THE LUTHERAN February 2018

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FEBRUARY 2018

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VOL 52 NO1

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LUTHERAN

CHURCH OF AUSTRALIA

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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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FEBRUARY

Special features EDITOR'S

Letter

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‘Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven’ was a slogan from car bumper stickers some decades back.

The motto was controversial. Some Christians thought it justified or even promoted bad behaviour.

That criticism missed the point. The slogan’s message to those who don’t believe – and a reminder to us Christians – is that we know we constantly mess up; we know we are no better than anyone else but, crucially and fundamentally, we are forgiven.

I remember attending worship led by a retired pastor whose wisdom in this area would have touched many that day.

He suggested we could – and perhaps should – flip the confession and absolution around in our liturgy. That’s because we are already forgiven. We are not forgiven because we confess our sins. In response to God’s mercy, we confess because we are forgiven.

Thank God our identity and worth is found not in what we do or have done, but in who we are. Because of Christ’s sacrifice we are defined not by our sin but by our adoption as God’s own sons and daughters. And because we are forgiven, we are called to forgive others (Matthew 6:12 and 18:21–35).

In daily life though, forgiveness is easier to comprehend than put into practice. In this issue we are blessed to share stories of people for whom forgiveness has been life-changing, as well as understanding that finding the strength to forgive can be an ongoing struggle. We also include a devotion on this topic, which I encourage you to use and recommend to others.

And in this edition, we meet the newest pastors in the Lutheran Church of Australia/New Zealand. As they take up their ministries in 2018 in congregations and districts around our church, these six men will have the privilege of proclaiming God’s gift of forgiveness through preaching, teaching and the sharing of the sacraments.

When we are deeply hurt, it is not in our nature to forgive. At these times we can look to Jesus, who knows more about the cost of forgiveness than any of us do. He wants to spare us from the burden of unforgiveness, with its guilt, grudges and grief, knowing that forgiveness will free us.

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Why is it so hard to forgive?

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Forgiveness has power to heal

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Meet our new shepherds

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Regulars Heartland

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Dwelling in God’s word: Forgiveness

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Going GREYT!

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Go and Grow

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The inside story

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#youngSAVEDfree

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Notices

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Directory

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Your voice

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Coffeebreak

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21 Reel life will return soon.

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So, when we find it difficult to forgive, I pray we will lay that pain and weakness at the foot of the cross in confession.

Because Jesus has forgiven us for our unforgiveness, too.

Lisa Our cover: iStock.com

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

REV JOHN HENDERSON

Bishop Lutheran Church of Australia

IT’S ALL ABOU T JESUS The church introduced me to Jesus when I was quite young. I didn’t live in a particularly Christian society, but on Sundays I was there when believers gathered to be forgiven, listened to the word and joined in prayer. Every week Jesus was waiting for me there.

When I was old enough to go to communion there he was again, ready to greet me.

When I arrived at the seminary, I discovered that my faith, born in small congregations far removed from Lutheran strongholds, had left me ignorant of the nuances, subtleties, and traditions of the Lutheran Church of Australia. So over the years I have had to learn them, often through making mistakes. It has not always been easy for me to see Jesus at the centre of all that stuff, but worship has kept me in the church. There, where Jesus met me in my youth, he continues to meet me today.

My regular participation in divine service as a young baptised person taught me to be patient with adult believers and their wordy, long-winded churchly ways. They were the ones who organised all this so that young people like me could meet Jesus.

‘So I still believe Eventually I passed through Sunday that the church school, youth groups, camps and confirmation, but mostly it was Jesus, is ‘all about waiting for me there on Sundays.

So I still believe that the church is ‘all about Jesus’, simplistic as that might sound to some. He is everything that is worthwhile about us – including all those who worship in the church and serve God with their gifts.

In New Testament times Jesus Jesus’ … He is By the time I was 15 I had been in always invited ordinary people to be EVERYTHING seven Lutheran congregations, as my his disciples. Through them he did family moved on army postings. Each that is worthwhile extraordinary things. was small and most were new. They Today, behind all our accumulated shared a similar worship structure. In about us’. history, tradition and jargon, that hasn’t the early 1970s we all learned new changed. We are still ordinary people, (page 6) LCA liturgy, which most of astonished that Jesus should call us, unworthy as we our congregations now use rarely, if at all. At the are, to follow him. time it was a powerful teaching tool for an isolated teenager who wanted to learn more about the Maybe one day, when all the fuss and bother of this church’s faith in Jesus. life is over, we will see God’s church as it really is.

That was also the time of the ‘Jesus’ movement.

