THE LUTHERAN April 2016

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

APRIL 2016

PRAYER for

H OPE

VOL 50 NO3

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among the ASHES

Vol 49 No7 P209

MIRACLE brings

LIFE

Everything is NEW 5:17 2 Corinthians

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EDITORIAL

Pastor Mark Simpfendorfer was meant to be watching the children at LifeWay Lutheran Church’s playgroup at Epping, in Sydney’s north-western suburbs, but as his copy of The Lutheran had just arrived, he was easily distracted!

Editor Lisa McIntosh p 08 8267 7300 m 0409 281 703 e lisa.mcintosh@lca.org.au Executive Editor Linda Macqueen p 08 8339 5178 e linda.macqueen@lca.org.au

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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.

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APRIL

Special features EDITOR'S

Letter

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Where there’s life, there’s hope, or so the saying goes.

Which, by extension, means that where there’s no life, there’s no hope.

Now that may be logical, but it’s simply not our reality as Christians.

For us, there is hope, even when there’s no life. That's because we have a God who can create life where there is none, even life out of death.

These are truths we can cling to when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, whether it’s a figurative or a literal one. Whether our grief is for a loved one passed; a relationship ended; a livelihood lost; a homeland or property taken by war, theft, fire or flood; good health stolen by disease or disability; or a dream quashed – we have God's promise that this isn't all there is, that this isn't the end of the story.

He doesn’t say life will be easy but he promises to be with us when trouble comes and sorrow overtakes us. Remember the Footprints in the Sand poem? ‘When you saw only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.’

With him we can find comfort and maybe even experience a glimpse of joy, even in the midst of our grief. Joy for the grieving; hope for the lifeless. It does seem back-to-front.

But when Jesus was on earth he was always turning customs, standards and social mores on their heads. The first will be last; the meek shall inherit the earth; the kingdom of heaven belongs to the little ones; and so on.

His most symbolic upside-down act was to wash his disciples’ feet. Then he did something even more topsyturvy: the one who was without sin paid the price for all sin, past present and future. If Jesus’ story had ended there we wouldn’t have reason to hope. But, thank God, it didn’t and we were reminded of the ultimate expression of new life in Christ’s resurrection just recently at Easter.

For many years I’ve shared a happy Easter Day tradition with friends and family of sending the text message ‘He is risen!’ and eagerly awaiting the reply: ‘He is risen indeed!’

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Hope among the ashes

5

Prayer for new beginnings

7

Miracle brings life

12

Scholarly look at Luther

30

Regulars 12

15

23

Heartland

4

Little church

10

Go and Grow

15

Inside story

23

Directory

28

Letters

29

Notices

31

World in brief

32

Reel life

33

Coffee break

34

33

It is a refrain we know well from Easter Sunday worship. But why do we say it only once year? Jesus is ‘risen indeed’ every day.

In these pages you will meet people who have lost much but have reason to hope for a brighter future as God’s plan for a fresh start becomes clear. I pray that their witness and their courage will remind us to celebrate Christ’s resurrection – and his gift of new life – each day.

Lisa

Our cover: Digital collage from Dreamstime.com and picjumbo.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

THE MIR ACLE OF GOD’S LOVE ‘…this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’

(Luke 15:32 NRSV)

us nevertheless. He had called us to the feast of his one and only Son. God had shown us that we were the ones who had been lost and been found, and, knowing that, we became bold enough to come to God’s table to receive the bread of life. No-one was better than another; we were all sinners in need of the healing touch of our Saviour. This miracle of God’s love takes place in Christian churches around the world, including congregations of the LCA.

At a Sunday service I attended recently the pastor preached on the parable of the waiting father (Luke 15:1,2, 11-32). He challenged us to identify with the characters in the story: the Pharisees who grumbled that Jesus was too friendly with sinners; the younger son who demanded his inheritance and then blew it, returning home feeling sorry for himself; the father The faith God creates who patiently waited for his wastrel in our hearts ... is son to come home, running among the most down the road when he saw him coming; and the older brother who UNREMARKED raged against his father’s apparent and yet most injustice, feeling hard done by. We REMARKABLE found something of ourselves in all of them, particularly the Pharisees GIFTS given to us. and the two sons.

Soon after the sermon we all gathered at the altar of God’s grace. We knew we didn’t deserve our place there. God’s word had revealed our persistent sin, stubborn impropriety and pride.

