THE LUTHERAN October 2017

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

OCTOBER 2017

500 years after the Reformation, Lutherans and Catholics

G R E M E M B E R IN M AT IO N T HE REFOR ents tion ev Commemora LCA/NZ around the

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VOL 51 NO9

Joh n 17:2 1

UNITY

is the gift of God

LUTHERAN

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OF AUSTRALIA

EDITORIAL

Bev and Rob Radke took something of their own to study on a recent visit to Martin Luther’s study cell at St Augustine’s Monastery, in Erfurt Germany. Luther also stayed at the monastery during his studies there to become a monk. The Radkes are members at Mackay Community Lutheran Church Queensland. The photo was taken by Graeme Lienert, a member at St Johns in Perth.

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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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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The Lutheran OCTOBER 2017

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OCTOBER

Special features EDITOR'S

Letter

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There’s an old joke about an arrival in heaven. (I apologise if you’ve heard it, but I think the moral remains relevant.)

He is greeted by St Peter and then taken on a tour of his new surroundings. As they approach one particular building, St Peter whispers, ‘You have to be silent going past this one’. Once past, the newcomer asks, ‘Why’s that?’

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‘That’s where the Lutherans are’, St Peter replies. ‘They think they’re the only ones here.’

Jesus prayed to his Father for the church to be one: ‘that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me …’ (John 17:23). And we know Luther never intended to start a new church. The mission of the 95 Theses was to reform the church – not tear Christendom apart.

We ‘commemorate’ this 500th anniversary of the Reformation, not ‘celebrate’ it. It is not a matter of reflecting on who was right and who was wrong. It is a time to acknowledge our own pride and intransigence, and look to the future, working ‘together in hope’ for God’s gift of unity to be fully realised.

I think our Lord would have smiled last October when Pope Francis and Lutheran World Federation’s Bishop Munib Younan and Rev Dr Martin Junge committed the churches they represent to move away from conflict and to strengthen their common witness. Later this month LCA Bishop John Henderson and Archbishop Christopher Prowse of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference will sign a joint statement on the Reformation, furthering this commitment locally. You have a copy of the statement inside this edition.

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Remembering the Reformation

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Talking together bears good fruit

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The means of grace: Word of God

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Regulars

This joke is aimed at those Christians who think they have the monopoly on God’s truth. We Lutherans can sometimes come across like that.

But the joke also makes a statement about God’s kingdom being for all baptised believers. Has there ever been a danger within our church of the need to always be ‘right’, closing down opportunities ‘to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God’ (Micah 6:8) alongside our fellow Christians?

Luther’s vision for all God’s people

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Heartland

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Going GREYT!

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Go and Grow

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Inside story

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Directory

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Your voice (Letters)

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Notices

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#youngSAVEDfree

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Reel life

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Coffee break

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We also include details of commemoration events around the LCA/NZ and look at what the Reformation means today through the eyes of the Lutheran–Catholic Dialogue in Australia. There are also opportunities to invite your community to join the commemoration, through a Longest Lutheran Lunch and/or screening the Luther movie – and information is enclosed with this edition.

I look forward to worshipping God in heaven with my Christian friends of other denominations – and I’m sure you do, 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

ALL GOD’S CHURCH TOG E THER Wearing a suit and clerical collar, I was once on my way to an appointment at St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney. My route took me through Hyde Park, where city workers and tourists ignored me. People sleeping rough on the park benches, however, looked up, since they received support from Christians at the cathedral and the nearby St James Anglican Church. Thinking I was a priest of one of those churches, a homeless man called out to me, ‘God bless you, Father’.

Around the same time, I hailed a cab from my office in the city. The driver asked me what I did and I told him I worked for the Christian churches.

His immediate response was: ‘Those priests – how could they do that to those little children?’ Revelations of sexual abuse in church-based institutions had just hit the media.

The worst defence is when Christians use the argument, ‘We are not like those others'.