The slogan was ‘One way " Jesus’. We put stickers on our guitars and school cases. We were modern day disciples. I guess now we might call it ‘renewal’.

After I left school I finally decided to get deeper into this Jesus the church had introduced me to and so I went off to become a pastor.

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But for now, as his motley, sainted band, wherever we are we will come together each week and he will meet us and serve us. Then we will go out to serve him as best we can with whatever gifts we have. And as we serve, through all our joys and our mistakes, for as long as it takes, Jesus will go on teaching us what it is to follow him.

As Christians we know we are to forgive those who wrong us, just as God has forgiven us. But, as one woman asks after being betrayed by the man she had loved and trusted for many years, when the hurt is so deep …

Why is it so HA RD to F ORG I V E ?

In Matthew 18:21 Peter asks Jesus how many times he should forgive his brother when he sins against him.

Jesus’s answer, according to many Bible translations, is 70 times seven.

In reality, I have forgiven my ex-husband more than 490 times but I still have a long way to go. I still harbour anger against him for betraying me and breaking up our family.

It is easy to say ‘I forgive’, but it is so much harder to actually mean it.

He denied having an affair to me, my sister and my mother. It was only at a marriage counselling session that he finally admitted that was the reason he wanted out of our relationship. He was only going through the motions of counselling – not to save our marriage but so ‘I would get over him better’.

He moved out and my life spiralled into a black hole of despair. Our pre-teen children were confused and scared by what was going on.

In late November 2009 my husband announced out of the blue that he wanted to end our marriage of 17 years. I had not anticipated this as we had not been fighting and were in the process of building our dream house together.

I couldn’t eat or sleep, cried constantly and contemplated ending my life. But God had other plans.

A phone call to someone who had gone through a similar marriage breakdown made me realise I had a lot to live for – my children needed me. And they were going through their own grief, anger and pain.

It was even more of a shock when I discovered pictures of him and another woman on Facebook, and intercepted a mobile phone bill that contained hundreds of texts and calls to one particular number.

God led me to three women who I now consider my best friends. My KYB (Know Your Bible) group prayed with and for me and shared their stories of forgiveness.

I remember sitting in my bed praying for guidance.

I was flicking through my Bible and suddenly passages leapt off the pages. I wrote the verses down and even today they still resonate, particularly Proverbs 6:32 – ‘A man who commits adultery has no sense; whoever does so destroys himself’. Because my ex-husband was not a Christian, 1 Corinthians 7:13,15 also spoke to me: ‘And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him. 15 But if the unbeliever leaves, let it be so. The brother or the sister is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace.’

There were uplifting texts, too, such as Philippians 4:13 – ‘I can do all this through him who gives me strength’.

These and other verses reminded me that I was not alone, that God was with me, and that ultimately he would deal with my ex-husband in his own way and time. My faith was something I clung to as I sought help to cope with my feelings of despair. Forgiveness was something both my pastor and counsellor talked to me about.

But how do you forgive someone who has broken what I believe is a sacred vow of marriage, who has lied to your face, told you they don’t love you, that they need a change and you now mean nothing to them?

But just as he made a choice to end our relationship, I also had a choice. One choice would be to let unforgiveness continue to make me sick – and it did make me physically and mentally unwell, so much so that I required admission to hospital and took antidepressants for a couple of years. The other option was to begin the long process of learning how to forgive him and to heal.

In the end, for the sake of my children, myself, and all of the other people hurt by the breakup among my family and friends, the choice was obvious. It may be obvious, but it’s never easy.

They say time heals all wounds and that is true to an extent, but I wanted the pain to be taken away quickly.

I had to learn patience and not worry about my anger as I went through the stages of grief. This was part of coming to finally accept that my relationship was over and there was nothing I could do to salvage it.

The scab on the wound will be knocked off a few times, but eventually you will be left with a scar to remind you of what you went through.

Forgiveness is not about condoning the actions of an adulterous husband, it is about acknowledging that we

The Lutheran FEBRUARY 2018

It is about forgiving yourself for your failures, letting go of all the negative feelings – the Greek word for forgiveness in the Bible is translated as ‘to let go’ – and replacing them with positive, hopeful ones.

It is about learning how to trust and love someone again – and this is possible, as I was blessed to be remarried last year. It is about finding peace by talking to God and reading his word. I also found seeking professional help from a psychologist and following Dr Frederic Luskin’s nine-step online guide from http://learningtoforgive.com/ was very beneficial.

For me forgiveness is an ONGOING process I must practise regularly because I consistently have to ‘LET GO’ of my deep-seated anger.

