Reprints of 2008 Services - Discussions

New Year's Eve Service in Bayswater
Elder, Mark Herrmann

Opening music – Veronica Rutowicz

We have almost arrived at the end of another year – 2008 – already eight years (some would say nine) since the turn of the century and the end of the second millennium. What shape do we find ourselves in? Financially, the world markets are battling, economists and forecasters providing their analysis and predictions; within Australian society, our indigenous people have been apologised to by the Prime Minister, but what has really changed?; acts of terrorism and war continue to be played out across the globe … Are we personally satisfied and content? The end of any given year is often a time for contemplation and reflection. We look back and remember the good times and the happy occasions, balancing them against those which have left us sad, dispirited and, perhaps, grief-stricken. Any extended period will surely contain a mixture of circumstances and related emotions. How are we travelling?

Hymn 1 - #19 Count your blessings (3 verses)

In the Temple Society, we traditionally use the occasion of the calendar year’s end to mention and remember those whose life journeys have either ended or begun within the last 12 months.
<Lists of deaths and births (by month) for 2008>

Text – Psalm 90: 1-12 “Man’s fragile life”
Recite from Francis Macnab’s “Fine Wind is Blowing”
A modern interpretation: the equivalent in a standard Bible, particularly the verses at the end of and beyond our selected text, speaks of a black and white relationship with God; anger and power, fury and fear, despite the reference to constant love.

This text is not dissimilar to that allocated to my brief period of contemplation which preceded the TSA AGM in October. There, from the Letter of James, we were reminded of the uncertainty of our lives. And, again here, the psalmist refers to the briefness of our life-span and seeks direction for our purpose.

Our time is so important to us; we like to think we are very important. To me, this smacks of a selfish attitude and how we tend to think of ourselves first and others later, if at all. I wonder how the likes of Fred Hollows, Mother Teresa and Mahatma Gandhi viewed the concept of self-importance. I believe one of our constant challenges is to lead a more selfless existence. Within the operations of the Temple Society – where we strive to work cooperatively with like-minded people for the benefit of the community – a framework with which to actively love God with all your being and to love your neighbour as yourself exists.

In the text, the psalmist asks God to help us to see what His purpose for us is. I interpret this as testing us to make the most of our time on earth, which although of an indeterminate and unknown length is certainly finite. We all have abilities and talents that are ours to do with as we see fit. We can choose to function beyond the narrow, short-term, individual view by making an effort to think and act with a broader, lasting, more community-oriented perspective. Of course, such an altruistic outlook needs to be tempered and conducted so as not to risk one’s own health and wellbeing.

Set alongside our days of suffering the doorways that will lead us to the gift of gladness. Our first hymn suggested we count our many blessings. Life, although partly conventional and foreseeable, is certainly not totally predictable and inevitable. There will always be the unexpected – expect the unexpected – the surprising and the unpredictable. If not ourselves, we all know of someone who has suffered and experienced difficulties in their life. These painful times pass, sometimes assisted through the strength and conviction of our faith, but often we are changed by the event and its process. To some extent, these occasions define us.

Show us and our future generations some signs of your good presence; help us to have a strong sense of purpose in all we do. I see signs of Godly presence in humankind, in our conduct and actions, and not through supernatural or interventionist means. The Temple Society sees the Kingdom of God (Francis Macnab would say ‘God’s way’), not as a cataclysm coming at the end of time, but as a continuing development in which we are expected to participate now. This is something I am comfortable with and can relate to and work towards, although I believe it sets us apart from the mainstream Christian churches. Realistically, I guess it doesn’t matter: whatever results in making us a better person is good for us all – the surrounding community of now and the future.

Instrumental CD music – Eagles “I dreamed there was no war” (track 2)

Letter in today’s Age – “So what’s the solution?”
As tragic as the recurring cycle of violence [Israeli/Palestinian conflict] is the inevitability of the inane letters of condemnation and justification by supporters of each side. Save your futile justifications and start proposing ways both parties can work together for a better future. Determining right and wrong brings us to the same destructive point – thinking of a constructive way to step forward is empowering. Anybody willing to walk this kind of talk?

PowerPoint – “The Wise Way”
(dear Reader, click on the link above and enjoy "The Wise Way" slide show. I found it beautiful and true. ak)

With the end of a year, comes the beginning of the next one – it’s inevitable. The talk will soon resort to New Year’s resolutions. The promise of change is a wonderful thing; we have the opportunity and are all capable of it, but my experience is that change through forced circumstances has more chance of success than something self-imposed. Those life factors effectively under our own control appear less receptive to change – strange, but perhaps a human condition. [Personal example of losing weight: self/put off; doctor/diet] At least when confronted by change through circumstances not entirely of our own making, we are challenged to adapt to whatever cards have been dealt us. As a new day comes, help us to find time and inclination to sing songs of joy. Open our eyes to the delightful things of life.

Hymn 2 - #36 “God, you call for faithful service” (4 verses)

Prayer – from the Common Dreams conference held in Sydney in August 2007 – Susi

We have a dream, a common dream
Where the sacredness of creation is honoured
Where all people are treated with respect
Where the land is tended with love The great oceans are whole and healthy
The air is clear and clean
And the world is at peace
We share a dream – a common dream

May our common dreams transform us
May our common dreams empower us
May common dreams for peace be a common reality
Amen

Closing music – Neil Young “This Old Guitar” – CD (track 8) – project words – DVD (chapter 9)

Return to the Top

Service and Community Afternoon 23 November in Bentleigh  
Elder: Hermann. R. Uhlherr
Pianist: Monika Strasser
Text: Mark I: 9-22, (Jesus proclaims the kingdom of God and displays
and requires faith in God) (See also Matt. 4:1-25 and Luke 4 and 5)
Hymns: No. 31 Geh aus mein Herz, v. 1,2,4,5; No. 33 Gib die Weisheit meiner Seele, all verses
No. 126 Wie groß ist des Allmächt’gen Güte, v. 1,2,4,5

Welcome to you all, and a special welcome to friends or visitors, to our service and community afternoon here at Bentleigh.
Hymn No. 31 – v. 1,2,4,5 Geh aus mein Herz…

Read Text – Mark 1:9:22.
The text is from the beginning of the gospel and reports the very early activities of Jesus of Nazareth – I would say also he has his most important insights about God, man and faith. Jesus strove to establish and practise a new relationship between man and God, where nothing hinders, or should hinder, people from having a direct relationship with God; it was Jesus who showed us this new way of seeing and connecting with the Divine.
During the last two days of August this year, the TSA held a spiritual retreat at Marysville with the overall theme: Connecting and interacting with God. The first session was How do we imagine God? – and it is this topic which I would like to elaborate on today, since, in my view, it is the basis for all our faith and beliefs.
God – or rather our concept of God – concerns one of the most intensely personal areas in an individual’s life. It is a very personal belief. While there is no proof – scientific or otherwise – that God exists, each person is free to – but therefore also has to individually deal with this concept in their own conscience. (Some may even equate our conscience with the voice of God).
Whether or how we believe in God and how we imagine God cannot be categorised as right or wrong. As humanity has evolved and learnt more about the universe and itself, so people’s concepts of God have changed over time. Our own way of seeing God may change as we mature, and according to what we experience at any given moment.
When we imagine God – as some-one, some-thing, spirit, all-that-is, light, creative energy, ultimate reality and so on – we are trying to comprehend with our mind and express in words what is beyond human comprehension, and we need to recognise and acknowledge the limitations of our descriptions of God.
I think it is not too bold a statement to say that many, if not most Templers do not need to argue for the sort of God that atheists love to attack and question. We left behind the idea of the theistic God-figure out there in heaven a long time ago. As a matter of fact, when they founded the Temple Society 150 years ago, our forefathers already recognised and passed on to us that the concept of God as described by Jesus was and is of relevance, one could even say of vital importance for all of humanity.
Christoph Hoffmann wrote in Occident and Orient in 1870: ‘Knowing God – the prerequisite for true inner and outer divine worship – does not consist of comprehending what man cannot possibly understand, namely the nature of God and of those things we cannot apprehend with the senses; even less does it consist of blindly accepting dogmas constructed about these things by ancient and modern theologians. Rather, it is firstly a growing consciousness – available to all thinking people – of the eternal power and divinity which reveal themselves in God’s works, i.e. in the creation of the universe, and secondly, it is an understanding of God’s ways, in particular of His dealings with humanity.
‘The prime purpose of God’s education of the human race is to achieve that spiritual and social condition of humanity which the prophets of Israel described as the kingdom of God on earth, and which Jesus Christ made it his mission to realise. (English translation, page 43).
 
Another old Templer source is Christian Rohrer’s booklet Is the Bible the source of our Knowledge of God (Translation of Ist die Bibel die Quelle der Gotteserkenntnis) from the 1930s. (All members received a copy with their June 2008 Templer Record.)
In Chapter VII, Jesus of Nazareth’s Perception of God, he writes: ‘…As a human being and as a true son of his people, Jesus has given us a clear picture of how he sees God through the testimonies in the gospels of his words and deeds. Its main features can be summarised in four points:
‘God is spirit says Jesus to the Samaritan woman [John 4:24]. This is a perception of far-reaching significance, which removes any humanisation and represents immense progress compared to the First Stage [in the Old Testament] where God is the God of the Covenant who journeys with his people or has his seat in the temple.
‘God is one: In fact, the prophets had already indicated this, but not with such clarity and certainty. This recognition of one God for the whole world seems extraordinarily important to Jesus.
‘No one is good except God alone [Mark 10:18]. These words of Jesus are confirmed in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke when, upon being addressed as ‘good master’, he reprimands the speaker by saying ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone’. This response also tells us that he did not identify himself with God, even if he does feel at one with the Father, namely in that which he recognised as God’s will.
‘God is the Father of all. Jesus considers all human beings children of God who may approach him, their loving Father, at any time. What tremendous progress, compared to the grim, vengeful God of the first stage in the Old Testament!
Jesus took great care not to put forward abstract doctrines and concepts in the manner of the philosophers; to him, God was reality, for he felt him within. He did not need to speculate about God’s existence or to produce evidence of God’s existence. He had no need to; to him it was self-evident. He felt God within himself as a being full of a father’s kindness and love for all his creatures, who only wants the best for all human beings.’
Christian Rohrer goes on: ‘There is another element in Jesus’s message of God’s fatherly love. It completely does away with others mediating between man and God… God’s plan of salvation… is very clearly outlined by Jesus who presents it as the only way out of humanity’s deplorable state of misery. He demands from individuals as well as from entire nations, to be ready and willing to help establish God’s kingdom: Set your mind on God’s kingdom and his justice before everything else [Matt. 6:33].
‘This is the core and the central issue of everything he spoke and taught; for he sees very clearly that all the harm caused by people’s violations against this kingdom, such as poverty, hunger, misery, conflict murder and war, would disappear if love dictated the action of mankind. Then God’s kingdom would be here! That is why he adds “and everything else will come to you”, that is, it will come about as the natural consequence of the good…
‘He therefore makes the advent of God’s kingdom dependent on human action, not on waiting for it, as if this kingdom would one day descend from the sky into the lap of those waiting. No, this goal demands work, which is why it matters that the idea of the kingdom of God takes root in every individual and brings about a change of heart. Only then will decrees and laws produce better social conditions. Individuals must be willing to put the common good before private greed, and the spirit of sacrifice before selfishness.
‘Jesus, who described this demand as the will of God, made it the basis of his own life and remained true to it in all situations.’ (These words were written by Christian Rohrer in Is the Bible the Source of our Knowledge of God.
Hymn No. 33 – Gib die Weisheit meiner Seele…(all verses).

Let me return to Christian Roher’s booklet (Is the Bible…) this time two excerpts from Chapter IX, The Temple Society’s Perception of God. He wrote: ‘If you followed the foregoing [chapters 7 and 8] you know my attitude – and that of the Temple Society for that matter – towards the Bible. Nothing particular, therefore, remains to be said about the Temple Society’s perception of God. However, for the sake of clarity, I want to summarise it briefly once more:
‘We believe in a will of God. – We recognise this will in nature and in the laws ruling it. We recognise it in the spiritual sphere, in the nature of man and the consequences of his actions. To counter-balance the drives serving the physical, God has endowed man’s being with a yearning for happiness and inner peace. This feeling is achieved when man does ‘good deeds’, that is, when he overcomes his egotism.’… ‘God has given man the freedom to choose his own way, but has also burdened him with the responsibility for his choices. Each choice has consequences, beneficial or disastrous, as we can clearly recognise – and learn from – by observing the history of mankind’.
‘We believe that humanity has a duty. – Man is the only living being on this Earth that God has endowed with a spark of his spirit, which enables us to engage in creative activity and to look at ourselves objectively. By virtue of this divine spark, we are able to engage in conceptual thought, draw conclusions, and make decisions based on these conclusions rather than on instinct or conditioning. However, the gift of this divine spark or spiritual capacity places us under an obligation to ensure that it does not wither away or is selfishly exploited, but develops in the direction of God’s will. Since it is God’s will that humans should feel happy, they, individually and collectively, must work with all their strength at realising such a state of happiness for humanity.’
Rohrer continues: ‘We believe that love of our fellow man and compassion for all of God’s creatures is the best way of loving God and serving him. We also believe it to be the only way to reach the goal, namely a kingdom of happiness and of inner peace, a kingdom which is in harmony with God’s will, and which we therefore call God’s kingdom.’
And finally: ‘We see Jesus as the ideal human being, whom we try to emulate by using his message as a guideline and his life as a model for all our thoughts and actions.’
Let us pause for a few moments and reflect on what we have heard, and on our own personal concept of God.

