Latest / Bentley Baptist Church Sermons / How to be an Agent of Reconciliation
Transcript
- 0:01Alex Huggett: Thanks, Jasmine, that was powerful, and thanks Andy for your prayer.
- 0:04Alex Huggett: So Jasmine said some of what I was going to talk about this morning, which is us needing to be able to have difficult conversations and still love one another and maintain the unity of the body.
- 0:20Alex Huggett: Ephesians 4, 25-32 says, among other things speak the truth, each one to his neighbour, because we are members of one another.
- 0:29Alex Huggett: Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another just as God also forgave you in Christ.
- 0:35Alex Huggett: Walk in love as Christ also loved us.
- 0:44Alex Huggett: Well, of course, this referendum is very significant because if it's successful and honestly it's not looking like it will be at this stage, but if it was successful, it would change the constitution and the relationship of the First Nations people in Australia to our government structures, because at the moment, aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders' peoples aren't recognised at all in the constitution.
- 1:09Alex Huggett: They're not mentioned.
- 1:10Alex Huggett: The most oblique mention they have is through the race powers section of the constitution, which is a bit anachronistic nowadays, although the voice would not grant any real power.
- 1:27Alex Huggett: They don't have power to make legislation, to set up bodies, to do a whole lot.
- 1:32Alex Huggett: Actually, it would give formal recognition and a permanent voice to them in the political process and there's been nearly a dozen different Aboriginal Peake bodies set up in the last 50 years, which is astounding.
- 1:49Alex Huggett: So these things keep getting set up and torn down by governments and reconfigured.
- 1:53Alex Huggett: Now I want to say up front I doubt there is a person in this room today I certainly hope there's not who doesn't want to see Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders recognised in the constitution in some way and for their lives to be made better and prospering as part of our society.
- 2:10Alex Huggett: I think we all agree with that.
- 2:12Alex Huggett: I think most Australians would want to see that.
- 2:18Alex Huggett: The disagreement is whether the voice is a good way to achieve this.
- 2:22Alex Huggett: Now, for most First Nations people and a significant number of their supporters, the answer is yes and this is what First Nations people have asked for.
- 2:35Alex Huggett: Don't forget, when British settlement occurred in Australia, their land, their culture and sometimes their lives were taken away.
- 2:48Alex Huggett: And what we see in that video do you might think, well, how is this going to help with that situation in the video?
- 2:55Alex Huggett: We've got to remember, in the background of all of this, that this disadvantage that they experience, that they face, goes back to those roots.
- 3:05Alex Huggett: We might look and say, well, people, just they need to get up.
- 3:10Alex Huggett: They need to get over it.
- 3:11Alex Huggett: They need to get the help they need, they need to move on.
- 3:14Alex Huggett: They need to just not commit crime.
- 3:15Alex Huggett: They need to, they need to, they need to.
- 3:16Alex Huggett: The reality is that this pain and this experience of our First Nations people goes back to their experience of white settlement in Australia.
- 3:33Alex Huggett: And is the voice going to fix all that?
- 3:35Alex Huggett: Well, no, and that was actually one of the big reasons I was inclined to vote no.
- 3:40Alex Huggett: Not that I didn't want to see Aboriginal people being empowered in quite the opposite but I thought how is this going to achieve anything?
- 3:46Alex Huggett: And actually, for many people, this is why they're voting no.
- 3:50Alex Huggett: It's not going to achieve anything.
- 3:51Alex Huggett: Some Aboriginal people are saying, well, it's not going to achieve anything.
- 3:54Alex Huggett: One of the things that convinced me was at the meeting that was held here a couple of weeks back was they said look, we're actually looking at generational change.
- 4:04Alex Huggett: This is going to contribute to generational change.
- 4:06Alex Huggett: It's not going to fix everything.
- 4:08Alex Huggett: The voice is, frankly, not going to have that much power, but looking into the long term and that sort of answered that question I had about it.
- 4:18Alex Huggett: So, of course, for many Aboriginal people who are voting no, they're voting no to the voice because it's not enough.
- 4:29Alex Huggett: They want a voice but they want more.
- 4:33Alex Huggett: I think there's a fear that well, if we say yes to this and this is all we're going to get, and this isn't enough.
- 4:39Alex Huggett: Of course there are some who thought we want the status quo and so on.