From my own experience, the grief I felt was worse than when a loved one dies, as the person who betrayed you is still physically present in your life – especially when you have children together.

Just the mention of his name made my blood boil.

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all make mistakes and we will all be called into account in front of God.

For me forgiveness is an ongoing process I must practise regularly because I consistently have to ‘let go’ of my deep-seated anger towards my ex-husband and his behaviour.

I can’t change my past. I can only move forward into all God has planned for me. As God forgives me, I also must forgive others. Thankfully, he is there to guide me.

The author’s name has been withheld, however this is a true account by a member of the LCA.

OT H E R B I B L E V E R S E S W H I C H M AY BRING COMFORT AND OFFER WISDOM Psalm 46:1,10 ‘God is our refuge and strength ...’

Proverbs 10:12 ‘… love covers over all wrongs.’

Song of Solomon 8:6,7 ‘Place me like a seal over your heart ...’

Matthew 6:34 ‘Therefore do not worry about tomorrow ...’

1 Corinthians 13:4 ‘Love is patient, love is kind ...’

2 Timothy 3:14 ‘But as for you, continue in what you have learned …’

'Forgiveness doesn't excuse their behaviour.

It prevents their behaviour from destroying your heart.'

HERMANT SMART Y

Dwelling in God’s word: VOTION ON E D A

I V G ENESS R O F Forgiveness in Jesus is an act of God’s love for you

We could say that forgiveness is the core business of the church!

As we begin to look to Easter, we know the reason Jesus took on human flesh at Christmas.

As the angel spoke to Joseph, ‘You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins’ (Matthew 1:21).

God forgives sinners through the church. He enacts his forgiveness through his word, and through the sacraments.

Here we come and have our hearts examined under God’s word, to confess our sin, to receive our Heavenly Father’s spoken word of pardon and the Holy Spirit’s gift of comfort, forgiveness and healing through the blood of his Son.

And we will hear again how Jesus accomplished his reason for coming into the world. Peter records, ‘He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed’ (1 Peter 2:24).

So, living in God’s forgiveness and having the Holy Spirit lead you to forgive others is grounded and nurtured in the divine service. Here God enacts his forgiveness to you so that you are reconciled to him and you can be reconciled to each other.

Forgiven and forgiving Jesus speaks his Father’s word of forgiveness to sinners The Old Testament speaks of the Lord God forgiving sins (Exodus 34:6–7; Psalm 103:1–3, 8–12) yet we see Jesus forgiving sins in the gospels (for example, the healing of the paralytic in Matthew 9:1–8).

MindfulChristianit yToday.c om

Jesus still forgives sinners today! He established his church as a hospital for sinners! He appointed apostles and those ordained into the apostolic ministry to bring forgiveness to repentant sinners; he also gave them his Holy Spirit, so that they could work with him in forgiving sinners (John 20:21–23; 2 Corinthians 5:20–6:1).

Read Matthew 9:1-8 and reflect on Jesus coming to speak his Father’s pardon to sinners Reflect on receiving this healing gift through forgiveness spoken to you in the divine service

We can become angry when we focus on the hurt done to us without seeing that Jesus took it to the cross.

Thankfully, through the word of the cross, we see God’s unfathomable love for us in Jesus paying for our sins. We can also see his unfathomable love for those who have sinned against us.

Being released from anger involves forgiving. Jesus died for our sin and for the sin committed against us.

As 1 John 1:7 says, ‘The blood of Jesus, his [God’s] Son, cleanses us from all sin’. Jesus’ blood brings your forgiveness. Jesus’ blood cleanses you from sin done against you (1 John 1:9) and his life-giving blood restores and heals you, freeing you from anger (Ephesians 4:31).

PRAYER Loving Heavenly Father, thank you for sending your Son to pay for all our sin and for the sin of those who wrong and hurt us. Draw us to yourself so that we know ourselves as we are, confess our sins and receive your forgiveness.

Bless us with the Holy Spirit so that we see others through the death and resurrection of your Son and live our faith as your forgiven, forgiving children. Amen.

When keen cyclist Adam McKay was 31, he was hit by a car. His injuries were horrific. His life and work – and his hopes and dreams for the future – were shattered. He has since shared his remarkable and inspiring story through Lutheran Media’s Messages of Hope. He now knows God was with him through it all and showed him that …

Forgiveness has

POWER to HEAL

by A DA M MCK AY Fifteen years ago I was a horticulturalist by trade and I had my own business – called Adam the First Gardener. I enjoyed my work and I also loved riding my bike, so I would ride to work every day. I used to pull 250 kilos of horticulture tools behind my pushbike!