We had listened as the younger son prematurely demanded his inheritance as a right. We saw that we too demanded more from God than we had a right to and were impatient to get it. We had listened as his older brother worked at keeping up appearances but drastically failed the test of love because he was jealous and bitter. We saw that we also demanded a better deal of God, and the paucity of our love. But thankfully, through God’s word, we also heard of the father, waiting patiently for both his errant sons, and we saw that somehow, inexplicably, God loved

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The faith God creates in our hearts through his word and the sacraments of grace is among the most unremarked and yet most remarkable gifts given to us in the church.

It always fascinates me that Jesus left this story unfinished. We don’t know if the older brother went into the feast, won over by his father’s mercy.

We don’t know if the brothers were ever reconciled. We are left wondering if they broke their father’s heart again with their errant ways. Jesus leaves space for us to imagine what happens next.

Our stories are also unfinished. That leaves room for grace. How will this parable play itself out for you? Will you come home to your father? Will you accept his invitation to the banquet? Will you take the plunge and associate with the sinners who come to God’s altar? The choice is yours.

God has done everything he can, and he waits for you, wherever you are, wherever you have been. He waits to run down the road to greet you as you come home again. That’s the miracle of his love.

HOPE

among the ASHES

In the aftermath of tragedy, God’s plan to bring

regeneration and new life is not always

clear. As much as the world tells us we should ‘move on’, there are some losses we never get over. However, a strong sense of

community

spirit , along with the generosity and prayers of those near

and far afield, is helping those affected by bushfires that ravaged many Australian states this past

hope among the ashes. summer to find

by LISA MCINTOSH

It’s been a tough time for some people who live in the farming regions around the picturesque coastal town of Esperance, in Western Australia’s south-east.

have had to endure the anguish of destroying and disposing of dying and dead livestock. There have been insurance claims to make – and in some cases battle for.

There has been conflicting emotion and frustration for some ‘The way that farmers who did not get people rallied burnt out but still had to a wind-ruined and responded harvest crop, which is not covered to the needs of by insurance.

Last November, four people and thousands of livestock died in the blaze that reportedly razed more than 130,000 hectares of crops. Three of the the community There are decimated people who died was quite were overseas visitors fences and farm buildings working on a farm, overwhelming.’ to clear and rebuild. while the fourth was Personal problems are a local farmer and neighbour to often exacerbated in the face of members of St John’s Lutheran such stress and anguish.

Church, Esperance.

Understandably, people are still Along with the ongoing grief for hurting even as the rebuilding and those who died, some farmers regrowth begins.

Among the relatively small Lutheran community in the region of around 70 members, farmer and St John’s treasurer Trevor Schutz and his wife Marie were hardest hit, losing 870 hectares of crop and 670 sheep.

St John’s pastor Jason Pokela says farmers in the community have been experiencing a wide range of emotions in the wake of the tragedy.

‘Those who were burnt out are dealing with the loss; the ones who almost got burnt out are dealing with the fear of that happening to them in future; the farmers who were right next door who didn’t get burnt out are also feeling guilty that their neighbour was burnt out and they weren’t, especially if they’re sitting on a header harvesting probably the best crop ever’, Pastor Jason says.

New life shoots out after the Pinery bushfire in the Freeling area of South Australia.

‘There are people who have gone through their grief and are in the recovery process, but then there are others who’ve had such significant loss and trauma from it that it will stay with them forever.’

However, Pastor Jason says, it is not all bad news for the people of the greater Esperance area.

‘Even in amongst the grief on the first few Sundays after the fire, there were some beautiful stories that congregation members shared of just being thankful to God for the near misses that they had’, he says. ‘And I’m not talking about near misses as in there was a fire 10 kilometres down that road, I’m talking about “If I hadn’t had a sudden thought to go down this road instead of that one, I’d be dead”.

‘I’ve certainly found a lot of people – and not just church members – who have been very keen to call out to God, so that is quite significant. And when we think about it in the context of what’s going on theologically, in Scripture we hear about suffering and that it’s not the most terrible thing that can happen to us, because if it drives us to the foot of the cross to cry for mercy then that’s a beautiful thing, isn’t it?’

He says the best thing members of the wider church can do for those suffering in the wake of the Esperance fires is to pray for them.

‘Please pray for us to have the wisdom to know how to care for people who are hurting’, he says.

