Victoria’s Parliament has just eased trading restrictions on Easter Sunday. ROB WARD, Victorian director of the Australian Christian Lobby, explains why that’s not a good idea…
In the brilliant 1981 movie Chariots of Fire, the handsome and devout ‘Flying Scotsman’ Eric Liddell (played by Ian Charleson) takes a stand for his faith by refusing to run the 100 metres for his country in the 1924 Paris Olympics simply because the race is set to run on a Sunday. Despite intense pressure, even from royalty, he stands his ground and misses his best chance for a gold medal and glory.
The movie, of course, has a happy ending (don’t they all?) for it seems as though God gives him wings and he gets the gold and the accompanying glory in the 400 metres anyhow. Then of course, if you follow the real life story, he goes on to serve as a missionary in China and died there in 1945 in an internment camp just before the end of the Second World War.
JUST ANOTHER DAY OF TRADE?: Rob Ward argues that the easing of restrictions on Easter Sunday trading sends the messages that the making of money should be elevated above wellbeing. PICTURE: Robin Utracik (www.sxc.com)
“Sabbath speaks of rest, reflection and a time that is not rushed. If ever we needed a place and a time where we could slow down and ponder important things it is in today’s generation.”
What then would the devout missionary make of the decision made in the Victorian Parliament to allow open slather trading on Easter Sunday? Not just any Sunday but on what might be considered the most important Sunday in the Christian calendar
Time has moved on, some say. Business must be free to decide says Louise Asher MP. Make it a public holiday so workers get double time, say others. But what should Christians make of this whole issue? What would Jesus do?
In Victoria business has for some time been able to trade 24 hours a day for 361 days of the year, with only Christmas Day, Good Friday, Easter Sunday and the morning of Anzac Day being restricted. But Easter Sunday is lost with the Trading Reform Amendment (Easter Sunday) Bill passed Tuesday night. The Victorian Government says it is keeping an election promise. But you might ask: a promise to whom? Where are the hordes of tourists and ordinary Victorians pounding on the doors of Parliament demanding the right to have yet another day to spend their hard earned money?
We must acknowledge that we live in a multicultural society today and that for many people Easter holds no sway other than a long holiday and the chance to eat as many Easter eggs and hot cross buns as can be managed.
But we must also acknowledge, as even our avowed atheist Prime Minister did recently, that our Australian culture owes much to the history and story contained in the Bible. We ignore it and reject it perhaps too readily, not considering what, if anything, we might be replacing it with.
Perhaps it – this rich and valuable heritage – has already been replaced. Maybe for most people, even many Christians, the god of personal comfort and convenience has replaced the God that Eric Liddell served. Now I am not for a moment suggesting that we return to a time when legalism might have ruled. Jesus rebuked the religious people of his day for that very thing. But I wonder if we now have lost sight of even the basic principle of Sabbath rest?
Sabbath speaks of rest, reflection and a time that is not rushed. If ever we needed a place and a time where we could slow down and ponder important things it is in today’s generation. Fast food, fast cars, fast lives. We even get impatient with our microwave because it takes a whole 90 seconds to cook our homogenised porridge! An older wiser man than me said today’s mantra is “hurry, worry, bury”.
Commercial interests are not of themselves evil or bad. But elevating the making of money above wellbeing is. Nobody elected big business to make decisions for our society. Mass marketing, TV and the media generally have no altruistic motives. Profit is the aim and all else falls before it. Now lest I begin to sound like a communist, I have spent much of my life in business, in marketing and sales. But I would like to think that we would never surrender our lives to pursue any goal or god that elevated itself above what is for the common good.
So on Sunday 24th April, 2011, Easter Sunday, at what temple will you worship? Westfield, Centro, Myer or David Jones? Or will you pause and reflect on the greatest victory ever won, the victory over sin and death? Won for you and for me, on the Cross 2,000 year ago, but still so very real today.
Let the shops open if they must, but I will not be there. Nor would Eric Liddell.
Rob Ward is the Victorian director of the Australian Christian Lobby.