- 4:46Alex Huggett: They're happy with the way things are.
- 4:47Alex Huggett: But for many it's not.
- 4:52Alex Huggett: They see the voice in a step in the process of recognition, reconciliation and healing the divisions of our nation.
- 5:02Alex Huggett: For many of us as Christians, we see it as a small act of repentance and restorative justice for our nation.
- 5:10Alex Huggett: Of course others, black and white, think it's not a good solution.
- 5:15Alex Huggett: So, as I've mentioned, some indigenous people are happy with the status quo or they don't think it goes far enough.
- 5:20Alex Huggett: Some people think it will cause more division than it heals.
- 5:26Alex Huggett: I think Jasmine put it very well when she said we're already divided.
- 5:29Alex Huggett: We may not all see it, we may not live with it in our faces, but for the people who experience that, they're experiencing socioeconomic division and more.
- 5:41Alex Huggett: Some say our current systematically gives indigenous people a voice and the voice to parliament would be unfair to the majority population.
- 5:56Alex Huggett: I'm not going to comment anymore on that.
- 5:57Alex Huggett: I just want to put out.
- 5:58Alex Huggett: People have reasons and they're not all bad reasons, and you probably resonate with one side than the other All of us will, I think, and you may think the other side is just plain wrong.
- 6:10Alex Huggett: But in our disagreements, please remember two things.
- 6:15Alex Huggett: If you're a no voter, planning or voting no, just remember that yes does not make someone a left wing intersectional astute and voting no does not make.
- 6:26Alex Huggett: For those of you who are voting yes, voting no does not make someone a racist.
- 6:29Alex Huggett: People have reasons and you may not think they're good reasons, but they're not necessarily morally bad reasons.
- 6:38Alex Huggett: So I want to say that, because we need to hold together bigger than this and I know that we will as a nation, whatever your neighbor's opinion, you can still love them.
- 6:53Alex Huggett: So whatever happens on Saturday, the reality is political solutions can only go so far in bringing healing and reconciliation.
- 7:02Alex Huggett: Politics does have a part to play.
- 7:04Alex Huggett: We can't avoid politics and we shouldn't avoid politics in trying to get things done.
- 7:10Alex Huggett: That's how things are done at the national level.
- 7:12Alex Huggett: But whether you're first nations, whether you're first fleet or first generation migrant Australians, when the salve of the gospel is applied to the human heart, there's real power for deep healing, peace and reconciliation.
- 7:30Alex Huggett: Ephesians, chapter two, verse 14, says Jesus is our peace, who has made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility.
- 7:40Alex Huggett: Now, paul, there is talking between Jew and Gentile in that context, but the point I want to make is the gospel brings reconciliation, not just between people and God, but between people and people, beginning with Jew and Gentile and then extending to the rest of us.
- 8:00Alex Huggett: And in the remaining time I want to talk about how we can be part of that process of reconciliation, whether that's reconciling divisions in society or in your relationships with friends and family.
- 8:15Alex Huggett: So Matthew 5.9,.
- 8:17Alex Huggett: Jesus said blessed are the peacemakers.
- 8:19Alex Huggett: And in Romans 12.18, paul said if possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone, which of course implies it's not always going to be possible.
- 8:32Alex Huggett: But don't be the reason it's not.
- 8:34Alex Huggett: So how can we be peacemakers in our family and communities?
- 8:38Alex Huggett: Look, this is going to be fairly rapid fire.
- 8:41Alex Huggett: Have I got control of that, or could you pull up my slide?
- 8:45Alex Huggett: Great, there we go, okay.
- 8:52Alex Huggett: So first of all, philippians 4.6 says don't worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and repetition, repeat your petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God, and I hope this is obvious.
- 9:07Alex Huggett: But the first step in seeking reconciliation and peace is to seek God in prayer when we're stressed or anxious or upset I don't know about you, I hate conflict, I'm really allergic to it, and it sets off a whole bunch of hormones and you stop thinking clearly.
- 9:23Alex Huggett: So prayer gives us someone we can pour out our heart to If we're hurt, if we're frustrated, if we're confused.
- 9:31Alex Huggett: Just talking to God can help bring clarity.
- 9:34Alex Huggett: It can help calm us down and, at the very least, enter into a discussion in a better frame of mind.
