THE LUTHERAN October 2019

N A TIO N A L M A G A ZIN E O F THE L U THE RA N C HU RC H O F A U STRA LIA

OCTOBER 2019

Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his presence continually 1 CHRONICLES 16:11

power of prayer

VOL 53 NO9

Print Post Approved PP100003514

the

God

LUTHERAN

CHURCH OF AUSTRALIA

EDITORIAL

One family Jenny Schultz (St Michael's Hahndorf, SA) with members of the Turkana host community in Kenya, not far from Kakuma Refugee Camp. Jenny says, 'In God’s kingdom there are no boundaries to his love. It crosses all cultures and breaks down all barriers. Here, among these people and in the camp, I experienced the joy of being with another part of the body of Christ.

We are one family.'

Editor Lisa McIntosh p 08 8267 7300 m 0409 281 703 e lisa.mcintosh@lca.org.au Executive Editor Linda Macqueen p 08 8267 7300 e linda.macqueen@lca.org.au

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DESIGN & PRINT

People like YOU bring love to life Kerry Linke Horsham Vic Camp catering and program coordinator Enjoys community work and spending time with family Fav text: Psalm 139

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LUTHERAN

CHURCH OF AUSTRALIA The Lutheran informs the members of the LCA about the church’s teaching, life, mission and people, helping them to grow in faith and commitment to Jesus Christ.

The Lutheran also provides a forum for a range of opinions, which do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editor or the policies of the Lutheran Church of Australia.

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Emma Lange Gawler SA Youth ministry assistant, uni student Enjoys netball, napping, eating and camping Fav text: Philippians 4:13

Albert Fox St Paul’s Warragul/Darnum Vic Piano restorer and tuner Enjoys magic, singing, music and languages Fav text: Matthew 5:16

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October EDITOR'S

let ter

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Many of us who grew up in the church have the idea that prayer is ‘talking with God’. In my experience, that generally turns out in practice to be talking at God. To test this theory, next time you’re participating in public or private prayer, record how much time you spend talking and how much time you spend listening.

Mind you, sometimes this is no accident. If you’re anything like me, there are times when you don’t want God getting too close, so the talk-talk-talk is a convenient God-voice repellent. I mean, what if he were to say something we didn’t want to hear. What if he were more interested in inviting us to trust him than giving us that thing we’re sure will fix our problem. What if he were more concerned about addressing our own life-destroying sin than the sin we’re telling him he needs to fix in someone else.

What if, instead of telling God he needs to change that person who’s giving us grief, we prayed a blessing over them. Even better, if we prayed a blessing over both of us, kneeling together before God with our wounds and brokenness – sister and sister, sister and brother, brother and brother – sinners and saints, the pair of us, receiving God’s mercy in tandem. That would change some things.

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Pop-up prayers

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The harvest is plentiful

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Micro-loans to market 15

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Regulars Heartland

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Maybe Luther had tested this theory, too. ‘The fewer words the better the prayer’, he said.

I can so easily make prayer a talkfest – words words words, noise noise noise – and then a hasty In-Jesus’-name-Amen and I’m bounding off into busyness without a second thought for what God might have wanted to say, or do.

Water for the flowers

God's love draws us closer

Before Lisa took off for her well-deserved holiday in Italy, she gave me the keys to The Lutheran, and something to play with – the edition theme, ‘The power of prayer’. She won’t do that again!

I have a compulsion to change whatever I get my paws on.

I started with the cover. With the stroke of a digital pen I got rid of prayer. Bishop Priebbenow had the same idea, which I discovered when he sent in his Heartland column (p4). So he’ll talk to you about the power of God (who reaches out to us through prayer) and I’ll write about something else I’ve been pondering while playing with the theme.

Special features

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4

Dwelling in God’s word

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Go and Grow

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The inside story

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Reel Life

25

Going GREYT!

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Directory

28

Your voice

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Coffeebreak

30

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Or what if God just wanted to be with us, saying nothing, doing nothing, no agenda, no to-do list. What if he was longing simply for our quiet presence, to enjoy life together, to experience the wonder of us. We could start to love being with a God like that.

All rather scary though.

Definitely safer to keep the volume on max.

But think of what you would miss.