Pastor Jason says they are still working out the best way to serve the local community with a share of the LCA’s Disaster and Welfare Fund, which had raised $335,000 as at press time.

These generous donations of LCA members will be distributed between Western Australia and South Australia, after a bushfire tore through South Australia’s The Lutheran APRIL 2016

Peter Ziersch is pastor at Freeling, which was surrounded by the fire. Two members lost houses, while others lost hay sheds, farm machinery and ‘huge kilometres’ of fencing. He said the tragedy had unified the community, even though the toll of loss had affected people differently: physically, financially and emotionally.

‘We’ve had such great signs of generosity’, Pastor Peter said. ‘It’s just been an inspiration for the people who did lose a lot. It’s meant so much to them.

‘We’ve had such great signs of GENEROSITY. It’s just been an INSPIRATION for the people who did lose a lot.’

‘The way that people rallied and responded to the needs of the community was quite overwhelming.

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lower Mid-North and western Barossa Valley areas the same month as the Esperance fire. Known as the Pinery fire, that blaze killed two people and many thousands of livestock; destroyed 91 homes and 300 farm buildings; and burnt more than 85,000 hectares of land in or near towns including Roseworthy, Greenock, Freeling, Stockport, Tarlee, Owen, Mallala, Wasleys and Hamley Bridge.

‘Some South Australian congregations have passed on offerings from a Sunday service and that money has been able to go to a couple who lost the house they were handing over to their children. The insurance had been forgotten and they weren’t covered.’

Pastor Les Pfeiffer of the Kapunda parish ministers to the Lutheran congregation at Bethel, which felt the full fury of the wildfire. Bethel is halfway between Kapunda and Hamley Bridge, one of the major locations hardest hit by the blaze.

Bethel members lost farming machinery, a shed and a significant amount of fencing, while 40 hectares of land known as ‘God’s Acres’, which is usually crop farmed and the proceeds given away, was razed. Pastor Les said at least 90 per cent of the $10,000-12,000 of annual income from the land generally would go to areas other than local congregations, including high school chaplaincy and Aboriginal ministry.

He said it was wonderful that people from the Kapunda congregation, who didn’t suffer losses, volunteered to help those who did.

Freeling parish member Neville Kernich rolls out replacement fencing wire as the rebuild after the Pinery bushfire continues.

PRAYER for

by LESTER REINBOTT

Imagine being threatened with death for being a Christian in this day and age. What would you do?

A young Iranian family facing that terrifying reality risked everything for the hope of a fresh start and a new life in Australia. This is their story.

It was a TERRIFYING JOURNEY for people who had never even seen the sea or been on a BOAT.

Why would a young family suddenly leave their home and parents and friends, their work and country, and risk their lives on a dangerous sea voyage from Indonesia to Australia?

Yet that is exactly what Amin and his wife Khatereh and their five-yearold daughter Ailin became desperate enough to do in 2013.

They fled Iran in fear of the government.

To stay would have meant torture and imprisonment for Amin, or even cost him his life.

Amin, Khatereh and Ailin* currently live in Brisbane, having moved there recently on an Australian Immigration Department community detention order.

They have connected with the St John’s Lutheran congregation at Corinda in the inner-western suburbs, where they have been warmly welcomed and are enjoying the friendship and support of the congregation. They attend worship every Sunday and Khatereh was

baptised on 5 February. Last month they prepared a special Iranian morning tea for the church members as a way of saying ‘thank you’ to them for their help and support.

Amin worked for 14 years for a government-run cement company in Mosjed Soleiman in Khuzestan, in southwestern Iran. In his role as a representative to management for the workers, he criticised the government for their poor treatment of workers in the factory.

He was arrested for doing so and tortured and interrogated for two weeks, before being taken to court and charged with apostasy (converting from Islam to another religion) and insulting the 'Supreme Ruler' of Iran. The penalty for apostasy in Iran is either death or lengthy imprisonment. Amin had become Christian through the influence of some friends, and the authorities had become aware of this.

The Lutheran APRIL 2016

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A lawyer friend at the court helped Amin and the charge of apostasy was dropped, but he was convicted of the second charge and sentenced to 40 lashes and two years in jail. The lawyer appealed the sentence and Amin was let out on bail and was able to go back to work at the factory. However, under pressure to do so from the other workers, he again spoke out against conditions at the factory.

Intelligence officers then raided his house and seized Christian literature.

