THE LUTHERAN December 2015

Vol 49 No11 P353Print Post Approved PP100003514 VOL 49 NO11

DECEMBER 2015

If you come with us, we will share with you whatever good things the Lord gives us. [ Numbers 10:32] Vol 49 No11 P353

NATIONAL MAGAZINE OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH OF AUSTRALIA

EDITORIAL/ADVERTISING phone 08 8267 7307 email lisa.mcintosh@lca.org.au

SUBSCRIPTIONS phone 08 8360 7270 email lutheran.subs@lca.org.au

FOOD FOR SOULS AND STOMACHS Robin Jacob (left) and Leisau Taravaki, from Mele in Vanuatu, know plenty about the importance of growing things.

They enjoy a break in a garden that was planted with seeds donated by students from Concordia College, Highgate SA, after March’s Cyclone Pam devastated Vanuatu’s food crops.

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.

One month after the planting, the community was finally able to share cabbages and beans—their first affordable green vegetables after the cyclone.

Photo: Mal Thiel Send us a photograph featuring a recent copy of The Lutheran and you might see it here on page 2.

We Love The Lutheran!

CONTACTS Editor December Rosie Schefe Editor from January 2016 Lisa McIntosh 197 Archer St, North Adelaide SA 5006 phone 8267 7307 mobile 0409 281 703 email lisa.mcintosh@lca.org.au

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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Copy deadline: 1st of preceding month Rates: general notices and small advertisements, $18.00 per cm; for display, contract and inserted advertisements, contact the editor.

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Carolyn Kiss

Stephen Muller

Michael Stolz

Albury Residential Aged Care, NSW LCA professional standards officer Enjoys quilting, crafts, and assisting in ministry Fav text: Psalm 139:13,14

Immanuel Lutheran Church, Buderim Qld Lay worker Enjoys standing in the grass, and badminton Fav text: Judges 3:22

Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Everton Hills Qld Business development Enjoys cycling and bushwalking Fav text: Psalm 23

Surprise someone you know with their photo in The Lutheran. Send us a good-quality photo, their name and details (congregation, occupation, what they enjoy doing, favourite text) and your contact details.

Issued every month except in January

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The Lutheran December 2015

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To the lovely and loyal readers of The Lutheran: It is with great joy and thankfulness that I step down from the job of editing your magazine.

FEATURES

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05 God loves eating and drinking 07 The meal not to be missed

Normally, those words might be accompanied by a grain of cynical salt, but in this case I mean it wholeheartedly.

Serving as editor for the past three years has been my ‘dream job’. And it has been one that (as a close friend commented) it took me 20 years or so to train for.

I step down with great joy because this frees me to become a pastor’s wife, when my freshly ordained husband Geoff begins his public ministry in Horsham (Victoria) next year.

I don’t yet know what that looks like for me, but I look forward to finding out what God has in store.

I step down with great joy because God has provided such a talented new editor in Lisa McIntosh, whose friendship I hope to enjoy for a good few years to come. Please treasure her and encourage her as you have done to me over these years.

08 Longest Lutheran Welcome 10 Tuck in, everyone!

12 Get your church Christmas-ready 24 Ready to serve in 2016 26 Putting joy back into Christmas 28 Christmas with strangers

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30 12,000 Indonesian women sing praise to God

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I step down with great thankfulness because this job has sustained our family for the past three years. It meant my continual search for more hours of work while Geoff studied was no longer necessary; we had reassurance that God would provide for us.

I step down with great thankfulness for the team which surrounded me: Linda Macqueen and David Strelan as mentors and strongest supporters; design coordinator Comissa Fischer (who also steps down this month, after four years); proofreader Kathy Gaff; and all at Openbook Howden. Then there are others closely associated with the magazine—our regular writers, occasional writers, advertisers, the Magazine Committee (now disbanded), the College of Bishops and LCA leaders. Without the support of all these people, The Lutheran could not be the voice it is.

Thank you for your feedback, emails, letters and phone calls.

