2005 New Year’s Eve Saal / Service in Bayswater
Elder: Alfred Klink, start 18:30
Music: Veronica Rudowicz

Hymns: 120 “Von guten Mächten...” just one verse.
71 “Mit Jubelklang stimmt an das Lied...” verses 1, 2 & 6.

When the shadows lengthen in the evening and the sun sets and darkness descends on us, when the sky opens the curtains to the cosmos and we see the stars sending their coded greetings, we may occasionally become aware of the passage of time. We human beings live consciously inside a medium called time. We experience everything in life as having a beginning and an ending. We count our age with annual birthdays, and our marriages with annual anniversaries. We evaluate history in units of time: days, years, decades and centuries. Because that is so it is inevitable that when we come to an end point of one of our measurements of time, like tonight, we pause to reflect and evaluate.
Not only do we live consciously inside that medium, we have an internal clock tuned to diurnal changes of light and darkness; a program adapted to our rhythm of working, eating and sleeping. It helps our mind and body to anticipate the environmental changes that surround us and prepare us for peak efficiency or for effective relaxation. All subconsciously. This biological clock aligns itself with the flow of time during the day, to the routines of the working week, to seasonal changes in the length of the day, temperature fluctuations during the year and the type of activity we do. We have all heard of occasions (even experienced it on our own body) where this clock came out of step with the time of day. On long aircraft flights we may become disoriented, can’t sleep, and our body clock may take days or even weeks to catch up with the new environment. If you have ever had to work shift work you will know how hard it is to switch from day shift to night shift or vise versa. We are creatures of habits, conditioned by the daily environment. We know this daily synchronising with the environment does extend to the seven day week. We all look forward to the weekend, a change of pace, a family environment for a day or so, and then on Monday start the new week with fresh enthusiasm and vigour. What I am asking now is, could this biological time-keeping extend over the period of a year? Does our body-clock need an annual break? Has New Year and New Year’s Eve more than a historical significance in our lives? I would like to come back to that in a moment.

Let us now sing hymn number 120, “Von guten Mächten...” The hymn has only one verse so, that we may fit the words to the melody properly, Veronica will first play the melody through once and you can hum along in English or German; the second time around we sing with all our heart.
 

Our text for today comes from the book of psalms and is very appropriate for today’s reflection on the passage of time – Psalm 90, a prayer of Moses. I have selected from the verses 1 - 12. “...O Lord, even before the mountains were brought forth and you formed the Earth and the world, you are God. A thousand years in your sight are as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night...They are like the grass that sprouts up in the morning and in the evening it is cut down....The years of our lives are threescore and ten; and if by reason of strength they are fourscore, their pride is labour and sorrow for we are soon cut off and fly away. Teach us, o Lord, to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom”.

The lovely story of creation in the Book of Genesis has divided our lives into seven-day cycles from time immemorial. God set the scene, as He worked the first day between evening and morning, reflected on his work and pronounced it good. – Theologians still argue about whether God created the world ex nihilo, out of nothing; that is to say there was no matter, no space or time before. The Hebrew text leaves that open. The author’s account though does resemble other ancient creation stories -- for example, the Babylonian and Greek. In both these pagan tales the orderly universe is wrested from primeval chaos of darkness and disorganized matter ("chaos" is in fact the Greek term). – God worked the second and the third day to finish the major construction work, and then on the fourth, fifth and sixth day he attended to fitting it out and bringing life into it. In today’s computer language we would allocate three days to construct the hardware and three days to design the necessary software to run it. That done God took a rest. Why would the author of the Book of Genesis have felt the need to give God a day of rest? – By the way have you ever wondered about the quaint sounding definition of a day in Genesis? It does not say from morning to evening, but very specifically it says, from evening to morning. This is worth a moment’s reflection. Imagine you had none of the trimmings of modern civilisation, how would you tell the time of the day? By the rising sun of course, you say. But the sun rises (or sets) at different times during the year. At what time would you then say one day finished and the next day started? There is one obvious moment in the daily cycle that never varies – when the sun is at its highest point in the sky it is 12 o’clock. And in the days the Bible was written that was the only reliable reference point, readily available to everyone. That’s why they started each day at 12 noon, not at midnight as we do now, and it lasted from midday to midday. The time from noon to noon was then divided into a convenient number of hours, or buckets of water or whatever mechanical devices they used to measure the time periods for regulating their daily activities. God’s day of rest would have been from noon on Saturday to noon on Sunday.

Let’s go back a step. Why was it necessary to give God a day of rest? Or, turning it around the other way, why did God deem it proper to insert a rest-day at all, and why after six working days. Why not five, or seven or 10? It appears that at the time the book was written the need of people for a break in routine work was already well known to the Hebrew. And why seven days? History shows that despite serious attempts to introduce a working “week” of different lengths none of the alternatives ever took on. The ancient Egyptians are known to have used a 10 day week, as did the French after the revolution in 1793. The French also, in a fit of metrication madness, divided the day into ten hours consisting of 100 minutes of 100 seconds each. It was short lived; Napoleon abolished it again in 1806. The seven day week probably originated in Babylon or Persia and proved definitely the most popular and enduring system. It was already known in Rome long before Christianity came on the scene. Why seven? There are many theories for the magic of seven. For example, if you wrap a rubber band around seven circular objects you get a perfect hexagon with the 7th in the middle. It is the only stable configuration of wrapping more than 3 circular objects. Another viable theory correlates the seven day week to the seven (astrological) "planets" known to the ancients: Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn, which seems to be confirmed by the similarity of their names. But I feel there must be more to the seven day week than just religious or astrological motivation. It must have something to do with our human make-up. We are not machines. When organised labour became part of community life, introduction of an occasional chance for reflection became essential. Apart from a belief in a higher order of things we humans have a need to see an end to what we are doing, a break, an opportunity to talk to people, refocus our attention away from the mundane to something new, something different. Perhaps concentrating on the one chore for six days is the break-even point in our brain. After that you start to loose concentration, your mind wanders, you start making mistakes and have accidents. It is a psychological effect that some compare to a battery running down and needing recharging.
 

Do we also posses such a feeling for the annual cycle? Is there more to New Year’s Eve and Happy New Year than eat and drink and make merry? Do we have a psychological need to put a line under the completed year, make a balance of debit and credit? add up our emotional Soll und Haben? Do we see it as an opportunity for a fresh start? Another New Year’s Resolution, like: do more exercise, stick to the latest diet, go to Saal regularly, write more letters, say Hello to more people, wash the car each week, talk to the neighbours, invite our friends for dinner, or perhaps take that overdue overseas trip? – On New Year’s Eve it is open season on wishes. It is Christmas all over, even better, for the promises you give on New Year’s Eve you get to keep yourself; the Credit Card on emotions has no limits. – Why shouldn’t humans have an inbuilt annual clock? We know that plants have it, they know when to sprout, when to flower, when to let the fruit ripen and when to let their leafs fall. Animals have it, the birds and the bees have it. Why not us? Just because we have eaten from the tree of knowledge, must our consciousness override all our instincts? Today society can foretell the tides and count the seasons, we measure the years by the politicians, the decades by the wars waged, the centuries by technology, the millennia by the dominating religion and the ages by the material used for the construction of tools. Excitement builds as we count down the seconds towards midnight: ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one – Happy New Year! We have done it! Actually to be correct this year you will have to count ...three, two, one, one – Happy new Year! For science, in its never-ending quest for greater and greater accuracy will this year again add a leap second on New Years Eve at midnight. Our Earth is slowing down and our days are getting longer. Since 1967, when it was decided to tie the length of the standard second to atomic time rather than to the solar day, 25 such leap seconds have had to be added.
Numbering our days, fixing the exact end of one year and the start of a new year has always been important to man for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was religion and the timing of Easter. Early civilisations used the heliacal (meaning near the sun) first rising of a bright star after its conjunction with the sun. The Sothic year of the Egyptians is determined by the rising of Sothis (the Egyptian name for the Dog Star, Sirius), which also heralds the flooding of the Nile. Massive and elaborate monuments, circles of stone like Stonehenge, are believed to have been dedicated to such quests. The Romans first used the Vernal Equinox, the time when the sun’s path through the sky starts to cross the Equator. Vernal means ‘in Spring’ and Equinox equal night. Remember the soothsayer’s warning to Julius Caesar? ‘beware the Ides of March’? That used to be the start of their year. The early Roman calendar had only ten months and started the year in March, which is still reflected in the names of some months derived from Roman numerals: September (Seventh), October (Eighth), November (Ninth), December (Tenth). Around 115 BC the months of January and February were added to the end of the year. But because consuls were chosen in January, and because years were named after the consuls who served in that year, January became the de facto beginning of the year, until in 45 BC Julius Caesar introduced the Julian calendar, officially decreeing that the New Year should start on 1 January.
When we thus reflect on the nature of our guidelines, we recognise how much the apparent order of modern civilisation depends on how we structure science and technology, and how much our decisions for the coming year are based on our trust in the value of the system. We realise that our wishes for the customary health and happiness and peace on Earth will always be a compromise with reality. Jesus is quoted as having said: "In this world you will have tribulation." The peace he promised was, in his words, "not as the world gives." When in the Fourth Gospel he is asked whether either the blind man or his parents were guilty of causing his blindness, he said that this is not how the world operates. It is our belief and our capacity for hope that gives us the courage to live in this evolving and transitory world without despair. Our job is to make this world into a more user-friendly place where ever we can, and to accept as reality that which what we cannot change.

A sad reminder of the “three-score and ten” transitory nature of our existence on this Earth is the list of 12 Members and Friends who passed away during the year 2005. Would those of you who can please stand in honour of their memory while I read out their names:
*Luise Imberger, Agnes Stütz, *Theodor Doh, *Luise Wied, Paul Rubitschung, *Nella Weller, *Annemarie Kirchner, *Else Hermann, Manfred Unger, *Hildegard Turnevicius, *Agnes Lämmle, *Elly Steller and, I have just been told, Briar Hornung.
Having passed our way on their journey through God’s enigmatic kingdom here on Earth they, in passing, have left this world a better place. We extend our sincere condolences to the families. –
Please be seated

On a happier note we take pleasure in announcing 12 Babies born to Members and Friends during the year:
Jaqui Evelyn Katz, *Mia Johanna Christine Hoefer, Tate Rodi Schwarzbauer, Riley James Löbert,
Liam Alexander Arndt, Natalie Loren Scheerle, Aida Ellen Arndt McCoid, Owen Hugh Spieth,
Rachel Susanne Glover, Benjamin Kurt Spieth, *Ellena Lauren Glenk, Benjamin Nikolai Arndt.
We congratulate the happy couples and wish the babies and their parents (and their grandparents) health and happiness in all the years to come.
Health and happiness to you all, as we now look forward to the new year with anticipation. Tonight we turn over the page in our book of life on 2005 and let the blank pages of 2006 tempt us to write of our hopes and aspirations for the next 12 months. Tomorrow the curtain will rise on a brand new day, of a brand new year and a brand new adventure. “The darkness cedes, the night retreats, the glorious sun has risen...”
Let us greet the new year, the start of summer and the new generation as we sing together the song of joy and the glory of God, hymn number 71: “mit Jubelklang stimmt an das Lied...” , verses 1, 2 & 6.

I received a lovely Christmas Card from an overseas friend with a little story called The Four Candles. In closing let me just tell you about it. In the story you have a dream that there are four candles within you. When they are all alight they make your eyes shine, your face radiant and you are a nice person. Each candle is sustained by one of your emotions. The first candle is called Peace. One day you felt angry about all the strife in the world and the candle became sad and went out. The second candle is called Trust. It went out when a friend disappointed you. The third candle is called Love, but it could not find reciprocate love and went out. There was only one candle left, you had lost your energy, your confidence and your vitality. Then a young child came along. It saw the cold candles and asked them, why are you three candle out. Each of them told their sad story. Then the child asked the last candle ‘what is your name?’ Hope, the candle said. ‘You look wonderful’, said the young child. ‘I’ll just take your light and with it light up all the others’. No sooner said than done, with the candle Hope it lit up Peace, Trust and Love. The four of them filled you with a warm glow that made your eyes shine again and your face radiant.
The moral of the story? Es irrt der Mensch so lang er strebt, doch hoffet er, solang er lebt. As long as you have hope all the other emotions can be rekindled. Any child knows that.

If I appear to mix science, religion and philosophy in my Saals at random, it is with a genuine belief that this is the way modern society becomes aware of the benefits that can arise from participating in religious groups. While we humans have an inbuilt need to believe, that belief is effective only if you are able to share it with others. It has to be believable. The Templer religious philosophy, to be seen as an attractive way of life by others, needs to prove itself laterally, beyond our community. This it can only do through science. Religion to me is part of science. It can no longer be seen as a subject detached from everyday life and the living. It is part of the wider field of philosophy, the love of wisdom. Teach us, O Lord, to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.

 == Music ==

Thank you, Veronica, for the music, thanks to the unseen hands that arranged the friendly flowers and thank you all for making this evening here in this temple a pleasure. I wish you a happy and safe New Year holiday. May 2006 be a prosperous year for you and your families; a peaceful year full of trusting friends and loving happiness and, most of all, a healthy dose of hope. 

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Sunday Service in Bentleigh, 27 November

Elder: Theo Richter

Good morning to you all and welcome to our service here in Bentleigh.

I really love this time of the year.  The whole atmosphere is still charged with the freshness and beauty of spring, but the days are getting warmer with every now and then, a hot one to remind us that summer is just around the corner.  Our noses, if not encumbered by hay fever, are assailed by a host of sensory delights as we move around – the rich smell of fresh cut grass, the delicate fragrance of flowers in bloom, the distinct smells of eucalypt and ti-tree.

As you can probably tell, I’ve just come back from a day mowing the lawn at our holiday house at Tootgarook – the blend of warm weather, freshly mown lawns and the sea breeze is one that I delight in every time I’m down there.  More importantly, the time spent there gives me the ability to reassess where things are at and gives me the chance to digest the many happenings that surround our lives at the moment.

As was the case last Thursday, every now and then we get a humid day, followed by a thunderstorm.  The sharp crack of thunder and lightning as it goes off overhead - flashes lighting up the ominous dark clouds in the sky, and the rattle of the window panes as the sound of distant thunder rumbles into silence.

These are my signs that summer is around the corner and that Christmas will soon be upon us.  And in that vein, I wonder what Christmas will bring us this year?  I’m sure for all of us living in Melbourne, it’s not a question of how we shall celebrate because our family traditions go on with little change from year to year, but rather, the main question is usually, “What will the weather be like?”

Will it be a cold and rainy one, where we can celebrate in the warmth of our richly decorated houses, sitting amongst our family and friends with windows tight shut and heaters on full blast?

Will it be the perfect day – sunny, 23 degrees with a light breeze just strong enough to keep the heat off without being annoying, where the best possible end to the day is Christmas Eve and you genuinely can’t wait till nightfall to start the festivities?

Will it be a hot and sultry one, where the hot north wind blows all day and gathers up a menacing thunderstorm that unloads its anger just as we’ve lit the candles and want to start singing carols – the large drops of rain falling in fat crescendos of water, literally wave after wave - drowning out our voices and exposing all the tiniest leaks in the roof?

Or will it be a Christmas celebrated at the end of a long hot day, where the temperature has broken through the forties and everything, including the candle bedecked tree, is hanging in limp aridity, hardly able to wait for the sun to set and bring on the blessed relief from the scorching sun, only to be thwarted and dealt the double blow of a night spent tossing on the bed being smothered by 30+ degree temperatures.

I think it’s actually quite wonderful to think that we in Melbourne actually experience this varying weather and can remember a time in our lives when most of , if not two or three at the same time, of the aforementioned Christmases took place.  It certainly adds an extra dimension to our experience of this wonderful time.

In the spirit of this feeling, I thought we could open our service with Hymn number 17 – ‘Brüder, singt ein Lied der Freude’ – ‘Come, sing a song of joy’, which is sung to the melody of ‘Ode to Joy’ by Beethoven.  We will sing verses one, two and three.  Please feel free to sing in either German or English

Our hymn provides us with powerful yet simple words of praise and hope for mankind.  In it we find the twin emotions of joy and love – emotions that reside in our existence when we embrace a life devoted to and inspired by Gods leadership, guidance and love.  And it is through his love, that we are able to know love.  By knowing love, we are able to show love. And through showing love, we are able to overcome the many barriers that cause the pain of misunderstanding – not only for ourselves, but for our fellow mankind.

Our text today is taken from John 8: verses 14 – 18 and it reads thus:

Then, midway through the festival, Jesus went up to the Temple and preached openly.  The Jewish leaders were surprised when they heard him.  “How can he know so much when he’s never been to our schools?” they asked.

So Jesus told them, “I’m not teaching you my own thoughts, but those of God who sent me.  If any of you really determines to do God’s will, then you will certainly know whether my teaching is from God or is merely my own.  Anyone presenting his own ideas is looking for praise for himself, but anyone seeking to honour the one sent him is a good and true person.”

Our text deals with that time in Jesus’ life known as the Galilean ministry.  He travels throughout Galilee preaching the word of God, healing and teaching all who choose to come and listen.  His ministry is punctuated by the many healings and miracles that he used to demonstrate that he was the son of God.

At the time of this text, the Jewish people were celebrating one of their annual festivals – the Tabernacle Ceremonies.  The main festivities are to take place in Judea in Jerusalem at the Temple and Jesus is urged by his brothers to attend so that his works and his fame should gain a greater audience.  Jesus, however, is uncertain if he should go because he believes it is too early in his ministry and that he has already attracted the undue attention of the Jewish leaders and believes they are plotting against him.

So he stays back and only in the very last moment, decides he will go.  In so doing, he travels secretly and plans to stay out of the public eye and not attract any undue attention.  His hesitation was not misguided – during the whole of the festivities the Jewish leaders were in fact searching for him, asking all and sundry if they had seen or heard of this mysterious Jesus.  Adding fuel to their fire, the Jewish leaders over heard the discussion about him in the crowd.  Everyone had a story to tell and the crowd was split in their opinion of him – there were definitely a group who saw him as a wonderful person and others who saw him as a fake and there were many there who could be swayed to support him.

Given his indecision prior to this trip to Jerusalem, and his apparent desire to remain off the Jewish leaders’ radar as much as possible, it is a conundrum when we then read that after a few days in Jerusalem, Jesus chose to make himself known, and in such a public manner as to preach before the Temple.  Although the text doesn’t actually say so, perhaps we can deduce that, having not revealed himself to the crowd, Jesus was able to listen to their talk and deduce that he had more support than he had previously imagined and that a declaration of his presence would benefit the aims of his mission.

We can reasonably support this assumption with some degree of confidence as is evidenced in a later passage of text:

‘Then the Jewish leaders sought to arrest him, but no hand was laid upon him, for Gods time had not yet come. Many among the crowds at the Temple believed in him.  “After all,” they said, “what miracles do you expect the Messiah to do that this man hasn’t done?”’

Jesus faced a fickle audience – one that could be swayed by popular opinion and he clearly saw that the way to their heart lay in satisfying their external, worldly interests, not just by appealing to their spiritual minds.  Jesus realised this very early in his ministry and although he was prepared to play to this requirement, he never lost sight of his purpose – to win their hearts and minds for God's purpose.

