The Lutheran April 2014

Print Post Approved PP100003514 VOL 48 NO3

NATIONAL MAGAZINE OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH OF AUSTRALIA

If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!

[2 Corinthians 3:9] Vol 48 No3 P73

APRIL 2014

EDITOR/ADVERTISING phone 0427 827 441 email rosie.schefe@lca.org.au

MARTY ON THE MOVE

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www.thelutheran.com.au We Love The Lutheran!

As the magazine of the Lutheran Church of Australia (incorporating the Lutheran Church of New Zealand), 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. The Lutheran is a member of the Australasian Religious Press Association and as such subscribes to its journalistic and editorial codes of conduct.

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CONTACTS Editor Rosie Schefe 197 Archer St, North Adelaide SA 5006 phone 0427 827 441 email rosie.schefe@lca.org.au

Famous reformer Martin Luther loves to stay current with what’s happening in the church. ‘Marty’ has been roaming around the grounds at Australian Lutheran College for a while now, but when you are almost 500 years old, a nice shady bench is great place to take a break and read your favourite magazine.

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People like you are salt in your world [ Matt 5:13 ]

Executive Editor Linda Macqueen 3 Orvieto St, Bridgewater SA 5155 phone 08 8339 5178 email linda.macqueen@lca.org.au Design and layout Comissa Fischer Printer Openbook Howden

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Andrew Dewhirst

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Immanuel, Novar Gardens SA Teacher, Christian Studies Enjoys watching sport and reading sporting biographies Fav text: Philippians 4:13

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Vol 48 No3 P74

Lent. It’s perhaps the season of the church most ‘out of sync’ with 21st century lives, but I’m declaring myself in favour of bringing it back. Not the fish-on-Fridays, ‘what are you giving up for Jesus’ superficial version, but a time of reflection, prayer and asking deep questions of God. Non-Christians—even atheists—at least ‘get’ Christmas, even if they do substitute their own reality for mine. Easter too gets enough publicity that most people are aware it means something—and that’s an opening for telling the story. Advent they can relate to (see Christmas, above) and Trinity, well, it’s a season of work and growth, all those Sundays after Pentecost …

FEATURES 05 Big questions: bigger God 08 A life in song

05 08

Slow down? Reflect? I don’t have time for that! I’ve got momentum going here; I have to keep pushing so that my children stay on track, my husband can get enough downtime … it would be crazy to slow it all down now. But of course, when I take a deep breath and surrender to that whisper of the Holy Spirit, he refreshes me, lifts my burdens and calls me to refocus my vision beyond my own little life. To see the cross and the empty tomb beyond, with all the hope it brings.

I admit I don’t do Lent well. Already I’ve passed on the opportunity to attend Lenten Bible study (‘… pressure of deadlines; I’ll try to get to the rest of them …’). I’ve skated over the top of niggling questions rather than respected them as Spirit-led and given them the attention they deserved. But the blessing of this season is that, whatever I do or don’t do, the Holy Spirit is still there, whispering into my heart.

‘Slow down. Trust in me.’

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04 Heartland 11 Reel Life

15 Inside Story 18 Notices

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19 Directory 20 Stepping Stones 22 Letters 23 Bookmarks

… and then Lent calls me to slow down.

Lent calls me to look at my life. To realise how much of it is about me and how little is about my Saviour—that broken man on the cross who rose from death three days after. To question why I don’t trust him more and rely on my own efforts less. To ask for forgiveness, again and again and again.

COLUMNS

14 Little Church

But Lent?

Lent comes at the wrong time of year. Christmas is packed away; the wise men have gone home. The holidays are over and everyone is back to work or school. In my house, one teenager is beginning Year 12, one is in Year 11 (and both are suddenly experiencing the stress) and my husband is finally back at study too. So the whole family is now on the same track, and this train is picking up some real momentum ...

12 Handfulls of rice

24 Bring Jesus

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26 Heart and Home 28 World in Brief 30 Coffee Break

‘Why doesn’t the Lutheran church teach about the Holy Spirit?’

Many people have asked me that question over the years. It’s often a cry for help when we feel faith has gone dead and we are just going through the motions. We can easily fall into that trap and not even notice it.

Like all Christians, ‘we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life …’ (Nicene Creed). The Small Catechism teaches, ‘The Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, and sanctified and preserved me in true faith’.

In our understanding of God, wherever the Father is, or Jesus is, the Holy Spirit is there also. But is that enough? Are we ignoring the third person of the Trinity?

We focus on Jesus (John 3:16).