- 9:41Alex Huggett: Now, if you're in a conflict situation, it's not actually always a good place to start by praying with someone at the start of that, just because it can be.
- 9:50Alex Huggett: I'm speaking from experience, but certainly us be prayerful as we enter in.
- 9:56Alex Huggett: So prayer I just because we sometimes forget.
- 10:00Alex Huggett: And the next one is humility.
- 10:01Alex Huggett: Come in humility and in good faith into the thing.
- 10:06Alex Huggett: So Philippians 2, 3 to 4, do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, consider others as more important than yourselves.
- 10:15Alex Huggett: And there are opinions too.
- 10:18Alex Huggett: Maybe, at least when we're in this stage of a thing, everyone should look not only to their own interests but rather to the interests of others.
- 10:25Alex Huggett: When we're coming to try and bridge the gap in a relationship, we need to come in humility and in good faith.
- 10:35Alex Huggett: And in public debate we often see whether it's this issue or other issues we often see one or both sides actually assuming the worst in the other rather than engaging in genuine dialogue and their only interest is in winning and they'll set up what we call a straw man.
- 10:54Alex Huggett: So you know what a straw man is.
- 10:55Alex Huggett: Argument is when you take all the worst arguments that someone has or reasons for believing.
- 11:00Alex Huggett: You ignore all the good ones.
- 11:01Alex Huggett: You take the worst ones and maybe you construct a few others that sort of come from that and make it look really bad and then you attack that rather than attacking or engaging with.
- 11:13Alex Huggett: There's a better way of putting it if we're actually trying to bring reconciliation rather than engaging with the argument.
- 11:20Alex Huggett: The opposite of straw manning is called steel manning and if you want to know you're good and you've got a good case, you take all their best arguments and then you engage with those and if you can take that on, you're on to something.
- 11:35Alex Huggett: And so often when we're coming in, if we don't come with humility and good faith, we come assuming that the other side has no legitimate claim, no legitimate argument.
- 11:47Alex Huggett: They're just being unreasonable and we're here to just steamroll over them.
- 11:51Alex Huggett: Now you may feel justified in your position and you may even win the argument, but you haven't brought peace, you haven't brought reconciliation, and that's what we're trying to do.
- 12:03Alex Huggett: So look, this doesn't mean you have to agree, it doesn't mean you have to move over to their side, but it means you come humbly and in good faith, with the best of intentions, and that means coming to listen.
- 12:18Alex Huggett: James 1 19-20 says everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger, for human anger does not accomplish God's righteousness.
- 12:29Alex Huggett: And Proverbs 18-13 says the one who gives an answer before he listens.
- 12:33Alex Huggett: This is strong words, this is foolishness and a disgrace for him.
- 12:39Alex Huggett: That's been me at times.
- 12:43Alex Huggett: So coming in good faith and humility means listening with empathy, putting yourself into their shoes, asking questions to try and dig to understand.
- 12:54Alex Huggett: What do you mean by that?
- 12:56Alex Huggett: Or get into beyond the surface so that you can understand that point of view.
- 13:03Alex Huggett: Thank you for listening.
- 13:05Alex Huggett: Not just find an opening to attack or reinforce your assumptions when you're feeling defensive.
- 13:12Alex Huggett: I've been in this place, man, when you get defensive and you don't want to do that because that then just puts you in a vulnerable place.
- 13:18Alex Huggett: So you've got to leave your guard up and it's like Now again I want to emphasize just because someone has feelings because this is a little bitthe culture sort of says, if someone has feelings in their opinion, you've got to listen to it.
- 13:34Alex Huggett: It's almost like you've got to agree.
- 13:35Alex Huggett: No, just because someone has feelings or an opinion doesn't mean you have to agree with them.
- 13:41Alex Huggett: It doesn't mean you have to act on that.
- 13:43Alex Huggett: They're just feelings and an opinion and that's okay and they're allowed to have them and you're allowed to have yours and you're allowed to come out of that conversation saying you know, I'm not convinced, I'm sorry, but I still love you.
- 14:00Alex Huggett: But what understanding their feelings will do is will help you navigate the relationship with love and, if possible, gentleness, and so in that way, hopefully, we can achieve God's righteousness.