In a previous text, whilst preaching to the masses on the shores of Lake Galilee, Jesus said to them, ‘But you shouldn’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. No, spend your energy seeking the eternal life that I, the Messiah, can give you.  For God has sent me for this very purpose’

Although his previous hesitation to declare himself shows a certain lack of confidence, we must remember that in Jesus’ time, the Pharisee’s had a vice like grip on social and spiritual life over all of biblical Israel.  They were strongly supported in this by the military might of the then occupying power - the Roman Empire.  Any insurgency was summarily and ruthlessly dealt with.  In this early part of his ministry it was critical for Jesus to know that he had the majority support from the crowd.  If he had it, he knew that any detractors would be out numbered and his could be secure in the knowledge that the sentiment of the crowd would protect him and keep him in safety and would allow him to deliver his message unimpeded.  Even then, he needed to be very careful to choose the right time and place to deliver his message from God.  The thronging masses could change very quickly - if he chose the wrong place and a more right wing crowd, he could just as easily have been set upon as a usurper and been handed over to the Pharisee’s to be dealt with as they saw fit.

And we must remember that part of God’s plan for Jesus was that he should be the catalyst that broke the hold the Pharisee’s had over the spiritual wellbeing of the common population.  Jesus was sent to re-establish direct channels of communion with God, rather than that communion being controlled, as it was, by the organised religious establishment.  This put him at odds with the establishment and, by way of their organised power base; they were in the perfect position to deflect his challenge to their authority.  Jesus, especially at this time of his Ministry, was very much the upstart challenger to the established order.

That Jesus was successful in his mission is not in doubt – we, as an assembly of Christian believers, are the end product of his success.

I wonder if any of you has read a very interesting article in The Age on Saturday 12^th November 2005 as part of the feature article The Saturday Essay and titled ‘Does Jesus have a Future?’  Written by Archbishop Peter Jensen, it is prefaced by the opening commentary ‘Christ is slipping out of memory and imagination, but replacing him with myths such as Eureka is not enough to sustain our values in difficult times.’  I will read directly from the article.

I’ve spent most of my life talking to Australians about Jesus.  He is my great enthusiasm.  But it’s a job that’s getting harder.  I am wondering how the future of our country will intersect.  Let me illustrate.

Four of our brightest and best university medallists, historians, lawyers, Harvard graduates and first-class honours men have written a book called Imagining Australia: Ideas for our Future.  It is a work of bold and imaginative suggestions.  Rightly, they put a discussion of Australian values in the first chapter, headed” Australian National Identity”.  After all, it’s hard to imagine the future without starting with matters of belief, identity, ethics, relationships and history.

But they do not have much room for Jesus in their vision of our future.  They see that we need values, but they favour humanist values.  They seem to think that a secular state means a secular community.

Perhaps they think that multiculturalism has disaffiliated Jesus; he is too divisive to be allowed to speak.  I wonder though, how much they actually know about Jesus.  Perhaps they lack the requisite knowledge to bring him into the discussion.  For example, they casually quote Abraham Lincoln as an authority; Lincoln saying that a house divided against itself cannot stand.

No doubt he did say this.  But he knew quite well, as did all his hearers, that he was quoting Jesus.  He was citing a supreme cultural authority; he did not have to offer a footnote.  But we have now reached a stage where four highly educated and intelligent Australians apparently fail to recognise a standard quote from the Bible.  It explains, I suppose, the absence of Jesus from their treatment of values.

Mind you, it is a surface absence, because, whether they know it or not, Jesus is basic to our history, and so our culture.  Thus, when they are trying to upgrade traditional Australian characteristics, such as a fair go, Jesus pops up, anonymously.  In a truly striking sentence, they say: “The modern fair go demands that we do unto others as we would have done unto ourselves.”

Jesus is there, but he has been rendered invisible.  He is the anonymous Jesus: he makes his contribution without acknowledgement.

Frankly, Jesus is slipping out of memory and imagination.  We cannot really blame the authors of the book.

I thought this a startling commentary on where the mission that Jesus founded sat in the modern psyche.  It leads one to think around our ability to assimilate knowledge and interpret information.  And it begs the question, “Has our modern age swallowed up the source of original thought and is it producing a society based on one size fits all?”

In asking this question, I am thinking specifically of the Information Age and the way that current society trades in it.  One of the most substantial changes that has beset society is the internet.  By typing a simple lookup request on almost any topic, you can usually receive an answer that satisfies the request.  Information is at the ready - it is available and it can be gotten now.  There is no question in my mind, it is a wonderful medium, but it has its flaws and the ‘buyer must beware’.  One of its drawbacks is that we need to be careful that the information is reliable.  It is difficult in many cases to substantiate the source of the information that your search engine retrieves.  And because of this difficulty, you often need to roughly know whether the answer you get fits in with what you expected.  It’s a bit like in maths – you need a ballpark idea of what the answer will be to be able to know that the answer you got is right.  Simplified, despite what your calculator says, 0.1 x 10 cannot equal 10, and you must have some inkling of the magnitude of the answer to know this and be able to realise that you made a keying error.

Contrast this with even 20 years ago and it was a totally different situation.  You either bought the relevant reference book, or you went to the library to borrow one.  Either way, you could substantiate your source of information very easily because the tomes of reference were valid and verifiable.  Thus, in this pre-internet age, you knew that a quote that came from a different source had to be acknowledged in the form of a footnote or a reference in the bibliography.  The rules of publishing dictated that this would be so in every case.

The point that Archbishop Jensen makes in his article in The Age is that no-one seems to know that these saying come from the bible and that they can be directly attributed to Jesus.  And the reason why this is so, is that the rules that used to ensure that information is valid and verifiable have been weakened through such media as the internet.  Information is traded so prolifically in our current society that the veritable footnote or bibliography is often missing, resulting in the inevitable issue where ‘quotes are unwittingly being misquoted’.  And thus, Abraham Lincoln is attributed with the quote and Jesus doesn’t get a mention.

The article goes on to discuss the relative place that Jesus – in fact all of Christianity - has played in the history of modern Australia and that it is difficult to separate these two components. And it further supposes that the view presented by the four academics in their work Imagining Australia: Ideas for our Future firstly precludes the contribution made by Jesus/Christianity and secondly, negates any possible future contribution based on the surmise that a multicultural society is by its very nature a secular one.

As I read the article, I kept getting mental prompts that made me think about the role I felt religion played in our society today.  And it reminded me of a conversation I had several years ago on exactly that topic.  In that conversation, the discussion had divided into two camps with each side trying to represent their respective points of view.

At some stage, the comment was made that our entire social system was founded on the basic tenets observed in the Ten Commandments.  This statement was met with complete incredulity – it had never occurred to the others that a set of statements made over 3000 years ago could possibly be the founding stone of society as we know it.  The discussion waned very quickly after that as the light of realisation dawned.

And in that context, I wonder if the omission of Jesus/Christianity is in itself intentional, or is it simply the result of the authors assuming that religion will play a role irrespective of the changes that may come in the future society.

One of the greatest factors supporting this assumption is in this gathering here today.  We are members of the Christian faith and form a subgroup in Australian society called the Temple Society.  There are many other subgroups of religions, be they Christian, Muslim, Hindu or any other, and in almost all instances, each subgroup can be loosely tied to an ethic subgroup.  Together, we exist in our current society in peaceful coexistence.  We all form what the authors call the multicultural Australian society.  An in this point, we support the theory that religions will continue to coexist as long as tolerance and understanding exist.

And in that statement, I feel that we as members of that future society can answer the question posed by Archbishop Jensen – Does Jesus have a future? And the answer is unabashedly “Yes!”

And in that affirmation, we echo the spirit that was embodied in the man we call Jesus.  At the start of this service, we heard in our text of Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem, delivering his message with such profound knowledge and depth of understanding that the Jewish leaders were forced to admire his unschooled ability. 

Jesus had that charisma, the ability to draw people together with his simple message - love one another, and above all, love your God.  People tried to touch him, to experience that power that emanated from him, because it did not just bring physical healing, it brought spiritual healing as well.  His bread was not food for the body, but rather nourishment for the spirit and that is what drew them to him.  For a people long starved of spiritual guidance, blocked from its essence by leaders who spoke only of ritual and tradition, his was a welcome message.

For each of us, removed by so many generations, the message Jesus spoke still carries the same power.  We sit here today, drawn by the same bond - the knowledge that we can all help each other to find our own place in Gods Kingdom.  It doesn’t matter our persuasion, it doesn’t matter our individual belief.  What counts is that we can draw from our mutual understanding of how things are, and can build on our own experience by sharing in the group experience that makes up the whole that is Gods understanding.

The passing of time has perhaps softened the need to blatantly and openly challenge what in Jesus’ days was the closed attitude of the Church.  We are able to choose our belief and have at our fingers a broad spectrum of religions that allow us to worship him.  We are doubly blessed to know that through Jesus’ death, the physical barrier between man and God has been destroyed forever, to be replaced by a direct path to his ear through worship and prayer.

What is our challenge is to unhinge ourselves from the frantically paced, material attitude of our modern world, and to re-establish within our own psyche, the harmonic balance that comes with a spirit in tune with God, nature and other men.

It is so easy to become self-centred and vain in our attitude toward Holy Communion.  The attitude of our day has seen a turn from ‘us’ to ‘I’, with a great deal of attention devoted to the expression and finding of self.  Therein lies a dangerous path in that we may become ‘experts’, the definition being “one who knows more and more about less and less to the point where one knows absolutely everything about nothing at all.”  Similarly, if we seek ourselves too effectively, we risk knowing everything about our self and stand lonely in a world that has passed us by, unknown.  As with all terms of expression, balance is the key.  To understand oneself is a blessing, but not at the cost of excluding all else.

Our challenge is to open our hearts, not only to ourselves, but to all mankind.  We must seek our own self, we must search to expand our horizons - these are positives in the development of our spirit, but, in doing so, we need to accept and actively participate in the greater community around us.  After family and friends, our next closest kin is our community.  We are truly fortunate that we can count on its support in times of doubt and trouble, its ability to provide friendship and acquaintance, its ability to share the load.  In turn, we owe it the debt of our support, of our input and of our endless love.  Just as we turn to it to reap its benefit, so it turns to us to provide its longevity.

Despite the small size of our Templar community, it bodes well that we can call on the substance of our earlier acquaintances, of times shared together, of common knowledge and belief, these elements enabling us to come together today so that we may share our thoughts, feed our souls, and enjoy ourselves in our community.  Truly we are blessed in our common worship.

It would be wonderful if we could join together in a quiet prayer.  Please be upstanding if you are able and join with me now as we recite the Lord’s Prayer
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name,
Your Kingdom come,
Your will be done on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
As we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us when in temptation and deliver us from evil.
For the Kingdom, the power and the glory
Are Yours forever.
Amen.

To close our service, I thought we could sing Hymn number 21 – ‘Danke fur diesen guten Morgen’ – ‘Thank you for giving me the morning’.  We will sing verses one, two and six.

I thank you for taking the time to come today and to join us in this service.  In closing, I would like to wish you all a very enjoyable afternoon amongst family and friends and wish you a safe journey home.

Thank you for listening

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Sunday Service in Bentleigh, 30 October
Elder, Alfred Klink

Musik, Elisabeth Wagner
Hymn: No 39 “Harre meine Seele...” both verses
Hymn: No 42 “Herr dir ist niemand zu vergleichen...” also both verses.

When I send out the latest TSA on-line message about the partial Lunar Eclipse on 17 October it occurred to me how the interplay of light and shadow accompanies us throughout our life and provides the contrasts that balances our needs. The beauty of the night sky lies in the contrast between silvery-soft light of the Moon, the silken blackness of infinity and the brilliance of the twinkling stars. You do not see this during daytime, because when the transparent air above us is hit by the fiery light from the sun the air changes into a blue curtain that hides the stars from our sight. The Moon can sometimes be seen during the daytime too, but its hardly worth a second look then. Light needs darkness to be appreciated. Even the warm glow of a candle loses its mystique in the brightness of day.

The shadow of the Earth touching the full Moon reminded me how important darkness can be in our lives, how most things only become visible or recognisable in the proper balance of light and shadow; how much information is there for the taking in the shading. The shadow of the Earth on the Moon proves that Sun, Earth and Moon are all in line and that the Sun, even when we do not see it anymore above us, is still shining brightly, for we can see the long shadow it casts into the cosmic depth.
I would like to talk today about our need for light and shadow, not only in physical events as in astronomy, but also in our daily life, where its symbolic equivalents, joy and sorrow, are also an essential necessity to social harmony. It is in this balance of light and shadow that I see the message of the story of Hiob, our text for today.
To begin let us sing hymn number 39, Harre, meine Seele ... both verses.
This is a lovely old hymn; in style and in sentiment it matches the text for today, which comes from the last chapter, nearly at the end of the Book of Job in the Old Testament: Job shows humility and his prayer is answered, chapter 42 verses 1 to 6.

1 Then Job answered the LORD:
2 "I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
3 'Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? 'Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
4 'Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you declare to me.'
5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you;
6 therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes."

Let me sketch out the background to this passage a bit to put the text in perspective. The book of Job is an wonderful and yet chilling account of one man's struggle to discover a meaning for God. After being forced to suffer everything imaginable Job argues with God that he does not, and did not, deserve to be treated the way God has treated him. God's persuasive counter argument is that Job does not have sufficient knowledge to know what is right or wrong from God's point of view. Then Job shows humility with the answer above.
The Book of Job is one long poem. It symbolically discusses the age-old paradox why good and innocent people also have to suffer. The enigma of the suffering of the righteous and the good fortune of the wicked was been often addressed by Israelite literature, both in the psalms and in other wisdom texts. Although not prominent in the book of Proverbs, it emerges more strongly in the later wisdom books of Ecclesiastes and Sirach. Several Psalms also address aspects of these issues (Ps 37; 39; 49; 73), but they do not exhibit the radical protest and questioning that one finds in the book of Job.
Senseless suffering can be one of the hardest problem to understand. It is a puzzle in our traditional world philosophy of cause and effect. The first reaction when a calamity befalls us is usually, what have I done wrong to deserve this! Job had an awful problem. Is not pain and suffering a punishment for some transgression? Reserved for transgressors? But Job was a good man. (He is in fact the only person in the Old Testament whose goodness is never in doubt). Yet he lost all his possessions. Job's children died. Job became so ill that he wanted to die. His three friends argue that Job's misfortunes were proof that he had committed some sins for which he was being punished. His friends also advanced the converse position that good fortune is always a divine reward, and that if Job would renounce his supposed sins, he would immediately experience the return of good fortune. In response, Job asserted that he was a righteous man, and that his misfortune was therefore not a punishment for anything. This raised the possibility that God acts in capricious ways, and Job's wife urged him to curse God, and die. Instead, Job responded with equanimity: "The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of the Lord." The climax of the book occurs when God responds to Job, not with an explanation for Job's suffering but rather with a question: Where were you when I created the world? This response may be read in a variety of ways. Some see it as an attempt to humble Job. Yet the fact that Job, in his reply to the Lord quoted above, seems so comforted by God's appearance, and the fact that he 'saw God and lived', suggest that the author of the book was more concerned with whether or not God is present in people's lives, than with the question of whether or not God is just.

We, with the advantage of having seen the prologue in heaven where the plot to put Job to the test was hatched (to which Job was of course not part), we see (I see) a form of God imbued with human emotions, a God who has a need to be loved, who can be challenged at any moment to proof the faith of his subjects with elaborate schemes of punishment. The appended conclusion to the book (some say it is not part of the original story) has God restoring Job to wealth, granting him new children, and possibly restoring his health, although this is not implied or explicitly stated, and suggests that the faith of the righteous is indeed rewarded. But there is something that we must understand; while the Book of Job does not give easy, clear answers to this eternal question it shows the problem in a symbolic way as it really is. It gives an honest record of the sufferer’s doubts; it shows that suffering is not necessarily a punishment for sin (although Job has on occasion been accused by critics of complacency and materialism); it suggests what our attitude to trouble and pain should be. It is an attempt to confuse the question, "Is misfortune always a divine punishment for something someone has done?"

There is a deeper challenge for us today hidden in the story of Job. With our unique human ability to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes, so to speak, we tend to assess and compare other people with ourselves. Not only that, we endow the creatures on this Earth, yes, even God in heaven, with our emotions, with our capacity to feel joy and sadness, compassion for pain and suffering, and to rejoice in the triumph of good over evil. We tend to forget that all of these emotions are part of the environment we ourselves live in. They are not universal; they are tools we humans became equipped with by evolution, as are the eyes in our head and muscles of our body. They are not God-given for our enjoyment as and when we please. Just as working, walking, running, swimming or speaking need constant practice to become good at, the extra-sensory feelings and emotions within us need practice too. Without balanced exercises they will dry out, shrivel up and become useless. We have a “need” for emotional pain and sorrow to challenge apathy and bring out the will to overcome adversity. Call it part of our survival instinct; an instinct that tries to match our human nature to the nature of the environment so we can be supported by it. Just as a balance of light and shade are needed for life to flourish, so a measure of joy and sorrow is essential for our mind to develop greater understanding. I remember an old German proverb here warning against overindulgence of any sort: “Nichts is schlechter zu ertragen als eine Reihe von guten Tagen”, which roughly translated says “nothing is worse for you than too many good days”. Did Job learn from his experience?

As I said before, the Book of Job is a poem; not a poem in the modern sense of rhyme and poetic metre, but in a lyrical way, like the Song of Solomon for instance. With a mixture of prose and verse it is counted as one of the five creative books in the Old Testament, and by some is seen as the most difficult book of the Bible to fathom. The many Exegesis of the book (exegesis are studies to find the author’s intended meaning of a story) are classic attempts to reconcile the co-existence of evil and God. Job appears both as an invocation to righteousness, a cynical outlook on the idea of righteousness, and a response to the problem of evil. Scholars are divided as to what the original intent of the poem was, and a few even suggest it was meant as a satire against puritanical religion.
I see in the book, beyond its lyrical beauty, an old religion, a philosophy with a picture of a man-oriented image of God from a bygone era. An era that did not, that does not recognise the responsibility each of us has for our neighbour, for humanity and for our environment. An era where sheep, goats, camels and cows were the measure of a man’s standing in the eyes of God. It is a story that tells us much about the priorities of life and beliefs in human society as it was some three thousand years ago. A time when Plato had Socrates asking the ethical dilemma question: “Is what God commands right because He commands it, or is it right for some reason other than that it is His command?” In other words, is something right prior to God's commanding it (or wrong prior to His forbidding it) or is it neither right nor wrong unless and until God has pronounced it one or the other? Is it simply His pronouncing it right or wrong that makes it so, or (seeing that we can feel upset by God’s unfair treatment of Job) are there right and wrongs even for the gods? Is there light and darkness even in heaven?
In the beginning, when the world was without void or form, darkness reigned supreme. Then the light came, whether by God’s command “Let there be light” as the Bible says or with a “Big Bang” as the scientists say, it does not matter, an overabundance of hot light was suddenly there and, as we know, this is just as deadly to life as is frigid darkness. Life, as we know it, needs a proper balance of both, so God divided the world into light and darkness and the first day was created. Evolution took a a little bit longer to give form and void to the Earth, but the common theme for us is that without a temperature gradient from hot to cold, from light to darkness, life would not have evolved on Earth. The Book of Job is a story, not the measure of our lives. We live in a universe that has billions of stars like the sun, and may have millions of planets like the Earth, some of which may contain life as we know it, other intelligent life with their own measure of light and darkness and right and wrong. Within the last two years some 160 new planets have been discovered by astronomers in our galactic neighbourhood alone. Our world is changing before our eyes, the horizons widen with every day.
The nineteenth century English poet John Keats once bemoaned that Isaac Newton had “destroyed the beauty and poetry of the rainbow by reducing the mystery to a prism”. He lamented

“will natural philosophy yet clip an Angel’s wings / conquer all mysteries by Rule and Line?
Empty the haunted air, the gnomed mine / and unweave the colours in the rainbow?