That’s our Reformation heritage. He shows us who God really is. He also shows us who we really are: fallen human beings whose good works and attempts at holiness count for nothing. Our only hope is that God saves us through Jesus Christ (see Romans 5). Does that mean we leave the Spirit out in the cold? It certainly shouldn’t, because just as the Spirit was active in Jesus’ life (Luke 4:1), he is active in my faith and my life as well. Without the Spirit, I can hardly call myself a Christian.

Today, people do not settle for promises. We would rather have things right now, particularly when it comes to experience. We want to feel things, not just know about them. It’s fashionable to have a ‘bucket list’ of experiences you want to have before you die. This has affected Christians—we want God to ‘come alive’ in our lives; we want to feel it.

Does this have to be an either/or?

Can we have genuine faith and experience Spirit-filled living? Yes, of course! Just remember though that experience doesn’t count for salvation. In fact, salvation flies in the face of experience. It rests on everything Jesus has done for us; faith is a pure gift of the Spirit. It follows then that if we are to live holy lives we do need the Spirit. We must also test the spirits to make

sure we are following God’s Spirit and not something else (1 John 4:1).

Faith is always alive, seeking the will of God. Scripture is God’s word, where God speaks directly into our hearts and lives. Baptism and holy communion are pure gospel, where God’s Spirit connects with us to give new, spiritual, birth. We believe in a community of transformative, holy, Christian living, which can only be ours through the power of the Spirit.

Salvation flies in the face of experience. It rests on everything Jesus has done for us …

We each carry that responsibility.

If you believe you have a gift of the Spirit, use it in love to build others up. If the Spirit is speaking to you, test what you hear, speak with your pastor, pray for guidance, and work for the well-being of the whole church. As we work together in love, let us always ‘keep [our] eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in’ (Hebrews 12:2, The Message).

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You might want to duck for cover when troubling questions come knocking.

They might scare you, but they don’t scare God.

Big questions: bigger God

by Andrew Jaensch

Throughout the Book of Job we hear him questioning God’s way of acting, and we observe God respecting his challenge. God was big enough for Job’s questions.

He is big enough for our questions as well—in particular the kind of questions aroused by our reading of Scripture that puzzle us, trouble us and perplex us.

‘God is big enough for our questions’ was the title I gave to my research project. I explored how Australian Lutheran College (ALC) Lutheran Strand students respond to a critical approach to study of the Bible.

Initially I was concerned that the term ‘critical approach’ could sound alarm bells for some Christians, and I was tempted to use a softer-sounding Vol 48 No3 P77

expression, one that was less likely to be misunderstood. But I stuck with the term because it is used widely in education and scholarship. The original Greek notion of criticism is about arriving at a judgement, coming to a decision; it’s about discernment.

My own experience of a critical approach began at the then Luther Seminary, and it was very unsettling.

But, looking back, I can’t help but roll out the old adage ‘No pain, no gain’; Christians should not be surprised if engagement with critical study of the Bible produces intellectual and spiritual pain for them.

A few years ago I became much more intentional about introducing my ALC students to a critical approach to study of the Bible. I considered the kinds of questions about the Bible

that invite a critical approach to it.

Here are some of them: • what to make of the apparently conflicting accounts of creation in Genesis 1 and 2 • questions about the authorship of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible); did Moses really write them all?

• the idea that Jesus’ words recorded in the gospels may not have actually come from Jesus’ lips at all, at least not in the way the gospel writers have expressed them.

While recognising that a critical approach to the Bible can raise disturbing questions for some Christians, I am also deeply conscious of the importance of distinguishing between a book (the Bible) and the One to whom that book points (Christ).

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Critical thinking clarifies that Christ is the centre of the biblical narrative; it reminds us that the Bible is not God, the Bible did not die for us, and the Bible did not rise again for us.

A critical approach: sound reasons A critical approach is good educational practice because it fosters further and deeper learning.

In fact, a critical approach is not just sound education, but sound education considered from a Lutheran perspective.

In his explanation of the first part of the Apostles Creed Luther declared that God has created our reason and all our senses. Should not education of children and all Christians (along with all people) include a wholehearted use of this wonderful gift of God?

I am deeply conscious of the importance of distinguishing between a book (the Bible) and the One to whom that book points (Christ) It is also true that Luther once called reason ‘the devil’s whore’, but his warning there was about the destructive role that reason can play in undermining the unconditional nature of the gospel. The gospel defies reason when it says, ‘Yes you are good enough—because of Christ’.

A critical approach to study of the Bible can lead to a stronger and more resilient faith in Christians and create the environment in which faith might be born in others.