Personally, I can relate wholeheartedly to what Christoph Hoffmann and particularly to what Christian Rohrer wrote; it provided me with a very good basis for developing my personal beliefs over the years, without having to deviate at all to accommodate new and modern discoveries and insights in all the sciences.
Under the then president, Dietrich Ruff, the Temple Society published in June 2000 the gold booklet Temple Society – Religious Perspective – a Statement of Identity, Faith and Practical Concerns. In this booklet we can read under Chapter 2(a) with the heading GOD:
‘We see God as the source of life and centre of all being, a transcending spiritual reality, acting within and beyond this world. To us, God is also personal insofar as individuals can commune with him, knowing that they are responsible to God and are accepted by him. We are conscious that the true nature of God is beyond human comprehension, and we acknowledge the limitations of our statements about God.’
Now, you may think this is a very brief statement; too general to be of any value, but it is about something that, while not definable, can be very influential in our lives; also it does not exclude anyone’s concept of God, in my view. Nevertheless, the concept of God as outlined by Jesus in the gospels is the basis for all of the Temple Society writings I have mentioned, including the one just quoted.
I would like to conclude today’s service with a summary of my thoughts about what we have heard today. Jesus stated that God is spirit, a divine power, not a finite being in any shape or form. He did use the image of the ‘father figure’, but images, metaphors or analogies do not always aid better understanding, since people’s experiences and therefore images of, for example, father, can differ widely. We are told that there is only one loving God for all of humanity, and that this is not a controlling, manipulative, vengeful God-figure of old. Furthermore, Jesus also said that God, the divine Power, was embodied in everything in nature, in all living things and that, of course, includes all humans; we are part of the Divine, God is within us, within me; all of us therefore have a direct connection with the Divine.
That is why Jesus told us we do not need any interpreter to communicate with God, the divine spirit, since we always have this direct connection. How does one communicate or connect with God? One of the most common methods would be the many different forms of prayer, but there is no right way or wrong way, pray as you can and feel, not as you can’t; it may be informal and personal, but we should keep in mind: who or what are we addressing?
Since we have this direct connection with God, we also have to be receptive and listen to our inner voice, our conscience, and put our selfish ego and our rationalism aside; opening our hearts and minds, we can ask for empowerment and allow God to guide us. For me personally, guidance comes intuitively through my conscience.
Experiencing such a connection and the resultant communication can leave us feeling uplifted, perhaps happy. Importantly, we can feel empowered to tackle the difficulties in our daily existence, and our compassion for others is also triggered by drawing on this empowerment.
One more point: None of us should blame God for any mishaps or misfortunes in our lives, nor for any natural events or disasters. God is not there to serve us, to make things convenient for us, but we can ask to be given strength and empowerment to do things and handle problems for ourselves, remembering that we alone are responsible for our own actions, no-one and nothing else is. Nor does God make us do anything.
Although constant striving and effort are required, with many lapses because of our human weaknesses, I believe we are all predestined to reach a level of spirituality which Jesus represented, connecting us closer with God. For me, these teachings of Jesus as expressed in the Templer literature have been the basis for my concept of God, which I feel has served me well for many decades now.

The Lord’s Prayer.
Hymn No. 126, Wie groß is des Allmächt’gen Güte… v. 1,2,4,5.

Country Victoria Service in Tynong, 2 November
at home of Heinz Bulach
Officiating Elders, Mark Herrmann and Dr Irene Bouzo (Irene's contribution is not included here, it will feature in a separate, later Service)

Beginning CD music to settle – The Minstrel Boy (the Corrs) – CD player (track 8)

Welcome (with thanks to Heinz and family and special mention of Wolfgang Blaich from Germany)

Introductions
After reading the text prescribed for today, a story of suffering, loss, faith and hope from the Book of Job, I will speak about our relationship with God from aspects of the recent Marysville seminar and various external religious forums the TSA participates in. Closing with prayer and a further hymn will then allow time for some discussion and interaction, if there is interest.

Here is the Bible text from the Book of Job Chapter 42, Verses 1-6
In answering God Job said:
No one can oppose you, because you have the power to do what you want.
You asked why I talk so much when I know so little. I have talked about things that are far beyond my understanding.
You told me to listen and answer your questions.
I heard about you from others; now I have seen you with my own eyes.
That’s why I hate myself and sit here in dust and ashes to show my sorrow.

Hymn: #14 Be Still and Know That I am God (3 verses) – Keyboard, Words

“God’ as defined in our Religious Perspective booklet provides a framework with much room for interpretation. In matters of spirituality, community support – particularly when that community is religious in nature – and exploration of prayer and meditation, I believe we need to be comfortable with and understand our personal relationship with God. And being personal makes it unique – neither right nor wrong – and individual. The TSA weekend seminar at Marysville was held at the end of August. The theme was ‘Connecting and Interacting with God’. Given the different personal interpretations each participant attending came with, I was intrigued whether enough common ground could be reached to enable the topic to be more fully explored and advanced.
As Herta Uhlherr wrote in the October Templer Record, when neatly summarising how the weekend unfolded, “On the whole, Templers believe the Divine is in and around us, as well as the ‘horizon beyond’ our understanding. We should not blame God for things; we can ask for the strength to do things for ourselves – we alone are responsible for our choices and actions.”

In his book “When bad things happen to good people”, written about the death of his teenage son from a condition called progeria – ‘rapid and premature ageing’, Rabbi Harold Kusher believes “the bad things that happen to us are the results of bad luck and not the will of God. Can you accept the idea that some things happen for no reason, that there is randomness in the universe? In that case we will simply have to learn to live with it, sustained and comforted by the knowledge that the earthquake and the accident, like the disease and the crime, are not the will of God, but represent that aspect of reality which stands independent of His will, and which angers and saddens God even as it angers and saddens us. In the final analysis, the question of why bad things happen to good people translates into some very difficult questions, no longer asking why something happened, but asking how we will respond, what we intend to do now that it has happened. Are you capable of forgiving and accepting in love a world which has disappointed you by not being perfect? Can you forgive its imperfections and love it because it is capable of containing great beauty and goodness, and because it is the only world we have? Are you capable of forgiving and loving the people around you, even if they have hurt you and let you down by not being perfect? Are you capable of forgiving and loving God even when you have found out that He is not perfect, even when He has let you down and disappointed you by permitting bad luck and sickness and cruelty in His world, and permitting some of those things to happen to you? Can you learn to love and forgive Him despite His limitations, as you once learned to forgive and love your parents even though they were not as wise, as strong or as perfect as you needed them to be? And if you can do these things, will you be able to recognise that the ability to forgive and the ability to love are the weapons God has given us to enable us to live fully, bravely and meaningfully in this less-than-perfect world?” (end of book excerpts).
In today’s text, Job certainly proved himself capable.

As Templers, the twin commandments – love God with all your being, and love your neighbour as yourself – provide instruction for practising an active Christianity of trust and compassion. At the seminar, ways of connecting with the Divine was explored and discussed – including prayer, music and chanting, meditation, real, active and contemplative listening, through nature and more – challenged and stretched us. We responded differently and with various levels of comfort to each of these aspects, but remained open and accommodating.

In the active Christianity that the TSA attempts to portray, the challenge is how to employ these concepts and strategies in our interactions with God and with our fellow human beings. On the local front, the TSA is represented at the Glen Eira South Ministers’ Association – effectively an ecumenical gathering, the Knox-Interfaith-Network and, more recently, as members of the Progressive Christian Network of Victoria.
The Ministers’ Association is another situation where we are the odd one out among the mainstream Christian churches, often needing to explain and justify our different outlook, interpretations and practices.
The Knox-Interfaith-Network is a very different forum, comprising representatives from the Abrahamic faiths – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – and religions originating in India – Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism. The Network was set up in 2002 in the aftermath of 9/11 through the impetus and with the support of Knox City Council. It exists to encourage proper understanding between religious communities in the municipality so that each religious community and the community generally may be good neighbours.
Here, I believe, the TSA can sit comfortably as one of many. The Network promotes itself under the banner of “Many Faiths, One Country”. Proper understanding of another religion’s beliefs, cultures and traditions is not easy; I think that acceptance, respect and tolerance are more realisable than understanding.

Through the Knox Network I recently attended the fourteenth Annual Gathering of the Interfaith Network of Greater Dandenong. This Network – striving to achieve its vision of “Many Faiths, One People” – was established in 1989 and has since provided a template for the formation of other interfaith groups throughout Melbourne. In the Year of Languages, the central presentation allowed representatives from each of the local faith and spiritual organisations – including the Aboriginal people – to participate in “Speaking Words of Love”:

Baha’i – Love is the most wonderful, the greatest of all living powers
Brahma Kumaris – My love is a gift, free from any expectation of return
Buddhist – True love is love without selfish desire or attachment
Christian – Jesus used words of love and compassion which communicated a message of worth, value, empathy and acceptance to all
Hindu – God is love and love is God; expression of love is more important than feeling it
Jewish – By cherishing each other and working together to make this a better place for all, we witness to our love of God and humanity
Muslim – Love is like a light; there can be no love without a source as there can be no light without a source
Sri Sathya Sai Baba – Love is the only bond that can unite all and make us realise the one reality behind all the seeming diversity
Sikh – Only those who love the Lord can achieve God realisation; without love all other efforts are of no avail

So, are we really that different?

Let us stand for prayer:

May our God, God of peace,
Bless and keep us forever.
Grant us peace, perfect peace,
Courage in ev’ry endeavour.
Now go forth in joy and love
And in grace forever.
May our God, God of peace,
Bless and keep us forever.

Amen

Hymn: #118 To praise God (3 verses) – Keyboard, Words

INTERACTIVE DISCUSSION

Ending CD music – Love and Happiness (Emmylou Harris/Mark Knopfler) – CD player (track 6)

Return to the top

A short period of contemplation before the AGM on Sunday 19 October
In Bayswater at 10:30am
Elder Mark Herrmann

Prelude from Elisabeth Wagner

Apart from it being Sunday, I find it a little incongruous pausing for a period of contemplation before launching into our somewhat business-like Annual General Meeting. However, the TSA is first and foremost a religious community, and so its business is naturally somewhat different to the usual commercial type.

Hymn #1 – Trachtet! ruft mit ernstem Worte (Unser Losungslied) – verses 1 and 2

The text prescribed for today comes from the Letter of James in the New Testament.

The letter was addressed to Christians scattered throughout the Roman Empire. Though written as a letter, it is more like a short book of instructions for daily living. For James, faith means action! In fact, the entire book is a series of examples that show faith in action in wise and practical ways. His advice was clear and to the point: If you are poor, don’t despair! Don’t give up when your faith is being tested. Don’t get angry quickly. Don’t favour the rich over the poor. Do good things for others. Control your tongue and desires. Surrender to God and rely on his wisdom. Resist the devil. Don’t boast about what you are going to do. If you are rich, use your money to help the poor. Be patient and kind, and pray for those who need God’s help.

All good and sound advice really, and I think that James’ instructions would be of particular appeal to Templers, given our attempts to represent a Christian faith in action, and one of action.

In my daughter’s Bible for Today, Chapter 4, verses 13-17 (under the heading of “Warning against boasting”) reads:

You should know better than to say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to the city. We’ll do business there for a year and make a lot of money!”
What do you know about tomorrow? How can you be so sure about your life? It is nothing more than mist that appears for only a little while before it disappears.
You should say, “If the Lord lets us live, we will do these things.”
Yet you are stupid enough to boast, and it is wrong to be so proud.
If you don’t do what you know is right, you have sinned.

Our lives on earth are of an indeterminate and unknown length, certainly finite, and, in the overall scheme of things, very short. To have them described as “nothing more than mist that appears for only a little while before it disappears” is sobering and indeed puts it all very much into perspective. Since we know not what tomorrow brings, how can we ensure that we make the most of our lives? I believe it makes living according to our values and ideals of prime importance. Do we then really have time to be negative or unconstructive, bitter or angry, resentful to or offended by our fellow human beings? Ideally, no!

For Templers the twin commandments of love – love God with all your being, and love your neighbour as yourself (Chapter 22, Verses 37-39 of Matthew’s Gospel) – show a practical way of working towards our aim of seeking God’s kingdom on Earth in daily life.

For me, it is important to fit any God-reference into my comfortable framework of “inner voice” or “conscience”. So I interpret James’ text as needing to listen to one’s inner voice when making decisions, particularly those that may have an effect on others. We can strive to do this in the belief of what we know to be right, in accordance with our principles and standards.

Although we cannot predict our future, we are still permitted to – and should – hope and dream. Planning for beyond today has its place in our lives. The saying “Don’t put off till tomorrow what you can do today” springs to mind. I am also mindful of the lyrics of Canadian troubadour and rocker Neil Young contained in his work “The Painter” – It's a long road behind me, It's a long road ahead; If you follow every dream you might get lost – although from our text today James may well disagree with Young’s references to “long roads”.

In life’s journey – whatever its length – I like the line from the late John Lennon’s “Beautiful Boy” – Before you cross the street, take my hand; life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans – written for his then young son Sean. We will probably be better off by trying to accept and making the most of whatever comes our way. Granted, this is often easier said than done. But we can still make it a personal goal.

In this general context, let us approach today – our important Annual General Meeting – resolutely, with purpose and with our community’s best interests to the fore.

Prayer:

Dear God
We celebrate spring’s returning and the rejuvenation of the natural world. Let us be moved by this vast and gentle insistence that goodness shall return, that warmth and life shall succeed, and help us to understand our place within this miracle. Let us see that as a bird now builds its nest, bravely, with bits and pieces, so we must build human faith. It is our simple duty; it is the highest art; it is our natural and vital role within the miracle of spring; the creation of faith. Amen

Hymn #1 – verses 6 and 9
Postlude from Elisabeth Wagner

Return to the top

Saal 14th September, 2008, Bayswater.
Elder: Geoff McCallum
Pianist: Monika Strasser.

(Themes major: Fathers and sons, biblical miracles, community, spiritual enlightenment)

It is a pleasure to welcome you here today. We have been fortunate to be able to listen to the Wind Ensemble to help us to soak up the ambience of this spring Sunday in architecturally beautiful Bayswater Chapel.

