The Lutheran September 2020

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

VOL 54 N08

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SEPTEMBER 2020

ully and We are fearf made. wonderfully

LIFE

is sacred

9 :1 4 P S A LM 1 3

LUTHERAN

CHURCH OF AUSTRALIA

Good news warriors

EDITORIAL

Editor Lisa McIntosh

Pastor Richard Schwedes (left) from Sydney Lutheran Parish introduced Pastor Myadagmaa Sainaa, from Good News Lutheran Church in Ulaanbaatar, to some reading from home while on a preCOVID trip to Mongolia. Seen here at the Chinggis Khaan Statue Complex, Pastor Richard was in the Central Asian nation to visit parishioners who had gone home to Mongolia for holidays. Pastor Sainna’s son is also studying in Sydney. Pastor Richard, who has been hosting a Mongolian Bible study, also met Pastor Sainna’s congregations during the visit.

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 Design & Layout Elysia McEwen

People like YOU bring love to life Tori Weiss Victor Harbor Lutheran Church SA Head of Junior School Encounter Lutheran College Victor Harbor Most treasured Bible text: Psalm 121 ‘I lift up my eyes to the mountains – where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord.’

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St John’s Hope Vale Qld

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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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Chairperson of St John’s Hope Vale ‘My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?’

Elizabeth Huckel St John’s Unley SA Retired teacher Most treasured Bible text: 2 Corinthians 12:9 ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’

Let the light of someone you know shine through their photo being featured in The Lutheran and LCA Facebook. With their permission, send us a good quality photo, their name and details (congregation, occupation, what they enjoy doing, most treasured text in these difficult times) and your contact details.

September Special features EDITOR'S

let ter

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Life is sacred. What does that mean for us as Christians?

As we read Psalm 139, do we rejoice with David about who made us and how he made us? ‘For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made’ (vv 13,14).

Does our treatment of others reflect the words in Genesis 1 which affirm that we are all made in the image of God? This theme is not so much about life-and-death matters such as abortion, euthanasia and capital punishment – though they are important issues in the conversation about the sanctity of life.

Rather, this subject challenges us to see every single person as God sees them and to love them as Jesus does.

I’m well aware that the following two statements are precarious.

With each, I risk having some of you shelve this magazine. But, please, allow me to explain.

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All lives matter.

But, if we in the church, and in society more broadly, acted in accordance with the second statement, the first one wouldn’t be necessary. If there was a level playing field in terms of education, employment, justice and health outcomes between black and white, #BLM wouldn’t be emblazoned on t-shirts and banners, nor dominate social media discourse.

Likewise, would people so brazenly ignore COVID-19 lockdowns and border closures if they didn’t pass the pandemic off as ‘only killing old people’ (which, of course, isn’t true)? And would we need a Royal Commission into aged care, if as a society we put the same value on a 90-year-old life as on a 29-year-old one?

Yes, elderly lives matter, too.

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Choose the road to life

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Pray for Victoria

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Church@Home

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Care and connection

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Regulars

Black lives matter.

We know that, to God, all lives matter. And we believe that, too.

‘My life-changing gift’

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Heartland

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Dwelling in God’s word

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The inside story

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Going GREYT!

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Directory

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Your voice

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Sudoku

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Prayer calendar

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The same goes for refugees, the unborn, prisoners, the unemployed, people living with a disability, and so on.

Yes, all lives are sacred. And in this edition we are blessed to share stories about two sacred lives, both named Jordan. The experiences of their parents are vastly different, but both bear witness to life being a precious gift from God – and that his presence and his people are crucial as we journey with tragedy and heartbreak. I’m sure you’ll find them inspirational and I pray that their testimonies will bless you.

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In addition to our themed Bible study, we’ve again included Church@Home faith-life materials, as requested by many of you in our subscriber survey. As responses to the survey are still coming in as I write, we’ll delay bringing you the results until our next issue.

Lisa

PS Our new digital edition is on its way. Go to www.thelutheran.com.au

Our cover: iStock.com The Lutheran S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 0

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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 JOHN HENDERSON

Bishop Lutheran Church of Australia

HUMILIT Y OUR FIRST LESSON OF CHRISTIAN LIVING ‘God loves you and has chosen you as his own special people. So be gentle, kind, humble, meek, and patient’ (Colossians 3:12 – GNB).

The Macquarie Dictionary defines humility as having a ‘modest sense of one's own significance’.

Twentieth-century Christian thinker and author C S Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity:: ‘As long as you are proud Christianity you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down you cannot see something that is above you’ (Book (Book III Christian Behaviour 8. The Great Sin).