Unfortunately, in the ways that count, we are (Matthew 18:9–14). If we show that we think we are somehow better, we bring the whole body of The Lutheran OCTOBER 2017

Christians belong to one another. Even more, we are to love one another, speak well of one another, and defend one another (see the explanation of the eighth commandment in Luther’s Small Catechism).

We must learn to understand, therefore, that we belong to a body, a family, which God creates and calls into being. It is his church, not ours. And God invites into it everyone he loves (Matthew 22:9).

So the church cannot be a limited, exclusive group. God doesn’t love just a select few, he loves the world (John 3:16). The Epistle to the Hebrews tells us that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who draw us to Jesus, ‘the pioneer and perfecter of our faith’ (Hebrews 12:1). John's Revelation speaks of the church which cannot be numbered (Revelation 7:9).

God doesn’t just LOVE a select few – he loves the WORLD.

Both experiences are reminders of the interconnectedness of all Christians. When one is praised, all are praised.

When one sins, all are guilty. Society today does not distinguish between us as neatly as we do between ourselves. People aren’t interested in doctrinal divergence, ecclesiastical structures, 2000 years of church history, or the ways in which we self-define.

They think and judge in the moment, and the only evidence they require is what they see and hear in the moment. To society, it’s all just 'religion' these days, and religion is a tarnished commodity.

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Christ into disrepute. People easily see it for the hypocrisy it is.

So while we often treat the ecumenical nature of the church as an optional extra, faith doesn’t know those limitations. Lutherans hold to Scripture and Confession, but that must not be seen as an act of separation or superiority. Confession means declaring the faith, and our formal Confessions begin with the three ancient ecumenical creeds. The Augsburg Confession of 1530 is a defence within the church and before the world of the true catholicity of the Lutheran faith. So our confessional beliefs are a loving conversation within the family, a conversation we must have for the good of the whole body.

It does no-one any good if we simply stand apart.

For, like it or not, we are all part one of another.

That’s how the world sees us and so does God.

Built in 1504, the Lutherhaus was Martin Luther’s home for most of his adult life, including when he wrote his 95 Theses.

Lay people were critical partners for Martin Luther in bringing about the Reformation. As we commemorate the 500th anniversary of that world-changing time, Dr Dean Zweck looks at the roles of Luther’s league of ‘ordinary people’ who turned out to be quite extraordinary in the courage of their convictions.

by DEAN ZWECK Luther was deeply concerned about people – like the ordinary people he regularly preached to from the pulpit in the parish church of St Mary. He saw how people were being damaged and fleeced by the trade in indulgences, so he spoke out. Hence the 95 Theses.

The Freedom of the Christian is one of the best things he ever wrote. He even sent a copy of it to Pope Leo X as a gift, saying that, although it is a small book, ‘it contains the whole of Christian life in a brief form’. His bold theme comes in a two-fold proposition:

When he discovered the gospel in its fullness, he proclaimed it to the people in bold, clear and colourful language. He said, ‘If I, in my preaching, should have regard to Philip Melanchthon and other learned doctors, then should I do but little good. I preach in the simplest manner to ordinary folk, and that gives content to all’.

A Christian is a perfectly free lord, subject to none.

Luther wanted people to understand that life under the gospel is a completely new and wonderful way of life.

Life is not about trying to earn enough merit to please God, nor is it about serving yourself. ‘For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery’, said St Paul in Galatians 5:2. Luther picked up that message and proclaimed it clearly, powerfully and winsomely.

A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.

This understanding of the Christian life was, and is, truly liberating and empowering for all God’s people.

For Luther, there are not two classes of Christians: a holy elite doing God’s holy work, and the also-rans, the ordinary people. No. In Christ we are all one holy people, because we are all justified by grace and we are all equally servants of God in the priesthood of the baptised (1 Pet 2:9). So, in Christ Jesus we are all wonderfully free and at the same time deeply bound to serve one another.

