M A G A Z I N E O F T H E LUT H E R A N C H URC H O F A US T R A LI A & N E W Z E AL A N D
VOL 56 No 2
Print Post Approved PP100003514
MARCH 2022
ther as Love each o d sisters brothers an ROMANS
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We’re all
GOD'S CHILDREN
LUTHERAN
CHURCH OF AUSTRALIA
EDITORIAL
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
CONNECT WITH US We Love The Lutheran! lutheranaunz lutheranchurchaus
Something for people of every age Her dad tells us that 10-year-old Zoe is a fan of The Lutheran, Lutheran, and enthusiastically reads each new edition of the magazine. Zoe is a member at St Pauls Lutheran Church Shepparton in Victoria and her dad, Pastor Matthias Prenzler, took the photo.
SUBSCRIBE www.thelutheran.com.au 08 8360 7270 lutheran.subs@lca.org.au LCA Subscriptions PO Box 731 North Adelaide SA 5006 11 issues per year (Feb–Dec) Print or print & digital Australia $45 | New Zealand $47 Asia/Pacific $56 | Rest of the world $65 Digital only $30
Send us a photograph featuring a recent copy of The Lutheran and it may appear on page 2 of a future issue and on our website at www.thelutheran.com.au
People like YOU bring love to life Kutik Lawton St Paul Lutheran Church Blair Athol SA
DESIGN & PRINT
Housekeeper/guest services
Design & Layout Elysia McEwen Printer Openbook Howden The Lutheran is produced on the traditional lands of the Kaurna and Dharug peoples.
‘Ask and it will be given to you … For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.’
ADVERTISING/MANUSCRIPTS Should be directed to the editor. Manuscripts are published at the discretion of the editor. Those that are published may be edited. Copy deadline: 1st of preceding month Rates: general notices and small advertisements, $20.00 per cm; for display, contract and inserted advertisements, contact the editor.
Greg Klose Bethlehem Lutheran Church Adelaide SA IT technician Most treasured Bible text: Mathew 6:34 ‘Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.’
Kate Burke
LUTHERAN
St Pauls Lutheran Church Box Hill Vic
OF AUSTRALIA
Executive Assistant and Project Officer, LCA Victoria & Tasmania District Office
CHURCH The Lutheran informs the members of the LCANZ 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 and New Zealand.
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Most treasured Bible text: Matthew 7:7,8
The Lutheran M A R C H 2 0 2 2
Most treasured Bible text: Romans 8:38,39 ‘And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love.’ 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 and most treasured text in these difficult times) and your contact details.
March Special features EDITOR'S
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We’re all God’s children. It seems an obvious statement, doesn’t it? But do we always act and think that way? Do we treat all of our sisters and brothers in Christ like family in the very best sense of the word? You might be a new arrival who has been abused in the street or followed around by security guards in a shop for no reason. You might be a descendant of a German person who was treated with suspicion and disdain during World War II, or of an Indigenous person removed from their parents as a child because of a government policy. Whatever your story, racism is painful. It is often accompanied by generational trauma and long-term hurt. Confronting racism head-on is not a matter of political correctness or showing a so-called bleeding-heart bias. It’s about God’s call to us throughout Scripture. It’s actually that we’re failing to enjoy the full richness of his creation and, more importantly, that there’ll be people of ‘all tribes and tongues’ missing from our heavenly soiree if we don’t love and welcome the whole world. We’d all like to think that we don’t discriminate against people. But racism poisons the thoughts, attitudes and outlook, words and deeds of people of faith and people of no faith alike. When we stop and really ponder how we react to people, we may find that we’re not without blame. I know I’m not. I’ve let unreasonable fear (and ignorance) dictate my feelings when walking past groups of different people at night. I’ve laughed at so-called sporting comedy that mocked people’s names and accents.
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Even when unconscious or inadvertent, such behaviour is always harmful to the person who bears the brunt and, ultimately, wears the scars. Our aim in delving into this topic, though, is not to suggest that we should spend the rest of our lives beating ourselves up over our ingrained prejudice. We’re already forgiven for our insensitive acts and attitudes. What we hope to do is to learn how we can be better at being inclusive and open-hearted when it comes to people of diverse races and cultures. And, in the following pages, we hope you’ll find information, ideas and personal stories that are both challenging and encouraging. The LCANZ is endeavouring to bring love to life in this space, both with new arrivals and with those whose connections to these lands date back thousands of years. While imperfect, our efforts in reconciliation with First Nations peoples and cross-cultural and multiethnic ministries continue. And you can learn more about them through our Reconciliation Action Plan website at www.rap.lca.org.au and on the Cross-Cultural Ministry page on the LCA website (www.lca.org.au/departments/cross-cultural-ministry (www.lca.org.au/departments/cross-cultural-ministry)) May God bless your reading,
Lisa
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I’m not racist, but …
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Bringing racism into the light
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What it’s like to bear the scars … and how can we do better?
