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
JULY 2022
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
VOL 56 No 6
Print Post Approved PP100003514
MATTHEW 6 : 21
Ethical
INVESTMENT
Using our gifts for good
LUTHERAN
CHURCH OF AUSTRALIA
EDITORIAL
Editor Lisa McIntosh p 08 8267 7300 m 0409 281 703 e lisa.mcintosh@lca.org.au Executive Editor Linda Macqueen p 08 8267 7300 e linda.macqueen@lca.org.au
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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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Who’s who at the zoo?
It has been a time of firsts recently for 18-month-old Grey, who last month enjoyed his first visit to the Adelaide Zoo with proud grandparents Kim (pictured) and Brian Stubing. The same day Grey had his first look at The Lutheran and just one week earlier welcomed new baby sister Nova into the world, all during his first trip to Australia. Grey’s home is in the USA with parents Eden and Taylor. Brian, who took the photo and met his grandson for the first time in April, is a member at Faith Lutheran Church Warradale in suburban Adelaide, as is Kim.
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 Kitrina (Kit) Scott-Davies Nazareth Lutheran Church Woolloongabba Qld Senior Church Worker Support LCANZ/Senior Human Resource & IR Advisor LCAQD Most treasured Bible text: Psalm 90:17 ‘Let the favour of the Lord our God be upon us and establish the work of our hands upon us.’
Liam Weiss LifeWay Lutheran Church Epping NSW Engineering university student and junior IT technician Most treasured Bible text: Romans 8:28 ‘And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.’
Greta Matthias St Andrews Lutheran Church Tallebudgera Qld Civil engineering university student and Christian Life Week leader Most treasured Bible text: Ephesians 4:32 ‘Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ, God forgave 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.
July Special features EDITOR'S
let ter
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Ethical investment – talk about a meaty topic for an edition of The Lutheran! Lutheran! And isn’t it awkward to have money and ethics in one package? Most people don’t like to be told the ‘right way’ to spend, save, invest, or give away ‘their’ money. But, for a Christian, are investment and ethics really such odd bedfellows? Haven’t we all explored the concept of good stewardship being a responsibility that goes hand-in-hand with whatever financial gifts God has given us? Haven’t we read the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14–30) and half a dozen chapters earlier (19:24), learnt that it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter heaven? (Now, I don’t know about you, but earlier this week I couldn’t even get a thin strand of cotton through the eye of a needle to reattach a button on my coat, so the camel metaphor makes me wince.) As people of faith, if we are blessed to receive compulsory superannuation payments or have funds beyond our daily needs, we can take the concept of ‘ethical investing’ even further than its standard meaning. Under the secular definition, ethical investors may choose to put ‘their’ money into projects, products and companies with sound credentials in terms of environmental, social and governance practices, or ‘ESG’ as they are known.
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In the following pages, I pray you’ll be encouraged – and challenged – as you read stories from members of our Lutheran family about this topic. Along with our regular columns and faithlife materials, this edition is packed with news and views from around the church and resources offered by LCANZ ministries. God bless,
Lisa
PS – We are currently switching over our subscriber database management system which has led to some delays with annual invoicing, both for congregational groups and some individual subscribers. We apologise for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience and ongoing support.
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Putting your money where your values are
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Investing to bring blessings
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‘Why I am giving up my bed’
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Jesus, money and care for creation
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Thank you, Hanna, for 10 years’ service!
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Regulars Because we bear your name: Bishop Paul’s letter
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Indeed, these are worthy – and biblically backed – criteria. In Scripture God calls on us to care for creation and our fellow citizens, and expects us to act with integrity, accountability, honesty and justice in our dealings in business and finance. But whether we have ‘investments’ in the common understanding of the word, we can endeavour to do good through all of ‘our’ financial dealings. We may choose to ‘invest’ directly in people, from showing generosity to someone in need, to giving to overseas aid and development efforts, or donating to local charities working in such areas as youth unemployment, mental health, homelessness, domestic violence, or refugee support. We might make a regular gift or leave a bequest to a ministry of the church, or even give someone a gift subscription to The Lutheran! Lutheran!