Luther’s dear friend in Wittenberg, Lucas Cranach the Elder, was a distinguished renaissance painter and printmaker, who was an important lay influence in the Reformation. Cranach used his skills to portray biblical subjects, including Adam and Eve (below) and communicate faith for those who could not read. His beautiful woodcuts and engravings adorned Luther’s German translation of the Bible and Cranach did a number of portraits of Luther (right), as well as depicting Katie (far right).

As Luther puts it: ‘As our heavenly Father has in Christ freely come to our aid, we also ought freely to help our neighbour through our body and its works, and each one should become as it were a Christ to the other that we may be Christs to one another and Christ may be the same in all, that is, that we may be truly Christians.’

So in our particular calling, whatever it may be, and in all our relationships with others, we are to be free lords and ladies and willing servants – like Christ, in whom we become ‘little christs’.

With such a liberating and exalted view of what it means to be the people of God, it is no wonder that laypeople in the Lutheran movement soon began to blossom and show the fruits of faith in notable ways.

Let’s consider four examples.

First, there is Katherina von Bora, Luther’s dear wife.

He would jokingly call her ‘my lord Katie’ or ‘mistress of the house, doctor, and lady of the pig market at Wittenberg’, but there is more than a grain of truth in all those titles.

We know little about her previous life in the convent where she lived from childhood on, not a life that she chose. She and other nuns courageously climbed

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The Lutheran OCTOBER 2017

into fish barrels to make their escape, so the story goes. They came to Wittenberg seeking a new life, and how Katie blossomed in her new life as wife, mother of six children (two died), and much more. The former Augustinian monastery became the Luthers’ family home, but more than that, a kind of conference centre, a house of studies, and a hostel for theological students and visitors. Katie managed all this, as well as a garden and a farm, brewed beer for Martin and his colleagues to drink, and even joined in the Tischreden, the after-dinner table conversations where Luther would hold forth theologically on all manner of topics, often with earthy humour.

Not least, she had to care for her high-maintenance spouse and do wily things like hiding the silverware so that he wouldn’t give it away. It is said that once when Luther was depressed and moody she donned black mourning clothes, and when he asked who had died she said, ‘God!’ It was surely with Katie in mind that Luther said, ‘There is no more lovely, friendly, and charming relationship, communion, or company than a good marriage’. In additional to all the other titles, Luther praised her as ‘the morning star of Wittenberg’.

Our second example is Philip Melanchthon, the young scholar who came to Wittenberg and soon became a theologian and Luther’s right-hand man. He was a lay person and steadfastly refused theological degrees and honours offered to him. His special gift was to get hold of Luther’s evangelical theology and expound it in an organised and systematic fashion. His Loci Communes (‘theological commonplaces’) was highly praised

by Luther as ‘the best book written after the Holy Scriptures’, and it soon became a standard textbook for theological students.

His greatest achievement was as principal author of the Augsburg Confession, the document that became the charter of the Lutheran church. Luther had been declared an outlaw and thus could not be present at the assembly where it was read before the emperor, the princes and the bishops. Soon after the reading Luther said, ‘I am tremendously pleased to have lived to this moment when Christ, by his staunch confessors, has publicly been proclaimed in such a great assembly by means of this really most beautiful confession’.

‘(Christians) live in Christ through FAITH, in their neighbour through LOV E .’

Among the ’staunch confessors’ are the seven Lutheran princes and two mayors who courageously put their signatures to the Augsburg Confession. This was no mere symbolic act. In signing their names, they were putting their lives on the line.

They and other Lutheran lay leaders had to form alliances to protect themselves and their people from hostile forces, including the emperor himself. A decade before the Augsburg Confession Luther had called upon them in his Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, to implement the reforms so needed in the church, that popes and bishops of that time were unwilling to undertake.

We could multiply examples of how lay people got on board in the movement for reform, putting their faith to work and using their God-given talents. Think of the arts. Of music Luther said, ‘Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world’. He didn’t want people in church to be mere spectators, so he led the way and composed great hymns for Christians to sing. This led to a wonderful flowering of hymnody, much of it composed by lay people.