As we turn now to the religious part of the morning I invite you all to relax, clear your heads of your problems small or large, and enjoy a musical introduction to the service by Monika Strasser.

Monika: Playing music of her choice.

I will begin today’s service with a few words for our younger members.

As you know, last Sunday was Father’s Day and perhaps you made or bought a present for your father. Perhaps you were just particularly good that day. Perhaps that was your present. I am lucky to be a father and I got some presents and phone calls from kids who were not around.

And it also caused me to think about my own father. He died many years ago but of course I often remember him. One of the things I remember best about him is watching him work with his hands. I can still see his hands in my mind.

It is important for boys especially to work with their dads as it is an important way in which we can learn from each other. It is a way to learn what it is to be a man. Years ago, boys would follow their fathers into a trade or profession. Nowadays this bond is often broken. Boys go of to school and get taught by other people which is a bit of a pity. A lot of boys, even clever capable boys are not well suited to school and don‘t like it much. I was like that. But I don’t want to dwell on my bad habits.

In Jesus’ day they didn’t have schools like we do today. Jesus’ father, Joseph, was a kind of engineer. In Greek he was called a tekton. People often say he was a carpenter but his job was more technical than that. And Jesus would have spent his early years helping him, watching him work and learning the profession himself. Actually they were quite well off. They were not poor peasants but had servants and were related to the priests in the temple who were at the head of Jewish society.

The bible does not tell us much about Jesus as a growing boy or a teenager. But it does tell about one time when his family went to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival. (Luke 2; 41-52) It took several days travel to get there. On the way home they noticed that Jesus was missing from the party. When they got back to the Jerusalem it took them 3 days to find him. And do you know what he was doing? He was in the Temple in Jerusalem discussing religion with the priests and amazing everybody with his intelligence.
Jesus‘ gift was his intelligence and understanding and eventually, long after he became a man, he came very close to God. But it took more than intelligence, it took imagination. And Jesus had that too.

(Magic Eye Puzzle.) Before we sing Hymn 85, I am going to hand out a puzzle to the kids and a few adults too and I want you to tell me at the end what you make of it.

Hymn 85
(Discussion revealed that some present had been able to solve the Magic Eye Puzzle, others wanted to try.)

It is important to think always that there may be another way to see anything. Use your imagination. Don't be afraid to think your own thoughts. Jesus certainly thought his own thoughts and saw things his own way. He gained such a true understanding of God and of human beings that he let himself be killed almost without fear so other people could also see that, like the Magic Eye Puzzle, there are other ways to see the world than how we all see it every day which stop you from fearing the things that ordinary people fear.
But for now, the important thing is to stimulate your imagination and think some times that the world may be a more wonderful place than most people realize.

(To adults)
It is not an easy thing to be a kid today and it is not an easy thing to be a parent. When I first encountered the Templers as a teenager, the way in which the different generations interacted together in various settings was one of the things which first attracted me to them. There are a couple of Sylvester Balls at Bayswater which I remember particularly well in that regard.

But Western Culture and the media which spread it are very powerful and it is not easy to retain personal family values, or Templer values for that matter, which may differ from the mainstream. And it is not easy to keep an independent view of reality either.

As parents, as Templers, I hope we can succeed still in maintaining that tolerant, understanding interaction between the generations. Like the old Arab saying; when you son becomes a man make him your brother. Of course the same applies to women and daughters though they often seem to accomplish it more effortlessly than men.

Today’s designated text comes from Epistle to the Hebrews. It represents some of the correspondence which circulated in the early church. It stresses the importance of community.

The identity of the writer is not known but it was NOT Paul. The epistle was written in the Roman empire, a pagan empire where Jewish and Gentile followers of Jesus were establishing communities of like believers not unlike the Templer Communities in Palestine.

TEXT: Hebrews 10; 19-25.
We have, then, my friends, complete freedom to go into the Most Holy Place by means of the death of Jesus. He opened for us a new way, a living way, through the curtain---that is, through his own body. We have a great priest in charge of the house of God.
So let us come near to God with a sincere heart and a sure faith, with hearts that have been purified from a guilty conscience and with bodies washed with clean water.
Let us hold on firmly to the hope we profess, because we can trust God to keep his promise. Let us be concerned for one another, to help one another to show love and to do good. Let us not give up the habit of meeting together, as some are doing.. Instead, let us encourage one another all the more, since you see that the Day of the Lord is coming nearer.

In Australia in 2008, we live in a society which has in a sense grown from the Christianity of Europe. It has grown from the Catholic Christianity which existed in medieval Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. Martin Luther and the reformation and then the so-called Intellectual Enlightenment shook society free from the control and tyranny of the church.

We don’t burn heretics and witches at the stake. We don’t think the mentally ill are witches or possessed by Satan. We don’t persecute the apostate, those who have abandoned or changed their religion. Unfortunately it is still the case that some other religions do pursue those who wish to leave the religion or develop what are regarded as heretical beliefs and even pass death sentences on them. But setting the adherents of such uncompromising religions aside, most people in Western society would say that the teachings of Jesus, in so far as they know them, are a good idea. They would say it, but forgiveness which was a central teaching has been replaced by retribution and its modern form litigation which are pre-Christian ideas or values.

But many people, many thinking people, would say that whatever contribution Jesus made to the human society has been incorporated into humanist values and the source of the ideas is irrelevant. But when they follow the modern custom of going straight to the bottom line, they are overlooking much of value on the way.

However you look at it, there are so many ways in which religion and society are in a constant state of interaction and evolve together. But if you wish to make any great advances in your own spiritual development, it is important not to get totally sucked into Western Culture or the popular interpretation of Christianity which it contains.

Looked at the other way around, modern scientific understanding of the world which has so much advanced human understanding of the physical nature of reality can also lead one to be confronted by many things in religion in general and the bible in particular which are difficult to accept on face value. This challenges especially those with a genuine interest in religion and spirituality.
I thought today that I might look at the question of the miracles recounted in the New Testament, their importance or otherwise for religiously minded people today.

The first of Jesus’ reported miracles after his enlightenment took place at a wedding in the town of Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother and his disciples were also there:

John 2:3-11.
When the wine had given out, Jesus' mother said to him, 'They are out of wine.'
Jesus replied, 'you must not tell me what to do, my time has not yet come.'
Jesus' mother then told the servants, 'Do whatever he tells you.'
The Jews had rules about ritual washing, and for this purpose six stone water jars were there, each one large enough to hold between twenty and thirty gallons.
Jesus said to the servants, 'Fill these jars with water.' They filled them to the brim,
and then he told them, 'Now draw some water out and take it to the man in charge of the feast.'
They took him the water, which now had turned into wine, and he tasted it. He did not know where this wine had come from (but, of course, the servants who had drawn out the water knew); so he called the bridegroom and said to him, 'Everyone else serves the best wine first, and after the guests have drunk a lot, he serves the ordinary wine. But you have kept the best wine until now!'

This turning of water into wine was said to be the first of Jesus’ miracles but there were many, many more. In fact the miracles were probably the main reason why people followed Jesus and why his fame spread.

The miracles recounted in the gospels generally fall into 3 groups: cures of ailments, exorcisms and raising of the dead.

Matthew 9: 20-22.
A woman who had suffered from severe bleeding for twelve years came up behind Jesus and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, “If only I touch his cloak, I will get well.”
Jesus turned around and saw her, and said, “Courage, my daughter! Your faith has made you well.” At that very moment the woman became well.

In John 11; 28- 44. The well known story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead is told.
Deeply moved, Jesus went to Lazarus’ tomb, which was a cave with a stone placed at the entrance.
“Take the stone away!” Jesus ordered. Martha, the dead man’s sister answered, “there will be a bad smell, Lord, he has been buried for 4 days.”
Jesus said to her, “didn’t I tell you, you would see God’s glory if you believed?”
They took the stone away. Jesus looked up and said, “I thank you, Father, that you listen to me. But I say this for the sake of the people here, so that they will believe you sent me.”
After he had said this, he called out is a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” Lazarus came out, his hands and feet wrapped in grave cloths and with a cloth around his head. “Untie him,” Jesus told them, “and let him go.”
And thus Lazarus was returned to life.

Our Western education system teaches us to expect to be able to make sense of the world around us. What does not seem to make sense, we dismiss. We have great faith in our faculties of reason. In the culture of science, you make an hypothesis and test it. In the case of medicine, there is an idea called Occam’s Razor. The idea that the best hypothesis to explain a set of symptoms is the simplest explanation which fits all the observations.All these principals of science and logic are good and help us to explain the physical world. But do they encompass all aspects of reality? Do they disallow other equally valid ways of looking at reality?

In terms of the miracles of the New Testament, it is a struggle to find a satisfactory or even half credible scientific explanation for many? Should we dismiss them if we are unable to do so? Were those whom Jesus raised not really dead? Could the ancient Jews not diagnose death? Could the Rabbi not distinguish wine from water or did Jesus hypnotize them all?

What I would put to you is this. You don't need to believe these stories which run counter to our understanding of physical reality. But you don't need to dismiss them either. Having an open mind rather than a fixed opinion one way or the other should not make you feel insecure. I cannot endorse these stories of which the gospels are full myself either from a common sense viewpoint or from a medical viewpoint.
But in the back of my mind there lurks a faint apprehension. Am I, are we all perhaps, like a one eyed man staring vainly at a Magic Eye Puzzle. Ill equipped to solve the puzzle and tempted to conclude therefore that the beautiful image hidden within it does not exist.

Hymn 126, verses, 1,2 &6.

Somebody is going to go home from this service saying, Geoff McCallum believes in the miracles or in faith healing or something else. But this is not quite what I am suggesting. What I am suggesting is that, like the Magic Eye Puzzle, we see life, reality in the flat form. We owe it to ourselves to keep an open mind to the possibility of seeing the full picture and having our perception of reality transformed.
It is something which has happened to others and perhaps can also happen to you or to I. Let me return to the scripture.

Matthew 3: 13-16 John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin, was preaching in the Judean wilderness
At that time Jesus arrived from Galilee and came to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. But John tried to make him change his mind.
'I ought to be baptized by you,' John said, 'and yet you have come to me!'
But Jesus answered him, 'Let it be so for now. For in this way we shall do all that God requires.' So John agreed.
As soon as Jesus was baptized, he came up out of the water. Then heaven was opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God coming down like a dove and lighting on him. Then a voice said from heaven, 'This is my own dear Son, with whom I am pleased.'

This account was recorded in the gospel many years after the event. It was recorded by people who knew from oral history that something remarkable had happened that day and, like us, sought to make sense of it in terms of their understanding of the universe.
It was, after all, the event which immediately preceded Jesus’ mission. It was the moment when he was transformed. The moment when the nature of reality, the Magic Eye Puzzle, became clear to him.
But Jesus was not the only person to have such an experience.

Consider Acts 9: 1-10.
Saul, still breathing murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples, went to the high priest and applied for letters to the synagogues in Damascus authorising him to arrest any followers of the New Way whom he found … and bring them to Jerusalem. While he was on the road and nearing Damascus, suddenly a light from the sky flashed all around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
He replied, “Tell me Lord, who are you?” The voice answered, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.”
Saul got up from the ground but when he opened his eyes he could not see. They led him by the hand and brought him to Damascus. He was blind for three days and took no food or drink.

Most people have no enlightenment experiences in life though many do have such an experience as death draws its veil.

It seems likely that Jesus underwent a second enlightenment experience described in Matthew 17 which is generally referred to as his transfiguration and was as little understood by those who wrote about it as it is by most of those who read about it.

Throughout history there are many other well documented accounts of this miracle of enlightenment. Mohamed, Rumi the Muslim poet and Ramana Maharshi, a Hindu who is possibly one of the most recent and well documented.

We started by talking about the biblical accounts of physical miracles and we are now around to the miracle of enhanced perception or enlightenment; of seeing the underlying pattern of reality like a Magic Eye Puzzle.But you will not be helped much to achieve spiritual enlightenment by Western society, by wealth or by intellectual reason. It is beyond all these things. You or I may never achieve it or you may achieve it on your death bed. You may catch glimpses of it as you go through your life, little enlightenments.

Spiritual enlightenment is a personal experience, its achievement a solitary quest. It is not a philosophical concept. It cannot be directly taught or learned. It cannot be deduced by logic or inferred. It is not restricted to those who follow any particular religion.

Perfecting your behaviour towards others, participating in a community, these are also aspects of the Christian life which can help you in the early stages of your spiritual development. And the establishment of a harmonious Christian community on earth is an adjunct to the inner spiritual journey which is of great value. It is the means by which we are here together today thinking about these things..

Today’s text from Hebrews which cautioned against stopping meeting together is more relevant today than ever. After all, you can read the bible at home. You can research Christianity and other Teachings on the internet. You can further your own spiritual development through prayer, meditation and through not allowing yourself to be fully taken up with the attractions of the modern world. To do many of these things you need not speak to another person about religion.

But on the other hand to be part of a community with similar objectives, who will not call you a heretic for not letting your spiritual quest be feted by dogma and belief. To give strength to and to draw strength from that community is as important today as it was when those lines which I read earlier were penned by the anonymous writer of the epistle which we call Hebrews. In this way you, we can contribute to the realization of the Kingdom of God on earth.

But to take the last great step to enlightenment as attained by Jesus, by Paul, by Gautama the Buddha, by Rumi the mystic Muslim poet and by Ramana Maharshi cannot be achieved by moral conduct and good works. It requires solving the Magic Eye Puzzle of existence.

Before we conclude I think we should repeat the Lord’s Prayer which is found in Matthew’s account of the Sermon on the Mount but which is also toward the end of our Templer Hymn Book. It gives us a continuity of community from Jesus through Paul, Martin Luther, Christoph Hoffmann and the Templers of Palestine to us here today in Bayswater.

Lord’s Prayer

Thank you all for coming today to share this service. Thank you particularly Monika for playing. I conclude today’s service with a blessing of the apostle Paul in the poetic language of the King James version.