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PNG Synod an ‘overwhelming experience’
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Sharing love is no small bickies
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Old traditions, new music: Singing the best of both worlds
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Regulars Because we bear your name: Bishop Paul’s letter
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Dwelling in God’s word
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Go and Grow
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Church@Home
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Going GREYT!
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The inside story
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Directory
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Sudoku
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Your voice
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Prayer calendar
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Our cover: Young friends Zahlia and Lilah play together during NAIDOC Week (National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee) celebrations. Photo: Andrea Winter Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that the following pages may contain images of people who have died.
Because we bear your name When I became the pastor at Immanuel Lutheran Church, North Adelaide, some of the parish folk told me the story of the recent time when the church building had been broken into. The thieves took the historic ‘mission field’ crucifix from the altar. Thankfully, after a statewide appeal, it was returned. The story told to me was one of the confident witness of God’s people: ‘They can never take the cross out of the church.’ The members would explain to me that even though the crucifix from the altar had been stolen, the sign of the cross was still everywhere: on the paraments, on the font, on the doors, on the pastor, on the charity box at the door, even on the front of each of the hymnals. We cherish this sign that the Lord has placed over human history as his seal of promise that we have a God who is gracious and merciful. A God who will suffer and die for the forgiveness of sin.
BISHOP PAUL’S LE T TER RE V PAUL SMITH Bishop, Lutheran Church of Australia and New Zealand
done this out of love for me. He died while we were yet sinners, out of his love for the world’. As I write to you, Lent 2022 is near. In this third year of COVID-19, we are deeply aware of human frailty. We are reminded daily that we are dust and to dust we shall return. We have images on television and our personal devices, showing that human greed and power reign throughout the world as we see places where people are too poor to have access to hospital care and life-saving ventilators. Lent is the season to be ready for the message of the cross, on Good Friday. Historically, Lent was the season of preparation for people who were ‘catechumens’ – that is women and men preparing for baptism. These folk fasted for 40 days, as Jesus did in the wilderness, to be ready for their TH IS SIG N baptism over the Easter weekend.
WE CH ERISH THAT TH E LORD HAS PL ACED OVER H U MAN H ISTORY AS H IS SEAL OF PRO M ISE THAT WE HAVE A GOD W H O IS G RACIOUS AN D M ERCI FU L.
For Martin Luther, the sign of the cross was central to his passion in seeking to reform the church. In one of his early writings, Luther invites us to become ‘theologians’ of the cross. This is when we take stock of everything around us through the lens of Jesus’ death on the cross and through suffering. Martin Luther suggests that when we do this, we will be honest about the world and about ourselves. We will see more clearly sin at work in the world and in our own selves.
When I entered the Lutheran Church through St Peter’s Lutheran College in Brisbane, I was helped to reflect on this way of the cross through the architecture in the chapel building. The St Peter’s college chapel has a large cross at the front in the sanctuary, starkly positioned in front of a plain white wall. This is God’s marker over all time. But then in the private prayer chapel on the side of the main space, is an almost lifesize carving of the Lord’s body in pain on the cross. This is the space where I kneel alone before this image of my Lord and confess, ‘He has done this for me. He has
Lent eventually became a common tradition for Christians in many places. In our modern society in New Zealand and Australia, fewer people celebrate Lent. However, for many in our schools, aged-care communities and other similar places, ‘Pancake Tuesday’ (or Shrove Tuesday) has become a bit of a regular festival. However, as with Halloween, there is often little awareness of the significance of the pancake tradition. (It was to eat up fatty foods before the fasting of Lent.) I believe the popularisation of Pancake Tuesday is a gift to the people of the church. It’s an opportunity to be ready to give a good account of the hope within us, of the gracious work of God in the way of the cross. It can help us to bear witness to our faith at work in the Lenten journey, that ‘God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, so that whosever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life’. Your fellow in Christ,
Paul
Lord Jesus, we
live in us, we live in you; work for you – because we bear your name
you
we live and
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