In the visual arts, there are some stand-outs too, most notably Luther’s dear friend in Wittenberg, Lucas Cranach the Elder. Cranach was a distinguished renaissance painter and printmaker in woodcut and engraving. He got to know Luther while still a monk and did a number of portraits of him at various stages of his life. Cranach became something of a ‘theological artist’, imaginatively using his artistic skills to portray biblical topics and Lutheran teaching on key doctrines like the atonement, the Lord’s supper, and the church. His beautiful woodcuts and engravings adorned Luther’s German translation of the Bible. His work was so important for communicating the faith in an age when many people could not read well or not read at all.

What wonderful encouragement for living the Christian life is given to us by Luther and his ‘Luther league’ of faithful lay people! Luther sums up well in his writing 'On the Freedom of a Christian': We conclude that Christians live not in themselves but in Christ and in their neighbour. Otherwise they are not Christians. They live in Christ through faith, in their neighbour through love. By faith they are caught up beyond themselves into God. By love they descend beneath themselves into their neighbour. Yet they always remain in God and in his love.

Rev Dr Dean Zweck is an emeritus lecturer in church history at Australian Lutheran College and a former co-chair of the Lutheran–Roman Catholic Dialogue in Australia.

500th anniversary of the Reformation – book review

Biography makes an excellent study resource It is 500 years since Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the church door at Wittenberg.

This makes it an ideal time to learn more about Luther and the seismic movement he sparked.

It’s a movement that, irrespective of our religious beliefs, we all continue to live out. From what was a seemingly unremarkable moment, the world was forever changed.

To coincide with this significant anniversary Dr Mark Worthing has published a short biography entitled Martin Luther: A Wild Boar in the Lord’s Vineyard (Morning Star Publishing, 2017). In 33 dramatic, humorous and thoroughly readable chapters, Dr Worthing describes the significant milestones and events that led to the Reformation. From Luther’s early childhood through to this death, he describes Luther’s theological and spiritual development as he sought the church’s return to its vital, core confession: salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

Dr Worthing states his reason for writing this biography was a ‘paucity of readable biographies of Luther’. This is where the true value of his book lies. It is an excellent resource for personal or group study in the family, congregational and school contexts. Adding to this are extensive footnotes and referencing. This allows the reader to study further. One additional essay included provides further background, and even intrigue, to the Reformation. Who, for example, knew that a snarky spat between the Augustinian and Dominican orders had as much to do with igniting the Reformation as did Luther’s 95 Theses?

I commend this incredibly good resource for family and parish life to you. It is thoroughly readable, delightfully entertaining and reliably informative.

Rev James Winderlich, Principal, Australian Lutheran College

I n Goi ng GREYT! we feat ure stories o f some o f our ‘more experienced’ people wi t hi n t he LCA , who have be en called to make a posi t ive cont ribu t ion i n t heir ret irement. We pray t heir examples o f service will be an i nspirat ion and encouragement to us all as we look to be Christ ’s hands and fe et wherever we are, wi t h whatever gif ts and oppor t uni t ies we’ve be en given.

The

of a

by HELEN BER INGEN

The act of being made to feel welcome in a new suburb more than 55 years ago has led to a half a century of caring for a group of her own neighbours, for one Adelaide octogenarian.

It was a simple knock at the door and invitation to church that lit the spark.

This year South Australia's largest non-government disability support provider, formerly known as Minda Home, recognised Marg Boehm for her 50 years of volunteer service to her local campus.

Marg has received as much as she’s given from her decades of service to the residents and clients at Minda, based in seaside Brighton in Adelaide’s south.

‘It’s the way they reach out to you, they give you everything’, she says. ‘They give you their love and tell you their stories.’

Since 1967 the centre has been blessed by regular visits from Marg and a team of volunteers from the neighbouring Warradale and Glenelg Lutheran congregations, in suburban Adelaide.

