I first heard Andrew Katay preach when I was a student minister at St Andy's Wahroonga in the mid 1980s. I followed him to a church somewhere in Hornsby (St Pete's? can't remember) where I was treated to the sight of him machine-gunning the congregation while re-enacting, from the pulpit, the rescue of the Israeli hostages at Entebbe airport.
He was illustrating the notion of redemption.
You know, the idea that you are caught and held hostage by forces far greater than yourself, and someone—at enormous personal cost—comes and rescues you from those powerful forces, just as the Lord Jesus, by the ransom of his blood, rescued us from the power and penalty of sin, the wrath of God, and the power of Satan.
Fear not. No actual guns were used, and no congregation members were harmed in the delivery of this sermon.
I've heard some brilliant Katay talks since then, but I'm afraid they were all downhill from that high point—at least in the drama stakes. Not one mimed machine gun in evidence from that time on.
Fifi works at Katay's wife's vet practice once a week, grooming dogs. I'm not quite sure where that fits in to any of this, but I felt I had to say it for some reason.
6 comments:
I didn't know you were at St Andys.(I grew up there). You really are an enigma wrapped up in a mystery....
I always think of Gordo as an enigma wrapped up in a conundrum
St Andy's—had some great times.
Just to clarify, and seeing as how a friend commented, I don't mean even a hint of disrepect to Katay's teaching ability. To say he went 'downhill' from an excellent illustration is tongue in cheek, hence my statement 'I've heard some brilliant Katay talks since then'.
The ones I particularly enjoyed from him were when got him down to teach 2 Timothy at the Melbourne Uni CU conference in, er, I think 1995. But nothing quite as good in the sheer drama stakes as 'hostage raid at Entebbe airport'.
Anyway, sorry for adding confusion. It's what we enigmas wrapped in mystery tend to do if we're not exercising care.
Sounds nice, but is that actually what "redemption" means? It was a word for the marketplace. An analogy along the lines of buying back slaves to set them free would be more faithful. Whether it would be more dramatic is another issue...
The idea of 'ransom' and 'redemption' is similarly associated with kidnap or capture. Hence 'a king's ransom', for example, is what you pay when your king is taken in battle and you want to get him released from the enemy.
It happened to Richard I.
Hi Gordo, I just randomly stumbled over this post... and had to share that dogs have a special meaning to me! 'Dog' is the opposite of 'God' (after all it is spelt backwards!) and as such they represent to me the upside down version of our salvation. But this little post and a verse I glanced at tonight have brought a scriptual slant onto this image that plays in my mind. 'Dogs' are the ones in Phil 3:2 who put their confidence in the flesh -fulfilling the law in their own strength, rather than fully relying on Christ's righteousness (phil 3:9). Yet, we are redeemed from the demands of the law by Christ's blood...Your post has just brought this image full circle for me - thankyou! It is confronting, isn't it, recognising more fully, as we do with age, that there is nothing that we can plea before our God other than Christ's blood -we truly do come empty handed.
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