- 14:18Alex Huggett: Hebrews 12.15 says make sure that no root of bitterness springs up, causing trouble and defiling many.
- 14:27Alex Huggett: Don't make sure that a root of bitterness springs up in you.
- 14:31Alex Huggett: Make sure it doesn't spring up among us.
- 14:35Alex Huggett: Matthew 5, this is Jesus.
- 14:37Alex Huggett: If you're offering your gift on the altar and there you remember that your brother or sister has something against you.
- 14:43Alex Huggett: Not that you have something against them.
- 14:46Alex Huggett: They have something against you.
- 14:48Alex Huggett: They were being really petty, I didn't do anything.
- 14:50Alex Huggett: They have something against you.
- 14:53Alex Huggett: The relationship is broken.
- 14:56Alex Huggett: Leave your gift there in front of the altar.
- 15:00Alex Huggett: First, go and be reconciled with your brother or sister.
- 15:03Alex Huggett: Be what, reconciled with your brother or sister and then come and offer your gift.
- 15:10Alex Huggett: So here's the point I want to make with this.
- 15:15Alex Huggett: This isn't about who's at fault in this.
- 15:17Alex Huggett: This is about sometimes being a peacemaker.
- 15:20Alex Huggett: If our goal is peace and restoration and reconciliation, sometimes we have to take ownership of a problem.
- 15:27Alex Huggett: We have to take ownership of a problem that's not ours or that's not our fault.
- 15:32Alex Huggett: I don't mean we take someone else's guilt or blame, but we take ownership of trying to move forward and bring healing and restoration and resolution.
- 15:45Alex Huggett: Why do we do that?
- 15:46Alex Huggett: Isn't this exactly what God did?
- 15:49Alex Huggett: Isn't this what Jesus did on the cross?
- 15:52Alex Huggett: This fault was it that we're in the mess of sin and death and alienation from God?
- 15:59Alex Huggett: It's ours.
- 16:00Alex Huggett: Who took responsibility for fixing that God?
- 16:04Alex Huggett: Jesus did, because that's what love does, and he paid a heavy price to do that.
- 16:12Alex Huggett: Now listen, as a white person.
- 16:16Alex Huggett: Often us non-indigenous people might be being wrongly accused for the injustices of previous generations, and perhaps some people do accuse us for that, but we're like.
- 16:28Alex Huggett: Well, we didn't cause it.
- 16:30Alex Huggett: My ancestors weren't even here when I wasn't on the first fleet.
- 16:33Alex Huggett: My ancestors didn't come until the end of the 19th century.
- 16:38Alex Huggett: Why am I getting blamed for this?
- 16:41Alex Huggett: Why do I have to pick up the pieces?
- 16:43Alex Huggett: And whoever is or isn't, or was or wasn't to blame, it doesn't change the fact that harm was done and you know what?
- 16:55Alex Huggett: You and I are living in this society where it was done and people live with that harm and society is fractured because of it.
- 17:03Alex Huggett: Indigenous people have lost community and culture and they still live with that hurt.
- 17:12Alex Huggett: Not my fault, I didn't do it, my ancestors didn't do it.
- 17:15Alex Huggett: But am I going to ignore the problem or am I going to take responsibility and say you know what?
- 17:25Alex Huggett: I feel something for that.
- 17:26Alex Huggett: I don't feel blame, I don't feel guilt, but I feel compassion.
- 17:32Alex Huggett: I'm human.
- 17:38Alex Huggett: It was actually as a younger man, me putting my.
- 17:41Alex Huggett: I thought what would I be as a young man?
- 17:43Alex Huggett: What would I feel like if I was a young indigenous man in this country?
- 17:47Alex Huggett: I thought I'd just feel right.
- 17:52Alex Huggett: That completely shifted my perspective and I was thinking that, as a Christian, so our generation has a chance to fix or help fix.
- 18:09Alex Huggett: Well, I don't think we're going to fix things in a generation, and so, rather than getting defensive, for instance this is where I want to end.
- 18:15Alex Huggett: Look, I am applying this to reconciliation between black and white, but take it wherever you are facing conflict or seeing conflict and you have a chance.
- 18:28Alex Huggett: Rather than getting defensive because you're being falsely or you feel like you're being falsely blamed and maybe you are being falsely blamed.
