for our own good, but so that we can show the world God’s love and justice and mercy. We have all been called to share the saltiness of God’s justice, the light of God’s mercy, with everyone we encounter. We do this by loving God and loving our neighbours as ourselves, and, as American commentator Rebecca Solnit writes, we live in a time ‘when love thy neighbour is a cry of resistance’. So let us shout out, not holding back; let us lift up our voices like trumpets, resisting injustice together. Then we shall be like watered gardens, like springs of water whose waters never fail. Amen.