May the peace of God which passeth all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Return to the top

Saal; Founder’s Day, 22nd June, 2008.
Elder: Geoff McCallum
Pianist: Krista Imberger

(Themes: Establishment of the TS, Earlier Founders, Evolution of religious ideas.)

It is a great pleasure to welcome you here today for this Founders’ Day Service. During today's service I would like to reflect upon not only the foundation of the Temple Society 150 years ago, but also on how the religious thinking has evolved over the years. But first of all, let us begin our service with the Hymn No 64 in your Templer Hymn Book.

Hymn 64
(Young people).

I would like to say a few words to our younger members about how we Templers came to exist. As you are the future of the Temple Society it is valuable to know where our religion comes from. It is an interesting story.

The driving force for the establishment of the Temple Society was, amongst others, Christoph Hoffmann. He was born in South Germany in 1815. What a different world the young Christoph inhabited. Europe was frequently affected by wars. There were guns but there were no planes or tanks, not even cars. There were no telephones or radios. There was certainly no internet and if you wanted to hear music you had to go to a concert or , more likely, make it yourself or with your family.

The humble bicycle was not invented until 1839, the same year the photographic plate was patented. Photography became more widespread during the 1850's and 1860s as a result of which we can see what Christoph looked like. Certainly his style of dress was not much like Templers today. But in the 1850s there was printing and there were books.

Hoffman and his colleagues used the written word to build support for their ideas. Christoph Hoffmann believed in the idea of one God and was a keen student of the bible. The bible he had was a translation into German by Martin Luther who had lead the breakaway from the Catholic Church 330 years earlier. Christianity, the following of the teachings of Jesus, is about two thousand years old. But Judaism, from which Christianity arose, is at probably about two thousand years older.

If we go back to the Old Testament we find the story of the Jewish people and how they first embraced the idea of one God. I would like to tell you a story about a man called Abraham who is the founder not only of all Christian churches but of the Jewish and Muslim religions. I would like to tell you a story of how it is said to have happened.

Abraham’s father had a stall in the bazaar which sold pottery statues or idols for religious worship. One day his father left Abraham in charge of the stall while he travelled to a nearby town on business. When Abraham’s father returned, he was dismayed to find the stall in disarray with all the idols except one smashed. Furious he drew his son aside and demanded an explanation.
“Well, said Abraham, it was like this. The biggest of the gods became angry and destroyed all the others in a fit of rage.”
“Don’t be stupid,” replied Abraham’s father, “you know they are nothing but wood and clay.”
“Yes,” replied Abraham, “wood and clay is all that they are.”

I think we can get several messages from this story. One is that it is not worthwhile to worship idols. People today do not generally worship clay idols, but they have more modern equivalents. Take, for example, the adoration of famous people, sports stars, pop stars, politicians. We don’t know them personally but just see them as displayed on the TV as their managers and promoters wish them to be seen. Not as real and complete people with weaknesses as well as strengths.. We are worshiping an illusion.

Is this not rather like the worship of the idols which Abraham destroyed. On the other hand what about flash cars, flash houses, big flat-screen plasma TVs etc. Many people work their lives away to possess these things so you could say they are worshiping modern idols. You could also say they are missing the true meaning of life.

Christoph Hoffmann and his friends were certainly turning their backs on the relatively comfortable life of Europe as they set out for Palestine on their quest. And in that I think Abraham would be proud of the first Templers as we also are proud of them today. In point of fact their life had become considerably less comfortable as many of them were expelled from the Evangelical Church and subject to persecution before they left.

Let us sing together Hymn 1 in the Templer Hymn Book.

Hymn 1

The establishment of the Temple Society, like its existence today, can be understood at many different levels.

In talking to the young people I described how the physical world was different in Christoph Hoffmann's time. Ideas were different too. In those days almost everybody in Germany went to church on Sunday. Even when I was a boy in the 1960's most Australians went to church every Sunday, which is a bit hard to imagine now.

Charles Darwin's book, The Origin of Species, which first set out to explain how life on earth evolved was not published until 1859. Up until that time, most people believed that the earth and all the animals and plants were created by God in the form which we now see them. Of course people had dug up fossils of extinct species but Evolution, the understanding which ties together species from the past and present, was not described until 1859.

Similarly, at that time people looked into the sky and thought that they saw a clockwork universe where the heavenly bodies moved in predictable and unchanging orbits. They did know that the earth was a planet which circled the sun and suspected that the stars were distant suns. But as in Hoffman’s as in Jesus‘ time it was possible to believe that somewhere out there in the sky was God sitting on his throne in heaven which may be why in German the word for heaven and sky are the same, himmel.

The reason why I am telling you all this is because many of the things Christoph Hoffmann thought we would not think today. One of Christoph Hoffmann's ideas which was shared by many Christians then though fewer today was the idea that Jesus would physically return to earth from heaven. In those days it was possible to imagine Jesus descending to earth from heaven in the sky. Today it is much more difficult to imagine Jesus returning, at least not physically..

And yet this idea of Jesus return, based on prophesy, was the major reason why the Templers migrated to Palestine in 1860 to set up communities of like-minded Christians to await his return and help establish the new temple in Jerusalem. .

This literal belief in the Second Coming is by no means extinct. I have attended a couple of weddings in another church where the wedding vows do not say, to death us do part, but to death us do part or until the return of the Lord. Like the disciples and many Christian groups since, they believe that this second coming is imminent.. This is also what Christoph Hoffmann and the first Templers believed.

But Jesus did not come, in the physical sense, at least not yet. In the meantime, the Temple Society which grew from the Pietist Movement, sought to worship God without unnecessary rituals. Their halls or churches were simple and un-ostentatious. But they did retain the Lord’s Prayer which Jesus taught his disciples. Let us say it together today as those old Templers did and as Jesus and his disciples did before them.

Lord’s Prayer.

As I said, the driving human force for the establishment of the Temple Society was, amongst others, Christoph Hoffmann. The underlying idea for the Temple Society at that time was the idea that Jesus would return to the congregation of true believers and establish a New Jerusalem and a Messianic Age.

Hoffmann had studied theology at the Tuebinger Stift and his ideas originated in his reading of Martin Luther’s translation into German of the Roman Catholic Latin bible. The whole Evangelical Church from which Hoffmann came had evolved from Luther’s Protestant movement which had arisen some 300 years previously.In that sense Hoffmann and his colleagues were not the absolute founders of our faith but represented a stage in the progression of belief and practice. I would like to take a moment to trace the origins of Templer thought back beyond Hoffmann. I would like to look at some more distant Founders of our Templer Religion (or denomination).

I spoke before about Abraham and his rejection of the worship of idols and his belief in one God. Abraham with his belief is generally considered the father of the Israelites or Jews whose religion formed the basis of Christianity. We are not Jews but as Christians he is our spiritual founder too.

In the Old Testament tradition it was Moses who gave the Law to the Israelites after entering into a pact with God on Mount Sinai. Moses’ law consisted of much more than the 10 Commandments which we all know and the book of Leviticus contains great detail including much medical advice which has outlived its usefulness as well as rules for dealing with slaves and concubines which are also irrelevant to modern life. But it did provide a framework for how people should behave towards each other.

Some observant Jews still try to follow all the details of the law of Moses though Christians generally do not although the 10 Commandments do retain a place in Christianity today and also form the basis for the Criminal and Civil Law in Western Countries.

Jesus, a Jew, grew up under the law of Moses. Though he never claimed to contradict the law of Moses, he did change its emphasis by emphasizing love of other people, friend or foe, and forgiveness. The bible describes how Jesus underwent what we would call today an enlightenment experience when he was baptised in the river Jordan. After this he was not the same man as he had been and he set about his mission.

The Roman Emperor, Constantine, was in a sense a Founder also. Three centuries after Jesus, having become a convert he wanted his empire to convert. But he wanted a set creed for everybody to follow. To cut a long story short, he set up committees which ruled some scriptures in, threw others out and thus what we know as the Bible came into being.

In saying that Jesus underwent an enlightenment experience we are making a comparison to Buddha and others who have become enlightened. Reading some of the scriptures which Emperor Constantine’s committee excluded for various reasons we get much more of a sense of Jesus as the spiritually enlightened teacher trying to show his followers how to experience their own enlightenment. This is an aspect of Jesus teaching which has been purged from our bible arguably creating an unbalanced view of Jesus.

The bible remained fairly much unchanged through the Dark Ages following the fall of the Roman Empire. Priests were amongst the few literate Christians during that period and the bible remained in Latin until it was translated into German by Martin Luther. The people followed the practices of the church and personally knew little of the bible‘s contents.

Martin Luther, a local German priest, was so shocked by the affluence and hypocracy of the Roman church that he challenged the church and the people to return to the simpler values of Jesus. And then, 330 years later, along came Christoph Hoffmann who anticipated the second coming but also stood up for every serious person’s right to honestly follow their belief without outside interference or religious persecution.

Christoph Hoffmann was the founder or one of the founders of the Temple Society. His driving belief was in the second coming of Jesus. Though there are probably few Templers who believe today in the literal second coming, in the sense that Hoffmann may have thought of it, there are other aspects of his view of religion in the world which are still very important today.

I do not consider myself any kind of expert but ideas which are in a sense Hoffmann’s legacy include the idea that religion and science should compliment rather than oppose one another. The idea that you should not believe one thing with your mind in the world but then pretend to believe something else within your religion. He tended to believe that science would save humanity and perhaps even fuse with religion to create a greater human consciousness. Honesty was at the core of Hoffman’s approach, at the beginning when he broke with the Evangelical Church and later when he wrote Occident and Orient.

The search for a messiah is a recurring theme in human history. Those who followed Jesus believed him to be the messiah. Those who followed Hitler described, 60 years later, how when they saw him even at a distance above a crowd, they felt that he speaking to them personally. It was, they later recounted, as if they had been spoken to by God. There are those who feel that way when they hear Barack Obama. I hope it does not end in blood and tears.

We humans have trouble distinguishing the real gold from the fools gold. Our desire to find a messiah or see the return of the messiah is deeply rooted and often leads us astray. But messianic prophesy is only one aspect of the religious and philosophical thought available to us. Even in the books we call the bible, prophesy does not take up much space. It is arguable the most misinterpreted aspect of religion.
Why do people take an interest in religion? Because it is in their nature? Because it is there? To make sense of our human life? To help us cope with tragedy? To help us face death especially, and, when our own deaths do loom closer out of the mist of the future.

Are we sad because we were not alive before we were born? Not most of us. Are we sad because we will not be alive after we die? Yes most of us. Why is life not symmetrical?Religion has a lot to do with learning how to cope with reality. Birth and death. Love and loss. Betrayal. Sometimes it is more effective than others.

Is the answer to these human needs be found in a fact, or a body of facts? Or is it to be found in finding a metaphor. A way to see our lives. To see life and death as a pattern which is not to be feared. We can trace Judao-Christian thought from Abraham who did away with worship of idols, Moses who codified the law by which to live, Jesus who showed that love was more important than any law, Martin Luther who gave the people direct access to the bible and disavowed the excesses of churches to Hoffman who reaffirmed Luther’s teaching on freedom from central control and gave the gift of individual reason. And what is the next step? Is there a next step?

Part of the process which we Templers are quite good at is accepting that, though we believe we are on a right path, others on a different path are not necessarily on a wrong path. It is such an important principal. In endeavouring to formulate the next great metaphor of religious understanding, modern Templers and those of other Christian traditions are incorporating science and the understandings of other religious traditions in an attempt to formulate the next great metaphor.

It is not that any of the founders I have mentioned were wrong, except perhaps Emperor Constantine, it is just that to be meaningful any religious concept, any metaphor which relates to that deeper level of mystical understanding which so few fully attain, needs to make sense, to be in some accord with the cultural context. As always there will be false messiahs and blind ends. But there is the capacity within us all to be part of the formulation of the next great metaphor for mystical understanding of ourselves in the universe. To take us beyond materialism. To find our own routes which can lead us from popular culture to personal inner and lasting peace. Not the right theory or truth but the metaphor and the poetry which tells us who we really are.

I would like to finish up with a hymn number 66 in our Templer Hymn book which owes its origins and its harmony to the shakers of North America who were a bit like the Templers who sailed off for Palestine in 1860. But the words are the modern poetry of Sydney Carter.

Hymn 66; Lord of the Dance

When I discovered that my designated day to give the Saal was Founders’ Day I was a bit daunted at first. I am not the descendant of Palestinian Templers. I am not an expert on Templer history. I am not an expert on anything at all. But this is a Saal was not intended to be a history lesson and if you want to refresh your memory on the early history of the Temple Society there is The Holy Land Called and other written resources.

What I wanted to look at on this historical day is how religion, like species of animals and plants evolves to fit the time. It is not a sad thing but a natural thing. And like the many old fragments of DNA which are present along with the star dust in our bodies, the teachings of those who came before, at least parts of them, are with us today as we evolve a new and meaningful metaphor to counter-balance the materialism and affluence and scientific knowledge of our current age.

I leave you with a blessing from an educated man of his day, a sophisticated Roman Jew, who one day on a dusty road suddenly underwent a profound realization which turned his life around and as a result of whose efforts, as well as many others, we are hear today. St Paul. St Paul who was one of the many Founders who I could have talked about but didn’t.

May the peace of God which passeth all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ.

Krista: Playing music of her choice.

Return to the Top

Bentleigh Hall Hymnal Service -Evensong

July 27^th 2008  5pm

ELDER : Renate Weber

Pianist : Veronika Rutowicz

Hymns. 101 Song of Gratitude

Hymn 114 The Servant song

Hymn No 90 Peace like a river

Hymn 93 Prayer of St Francis

Hymn 73  My body is a Temple 

Hymn 97 Sing with me a Hallelujah

Hymn 11 An Evening Prayer

Welcome to you all! I appreciate you making the effort to come out on a cold Sunday and join in an evening of singing and reflection.