Thank you for caring enough about our magazine to continue subscribing, even when that has become financially difficult for you. Thank you for speaking up when you agreed with me or our writers, and for speaking up when you didn’t. But most of all, thank you for your prayers.

Lutherans in Australia and New Zealand face some tough challenges. Some we already see clearly, others remain hidden.

We might think we have solutions for these challenges, but human solutions have a way of falling apart. And that’s when God takes over, as happened more than 2000 years ago in Bethlehem, when a baby boy uttered his first cry. My prayer is that you hear the echo of that cry in your own life and know Christ’s love holds you close, regardless of the difficulties you face.

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COLUMNS 04 Heartland 14 Little Church 15 Inside Story 22 Notices 23 Directory/Letters 31 Reel Life 32 Bring Jesus 34 Coffee Break

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Recently a woman who was concerned about an issue quipped to me that she would soon have to adopt the same faulty logic as her husband. He had noticed that the things he worried about rarely happened.

Therefore, he reasoned, the way to stop them from happening was simply to worry about them.

We know that Christians should not have to worry. We don’t find Jesus worrying, and he left plenty of instructions on the matter.

When Martha complained about her sister’s lack of care, he told her, ‘You are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one’ (Luke 10:41,42). When he was instructing his disciples about their future, he told them, ‘When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say’ (Luke 12:11,12). After telling the crowd about the rich fool,

he said to his disciples, ‘Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?’ (Luke 12:25,26)

Some things in life we can do nothing about. Worrying doesn’t change them.

But some things we can change, and these are mostly about us.

So why do we still worry about the rest? Jesus draws a contrast between worry and faith. He tells people not to worry even under traumatic circumstances. When a man’s daughter died, Jesus told him, ‘Don’t worry. Just have faith!’ (Mark 5:36 CEV) When he healed a terminally ill woman, he told her, ‘Don’t worry [literally, ‘Have courage’]! You are now well because of your faith’ (Matthew 9:22 CEV).

Faith is the antidote to worry. Worry is a human pastime, but faith is God’s gift. Despite our best efforts, life remains uncertain.

Faith reaches out in trust. It begins with the simple things. In the

Lord’s Prayer we pray for daily bread. It’s a basic need, one day at a time. Luther described it as ‘everything required to satisfy our bodily needs, such as food and clothing, house and home, fields and flocks, money and property; a pious spouse and good children, trustworthy servants, godly and faithful rulers, good government; seasonable weather, peace and health, order and honour; true friends, faithful neighbours, and the like’ (Luther’s Small Catechism, Fourth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer). Faith doesn’t mean being irresponsible, but it does mean straightening out our priorities.

What do we really need? How simply can we really live? Whom do we really trust?

Some things in life we can do nothing about. Worrying doesn’t change them. But some things we can change, and these are mostly about us. In some of his last words about worrying, Jesus tells us to act on those things before it’s too late. Before we can change the world, we ourselves must be changed. ‘Don’t spend all of your time thinking about eating or drinking or worrying about life. If you do, the final day will suddenly catch you like a trap. That day will surprise everyone on earth. Watch out and keep praying that you can escape all that is going to happen and that the Son of Man will be pleased with you’ (Luke 21:34–36 CEV).

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God loves eating and drinking

by Tyson Stelzer

Fluoro lights flickered under the galvanised iron roof of the besserbrick shed at the bottom end of town. The floor was set with trestle tables, complete with disposable plates and plastic cutlery. The spit roast was firing. Men arrived with armloads of baguettes, women with giant containers brimming with salads and desserts.

It was dinnertime, to the roar of a hundred conversations, hoots of laughter, bad karaoke and so much wine.

Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, the tiny village in the middle of Champagne’s famed Côte des Blancs (area), is the home of Salon, the champagne house that makes just one cuvée and sells it for $700 a bottle. Just a moment away is Krug Clos du Mesnil, the most famous sparkling vineyard in the world. Its fruits sell for $2000 a bottle. Vineyard turf is never less than two million euros a hectare.

I could hardly speak their language.

I knew the names of just two people in the room. But I felt at home.

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And that night I learnt something about church. When it comes to getting together over food and wine, I can’t help wondering whether God doesn’t have a higher purpose in mind.