Marg, who will be 82 in October, still drives to visit the centre twice a month. Her presence has been a constant over the life of the program, which began in 1965 when Maureen Gilbertson of St Paul’s Lutheran congregation, Glenelg, answered a request from a country church member to visit a family member at Minda.

Marg paid homage to her beloved friends Maureen and her husband, Ray, for introducing her to the Minda The Lutheran OCTOBER 2017

Serendipitously, Marg had joined Warradale with her husband Martin, and their daughters Lorraine and Kathrine, about five years earlier.

A nominal Anglican, Marg and her family made the church move after a neighbourly knock on the door of their Oaklands Park home, and an invitation to worship from Warradale members Ray Thiele and David Trudinger. ‘I felt accepted. To go and worship as a family was something so happy I always wanted and then I had it’, Marg says. ‘The people, the congregation were they just my brothers and sisters.’

‘It was … and put their arms around us and just hugged us, I was just hooked.’

Over the years volunteer numbers have ranged from three to 15 per month, with the helpers establishing Sunday services and a pastoral afternoon tea program with craft and singing.

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journey ‘and changing my life forever’. An appeal through Lutheran Women SA for help led the women’s guild at Warradale, Marg’s church family, to join the ministry.

In no time the loving church family and sense of belonging which Marg and her family received translated into what would become half a century of blessings for the residents at Minda.

‘The first time I went there I was unsure, but I went back and I was hooked’, Marg says. ‘It was so happy … and they just put their arms around us and just hugged us. I was just hooked.’

In those days about 300 residents attended Sunday services, and 50 to 60 joined Wednesday afternoon teas, craft sessions and outings. They even ran bus trips to the country.

With changes to residential living arrangements the number of attendees is now smaller, with between 10 to 20 people joining for craft activities, bible stories, songs and afternoon tea.

A favourite song of yesteryear, Jesus loves me, remains on their service order today, complete with actions, led

her e), who has served Marg Boehm (centr ding en sp s joy en 50 years, ‘family’ at Minda for . ren ild ch nd gra r he time with

by Marg. Marg’s favourite bible verse Ephesians 1:9,10 reminds her that God has shown his plan for us through sending Jesus, and how he works in our lives to bring people closer to him.

‘I just pray for them all the time’, she says of the residents at Minda. ‘But I feel I am not one to proselytise.

I become a friend first and then just make it known to them that Jesus is my Saviour.

'I guess I am just average, he placed me down there and I have no regrets whatsoever.

‘I am not feeling the best often these days, but once I get there, I feel so rewarded … they just love us to bits and I could not imagine my life without them.’

She is one of only three remaining volunteers, so this home-grown mission is always on the lookout for enthusiastic new helpers.

Gai Dawe and Lauren Halliday from Minda re and celebrate cognise Marg’s service and that of othe volunteers, ea rlier this year at r a special morni ng tea.

Their work remains highly appreciated by Minda, which recognised Marg’s contribution at a special morning tea earlier this year.

The organisation’s CEO Cathy Miller describes the volunteers as ‘generous and selfless in the giving of their time and talents to every area across Minda’.

‘I was so happy to acknowledge the amazing work of Marg and our volunteers, and the enormous contribution they have made to the lives of others in the community’, Ms Miller says.

She says Marg’s commitment to residents has been unwavering, taking on a pioneering role in the establishment and continuation of regular Sunday church services. ‘She has shown leadership in the regular pastoral program of singing and craft offered at Retirement Lifestyle Services and has always been devoted in her voluntary service.’

ine h daughters Lorra r 80 th bir thday wit ones. ed lov er oth Marg celebrates he (bottom right), and ine thr Ka d an rg) (behind Ma

Helen Beringen is a Townsville-based communications advisor who has been richly blessed through a career as a wordsmith. She is inspired by the many GREYT people who serve tirelessly and modestly in our community. She hopes by sharing stories of how God shines his light through them, others will be inspired to share his light in the world.

Know of any other GREYT stories in your local community?

Email the editor lisa.mcintosh@lca.org.au