Did any of you watch or see any stories or photos of the World Youth Day? What did you think? I swayed between being moved almost to tears when I saw babies being handed into the Pope mobile to be kissed and blessed, to thinking this is like a scout jamboree where youth gathers to have fun, how much is to do with faith or Christ’s teaching?  I was glad of the public papal apology to victims of church sexual abuse and glad the Holy Father met with some victims in private to apologise to them personally.

I thought he was going to express some modern thinking when he thanked and blessed the many volunteers who had helped to make the event such a success when he said that each one had contributed to the event by their efforts, and I thought yes they are creating the kingdom of God on earth, but he lost me in the next sentence when he said they were clearing the path so the holy spirit could “come down” to the people. How lucky we are as progressive Christians to be in communication with God with out any one interceding for us.  Overall the Pope’s message of peace, hope, and encouragement to young people to live a Christian life was very positive. It will be interesting to see the spin off from this surge of religious fervour. Will it last? There may need to be changes to their entrance criteria for their officials. There is a real numbers crisis in the religious orders with little uptake by the youth. A large percentage of the clergy are already over 60 who will take over when they retire? Do I hear any one say “sounds like the Templers membership”? All that said, World Youth Day certainly motivated the young people of the world and the sun shone in this “great south land” and left many pilgrims happy.

It was a good news week!  Often when we pick up newspapers or hear the news it is all too often doom and gloom. Petrol prices rise at least 10 cents every Wednesday, food is getting more expensive, how much is carbon trading going to cost, interest rates are up, share prices fall yet again, but Australia is still one of the best places on the earth to live!  So let us begin with our first Hymn. 101 Song of Gratitude It is one of the few Australian hymns in our Hymn book. By the time we have sung the five verses we will know the tune! 

I’ll share a quick email from Kirrily which might inspire you for the next activity.-it begins ..

 ' There are many things in life that will catch your eye.
But only a few will catch your heart. Pursue those..'
                                                                   - Anonymous-

I would like you all to come out now and light a candle and give thanks, or express your gratitude for something or some one in your life!

Our text for this evening comes from 1Thessalonians.

The apostle Paul founded one of the first Christian communities in Europe at Salonika (Thessalonica in ancient Greece). He then moved on to other towns to preach.  But he was aware of the Thessalonians and so he wrote them a letter from Athens and sent it with Timothy, one of his co workers, to give them encouragement.  I always ask myself how relevant is the text I am to use from the prescribed list for the 21^st century and this text had real relevance for me!

Text : 1 Thessalonians 5:12-22.  Guidelines for proper conduct

5:12 Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who labour among you and preside over you in the Lord and admonish you, 5:13 and to esteem them most highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. 5:14 And we urge you, brothers and sisters, admonish the undisciplined, comfort the discouraged, help the weak, be patient toward all. 5:15 See that no one pays back evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good for one another and for all. 5:16 Always rejoice, 5:17 constantly pray, 5:18 in everything give thanks. For this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 5:19 Do not extinguish the Spirit. 5:20 Do not treat prophecies with contempt. 5:21 But examine all things; hold fast to what is good. 5:22 Stay away from every form of evil

I thought The Servant Song captured some of the essence of the text. It is Hymn 114, we will sing all 6 verses.

For me I think this hymn addresses the first two verses of the text.   

12 Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you,

who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you.

13 Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work.

 When I first wrote this service the issue of misconduct /abuse by Catholic priests hadn’t raised its ugly head but it is interesting to reflect on the text considering that as well. In the Templer faith I don’t feel qualified to admonish you or to be highly regarded but I do believe we all share the responsibility to respect each others. We are travellers on life’s journey. At various times of our lives we do need help, love and support and at other times we are the ones who can do the supporting. It is also true that those who express their thoughts, ideas, emotions, interpretations, in public are much easier to criticise than those who remain silent.  Being an Elder bring much responsibility.

I was thinking about when I “admonish” people. Mothers do it often to their children! (Can you remember back to when it was a fight every week to get the bedrooms tidied?) Teachers to their pupils (you still haven’t handed in that homework!) Bosses to their workers (please put the tools back when you have finished.) During my research I found a Taize interpretation and it gave some excellent advice about admonishing - I quote “It can even be necessary to "admonish" someone, that's to say, to seek to enter into dialogue with them (but with them alone, between the two of you, says Jesus, cf. Mt 18:15) to make something clear. The aim is

to encourage, to support, to help one another overcome hesitations.”

file: /pub/resources/text/taize/johannine: jh9606.txt 

What excellent advice!

In the Temple Society we are each given the responsibility to live our lives correctly. We are not threatened with hell if we stray and we are also not offered absolution if we have done wrong deeds.

I like the next line “Live in peace with each other”. Hymn No 90 “Peace like a river” is a joyful spiritual which expresses this thought.

 Verse 14 states And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone.

Hymn 93 “Prayer of St Francis” expresses all these thoughts well. We will sing all three verses

 Verse 15 reminds us of a change of thinking from the Old Testament to the New. Instead of an eye for and eye Paul stresses Christ’s way “Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else”. . It is important for a community to function successfully that we work for the greater good of everyone. I enjoy the way the yoga Mudra- the seal of intent approaches this idea.  It begins with respecting self. Valuing yourself for who you are. The second time you bow in respect for others- the people closest to you -your family your relatives. The third time you bow in respect for all creation of which we are an integral part. By breaking up the thought process it enables you to give time and thought to all around you who contribute to the way the world goes.

In Templer terms, love your neighbour as yourself; treat your neighbour as you would like to be treated.

I watch TV some nights when sleep evades me. On Tuesday night I listened to a lay preacher who stressed the message “my body -his Temple” she made some interesting suggestions about forgiving ourselves. She expressed the view that once we accepted Christ into our lives he forgave all our sins and wanted us to go forth in the light with our body being a Temple for God to work through.  So many of us dwell on incidents from the past.  It is really a waste of energy. We need to forgive ourselves and try to forgive any one who wrongs us. Let our body be Temple and let us use it for the good of all.   

Hymn 73 My body is a Temple

 Verses 16 Be joyful always;

17 pray continually;

18 give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

 Let us sing Hymn 97 Sing with me a Halleluja all 4 verses

 Verses 19 and 20 cause me some challenge. “Do not put out the Spirit's fire; 20 do not treat prophecies with contempt”.

As Templers we moved away from the idea of a Trinity.

We believe in one God but what form that “God” takes “is of secondary importance”. In Christian Roher’s Lectures, which were recently published in their translated form he states “the universe is evidence of its creator and his infinite wisdom, whether we observe it on a large scale like astronomers or on a small or even minute one with the eyes of a natural scientist. Whether we call this creator, God, spirit, elemental will, elemental force, reality or whatever is of secondary importance.”

As a Nation we are currently struggling with climate change. We should not treat prophesies with contempt, they should be analysed and researched and we should reach an educated decision keeping in mind the last two verses of our reading.

I like these! 

21 Test everything. Hold on to the good.

22 Avoid every kind of evil.

How wise Paul was when he wrote the letter to the Thessalonians. 21 But examine all things; hold fast to what is good. 5:22 Stay away from every form of evil. The Church became bogged down with ritual and dogma. Churches split over their interpretations of the gospels. Jesus message became almost secondary to all the ritual which surrounded Christian worship. As Templers “going forward” (I learnt that from the politicians)  we need to continue to question, discuss, be involved, express our opinions, examine what others are thinking and doing. It is good advice to avoid evil.  We know in our hearts and heads what is right and what is wrong; whether we call it our conscience or our intelligence, or our inner spirit, we need to follows its recommendations.

Instead of a prayer I thought I would share a PowerPoint called “Life on a Train”. I think it has a good message. I hope the men won’t find the pictures too schmalzy!

We will conclude by singing hymn No.11 An Evening Prayer

Now Veronika is going to play us “Unser Vater” –Our Father -The Lord’s prayer.

Thank you for coming and joining in, you sang so well!  Thanks especially to Veronika for her playing, the lovely flowers and to all who helped with setting up. Travel home safely!

Return to the top

Mother’s Day Service in Bayswater

Elder: Dr Irene Bouzo
Musician: Krista Imberger

Texts: Exodus 20:12 The Fifth Commandment
Matthew 6:33 Set your mind on God’s kingdom and his justice before everything else, and all the rest will come to you as well.

Hymn number  47 “Ich singe dir mit Herz und Mund”,  “O Lord, I sing with mouth and heart”  Verses 1,2, 7 and 8
Musical interlude: “Mama” sung by Il Divo
Hymn number 106 “Thank you, dear God” (English only), all four verses.

Krista plays opening piano piece

Welcome

Ladies and gentleman, friends, it’s lovely to see so many of you here today. Welcome to our Mother’s Day Service. The community warmly welcomes any visitors and those of you who are not Templers.

Introduction

A person once asked a mother which child she loved the most. She answered I love most of all the one who has travelled far away until she comes back; I love most of all the one who is sick until he is well again; and I love most the youngest one till she grows older. That describes a mother’s unconditional love. She’s always there for us.

“A mother holds her children’s hands for a little while and she holds their hearts forever”

Here is a delightful little 18^th century poem that I like:

My Mother
Who ran to help me when I fell,
And would some pretty story tell,
Or kiss the place to make it well?
My mother.
                                                ~by Jane Taylor 1783-1824~

It reminds me of a magical poem that German mothers, and many Templers, said to comfort their children:

Heile, heile, Segen
Drei Tag’ Regen
Drei Tag’ Schnee
Mach’ dem Kindlein nimmer weh.

 We have two parents. Out of the two, I often wondered which one should be given greater priority for kindness? A student once asked his spiritual teacher, "To whom should I be kind?" The theologian replied, "Your mother." The student asked, "Then to whom?" His teacher said, "Your mother." He asked again, "Then to whom?" The holy teacher replied, "Your mother." Only when the student asked the fourth time, "Then to whom?" his teacher replied, "Your father." This shows that the right of mother is three times more than the rights of father as far as kindness from their children is concerned.

Outline of service: Today we honour and remember our mothers. I want to spend some time reflecting on what we received from our mothers including those who are no longer with us. A very nice tribute on Mother’s Day is to try and recall what valuable lessons in life our mothers left with us.

I have chosen two texts from the Bible that deal with mothers and parents and what we can do with their gifts to us. I will refer to the Fifth Commandment in Exodus 20:12 and the Templer motto in Matthew 6:33.

Hymn

Let us begin by singing a song of praise and thanksgiving. We’ll sing Hymn number  47  “O Lord, I sing with mouth and heart”, four verses 1, 2, 7 and 8. Wir singing Lied Nummer 47 im Gesangbuch,  “Ich singe dir mit Herz und Mund”. Wir singen vier Verse, Nummer 1 und 2, dann 7 und 8.

Today we give immense respect to the parent who is our mother. Let me read out our first text, the Fifth Commandment in the Bible.

Exodus 20:12
"Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee."

 We celebrate Mothers’ Day in May to show our mother-parent the honour, respect and warm gratitude she deserves for her year-round devotion to her children. The Fifth Commandment focuses on honouring parents. I like to keep in mind that the Ten Commandments all follow the first basic one about affirming the oneness of God. The Commandments are very good rules by which to live one’s daily life. The essence of this Fifth Commandment revolves around responsibility, freedom, growth and change. Just as surely as we expect parents to nourish, defend, support, and instruct the children in their lowest state of infancy, at the same time, the parents must set their children free to live their own lives as they grow up. And then as things change and the parents grow older, so the children in their strength should support their parents in their weakness. These days we have greater problems than ever before today in knowing what is best in the care of elderly parents. Adult children have the responsibility to care for their parents and the parents the responsibility also let go a little. That is the essence of the Fifth Commandment.

Mother's Day is a time to celebrate our mother's achievements and show our love and appreciation for all the loving things they do for their children. Our mothers, and those who mother us, do their best to keep us safe and protect us even in hard times. They know they cannot live our lives for us but they want the best for us. In order to honour the mothers in my life, I’m going to tell you a few stories about three women who made an enormous difference to me; three ordinary women. Two of them are no longer with us but I still hold many happy and touching memories of them in my heart and mind. I think of them nearly every day, so powerful was the impact of their motherly love.

Let me tell you about the first one. I was actually brought up by my grandmother because my mother was not home much and had to work full-time during her early migration years. My Oma (grandmother) was a strong, self-confident woman and I always felt safe and protected with her. She taught me the central thinking of Jesus, often referred to as the Golden Rule: “Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you.”

When I was a little girl she used to tell me a story that gave me inner strength and direction for the rest of my life. This is how I remember her story. Back in the German Colony in prewar historic Palestine, the German Kaiser Wilhelm II visited Jerusalem in 1898. His visit to the Holy Land was a great event, and caused great excitement across the country. Members of the German Colony lined the streets of Jerusalem for his grand procession. My grandmother told me that the women were all expected to curtsey as he passed them in his magnificent uniform and on his horse. As the Kaiser, accompanied by his wife Empress Augusta-Viktoria passed by, my grandmother firmly stood her ground, held her head high and did not curtsey for them. It was a bold and daring statement for a woman of her time. She told me that no human being should bow down to another and certainly not to a man just because he is the appointed Kaiser. She practised egalitarian thinking that all people were created equal.

Now, I’m thinking that the Kaiser probably didn’t even notice her, but nevertheless it was a significant lesson-in-life to me. As a result of that story I learnt to be fearless in a crowd, to stand up for genuine equality of people. She made me feel that it’s OK to stand out and be different for what I believe to be true and just. Years ago I sometimes found myself in compromising situations as a young manager in the workforce. I would remember that story, and I then I knew what choice I should make, which decision to take when faced with a dilemma.

