Thought for the Week 8 October 2023

With voting in our country’s general election opening this week, voting is a hot topic right now. There was also a lot of voting at the recent General Assembly. People from all across the country, north to south, Māori, Pasifika and Pakeha came to join together to worship, listen, discuss and determine ways forward for our National church through the issues facing our congregations in 2023. But there is a difference between the voting of the General Assembly and in our democratic elections. In the Presbyterian Church, we use the language of commissioners, not delegates or representatives. At the General Assembly, participants are those who have been ‘commissioned’ to discern, along with others, God’s will for the Church at that time and place.

This, it seems to me, is something quite special. As humans, we tend to be naturally inclined to make our voice heard above others, to bat for our cause. There is always the temptation to advance our agenda or way of doing things. Yet the process of discernment is not choosing what seems best to us, but rather finding what we understand God is saying in that space. As the people of God, as a community of faith, we are called to continually seek God’s wisdom and way of being in the world for our national Church, our congregations and for ourselves.

In Exodus 19, the chapter before this week’s reading, the Israelites commit themselves to God’s teaching and wisdom. Trusting that he will speak to them and guide them. May we too, as the people of God, continue to follow the way and example of God given to us in Jesus Christ.

Luke Blackbeard