Time and experience has shown that science and aesthetics complement each other in a better and wider understanding. The mysteries of our world (the things we know that we do not know) have grown exponentially with our greater vision over the horizons of yesteryear. We know that life needs a natural balance of light and darkness, of joy and sorrow. We know of atoms and of cells, we know the process of procreation; we know that our emotions of love, hate, trust, fear, ambitions and sympathy are controlled by hormones our body generates to meet given situations. We know how drugs and alcohol interfere with our bodily functions. Yet the feeling of mystery around us is, if anything, greater than ever. Our vision of God has grown and widened too. It no longer includes favourite people or nations, it is everywhere – within and without -- and nowhere at the same time. Its laws are the laws of life and Nature and they match the infinity of the universe.
Let us now sing the second hymn, number 42 “Herr dir ist niemand zu vergleichen...” both verses.

Would you light a candle in the sunshine, in a noisy or windy environment? No, to appreciate the light of a candle, the softness of its glow, the uplifting symbol of the flame pointing finger-like to heaven, the invigorating smell of the beeswax, it needs a subdued atmosphere, shadows in the corner, beautiful music and open and receptive minds. The beauty of a lit candle lies in the limited interaction it has with the wider environment; bounded by darkness and mystery it is (it can paradoxically only be) a symbol of goodness and friendship in a dark and scary world.

Charles Darwin has often been vigorously attacked for what he wrote and what he believed, it happens even today. However, the fact is that the typical attack on Darwin is light years away from the place where Darwin made his greatest impact on traditional understanding. Darwin forced us to acknowledge that Creation is an ongoing and unfinished process. Human life is evolving, there is no perfection, there never was; all life is in flux. That was the Darwinian insight. Our problem is that we do not yet know what to do with that understanding. We are still struggling with the appropriate balance of light and shadow in our lives. But are we not fortunate to have been giving the time and the ability in our lives to talk about these things? To consider these questions? Time to give meaning to a life between light and shadow, time for joy and sorrow in society, time for greater awareness of the nature around us and the desire to create a sustainable environment. We are indeed truly thankful for everything that makes life worth living.

Wer nie sein Brot mit Tränen ass, / wer nie die kummervollen Nächte
auf seinem Bette weinend sass / der kennt euch nicht, ihr himmlischen Mächte.

Thank you, Elisabeth, for the music, thank you to the unseen hands that arranged the flowers and thank all of you for sharing this the time with me. I wish you a pleasant afternoon with coffee and cake compliment of the Bentleigh community.

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FAMILY SERVICE at BADGER CREEK  2/10/05

Elder, CHRISTINE RUFF

Good morning and a very special welcome to you all here at Badger Creek. Thank you for coming to share the day with one another.
The title I have given today’s informal service is “The Journey”.
I’d like to begin with some questions.

How did you get here today?
Was it fun?
What was the best part of the journey?

Recently our new bus, Rosa, took some other children on a journey. Rosa took our newest confirmands on their confirmation camp (some of them here today?). The very first part of the whole confirmation journey for our confirmands was the series of confirmation lessons, also including the Urban Camp. The second part of the confirmation journey, so far, was the post-confirmation camp. Aside from the creation of many hopefully great memories, the camp served to teach our confirmands several things, even if the kids themselves don’t think they learnt anything at all.

On the Confirmation Camp we went to Buchan, Tathra and Mallacoota. I know the kids really enjoyed these places but I think they would have enjoyed the camp just as much if we had gone somewhere else. For these kids, the journey was just as, if not more important than, the destination.
Other confirmation camps have gone in completely different directions and the participants have had just as good a time.

So, apart form the journey itself, what else do you think it was that made the camp enjoyable? (the people they were with).
These confirmands had everything they needed to have a good time, within easy reach. By this I don’t mean a microwave, hairdryer, mobile phone and i-pod (which incidentally were all present anyway). What we all required in order to have or create a good time was right under our noses (not literally), and that is, each other. If we went searching for other things to do, they were temporary distractions. Playing mini-golf was fun, but I for one, would not have enjoyed it on my own. It was “the group” which made the occasion.

I wonder, is there anyone who can recall another such occasion, i.e. where a group travelled somewhere to be together, but the destination was not really that important. (Today!)
Back to Confirmation Camp. Confirmands: as none here, others may have to help answer these questions

Confirmands:
If you wanted to have somewhere relatively secure to sleep for the night, what did you have to do? (set up tent).
Did the leaders do it for you?
What if you’d waited for them to do it for you? (waiting an awfully long time!).
What if you were hungry? What if you wanted some dinner?
(had to cook it first).
Where did the food come from? (had to buy it).
Who decided what was needed/ingredients? (kids).
If you wanted clean plates and cutlery to eat with at your next meal?
(wash up own dishes).
If you didn’t want the bus to resemble a rubbish bin by the second day…?
If you wanted to get going somewhere early in the morning…? (take tents down, help pack trailer…)
To some extent, who planned the activities? (combined, not always told what to do).
So basically, if you wanted something to happen, what did you have to do? (make it happen). If you wanted change, you had to create it.

We will read more about confirmation camp in the next TR, but highlighting today’s discussion are three important life lessons:
i) The journey is often more important than the destination.
ii) You don’t have to look too far afield in life to see the things of value / the things you need (you are often surrounded by them, e.g. people).
iii) and finally, don’t wait for things to happen – make them happen yourself!

I would like to share a book with you now, called The Friendship Trip by Wolfgang Slawski.

Now here come the usual questions…..

What was the man doing at the station? (waiting for someone to come visit him).
When no-one ever came, what did he do? (went to another station).
What happened there? (no-one visited or got off but someone else was waiting, just like him).
What did they both do? (went to a different station and met others waiting).

Eventually there was a whole town’s worth of people waiting for someone to visit them. These people journeyed on until there was nowhere they hadn’t been. They had been everywhere searching for others to be with, and still hadn’t found them. They had looked everywhere for friends and waited in all sorts of places for visitors and were still looking.

What happened then?
Arthur suddenly realised they didn’t need to look further! Why not? They were surrounded by all the friends they needed! While they had been searching, what they were looking for was slowly appearing around them. At the end, what they wanted was sitting or standing right next to them. The people they were so busily looking for were the ones they were with! Arthur realised they were all friends now and that they could all visit each other. So that night they had a party and made plans to visit each other when they got home.

I wonder if this is how our confirmands feel about each other??
On their confirmation journey and indeed, in their life journey, respectively they were and hopefully will be surrounded by all the people they need to meet their needs and see them through. Just like Arthur on his train.

Do you think there was anything else Arthur learnt from his experience?
Were people coming to visit him while he was just sitting there waiting for them? (no – he had to go find them).
So Arthur learnt that he had to make changes. Things weren’t going to happen if he just waited for them to happen. It was up to him to do something. He couldn’t expect others to do it for him. He had to be proactive. Just as the confirmands on camp had to be if they wanted somewhere to sleep or something to eat or something to do. Just as Nanne and others were in organising today’s outing.

I wonder if you are beginning to see the similarities between all our journeys?

In The Friendship Trip Arthur perhaps learnt one final thing the confirmands and we already know and that is……? The journey is just as important as the destination. I don’t believe Arthur and his friends would have “arrived” where they had at the end of the story (ie. inviting each other over) if they had not shared the journey first. If Arthur and the others had been put together in a room and told to be friends, without first having shared a journey, I don’t believe it would have worked. By the end of the story Arthur’s group had already been everywhere, but they were still not happy until they realised it was not the “everywhere” that was important but the “everyone”. It was the communal searching, the shared goal, the whole experience which created the bond and cemented the friendships. As it will hopefully be for our confimands, and, for that matter, anyone in the Temple Society or the wider community who shares a journey of any description, as we have done today.

I read an interesting article yesterday, on weddings, which struck a chord. In it the author (who was getting married yesterday) states that as a bride, the best way to go is “to recognise everyone who has walked with you to this point and who you hope will keep walking alongside you”. Isn’t this beautiful? Walking together through life.

These life lessons of course, apply not only to the confimands and Arthur.
They are there for us all.
It is our challenge to recognise them when they appear and to learn from them.
On a daily basis this may mean that:

We acknowledge and value the things we take for granted around us, be they people, clean running water, fresh food, flushing toilets..
We nurture the friendships we have rather than feeling the need to constantly create new ones
We find treasure around us rather than looking over the horizon for what might be there
We look at our lives with eyes wide open
We walk through the forest but we see the trees
We recognise the opportunities that are presented to us every day and we take them
If we can’t see any opportunities, we create them
If we don’t like the lunch Mum makes us for school, we make our own
If the council can’t mow the park by next week for the street party, we do it ourselves
If we want to go bushwalking we organise a bushwalking club
If we want a job we walk from shop to shop with our CV/resume until we find one
If we want to find friends we wait at a different railway station or we go and talk to the lonely kid over there in the corner
If we want to live in a clean world, we begin by tidying our bedroom

And it may mean that:

We are not in such a hurry to always get somewhere, or even, that we have a destination at all
That we enjoy the travel and make the journey worthwhile (that way, at least if the destination’s no good, we haven’t wasted our time just getting there)
That we make every day count
That we don’t spend our lives waiting for tomorrow, hoping it may be better than today.
And, as Diana Baillieu wrote into “The Age” on Wednesday this week: “[That we] go back to the horse and cart. [That we] slow down, don’t move so fast. [That we] don’t expect so much. [That we create] time to think. Time to notice, time to enjoy. Slower is happier and less is more.”

We will conclude the service now with a prayer. Please stay seated.

Dear fellow travellers / dear God,

As we go through life, please help us to help each other to really live it.
Please help us to really see each other.
Please help us to travel with our senses on full alert so that we don’t miss opportunities.
Where there is nothing, give us the courage to create something.
Let us have the inspiration, strength and desire to “do.”
Let us create change where necessary.
But at the same time, help us also just to “be” and to “be” with each other.
Help us to focus on the travel and the travel together.
And with a destination in mind, guide us so that we help each other reach our destinations whilst making the journeys infinitely worthwhile.
Guide us in our travels.

Amen.

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Evensong Service 25 September in Bentleigh 17:00
Elder: Renate Weber
Pianist: Ingrid Laemle -Ruff

Reading: Luke 22:24-27
Hymns: Love life and live -song 116; Servant Song Hymn 114; Dona Nobis Pacem Hymn 24, give us peace; Ein Schiff das sich Gemeinde nennt, a ship that sails the sea of time, Hymn 28; Open my eyes, Hymn 87; Prayer of St Francis, Hymn 93.

Play opening orchestral piece: Humming Chorus Puccini - from Madame Butterfly

Welcome to this afternoon /evening service. Let us get into the swing by singing, “Love life and live” the two verses below “This is the Day.” Hymn 116
I have just loved life and lived these last few weekends! Last weekend the Templer Choir participated very successfully in the German Choir Festival in Perth. I will share one little saying the German Consul General shared with the entire audience “Wo man singt da lass dich ruhig nieder, den böse Menschen haben keine Lieder” (rough translation - where people sing together you are safe to stop a while as bad people don’t sing.) On Friday and Saturday I have been part of Grand final fever in Melbourne. I had breakfast with the Governor General, the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition among other very distinguished guests. I saw them they didn’t see me! I was just one of the other two thousand who were also there. For the match, I sat three rows from the boundary fence right behind the goal posts and actually enjoyed an excellent nail biting game of Aussie Rules football. What an extraordinary experience it has been! I am also very nervously excited about Tuesday when I fly over to Germany to spend four weeks with the German Templer community. Life leads us down some very diverse paths if you give it the opportunities, if you are willing to take risks, if you expose yourself to the unknown!
My life’s journey took a sharp detour when my husband, Winfried died in February 2000. We had been married happily for 35 years, had the usual ups and downs and were really beginning to enjoy the empty nest years and rediscovering ourselves as individual adults rather than in roles of mum or dad, teacher, small business owners. In 1999 I was offered a prestigious role as Acting Head of Middle School at MLC for about 6 months from September to April. I was to lead a team of staff and 600 hundred students including a country campus at Mallacoota where one quarter (75) of the year 9 cohort were in any given term. I was to become a leader. I share this story with you for a number of reasons. It provides a personal example of the reading for today and it also mentions Winfried who was the wind beneath my wings during many of the exhilarating and challenging moments of my life.

Our reading this evening comes from Luke Chapter 22 verses 24-27.

“24. A dispute also arose among them as to which one of them was to be regarded as the greatest.
25 But he said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors. 26 But not so with you; rather the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves.
27 For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.”

During the six months I was Acting Head of Middle School, I was placed in the role as a leader but was also like the youngest, the most inexperienced. I was the person with whom the buck stopped -parents came to me for advice. I was also a benefactor. I could give casual clothes days, I could pardon undesirable behaviour, I could give students a second chance, the benefit of the doubt or I could really express my disappointment and give them an ultimatum “shape up or ship out.” In our reading, Jesus was telling his disciples that he would soon leave them. They had just shared the last supper together. Jesus had adopted the clothes of the servant, he wrapped a towel around his waist and he washed the disciples’ feet. He showed by his actions what he wanted them to do. He wanted them to serve mankind, to spread his message of love. But the disciples were arguing amongst themselves who would assume the mantel of the leader! Many of us like to be recognised. We define ourselves by our job, our role in life. Hello I am Renate Weber, marriage celebrant, Elder in the Temple Society, a very novice golfer, and the person who visits my mum and assist her with the daily needs. Chief cook and bottle washer for myself. Widow. All labels, all of which conjure up images. In how many of those roles am I like a servant? For whom do I perform the tasks? For the people I work with, or for my sake, to stroke my ego, to make me feel good? Do I do it out of love for others or because I want recognition for my self?
I was given a little book called Inner Gold by a friend, on one page it suggests: -
“Look down at your hands.
Are you a taker or a giver?
What have you taken or given today?
When we give to others freely, openly and with out expectation we generate a limitless supply of love. The more we give the more love we get.”

When I was teaching I really enjoyed helping my students learn. There was an immense sense of satisfaction when a whole class or even half the group got the message of the lesson.
I saw teaching as a life of service. I think I was blessed with a gift to be a teacher. I see this text to mean being a “servant” means using our gifts — all our material and spiritual gifts — not just for ourselves and our own enrichment, but also for the service and enrichment of others. We have so many wonderful “servants” in the Temple Society. The choir uses its gifts to make music for others as well for their own enjoyment. We have many volunteers who perform tasks without recognition or public acknowledgement, volunteers who go to the TTHA and fed those who can’t manage for themselves. Herta Uhlherr gives so much love and effort to produce the Templer Record. Alfred Klink services our web messages, Winnie Beilharz drives our buses, ladies arrange flowers for the services, lawns get mowed around our halls, functions get organised for the enjoyment of us all. Musicians offer their talents to play for our Services; the list goes on.
It can also be quite challenging to be a “servant”. Some times the people you are offering to “serve” don’t want or appreciate your service! Let us sing The Servant Song now Hymn 114 all 6 verses.
The other reason I mentioned Winfried earlier is because of a conversation I had with another Templer recently. She was grieving for a loved one and feeling very alone in her grief. We talked about other cultures and how they deal with the death of a loved one. In Japan they remember / celebrate the deceased’s life on their death day. They visit the graveside and give prayers. By remembering their loved one publicly and communally they are celebrating and honouring that person and their memory and also feeling that others are there supporting them and sharing in the remembering.
Let us sing the Canon Dona Nobis Pacem hymn 24 Give us peace. I’ll ask Annette to help us.
I am going to light a candle now for Winfried’s memory. (If it were early in the day I’d let a balloon go in his memory, to signify his spirit flying high and free from all earthly tethers.) By mentioning his name and lighting a candle I acknowledge the role he played in my life as my partner, my friend, my mate and also how much he served the Templer community. May this light illuminate his memory in our hearts. Wilhelm Imberger asked me to light two candles for him in his absence for Immanuel and Friedericke Imberger, his parents. Karin Ruff asked me to light a candle for her dad and our past President, Dieter Ruff
I know a few others are also going to participate, be it out loud or in quiet remembrance of their loved one. Please feel free to join in.
Play Orchestral piece:
S Carvelli Cantari Cantari The guitar is the song, played by John Williams

To conclude this segment I am going to share the words that
Isolde and Dieter Ruff included in their Sympathy card after Winfried’s death. They were written by Jack Kornfeld a Buddhist teacher as they thought they captured how Winfried had lived his life and I am sure as all those you are remembering, did as well.
“In the end these thing matter most:
How well did you love?
How fully did you live?
How deeply did you learn to let go?”

It is this message we can all ask ourselves at the end of every day
“How well did you love?
How fully did you live?
How deeply did you learn to let go?”
Each day is new beginning and we should never assume we can delay too many actions for an unknown tomorrow.
Lets us pray if you are able to stand please do so.

Dear God,
First I ‘d like to pray for all the people in our community who are not well, or who have just recently undergone surgery, we ask that their recovery is speedy, A number of our members are battling cancer, we send them messages of love, courage and strength.
We have shared many emotions here tonight. We have gathered and sung songs of joy and praise, we have shared memories of our loved ones whose physical presence is no longer with us on this earth. We give thanks that those whom we remembered this evening were able to play a significant and meaningful part in our lives and often in the life of our community as well. By openly sharing our memories, by sharing our loss, we can gain strength in the knowledge that we don’t grieve alone.
Help us to live our lives to the fullest, remind us that at times we need to be the servant while at other times we also need to allow people to serve us. Being able to receive graciously is also a divine gift. Let us continue to share in the joy that being part of this Templer community provides as we say the Lord’s Prayer together.

Our father in Heaven
Hallowed be your name
Your Kingdom come
Your will be done on earth as in heaven
Give us today our daily bread
Forgive us our sins
As we forgive those who sin against us
Lead us when in temptation and deliver us from evil
For the Kingdom the power and the glory
Are yours forever. Amen

Let us sing Hymn no 28 all 5 verses. Ein Schiff das sich Gemeinde nennt. A ship that sails the sea of time. Four verses

Now I’d like us to sing Hymn 87 Open my eyes. My lovely Onkel Wilhelm and I were talking at the recent confirmation service and he was reminiscing about his early days after being interned and how hard it was at times. He shared the best advice he was ever given by one of the Australians who took him under their wing. “Bill", he said, "you have three important tools you need to learn to use. Your eyes to see, your ears to hear and you have a mouth to ask. If you use them wisely you will have success." This song adds a final proviso you must also to be silent or quiet to hear the messages you need to sink in. By using these senses we all have, we can decide when we need to be a “servant” and when we need to allow some one to serve us. I think this is a really important skill especially in relationships. In a modern marriage we like to see ourselves as equal partners. In the past it was often the role of the woman to serve the man first, then the family and to meet her needs last. In today’s society it is so hard with all the laws regarding equality, sexual harassment, racial vilification to find a sensible path to follow but if we use Jesus message to love God and treat others, as we would like to be treated we really can’t go wrong.

Let us conclude with the Prayer of St Francis. Hymn 93

Thank you all for coming, good night, safe home and see you on the 6th of November in the Bayswater Chapel

Play Andrea Bocelli with Sarah Brightman “Time to Say Goodbye”

The collection this evening will go to the Field of Women, an organization that assist men and women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer.

