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 8
Print Post Approved PP100003514
SEPTEMBER 2022
you do t a h t l l Let a e. e in lov n o d e b 4 ESV IN 1 COR
T
1 6 :1 H IA N S
SH AR ING Y O UR L IF E
the priceless gift of organ donation
LUTHERAN
CHURCH OF AUSTRALIA
Every Sunday, without fail
EDITORIAL
Editor Lisa McIntosh p 08 8267 7300 m 0409 281 703 e lisa.mcintosh@lca.org.au
Libby Krahling (St Petri, Nuriootpa SA) sneaks a peek at The Lutheran after a worship service. For those of you who are charged with leading worship, Libby is the person you can thank for faithfully preparing worship services for every Sunday of the church year. Read more about Commission on Worship resources (page 11). 11).
Executive Editor Linda Macqueen p 08 8267 7300 e linda.macqueen@lca.org.au
CONNECT WITH US We Love The Lutheran! lutheranaunz lutheranchurchaus
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DESIGN & PRINT Design & Layout Elysia McEwen Printer Openbook Howden The Lutheran is produced on the traditional lands of the Kaurna and Dharug peoples.
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LUTHERAN
CHURCH OF AUSTRALIA
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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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 Marjorie Dorothy Thewlis Our Redeemer Warracknabeal, Victoria Retired, enjoys attending Program Activity Group to catch up with friends Most treasured Bible text: Revelation 2:10b ‘Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.’
Oriel Gallasch St Petri Nuriootpa SA High school student, confirmed at St Petri last month Most treasured Bible text: John 15:16,17 ‘You did not choose me, I chose you and appointed you so that you might bear fruit … whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: love each other.’
Elizabeth Collins St Michael’s Lutheran Church Hahndorf SA Retired and proud Nanna; volunteer at St Paul’s Lutheran Homes Hahndorf Most treasured Bible text: Psalm 9:10 ‘Those who know your name will trust in you, for you Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.’ 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.
September Special features EDITOR'S
let ter
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On the surface, the question of whether to volunteer to be an organ donor, either while living or posthumously, seems straightforward. For a living donor, the gift of a kidney or a part of a liver is a sacrifice that may save the life of a compatible family member. It’s something many of us would like to think we wouldn’t hesitate to do. After death, provided the circumstances are right, one donor’s organs may give a second chance at life to as many as five or six people. The Bible teaches us that life is precious – sacred, actually. It also teaches us that the way of Christ is the way of sacrifice and that we are to love others as he first loved us. Of course, Jesus didn’t give only a part of himself to give us life; he made the ultimate sacrifice, giving his whole self, his whole life. As we read in John 15:13, ‘Greater love has no-one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends’. Nevertheless, the donation of one’s organs is rarely as straightforward as it might appear when we place a tick in the box on our driver’s licence. It can involve complex moral questions. The Bible also warns us, from Genesis onwards, against playing God.
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Sharing the gift of life
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An adventure in sharing grace
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A centuries-old play retold for our age
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Regulars Because we bear your name: Bishop Paul’s letter
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In this edition, Nick Schwarz, the Assistant to the Bishop – Public Theology, explores the ethics of organ donation and the Christian perspective. We also are privileged to feature the moving personal story of a long-time Lutheran college teacher who has had two incredibly challenging experiences with organ donation. And, yet, good has come from them. As usual, we have a Bible study that relates to the edition theme. And you’ll also find a wealth of resources and a range of views and news from across the LCANZ in these pages.
Exploring the ethics of organ donations
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Dwelling in God’s word
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Go and Grow
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The inside story
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Going GREYT!
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Directory
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Your voice
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Prayer calendar
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I pray that you’ll be challenged and inspired, as I have been. Finally, I wish to offer special thanks to the people who jumped in to help me finish this edition during what was a particularly challenging time for me. God bless,
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Lisa
Dear readers, you will note that this edition of The Lutheran is a little lighter than usual. It is missing a couple of regular features. Our editor Lisa was on bereavement leave during the final week of preparation of this edition; both her mother and her stepfather died on 8 August. In the midst of her grief, Lisa has worked hard to deliver this slightly abbreviated edition to you on time. I know you will be grateful.
Linda
Our cover: iStock.com Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that the following pages may contain images of people who have died. The Lutheran S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 2
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Because we bear your name God is busily involved in the messiness of our lives! This is celebrated most wonderfully in Psalm 139, where we are taught to pray, ‘O Lord … it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb’. Modern scientific discovery has taught us much about the journey of a little child in the mother’s womb. The womb is a place of fluids, nutrients, of warmth and blood flow. The image of God’s hands at work, gently ‘knitting’ us together in our mother’s womb is a beautiful description of the loving gracious care of God for us, from our very beginnings, in that interesting and somewhat messy place. The psalmist then proclaims, ‘I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well’. God does a great job in creating us. We are each unique and each beautifully created.
BISHOP PAUL’S LE T TER RE V PAUL SMITH Bishop, Lutheran Church of Australia and New Zealand
handiwork in our individual lives. In explaining the first article of the Apostles’ Creed, he writes: ‘I believe that God has created me together with all that exists. God has given me and still preserves my body and soul: eyes, ears, and all limbs and senses; reason and all mental faculties. In addition, God daily and abundantly provides shoes and clothing, food and drink, house and farm, spouse and children, fields, livestock, and all property – along with all the necessities and nourishment for this body and life’ (Kolb-Wengert edition). ‘God daily and abundantly provides …’. This generosity of God is at the heart of our Christian thanksgiving. God is still at work in our world, creating and preserving abundantly and so we give thanks by faith for all that we have received, including our physical selves. Sometimes, it can be hard to accept this, so we ask for eyes to help us to see God’s loving and creative hand at work, including in the way we are physically created.
WE LIVE I N A WORLD OBSESSED WITH U NOBTAI NABLE I DEALS OF PHYSICAL PERFECTION .
We live in a world obsessed with unobtainable ideals of physical perfection. We are told to lighten our skin colour if it is too dark or to darken our skin if it is too light. Our noses are too long or too short. Legs. Hips. The ‘body corrections’ that are posted in images on social media are a testimony to just how endless is the world’s list of ‘body parts that need correcting’. This is an ever-increasing terrible burden for young people. A 2021 study by City University of London discovered that 90 per cent of women surveyed reported using a filter or editing their photos before posting them online.
But from that beautifully ‘messy’ place of our mother’s womb, we are declared to be fearfully and wonderfully made with all our unique, unusual peculiarities. Lutheran songwriter Robin Mann wrote his song ‘Complaint in C’ to celebrate this message. It takes the form of a prayer of a struggling person who keeps asking God to fix all the things that the world says ‘are wrong with me’ rather than to celebrate what it is to be fearfully and wonderfully made by the gracious loving hand of God. Learning Martin Luther’s Catechism teaches Christian people to celebrate God’s past and present creative
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This is also our Christian conviction regarding the way we view our neighbours. Each person is a beloved creation of our gracious Creator. God provides for them in the way that God provides for us. Sometimes, we are called to be the means through which God provides for our neighbours. The incarnation of Christ Jesus in the womb of his mother Mary reveals for all time that we are of the one same humanity. Christ our Redeemer became human in the way that we are all human. He is born from the same somewhat messy place where we are all formed: our mother’s womb. Though without sin, our Lord Jesus was fully human with the same physical uniqueness that we experience. So, we pray with the psalmist, ‘I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made’. In Christ,
Paul
Lord Jesus, we
belong to you,
live in us, we live in you; work for you – because we bear your name
you
we live and
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