Sin).

Christians know the importance of humility. We learn it well from the teachings and life of our master.

I F TH E TRUTH OF TH E GOSPEL I N W H ICH WE BELI EVE TEACH ES US ANY TH I NG , IT IS SU RELY TH E LI BERATI NG GI FT OF TRU E H U M I LIT Y. TH IS IS OU R FI RST LESSO N I N CH RISTIAN LIVI NG .

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Jesus says, ‘Servants are not greater than their master’ (John 13:16). He commands, ‘Take my yoke and put it on you, and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit and you will find rest’ (Matthew 11:29). In Lent we sing of him: ‘Christ humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross’ (Philippians 2:8).

Such humility is a hallmark of saving faith. It cannot be contrived. It is the opposite of the inverted pride of an inferiority complex.

It is not perverted self-interest, which Charles Dickens depicted so well in his novel David Copperfield through the sycophantic toadying of Uriah Heep.

You can’t inveigle your way into the kingdom through pretence or artifice. Those who try to manipulate Christianity for personal gain or aggrandisement will reach a dead-end soon enough.

Genuine humility is truly liberating. The humble know who they truly are and who God truly is. It frees us from the need to pretend.

We have no points to score against others, as though we could look down on them. We can now afford to be graceful, generous people, considering others as better than ourselves (Philippians 2:3). If the truth of the gospel in which we believe teaches us anything, it is surely the liberating gift of

true humility. This is our first lesson in Christian living.

For, as C S Lewis reminds us, faith causes us to look up, not down. And when we look up, we see our Saviour in glory, and all of God’s saints called to be with him, raised to life from the most unexpected places. Somewhat surprisingly, we see ourselves among them. Thanks be to God! For the king of heaven is also the Saviour who placed himself beneath us, as our humble servant. And as he rises from the grave, so we are raised with him in his resurrection and ascension. This happens only because he embraces us, undeserved, with his love.

Yet even so, we struggle to be genuinely humble.

Just like the world, we too easily interpret humility as weakness and fall into the trap of favouring the proud and successful.

We can be deceived into thinking that pursuing personal gain is the way to go. So, it’s all the more important that we return to Jesus our master every day and every week, to flush out all that pride, take up his easy but humble yoke, and follow the way of the cross.

As truly God and truly human, Jesus Christ put the needs of others ahead of his own. That’s why he is your Saviour.

Thanks be to God!

Jordan Dymke, who was born with half of his brain missing, is an artist with two Melbourne studios that employ and work with people living with disabilities.

Here he works as a Trainee Arts Support Worker at Arts Project Australia.

M Y life-changing G I F T At 32 weeks into the pregnancy, Karen Dymke discovered via an ultrasound exam that her third child was to be born with half a brain.

‘If I ever go to hell it will be to an ultrasound room’, she says. ‘I was called back at 32 weeks’ gestation to have a routine ultrasound check regarding my third child’s kidneys, which had been identified as slightly dilated. It was not a big deal, they said. I almost didn’t bother to go. However, as we were excited to see how things were going for our little boy, both my husband and our baby’s godmother attended. We already had two girls, so a little boy was going to be fantastic.’

After the initial check-up, they were told all was well. They then learnt there was a new ultrasound machine which would enable them to see the baby in more detail if they wished. They agreed but, as the new details of the baby emerged, the mood in the room changed.

‘The technician who had been very chatty became quieter and quieter’, Karen says. ‘She left the room. She came back with another person who took over. She left the room. We all looked at each other. The head doctor came in and took over.

‘He said, “I’m very sorry. There is something wrong with the baby’s brain”.’

Karen says a great debate ensued as to what to do. Her specialist wanted to operate urgently as the outlook was

‘dire’. But the radiographer assured them that often things can look bad on ultrasound but can rectify themselves.

She was able to go to a full-term pregnancy. On 6 December 1990 Jordan was born.

‘He looked perfect. You would have had no idea that anything was wrong’, she says. ‘There was no pressure in his brain, yet half of it was missing. They had no idea why or what to do and the prognosis was really negative.

Would he talk? Would he walk? His function would be really limited.

‘So, after a great deal of discussion, they decided to put in a shunt, so he had brain surgery at five days old – and that didn't work. It popped out. A second brain surgery was ordered immediately. I was just waiting to exhale.’

Karen spent more than a month with Jordan in hospital.

After the second shunt was inserted, there was a long and seemingly constant stream of appointments, tests and surgeries.

No-one seemed to know why this had happened.

Looking back, almost 30 years on, she says the first year of his life is a blur. Her marriage broke down and she relied on the help of her parents and in-laws as she cared for Jordan and her two young girls.