The next story is about my mother who was a quiet and gentle woman. Sadly she too is no longer with us. When I was a child, she used to tell me over and over about the time she was interned in an ancient citadel in Helouan in Egypt during the First World War. The monotony was unbearable. The future seemed bleak and unknown. Every day flocks of pigeons came to a window of the citadel. At first she loved to feed them some crumbs. It was the only activity that broke the monotonous routine. Every day the same pigeons came. After a while she began to dislike the pigeons because their repeated visit to the window seemed to go on for an eternity with no sign of any hope to go home again to Jerusalem. As a child, she couldn’t see how the feeding of the pigeons would ever come to an end and yet it did. Eventually they were sent to Germany and then at last went back to Jerusalem, to her beloved German Colony.  As a result she taught me to always look for the open window even when you think there is no sign of things changing. Believe, she said, that whenever a door closes a window always opens. Accept the bad because the good will follow. She also said Besser ein Leben voll Liebe und Leid als Sonnenlose und Windstille Zeit. Translation: It is better to have had a life full of love and sorrow, than an existence without sunshine or wind.

When I was a child my mother told me that my guardian angel would be with me wherever I went, to protect me and keep me safe. She said I could not see the guardian angel or ever know what it looked like but I could feel its soft, warm wings of protection wrapped around me so that I could face the unknown with courage and confidence. These lessons helped me get through many difficult times especially during the long years that my daughter was ill. My mother taught me to keep faith and hope alive. When our mother is no longer with us, gone is the one who shows us unconditional love, gone is she who makes us feel special and we no longer have those simple conversations where she was so interested in all the small, day-to-day things we do and we miss her. But she lives on in our hearts.

There is a third woman who has made a difference in my life. Occasionally something very special happens after losing a mother and a grandmother. Sometimes, when you least expect it, you are lucky enough to find somebody who gives you the feeling of having a mother again, just when you thought that was no longer possible. That is a truly, wonderful experience. I am privileged and honoured to have met such a person. She has a wonderful positive approach to life and an inner strength that powers forth when things go wrong and are the most difficult. She is interested in my daily activities just like a mother would be. She tells me when I am working too hard, or when I should spend more time with my family. She’s concerned that I should eat properly, and pays attention that I dress warmly. It’s a very nice feeling to have again. She said it’s good to believe in a supreme power we call God; to show compassion; and never to say ‘hate’ no matter what other people do to you, and not to pay back bad deeds with more bad deeds.

The valuable lessons I learnt for these three women were both practical and spiritual:

• that the world is a safe place
• that every day is a new day
• and there is always something good to look forward to.

They allowed me to release my fears about tomorrow, to feel guided that I am doing all that needs to be done. I can relax. I am safe. I can trust that my life is unfolding in a perfect way. They gave me purpose and meaning in my life; made me feel special; and helped me to see the positive side of things even in bad times and not complain. They showed me how to see abundance in the universe. I will talk about that in our second text for today but first, let us listen to a song.

Musical interlude

As a tribute to all mothers my son has chosen for us today “Mama” sung by Il Divo. The words are on the loose sheet on your seats with the red hymnbooks. You can keep those sheets if you wish. We will not sing but just enjoy listening. Wir singing nicht sondern hören ein Lied zu, das heist “Mama”. Die Wörter sind auf dem Blatt im Gesangbuch. Sie können das Blatt mitnehmen wenn Sie wollen.

All listen to Mama, Il Divo

Bible text interpretation

Our first Bible text today in Exodus 20:12 said if you honour the principle of children and parents both freeing and supporting each other, then “your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives.” Then the assurance of abundance will follow. Jesus summed it up in our second text for today, the Templer motto, when he said:

Matthew 6:33
“Set your mind on God’s kingdom and his justice before everything else, and all the rest will come to you as well.”

If we work at putting these principles into practice in daily life, then we may well see what so many mothers have been trying to teach us…that it is not necessarily material wealth and acquiring more and more things that leads to a successful and happy life. It tells us if we do not carry feelings of being deprived in our hearts, or think we have less than the one who sits or lives or works beside us, then we can find happiness within ourselves. It tells us that whether we possess a lot or a little there is abundance in the universe. That means there will always be enough for all of us.

Abundance means we have enough; we will have enough; and we will not be deprived no matter what possessions we have…”Set you mind on God’s kingdom and all the rest will come to you”. It means “all the rest” is enough. Those who can’t afford to send their children to a private school can send them to a government school. I have some acquaintances who schooled their children at home with books bought from opportunity shops. They live not far from here and the parents are deeply spiritual and very successful journalists. The children are friends of my children. They seem all right. Whoever can’t afford a big car, can get a smaller one and if you can’t afford a car at all, ride a bike and ideally do it with a feeling of gratitude that you can. No matter what we do or don’t have, it’s good practice to try and feel the abundance and not feel deprived. It’s all about one’s attitude rather than what we actually have.

I think our text describes the special relationship between mothers and children. Mothers try to let their children feel there will always be enough. Mothers let us believe that things will turn out all right, and try to make us feel safe and protected.

It is this Bible text, the Templer motto, that the three women in my stories repeated to me, explained to me, and even had it pinned up on the wall or the fridge as a daily reminder for all to see. Mother’s have a nice casual way of teaching important things to their children with comfort and ease at just the right moment when things arise. Perhaps some of our younger mothers can think of ways to do that too and remind their children of the Templer aim:  “Set your mind on God’s kingdom and his justice before everything else, and all the rest will come to you as well.” Life is an exciting adventure. Obey the laws of eternal rhythm in the universe and you will see there is plenty of time to do everything that is needed. There is enough of everything to go around. There is abundance in the universe.

Hymn

Let us sing hymn number 106 “Thank you, dear God” in English only.  Krista will play the melody through once so you can get used to it. She will then play an introduction and the community can then come in and sing. We’ll sing all four verses. Wir singen Hymn Nummer 106 nur auf English, alle vier Verse. Die Krista spielt die Melodie zuerst einemal durch and dann die Einleitung, und dann erst singen wir mit. 

Conclusion

Today I truly honour the three women I spoke about and all other women in my life who have mothered me, and there were many.  On behalf of the community today on Mother’s Day I honour all the mothers who have touched you. We have made time to show gratitude, thanks and love to our mothers…We say thanks for encouraging us and inspiring us on our way; thanks for being the greatest teachers; thanks for recognising our potential; and deepest thanks for your unconditional love.

Krista plays the closing musical piece.

We thank Krista for her uplifting piano playing. We thank Helga and Imi for the lovely flowers. Thanks to those who set up the coffee and tea
Please remain seated as the Sunday School children come with a little surprise.

That is the end of my service. Have a lovely Mother’s Day.

End of service.

NB: see lyrics to Il Divo’s Mama on the next page.

IL DIVO LYRICS
"Mama"


Mama thank you for who I am
Thank you for all the things I'm not
Forgive me for the words unsaid
For the times
I forgot

Mama remember all my life
You showed me love, You sacrificed
Think of those young and early days
How I've changed
along the way

[Chorus]
And I know you believed
And I know you had dreams
And I'm sorry it took all this time to see
That I am where I am because of your truth
I miss you, I miss you

Mama forgive the times you cried
Forgive me for not making right
All of the storms I may have caused
And I've been wrong
Dry your eyes

Chorus

Mama I hope this makes you smile
I hope you're happy with my life
At peace with every choice I made
How I've changed
Along the way
And I know you believed in all of my dreams
And I owe it all to you, Mama

Return to the top

Easter Sunday Service 23 March in Bayswater
Elder: Irene Bouzo
Text: Mat 28: 1-8 The experience of the empty tomb

Musician: Monika Strasser
Hymn number 64 Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König/ Praise to the Lord, the Almightly
Hymn number 93 Prayer of St Francis (English only)
Hymn number 88 Ostern verkündet die Hoffnung (German only)

Monika plays opening piano piece

Welcome
Welcome to our Easter Sunday Service today and I wish you all a Happy Easter, Frohe Ostern. A warm, warm welcome to anybody who is not a Templer and to any visitors who are here for the first time.

Introduction
Today is Easter Sunday, one of the most important religious celebrations that focusses on cultural traditions such as Easter egg hunts, the historical events concerning the death of the person, Jesus of Nazareth and the religious significance of the resurrection. The text for today is from the Gospel of Matthew 28: 1-8 on the experience of the empty tomb of Jesus. In our service this morning I’m going talk about three aspects of Easter:
1. Easter as a time of renewal.
2. That the empty tomb of Jesus does not signify the resurrection of his body.
3. How to use the Golden Way to follow the teachings of Jesus.

First let me talk about the cultural value of our German Easter traditions. It is a time of renewal. A few days ago several Templer families gathered at my place, adults and children, and we decorated and coloured hard-boiled eggs. We prepared small Easter nests or baskets for the children to put their eggs in. Today is also a day when children enjoy doing an Easter Egg hunt. This will take place later outside. These are rather nice German traditions kept up in most of our families and the Templer German Schools. Can any of you relate to this? The eggs symbolise rebirth and renewal. Even though we do not hold many religious rites and rituals as of primary importance in the Temple Society, Easter is still retained by us as a significant religious time of year.

Let us begin by singing a hymn in praise of God: We will sing Hymn number 64 Praise to the Lord, the Almightly, the first three verses. Wir singen das Lied Nr. 64 im roten Gesangbuch, Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König, die erste drei Verse. Please remain seated.

My second point of discussion is on a deeper level: What’s important about today’s text of the empty tomb? It tells us how two women went to the tomb of Jesus and what they found there. I will talk about the themes of the empty tomb and the resurrection, and how we can understand it.
First I just want to clarify some terms. Those who come regularly to services are familiar with them but people without a strong scripture reading background sometimes find the language a bit unclear. In the text, the term ‘sepulcher’ means tomb or burial chamber often carved into a rocky hillside. In our text it refers to the grave of Jesus. ‘Disciples’ are the students, apostles or followers of Jesus. It is my habit to refer to Jesus as the Nazarene, the historical Jesus, the person and not the son of God.
Let me read the text. It is three days after the crucifixion.
Matthew 28:1-8 (King James Version)
1 In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you. And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word.

Let me put this text in its broader context. The four Gospels say that Jesus of Nazareth died a physical death on the cross. It was the end of his human life on earth. Three days later, on Easter Sunday, Mary and the other Mary visited his tomb. They saw what seemed to be an angel in shining clothes opening the tomb, the two guards were asleep and the angel told them not to be afraid because Jesus is risen from the dead. This text represents one version of the resurrection story.
I read in the English translation of Occident and Orient (1996), by Christoff Hoffmann who died in 1885, may God bless his soul, that “The Temple Society believes in the power of God, who raised Christ from the dead” and also that “the Temple Society recognises the Gospel and the writing of the apostles as the model to be followed in trying to achieve its aim, which is to establish the Kingdom of Jesus Christ on earth.” This suggests to me that early Templers accepted the resurrection story more readily than some Templers do these days.
Dr Richard Hoffmann (1975), my confirmation teacher, may he rest in peace, said that the resurrection story goes against all human experience; that it seems incredible, both then and now. He went on to say that the resurrection is perhaps the most controversial aspect in the life of the person, Jesus the Nazarene. I am going try and present to you the idea that “the empty tomb” is not necessarily a proof of Jesus’ bodily resurrection. Rational thinking tells me that he was just an ordinary man and that his body was not found in the tomb. Last year Dr Brigitte Hoffmann (April 2007) in Germany wrote her interpretation in Die Warte des Tempels (The Sentinel). She explained that the death of Jesus did not lead to the resurrection of the Nazarene, but rather to the resurrection-experience of his followers the disciples.
I’ll make a comment about our community first. In our religious society we are fortunate to have the freedom to interpret the Gospels for ourselves without the prescription of an institutionalised priesthood. Certainly we can read what our founders wrote and what our religious teachers have written and listen to what other elders say. I find it extremely liberating that I can stand here before you the community, and develop my religious thinking on such a crucial historical event as the resurrection, without fear of condemnation, without inhibition or embarrassment that I might get it wrong. In fact, in the Temple Society we are encouraged to explore the scriptures for ourselves and find our own interpretation that we are comfortable with. In addition, we are exposed to a community of people who practice both rational and religious thinking, therefore we have lots of opportunity to discuss and learn from each other. As Templers we are very fortunate to have a publicly acknowledged freedom of personal religious thought.
So, was the resurrection, as recorded in the Gospels of the Bible, a myth or a reality (Spong 1994), a dream or nightmare? The Gospels were written within 75 years of the death of Jesus. I see the Gospels, not as histories, nor his biographies but rather as interpretations, layers and layers of interpretations about the life and death of Jesus. The Gospels include a collection of his sayings which are very important for us, as followers of his teachings (Crossan 1995:x).
So I ask the question: Did Jesus really die on the cross? and Did he come back to life as the resurrected one, the risen, the son of God? What did the story of the empty tomb really mean? “If you read the four Gospels … consecutively, from start to finish, one after the other, you get a generally persuasive impression of agreement” (Crossan 1995:x) about the life and death of the historical Jesus. On reading them, I am convinced that he was a great teacher inspired by the mysterious creator of the universe, the oneness we call God, and that his message was to seek the Kingdom of God on earth.
If, however, you read the Gospels comparatively, comparing small sections across two, three or four versions, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and others, you get disagreements about the historical events, in particular concerning the story of the empty tomb. Clearly there was only one Jesus, but there were more than one Gospel, and other accounts in different chapters of the New Testament. There are many interpretations.
On Easter Sunday people raced to the empty tomb and started reporting what they saw with fear and amazement. The accounts in the four Gospels vary from story to story and there is no certain, definite account of the resurrection of Jesus and his appearances after his physical death. For example, in Matthew (28:1-10) the women believed they saw several people including angles at the tomb and when they saw the apparition of Jesus they did not recognise him and thought he was a gardener. They quickly left with fear and joy to tell the others. In Luke (24:12) Peter was amazed to see the linen cloths and no body at the tomb. In John (20:3-10) the disciples ran to the tomb, some saw the linen wrappings lying there but did not go in, another went in and was amazed to see the wrappings rolled up. The accounts tell us that another saw and believed. Later Paul’s account did not mention the empty tomb. Dr Richard Hoffmann (1975) wrote that Paul completely omitted that story “because it appeared fantastic and unverifiable to him” to have a physical resurrection.
The Gospels tend to agree on the physical death of Jesus on the cross. One can only surmise that perhaps his body was removed a few days later by Roman soldiers to prevent an uprising or perhaps his body was never placed in that tomb. Some historians say the death of the Nazarene excited the imagination of the crowd and that his appearances were only perceived by his followers in mind or spirit – a sort of collective hallucination or visions. The function of such visions is to inspire and motivate the believers. It is not uncommon to have such visions soon after the death of a loved one but we cannot be sure what it means.
In ancient times all believers in God who were dying used the expression ‘take me to thee.’ No matter how a person died, people believed that in the end it was God that called a person to his or her death (Parrinder 1995) not another human being. So maybe the expression ‘he is risen unto God’ has been blown out of proportion to mean more than it actually does.
I agree with many theologians and scholars of the Bible (Bultman; Perrin 1969) that the people were deeply distressed and confused by the brutal suffering and death of Jesus. For them, a teacher and humble hero had died. People started to think of Jesus’ death as an act of martyrdom. I think a kind of imaginative interpretation followed as the stories of his life and death were repeated again and again. The authority of the Chritian faith was at risk. It’s possible that the resurrection story helped the followers of Jesus inspire others to believe more fully. Eventually faith in the bodily resurrection of Jesus spread. It seems plausible to me that Jesus’ followers claimed that God had raised him from the dead. Jesus was the wisdom teacher. He was the proclaimer of the Kingdom of God, but gradually he became the son of God. As the interpretations developed, “the Proclaimer became the one Proclaimed” (Bultmann in Perrin 1969:55).
A friend recently wrote in his second biography “I don’t see why people see such a mystery in Jesus’ death and want to explain resurrection…without his death his disciples would not have gone out to preach, what he had taught them’ (Beilharz 2008:90). He’s probably right. Why learn about Jesus when it’s more important to learn of his teachings.
Dr Brigitte Hoffmann (2007) gave a similar compelling explanation of the resurrection. She explained that the disciples must have gone through living hell and intense confusion in the three days after his death. Jesus had given up all material security and family support, and the disciples did the same to follow him. They were inspired by his charisma, and enthusiastic predictions of the Kingdom of God on earth. He mixed with the poor, society’s outcasts and, in addition, his teachings outraged the authorities. The disciples were in a deep dilemma. Would they hide in fear of persecution after Jesus’ death or would they proclaim his message despite the tremendous risk? The disciples chose to acknowledge the reality that their important job was to continue the teachings of the Jesus. That was, wrote Brigitte Hoffmann (2007), the point of the inner resurrection-experience of the disciples of Jesus, die seelischer Verfassung der Jünger, die sogenannte, Auferstehung der Jünger. Some say at that point a major world religion began.
Based on this critique the bodily resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth was more a myth than a reality. It was a kind of dream. If there was a spiritual resurrection, again the limitations of our human minds prevent us from knowing that with any certainty. If one does not or cannot believe in the resurrection of Jesus the Nazarene, it does not follow that his teachings are of a lesser value. Then to follow them requires a bold commitment because the salvation and sacrifice theory does not follow. I will not explain this further now as time does not permit.