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Fathers' Day Service 4 September in Bayswater

Elder: Mark Herrmann

Opening music – Monika Richter (flute) and Monika Herrmann (piano) – “Take these wings”

Good morning! My name is Mark Herrmann, an Elder of the Temple Society Australia, and I welcome you all to this special day of celebration – here, in Australia, the first Sunday in September is traditionally Fathers’ Day. As both a son and parent, I am very fortunate to be able to observe fatherhood from a number of different perspectives. I look forward to the opportunity to share some of my thoughts with you this morning.

The Sunday School children have joined us for the first part of our service. I was recently standing at the counter of our local bookshop, waiting to purchase a particular book, when I noticed this book, so I bought it as well. It is called “Dear Dad – father, friend and hero” and I would like to begin by sharing some of the images and associated commentary it contains.

Slide show (Dear Dad.ppt) and chat with children grouped at the front.

Last week, at Christine Ruff’s delightful Family Service in Bentleigh, I invited the assembled children to provide me with their responses to the following questions:

1. What is it that will make your Dad happy?
2. How do you help your Dad?
3. How are you like your Dad?
4. What have you learnt from your Dad?
5. Why is your Dad your hero?

Read selected responses, then those from “older congregation members”, each time placing them in the fishing net of the male figure. If time permits, seek further responses from the floor. Finish by putting a big smile and a love heart on the figure.

Let us conclude the involvement of our Sunday School children by singing together and then in a three-part round “Dona nobis pacem (Give us peace)”, hymn number 24.

“Manhood” is a book written by Steve Biddulph, author of the number one bestseller “Raising Boys”. In the chapter entitled “You and your father”, Biddulph writes (and I quote): “Coming to terms with your father, having a rounded view of him, is especially important if you are a father yourself, and more so if you are in any kind of leadership role. You will never have authority until you can respect authority – which means, in this leaderless world, finding some authority worthy of your respect.” (unquote) The following excerpt relates the story of a man phoning his father, long distance. The younger man is making an attempt to bridge the gap that has grown between them. Father and son have had little contact in recent years, and the son has been doing some thinking. When the father answers the phone, the son begins to try to tell him …

‘Hi, Dad, it’s me.’
‘Oh, uh huh! Hi, son! I’ll go get your mother …’
‘No, don’t get Mum. It’s you I want to talk to …’
There’s a pause, then …
‘Why? Do you need money?’
‘No, I don’t need money.’
And the younger man starts on his somewhat rehearsed, but still vulnerable speech …
‘I’ve just been remembering a lot about you, Dad, and the things you did for me. Working all those years in a job you hated, to put me through college, supporting us. My life is going well now and it’s because of what you did to get me started. I just thought about it and realised I’d never really said “Thanks” …’
Silence on the other end of the phone. The son continues.
‘I want to tell you … Thanks. And that I love you.’
There’s a long pause before the father answers.
‘You been drinking????’

Biddulph concludes (quote): “Whenever I tell this story the audience laughs out loud, but the men laugh with eyes wet and shining.” (unquote)

Why are men generally harder to communicate with? Is it the perceived societal demand of the strong, silent type? I know my own relationship with Dad is not really one of in-depth conversations and meaningful dialogue of what ails us and the world. Us Herrmanns, at least this particular branch of the family, are not blessed with the ability of making small-talk. I have discussed this with Mum – of course – on a number of occasions. She reassures me that Dad is simply not the demonstrative type, at least not in the verbal sense. I know that Dad will always rather use three words, than half a dozen, especially when three will suffice. But, that does not make him any less accessible to his family or any less available for comfort and support. He may not be at ease in openly displaying his feelings, but would probably argue such emotion is simply not to be displayed for everyone’s benefit. He certainly loves his family no less for being this way. We children know he has not and will not shirk from doing anything for us. He has his own way of “being there”. I have come to recognise this, accept it and make the most of it. It would be pointless and totally counterproductive to make either of us something we are not. Dad, I hope you understand my “long distance phone call”. With heartfelt gratitude, immense respect and love, I say “thanks”.

Our text for today comes from Matthew: Chapter 7, Verses 24-27.

According to William Barclay’s Bible commentary, Jesus was an expert in a double sense. He was an expert in scripture. The writer of Proverbs gave him the hint for his picture. From Proverbs 10:25 it says: “Storms come, and the wicked are blown away, but honest people are always safe”. Here is the germ of the picture which Jesus drew of the two houses and the two builders. But Jesus was also an expert in life. He was the craftsman who knew all about the building of houses, and when he spoke about the foundations of a house he knew what he was talking about. This is no illustration formed by a scholar in his study; this is the illustration of a practical man.

Nor is this a far-fetched illustration; it is a story of the kind of thing which could well happen. In Palestine the builder must think ahead. There was many a gully which in summer was a pleasant sandy hollow, but was in winter a raging torrent of rushing water. A man might be looking for a house; he might find a pleasantly sheltered sandy hollow; and he might think this a very suitable place. But, if he was a short-sighted man, he might well have built his house in the dried-up bed of a river, and, when the winter came, his house would disintegrate. Even on an ordinary site it was tempting to begin building on the smoothed-over sand and not to bother digging down to the shelf of rock below, but that way disaster lay ahead.

Only a house whose foundations are firm can withstand the storm; and only a life whose foundations are sure can stand the test. Jesus demanded two things.
(i) He demanded that men should listen. One of the great difficulties which face us today is the simple fact that men often do not know what Jesus said or what the Church teaches. In fact the matter is worse. They have often a quite mistaken notion of what Jesus said and of what the Church teaches. The first step to the Christian life is simply to give Jesus Christ a chance to be heard.
(ii) He demanded that men should do. Knowledge only becomes relevant when it is translated into action. It would be perfectly possible for a man to pass an examination in Christian Ethics with the highest distinction, and yet not to be a Christian. Knowledge must become action; theory must become practice; theology must become life.
If we are to be in any sense followers of Jesus we must hear and do. Here I end Barclay’s commentary on the text.

When first reading the verses, I must admit that my mind struggled to get past the story of the three little pigs, with their houses of first straw, then sticks and, ultimately, bricks, all under threat from the huff and puff of the big, bad wolf. And, one’s thoughts are immediately drawn to the natural disaster having occurred during this past week in New Orleans and Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Chapters 5, 6 and 7 of Matthew’s Gospel – the Sermon on the Mount – depict the words of Jesus, while Chapter 8 – divine love in action – describes the deeds of Jesus.

What are the foundations on which we build our lives? In answering this I have also tried to identify the important elements of community building within the Temple Society. Here, the sense of community working party from a few years ago recognised building blocks like acceptance, freedom, equality, inclusiveness, friendship, guidance, compassion, understanding, support, sharing, unity and diversity, belonging and caring as important for a vision of the Temple Society now and in the future. Personally, elements such as happiness, wellbeing, relationships and trust, safety, justice, integrity, success and achievements, however measured, spring readily to mind, as do our abilities and potential to love, forgive, listen, care and live.

Much has been coming from Canberra of late about values. Is it the Government view, the Christian view, the Australian view, the Muslim view? The Federal Education Minister, Dr Brendan Nelson, spoke of “believing in care and compassion and doing your best … and pursuing and protecting the common good”. But, what do we believe collectively? What are the defining values that distinguish Australians from other nationalities? And are these somehow contrary to mainstream Islamic values? The answer is “no” on the last score, insisted a Muslim teacher from the Australian Council for Islamic Education in Schools. Abdul Rahman Najmeddine (pronounced Rachman Naj-meddine) said “I can’t see a difference between Islamic values or Christian, or Jewish or ‘Australian’ values. Muslim values include honesty, truthfulness and social justice.”

Father Greg O’Kelly, of the Jesuit order and Brendan Nelson’s school religion teacher, was quoted as saying of Australian values “a sense of equality, a sense of fairness, care for the underdog and a fairly strong sense of community”, while World Vision chief executive, Tim Costello, opined “there is no hands-on pragmatism that doesn’t like ideology and lots of talk, that prefers deeds to words”. Still, we must strive to hear and do. The Commonwealth Government’s National Framework for Values Education in Australian Schools sets out its nine core values as care and compassion; doing your best; fair go; freedom; honesty and trustworthiness; integrity; respect; responsibility; and understanding, tolerance and inclusion. Next year the Victorian State Government will introduce its own “principles” to be taught in schools: openness of mind, pursuit of excellence, respect for evidence, learning for all, and engagement and effort.

I believe the issue with values, as with religion and belief systems generally, is to look for the areas of commonality, rather than focussing on the differences. What’s more, the similarities are many, which is just as well if we seriously want everyone in this world to understand and get on better with each other. Here, I am reminded of the efforts of the local Knox Interfaith Network, of which the Temple Society is a part. This group meets regularly to discuss matters of common concern, to provide opportunities for dialogue and understanding, to produce and/or distribute informative and fair-minded literature on religious organisations and their practices with sensitivity. The Interfaith Network’s stated objective is to encourage proper understanding of religious communities in Knox, so that each religious group and the community generally may be good neighbours

I believe the values presented to us and under which we choose to live, guide us, shape us and make us the individual we are and the person we put on show to others. The following simply and succinctly outlines an affirmative, and I think encouraging, life philosophy.

Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words.
Keep your words positive because your words become your actions.
Keep your actions positive because your actions become your habits.
Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values.
Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.

Now, please excuse my self-indulgence as I tell some home truths of the Herrmann family. In doing so, I hope you can perhaps relate them to your own family situations.

As a child, when I used to get up much earlier in the mornings, I remember Dad’s daily routine of preparing for work: of dressing, of boiling the water in the pale yellow electric jug for shaving in front of the bathroom cabinet, of the cup of tea, the poached eggs and two lightly browned pieces of toast for breakfast. I doubt whether the jug has stood the test of time, but it’s a fair bet the rest has stayed much the same. I, too, am a creature of habit, preferring to complete tasks in the same, particular fashion. I never really associated this methodical and ordered trait as being inherited from my father’s habits. Further, from my sister Anita I heard the words “dependable” and “trustworthy”, but I thought one of her daughters summed it up accurately and beautifully with “silently supportive”. Brother Rob, presently overseas and therefore unable to defend himself, was – according to Mum – in his last year of secondary school, not too fond of study, but rather partial to a good time. One night after a rowdy student dinner he came home in the early hours somewhat worse for wear, resulting in him being physically sick in his bedroom. Apparently, after this and another incident in which he fell asleep at the wheel and ploughed into a light pole, Rob admired and found greater long-term benefit in Dad’s quiet assistance and making good, without the need for long lectures and stressing a young adventurous spirit’s error of judgement.

Similarly, there is much to respect and emulate in trying to learn reliability, perseverance, strength of character and self-control. However, on the practical side, I came up well short in the gene pool. When moving from the farm at Pakenham to the unit in Bayswater, Dad set out all his tools and implements no longer needed and observed as his family good-naturedly haggled for them. It was all rather academic, because realistically what am I ever going to do with a battery charger or a circular saw? And as for my brother Rob snaffling the workbench … It was a tough day for Dad, firstly in accepting the move from the farm with its inherent solitude, secondly in acknowledging his declining ability to manage and thirdly, and probably most significantly, in struggling to come to terms with his sons laying claim to various pieces of equipment which were unlikely to be put to their proper use and never, ever again going to achieve outcomes which would otherwise be possible if placed into more capable hands. Thank goodness son-in-law Andrew, with practical mind and skills enough for all of us, was also about. In Dad’s eyes I am sure that Andrew’s presence saved the day. He is therefore the family keeper (and designated user) of the tools.

We used to have a simple swing in the backyard. Once we outgrew it, the supporting poles were sawn off at ground level. After mowing over the tops of the concrete foundations for many years, I decided one Saturday afternoon to dig them out. With gumboots on, armed with my trusty mattock, I was about two foot down, with absolutely no end in sight of the partly exposed concrete blocks: I reluctantly abandoned my forlorn mission. The foundations thus remain to this day, anchored to the centre of the earth, the tops knocked off to allow the grass to grow over and properly hide them. They sit just beneath the surface as testament to my father’s desire to provide something for his young family that would stand the test of time. For this, the swing was and is but one humble example.

While out riding my bike last weekend with friends, we stumbled across the following at the Jell’s Park teahouse: “Fatherhood is pretending the present you love most is soap on a rope”. If possible, Father’s Day is a day to share with your father, or a day on which to reflect on fond memories of past times together. By association, I like to think it includes the fathers of my parents – my grandfathers – and, similarly, the male figures from Nanne’s family.

According to a recent article in The Age Melbourne Magazine by Jonathan Green, Father’s Day was invented by a guilt-laden farmer’s daughter in Spokane, Washington in 1909. It was Sonora Smart Dodd who organised the first Father’s Day celebration in sleepy Spokane on June 19, 1910. The event honoured her own father, William Jackson Smart, who alone had raised Sonora and her siblings following the death of their mother. Mrs Smart died giving birth to her sixth child and would surely have relished the rich irony of her ultimate, painful maternal sacrifice sparking a global celebration of fatherhood. Father’s Day became something of an esoteric highlight of the otherwise humdrum Spokane year until 1926, when a national Father’s Day Committee was formed in New York. The day was recognised by a joint resolution of the US congress in 1956, proclaimed an official national holiday by President Lyndon Johnson in 1966 and was passed into law as a permanent institution by President Richard Nixon in 1972. The US law determines that Father’s Day shall be celebrated on the third Sunday in June.

If you are able, please stand as we pray. Taken from The Age cartoonist Michael Leunig’s book “When I talk to you” and certainly thinking of fathers and family as friends:
We give thanks for our friends.
Our dear friends.
We anger each other.
We fail each other.
We share this sad earth, this tender life, this precious time.
Such richness. Such wildness.
Together we are blown apart.
Together we are dragged along.
All this delight.
All this suffering.
All this forgiving life.
We hold it together.
Amen.

We will conclude this morning’s service by singing together hymn number 36 “God, you call for faithful service”. We shall sing all four verses.

Thank you to all, those seen and also those unseen, who have contributed today. I wish all our fathers – whether here or elsewhere – a very special day. I believe the most loved present for a father is not soap on a rope, but his children. And what will make my Dad happy? I suspect something/anything involving a tennis court.

Closing music – Irene Blaich

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CONFIRMATION SERVICE 14 August
in Bayswater

Elder:             Renate Weber
Pianist:           Monika Strasser

Hymns: Templer Hymn No 1 “Seek ye first of all God’s Kingdom/Trachtet ruft mit ernstem Worte”     Verses 1,3,6,9,10; “Pebbles” Hymn 61all the verses

Other music: “I am the Greatest. R Kelly. 

The confirmands process in slowly down the side aisle in alphabetical order, where the candles will be placed

Mieka Decker: “Welcome everyone to our confirmation service. There are 19 of us here today who have this year participated in the journey of Confirmation. Our introductory song was “The World’s Greatest” by R Kelly. After much discussion the group chose it because it tells you that you can be anything you want to be, if you have the will to be it. Don’t be afraid of what you are and let your light shine out

R KELLY LYRICS
"The World's Greatest"
I am a mountain
I am a tall tree
Ohhh, I am a swift wind
Sweepin' the country
I am a river
Down in the valley
Ohhh, I am a vision
And I can see clearly
If anybody asks u who I am

Just stand up tall look 'em in the Face and say

[Chorus]
I'm that star up in the sky
I'm that mountain peak up high
Hey, I made it
I'm the worlds greatest
And I'm that little bit of hope
When my backs against the ropes
I can feel it mmm
I'm the worlds greatest

I am a giant
I am an eagle
I am a lion
Down in the jungle
I am a marchin' band
I am the people
I am a helpin' hand
And I am a hero
If anybody asks u who I am
Just stand up tall look 'em in the Face and say

[Chorus]
I'm that star up in the sky
I'm that mountain peak up high
I made it
I'm the worlds greatest
And I'm that little bit of hope
When my backs against the ropes
I can feel it
I'm the worlds greatest”

Renate Weber I’d like to add my welcome to Mieka’s on this special day in the lives of our confirmands. This day sees the culmination of six months of work for this group of 19 young people.  In the Temple Society, a small independent Christian Community, we offer a set of Confirmation classes to our 14-16 year olds. They have been meeting regularly with various Elders to prepare them selves for this big day. I am going to light the first candle for today’s Service. Those of you who know me well know I love using candles both at home and in Services. To me the flame burning brightly represents many things. Physically, the power of one candle is quite amazing. It lights up the immediate area where it stands and it has the ability to radiate out into the farthest corners of a dark room. While it dispels darkness it imbues a softness that doesn’t show all the faults. It leaves some things in shadow. I also see the candle as representing my inner light, my heart light, where my spiritual being resides. Occasionally the flame burns very low like a candle with a faulty wick, and my light, my energy doesn’t radiate out. But if I trim the wick, deal with the problem that is troubling me, I can once again feel my inner strength build up.  I can then radiate out my positive energy and can feel much happier and stronger. By sharing my light, my flame hasn’t diminished and when we all radiate our light together it is a wonderful experience and we can hopefully live in an enlightened world. I read the preamble for the constitution for the Temple Society and felt very proud and comfortable that I am an active member of this community. As individual building stones in God’s temple, communally we aim to be tolerant towards others to ensure the world we live in is environmentally, socially and politically harmonious.

Traditionally our first hymn is the Templer Hymn (Seek ye first of all God’s Kingdom/Trachtet ruft mit ernstem Worte Hymn 1 in the hymnbook. Nicholas Herrmann will tell us what its significance is and why we are singing the verses chosen.

Nicholas Herrmann “Christoph Hoffmann wrote the words of this hymn and in German the first word of each verse states the aim of the Temple Society: Trachtet am ersten nach dem Koenigreich Gottes und nach Seiner Gerechtigkeit, in the English version these words have been used in the first line of the first verse “Seek ye first of all God’s Kingdom”. The verses we will be singing are 1.3.6.9 and 10. The reason we’re singing these specific verses are:

Verse 1 explains how Jesus guides us to look towards the future and what it will be like, how we need to set our goals high. We need to make our own choices. Verse 3 tells us that every person is special and how we have changed over time. It also explains that each person has a point in life.

Verse 6 explains how there is truth, love and justice for those who are willing to work towards these ideals and we need to be examples. Verse 9 explains how strong you must be to succeed in life, to not give up as you strive for your goals.

Verse 10 the final verse, puts a close to all the above verses. Firstly to remember Jesus’ commandments, his faith in all and to answer to the call of Jesus.

Please sing it in English if you can, as that is how we have learnt it. 

Jessica Beilharz and Daniel Schlender will now share what Confirmation in the Temple Society is.

Jessica Beilharz.  “Confirmation is a learning and inner-strengthening experience shared with other young Templers around the same age. Through the process of confirmation you get to learn about many different things relating to the Temple Society religion, the chance to make new friends and not getting the chance to sleep in on Sunday mornings. Confirmation is a beginning”.
Daniel Schlender “Confirmation in the Temple Society to me means you are now no longer considered to be a child; after Confirmation you are considered to be a young adult. We learnt a greater understanding of the Temple Society's religious beliefs. We now have the ability to make choices more independently. Now that we have finished Confirmation, I would like to have the opportunity to participate in more Templer activities. I would also like to maintain the connections and friendships that I have gained through the Confirmation lessons.”

Renate Weber I chose a reading from Nelson Mandela to set the theme for today’s special service Patrick Brown will read it out and Daniel Beilharz will tell us how it applies to us.