When Amin again contacted his lawyer he found out that the judge was asking for him to be re-arrested and charged with apostasy as well as breaking his bail conditions. The lawyer told Amin he had no choice but to go into hiding.

As a result of these conditions, both Ailin and Khatereh have been very traumatised. Khatereh still has trouble sleeping at night because of the experiences she has had and her fears about the future.

Amin, Khatereh and Ailin live in HOPE of being able to build a NEW LIFE for themselves here in Australia.

So Amin, Khatereh and Ailin fled Iran. They flew to Indonesia hoping to get to Britain but, finding that door closed, their only other option was to go by 'people smuggler' boat to Australia. It was a terrifying journey for people who had never even seen the sea or been on a boat before they left Iran.

They arrived at Christmas Island on 25 July 2013. Since then they have been in detention, spending six months on Christmas Island, 10 months on Nauru and 12 months in Darwin.

Amin, Khatereh and Ailin live in hope of being able to build a new life for themselves here in Australia. They are grateful to the Australian government for the help they are currently being given for their medical conditions and they are enjoying the relative freedom that community detention in Brisbane is allowing them.

Amin and Khatereh give thanks to God for the freedom they have to practise their Christianity here in Australia, something they could never have done as Christians in Iran. Ailin is also enjoying going to Sunday school, which she would never have had the chance to experience back in Iran.

Amin says there are many obstacles to being a Christian in Iran.

‘If you try to google something Christian on the internet in Iran, you immediately get a black screen, because the government, they censor everything’, he says. ‘It can take you two years to even find a Bible and if the authorities find out you have one, then you are in big trouble.

‘Being a Christian in Iran you have to be very careful. You can’t go to church like you do in Australia. I know of two churches in my city, but they were all broken, the doors and windows smashed. I heard that if you tried to go

Mohammed LWF VOLUNTEER WORKER: YOUTH EDUCATOR AND SUPERVISOR FOR LIFE SKILLS COURSE My name’s Mohammed. I’m 28 years old. I was studying English literature at Damascus University before the war.

After graduating, I would normally need to do army service, but I don’t believe in war, so the regime put me on their wanted list. Security forces came to my house. They arrested three of my brothers and destroyed furniture.

They sent a message to me through my brothers saying, “If we catch you we will kill you and cut you up into many pieces”. I decided to leave Syria. The Free Syrian Army helped me. It was a very risky trip. Shelling and gunshots were happening every day.

During my first month (at Zaatari) I was shocked and depressed because I had left my family, friends and house.

Lutheria visited me to provide support. They explained what their mission, objectives and plans were, and invited me to volunteer. I accepted because I believed in these objectives and needed to break out of my depression.

The quality of Lutheria’s work – not just to provide services but a high quality of services – and the respectful way they treat refugees, with respect and dignity, attracted me.

My dream is to return to Syria one day, to return to my study, and to rebuild my country again.

Mohammed

‘My DREAM is to return to Syria one day, to return to my study, and to REBUILD my country again.’

BARBER Hello, my name’s Mohammed. When the crisis in Syria became worse, I moved many times within Syria, but the crisis made all areas unsafe. So I brought my family to Zaatari. I made it to the camp safely, thank God. I heard from my friends that Lutheria did courses, and thought that a barbering course might help me generate a small income for my family. I’ve been a barber now for six months. When I first came, I became very depressed because I couldn’t help my family. I used to feel like my hands were cuffed. Now I can use my time in a good way. I don’t make much.

A haircut costs one Jordan dinar ($2), and I have about three to four customers a day.

Lutheria gave me my hairdressing tools as a gift when I finished.

This is my dream – to be comfortable about my children’s future, and to return one day. One of my children is only two months old. She was born in the camp and knows nothing else.

ALWS-supported work for Syrian refugees in Jordan • ALWS works through LWF Jordan • The work has a target to reach 17,080 people • This includes 1116 children aged under five • Areas covered are Mafraq, Irbid, Zarqa, Zaatari Refugee Camp

Help includes: • Six months cash assistance, budget training and fiscal responsibility training • 145 people offered ‘Cash for Work’ – hired as volunteers at market rate • 600 people targeted for hygiene training • Rehabilitation of 100 houses • Rehabilitation of five schools and training of teachers to give appropriate care to students with disabilities, as well as medical screening • Psychosocial groups to help people recover from trauma