I was subcontracting on the annexes at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Then on 15 January 2003, I was hit by a car on my way to work.

My life and dreams were shattered. I was in a coma for eight days. I had full memory loss, an internal head injury and a knee injury. I had to rebuild my whole life. I had to learn who I was again. They had to teach me how to use my hands again, how to build up my strength, my balance, everything. It was very frustrating.

I was in a wheelchair and people didn’t think I would walk again. I had always had a hot temper and I was starting to show my anger in hospital. I was angry at

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the driver who hit me. I know now that I was angry at myself, too.

When someone at the hospital mentioned that I was angry, I said I wanted to be left alone, so they wheeled me over to a corner. But I was really ‘agro’ and I punched out a brick from a double-brick wall!

I think that probably scared some people at the hospital – you wouldn’t expect that much strength from someone in a wheelchair.

But when I pounded the wall out, I think that was the first step to forgiveness.

I told the staff I needed Christians around me and they found five other Christians, who came and prayed for me. Someone said to me afterwards that I’d have to forgive the driver. But it’s hard to forgive, because it’s not our human nature – it’s God’s nature to forgive.

I had to take it step-by-step and work on it with God’s help and my family’s help and a lot of counselling. I was still in my wheelchair but as soon as I forgave the driver, things started happening.

These days I’m never allowed back on a pushbike and I can’t have a driver’s licence because of my injuries.

But I’ve restarted my business, so I either get driven, catch the bus, or if it’s local, I walk to work.

And 10 days later I was walking – only around the bed I write poetry, – but I was up physically walking and they released hardest times me from hospital on 11 March, which is my birthday. When you’re sitting in a When you’re sitting wheelchair and they don’t think you’re walking ever again, and suddenly you in a wheelchair ... stand up and you’re walking 10 days and suddenly you later – that’s not my strength, that was God’s. That was God’s miracle.

STAND UP Thanks to God, instead of what should have been 18 months in hospital, I spent two. Then I lived for two months in a halfway house, before going home with the help of family, friends and support workers for the next two years.

God used that opportunity of what I went through and I’ve since talked about it at my church and been interviewed by Lutheran Media and helped a lot of people.

and you’re walking 10 days later – that’s NOT MY STRENGTH, that was God’s.

But I need to be reminded about it because you can forgive someone and then spoil something in your heart. In 2010 I ruptured my hand at work and it had to be reconstructed by a surgeon. Despite what I had been through in 2003, I blamed someone at work for the later accident, and I had to forgive him, too.

And there’s one important thing that a lot of people don’t say and that’s that you’ve got to forgive yourself first. And in both cases I was probably also angry at myself, and I’d been angry at myself for years.

My walk with God had never been easy. My grandfather was a Christian, but was old fashioned and believed things had to be a certain way. My dad, who was my best friend, died in front of me when I was a teenager – and that was just 10 days after I became a Christian through confirmation classes. I also was stirred at school and never felt that I really fitted in there. So I was angry.

which has helped me through the (see below). I write songs as well now, and my new challenge is learning the harmonica. So I’m still going on and still challenging myself.

As well as being involved with my local church, I go to a men’s shed – Shed Happens. Most of the blokes who go there are tradesmen like myself and it’s somewhere you can just talk to people.

It’s really helped me. I’ve also been to (annual national Christian men’s gathering) Better Blokes and I’d really recommend it.

After all I’ve been through, I know that you’ve got to be one and quiet with the Lord and let him fill you with his Spirit.

It’s the Holy Spirit you need to be able to forgive people. You’ve got to give it all to God. I try to wake up each day and say, ‘God, this is your day’.

To watch Adam’s story – The Man I See – on Lutheran Media’s Messages of Hope videos, go to www.youtube.com/messagesofhope Better Blokes 2018 will be held at the LCA NSW District’s Warrambui Retreat & Conference Centre, Murrumbateman NSW, from 8 to 11 June.

See www.betterblokes.com Shed Night/Shed Happens is an interdenominational movement founded by Queensland Lutheran Ian (Watto) Watson. The group ministers to men of all backgrounds in different regions. See www.shednight.com

One of Adam’s poems Let go What’s in the past stays in the past To let go is to grow and be happy where you are Give yourself time to think about things To live with the good and the bad To be able to smile at the man in the mirror And treat someone like you’d like to be treated This is the way I move on The sun will shine and the sun will set There’s a new day tomorrow And a new adventure around the corner Step by step and day by day To move on and to find a new way

Adam McKay hasn’t let the injuries he has suffered stop him from enjoying walks in the bush. Last year he visited the Abercrombie Caves in New South Wales.