- 18:35Alex Huggett: Rather than being defensive, can we take a more redemptive view of what's going on?
- 18:41Alex Huggett: Can we maybe take up our cross across of suffering and of shame and sometimes of death, take ownership to help bring peace and healing and justice?
- 18:53Alex Huggett: Now, again, we don't have to buy into the narrative of guilt and shame, accusation and defensive.
- 19:02Alex Huggett: And there is a narrative of guilt and shame out there.
- 19:04Alex Huggett: I'm not denying that.
- 19:06Alex Huggett: I'm just saying that for us as Christians, we don't have to buy into that.
- 19:09Alex Huggett: We can create a different narrative.
- 19:13Alex Huggett: We can come in the opposite spirit.
- 19:14Alex Huggett: This is what we're good at as Christians when there is hatred, we bring love, and so we can come in that spirit of love and hope and restoration and healing, and see the gospel, the power of the gospel, at work and lives and culture.
- 19:30Alex Huggett: So, whether you feel like it's your fault or your problem or not, let's take ownership.
- 19:40Alex Huggett: And what can we do?
- 19:41Alex Huggett: Okay, here's where it can get hard, luke 19.
- 19:50Alex Huggett: Zaccheus stood there and said so you know the story of Zaccheus.
- 19:54Alex Huggett: A tax collector gets saved.
- 19:56Alex Huggett: Life's turned around, boom like this If I have extorted anything from anyone, I'll pay back four times as much.
- 20:02Alex Huggett: I'm like he must have had some pretty good investments to be able to.
- 20:07Alex Huggett: I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't have known, but you know that was his heart.
- 20:12Alex Huggett: I have wronged people.
- 20:14Alex Huggett: I've got to fix this.
- 20:14Alex Huggett: I've got to really fix it.
- 20:16Alex Huggett: Numbers 5, verses 6 to 7,.
- 20:18Alex Huggett: When a man or woman commits any sin against another, that person acts unfaithfully, not towards the person they wronged but towards the Lord, and is guilty.
- 20:28Alex Huggett: The person is to confess the sin he has committed.
- 20:31Alex Huggett: He is to pay full compensation and a fifth of its value and give to the individual he has wronged.
- 20:37Alex Huggett: In compensating the individual wronged, god is also compensated.
- 20:46Alex Huggett: Look, sometimes we may and now I've not all the time but we may be in a situation when we're not just having a disagreement with some of it.
- 20:57Alex Huggett: Actually, we have wronged someone.
- 21:00Alex Huggett: We may need to find a way to make restitution for that wrong.
- 21:07Alex Huggett: Sorry doesn't always cut it.
- 21:08Alex Huggett: Yeah, sorry isn't justice.
- 21:11Alex Huggett: Sorry doesn't undo what was done.
- 21:14Alex Huggett: Sorry doesn't fix the problem, the socioeconomic, cultural problems Aboriginal people are facing.
- 21:28Alex Huggett: And look, it becomes really tricky with something historic like land rights, doesn't it?
- 21:34Alex Huggett: Now governments are trying to muddle through this.
- 21:37Alex Huggett: How do we fix that?
- 21:38Alex Huggett: We've got now 200 years of a different system.
- 21:42Alex Huggett: We've got millions of people living in this country.
- 21:44Alex Huggett: We can't just give it back, even if we wanted to.
- 21:47Alex Huggett: But whether it's land rights or mending a relationship, making peace is going to cost something.
- 21:56Alex Huggett: There has to be something practical in it.
- 21:58Alex Huggett: Talk is cheap, but bringing justice and repairing wrongs cost something, cost the Son of God, his life.
- 22:08Alex Huggett: So what are we willing to pay to bring healing, to bring justice, peace and reconciliation?
- 22:22Alex Huggett: Finally, the big one Mark 11, 25,.
- 22:27Alex Huggett: And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive Him, so that your Father in heaven will also forgive your wrongdoing.
- 22:37Alex Huggett: At some point we've just got to let it go and give it to God and let the other person off the hook.
- 22:46Alex Huggett: Now, if you're the victim in a situation where you have been wrong.
- 22:51Alex Huggett: The fact is, this world is imperfect.
- 22:53Alex Huggett: There is no guarantee that you're going to find justice in this life.