At this point let us sing the thoughtful and inspiring hymn no. 93 “Prayer of St Francis” in the red hymn book. We will sing all three verses in English. Wir singen das Lied Nr. 93 im Gesangbuch, alle drei Verse. Das Lied ist nur auf English aber mann hatte es neulich im Saal gesungen. Please remain seated.

Next I come to my third issue, how to follow the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth? We can try to live a harmonious life of inner peace and happiness that connects the body and soul.
Some say that Jesus’ body may have been killed, but not his soul. In Matthew 10:28 it says “be not afraid of those who kill the body; but fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body.” No human mind can know whether the soul is immortal and lives on after the body. That mystery we cannot unravel. Perhaps the soul represents some kind of inner spirit or higher potential within us. I want to talk briefly about the body-soul connection. The important legacy left to us by the historical Jesus is to aspire to achieving the Kingdom of God on Earth. While he didn’t ever explain exactly what the Kingdom of God is, one can surmise that it has something to do with achieving a higher spiritual existence, perhaps opening more to the soul.
In our everyday modern life ‘body-and-soul’ is a common phrase especially in the advertising of clothing, accessories and cosmetics. It suggests the ultimate connectedness and bliss. On a deeper level it is about separation and unity. Living according to the Kingdom of God is about recognising the power within ourselves. It is about overcoming separation from that divine potential within and finding unity with that powerful force inside us.
So what is a soul? For some time now I have been trying to work out what the soul is. Only when I stop thinking of it as something that exists after death, do I begin to feel comfortable with the concept. Again, one of our members recently showed me a biography of a theologian Schneerson (1995) called “Toward a Meaningful Life” that gave a rather wonderful and practical answer. I would like to share some of this with you today.
I agree with the author that the soul is that part of the mind that searches for meaning and purpose in life, the spiritual part of oneself. Schneerson (1995) explains that we can distract the soul by nurturing the body, but even if we have material bliss, we can still feel anxiety, lack of purpose and emptiness. The body is selfish and self-centred. It demands attention and nourishment. Its physical needs must be met (Schneerson 1995:3). It is important to understand that the body is not bad, but was created neutral with great potential for good. The soul, on the other hand, is self-less and humble. The soul gives us the ability to feel compassion, to see the needs of others and respond to them with sensitivity. Nourishing the soul with prayer, meditation and by doing additional good deeds, can give a person greater meaning in life. I can relate to that. I wonder if any of you can.
Have you ever burst into tears for no apparent reason? The theologian says “This is the soft voice of your soul crying out for attention and nourishment” (Schneerson 1995:5). Have you ever experienced a profound moment of wonder, belonging, connectedness and triumph over the most difficult obstacle? “This too, is the voice of your soul, expressing deep satisfaction with its connection to your inner spirituality” (Schneerson 1995:6).
Ideally the body and soul ought to work in harmony. To choose one over the other suggests either over-indulgence or overly-severe abstinence. We should choose the middle road, the moderate way of living, the Golden Way. Hopefully that will lead to a meaningful, productive and virtuous life. That is what I have learnt from my parents and I thought perhaps this approach is a way to bring us closer to achieving the Kingdom of God on Earth.
Stephanie Dowrick (2005) at her Easter service in Sydney a few years ago said “Your soul is a place of stillness. She told the story of a bird, similar to one that happened to me. My daughter was feeding a wild duck outside the back door until it became very tame and she could lead it where she wanted. One day she lead the duck through the door into our living room. After a moment inside the room the duck got agitated and crashed over and over into the glass window. Yet the door was open all the time. The duck could no longer see the difference between the window, the walls and the door. It did not remain still long enough to see the open spaciousness from where it could soar to the sky where it belonged.
Easter is a time of renewal. Stehapnie Dowrick (2005) said from a place of stillness your sense of perspective also shifts. It becomes more spacious, can be renewed. You can see much more easily what will serve you well and what will not. The theologian says in his biography, the flame of God is the soul of a person (Schneerson 1995). Like the flame of a candle that reaches upward but is pulled back by the wick, the soul has the power to lift us above and beyond, while the needs of the body keep us earthbound. Practising renewal and, bit by bit, trying to connect with our inner force can give us a deep inner contentment. It helps me to be still rather than agitated, to be trusting rather than defensive. Then I find I can say… right at this moment, with all the flaws, faults and problems I might have… my life is unfolding perfectly.
Prayer
I invite you to stand for the Lord’s Prayer if you are able to.
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.
Please be seated

Conclusion
To summarise our service today I talked about the family fun in celebrating German cultural Easter traditions with Easter eggs as a symbol of renewal. Then I examined the text in Matthew 28:1-8 on the themes of the empty tomb and how I can only understand the resurrection as a historical interpretation to help the believers. Next I shared with you my perspective of seeking the Golden Way by connecting the body and soul and trying to get closer to the message of Jesus of Nazareth, may he rest in peace.

Let’s conclude by singing an Easter song which is in German only, hymn number 88 in the Templer Hymnbook. It’s not so difficult to follow because it is to the same tune as the first hymn we sang today. We’ll sing all three verses.

Wir singen Lied Nummer 88, ein Osternlied, nur auf deutsch, “Ostern verkündet die Hoffnung”, alle drei Strophen. Die Melodie ist die gleiche wie das erste Lied, das wir schon gesungen haben. Please remain seated.
And now Monika will play the closing piano music.

On behalf of the community our sincere thanks go to Monika for the uplifting music, to Minnie and Gerda who arranged the beautiful flowers, (to the coffee and tea volunteers for their diligent preparation) To all of you, the community, I wish you a Happy Easter and a lovely day. There will be an Easter egg hunt outside for the children in the Sunday School. Please join them outside if you wish. Noch mal, Frohe Ostern.
End of service.

Acknowledgments:  
Hoffman, Brigitt.e “Auferstehung um Diesseits- Eine Deutung der Ostererlebnisse der Jünger” Die Warte des Tempels April 2007
Stephanie Dowrick. Easter Service Sydney 2005
Hoffmann, Richard. “The Resurrection – How we understand it” 1975, in The Templer Handbook.
Scheerson, Menachem Mendel adapted by Simon Jacobson. “Toward a meaningful life – the Wisdom of the Rebbe” 1995
Perrin, Norman.. What is Redaction Criticism? Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969.
Beilharz, Kurt. My Appendix to As I See It 2008
Parrinder, Geoffrey. Jesus in the Quran 1995
Spong, John Shelby. Resurrection: Myth or Reality 1994
Crossan, John Dominic. Jesus A Revolutionary Biography 1995
Hoffmann, Christoff. The Temple Society and its Settlement in the Holy Land (Translation of Part 1 Occident and Orient) 1996

Return to the top

SAAL Good Friday: 21 March, 2008
Elder: Rolf Beilharz

Welcome to this Good Friday service of the Temple Society. Good Friday celebrates the day on which Jesus was tried and put to death. There are two readings suggested for today. They are from the gospels of Matthew and Luke and describe the time leading up to Jesus being condemned to death and taken out to die on the cross. I’ll read the one in Matthew, Chapter 27: verses 1 to 26.

Before we go on let us sing hymn Nr. 81 (‘O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden’ – ‘O sacred head now wounded’). We’ll sing the first three and the 5th (last) verses.

I have great difficulty talking about Good Friday. The bible has vivid and detailed descriptions of what happened to Jesus leading up to and including his death. On the other hand there is a hint that when Jesus died there were no disciples there at all to have witnessed any of the details. The first Gospel to be written, that of Mark, has Jesus crying out just before dying on the cross: ’My God, my God, why have you forsaken me’. No disciples were there but some women including Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James. These two women in the morning of the third day went to prepare the body of Jesus for burial. These women saw that the big stone had been rolled away and a young man dressed in white told them that Jesus had been raised and they should tell Peter and the disciples that he would meet them in Galilee. The women then ran away and told no one, because they were afraid. This is the end of the oldest versions of the gospel of Matthew. Were there really no witnesses other than the women, who heard Jesus crying out what sounded like a feeling that even God had left him? So where did all the details given in the other gospels come from?

This causes my quandary about Good Friday. Clearly Jesus was put to death by the religious leaders of the Jews who had come to fear his teachings. And afterwards, supernatural things happened for which there is no record in the oldest of the writings about Jesus. Clearly those who wrote later believed something quite different from what Mark wrote.

The text I read before was the first half of Matthew’s chapter 27. The rest of chapter 27 describes the crucifixion and death of Jesus, The last chapter is 28, where he describes what happened in the following resurrection of Jesus, where Jesus was seen by several disciples. The other gospels, Luke and John also describe details. The details vary in the different gospels.

What are we to make of these texts. Mainstream churches have for a long time now believed the many details in the various gospels. The churches of the Bentleigh area, with which we Templers share a Ministers’ meeting every month, are today demonstrating their Christianity by showing people the different stages of the cross, the different details that happened to Jesus on his way to the crucifixion in a park near here. Mark Herrmann, our Regional Head, and I love to cooperate with our friends in these churches, and Mark has found a Templer to take one of the stations along the way to the cross. My intellectual difficulty is that I believe that no details were known about what happened to Jesus on his way to crucifixion, other than that he was put to death on the cross. But let’s put my quibbles aside and just look at what Christianity is celebrating today. We can summarise it this way.

God sent Jesus, his own, even his only, son, as a sacrifice to die on the cross so that the sins of all believers could be forgiven. This had to happen, it was God’s will. To achieve this, Jesus, the sacrificial lamb of God, had to go to the depths of death, in order to conquer death and to rise from death to sit by the side of God. Jesus is the example. We can believe this and will be saved by this faith. God will not let us down.

This is a wonderfully reassuring faith. And I believe that many people over many centuries have used such faith to make their difficult lives bearable. For those of you who share this faith, I wish you well in it. In the Temple Society we welcome all beliefs that allow people to strive for the betterment of the world. We often express this ‘making the world better’ in the biblical words striving above all for the Kingdom of God here oh earth. This biblical goal can also be expressed in simpler words, “living in such a way that the world becomes a better place for everyone”. The details of the faith which motivates each of us to do this is left to each individual’s own conscience.

But what do we say to all those people who do not believe in angels, or in the possibility of this sacrificial death. After all, why does God have to kill an innocent son in order to save sinful people? Here I draw attention to another feature of the Temple Society. The TS wants every person to be honest with herself or himself. It does not expect any individual to believe what he or she knows to be false.

People now understand the world very differently from the way people did 2000 years ago, or even 200 years ago. It is no longer as easy to see why God, or whatever we now call the ultimate creator of the universe, would be interested in human individuals having to die in order to be raised from death.