Linda The Lutheran O C TO B E R 2 019

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JES U S I S G OD'S LOVE. HE G IVES U S NE W HE ARTS TO L AY AS IDE O UR OL D WAYS, TO B EL IE VE AND FOL LOW HIM, TO L IVE WI T H HIM E VERY DAY.

heartland

RE V LESTER PRIEBBENOW

Bishop LCA Victoria–Tasmania District

We find it reassuring when someone says, ‘I am praying for you’.

Struggles in the church and the world around us cause us to say, ‘The church and the world really need our prayer’.

In the divine service, we pray ‘for the church, the world and all people according to their needs’.

Sometimes we feel guilty because we do not pray as often as we ought.

These examples highlight an understanding of what the Scriptures teach: that, ‘The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective’ (James 5:16).

It is important to remember that the power of prayer is not in prayer itself, or in the act of our praying, but in the

IT IS I M PO RTA NT TO R EM EM B ER TH AT TH E POW ER O F PR AYER IS N OT I N PR AYER ITS ELF . . . B UT I N TH E GO D TO W H O M W E PR AY. 4

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God to whom we pray. God is the power of prayer. Our confidence in prayer lies in the fact that God has shown himself to us as a loving Father who gives good gifts to his children (Luke 11:1–13).

He is a faithful Son whose sacrifice for our sins has given us the right to be called children of God (John 1:12) and therefore to speak to the Father in his name. He is an empowering Spirit who intercedes for us, even when we are too weak to pray (Romans 8:26, 27).

God’s promise to hear and answer prayer rests in him, his nature and his gifts.

When Luther explains the Lord’s Prayer in the Small Catechism, he also reminds us that our confidence in prayer is not in prayer itself, but in the one to whom we pray. Because ‘he is truly our Father and we are truly his children, we may approach him boldly and confidently in prayer’. Because ‘God’s name is holy in itself’, we can confidently pray that it may also ‘be holy for us’.

Because ‘the kingdom of God comes of itself, without our prayer’, we have confidence to pray and believe it will ‘also come to us’. Because ‘the good and gracious will of God is done without our prayer’, we have confidence to pray that ‘it may also be done among us’. Because ‘God provides daily bread, even to the wicked, without our prayer’, we have confidence ‘that

God may make us aware of his gifts and enable us to receive our daily bread with thanks’.

The same is true regarding the forgiveness of sins. I used to ask my confirmation classes about how they could know they were forgiven.

Invariably I would get the answer, ‘Because I ask God to forgive me!’

Our confidence in God’s forgiveness, however, does not lie in the act of our asking, but in something that has already been done for us. We can confidently ‘draw near’ to God and pray, ‘forgive us our sins’, in the ‘full assurance of faith’ that Christ has already paid for our sins, and that ‘our hearts are sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience’ (Hebrews 10:22).

Likewise, we can confidently pray for strength in temptation and deliverance from evil because Christ is already victorious over temptation and every evil. We express that confidence by saying, ‘Amen’, which means ‘Yes, yes, it shall be so!’

As we pray for ourselves, our church, our world and for all people according to their needs, let us remember that ‘the power of prayer’ is the power of God who is ‘able to do immeasurably more than all that we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us’ (Ephesians 3:20).

(LCA Bishop John Henderson is currently on rest and refreshment leave.)

The water is for the flowers What if prayer meant saying less … and listening more. What if prayer meant being quiet and still … and waiting. What if prayer didn’t change things … but changed you.

Prayer. I find it so hard.

My prayer journey over the decades has been fraught with difficulties and failures, but at the same time has opened up for me some fascinating and marvellous experiences.

Ever since I was a kid, I have been encouraged to pray and have been taught the deep value of prayer. I can remember my dad buying me a little notebook when I was in primary school. He sat down with me at the kitchen table to divide the pages into seven sections, one for each day of the week. We then assigned people, groups and world needs to each of the days.

I used this book to guide my prayers each morning or evening, starting with praise, then thanksgiving, then requests. I recorded answers to my prayers at the back of the book. This method instilled in me discipline, but it required so many words from me. Words, words, words! If prayer was so important, why was it so hard?

When I was young we had an unspoken motto in our family: if the church opened its doors, we were there.

This included the Wednesday evening prayer meeting.

I was usually the only kid among a bunch of adults.

The prayers seemed to go on and on for hours – so much talking I had trouble staying awake. More words!

I often wondered if God got mad with me because I got bored. In my more daring moments I wondered if God got bored, too! Why didn’t God sit down with me and have a normal two-way conversation?