If learners are allowed, encouraged and prompted to critically examine the biblical text by teachers who have gone there before them and stand alongside them, they are more likely 6

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to be able to withstand the kinds of attacks on the faith and their faith that life will inevitably bring. They are more likely to own their faith.

A finding from my research is that while a critical approach can be threatening for students with a prior Christian commitment, it can ultimately foster depth and maturity in their commitment.

A critical approach requires no divided self where Christians feel unable to ask the nagging questions that challenge their faith.

Instead, a critical approach allows them to move into more and more challenging questions where fear is diminished and faith strengthened. To be a follower of Christ means surrendering one’s reason at the foot of the cross, but then getting it back again to work with. There’s something paradoxically Lutheran about that. On the one hand this means that I am called to witness to a truth which sometimes tests my own boundaries of reason and faith, and which is resolved ultimately only in the cross. But, through a critical approach, the cross that we are called to carry is not made heavier by discouragement of honest enquiry, wherever it might take us.

A critical approach allows learners to find in Scripture the foundation of a just worldview and a just way of life.

A great deal of Christian acceptance of societal injustice has its foundation in an uncritical reading of Scripture. The Christian church has a shameful record of adjusting its biblical interpretation in a catch-up fashion, when society has moved ahead of the church (at least, broad sections of it) in its advance of human rights.

In a statement in 1823 supporting slavery, Rev Richard Furman, first president of the South Carolina Baptist Convention declared ‘The right of holding slaves is clearly established by the Holy Scriptures, both by precept and example’.

Another example: an interpretation of a scriptural text led to centuries of anti-semitism in the Christian church.

In a few years or decades from now, will the LCA find itself looking back in a similar way on its current position on

homosexuality, for example? I don’t know. But I am convinced that taking a critical approach to Scripture includes being mindful of past interpretations which devout Christians defended but which a critical approach would have exposed as just plain wrong.

A critical approach with whom?

My research project took place within a higher education context. Nevertheless the findings prompt me to make my short answer to this question, ‘Everyone’.

Why patronise any group that the church is called to teach by determining that ‘they wouldn’t be interested’ or ‘they wouldn’t be able to handle it’?

A critical approach allows [Christians] to move into more and more challenging questions where fear is diminished and faith strengthened My long answer to the same question is that any teaching must have the student at the centre. This includes not only what interests the student but also the student’s best interests. What will help the learner to grow? How to do that in a way that is sensitive and thoughtful?

Adopting a critical approach is a call to humility and care by the teacher, not an invitation to show off or shock the learner. Good teaching is also good pastoral care.

I am convinced that the earlier learners are appropriately helped to hear and read the Bible critically, the better it is for them. Much intellectual and spiritual pain is caused by the child being given one impression and the teenager or adult a contradictory one. Barbara Stead, who conducted research into the use of the Bible in Catholic primary Vol 48 No3 P78

Picture: Rosie Schefe

Teaching must have the student at the centre … not only what interests the student but also the student’s best interests.

What will help the learner to grow?

A critical approach [to study of the Bible] is not just sound educational practice, but sound education considered from a Lutheran perspective, Rev Andrew Jaensch contends in his 2014 opening lecture at Australian Lutheran College. schools in the 1990s, first made me aware of the importance of never teaching children anything they would later have to unlearn.

A learner-centred approach in our congregations will care for adult learners as well, by avoiding two extremes: at one extreme, thoughtlessly destabilising the faith of Christians who are simply not ready for a critical approach; at the other, a paternalistic cautiousness towards those who want to go further in honest critical study of Scripture.

To err on the cautious side carries with it the risk that misunderstanding and suspicion can form in those kept in the dark against those in the know.

It must be recognised that there are risks associated with encouraging Christians to get in touch with their own confronting questions about Scripture, as well as those of others. I contend though that there is the much greater risk of Christians having the carpet of a superficial approach to Scripture ripped out from under them when they can no longer ignore the big questions. It is much better and safer if mature, honest, skilled teachers (youth leaders, Sunday school teachers, pastors, school teachers) guide them Vol 48 No3 P79

through places where they themselves have been—teachers who encourage learners to express their questions, their anxieties, their curiosity, and who do the same themselves. Those who teach must be willing to continue to wade in with the learners—and they need to learn how to do it in ways that constitute real pastoral care.

These are the teachers who see themselves as providing not only an anchor but also a sail for learners— an anchor tied to Christ, and a sail propelled by the Spirit to move further and deeper into understanding God’s word and the desire to live it.

