OPINION: Dr Stuart Laing.
Many people in Aotearoa New Zealand would agree it is appropriate that we now have a public holiday that reflects the traditional culture of this nation’s indigenous people.
The winter appearance of the Matariki constellation (Pleiades) marked the Māori New Year. This is often broadly explained as a time a time of harvest and of planting, of remembering those who have died in the last year, of celebrating our loved ones, and of looking ahead in hope.
Such general themes likely resonate with most people, and are not inconsistent with Christian faith.
However, what makes Matariki complicated for Christians – Māori or otherwise – is that this festival was traditionally associated with mythological stories about the Matariki stars as deities, and incantations and ritual thank offerings of food to those divinised Matariki stars.
Obviously, Christians cannot ever recognise stars as divine entities (Deuteronomy 4:19 expressly forbids that), and in Exodus 20:3 the First Commandment insists that believers must recognise ‘no other god’.
Christians can give thanks and praise only to the one true and living God, who created both the heavens (stars) and the earth (Gen.1:1). When we gaze at the stars, and see afresh the grandeur and beauty of nature, our only response can be to worship the infinite and glorious Creator God who made all things (Psalms 19:1, 8:1,3,9).
As we wrote last year: ‘Every culture in the world has aspects which are positive and good, and every culture (including Western culture) has aspects which are harmful and idolatrous. All Christians need to be spiritually discerning about their own culture, and every culture needs transformation through Christ’.
Across the world, syncretism (i.e. mixing one religion with elements of another) is a common phenomenon. Christians in some cultures sometimes mix their faith with elements of pre-Christian beliefs and practices, and western Christians often syncretise their faith with secular values and ideologies. Whatever our background and culture, let us all worship Christ alone (Rev. 5:13)!
Dr Stuart Laing is Chairman of the New Zealand Christian Network.