Since then, more than four decades have passed. I’m older and bolder. My prayer journey has had many twists and turns.

Stillness and silence

A little while ago I came to live and work in South-East Asia. ‘Allahu Akbar Ash-hadu an-la ilaha illa llag …’

The call to prayer reverberates out from the mosques five times a day. It is a constant reminder that people who have surrendered to God have a life centered on prayer, time with God. Listening to the call (there is nowhere here where you can miss it!) is slowly working towards a change in me. Five times a day I am

MY understanding O F PR AYER IS M O R PH I N G FRO M changing TH I N GS TO CH AN G I N G M E.

reminded that I must continually surrender to God if I am to have any influence here as a follower of Jesus.

How does my prayer journey move forward in this context? What expressions of prayer can I explore and discover? In Australia, bowing your head and closing your eyes are considered the appropriate use of your body in prayer. Here, people kneel and bow by touching their head to the floor. They also extend their hands in an attitude of surrender and then gather God’s blessing in by raising their hands to their face. In my prayer space – a small room with carpet and cushions on the floor – I am practising saying the Lord’s Prayer as I kneel and touch my head to the floor. When finished, I raise my open hands to my face signifying that I accept the blessings of God. My body now joins my heart as I pray.

I am also trying to incorporate more stillness and silence. Although my words and requests are still important, I try to balance them with being motionless and quiet before God. No talking. No agenda. No lists.

Just being in God’s presence.

My breathing is important. Not only are there physical benefits of slowing and deepening my breathing but it also helps centre me in the present moment.

I sometimes whisper a single word over and over, one that flows with my breathing – the first syllable on my breath in, and the second on my breath out. ‘Je-sus’ or ‘Fa-ther’. This is helpful because my mind is like a sparrow flitting from spot to spot, never coming to stillness in my journey of writing, talking, listening, kneeling, breathing and being with God. A prayer word is a constant reminder, a magnet that draws me back to attentiveness to God.

God precedes me

But it is still hard. My mind is an insatiable rebel. Mind videos play over and over, and they are incessant. They sometimes make my quietness and silence seem a joke, a complete waste of time. One of the wonderful things I am learning is that God always precedes me.

I come to South-East Asia and God is already here.

I speak to a person, any person, and God is already at work in their life. So it is with my distractions. Even there, in every involuntary feeling and thought, God is present. I have only to trust that God never leaves me.

Sounds a little hard (it is) and a little strange (yes), so why persevere? Well, there is a hint of something happening. It’s hard to explain but this practice is gently and slowly, so very slowly, changing my day. St Teresa,

[PR AYER] IS F O R

watering TH E

FLOW ERS (O R FR U IT) O F TH E S PI R IT I N YO U R LI FE. W H AT IS B EG I N N I N G TO

change

MY DAY

W I LL , OV ER TI M E, CH A N G E MY LI FE.

a Christian mystic from the 16th century, says it like this: ‘The water is for the flowers’.

The water that God gives from this practice is not for drinking or savouring during the quietness and silence, although this sometimes happens. It is for watering the flowers (or fruit) of the Spirit in your life. What is beginning to change my day will, over time, change my life.

After a lifetime of so many words, I am finding this new way of praying is a real challenge for me. My understanding of prayer is morphing from changing things to changing me. If I am to be Jesus to the people I meet (that’s the mission), I certainly need some changing.

God’s call on my life is to be the presence of the kingdom among those with whom I live. Effective mission is watered by a deep spirituality, and a deep spirituality is watered, nurtured and maintained through time and growth in prayer.

This article was first published under the title ‘God, are you bored yet?’ by Global Interaction for Resonate magazine www.globalinteaction.org.au/Resonate and is reprinted here with the kind permission of the publisher.

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P O P- U P

prayers

BY NICOLE HALL

A Prayer Space in a school is a seasonal safe pop-up area created by a church community.

The space can be set up inside or outside of the school campus.

Children and classes are invited to attend the space over a few days and to participate in a series of simple activities.

With a small start-up group we introduced Prayer Spaces for our Year 1 classes.

TH E [CH I LD R EN] SAI D . . . IT WAS N I CE TO LET GO O F TH E STO N ES .

TH EY LI K ED TH I N K I N G A BO UT GO D B EI N G W ITH TH EM W H EN TH EY W ER E SC A R ED.