Rev Andrew Jaensch is a teacher with Australian Lutheran College, based at the Australian Catholic University in Brisbane. The core of his work is with education students preparing for teaching roles in Lutheran schools. On 24 February, at the opening ceremony of the ALC academic year, Andrew presented the lecture, ‘God is big enough for our questions: introducing learners to a critical approach to study of the Bible’. This story contains edited extracts from that paper.

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Photo: Michael Rudolph

Robin Mann began learning the guitar and writing music at 15.

Five decades on, the music continues.

a life in

song

by Rosie Schefe

Robin Mann and Dorothy Stiller first became an ‘item’ on 15 April 1966 as Year 12 students at Adelaide’s Immanuel College, sparking a lifelong musical collaboration as well as a marriage.

Their first performances, singing folk music, were for school houseconcerts. The partnership was so strong, musically and romantically, that it continued as Robin and Dorothy entered university and teachers college respectively, with the couple performing as a duo in clubs and churches around Adelaide. They were married late in 1969, immediately following Dorothy’s graduation from teachers college.

In 1969 Rev John Sabel (then tertiary chaplain) introduced a worship program at The University of Adelaide, where 8

The Lutheran April 2014

Robin helped lead the music. Rev Dr Les Grope (then pastor at St Stephen’s, Adelaide) organised the first Sunday evening worship services for students in 1970. Robin and Dorothy played at this first of the monthly services. They played at their last in 1998.

Following a performance at Scots Presbyterian Church in Adelaide in 1971, assistant minister Rod Jepsen asked Robin and Dorothy if they’d be interested in joining a band. Kindekrist was born, becoming one of Australia’s early Christian rock bands. The group produced four albums in the first decade and continued to perform together for another two. Although some of the musicians changed over time, the mixture of theological backgrounds largely held, appealing to a mainstream, ecumenically minded audience.

‘We played everywhere. One of our St Stephen’s services was televised and then another at St Peters [Adelaide’s Anglican Cathedral]’, Robin said. The demands of recording and regular performance, especially for worship, meant that Robin’s song writing skills were brought to the fore and honed by necessity. ‘No-one else wrote the kind of church music that I wanted to hear’, he said.

Work began in 1979 on All Together Now, a project initiated by the LCA’s Board for Congregational Life (BCL).

With Robin’s reputation as a songwriter well established, it was natural that a significant number of his songs were chosen by the selection committee. The first committee included Geoff Strelan, Neil Reichelt, Sharon and Craig Schlenker and Robin Mann.

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Photo: Rosie Schefe

No-one else wrote the kind of church music that I wanted to hear

Robin and Dorothy Mann have been partners in life and in music since their final year of high school. welcomes and Christmas blessing (words by Rev Aub Podlich). Dorothy has not-so-fond memories of the 1973 origins of Father Welcomes.

Photo: Rosie Schefe

‘I was in hospital after giving birth to our first child, Kristen. Robin came bouncing in, saying “I’ve just written a song!” I thought, whoop-de-do; I’ve just given birth to a baby!’ she says, laughing at the memory.

Father welcomes was sung at Kristen’s baptism. It is still regularly used at baptisms and remains the most frequently sung of Robin’s works.

The collection was published in 1980 and caused an immediate sensation.

It was embraced by young people on one hand—but spurned too, with many congregations initially refusing to allow use of ‘green book songs’ in regular worship. However, those reactions did not deter BCL, who authorised preparation of the second (blue) collection, All Together Again, which was published in 1983.

The challenges of a growing family inspired another Robin Mann favourite, Comfort, comfort all my people, and again it revolves around a birth story: ‘There’s double comfort, for the twins!’

Robin says.

One rainy night, after leaving a tearful Dorothy in hospital adjusting to the concept of mothering a toddler and twin babies (Jon and Thom), Robin was waiting at the Greenhill Road lights in Adelaide when inspiration hit. He pulled over and wrote the song virtually on the spot.

The AT Rainbow

All Together Now green music and word books (June 1980)

That year Robin and Dorothy recorded many of the songs from the books on cassette, which spread the music across schools and congregations.

Each of the collections since has been accompanied by recordings, produced

by Robin and Dorothy.

All Together Again blue books and cassettes, All Together Now cassettes (November 1983)

Robin’s two most popular songs appeared in those early books: Father

All Together All Right white books, CDs, data disc (April 2014)

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All Together Everybody orange books, cassettes, OHTs (September 1991) All Together OK red books, cassettes and CDs, OHTs (September 1996) All Together Whatever yellow books, CDs, OHTs (April 2001) All Together For Good purple books, CDs, data disc (2007)

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