Being 33 at the time, Karen calls it her ‘year of crucifixion’ – when everything seemingly went wrong in a previously script-perfect life. Her life was tipped upside down and The Lutheran S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 0

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inside out and these struggles challenged her view of God. ‘I was very angry with God. I screamed at him in the car coming back from the hospital’, she says. ‘I just couldn’t pray because we prayed for Jordan so many times for successful operations and it didn’t happen. I worked out that God wasn’t a big sugar daddy in the sky. So I got my prayer warriors – my friends – around me and I said, “You have to pray because I can’t”.’

Her Lutheran church families in suburban Melbourne – firstly at Croydon and later at Box Hill – rallied around with support, love, prayer, house cleaning and whatever else was needed for the single mum and her family.

‘I have no idea how I would have survived my life if it wasn’t for my church family and also for our immediate family’, Karen, who remarried and had a fourth child, says. ‘Church family adds an amazing additional layer of community and support and care and concern.

‘I was at Open Door in Croydon at the time and Jordan was prayed for every week. I felt held up when I couldn’t stand. What do they say? It takes a village to raise a child – but even more so when you’ve got all of those extra strains. When I moved to St Paul’s Box Hill, I remember

two beautiful women embracing me and saying, “We will love you”. That meant so much.’

But, ultimately, she says Jordan’s birth was a ‘watershed moment’ for her.

‘It just changes your whole perspective of the world,’ she says. ‘I’ve got a little picture of Jordan from when he was born. The world changed from that moment.

‘The first seven years were just continual challenges.

Seizures, operations, ambulances. I had to take one day at a time. You just couldn’t think ahead. It was like a tsunami.’

Jordan didn’t learn to walk until he was about three years old and didn’t talk clearly until he was eight. He still struggles with language due to having had a stroke at two. Already known to have cerebral palsy, Karen thought his struggle with reading was due to dyslexia but, when he started high school, he was diagnosed with a mild intellectual disability. This was a terrible shock as he had always seemed so bright and aware.

‘ IT ' S A BO UT TH AT B R E A KTH RO U G H O F

loving

SO M EO N E TOTA LLY A N D U N CO N D ITI O N A LLY. TH AT H AS B EEN O N E O F TH E G R E ATEST gifts I H AV E R ECEIV ED.’

Now 29, he is above average in abstract reasoning, has a wicked sense of humour, lives independently and works full-time as an artist producing work across a range of media for two studios. He also plays basketball in a Special Olympics team, has been a cross-country running champion and goes to the gym regularly. As Jordan will tell you, he is ‘as handsome as he was when he was born’!

While the subjects of his artwork are diverse, one features more than most – reindeer. ‘I love reindeers, I'm quite famous for my reindeers’, he says. ‘There are endless possibilities that I can do with a blank canvas.

I can do abstract, realism – well, I can't do everything but I can give it a shot.’

Despite the challenges Jordan and his family have faced, Karen says he has been her ‘gift’.

‘But if I had found out at 32 weeks that an option was to maybe abort that baby, I would not have the gift that I've got today’, she says. ‘It hasn’t always been easy.

There have been surgeries, missed milestones, lots of appointments, personal challenges.

‘But I wouldn’t give him up for the world. I would not be the person I am today if it wasn’t for Jordan. He has taught me patience, humility and to have a sense of humour – we

Karen Dymke, centre – with her children, from left Chelsea, Jordan, Nicholas and Erin – says Jordan has taught her so much about unconditional love.

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1 A selection of Jordan Dymke’s art through QArt Studio & Gallery and Arts Project Australia. He says he loves reindeer and is ‘famous for my reindeers’.

survived by having a sense of humour. And to never, ever judge anyone as less than you.

‘I don’t believe that God gives you suffering, but I think that from suffering we can learn lessons and it wakes us up.

It’s ultimately a gift, but it’s not always easy to see it like that. It’s only when you look at it retrospectively.

1) Equus (QArt), 2) An example of his sculpture (Arts Project Australia), 3) Self Portrait (QArt), 4) Forest Deer (QArt), 5) Somewhere Over the Rainbow (QArt), 6) Fragmented Fox (QArt)

‘It’s about love and bringing hope to people – and it’s about faith. I think one thing that I’ve been gifted with is faith. Once upon a time I used to think I knew what the truth was and now I’ve got no idea. But I just have faith that God is holding it. That’s faith – it’s like looking through a mirror dimly and that’s what the whole future with Jordan was, learning to take one day at a time, just to trust that – whatever happens – God is walking with you.