Just take a look at Jesus’ social calendar. His first miracle was to turn water into wine at a wedding banquet.

Matthew 11: ‘The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, “Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners”’.

Was Jesus a glutton and a drunkard?

Of course not. But so vital was the ritual of eating and drinking with sinners for Jesus that he was mistaken for a glutton and a drunkard.

In Jesus’ culture, to eat and drink with somebody was to publicly extend to them acceptance, friendship, love. Jesus ate and drank with the most unlikely, disreputable and unholy candidates.

When Jesus saw Zacchaeus in a tree, he said, ‘Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.’ We don’t know what was said

that night, but we do know that before the end of it, Zacchaeus announced that he would turn his life around.

What if we spent more time sharing loaves and fishes with our neighbours than discussing theology?

What if God is calling us to share the gospel in bread, wine and chocolate slice?

Matthew was a tax collector when Jesus arrived at his house for dinner.

Before dessert was over, Matthew was a disciple.

The Pharisees asked Jesus’ disciples why he ate with tax collectors and The Lutheran December 2015

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sinners. They queried why he didn’t fast.

They criticised his disciples for picking and eating grain on the Sabbath.

Jesus threw out their legalistic restrictions on what one can and cannot eat.

And Jesus knew all about hospitality.

When 5000 men plus women and children were hungry, Jesus fed them with five loaves and two fish. When the risen Jesus appeared to his disciples, he cooked them a barbecue on the shores of Lake Galilee.

How did Jesus describe heaven? Like a wedding banquet and a great feast.

On the night he was betrayed, Jesus said, ‘I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer’.

I don’t think it was any accident he chose bread and wine and the ritual of a meal as the way he communes with us.

You see, I believe in a God who loves eating and drinking.

And he always has. Back in Israel’s history they put together a tent to show that God wanted to be with his people.

It had a table. It had a pitcher of wine and the bread of the presence of God. In Psalm 23, God prepares a table to sit me down with my enemies and, in sharing a meal with them, he will affect reconciliation.

And it is about fun, too. Ecclesiastes 9:7: 'Eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart'.

You see, God loves eating and drinking.

And he has set us up to love it, too.

Of all the miraculous complexities of our bodies, scientists tell us that smell and taste are the deepest mysteries of all. Not just that no-one knows how we smell, but that we should be able to do it at all.

Scientists now believe that we can distinguish between one trillion different smells. God has engineered your nose as one of the most complex mechanisms in all of creation.

Why? Because God loves eating and drinking.

But what if it's more than that? What if our open invitation to our homes could create connections with neighbours 6

The Lutheran December 2015

and colleagues like we have never imagined? What if we could reverse the alarming decline in the Lutheran Church of Australia in our own dining rooms?

What if our tables could recreate the setting in which Jesus conducted some of his most powerful ministry—around tables, barbecuing fish on the shores of a lake, sharing bread at the biggest hillside picnic you could ever imagine?

And what if those opportunities could trigger Cana moments? Psalm 23 reconciliation? Matthew transformation?

Zacchaeus turn-around?

I believe they can.

My wife Rachael and I have had the privilege of hosting home groups for some twenty years. Seven years ago when we moved to a bigger home we changed the format of our gatherings to always begin with dinner. There is something about eating and drinking together. And when we do open our Bibles, there is an altogether different level of intimacy and sharing.

It’s a model that attracts newcomers, too. Our group of ten quickly became twenty-five. Two groups became three, and three became five, with some fifty members.

We often dread sharing the gospel in words. But what if we spent more time sharing loaves and fishes with our neighbours than discussing theology? What if God is calling us to share the gospel in bread, wine and chocolate slice?

I believe in a God who loves eating and drinking.

This is why we have established the Lutheran Winemakers Club and the Longest Lutheran Lunch. Because our God loves eating and drinking.

It was another trip to Champagne. But this one could not have been a greater contrast to the last. Dom Pérignon Chef de Cave (head of the winemaking team) Richard Geoffroy invited me to lunch at the finest restaurant in Épernay, the Michelin-starred Les Berceaux. By the end of lunch, 4500 words in my notes were testimony to three hours of intense conversation. But one thing that he said stayed with me above everything else.

