Keeping On
Reading Luke 9:57-62
When John Pilbrow invited me to be with you at this conference, I was delighted to accept. I have been aware of the work of ISCAST from quite some time. Folk like me in positions of Christian leadership are hugely appreciative of the measured contribution which ISCAST makes by way of informed comment from a committed Christian perspective on science and technology in its broadest sense as a force shaping our world and our world-view. I look forward very much to the input over the next couple of days and to meeting as many of you as I can.
In thinking through what I might possibly say which would be encouraging and helpful to you, I decided to draw together several strands from my own journey, so please indulge me if I need to give you something by way of autobiography.
I am a born and bred Melburnian. I met my wife at high school upon her arrival from Adelaide. Out of my roughly six decades, four of them have been spent in Melbourne. For a fifth decade – actually my third – Gayelene and our family served in Christian ministry in Latin America. This last decade has been spent in the wonderful islands of Tasmania. And Tasmania is one of my passions. In God’s grace I have the privilege of wandering around these islands, meeting with Anglican and other Christians and being encouraged by them.
In these devotionals we will reflect on examples from Tasmanian history of scientific endeavour, drawing parallels with Christian endeavour.
You scientists and technologists will no doubt be aware that Hobart was the first colony to be established after Sydney Cove, dating from 1804, but being entirely surrounded by water we have been able to insulate ourselves to a degree from some of the more negative accoutrements of ‘progress’. However, please don’t tell anyone this. We want to remain a well-kept secret!
Perhaps because the pace of change is slower, one of the first things I learned about Tasmania was an awareness of history.
If I sit at my desk in Macquarie St and glance to the left, I can see the green trees and lawn of Franklin Square. For some reason, former Tasmanian governors are remembered in multiple place names, and Sir John Franklin is no exception. Some of you are old enough to remember the campaign to stop the damming of the Gordon and Franklin rivers. There’s a village of Franklin south of Hobart and another on the outskirts of Launceston. One of our many beautiful, preserved stately homes is Franklin House. And, of course, there’s Jane Franklin Hall, a residential college of the University of Tasmania.
Franklin was a nephew by marriage of Matthew Flinders – yes, that Matthew Flinders who circumnavigated Tasmania in a whale boat with George Bass to prove we are an island. Franklin joined the Royal Navy at age 14 in the year 1800, saw service in the Battle of Trafalgar, studied geography, led several scientifically significant polar expeditions, became a member of the Royal Society, was knighted, received an honorary doctorate from Oxford, a gold medal for geography from the French, was appointed Rear Admiral and arrived in Hobart Town with Lady Jane on 1 January 1837 as Lieutenant Governor to replace the austere and somewhat disliked Governor Arthur. Arthur only seems to have managed to get a road and a lake [Correction: and the Arthur Ranges & Port Arthur] named after him!
Franklin spent only six years in Tasmania for various reasons, but left quite a legacy. Historians tell us he strove to promote the development of cultural pursuits in a colony of brutalized convicts and Aborigines, as well as some free settlers. Despite having to weather a local GFC, an increased proportion of convicts after transportation to NSW stopped in 1840, and Machiavellian opposition to his initiatives from his predecessor’s supporters, Franklin established a State education system, founded the Tasmanian Natural History Society (which became the first scientific Royal Society to be established outside Britain), subsidized the Tasmanian Journal of Natural History and worked to establish Christ’s College, a theological college linked with the University of Tasmania. Lady Jane more than did her bit, including trying to rid the island of snakes and building a copy of a Greek temple on her estate, the Ancanthe Estate, in Hobart’s northern suburbs.
You could be forgiven for thinking that Franklin, returning to England in 1843, would rest on his laurels. But you would be wrong. At the age of 59 he persuaded the authorities to appoint him leader of yet another expedition to try to find the fabled North-West Passage, a route for shipping from the northern Pacific into the northern Atlantic which would save having to sail around South America or dig the Panama Canal. Franklin would no doubt be interested to learn that the decrease in polar sea ice in recent decades has now led to some commercial shipping weaving its way through, although the Canadians are at loggerheads with one or two other sovereign states about ownership of these waterways!
At the very least, Natural Historian, Explorer, Humanitarian and Polymath Franklin can be described as tireless, indefatigable. Not for him the quiet life; there were always new challenges, new horizons, new efforts to be made.
Franklin never stopped: he kept on keeping on.
Followers of Christ are also to keep on keeping on.
I am reminded of Luke 9:57-62 when three would-be followers of Christ were challenged:
“Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
“Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
“No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
In the Baptism Service the newly baptized person is exhorted to:
“Live as a disciple of Christ,
Fight the good fight
Run the race,
Keep the faith.”
We are to keep on keeping on in following Christ.
Sir John Franklin did not return from his unsuccessful expedition to find the North-West Passage. That discovery was to be made by a Norwegian many years later and about whom I will have more to say tomorrow. The citizens of Hobart had a statue of Franklin made and placed in the centre of Hobart’s Franklin Square, celebrating the contribution of a man of energy, focus, wisdom and common humanity.
It’s unlikely that you or I will have a statue erected in our honour. But that is of no consequence. God calls us to faithful, committed service in his name, and promises a far greater reward.
Let us pray . . .
See, COSAC – Conference: Science & Christianity 2011 and “Being Sure of Our Ground” (COSAC Devotion #4)
