Bishop's Page
Iceland: Church solidarity with displaced people following threat of volcanic eruption
www.lutheranworld.org
Iceland’s Lutheran church leaders and country’s President emphasize “no one has to be alone” and “we will get through this,” as they welcome people evacuated from the town of Grindavík wh...
lutheranchurchofaustralia.cmail20.com
To share this eNews with your congregation, copy this link into your print or online bulletin lcaenews.online/231114
Te Karaipiture, Whakaaroaro me te Karakia mo tenei ra …![]()
![]()
Scripture, Meditation and Prayer for Today …![]()
![]()
Be prepared![]()
![]()
by Stuart Gray![]()
![]()
Therefore, keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour (Matthew 25:13).![]()
![]()
Read Matthew 25:1–13![]()
![]()
How good are we at being prepared? During the 2019–20 bushfires in Victoria, I spent time at an emergency relief centre as a Victorian Council of Churches Emergency Ministry volunteer. My role was to be available to listen to people who were completely dislocated from their normal lives. Over the two days, I spoke with about 20 people. Most had made some fire preparations; some made very little preparation, even though at night, the sky was like an extended red sunset due to the fires. There was one young woman who came in quite distraught. Upon hearing her story, I told her that of all the people I had spoken to, she was the only one who had followed all the recommended preparations.![]()
![]()
Despite all the exhortations to prepare, and with the fires raging around the district, in this sample, only one person in about twenty was fully prepared.![]()
![]()
In this parable, Jesus says half the young women were prepared. It is interesting to note that initially, there is nothing to distinguish between the women, even to the extent they all fall asleep. But when the bridegroom comes, there is a very big distinction between the prepared and unprepared.![]()
![]()
The wise were able to enter the banquet as they had fulfilled the requirements of their task to shine their light for the bridegroom.![]()
![]()
The foolish couldn’t fulfil their requirements and were blocked from the banquet.![]()
![]()
In Matthew 7:21, Jesus says, ‘Not everyone who says to me “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.’![]()
![]()
I’ve often thought it was not very ‘Christian’ of the girls with the oil not to share it with the others. But the journey Jesus talks about is only something we can prepare for; no one else can do it for us. If someone wants to become a doctor, carpenter or priest, they have to do the study and take the exams if they want to qualify – no one else can do it for them.![]()
![]()
We all have to discern the will of the Father for ourselves and be prepared.![]()
![]()
How prepared are you?![]()
![]()
Father, we ask you to help us to be prepared to meet you at the eternal banquet. Make our light shine in this time of spiritual darkness so when our time comes to cry out, ‘Lord, Lord’, we may enter into your presence. Amen.
Te Karaipiture, Whakaaroaro me te Karakia mo tenei ra …![]()
![]()
Scripture, Meditation and Prayer for Today …![]()
![]()
Lord, give me patience – but hurry!![]()
![]()
by Rachael Stelzer![]()
![]()
Hasten, O God, to save me; come quickly, Lord, to help me (Psalm 70:1).![]()
![]()
Read Psalm 70 ![]()
![]()
Psalm 40 is one of my favourite psalms. It is a joyful testimony of God’s ability to listen to and answer the prayers of his child, a later anthem of God’s earlier intervention and victory.![]()
![]()
In reading Psalm 70, I remembered that Psalm 40 contains all of it – with some added sections. I wondered why God would choose to inspire the psalmist with the same words twice.![]()
![]()
Psalm 70 is not an angry request for God to graphically smite one’s enemies – there are more than a few of those in Psalms. The author does not ask for anything more gruesome for their adversaries than pangs of conscience and feelings of shame at what they have done. It is not a miserable song of despair, asking where God is in the author’s troubles. If anything, the author demonstrates emotional intelligence and a humble spirit.![]()
![]()
If there is a contemporary attitude that we could assign to this psalm, it seems to be a case of ‘Lord, give me patience – but hurry!’ The author has faith that their deliverance will happen but also expresses impatience and desperation to God.![]()
![]()
The gift to me in this psalm is that there are no major details of what the author is struggling with, and like so many other psalms, this opens it up to be used by anyone at any time … and by me right now. Whatever I am facing, whoever or whatever is oppressing my soul, God is more powerful.![]()
As in our reading on Sunday, the author comes humbly before God like the tax collector, recognising they have nothing to offer, but God is powerful. ‘I am poor and needy,’ says the psalmist. ‘O my God, do not delay.’![]()
![]()
Dear Lord, grant me the faith and trust to know you will intervene in whatever is troubling me. Give me the patience to wait on your timing and the cheek to keep bugging you. Thank you for your great parental compassion, which sees what I really need and acts. Keep me close to you. Amen.
Te Karaipiture, Whakaaroaro me te Karakia mo tenei ra …![]()
![]()
Scripture, Meditation and Prayer for Today …![]()
![]()
Suffering love![]()
![]()
by Rachael Stelzer![]()
![]()
‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,’ he said to them. ‘Stay here and keep watch’ (Mark 14:34).![]()
![]()
Read Mark 14:27–42 ![]()
![]()
On Wednesday, we read Jesus’ parable about the master who leaves the household in the care of his servants and leaves. The servants do not know when he will return, so they remain alert and awake for his arrival.![]()
![]()
Now Jesus finds himself in Gethsemane with his closest friends and asks them to ‘stay awake’. This is the same word he used in the parable, just a day or two earlier – the servants were to stay awake as they looked forward to the master’s return. Three times he asks them to stay awake with him, and three times they fall asleep on the job.![]()
![]()
We get a beautiful insight here into the lonely heart of Jesus, a heart that holds the knowledge of all that is to come the following day and also holds a fiercely burning love for his wayward, lost children – both for those on the Mount of Olives with him and for us, his 21st-century disciples. If we are honest, we fall away, deny and betray him as much as his early followers did. And if we look down the centuries at this sobbing man, we understand it was Jesus’ love for us that motivated those beautiful words of commitment as much as his friends on the hillside: ‘Yet not my will but yours be done’ (Mark 14:36).![]()
![]()
Max Lucado put it beautifully when he said that Jesus would rather go through hell for us than go to heaven without us. Only this great love would put aside fear and pain for the benefit of the beloved. What a joy to know that our Saviour loves us that much.![]()
![]()
Dear Jesus, you knew what was coming. You felt the pain. You suffered the loneliness and betrayal. And you saw us. Your heart broke with love for all of us, and that love that created the universe gave itself to free us from the separation of sin. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.