Patrick Brown "Our worst fear is not that we are inadequate; our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant gorgeous, talented, fabulous?” Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God: your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking, so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear our presence automatically liberates others”-Nelson Mandela

Daniel Beilharz “Nelson Mandela is one of the great moral and political leaders of our time, he is an international hero whose life long dedication to the fight against racial oppression in South Africa won him the Nobel Prize and the Presidency of his country.
Nelson Mandela read these words you just heard at the 1994 Inaugural speech to inspire his people. His inspiring writings, I think help give us confidence and diminish our fears, it also helps us to see the bigger purpose of our lives and inspires and empowers us to do well. It aids us in spreading light, love and divine grace around the world.

Many people wonder why others can achieve such great things and begin to pity themselves for not being able to be like them. We admire others, but we forget to admire ourselves. As it said in the reading, we have a right to be anything we wish -beautiful successful, as long as we use the unique talents that God gave us we can do anything. You also need to realise not using your talent in this world doesn’t help you or anyone else.

Although the reading suggests we would rather believe in our inabilities than in our greatness, that we are afraid of being wrong, are scared of what we are capable of and are therefore afraid of what we can do rather than what we can’t, the only way to overcome these fears and beliefs is if you spend less time worrying about the results and outcome of something and more in your unique talents, believing that the results will come if you remain true to your own ability. Imagine the world where your self-belief is proportionate to your enormous talent and where your incredible desire to succeed over comes your fear of failure.

When we do good things people see us and follow our example. Other people no longer fear doing good things as well. So as Templers we need to lead by example and let our light shine strongly. One reason that so many spiritual caterpillars never became butterflies is because they were eaten by doubt, fear or intimidation.

I have found some quotes that are quite related to the reading.

“ If you wish the world to become loving and compassionate, become loving and compassionate yourself. If you wish to diminish fear in the world, diminish your own, these are the gifts you can give”

-“Seat of the Soul” by Gary Zukav.

“Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” Buddha

“We all walk in the dark and each of us must learn to turn on his or her own light.” -Earl Nightingale”

Renate Weber I was so impressed at the research that Daniel Beilharz completed for his section. I didn’t give him any guidance or help but I was happy that he had picked up on all the issues and especially the light and dark theme of today’s Service. Each Confirmand will now symbolically light their candle from the first candle I lit at the beginning of the service to signify the vibrancy of life within each one of these special young people. All of them will have a part to play in their confirmation ceremony.

We will begin with Karl Wennagel and work alphabetically backwards. (I am a W!)

Renate Weber gives him a candle -he can light it from the first candle and then place it on his candle stand. Each Confirmands name is read out they light their candle and places it on their stand.

Karl Wennagel, Michael Schulz, Daniel Schlender, Linden Ruff, Dayne Ruff. Dirk Lubitz. Sam Lingham, Nicholas Herrmann, Jessica

Edelmaier, Mieka Decker, Caitlin Crowe, Patrick Brown, Thomas Blackwell, Riannon Berkeley, Rebecca Beilharz, Lisa Beilharz, Jessica Beilharz. Ingrid Beilharz and Daniel Beilharz

Dirk Lubitz will now read From the Old Testament

Dirk Lubitz “I am reading a text from the Old Testament today, from the book of Jonah, Chapter 3 verse 10 Chapter 4 verses 1to 3.

“When God saw that the people had stopped doing evil things, he had pity and did not destroy them as he had planned. Jonah was really upset and angry so he prayed: Our Lord I knew from the very beginning that you wouldn’t destroy Nineveh. That is why I left my own country and headed for Spain. You are a kind and merciful God, and you are very patient. You always show love, and you don’t like to punish any one not even foreigners”

Most of us know about Jonah and the whale, but the message Jonah wants to give the people is that the Lord has mercy on everyone and He is very patient. So rather than punishing or hurting people God always shows love.”

 Renate Weber I felt this was an important enough reading to include in today’s Service for two reasons firstly we use very few reading from the old Testament, because we find many old Testament lessons less relevant in our lives today and secondly this reading reinforces the new testament message about loving one another and living in harmony to create a more peaceful world.

Jessica Edelmaier  “Our second reading comes from the New Testament from the Gospel according to Luke Chapter 11: verses 33-36

“No one lights a lamp and then hides it or puts in under a clay pot. A lamp is put on a lamp stand so that every one who comes into the house can see the light. Your eyes are the lamp for your body. When your eyes are good you have all the light you need. But when your eyes are bad everything is dark. So be sure that your light isn’t darkness. If you have light, and nothing is dark, then light will be everywhere as when a lamp shines brightly on you.”

This reading was chosen because it ties in with our theme of light. We have a choice of what we see and how we see it. We can chose to see the light, the good, the positives or we can choose to see the darkness, the bad or the negatives.

If you show the good, the light, to others then they see the light too and it can have a ripple effect. So don’t hide your light. Be the best you can be! “If you have light and nothing is dark then light will be every where as the lamp shines brightly on you.”

Renate Weber    We had the opportunity to spend time together at an urban camp in the City.  This gave the Cofirmands an opportunity to be together for a longer period of time and we were also able to work with the distant confirmands in person, rather than over a telephone line. One of my lessons with the last two confirmation groups has been to share some of the history of the Temple Society. I’d show the Templer History as a PowerPoint picture show and we used to invite the confirmands to find a relative who had grown up in Palestine and ask them a few relevant questions. This time I decided we should use the resources we have available to us “live”. I invited a number of people who had differing experiences to share some of their memories with us. Each living treasure was invited to bring in a few items to show the group during our stay at the Melbourne Discovery Urban Camp. I think it was a successful exercise as the confirmands had an opportunity to speak one on one with someone who had actually experienced a piece of our history, be it in Cyprus or an internee in Tatura, growing up in Jerusalem, Betlehem or Wilhelma or as a child in Jerusalem.  Sam Lingham, Michael Schulz and then Thomas Blackwell will share what they learnt from these generous people.

Sam Lingham At the urban camp we had the opportunity to talk to our living resources about life before they came to Australia. From living in Palestine our living treasures learned to work in a Community of people with a common goal and live well, even when surrounded by barbed wire. They learned there is no point in whinging and asking for handouts. You have to get on with it and make the best of what you’ve got!

Michael Schulz I learned about how the Templers established themselves in Palestine.   They built their own houses from bricks they sourced locally.  The houses were so well built that they are still standing today and are now protected heritage buildings.

Templers also built their roads, which are still in use today.  One road is still the main road of the city.  They also made their wagons to transport their produce locally and for export. 

They planted plantation that had not been grown in the Middle East.  These included oranges, vines, and apples.  They also produced vegetables, made their own bread, produced milk & cheeses from their own cows and meat from their own cattle

The Templers also built and ran their own school. They also built an orphanage, which looked after Arabic children.”

Thomas Blackwell 

“I learnt about the kind of conditions they lived in, what it was like being a girl or a boy in Palestine and the kind of jobs they could do. I learnt about Confirmation in those days and that many of the boys looked after the family farm or became apprentice blacksmiths, bakers or other tradesmen. The conditions they had were limited by the war and placed restrictions on what they could do. They made friendships as they travelled around during their internships. I also learnt about life in internment -sleeping in tents in Cyprus and in barracks in Tatura. When the internees left the camps many grew their own vegetables and had to make a fresh start each time”.

Ingrid Beilharz, Caitlin Crowe and Linden Ruff come up next

Ingrid Beilharz “At our recent confirmation camp, we created stained glass windows. The person shape represents our inner spirit and we are holding an issue we feel strongly about. These windows are not just works of art!

In my stained glass window the issue that I feel is important is that we should spread love rather than war and hate. In simpler terms you should love your neighbour as your self from the twin commandments from Matthew. Love is very contagious; it spreads when you are around a loving or happy person, the love shines out to everyone. Without it would be hard to live. We should all let our love be the light.”

Caitlin Crowe “My stained glass window uses the teardrop to represent the issue of wasting water.  This is an important issue because water is a vital part in everyone’s lives. With out water we wouldn’t survive. We also need to think of others in the future, as they will need water as well. The rainbow on the figure represents everybody happily together. Each colour represents an individual and the fact that they are in a rainbow shows they are all in harmony.”

Linden Ruff "The symbol on my stained glass window represents a snowflake turning into a droplet of water, this represents global warming which is an issue I feel strongly about."

Renate Weber will call up the confirmands in groups and Rolf Beilharz will perform the confirmation Ceremony. Each Confirmand is presented with a certificate of Confirmation containing the verse chosen for them. Each group is blessed before they resume their seats

Group 1 Daniel Beilharz
            Ingrid Beilharz
            Jessica Beilharz
            Lisa Beilharz
            Rebecca Beilharz

Group 2 Riannon Berkeley
            Thomas Blackwell
            Patrick Brown
            Caitlin Crowe
            Mieka Decker

Group 3 Jessica Edelmaier
            Nicholas Herrmann
            Sam Lingham
            Dirk Lubitz
            Dayne Ruff

Group 4 Linden Ruff
            Daniel Schlender
            Michael Schulz
            Karl Wennagel

What I learnt from confirmation

Rebecca Beilharz  When we started our confirmation classes I didn't realise that we would be learning about the history and background of the Temple Society. I didn't know there was a Templer motto which reads 'Set your mind on God’s kingdom before everything else, and all the rest will come to you’ as said in the bible from Matthew chapter 6 verse 33. Setting your mind on God’s kingdom means to me being how God would like us to be and doing what he requires and our conscience will tell us how to act justly with the matter. This is just one of the things we learnt during our confirmation lessons.
 
Karl Wennagel I participated in the confirmation classes because my parents thought that I would benefit from them. I learnt a lot about the Bible and where the Templer motto came from. The most interesting thing that I learnt about was the older Templers or our “living resources” as Renate Weber likes to call them. But most of all I learnt about working as a team.

 Dayne Ruff “I participated in the Confirmation program because my parents and grandparents thought it would be a great experience. I also participated to strengthen friendships, to have an understanding of the Temple Society and to know what religion means.”

Renate Weber Each Confirmand was asked to write a letter of introduction to the teaching elders, they were given a set of guiding questions and asked to include a song or a poem to express an opinion they hold as important or relevant to them. Educators are telling us this generation of young people are going to see many changes in their lives. They will live in a global community. Distance will no longer be a barrier. They may work overseas. The technology they will have to work with and understand hasn’t even been invented yet! They may have a number of different careers; they will need to be flexible and adaptable. They are developing some understanding about religion, spiritualty and the Temple Society. The important thing we can give these young people is a secure and sound base from which they can venture forth. By encouraging them to be the best they can be, to let their light shine out, to be guided by their conscience, to treat others as they want to be treated we are providing them with a set of values they will be able to draw on wherever their life leads them.

Riannon Berkeley  “When we wrote our introductory letters, we had to nominate a piece that meant something to us. I nominated the following prayer – written by John Marsden – that I will read to you. He brings forth some important wishes that I share. A prayer for the 21^st Century.”

 A PRAYER FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY          JOHN MARSDEN

May the road be free for the journey,
May it lead where it promised it would,
May the stars that gave ancient bearings
Be seen, still be understood.
May every aircraft fly safely,
May every traveller be found,
May sailors in crossing the ocean
Not hear the cries of the drowned.
 
          May gardens be wild like jungles,
May nature never be tamed,
May dangers create of us heroes,
May fears always have names.
May the mountains stand to remind us
Of what it means to be young,
May we be outlived by our daughters.
May we be outlived by our sons.
 
May the bombs rust away in their bunkers,
And the doomsday clock never be rewound.
May the solitary scientists, working,
Remember the holes in the ground.
May the knife remain in the holder,
May the bullet stay in the gun,
May those who live in the shadows
Be seen by those in the sun.

 Pebbles and Light candles Lisa Beilharz

“Many of us went to Sunday school when we were younger. I can always remember so clearly, sitting on the floor of the room with Renate Beilharz playing her guitar and us singing. As we got older we began to realise what the song meant. To us it means every action or emotion that we experience will affect everyone around us like ripples, whether it is in a good way or a bad way.

Please turn to hymn number 91, we will sing both verses.

Lisa continues

I’d now like to invite family members of the confirmands to light a candle from our candles. Each one of us has a shining light inside of us and we, as confirmands, would like to spread the light. We would like you to support our special light, we invite the family members of the confirmands to light a taper from their child’s candle and place it in the boxes.

 Monika Strasser will play some music.

Renate Weber Prayer for the Confirmands.

Mieka Decker comes up to read Lord’s Prayer

Great spirit who is over us, in us and around us, be with us today as we celebrate the Templer Rite of Passage called Confirmation. These young people, with the support of the Elders and their families have been asking and seeking to answer the big deep questions about faith.

Let them each be talented, brilliant, gorgeous and fabulous, let their unique precious inner light radiate out in to the world

May they have the humility to listen, the strength to stand up for what they believe is right, and the wisdom to know when they are wrong!  Be there in whatever form they need you when they ask for help, guidance and support, be it as a divine force, as their conscience, as a friend. Let us say the Lord’s Prayer together led by

Mieka Decker

Our father in Heaven,
Hallowed be your name,
 Your kingdom come,
Your will be done on earth as in heaven
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
As we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us when in temptation and deliver us from evil.
For the Kingdom the power and the glory
Are yours forever. Amen. 

Renate Weber

The Choir will conclude by singing the German version of the Lord’s Prayer.

Renate Weber All that now remains is to say a few thankyous!  To Monika Strasser for her music. To the teaching Elders, Rolf Beilharz, Harald Ruff, Herta Uhlherr, Renate Beilharz and Mark Herrmann. The Klinks for facilitating our star gazing, to the “living treasures” who made our history come to life, to the parents who cared enough to bring their children and support us in the confirmation program, to the extended families and friends who came today to share in this special celebration, to the choir for their wonderful contribution. Confirmands you are encouraged to take home your stained glass window and your candle with its uniquely crafted stand.  The offering today is for Canteen.  I hope you all enjoy the rest of Sunday.

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SERVICE 10.07.2005 in Bayswater
Elder Rolf Beilharz

    Welcome to our service. Have you ever stopped to ask: what are we saying when we use the word “service” for what is really a period of contemplation on Sundays in this community chapel? In German the word used is Gottesdienst, meaning literally the service of God. Presumably the English word “service” also implies that we wish to serve God, to be servants of God.
    Does God need our service? If God is the all-powerful creator of the universe he probably gets on perfectly well without us. After all, except for the last million of the 1000 million years in which the Creator allowed life to evolve on this earth, life got on perfectly happily without humans. The most likely sense of the word “service”, meaning that we wish to do something for God, is that we should here think about what humans can actually do for God. Whatever that is must be something humans can contribute to God’s creation, that is, the world and the life on it. It is this thinking about how we can serve God, which is the appropriate reason for gathering on Sundays and doing what we are doing now. If we really want to do something useful for God, actual useful service for God and his creation, then what we do has to manifest itself in all of our life. It is certainly not restricted to these periods of contemplation in the Chapel. It must form the attitude we have towards the universe, the world and the life that is on it, and about how we treat the world and its life.
One of the things this means is what we read in the bible. We should love our neighbours as we love ourselves. The best service we can give God, or whatever you wish to call that creative power responsible for our being here, is to be truly human, humane, friendly to others and caring for the world and all life on it. We should employ our talents for the good of other humans, for the rest of life and for the sustainable future of the world on which we live. I believe that is the modern way of expressing what Jesus in his time called striving for the Kingdom of God. For the Temple Society such striving is our religion. And it provides the goal for all of our life at all times. On Sundays we take a pause and think about how well we are doing in our striving.
    Today I wish to discuss this topic, and today’s text fits this wish. But before I become too serious, let us all joyfully sing a hymn of joy. Let’s sing hymn Nr. 17 in our hymnbook ‘Brüder singt ein Lied der Freude’, Verses 1 - 4.

Our Text for this Sunday is from the gospel of Matthew Chapter 6: Verses 9- 13. This is part of the Sermon on the Mount and I’ll read from verse 7.
Read text. ‘ … The Lord’s prayer.’
 