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‘God has held us up through family, our church family and dear, faithful friends walking beside us. They are the hands and feet of Jesus.’

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Karen’s experiences as a mum have also led her to become a supporter of the work of Lutherans for Life, with one of her daughters becoming involved with the church auxiliary because of Jordan.

‘Abortion is so readily available. Furthermore, it is a challenging time if you learn your baby will have a disability and you wonder if you’ll cope’, Karen says.

‘But it’s also not clear enough that people can be well supported and loved through this.

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‘I think that’s what Lutherans for Life is saying, “We will love you through this time and we’ll be there with you”. And I believe that’s what their message is, not one of judgement, but one of love – love for the mother, love for the family and love for the unborn child.’

Jordan also acknowledges that having a child with a disability can be daunting. ‘They might not feel like they’re going to cope, but they would figure out a way’, he says.

‘I know I have a right to live.’

‘Having the gift of a child who's born with a disability is about stripping away all of those expectations we have of perfection’, Karen adds. ‘Instead we receive a gift who teaches inclusion and love.

‘It's about that breakthrough of loving someone totally and unconditionally. That has been one of the greatest gifts I have received from Jordan – really learning how to love and just accepting someone for who they are and where they're at and living in the moment.

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‘Please, please respect each life. Each life is precious.

Each unique. Each a gift. Each teaches us how to love.

Jordan and I stand testament to that.’

Karen and Jordan Dymke are members at St Paul’s Lutheran Church Box Hill, Victoria.

6 Watch a video about Karen and Jordan at www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQmjCtE4YGI See Jordan’s art at https://qart.endeavour.com.au and https://www.artsproject.org.au

LING IN L E W D WORD S ' D O G

C A R S E S D I E F I L My five-year-old loves to draw. Some days he happily draws from dawn until dusk. We can’t possibly keep all of his drawings, so I have created a system. The best artworks go on the fridge, get mailed to grandparents, or placed in a folder. The rest go in the recycling bin. I try to do this discreetly, but occasionally I’m sprung: ‘Who put this in the recycling?! You had NO RIGHT to throw that away! I MADE it!’.

Have you ever contemplated the fact that you are a work of art? You were not ‘self-made’ but were created by God. Read Psalm 139:13–16 and Psalm 100:3.

What stands out to you?

Every artwork reveals something about the artist. It might reveal the artist’s interests, capabilities and concerns. The account of creation in Genesis tells us that God made humankind ‘in his image’.

Read Genesis 1:26–31 and consider: what might it mean to be made in God’s image?

The Holy Scriptures also tell us that when we were created, God breathed life into us.

Read Genesis 2:7 and Job 33:4.

When did God breathe life into you?

The Scriptures tell us that our lives are no accident. We were not an afterthought. God created us on purpose, for a purpose. He knew what he was doing. This is true of everyone, irrespective of whether or not they were a ‘surprise’, or feel their life has no great meaning.

Read Jeremiah 1:5 and Ephesians 1:4.

What hope do these Scriptures give you today?

We live in uncertain times. For some people, the thought of getting pregnant and bringing a baby into the world

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by Chelsea Pietsch can be scary. What if I can't cope? What if something terrible happens?

Read Psalm 127:3. How can this passage transform our fears into courage, even confidence?

Just as my son guards his drawings, so too God guards his creation. My son guards his drawings with his temper.

God guards our lives with his law.

Read Exodus 20:13 and Matthew 19:18.

It is not our right to take human life. Not our own. Not others. When we were conceived, God breathed life into us and one day he will take our breath away. The timing is his, not ours.

Read 1 Samuel 2:6; Ecclesiastes 8:8 and Job 1:21.

What are some ways we might be tempted to take matters of life and death into our own hands? What might encourage you to surrender your life and death into God’s hands?

All human life belongs to God and is valued by him. In this sense, we can say that all human life is sacred. Yet for those who have been baptised, the sacredness of life takes on an even more profound meaning.

Why is this? The following passages offer insights: John 3:5; Acts 2:38; Colossians 1:13–14 and 1 Corinthians 6:11.

For those who are in Christ, our lives are sacred twice: sacred because God breathed life into us when he created us, and sacred because he breathed his Holy Spirit into us in baptism. Neither are acts we can take responsibility for. They are pure grace.

Read Titus 3:5–6 and 1 Peter 2: 9–10.

Take some time to close your eyes and notice the breath of life God has put in you.

Chelsea Pietsch is secretary of Lutherans for Life, which is accountable to the LCA through the church’s Commission on Social and Bioethical Questions: www.lutheransforlife.lca.org.au

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