Because we bear your name August–September 2024

Like most little children, my daughter Felicity loved stories. She progressed through the standard children’s bedtime books, through to the Narnia Chronicles by C S Lewis, then even to ancient Viking sagas. Today, she is a passionate editor for an Australian publishing company, working with authors to get their stories shared and cherished.

Felicity also learned how story carries community and gives people a common focus. It is no coincidence that she is known among her family and friends as a ‘people-gatherer’. She is good at getting people together to share their stories in new friendship groups.

As Christians, we, too, are people of ‘story’. There is a well-loved hymn that features the line, ‘tell me the old, old story, of Jesus and his love’. To use the word ‘story’ does not diminish the truth of the gospel. The word ‘story’ highlights the telling and sharing of this message passed down to us from the early Christians. In his letter to the Corinthians, St Paul writes about passing on the story. ‘For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures’ (1 Corinthians 15:3,4).

Our ‘story’, as a Lutheran church in Australia and New Zealand, is the telling of people travelling to the ends of the earth to share the good news of ‘Jesus and his love’, especially with the indigenous peoples of our countries on either side of the Tasman Sea. The pioneer Lutheran Christians in this part of the world were mission workers who came to share the hope of the gospel with Australia’s First Nations peoples.

In the Easter story written in Matthew’s gospel, we are reminded of being sent for the ‘telling’ of the old, old story that changes our hearts: ‘ … the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him’. This is my message for you.”’

When we get together for the Convention of General Synod in October this year, we are being ‘community people’ of the story we are sent to tell. This is our common identity as people of the Lutheran Church of Australia and New Zealand. We gather to find purposeful ways to pass on the good news of God’s grace that we have received. The convention summarises this call with the theme, ‘The Gift of God: It’s grace that unites us’.

Martin Luther once wrote an ancient Latin prayer into a German hymn, for faithful people to sing and pray, seeking the Lord to fight for us. His words are found in number 866 in our Lutheran Hymnal and Supplement. But the prayer is not simply asking the Lord to fight for us, to destroy others. Instead, the prayer calls on the Lord of mercy, to fight for peace. This is the peace that keeps our hearts and minds in all that Christ Jesus has done for us.

As we get ready for our LCANZ 2024 Convention of General Synod where we gather for the telling the old, old story to one another, let us pray this ancient Latin prayer to the Lord of the cross and the empty tomb:

‘Grant peace, we pray, in mercy, Lord,
peace in our time, O send us!
For there is none on earth but you,
none other to defend us.
You only, O Lord, fight for us. Amen.’
Martin Luther, Lutheran Hymnal and Supplement 866 

In Christ,
Paul 

‘Lord Jesus, we belong to you,
you live in us, we live in you;
we live and work for you –
because we bear your name’