    The gospel of Matthew is arranged in themes. Chapters 5, 6 and 7 are a collection of the teachings of Jesus. The beginning and the end of this set of chapters suggest that Jesus was talking to a crowd of people from a high point. That’s where the name Sermon on the Mount comes from. Matthew starts his next theme, healing and miracles, in the chapter that follows the Sermon on the Mount. When you read this text as part of the whole collection of teachings, it is clear that Jesus wanted a fundamental change from his listeners. Jesus called the result which such a fundamental change of attitude will achieve, and the behaviour of individuals and the society they will create, the Kingdom of God. Jesus felt strongly that God had given him the task of explaining this kingdom and inviting people to change so that they could achieve living under better conditions. As the radical change required is not easy, people would have to strive hard for it. What we should do is to forgive other people so that God will also forgive us. Choosing to serve God before Money is another part of the fundamental change required among people to achieve the kingdom of God. On a previous occasion, with the text Matthew Ch. 6, verses 19 to 24, I said similar things about a radical change because you cannot serve God and money. In this kingdom you must put serving God above thinking about money.
    Historians agree that the first gospel written was that of Mark. Perhaps 30 years later come Matthew and Luke, fairly close together. The gospel of John was later again by 20 to 30 years. Don’t hold me to the exact number of years. The only important matter is that the passage of time can reflect a changing story, if opinion about the heroes and exactly what they were did change as time went on. Mark’s gospel has few details about the death of Jesus and no details about his birth. In Mark Jesus resembled the sort of human which you and I could be if we were really taking a possible change in humanity very seriously and fought for it even if it cost our life. The teaching of a thoroughgoing change in attitude for people to achieve in this life, does not come over as strongly in Luke as in Matthew. Luke is already reflecting a changing trend of how Jesus should be seen and understood, which grew in Christianity after the death and resurrection of Jesus. This trend sees Jesus not as the man who taught great wisdom, but as the son of God who had to die on the cross so that those who believed could be saved in a future heaven. The kingdom of God has moved from the present to something which comes in the future and which you will enter if you believe that Jesus died for you. I personally believe that the way Jesus thought is expressed more accurately in Matthew. You will see why as my arguments develop.
    We all know that Jesus invited people to strive for and enter the Kingdom of God. In our text, the Lord’s prayer, which Jesus gave his disciples, it says: your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven. This is a very clear statement that the kingdom of God is to develop on this earth. What must happen for this kingdom of God to come to earth so that the will of God will be done on earth as well as in heaven?
    Time and time again Christians have thought about how they are to get into God’s kingdom. It seems to me that people would prefer that God himself, or Jesus, just brings the kingdom to earth and gives it to us. Then we would all join immediately, wouldn’t we?
    There have been many times in history when people believed that the present ugly world would end soon to be replaced by God’s glorious kingdom. Even in the time of Jesus, there were Jews who asked Jesus whether he was the promised messiah, whom all Jews had been waiting for for so long. I don’t think Jesus ever said that he was. As it happened, most Jews concluded that Jesus, however much of a stir he had caused, was not the expected messiah, and Jesus finished up dying on the cross instead.
    After the Easter events, when some disciples had become convinced that Jesus had been raised from death, the original Christian community in Jerusalem also had the expectation that Jesus would come down from heaven to institute the kingdom of God. In this community, people sold their goods, gave the money to the community and lived from day to day in the expectation that God’s kingdom would appear very soon. That is probably one reason why nothing was written down about the life and teaching of Jesus for 30 to 40 years after his death. Only after this time did the gospel writers try to reconstruct what had happened to Jesus and what he had taught. Some of the modern researchers I have read believe that Jesus himself, at least before his mission started to go wrong, believed that God would reward his work with the appearance of this kingdom. But, the fact is that God did not give the kingdom to the waiting people. And as you will see, the crux of what Jesus taught is that people must create the kingdom of God by their own efforts.
Even the founding of the Temple Society owes something to similar hopes that God would bring his kingdom. The pietists of Württemberg expected this to happen in 1832. Like all earlier such hopes, this expectation was also not fulfilled. Then, in 1848, came a revolution in Germany, which resulted in the formation of the first German national parliament. Christoph Hoffmann had earlier studied theology. He was concerned about the difficult situations in which many poor people in Germany lived and, when he was elected to this parliament, he hoped that something might now be done about the poverty in the land. But the parliament was not interested in such things and did not survive long. After these several failures to alleviate the lot of the poor, Christoph Hoffmann went back to a thorough search for the causes of the difficulties people were facing. The search included the bible and Hoffmann found his way back to Jesus, the man who had taught such wisdom, and who had actually shown us how the kingdom on earth can be brought about. In the community of people, all interested in putting the good of the community before their selfish needs, poverty disappears like all other things that are disharmonious and bad for community members. The answer was very clear and simple and had been there all along. But people had so far missed it in their wishful thinking that God would do the work.
    What is this clear and simple way that Jesus had laid out for attaining the kingdom of God? Read the Sermon on the Mount. It is there in all its simplicity. Humans, change yourself radically from looking out for your own selfish good, and use whatever talents you have for the welfare of all! Change your ways from hitting others back, to letting them hit you again. Forgive others, rather than take them to court. Achieve this attitude in all ways in which your natural selfishness can be replaced by your concern for the good of all. In biblical language it sounds slightly different. If someone hits you on one cheek, turn the other cheek and let him hit you there as well. In biblical shorthand the Kingdom of God appears when people follow the twin commandments: Love God with all your might, and love your neighbour as you love yourself.
    When you achieve this conversion in yourself, and when your friends do that too, then your little group has the beginning of the kingdom of God amongst you. Then let your example be like the sourdough, or the yeast, which finishes up affecting the whole loaf. If the people who interact with you are impressed by your example, your kingdom will grow and there is no reason why all of humanity should not change and enter this kingdom of God.
    It is through the sincere striving of people to make themselves better, that a better society will appear. Each person must undergo a thorough change in attitude and accompanying behaviour. There is nothing whatsoever preventing people from achieving such a change from which a more harmonious state of humanity will grow, other than their natural selfishness, greed, thirst for revenge and so on. In modern words you could say, Jesus invited us to change from the animal-like Homo sapiens to the true possibility of becoming humans “in the image of God” as the old bible writers put it. Because humans can think and plan, it is now possible for humanity to view the world as something precious, for which we must assume responsibility, and which we must not allow to be ruined by our laziness and thoughtlessness. With good will, we can arrange worldly things so that no one needs to remain in poverty. All of this is possible. It would be very sad, if we failed to get humanity to strive for and achieve this, just because it all seems too hard.
    The Temple Society has set this striving for true humanity as its religious goal. The striving starts by each individual changing his whole being from selfishness to being concerned with the welfare of the community. And the striving is an everyday matter. It is not reserved for Sundays, or religious meetings.
    We could perhaps think that all we Templers are doing is to make life hard and painful for ourselves. Why should I continually let strangers I come into contact with hit me on the other cheek as well. This really is a bad exaggeration of what the kingdom of God is. And what is more, it is quite a wrong picture.
    Think about it the other way round. What happens when you don’t strive for God’s kingdom, and when you don’t forgive others but insist on hitting them back. Then you have humanity as it exists today in many parts of the world, where the world really does seem very bad.
    Take a purely hypothetical example which we may be able to imagine. An old people’s home in which residents did not forgive each other their faults. Many of the things which can be considered faults are caused by the fact that the offending people are getting older and losing control over some of their bodily and mental abilities. At heart, they are not evil. By taking offence at the occurrence of such faults, other people only make their own lives difficult. Forgiving people their weaknesses rather than seeking to change them into what we want is the obvious way to remove the tension and aggression. Such a change from being offended by others to forgiving each other one’s weaknesses, is all it takes to recreate harmony and peace, in which all can live happily. This is a small example of how one achieves, through change in attitude, the kingdom of God within one’s community. It should be clear that the little bit of effort to change oneself produces a huge return in our quality of life. Our own old people’s home does make life very pleasant for its residents. We must all be very thankful for the way in which Dr. Schreiber and his staff and our own care worker, Helga Anderson, are facilitating the physical and care environment to allow such harmonious life to be retained among older Templers.
    Unfortunately, the situation is very much worse in the many parts of the world which we see every night when we watch TV. Our old home in Palestine, now called Israel, is a case in point. Let me say it without beating around the bush. Who is going to be the first Palestinian, or the first Israeli, to say to the other side: “Here is my other cheek, hit me again. I prefer that to hitting you back”?
    Most people will say: “This is an utterly ridiculous question. You cannot expect people not to revenge all the people the others have already killed. Once they have been revenged, then we can talk about peace”. You can see how difficult it is to stop fighting. And you can also appreciate the wisdom Jesus had when he proposed his remedy. Humans have the ability to forgive, start afresh and live in peace. Just do it!
    However, forgiving is very difficult and in our nature we are programmed to hit back and to revenge ourselves. But which is better? Can we swallow our pride, our thoughts of revenge, our loss of face and all the other things that seem important to us, and then sincerely forgive, or do we continue the revenge-first actions, which come to us so naturally?
    Clearly, forgiving is better, but, are we prepared to do it? Just hold this mental picture of warring and fighting, which most people expect to occur automatically, against forgiving, which is the wise thing to do. I think this comparison is the best way to understand what the bible writers meant when they described mankind as being made in God’s image, and thus, different from the other animals. Man is very much like other animals in defending its own selfish self or close family. But mankind also has the wisdom to see that strife could be banished. It is not impossible, just hard. And if true peace and harmony is what we want, we have to do the hard thing and forgive others, without spoiling it by taking revenge first. We need a thorough-going change of mind and we need to become happy with what it entails so that we can enjoy its consequences of peace and harmony.
    Have you noticed how the western civilization in which we live is orienting all its evaluation and decision-making on economic criteria? You expect commercial firms to do that. They strive to write a profit in black numbers in the bottom line. While they make a profit this is good for shareholders as well as for the workers. Unfortunately, we have so focussed on this bottom line that large firms, particularly multinationals, seem to make decisions in which concerns about people are lost in the need to make profits. One just closes those workplaces that are unprofitable.
    The situation has become worse in the last 15 years or so, as governments have used the same economic rationalism in their administration, as commercial corporations use in their commerce. Public services have been corporatised, often parcelled up and sold off in the process of privatisation. This process of making services private is supposed to make life better for us, because the commercial competition will make services cheaper for us than when they were run by governments.
    Have you noticed what this does to people. Whereas we used to be people or humans, we have now become consumers. Consumers are always expected to be selfish. Their quality of life increases when competition drives down the price of goods. We will benefit if our same amount of money can now buy more goods and services. All evaluation is in money. Even our welfare is measured in the goods money can buy. The happiness of people is now measured entirely by the mass of goods they can buy. Money rules. Mankind exists to consume material goods. God, the creator and his creation, have become lost from our sight and this goes along with the fact that science now explains everything from a material view and we don’t need God as a cause that affects our daily lives anymore.
    Here we have just merged two different aspects of the concept “God”. Science does explain most things from perfectly natural causes. We no longer need to invoke God to explain how clocks, TV sets, or living organisms work. Nature has natural causes, which we can learn to understand, just as the things we make have technical causes that work because we constructed them to work. But God as a shorthand name for the ultimate creative force, which is responsible for our being here, living on planet Earth in the solar system which is part of the universe, remains a very important idea. God, understood as the ultimate force, deserves our admiration, respect and thanks.
    With this qualification clearly understood, the present world view, in which man exists to serve money and thus his selfish self, is completely wrong. It is 180 degrees reversed from what human society could be. I am not a consumer. In fact, my parents raised me to be a saver, and I resent as a slur that I am seen only as a consumer and spender. I am a human person, a person with friends, and my happiness lies not in accumulating or spending money in consumption, but in the relationships I have with other people. And what I want is relationships of complete trust, honesty and friendship. What comes to mind is another piece of biblical wisdom. What does it profit a person if he or she gains the whole world and loses his or her soul. This saying describes a successful consumer, gaining the whole world, but losing his friends in the process. No, I want to keep my friends, my real friends, not the ones who surround me if I am rich. I hope that you think in the same way.
    What selfish consumers have not yet seen clearly is that if you are going to gain from cheaper and cheaper goods and services, costs have to be cut. This inevitably leads to lower quality. Clearly selfish consumerism can lead to a life of a very poor standard. And you have no guarantee that you will have any true friends.
    Herein lies the meaning of the Sermon on the Mount and the radical change in attitude it calls for. If you serve money, your values are selfish. You may become rich, even gain the whole world, but you are likely to lose all real friends in the process. To be a true human, you will be happier if you serve God. And as we saw earlier in this talk, serving God is really your striving to bring about the kingdom of God, here on earth to be shared by all people of similar mind. They will all be working to change conditions for the good of everyone, and maintaining a sustainable world, which provides a pleasant environment for us all and the rest of life. When people strive to the best of their talents and abilities to make the world better, there is no need for anyone to starve. Sensible community leadership exercised with goodwill towards all members can arrange food distribution appropriately. We should then have such harmony and peace amongst us that God, however you may picture this force in your mind, will be pleased to live among us. Let’s sing the song in which Christoph Hoffmann defined what our service to God should be.
We’ll sing from the Templer hymn Nr. 1 ‘Trachtet rufft ...’ the verses 1,2,4, 6 and 9.

    Can I leave you with a challenge. Do you think we Templers can interest our fellow Australians in the following: Truly humane people are happiest above all when they are among friends they can trust and when they work for the common good. The role of money and the economy should therefore be, to allow real humanity of this kind to be achieved by people. Can we provoke at least some discussion of these ideas. There are probably many people out there who are looking for such a comprehensive change of values.
 

Let’s finish with the Lord’s prayer, this time in the form we have chosen to print in our hymnbook.
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us when in temptation And deliver us from evil.
For the Kingdom, the power and the Glory are Yours forever.
Amen.

Elder  Alfred Klink

Hymns: Easter hymn No 88, "Ostern verkündet die Hoffnung..." all three verses
Hymn N0 75 "Nun danked alle Gott..." all three verses

Music: Monika Strasser

Prelude

Text: Mat 28:1-8 The experience of the empty tomb

Today is Easter. An eventful week in the Christian calendar lies behind us; from Palm Sunday, when Jesus entered Jerusalem in triumph, to the Abendmahl on Maundy-Thursday and to his death and burial on Karfreitag. Easter is one of the oldest Christian festivals. Historic records show that it was commemorated in Rom as early as 115 AD. With the resurrection celebration starts a 50 day Easter period to Pentecost, which includes Himmelfahrt, Ascension, 40 days from now. Our text for today comes from Matthew 28, the last chapter of the Matthew Gospel, verses 1 to 8, where the two Marys visit Jesus’ grave on Sunday morning and find the tomb empty. – –

The natural reaction of anyone to such news today would be to assume that the body had been removed, stolen, hidden, taken somewhere else. I suppose it was no different then. The gospel writer tells of the security measures put in place to prevent just such an action, and then, after the fact, describes the bribing of the guards to make them say that the body had in effect been stolen. They were trying to forestall the rumour that Jesus had risen from the dead as he had hinted he would. To us Templers the fact whether Jesus rose from the dead or not is an insignificant embellishment of his mission. An issue which does not detract one iota from the significance of the message Jesus taught during his life-time. We can recognise the significance and the value for society of the (at the time) revolutionary statements made by the man concerning love, trust and forgiveness. In fact, seen, as made by a mortal man, albeit an exceptionally gifted man, the statements become so much more relevant to us than if they had been made by an omniscient deity. The same applies, of course, also to his sufferings.

For us Templers the sermon on the mount as reported in Matthew 5, 6 &7 is Jesus’ legacy to us, not the numerous wonders attributed to him by the Gospel writers and the Church. Turning water into wine, calming the stormy sea or walking on water, curing the lame, the blind and the obsessed we see as symbolic representations of mental attitudes to a specific problem at the time. But to the Church they mean everything. Their whole philosophy, their doctrine itself is built on a belief in the resurrection, on the supernatural, all conquering powers of the son of God, sent by God to save mankind. According to some church authorities Templers cannot even call themselves Christians because we do not insist on this indispensable divine requisite for membership. So, deprived of its ecclesiastic image, its messianic overtones and stripped of its artificial religious message what does the Easter period still hold for us? What is left of the magic of Easter other than chocolate eggs and an extra long-long weekend of fun in the sun? Does the story of the empty tomb still offer scope for reflection? Yes, yes and yes! It contains deep insight into human nature and encourages us to philosophise on our understanding of life.

Let us now sing the Easter Hymn number 88, all three verses

I was born in the northern hemisphere of the Earth, where Easter falls into the beginning of the year, in Spring. There, Easter symbolises the resourcefulness of Nature. The fest is a celebration of the arrival of Spring, when the days grow longer, the sunshine warmer and the Earth dresses itself up in a patchwork of green and gold. Easter there symbolises the awakening out of the depth of a winter of despair, when everything looked dead and lost and life’s conflicts did not make sense anymore, when all efforts seemed futile, when struggle against the harsh, frozen wasteland was in vain. Suddenly, literally overnight, there awakens a new spirit, Spring has come, and hidden within this great recovery of nature there is a realisation of a parallel to the indomitable spirit in mankind, rising to the occasion. Each Spring is a vision greater and more beautiful than before and opens more of the future for us with meaningful challenges. It is as though the depth of despair is after all not a bottomless pit but a stepping stone, yes, a mountain top from where, after the fog of despair has lifted, you can see further than before, look beyond the immediate problems confronting you and step over or around what seemed insurmountable only days before. You realise that the valley of the shadows, the evil and despair, the hopelessness are not in nature but within your mind alone. All you have to do is lift up your eyes from your inward sorrows and your self-pity, your despair and your anxiety, and the walls of depression will disappear. A new day is dawning, a new Spring has come and with it a new burst of energy. As you embrace it your mind will take a quantum leap forward.

To me the story of Easter in the New Testament is the story of such a great leap forward. A sudden awareness of hope. We are told of the disciple’s shattered plans, their despair in the face of stark reality, and then experience with them the reawakening of creative hope. The death of Jesus seemed to be the end of his great mission. Everything had collapsed. The vision of a new Jerusalem had failed, the mission ended in disaster, the project in death. People were in hiding, afraid to show their faces or be identified as followers of Jesus lest they suffer the same fate. Was this the end? The end of all the high hopes, the visions, the joy, the future? Jesus was dead, yes, but his vision, his idea was still there, ready to come alive again in anyone willing to pick it up. The truth was still there to be told. It had lost the vitality, the charisma of a living public speaker, that was all. Maybe they were not as good as Jesus was, but could they do it? Could they carry the vision?

I have often wondered what it is that makes us humans identify an idea, a truth, a vision with a particular person. Usually, but not always, it is the originator of the idea, the person who first formed a vision into words and made it understandable to the wider public. It makes little difference to our approach what the nature of that idea or vision is. We could take any scientific, technological, philosophical, social or spiritual innovative idea as an example. Newton and Gravity, Darwin and evolution, Freud and Psychoanalysis, Einstein and Relativity, Karl Marx and Communism, Francis Crick and the double Helix or, if you are a music lover, Karl Haas and his Adventures in good Music. By the way, did you know Haas died last month? He was 91 years old. His unique style of presentation gave classical music a common touch and made his program for many years the most listened to in the whole world. I wonder if someone will pick up the vision he had of introducing people to the art, the science and the philosophy that is music. Our mind seems to need a physical body to attach an abstract idea to before we can objectively consider and work with it in the real world. Maybe it is a programming deficiency in our human make-up where we, even today, are still unable to make sense of totally abstract concepts such as God, infinity, eternity or nothingness. Many stories attest to how difficult it was in times gone by for the figure Zero and other imaginary numbers to be accepted by the public. Perhaps it is this hang-over from our primitive origin, where sight and touch first shaped mind-and-hand coordination, that still lingers below the surface in our mind. A hangover that makes us believe that we can destroy an idea if we kill the person who formulated it. Experiments with primitive animals seem to confirm this "out of sight, out of mind" concept. But our mind does not work that way, at least not anymore. In today’s society you can not kill an idea anymore by eliminating its creator. It has a life of its own.

It was Richard Dawkins who back in 1975 gave a name to the concept of a thought expressed, as something alive in its own right. Anything once spoken, written or portrayed in a socially recognisable form will persist, even when disconnected from its creator. Dawkins called this imaginary entity a Meme, a play on the words of memory and gene. Just like the gene in a seed can germinate, grow into a plant and multiply, a meme can lie dormant for a long time, but once it finds itself in a fertile environment, is recognised by a receptive mind, it too will grow and multiply and spread though-out society. That’s why an idea, once born, cannot be wished away by killing its creator.

After three days of hiding in despair the followers of Jesus lifted up their eyes, stopped wailing, looked around and noticed an open door, (as Dieter Ruff used to say) a way to continue the mission without the man. It took the finality of the tomb and the torn hands of Jesus to overcome the doubts in his followers that there is a better way and there was a need to show people that way. It did awaken in them the slumbering awareness of Jesus’ message, of something greater than physical death. Something they had not really understood when Jesus told them while he was still alive. Back then they felt it was Jesus’ vision, not theirs; His prerogative to preach it, to practice it. It did not matter that they did not understand what it was all about, and why they had to believe; why to believe was even more important than to know. But now, here, totally lost and afraid, they saw it, they saw the need and that they were not alone in their need. The same need is in every man, woman and child, to believe in a future for themselves and their endeavours. It is a pre-requisite to making life liveable. It is a need as real as hunger, as pressing as the bodily necessities, as vital as the salt of the Earth: It is the freedom of belief in a meaning of life for each individual. All the cruelty and all the suffering in the world cannot diminish the measure of this need. It only reinforces it and makes the lack of it the more apparent. We are not talking here about the sacrosanct belief in the right of human life, nor liberty or happiness, but about something which may be entirely a human attribute, the need to believe in a value for yourself, of you as a person, a meaning that gives life a purpose and stimulates our mind to think positive. The philosopher Daniel Dennet in his book Freedom Evolves traces this need through evolution and defines it as "the capacity to achieve what is of value to the individual...". The apostles saw this value centred around a God-fearing lifestyle and a belief in eternal life. In time this stepping stone became a doctrine and the reason for the need to believe forgotten. Our unique ability to reconsider what is of value to us may seem a fearful prospect to some, opening the gates to lawlessness and anarchy, but social environments tend to guide us to a stable balance between the two extremes of seeking shelter on the one side and needing elbow room on the other. We can look ahead beyond what is immediately visible, and plan for the possible beyond the automated animal instinct.

Archeologists tell us that something very special began to happen to our species around 40,000 years ago. Not so much a biological change but a change in culture. Some call it The Great Leap Forward. Earlier man-made artefacts had hardly changed for a million years. No paintings, no carvings, no grave goods and no ornamentations. After the Leap all those things suddenly appeared in the archeological records, together with musical instruments and stunning cave murals. So significant was this step in our evolution that a casual observer looking back on history in a million years from now might see our modern culture, with all its freeways, computers, supersonic planes and space exploration, as merely an afterthought to that Great Leap Forward in homo sapiens’ cultural evolution 40,000 years ago. All our modern achievements, from the Sistine Chapel to General Relativity, from Bach to Bartok, could be seen as part of this same revolution that then burst forth from the earlier stagnation.