The hows and whys of ethical investment
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Dwelling in God’s word
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Go and Grow
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Church@Home
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The inside story
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Your voice
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Directory
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Sudoku
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Going GREYT!
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Prayer calendar
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Our cover: iStock.com. Design by Elysia McEwen Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that the following pages may contain images of people who have died. The Lutheran J U LY 2 0 2 2
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Because we bear your name Mowing the footpath … and caring for the home that the Lord has given to us all. Growing up in Australia’s tropical far north means I learnt a lot about mowing. In my home country, you can watch the grass grow almost daily throughout the whole year. Tending our own yard is a common way that we live out the call to care for God’s creation. Mowing the footpath is a sign of not just tending our own space, but of tending the spaces that we share with others.
BISHOP PAUL’S LE T TER RE V PAUL SMITH Bishop, Lutheran Church of Australia and New Zealand
issues, but they are a step towards reducing our dependency on fossil fuels and the waste produced by internal-combustion engines. I find people from all walks of life eager to talk about the future and care for creation. People often tell me that they are interested in finding ways to have an electric car themselves, once they can figure out the issues of range and charging. A recent survey in New Zealand revealed that 45 per cent of residents in Aotearoa would consider making their next car purchase an electric car. It is about the same statistic in Australia, but the number increases to much more than 60 per cent when speaking with young adults.
In Genesis chapter one we read of the creation of humankind in the image of God. Straight after that creation, we find the command and commissioning Young people are drawing our attention to another side from the Lord God to you and me regarding caring for of caring for God’s creation, as they ask governments to God’s creation: ‘God blessed them, ensure that future generations receive a and God said to them, “Be fruitful planet that has been tenderly cared for. and multiply, and fill the earth and ‘ WE ARE CALLED TO Pope Francis also considered this in subdue it; and have dominion over his 2015 work on care. He said, ‘Today, BE CARETAKERS OF the fish of the sea and over the birds however, we have to realise that a true of the air and over every living thing H IS CREATIO N AN D ecological approach always becomes that moves upon the earth”’. a social approach; it must integrate WITN ESSES TO GOD’S questions of justice in debates on the Our Lutheran Church’s Commission O NGOI NG REDEM PTIO N environment, so as to hear both the cry on Social and Bioethical Questions is of the earth and the cry of the poor’. currently working on a statement with
OF ALL CREATIO N .’
the title ‘Caring for God’s Creation’. In the opening section, the statement says, ‘we are called to live our daily lives as children of the light (1 Thessalonians 5:5) and guided by the Holy Spirit (2 Timothy 1:14). As people who live under God’s saving rule here on earth through faith in Christ, we are called to be caretakers of his creation and witnesses to God’s ongoing redemption of all creation’.
It is profound that the Roman Catholic Pope Francis chose the topic ‘The Care for our Common Home’ for his very first public papal statement in 2015. Quoting work by Pope John Paul II, he extended a challenge for Christians of all denominations to become more active in tenderly caring for the earth our God has gifted us. Francis wrote, ‘Christians in their turn “realise that their responsibility within creation, and their duty towards nature and the Creator, are an essential part of their faith”’. I have recently become the owner of an electric car. Electric cars are not a quick solution to environmental
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So, we also ‘mow the footpath’. By that phrase, I mean that, as followers of Jesus Christ, we are led by the Spirit to serve our neighbour, asking, ‘How can we look after the earth and also care for our neighbour by ensuring that we leave the world in better condition than it was when we entered it?’ For the times we have failed in our call to care for the creation, Lord, have mercy on us. For the times we have exploited our neighbour, Lord, have mercy on us. Lord, give us eyes to see opportunities to work together for the care of the world and our neighbour. Lord, grant us grace to walk by faith active in love. Amen. 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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