‘It’s about the people’, he told me. ‘That’s what wine should be about. There are too many egos and too much snobbism in the wine world. But wine should be about bringing people together.’

The world gets it. How much more can we get it? Because we have a God who loves eating and drinking.

Tyson Stelzer is a multi-award winning wine writer, television presenter and international speaker.

He is also husband to Rachael, dad to Linden, Huon and Vaughn, and a member of Our Saviour Lutheran Church, Rochedale, Queensland.

This is an abridged version of the speech he gave at the General Convention dinner. To read it in full, go to www.lcasynod.org.au News (Convention Life).

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The meal not to be missed

by Ben Pfeiffer

Australians love to eat. If you ask the average Australian what they are doing for Christmas this year, chances are his or her plans will involve a good amount of food and drink. Travel and family are likely to get a mention, attending worship may or may not.

Christmas celebrations in Australia seem to revolve around food: seafood for entree; a ham or roast or both for main course; pudding for desert. Variations are acceptable, so long as there is enough of everything to feed a small army.

Our glasses, too, are rarely empty.

So I wonder what is the most important meal you will share this Christmas? For me, it is the body and blood of Christ in holy communion. It is a great joy to join with my brothers and sisters in Christ at this time of year, or any time of year, to share this special family meal. Here Jesus is both host and meal.

Imagine inviting your family to celebrate Christmas at your house without providing a meal. Imagine the shock when you tell your relatives they should have lunch before they come because ‘we’ve decided not to do the whole food thing this year’.

In holy communion we feed on the bread of life. Jesus comes to us and dwells in us, carried by bread and wine, as he once was carried by a manger and swaddling cloths. This meal is both simple and profound, a great mystery and a great gift.

Food is an important part of hospitality and fellowship. This seems to be the case in most cultures, whether ancient or modern. Our congregation’s recent Longest Lutheran Lunch reminded me of the power of food in bringing people together.

Jesus enjoyed a good feast. John the Baptist preferred a more simple diet. Matthew writes, ‘John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, “He has a demon”. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, “Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners”.’ (11:18,19) People are hard to please.

In the season of Advent, we prepare to celebrate the coming of Christ: his first coming in Bethlehem some 2000 years ago, his second coming when he will ‘judge the living and the dead’, and his continuous coming into our lives through his word and sacraments.

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I feel for those members of families who are so busy preparing Christmas lunches that they don’t get to attend worship and feed on the bread of heaven. I feel for those who are so busy preparing the big lunch that they skip the most important meal of the day. Is this a case of putting the cart before the horse?

Perhaps there is something you could do this Christmas to make sure every member of your family has the opportunity to feed on the bread of life: be prepared, help cook, eat later, and be flexible with your arrangements.

There is more than one meal on Christmas Day that is not to be missed!

Ben Pfeiffer is the pastor of St Peters Lutheran Church, Blackwood, South Australia. He is married to Meghan and they have one son, Luke, who will celebrate his second Christmas in 2015.

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by Andrea Cross

Lutherans are well known for putting on a ‘good spread’. Perhaps this stems from Martin Luther’s example of hosting his ‘Table Talk’ gatherings. Or could it be a more recent phenomena fostered by the bounty of blessings many of us share today? Ultimately, of course, it is Jesus who inspires our Longest Lutheran Lunch, with his example of hospitality to ‘the least of these’.

contingent of 27. Four primary schools, two secondary colleges and one agedcare facility were involved.

More than 100 Lutheran congregations and schools shared the gift of hospitality by taking part in the Longest Lutheran Lunch this year, as part of the celebration of the anniversary of the Reformation (31 October).

Some lunches were held as early as June, while some were in late November. Only one congregation registered a lunch on 31 October.

Registrations for this annual event included seven congregations in New Zealand and even one in Ontario, Canada. All Australian states and territories were represented, apart from Tasmania and the Northern Territory, with South Australia having the largest 8

The Lutheran December 2015

More than 50 congregations and schools took part for the first time.