Richard Dawkins (whom we met before with the meme) in his latest book "A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Life" wonders about the cause of this sudden stimulation to the human mind. With no physical and biological changes evident at the time, he theorises that it could have been a seemingly insignificant trick of grammar in the primitive language of our ancestors, such as the conditional clause, which, at a stroke, would have allowed a "what if" imagination to flower in our brain. Whereas before, people could only talk about things that were there, visible in the scene before them, now referential language allowed them to use words as token of things that were not immediately present. A small step in hindsight, but it just may have been the bridge to representational art, the ability to draw a two-dimensional bison on a cave wall or recognise an abstract idea detached from its creator. In an environment of primitive mentality this truly was a miracle.

Such a miracle was also the realisation by the apostles that with their recognition of the substance of Jesus’ message, Jesus effectively had returned to them, as if resurrected from the grave; real in his vision, his words and his commandments, enough so for them to suddenly understand the meaning of his mission. The abstract concepts of love and trust of God, neighbour and enemy became real to them through their awareness of the need to believe in them. And in this new-found expansion of reality their teacher had become real again; real enough to guide them for the seven weeks it took until they were confident enough to walk alone. Has this evolutionary leap in abstract thinking, the need for a belief in a creative meaning for life, introduced a new era in human history? We know it has, but we also know it had a 2000 year long, painful struggle for understanding and acceptance, a time full of well-meaning ignorance and misrepresentation. Some of which is still with us today.

Bishop Spong, who has written many books on practical Christianity, believes that it is not only the Roman Catholic Church but the whole Christian philosophy that is in need of serious reform. He says our faith is badly compromised by ancient tribal mentalities. In the Scriptures Christians were taught to think of themselves always in minority images, oppressed and persecuted. They were destined to be the 'saving remnant;' the 'salt of the earth' that flavoured the soup; the 'leaven in the lump' of dough that gave its yeast to the bread, the 'light of a single candle' that shined in the midst of an overwhelming darkness. Then, following Constantine's Edict of Milan in 313 CE, Christianity became the dominant religion of the western world, and Christians began to feel that it was their duty to create uniformity within the church and to impose a uniform belief on those outside. Conflict arises in the world of religion whenever a system decides that it has captured the Ultimate Truth. Ultimate truth should really be classed with all the other abstract impossibilities I have listed before. It is just another form of fundamentalism. We must beware of religious fundamentalism, for it has little to do with truth, religious or otherwise. It is rather a security seeking, defence mechanism used by frightened people, and arises out of an attempt to artificially pacify our inner need for knowledge with certainty, a certainty the world will not, it cannot provide. That is also why there is such anger in fundamentalists, as well as great hostility toward those who are not, by their definition "true believers". Bishop Spong, in talking about religious maturity, makes the point succinctly: If you attempt to convert a fundamentalist to your point of view you will not succeed, not because the arguments you use are somehow lacking in persuasiveness, but because you have failed to understand the true nature of fundamentalism, which has nothing to do with religion

Let us sing the hymn "Grosser Gott wir loben dich..." all three verses.

It is in the nature of human self-consciousness to seek the source of our life. That experience is so deep that I am not sure there is such a thing as a nonreligious human being. Some may reject a particular religious content but none that fail to raise the ultimate questions that create our various religious answers. Yes, the track of religious progress in the last 2000 years is difficult to define. But then, who are we to say. Cultural evolution took 40,000 years from cave paintings to computers. The flight of a butterfly in the air is most erratic and yet, there too is meaning and purpose in its path. Christoph Hoffmann’s original vision of a Reich Gottes in Jerusalem, has also evolved erratically in the 140 since then, sufficiently so to be still relevant to us as an attitude to life, a journey of discovery. Today we realise, at least I think we Templers have realised, that Christianity for its survival does not need such wonders as a virgin birth for a joyous Christmas or the cruelty of a crucifixion to contemplate compassion, nor a bodily resurrection for a Happy Easter or a Pentecostal ascension of Jesus for our belief, anymore.

That to me is today’s message of Easter. A reminder not to loose sight of our most precious endowment, a gift God gave to humanity that enables us to visualise something, a better world, beyond the immediate presence. A belief in the power of our mind, forged by millennia of evolution, to cope with the physical adversities of nature and the cruelty of natural selection and make disasters into stepping stones to a better understanding. The disciples did it. We would not be here were we not similarly equipped to live with them.

Music Monika Strasser.

The proceeds of today’s collection is dedicated to the Borromäer Sister in Jerusalem.

Thank you all for sharing this morning with me. I hope you have a happy and safe Easter time. and thank you to the Bentleigh kids for handing out the Easter surprises.

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Elder, Chista Lingham

I would like to welcome you all to our home today. This year we managed to get the date right and not clash with the long weekend. I would like to thank all of you, who have traveled along distance for making the journey.

Today’s lesson is taken from the Old Testament – from the Book of Jeremiah. My first reaction was - who was Jeremiah? The internet is great for finding out all sorts of useful or irrelevant information and I found possible character readings on Jeremiah – (tongue in cheek):

Jeremiah was depressed and suicidal

Jeremiah was emotionally unstable, alarmist, negative and always lamenting things

Jeremiah was a prophet who lived during the last part of the seventh century and the early part of the sixth century BC. It is thought he started his ministry early in life possibly less than 20 years old. At this time the world was full of wars as new empires conquered the old ones. The tiny kingdom of Judah was caught in the middle and during his lifetime Babylonia conquered Judah and ended its freedom as a nation. This was a process that involved several stages and Jeremiah prophesised during the reign of a number of kings: Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, Zedekiah, and during the brief rule of Gedaliah ben Ahikam. The assassination of Gedaliah ben Ahikam in ca. 585 BCE put a final end to the remnant of the Jewish community in Judah and Jerusalem and symbolized the conclusion of the First Temple period. The turbulence of this time may be why Jeremiah’s prophecies spoke of destruction and inevitable disaster.

Jeremiah is said to have been a sensitive man who deeply loved his people and who hated to have to pronounce judgement on them. In many passages he spoke of deep emotion about the things he suffered because God had called him to be a prophet. He started his prophetic mission in his native village of Anathoth but was rejected by the villagers. He warned God’s people about the catastrophe that was to befall them because of their both idolatry and sins (specifically turning their back on God and the teachings in the Torah). Possibly to try and avoid the worst of the catastrophe he advocated for surrender to Babylonia and not to attempt a rebellion against its power and strength under the auspices of Egypt. This was considered a defeatist attitude and rejected by both the people and the kings during whose reigns Jeremiah uttered his prophecies. This was due to the concept stated by Isaiah about 100 years previously that both Jerusalem and the Temple held an almost magical endurance/permanence. It would never be destroyed; (Isaiah 39 – 66 Isaiah speaks the Lord’s message to Hezekiah). They forgot however, the premise on which this was founded – that the people worshipped only God and behaved as he taught them. During the reign of Zedekiah, Jeremiah was placed in detention until the destruction of Jerusalem and Temple by the Babylonians and the exile to Babylonia of Judah’s King and many of the people. He saw the shattering of the last hope for the survivors of the destruction in the murder of Gedaliah, whom the Babylonians had appointed to rule over Judah. Although Jeremiah was saliently a prophet of apocalypse, he emphasized the temporary nature of the destruction and the consolation to be found in the certainty of the nation's return to its land.

Today’s lesson is from a letter Jeremiah wrote to the people in exile: Chapter 29 verses 4-9

Read text

The people taken into exile were the king Jeconiah, his mother, the palace officials, the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the priests and all the skilled workers. This was because it was judged that it would be from among these people those who could lead and fit out a rebellion would come. It was hoped by tame submission the king of Babylonia would be pacified. However the Babylonians returned and took away more of the elders, priests, prophets and others that the king and his soldiers could catch. These people, like all in those circumstance were melancholy and probably had a bad case of the "why me" and envied those that were left behind.

In the letter Jeremiah is telling the people in exile, that God sent them in to exile (‘allowed then to be carried away’) and that the exile would be a long one. As with all people who are displaced or exiled the people longed to return home and the thought that their God – the almighty lord had allowed this happen would not an easy idea to take. What the people in exile wanted to hear was that the exile would be short, the that God would deliver them from exile sooner than later, because He had not wanted them to be taken at all. There were people among them – the false prophets mentioned that were telling them what they wanted to hear. The exile was only to last one or two years. However, in this letter God through Jeremiah is telling them that the length of exile would be long – the next verse (verse 10) is

" The Lord says, ’When Babylonia’s seventy years are over, I will show my concern for you and keep my promise to bring you back home.’ "

Because the exile is to be long, the people are told to settle down and to accept what has happened. By building houses, plant crops and gardens and have families and to make the best of the exile, the people can still have enjoyment of their life. The waiting for return from exile is made easier by not constantly wondering when exile was to end, and continually asking when the time of exile would end. In such a situation all are happier if the necessities and comforts of life are provided. By having families, they were not preserving only preserving their line, heritage and religion; they were also increasing their number among the Babylonians. They may even become powerful among the Babylonians.

As well as settling down, they were to continue to worship God and to listen to him and to follow His teachings and laws. In other words, they were to mend their ways, because it was through not doing these things that God had allowed the Babylonians to conquer Judah and to take them into exile. While the King of Babylonia protected them, they were to lead quiet, peaceable lives under him, in all godliness and honesty. They should also pray for the welfare of Babylonia while they were there, as this would assure their peaceful, fruitful lives. This also the first mention of the idea that one should pray for and love ones enemies. This is a teaching that is found in the gospels of the New Testament, particularly Matthew 5:44.

True religion can be said to teach patient submission not incitement to rebellion. It is the idea that God will help you when time is right, but in the mean time help your self to the best life you can have even though it may fall short of what you want. The false prophets and fortune tellers mentioned in the text, are the ones causing strife as they are telling the people what they want to hear and what they (by that I mean the fortune tellers and false prophets) themselves are perhaps wishing for. It is true that the easiest time to be deceived is at that time when the wish for something to happen/occur. One can easily imagine that this is the case with the Judaeans in exile who are wishing to be released and back in their homeland. In uncertain times, whether politically or in our own lives, the wish to know what is going to happen in the future is great. Sometimes just to know that things are going to end well (in general that is the way we wish them too) can be overwhelming. I think it was that way for those in exile. What is required by all of us in those times is patience. We need to live through those times and to trust in God that it will end well, although it may not be the way we would want them to. The people of Judah in exile at least had notice that that the exile would last 70 years and therefore to the believers a certain end was known. This is not always the case for us, where the outcome and the arrival of the outcome is unknown.

We can see parallels in our own lives and history. During the twentieth century the Temple Society and its members saw many changes and faced many challenges. From what I understand of our history, the maxim of going on with your life and making the best of the situation has been a major thread. It is as if all our forebears have read the passage and acted on it.

Although I only know of the time in internment of the Templers in Australia during the Second World War 2, from tales, I think that it definitely shows a practical application of out lesson for the day. They did they best to continue their customary community life and continued in their faith. A school was established and people worked together to make and improvise the things that were necessary for a more comfortable life. This is not to say that life was not difficult, but they did make the best of things, just as God asked those in exile to do. At least those in exile knew that they would be there for 70 years, those in internment had no such certainty, nor did they know what awaited them at the end of the war.

The challenge our grandparents and our parents faced at the end of the Second World War was to build on the original teachings of the society, without the advantage of living in a closed community. There was no chance of returning to Palestine and living in the colonies there. The original idea that the best place to seek God’s Kingdom was in Palestine was no longer feasible. In both Germany and Australia there was not the possibility of living in closed communities such as in those in Palestine where the practice of the religion in daily life with like-minded people was not possible. They have managed this with our communities and it is up to all of us to contribute to the life of the Templer community. In fact it is a condition of membership to actively take part in the Community life

For those of us who have moved a way from the main communities, this can be difficult. In a way we are living in exile – as in exile form the main communities. If we take a very active part in the life of the Temple Society, we cannot live and thrive within the communities in which we live. People often say that one can always organise to come to important events, but this can be challenging, even impossible to do. Especially if you settle in an area and take an active part in the life,

For example: I look at the weekend of Sommerfest – I know when this usually is, so put a tentative date in the diary. My family all play sport, a couple of teams have made the tennis Grand Final- guess when? Yes, the Saturday before Sommerfest. Then, in previous years the boys have been involved in the Fire Brigade tournament, we had given them permission to compete again, before we found out the date of the tournament – yes it turns out that is the Sunday of Sommerfest. Next, an invitation arrived to compete in a Tennis Tournament on the same Sunday and finally, there is a football practice match on the same day.

It was at this point I realised there was elders seminar on the Friday prior to Sommerfest - the night of the Rural Women’s dinner, hosted this year by the Kinder committee, and an important event in the social life of the women in the area. The Saturday night is the meeting of the next confirmation group. So there is my dilemma – my family and I have got involved in our local community, because that is where we live. Our text tells that we must do what we can enjoy our lives and we have done this. But by doing this, other things that are important to me and things I need to do can cause conflict. And it is not just myself who wants to go to Sommerfest; the boys would like to go too. At this stage, it looks like I may go to Sommerfest by myself, and the driving force - there is the meeting of the next confirmation group on the Saturday night. I have found that those are meetings I need to be at, because though a summary of the meeting notes is given, the details may not always be passed on. As Sam will do most of his lessons from home and not in classes, like most of his group, I won’t get much chance to talk to other parents about the details. Therefore, if I want to have any input, I need to be at the meeting. I am aware, that otherwise I would not make the journey, which for us is at least four hours drive, and like in some previous years when there has been a clash, go to all the events up here that I should be at.

The point I am trying to make that if I went to all the events in the Templer communities in Melbourne that I should be at ( or even would like to be at), I would not be settled here and enjoying life. I hesitate to say making the best of things, because it is not that, and there is just so much more to life and decisions to be able to put events in those terms. I do not know what the future holds – it may be that some day I live closer to Melbourne, but for now my life is here.

The desire to know the future is another part of today’s lesson. Jeremiah was warning his people about believing those people who are forecasting a speedy end to the exile. Prophets when delivering messages from God tend to do more than just tell what is happening in the future, there is also the message that they must live their lives according to God’s wish. Earlier in the Book of Jeremiah, there is the warning that unless the people would mend their ways, they (Judah and Jerusalem) would be defeated. Again their time in exile would not be hard, if they lived as God had asked them to. At the end of the day, what ever is foretold, will only happen if a person lives their life according to God’s will. In this day and age there are no prophets that we recognise. However, there are many who claim to foretell the future. It is hard avoid their views and fore telling of the future as these tend to be in the papers and magazines. The prevalence of fortune tellers and clairvoyants makes us easy to be tempted to find out what the future holds. I must admit I do read these columns and the thing I notice is that there seem to be as many who are not accurate and sometimes described as charlatans and may be described as false prophets. The other point that is made that unless you go and live your life to the best of your ability, the future foretold may not happen. Sitting, waiting and hoping will not make the future happen, you must be out there living your life to the full. It is the old saying that "God helps those you help themselves" appears to be true for all aspects of our life.

Part of my life here is taking part in the interchurch events run locally. Last Friday was the World Day of Prayer, this is an interdenominational service of prayer and fellowship shared with people from more than 170 countries. You may be aware that the Bentleigh community hosted this event this year. This year the theme was ‘Let Our Light Shine’ and was prepared by the Christian Women of Poland. Originally I was thinking of using a prayer from the service, but none really fitted with today’s text. Instead, I have found that Psalm 43 ties it together well. Let us pray.

Que CD - Templer Hymn book - track 6

Good morning to you all and welcome to our service here in Cowes. For those who travelled to get here, I hope the trip down has been enjoyable and allowed you all to revel in the clarity and beauty of a morning’s ride in the country. I have an image in my memory every time I come to Philip Island – following the San Remo road and, just as you come around the bend coasting down to the township, seeing the horizon open up before me, the cutting in the road giving way to that panoramic view over Westernport bay, the bridge and the Island itself.

Somehow, there is nothing like a trip to the country to sharpen the mind and refresh the soul. Driving through the dappled shade of tree lined roads that take you through rolling hills and prime farmland. When you open a window – the smell of eucalypts, of morning’s misty dampness and of later drying and warming sunshine. The mustiness of farm animals, coupled with the clear crisp air; the greenness of the paddocks: the distance to the horizon, all combining to provide an interesting contrast to our impoverished senses.

And here at Cowes, the smell of the sea - ozone rich air providing a much needed respite for our citified and polluted noses. The sound of the ocean, relentlessly surging over the rocks and sands, washing away the city tension with its continuous caressing action. Quiet - that is what attracts us to places like these. Where car noise is not the backdrop to every outside adventure. Where peace can be found along a cliff top path, or a sandy beach-hugging track.

In the spirit of this feeling, I thought we could open our service with Hymn number 17 – ‘Br er, singt ein Lied der Freude’ – ‘Come, sing a song of joy’, which is sung to the melody of ‘Ode to Joy’ by Beethoven. We will sing the verses one, two and three. The hymn has an introduction on the CD.

Sing Hymn number 17 – ‘Br er, singt ein Lied der Freude’ – ‘Come, sing a song of joy’

Que CD - Templer Hymn book - track 18

Come sing a song of joy, for peace shall come, my brother
Sing, sing a song of joy for men shall love each other.
That day will dawn just as sure as hearts that are pure are hearts set free.
No man must stand alone with outstretched hand before Him.
Come sing a song of joy, of freedom tell the story
Sing, sing a song of joy, for mankind in his glory.
One mighty voice that will bring a sound that will ring for evermore.
Then sing a song of joy for love ands understanding.
Come sing a song of joy for peace shall come, my brother.
Sing, sing a song of joy for men shall love each other.
One mighty voice that will bring a sound that will ring for ever more.
Then sing a song of joy for love and understanding.

Powerful yet simple words of praise and hope for mankind. And, you may have noticed that the English version is nothing like the German. Written in an older hand, the German text speaks of the release offered to mankind if he should follow in Gods path.

Brothers sing the song of joy, for you have reason for thankfulness.
Gods path leads us into the yonder and out of hopelessness.
Without God, no healing for the ailment of body and soul.
Come with us to the Spring of Life whose offer is eternal health
God gave us freedom so that we may be there for one another.
For everyone whose life is worried will be offered joyfulness by him.
Not one has been discounted, for his offer brings our freedom.
Free us that we may love this world, so that in it, freedom may reside.
Freedom to preserve this earth through the strength that Christ has offered.
And for those who accept, discovery what a good Spirit guides them.
Our eyes will see again what threatens those who are outcast,
And again they shall be brothers, sharing bread and healing misery.
Come with us to the Spring of Life whose offer is eternal health
Without God, no healing for the ailment of body and soul.
Gods path leads us into the yonder, God be with us for ever more.
Brothers sing the song of joy, for you have reason for thankfulness.

Somehow, I don’t think I’ll give up my day job in IT to become a professional translator of German Hymns. Than not withstanding, I do think that I captured the essence of its meaning even if I didn’t quite get the rhyming bit.

The point here is that sometimes, when I’m writing a service, I find that I actually read the texts of the hymns contained in our hymn book, rather than just picking one that I know, or that seems appropriate in the context of the day’s lesson. Often, I find words of wisdom contained therein that magically express a feeling or an idea that I may be pondering.