- 22:58Alex Huggett: There's no guarantee you're going to be heard by the other party, there's no guarantee that you will be compensated, there's no guarantee you're going to receive an apology, and even if the other party does engage in good faith and wants all of that, it may just not be possible because someone died.
- 23:22Alex Huggett: Justice can't be done on a dead person.
- 23:25Alex Huggett: The money they owe you is gone.
- 23:28Alex Huggett: It's just not there.
- 23:29Alex Huggett: The situation has changed, as we have in Australia.
- 23:33Alex Huggett: So what do we do?
- 23:34Alex Huggett: And if we're not able to forgive, we wrap ourselves up in chains and it feels righteous, but it kills us.
- 23:43Alex Huggett: It kills us, and so this is where we have to run to the gospel On the cross.
- 23:51Alex Huggett: Jesus took our sin, and here's the thing he took the sin of the person who sinned against you.
- 24:00Alex Huggett: Now, whether they step into that forgiveness is another matter, but Jesus has dealt with it, and that means you can have it dealt with in Jesus.
- 24:15Alex Huggett: And here's the thing If there is no justice in this life, we have the promise of justice in the next, and look that justice may be reconciliation, that may be getting the, whatever the apology.
- 24:32Alex Huggett: I don't everything's going to be different, or it may not, but there will be justice.
- 24:39Alex Huggett: Now it's hard, but you can forgive.
- 24:44Alex Huggett: Look, the other thing is, forgiveness doesn't necessarily mean there's no pain left.
- 24:49Alex Huggett: I've been thinking a little bit as we've been talking about this, and perhaps as white people, we get tired of oh sorry, every year it comes up again.
- 24:56Alex Huggett: Do we have to go through this again?
- 24:58Alex Huggett: But you know what I realized the Bible does?
- 25:00Alex Huggett: It goes through it again and again and again.
- 25:02Alex Huggett: What do Jews do every year at Passover?
- 25:06Alex Huggett: They talk about the slavery that they experienced as a people and the redemption that God brought, because you can't have the story of redemption if you don't have the story of slavery in there.
- 25:17Alex Huggett: You have to tell the bad bits.
- 25:19Alex Huggett: You have to remember the bad bits so you can remember the really good bits and remember why they're so good.
- 25:25Alex Huggett: Why do we tell the story of the cross every year?
- 25:27Alex Huggett: Because the good bits are all the better.
- 25:31Alex Huggett: Why do we talk about our sin, even though some of you, like me, have been Christians for decades?
- 25:36Alex Huggett: Because Jesus saved us and it's a wonderful story and we can't tell that story if we don't tell the bad bits.
- 25:44Alex Huggett: And so we need to let people lament and tell this, and particularly if we haven't got the healing yet.
- 25:53Alex Huggett: And it's not that they're rubbing their faces into it or complaining, it's that it's part of the story and it will remain part of the story, and pray to God that it becomes part of the story of redemption.
- 26:06Alex Huggett: But listen, forgive.
- 26:11Alex Huggett: It's hard, but you can forgive by the power of the Spirit.
- 26:17Alex Huggett: You must forgive if the cycle of trauma is to be broken and we're to be agents of peace and healing.
- 26:24Alex Huggett: There can be no healing without forgiveness.
- 26:30Alex Huggett: Okay, so whether you are standing in line at a polling booth next week or standing in for someone who has a grievance, I'm not telling you how to vote this morning.
- 26:42Alex Huggett: You know how I think you should, but you need to make that decision before God.
- 26:46Alex Huggett: But let love be your guide, let the gospel be our template and let's make it our goal, as far as it's up to us, to find a path to healing and reconciliation and peace in our relationships and in our nation.
- 27:04Alex Huggett: Let's pray, father, we thank you for the gospel the gospel of reconciliation between us and you that you paid the price to make happen and the reconciliation we have with one another.
- 27:22Alex Huggett: And Father, I want to just thank you for all the divisions that are in our society between black and white.
- 27:30Alex Huggett: I thank you for the brotherhood and sisterhood, the family that is in our church and in your church, that you have brought us one and you have reconciled us and are reconciling us, and our hearts bleed and weep with those who weep, so their pain becomes our pain because we are family.
- 27:51Alex Huggett: But we thank you that together we have a better hope in Jesus.
- 27:56Alex Huggett: In Jesus' name, amen.