The official registrations are not a true reflection of the number of congregations involved, however, as some nominated as a parish and invited two or more congregations to events.

Others changed the name completely to fit in with their activities. Some participants staged breakfasts or dinners.

Members from Zion Lutheran Church, Vectis, in Victoria’s Wimmera region, combined their ‘lunch’ with their annual German Night, which drew more than 120 people, most of whom were not members of the church community.

Others to ‘turn German’ for their Longest Lutheran Lunch included St Peter’s Lutheran Church, Loxton, in South Australia’s Riverland on 8 November, and three congregations from Queensland’s Gold Coast, which met at St Andrews, Tallebudgera, on 1 November.

By contrast, several congregations from the Barossa Valley met at Moculta on 25 October, with an Australian flavour to their lunch, featuring campoven damper, lamb stew and Anzac biscuits on the menu.

A short distance away at Redeemer Lutheran School, Nuriootpa, more than 400 staff and students teamed the Longest Lutheran Lunch with their 150th anniversary, under the theme ‘Eating Together in Our 150th Year’.

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Witta, on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, hit the front page of its local newspaper with lunchers dressed in period costume.

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In contrast to many one-off events, the Longest Lutheran Lunch is an ongoing celebration for the members of St Pauls Church, Christchurch, in New Zealand.

With their church plant nonoperational due to earthquake damage, St Pauls has vacated its church building and has been welcomed to share services with the local Anglican church. St Pauls members have hosted Long(est) Lutheran Lunches throughout the period of their ‘homelessness’, beginning in June with monthly feasting fellowship at members’ homes.

By the time they are able to return to their home church, they will have been lunching for six or seven months. At their special October lunch, St Pauls also hosted their Anglican friends and members of an Austrian choir.

Leaders of Christian Life Week in Victoria organised multiple lunches, beginning at their July camp, and followed by two more in the September school holidays.

The Hamilton parish, in south-western Victoria, were busy planning a Western Victoria Zone intercongregational day for 1 November and hadn’t planned to participate in a Longest Lutheran Lunch. However, once I informed them that what they were planning was exactly like a Longest Lutheran Lunch, with people sharing hospitality, that all changed. Within three weeks, the parish had organised three Longest Lutheran Lunches, celebrated by six congregations all on one day!

Those at Strathalbyn, south of Adelaide, enjoyed what may have been the Longest Lutheran sausages—60 centimetres, or two feet—at their lunch on 1 November.

Concordia Lutheran Church, at Duncraig, in suburban Perth in Western Australia, hosted an FFF—or Fabulous Friday Night—on 6 November.

Members at Chisholm in the ACT organised a Longest Lutheran Breakfast and officially were last to celebrate, on 22 November.

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Main photo, page 8: Some seriously long sausages were on offer at Strathalbyn’s Longest Lutheran Lunch, south of Adelaide, on 1 November.

This page, from top: More than 400 staff and students encircled the oval for lunch at Redeemer Lutheran School, Nuriootpa, in the Barossa Valley.

Above left: There was a distinctly Australian flavour to the lunch at Moculta, South Australia, for the Strait Gate parish’s event on 25 October. Above right: Members of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Witta in Queensland, dressed in period costume for their Longest Lutheran Lunch.

At the lunch at Bendigo in central Victoria, on 25 October, Sunday school children were challenged to see how many uses they could find for Longest Lutheran Lunch bandanas. They came up with 27 different ideas, and it was wonderful to see grandparents helping grandchildren.

Immanuel at North Adelaide played host to workers from nearby Lutheran offices on 6 November, while Langmeil Thanksgiving Lutheran Church, at Tanunda in the Barossa, took the opportunity to raise $1786 for Australian Lutheran World Service at its lunch on 25 October.

Andrea Cross is the Longest Lutheran Lunch coordinator. If your church, school or group took part but hasn’t yet sent your story and photos in, please email them to hello@longestlutheranlunch.org If you have already sent them in, watch out for them on the Longest Lutheran Lunch Facebook page.

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