‘Come sing a song of joy’ did exactly that for me as I contemplated today’s text, in that this hymn states quite simply the joy and love that resides in our existence when we embrace a life devoted to and inspired by Gods leadership, guidance and love. Through his love, we are able to know love. By knowing love, we are able to show love. And through showing love, we are able to overcome the many barriers that cause pain – not only for ourselves, but for our fellow mankind.

I am particularly drawn to the words in the English version – ‘That day will dawn, just as sure as hearts that are pure are hearts set free’.

What an interesting concept – hearts that are pure are hearts set free.

There is a sense of inevitability about that statement that is portrayed perfectly by its comparison to the sun rising every day. We all know that the sun rises every day, so why shouldn’t a pure heart be a free heart?

When I think of purity, I immediately think of white light – that for me is the most natural word association. In my minds eye then, I see a globe of white light shining suspended in mid air. Shafts of light radiate out and illuminate the dark corners of the spirit, clearing away the detritus of our cluttered consciousness and cleansing us of our accumulated fears and inhibitions.

When I think of freedom, I think of not be restrained – by anything. Freedom is the wide open spaces in our spirit, where we are able to roam without restriction.

When we combine the two together, we have the purity that is the love that God feels for us and the freedom of spirit that allows us to accept this love unashamedly. And through His love, we are able to express our own love for ourselves and for one another. We become the white light in our pure heart analogy, shining out into space, shedding light on every corner and vanquishing fear and doubt in our path.

It would seem then that the analogy stands firm – a heart that is pure is a heart set free, and perhaps this is a state that we should all aspire to.

Our text today is taken from John 6: verses 22 – 34.

‘The next morning, back across the lake, crowds began gathering….. ‘Sir,’ they said, ‘give us that bread every day of our lives!’

Our text deals with that time in Jesus’ life known as the Galilean ministry. He travels throughout Galilee preaching the word of God, healing and teaching all who choose to come and listen. His ministry is punctuated by the many healings and miracles attributed to him that he used to show that he was the son of God. Immediately preceding our text is the famous parable of the feeding of the 5000, thus the continual reference to that event.

Jesus was at a crucial stage of his ministry, having entered Galilee just before Passover, a time when a great many people were underway to Jerusalem, there to take part in and celebrate the Passover festivities. His time on the road meant that he always had a following of pilgrims and travellers, eager to hear the words of this new prophet, whom everyone they encountered was discussing. Jesus used this time to expand on his burgeoning message – that he had been sent by the Father as his spirit personified on earth, to save mankind from himself and once again, re-establish the pure bond of love between mankind and God that had been broken.

Jesus clearly faced a difficult audience – the way to their heart lay in satisfying the external, worldly interests as is clearly attested to in the text. ‘You must show us more miracles if you want us to believe you are the Messiah. Give us free bread every day, like our fathers had while they journeyed through the wilderness.’ It seems that Jesus realised this, and although he was prepared to play to this requirement, he never lost sight of his purpose – to win their hearts and minds.

‘But you shouldn’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. No, spend your energy seeking the eternal life that I, the Messiah, can give you. For God has sent me for this very purpose’

It is understandable that the people of those times chose to misunderstand him and to seek gratification in the outer, worldly pursuits - life was hard for the average person. I read somewhere that it is only when a person experiences a feeling of well-being and security that they are able to concentrate on more abstract concepts. This usually translates to a steady food supply, a secure place of shelter and a reasonably predictable future. I’m unsure if these are the only criterion, but for our discussion, they suffice.

Obviously, at the time of Jesus’ ministry, these things were not in place. The whole region we know as Israel was occupied by Rome and there was continual insurgency as the local inhabitants sought to lift the yolk of colonial bondage. For the common person, this atmosphere of disruption did not lend itself to great displays of inward contemplation of mans place in the cosmos, much less his relationship with God.

And we must remember that part of Gods plan for Jesus was that he should be the catalyst that broke the hold the Pharisee’s had over the spiritual wellbeing of the common population. Jesus was sent to re-establish direct channels of communion with God, rather than that communion being controlled, as it was, by the organised religious establishment. This put him at odds with the establishment and, by way of their organised power-base, they were in the perfect position to deflect his challenge to their authority. Jesus, especially at this time of his Ministry, was very much the upstart challenger to the established order.

Without doubt, Jesus had a lot of things working against him. And yet, for us, he won his battle.

Out text speaks of the ‘true bread from heaven’. There is no doubt that the references to bread, food and drink are all metaphorical allusions to the sustenance that is required by our spiritual selves to grow and prosper.

There is also no doubt that this sustenance is equally as important to our physical wellbeing as it is for our spiritual wellbeing. Many philosophies speak of the concept of maintaining balance in our lives and this is an area that we can explore ad infinitum.

What constitutes balance? It is easy when looking at a set of cantilever scales, to see that when the weight is greater on one side, it drops and the lighter side rises. It is harder to imagine what happens to a soul when the physical senses are more stimulated than the spiritual. What constitutes an out-of-balance persona? I wouldn’t be too far wrong in venturing that most of us live far more in the physical than in the spiritual. That is, we spend by far more effort and energy on satisfying our physical needs than we do in satisfying our spiritual needs. And it makes sense that this is so. After all, we spend most of our day involved in those necessary pursuits like earning a living that involve interaction with the physical world than we do in nurturing our spiritual self. There is definitely an imbalance.

And yet, this imbalance doesn’t seem to matter. When I think about this relationship, it seems to me that in real time, a few minutes spent on nourishing our spiritual self is the equivalent of spending several hours satisfying our physical needs. I say this because I’ve noticed that a few moments spent in quiet contemplation seems to refresh the spirit and mind well beyond expectation.

Have you ever reached the point during the day where you just can’t go on any more? The noise is too much, the strain is too much, too many people want too much from you and you’re tired, drained emotionally and searching forlornly for some peace. What to do? You sit back, close your eyes and try to block out every sensation that wants to impress itself upon your senses. In your minds eye, you visualise a great big blackboard and in your mind is a blackboard duster. Every time a sensation tries to write itself on that board, you mentally wipe it out with the duster. After a few minutes, you reach a lower level – closer to your core, where the sensations are fewer and a peace begins to descend upon you. A little more time and you descend to another level again. At this level, nothing impresses upon you – you’ve even put down the duster – you are in a state of peace.

As you slowly rouse yourself, you become aware of the clatter and demands again, but you are no longer stressed – that inner peace you felt at the deepest point of your contemplation strengthens you and carries you into the world again. And it’s then that you realise you only had your eyes shut for ten minutes or so.

I feel that this recuperation is closely linked to the spiritual replenishment that we need to keep ourselves in balance. Some people have it naturally, others – like me - need to work at it, but there is no doubt that time spent in quiet contemplation has an effective recuperative and restorative effect on our spiritual selves. At other times, when coupled with a simple prayer, or with positive thoughts of love for others, the effect seems doubled.

Throughout the bible we find many examples where Jesus spoke of this need to replenish our spiritual selves. He practiced it himself, often moving away from the crowds to a place where he could be alone, to commune with his Father in heaven and to contemplate.

Our text today is a lead in to this concept of spiritual refreshment. Jesus asks us to spend time thinking about the ‘true bread from heaven’. It is during those moments of quiet contemplation that we refresh our souls, tune into the rhythms of our life and experience the peace that comes from knowing that we are loved and in the care of God himself.

I, like many of you, have been profoundly moved by the terrible devastation that was inflicted by the tidal wave that struck many of our neighbours and the lands bordering the Indian Ocean. I feel it would be remiss of us to be here at this service and not offer our thoughts and prayers to the many who perished in this disaster and to the many who survived and must now rebuild their lives without their loved ones.

It would be wonderful if we could join together now in a quiet prayer.

Dear Lord,
We stand before you and feel a profound sense of compassion for those whose lives were disrupted so suddenly by the devastation wrought by the Tsunami on Boxing Day last year.
We share a deep sense of loss for those who perished and hope that they have now been delivered into your hands that they may now rest in the peace of your care.
We send a strong message of love to those who survived and hope that they be given the courage and faith to rebuild their lives.
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name,
Your Kingdom come,
Your will be done on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
As we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us when in temptation and deliver us from evil.
For the Kingdom, the power and the glory
Are Yours forever.
Amen.

To close our service, I thought we could sing Hymn number 64 – ‘Lobe den Herren, den maechtigen Koenig’ – ‘Praise to the Lord, the Almighty’. We will sing the verses one, two and five. The hymn has an introduction on the CD.

Sing Hymn number 64 – ‘Lobe den Herren, den maechtigen Koenig’ – ‘Praise to the Lord, the Almighty’

Que CD – John Denver – A Portrait - track 4, ‘For You’

To see us off, I have chosen the song ‘For You’ from the CD – John Denver – A Portrait. Although a love song, I find the words equally powerful and moving.

I thank you for taking the time to come today and to join us in this service. I would like to thank Harald and Ester Gassmann for arranging the venue and the function and I also thank the Uniting Church Community here in Cowes for allowing us to use their facilities.

I know it’s lunch time, and those of us that travelled, rose early to get here. In closing then, I would like to wish you all a very enjoyable afternoon amongst family and friends and wish you a safe journey home.

Thank you for listening

Sunday 30^th January, 2005 – 6.00pm
Elder Harald Ruff

Accompaniment: Elisabeth Wagner

Text: 1 Corinthians 8: 1-13 About the food offered to idols

Readings: -

Sunday School: none

Musical introduction: Elisabeth

Good evening and welcome to our Evensong service.

The inspiration for this evening’s service was provided by Sonja Glenk, who last year made a comment to me about not being able to play hymns that she has picked – the hymns are of course generally selected by the presiding Elder. So I challenged her to ‘pick the hymns’ and I would try to thread them together somehow. I thank Elisabeth for being prepared to be musical director, as my own singing ability is limited – I tend to follow the voices around me, sometimes with disastrous consequences.

So, to begin the service let us sing the first four verses of hymn number four, ‘All creatures of our God and King’.

Hymn: 4. All creatures of our God and King 1-4

I experienced two very distinct emotional responses to this hymn. Firstly, it made me smile, as it reminded me of an episode of Rowan Atkinson’s ‘Mr Bean’ series.

Despite the direction to sing jubilantly, the second emotion is far less joyous, for the hymn, with its call to the elements and nature to add their voices to the praising of God, refers to and reminds me of the very same elements that combined to cause so much death and destruction last Boxing Day in the Indian Ocean Tsunami. This ‘all- praising’ approach seems hollow after the disaster; certainly it reopened the debate on the role of a ‘loving God’ in such a tragedy, commonly referred to by insurers as an ‘act of God’. Various letter writers and columnists referred to this, and in return others responded. There was much questioning of the role and loving nature of God, and much debate. I’ll refer to this again later.

The next three verses of the hymn turn from nature to humans and our faith – we sing of forgiving, of dealing with pain and death, of finding strength in Christ’s example.

Another step on the way - ‘death’, which together with ‘life’ unites us with nature – two things we have in common with all around us. Our existence on earth is finite.

Let us now sing the last three verses.

Hymn: 4. All creatures of our God and King 5-7

"Thou burning sun with golden beam,

thou silver moon with softer gleam."

The hymn also reminds me that after every dark time a time of light will follow, and even during dark times we can find light and love, often in the most unexpected places.

Though we haven’t had any devastating acts of God in Australia for some years, and thankfully nothing on the scale of the tsunami, we are constantly battling drought and bushfires. Yet there are few people who don’t recognise the rugged natural splendour of our ‘wide brown land’. We also have to recognise and accept that nature, our environment, affects and changes us and others, just as we affect and change it.

Let’s reflect on this beauty and this powerful, influencing force, and the role of the Creator, in our next hymn.

Hymn: 20. Creation in Australia 1-4

We need to recognise and give thanks for the good things around us. We seem to take all the good for granted, but when the lumps come, we may complain bitterly. This seems a flaw in our character, that we have to train ourselves to reflect on the positive, that for most of us by far outweighs the negative. It’s a battle I fight regularly with myself, especially when I have a cold or the flu and am feeling low. It always strikes me then, when I’m feeling miserable, that in the time since my last affliction I haven’t once thought how lucky I was not to be sick! It’s always the other way around.

And of course, for Templers both young and old, this hymn must also have special significance, as we give thanks that history brought us to this wonderful country, from a country that continues to be wracked by conflict. A conflict which so frustratingly and illogically seems to have a religious context.

Our next hymn is very ‘up-beat’, and like our last hymn, focuses us on praising the Lord for the gift that is his creation, for all that is good.

Hymn: 62. Let us sing to the God of Salvation 1-4

(Note – German version has only three verses)

Link verse four to the text "Let today…"

Our text for today comes from 1 Corinthians 8: 1-13. It is titled ‘About the food offered to idols’, and in it Paul gives the Christian community of Corinth more practical tips on living as a Christian, and reminds them to honour God rather than idols.

Text: 1 Corinthians 8: 1-13 About the food offered to idols

I do not want to spend too long on the text, and in fact will touch on only one part that struck when I read it in the shadow of what happened on Boxing Day.

I found this passage, like my last service in Bentleigh, again struck a chord with so many of my own feelings about my belief and convictions. It is about the struggles that we face daily, imposed by who we are, how we are, and by those around us.

The text reminded me that it is not what we know, but what we do that is of importance. What good is knowledge if we do not apply it? And in particular, what good is knowledge if we do not apply it in order to help others? ‘Love makes us helpful to others’ the text reminds us. In loving others we serve God rather than the worthless idols we may be drawn to.

Celebrity, ego, materialism etc

While helping others can be difficult sometimes, helping financially is sometimes very easy. One letter to the Age during the first few weeks after the Tsunami accused Australians of giving so generously not out of a spirit of generosity, but out of guilt. Give a little, and we’ll feel better and can get on with our lives. Just like it is sometimes hard to help someone, we shouldn’t help just to gain a favour in return – help for the sake of it, because someone needs help, not because you want a reward.

Similarly, Jesus himself refers to this and suggested giving isn’t really noble if the giving is easy eg Michael Schumacher giving $13 mil.

What we should take from all this spontaneous generosity (and not just financially) is that we do not, or need not, face the trials of life alone. Our faith constantly reminds us that God is with us every step, either in the spiritual form within us, or in the form of our family and community around us, in whom He also dwells. Our next hymn reminds us of this fact.

Hymn: 86. One more step

The past months have been very challenging ones, perhaps for you on a personal level, and certainly for all of us on a global level. They are trying times that challenge belief and personal values. They may be times that challenge our self-worth and confidence. They may lead to frustration and anger, two emotions that cloud our thoughts and lead to even more problems, as we may then lash out in what would normally seem irrational ways. It is times like that when we need others around us, and also the strength to stop ourselves from spiralling downwards. We need the guide on every step of the way, and if we feel strong enough, we can be the guides for others.

We need to keep in our mind the text I read earlier – How can I best serve God? How do I best love others? The challenge may be to focus a little less on our selves and a little more on others. Reflecting Christian spirit, our next hymn reminds us not only of the influence God’s spirit has, or should have, but also how the spirit should guide us to act as God’s agents of change. In a world wracked by violence, it seems a most appropriate hymn.

Hymn: 103. Spirit of peace

Peace certainly seems to be in short supply in the world. My thoughts are immediately drawn to the Middle East and Iraq – what a confusing and frightening situation those people find themselves in. It is so very easy to understand if Iraqis were to feel only despair at this time, their world being a never-ending chain of death and destruction. Some would have felt joy at the end of the previous regime, only to find the ongoing cycle of violence a worse situation.

But to us this situation, just like the tsunami, seems so surreal. Every day the images are beamed to us, depressing us, yet we are able to simply turn off the television and go back to the very humdrum existence and daily chores. We may curse having to do them, but how lucky we are to have them to grumble about instead of tyranny, invasion and civil war.

Thanks to technology and the mass media, we are surrounded by violence and regularly exposed to evil, even when it occurs thousands of kilometres away. On the internet, on the nightly news and in newspapers we can see death, destruction, images of torture and despair. History tells us that there has always been cruelty in the world, and despite our ever- developing civilisation, the incidence of it appears to be increasing rather than decreasing – its sound and images are omnipresent. We seem powerless against it and thus fear it.

As a teacher, and a past student of psychology, I am convinced that our behaviour is very much the result of past experience – yesterday’s events. We are products of our environments, and taken to the extreme, no one is then responsible for their actions. (Thus the lawsuits for people’s own stupid actions?) On the other hand, genetics gives us a different perspective. In this case, our biology is our destiny. Does DNA determine our physical characteristics and personality? If so, evil is simply the result of bad genes.

And then there is the religious side. God is good, and created everything, yet evil exists. How could a good God create evil people? It would seem that in giving us free will, He allows us to choose to act in good or bad ways. He didn’t create evil, but it simply exists as an opposite of good. I don’t know if there is a clear answer to this conundrum. All we can do is accept that it does exist, and thus work against it. As unpleasant and uncomfortable as evil is, our world makes it necessary for us to face up to it, and deal with it.

People tend to forget that it is us through whom God acts – thus the recent outpouring of generosity from around the world was so reassuring and uplifting. Nature may be God’s creation, but just as he has given us a conscience to guide our free will, He has left nature to itself. The Earth in some senses is just like us. It can be kind and caring, gentle one day, and the next harsh, cruel and unforgiving. It is up to us to contend with it.

Religion should be about this world, about living in the real world, and making it a better place. It is not about getting into heaven or being on a guilt trip because someone died for us. Our focus needs to be outward, like that of Jesus, not inward, like that of those who worship false idols, or who claim to know what is right but do not act on it. There is no denying that Christianity is about how you relate to those around you, and that especially includes our Templer brand.

In my last service I mentioned that I try to remember to ask myself some questions that a colleague had mentioned once (from a newspaper article?): What have I done for others today? How have I helped? How have I grown? What do I have to be thankful for? What do I have to apologise or make-up for? It doesn’t always work. I don’t always remember. But when I do, I challenge myself with these thoughts. Not out loud, not for the benefit or information of others, but just for myself. It can be very demoralising too – you quickly realise why there are so few ‘Mother Teresas’ in the world.

(Prayer: Lord’s Prayer) Or have hymn number 26 as the prayer?

Hymn: 26. Ehre sei Gott (Glory to God)

(Canon – four parts as marked if feeling confident)

Further on the theme of singing prayer, our final hymn for today is ‘An evening prayer’. It’s a fitting song to sing at this time of day – in the evening! I like it because in it we acknowledge that we may have hurt others, even without realising it, and without intending too. Often I think it’s not so much a case of us offending others, or rather that others offend us, but more frequently that our own expectations may be unrealistic. Does that make sense? There is so much going on in everyone’s life these days that it is easy to overlook something, or we are simply uninformed and make unfair assumptions about others.

Hymn: 11. An evening prayer

Closing thought: It is summertime – the start of a new year, the end of another, the festive season just past. Another new beginning – take the time to reflect!

Closing music: Elisabeth

Announcements:

Upcoming events: We don’t have our February TR yet, so check the February TR for details.

Today’s collection – Our world is still very much dominated by the tragedy of the Indian Ocean Tsunami, and like at the New Year’s Eve service conducted by Alfred Klink, I would like to direct today’s collection to the appeals currently in place to assist in the countries affected.

Finally, after the service we have to opportunity to spend a little time together. Thanks to the Frauenverein we are being treated to some nibbles and sherry.