Our prayer experiences included walking a labyrinth while thinking about the Scripture text, ‘When I am afraid, I will trust you’. We gave students the opportunity to sit alone in a quiet tent, to be still and listen to God. At another station they listened on iPads to a reflection about forgiveness while they held a stone. They were then invited to release their stone into a bowl of water, as a symbol of being forgiven. At the last station they prayed for people in other countries – for some, their families and friends – by placing a candle on a map.

Each class participated in their one-hour guided session and then we offered them two opportunities. They could come back in their lunch break to experience any of the stations they wanted to try again or spend more time in – or they could bring a parent or carer back at the end of the day to share with them what they had experienced.

We had about 20 students revisit the space in their lunch break. Many wanted to re-experience being still in the tent and listening, or releasing a stone into the water. One young lady had not wanted to release her stone during the earlier activity (which was an option if you weren’t ready) but came back and released it.

After school I stood by the church door just in case a child dragged a parent back – and suddenly I was overwhelmed! About 20 Year 1s bought back an adult carer or a sibling, wanting to share their experience. Each child was charged with teaching their parent how to engage with the space – and our church suddenly was full of small groups taking part in our prayer stations. All the parents were thankful for the opportunity and all thought it was a blessing to be able to share with their children the experience of letting a stone go or lighting a candle and thinking of others.

In their debrief the Year 1s said they liked sitting in the tents and listening. They said it was nice to let go of the stones, and they liked thinking about God being with them when they were scared.

Learn more about Prayer Spaces in Schools www.prayerspacesinschools.com

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Parents of children in other year levels have asked if their children too will get such an opportunity. We will continue to seek ways to engage our young people in their relationship with God through creative prayer experiences.

Nicole Hall is Child, Youth and Household Ministry Coordinator at St Paul Lutheran Church, Blair Athol, SA.

J ESUS IS SAYI N G T H AT T H ER E A R E M O R E PEO PLE W H O A R E O PEN TO H E A R TH E GO O D N E WS T H A N TH ER E A R E PEO PLE W I LLI N G TO S H A R E IT.

TH E HARVEST IS

PLENTI FU L Our towns, suburbs, neighbourhoods and social clubs are golden fields of shimmering wheat. But where are the harvest workers?

When I was growing up on a farm near Horsham in the Wimmera, harvest time was the most important, urgent, busy, vital and also exciting time of the year. It was all hands on deck in our family as we worked to get that good grain from the wheat fields to safe storage.

When the harvests were good, there was a palpable sense of joy and thanksgiving in the midst of the hard work. This was what made farming worthwhile. The long hours, the stress, the anxiety when rain didn’t come or the crops weren’t so good, the gloom of long years of drought … all that was put in perspective when the harvest was good.

Lately I’ve been meditating on Jesus’ words in Luke 10:2 as he sends out the 70 on his mission: ‘The harvest is plentiful’.

It’s such a familiar passage but I want to just pause right there. ‘The harvest is plentiful.’ When Jesus talks about the harvest, he is talking about people who are open to the good news of the kingdom of God. In the first verses of Luke 10, Jesus is saying that there are

B Y N AT H A N H E D T

more people who are open to hear the good news than there are people willing to share it.

I believe that is still true, even in Australia in the 21st century. For so long, it has seemed that the harvest is poor, and we have lived with the anxiety and gloom of years of congregational decline. For so long it seems that we have been in a spiritual drought. Adult baptisms have been rare. We see few converts, people coming to faith as adults in the Lutheran Church.

However, I believe Jesus’ words are true for us now.

The harvest is plentiful. There are many, many people in our cities, in our towns and in our rural areas who are desperately hungry for good news – the good news that only comes through Jesus, the good news of forgiveness and unconditional acceptance, restoration and community that comes as part and parcel of the kingdom of God. There are more people open to hearing the gospel than there are people willing to share it with them.

Jesus goes on in Luke 10:2 to say, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. So pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest fields.’

With our LCA bishop, Pastor John Henderson, we are inviting you to pray (and to fast*) for God to raise up and send out harvest workers into his fields here in Australia. The season is changing. Harvest time is coming, even for the LCA. The Department for New and Renewing Churches is embarking on a plan to plant over 200 new Lutheran churches across Australia and New Zealand in the coming ten years.

Some people would say that’s ambitious. We say it’s impossible, humanly speaking. But with the Holy Spirit The Lutheran O C TO B E R 2 019

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