Here are some Features of the Temple Society’s belief

In the year 2000, the TSA and the Temple Society in Germany printed the little golden summary of the Religious Perspective of the Temple Society. It is, of course, only a very small summary of a complex faith. But let’s use it, as something we should all be able to lay our hands on, to explain to ourselves as well as to others what our religion is. If anyone can’t find the copy we sent you, ask for more.

There are two features of our religion that I see as very important. I’ll point them out and tell you why they are important.

The first is under the heading ‘1. Identity’. ‘The Temple society is an independent, non-dogmatic Christian Society, embracing the values embodied in the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. We are open to diversity in religious and spiritual matters, and we recognise a bond with all who share our concerns.’

Then follows a comment on the word “Temple” in our name. It has two meanings. Each individual person has God’s spirit. And in a community, all people acting together are bricks in the building of God’s temple. The last sentence of this section captures the practical meaning. ‘We seek to do justice to this challenge, both individually and as a community, by striving to put into practice in everyday conduct what Jesus taught.’ In the simplest words this means that in our daily life we strive to make our world better, that is more honest and peaceful. And we welcome everyone who also works towards this goal.

The second feature is under heading ‘4. How we see ourselves and practical consequences’.

‘We consider that practising an active Christianity of trust in God and compassion for our neighbour, as expressed in the twin commandments of love,
Love God with all your being,
And love your neighbour as yourself,
is more important than the mere affirmation of particular creeds and specific articles of faith.
We therefore do not require of our members an obligatory profession of the beliefs outlined above. What is important is the willingness to affirm our aim and participate in working towards it in daily life.’

This means that we are free to believe that which appears true to us. This freedom allows us to appreciate and utilise all knowledge science has made available. But we are bound to apply available knowledge towards making the world a better place for all of life. This is both simple to comprehend and entirely appropriate in this modern world where people are struggling to find values to live by.

Back to Good Friday and Easter

In the last 200 years much research in archaeology, history and theology has been done on the origins of Christianity by an increasing number of scholars. I am very pleased by this. Interestingly, these scholars are confirming what the theological founder of the Temple Society, Christoph Hoffmann, recognised long ago. I’ll briefly read what scholars now write about Jesus and the religion named after his other name, the Christ.

Bishop John Shelby Spong of the Episcopal (Anglican) church in the USA wrote the book “Liberating the Gospels” with the subtitle “Reading the bible with Jewish eyes”. In this book Spong points out that Jesus and his followers were very typical Jews, with Jesus having taught in Synagogues. He then argues that the gospels are collections of teachings about Jesus. These describe in the same way as for the Jewish heroes of old such as Moses, how his followers saw the God-presence being manifested in Jesus. The gospels are Jewish liturgy, designed around an annual calendar for preaching on the different Sabbaths of the year. I particularly want you to hear passages from chapter 14 ‘He Died According to the Scriptures’.

‘Even the last words of Jesus from the cross have been preached on in three-hour services from so many pulpits that phrases like ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ ... are etched into our memories. We also know, though perhaps in a more vague way, the story of Jesus’ burial that featured Joseph of Arimathaea, primarily because that burial story was closely linked to the familiar Easter tale of the visit of the women to the tomb of this Joseph on the ‘first day of the week.’
So vivid are these details, so clear the pictures they paint, that there remains a general consensus in both church and society that these stories surely were literally created from vivid eyewitness recollections. …
‘We are told in Mark, the first gospel to be written, that when Jesus was arrested, ‘all’ of his disciples ‘forsook him and fled’ (14:50). A noticeable moderating influence appears in the later gospels to repair the reputation of the disciples and to temper that stark and original biblical reality that Jesus died alone, abandoned by all his followers. ...
‘Now, for a moment, embrace the truth of that reality. Jesus died alone. Next, recall that the first written account of the last events of Jesus’ life did not come into being for a minimum of thirty-five years after his death. By the time that this narrative was written down, the disciples were thought of as heroes, and heroes always have their embarrassing edges smoothed over by the passage of time. That would have been easy to accomplish, since by the time the Gospels came into written form all eyewitnesses had apparently passed away. A story that travels along a word-of-mouth route for thirty-five years usually abandons unpleasant or even irrelevant details. It also tends both to enhance and to exaggerate the more favourable accounts. So the fact that this negative portrait was still present, showing the unflattering behavior of the disciples who abandoned Jesus in the moment of their Lord’s arrest and death, makes it ring with enormous authenticity. The disciples all forsook him and fled. Jesus died alone. When we can accept the reality of this fact on an emotional as well as an intellectual level, then we are forced to face the overwhelming probability that every detail in the biblical drama of the crucifixion is historically suspect. These are not the memories of eyewitnesses, for Jesus died alone. There were no eyewitnesses.’ (p.236 - 238).

Another book I have read is ‘Jesus’ by Michael Grant, an eminent British historian who taught at Cambridge and Edinburgh Universities. Here are some passages from this book.

‘All that can be said is that he [Jesus] died a miserable and horrible death, the death of a failure. ... ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ - must likewise stay in the record, because the evangelists would gladly have expunged it, as they would have expunged his despairing prayer in Gethsemane, had it not possessed the strongest historical warrant.
Jesus uttered this tragic cry because he was suffering almost unendurable pain, in the depths of humiliation, and above all because it seemed, as it had already seemed in the Garden of Gethsemane, that his mission to introduce the Kingdom of God had been betrayed by God himself, who was allowing him to suffer this pain. In supreme agony, his belief that it was redemptive pain no longer seemed convincing. But this was only for an agonizing moment, which in the agony of Gethsemane he had all too clearly foreseen. Except in these instants of weakness, under the stress of intolerable mental and then physical pain, Jesus lived his last days, and died, in the belief which had lately grown upon him that his death was destined to save the human race. Yet it appeared on that black day, when the hopes of even his closest followers lay shattered in ruin and confusion, that no one on earth could any longer share such an improbable belief, and that Jesus was dying in total isolation.

FROM DISASTER TO TRIUMPH
When Jesus died that appallingly harrowing death, his life seemed to have terminated in complete failure and disaster. The world’s opinion of the event, instead, proved to be strangely different, providing the greatest paradox in all history. How this came about must shortly be discussed. But first, it may be desirable to sum up briefly what the nature of that life’s work had been, in so far as I have been able to interpret it in the foregoing chapters.
Jesus’ career had been completely dominated by his conviction that, in obedience to God’s order, he himself was inaugurating God’s Kingdom upon earth; its establishment was to be completed later on. Jews had long believed, as a consolation for their material miseries, that this fulfillment would one day take place. But Jesus’ conviction that it was taking place already, under his own guidance, was an astonishing novelty
The precise character of the Kingdom’s complete realization in the future was not, could not be, put into effective words. But it would be a state of perfection. And Jesus felt that this perfect consummation was going to come very soon indeed.’ ([p. 167 – 169]. This passage includes the end of the chapter “The End” and the beginning of the chapter “From Disaster to Triumph”)

The next passage from Grant comments on the empty grave seen by the women.

‘Even if the historian chooses to regard the youthful apparition [the youth or angel seen by the women] as extra-historical, he cannot justifiably deny the empty tomb. True, this discovery, as so often, is described differently by the various Gospels - as critical pagans early pointed out. But if we apply the same sort of criteria that we would apply to any other ancient literary sources, then the evidence is firm and plausible enough to necessitate the conclusion that the tomb was indeed found empty.
Mark, as we have seen, had heard that three women saw it together. But according to John, the first to see it was Mary Magdalene all by herself. Either of these reports is likely enough to represent the authentic occurrence, since the early Church would never have concocted, on its own account, the statement that this most solemn and fateful of all discoveries was made by women, including a woman with an immoral record at that. Perhaps John’s version is the original one, and the other women were added to the story later to make it slightly less shocking.
Who had taken the body? There is no way of knowing. Mary Magdalene thought at first that the cemetery gardener had removed it - whereas the Jews, not unplausibly, maintained that it had been taken by Jesus’ disciples. At all events it was gone. And because it was gone, and no one knew where it was, this made it easier for people to believe, three days later (a period equated with scriptural predictions,) that they were seeing Jesus alive again and returned to earth, risen from the dead. The Resurrection is the subject of some of the greatest pictures ever painted, but there is no actual description of it, and nobody claimed to have seen it happen. Yet those who believed that Jesus had appeared to them on the earth after his death have their alleged experiences recorded in a number of passages of the New Testament. Their testimonies cannot prove them to have been right in supposing that Jesus had risen from the dead. However, these accounts do prove that certain people were utterly convinced that is what he had done.
This throws a remarkable retrospective light on Jesus’ personality. It must have made, while he was alive, an overwhelmingly forceful impression on his followers if they believed that even his death, his violent humiliating death, was unable to remove him for more than three days from the earth and from their presence.’ (p. 176).

Grant goes on to describe the different variations recorded in the bible about the resurrection and that beliefs arose about a subsequent ascent to heaven by the resurrected Jesus. He comments that Paul, who was not interested in the life of Jesus and presumably knew very little about it, took these two events (resurrection and ascent to heaven) and the preceding Crucifixion, as the dominating aspects of the fledgling new religion. The gospels were written in the communities founded by Paul, outside of Palestine. If only we could disentangle what is authentic from what the writers or their sources have interpolated!

We will never know exactly what happened when Jesus died. So, let us now, just like we would do in any Templer funeral, concentrate on the life of the deceased and celebrate this life.

Jesus was very positive. The people he met and talked with felt good. Many became cured of ailments, which they had treated as a permanent sickness. He told his listeners and those who read about him even today, that people should treat others as they expected the others to treat them. This is the simplest description of perfect fairness, which, if acted on, is the best formula for creating tolerance, politeness, peace and happiness among people. Also, we should forgive other people their wrongdoings, rather than to pursue them through the courts. The result of forgiving may not be obvious immediately to us materially thinking people. But, if you continue to harp on what someone else has done wrongly to you, your life is bitter and unhappy. Once you realise this, you might also take a further step forward: by forgiving you may even turn your opponent into a friend. We can enrich our life greatly by reading and pondering on the teachings of Jesus. If you can act on these teachings your life may improve greatly.

Taking Jesus seriously, and doing what he said we should do, is the best way we can celebrate his life on the anniversary of his death on Good Friday.

Let's start with the Lord's prayer. (Please stand if you can.)

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

We'll finish by singing all 6 verses of a Hymn suitable for thanking Jesus for what he did,
Number 49 “Immer noch strahlst du”.

Thanks to all who contributed to this service. The beautiful music by Veronica, the flowers and other decorations. The preparation and serving of coffee and tea for us to mingle and chat. I wish all of you wonderful Easter holidays, and may you all drive carefully and remain accident free over this rather dangerous Easter Holiday period.

Return to the top

Thanksgiving Service in Sydney, 2 March
Elder: Mark Herrmann

Opening CD music – track 15 – Erin Shore (the Corrs)

Leunig poem – Autumn
We give thanks for the harvest of the heart’s work;
Seeds of faith planted by faith;
Love nurtured by love;
Courage strengthened by courage.
We give thanks for the fruits of the struggling soul,
The bitter and the sweet;
For that which has grown in adversity
And for that which has flourished in warmth and grace;
For the radiance of the spirit in autumn
And for that which must now fade and die.
We are blessed and give thanks.
Amen

Good morning. It is indeed a great pleasure to be among friends, the Sydney Community members, again, my first time since being elected TSA Regional Head at last year’s Annual General Meeting. I feel especially fortunate to have joined you all today as you recognise and express thanks for the outstanding contributions made by certain Community members for your Community and for the TSA.

In so doing, I am reminded of the well-known words of US President John F. Kennedy, suitably adapted for the occasion: My fellow Templers, ask not what your Community can do for you – ask what you can do for your Community. From some distance away, I have observed with great admiration and gratitude what Hartmut, Manne, Erika, Hanni, Herbert and Erni have given to the Sydney Community, both individually and collectively, over an extremely long period of time.

I have a book of quotations for writers and speakers that I regularly turn to. The following quote is attributed to the famous author Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) under the heading of “Action: satisfaction” and reads: “To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour”. In a nutshell, I think this sums up working for the community; often it is the shared journey rather than the destination that is rewarding and of greatest value. In my work for and with the TSA I can certainly relate to it.

Today is traditionally your Darstellung and Dankfest – the annual Presentation and Thanksgiving service. In the absence of any children to present before God and to the Community, we can focus fully on the Thanksgiving component of today’s service.

However, before doing so, please allow me to indulge in some ‘children’s magic’. I recently received the following via e-mail and could not resist showing it at the first available opportunity.

“Through a Child’s Eyes” – PowerPoint presentation
Don’t you just love the innocence and honesty of children?

Hymn # 20 – Creation in Australia (all 4 verses)

I remember visiting the Sydney Community quite a few years ago (in 2001) where I borrowed an idea from Christine Ruff she had used as part of a Family Service in Melbourne. In a similar fashion to how the word “eternity” had been chalked on Sydney’s footpaths, and thereby was etched in the psyche of its residents, Christine asked those at her service to nominate one word of significance and importance to them. After giving the exercise much thought I ‘cheated’ and finally settled on two words – “thanks” and “sorry” – which, I believe, belong together and in combination form part of my life’s philosophy.

As part of our Community and that of wider society, if we are ready and prepared to look out for and help other members, then through our interaction with others my two words can come into play. We can appreciate something done for us (thanks) and, after making a mistake, can express regret for something we did to someone else (sorry). But I shouldn’t do something simply in expectation of gratitude, and neither should I feel aggrieved if an unpleasant deed I suffer isn’t accompanied by a request for forgiveness. I control and hence use the words for my actions, trusting that others who think like me will do likewise. Used sincerely and appropriately, I like to think that my two words offer hope for a harmonious future for us all – our family, our neighbourhood, our community, our country, our planet. You are hereby granted permission to use these words!

Much has been said and written about the events preceding, during and following the momentous address to our indigenous peoples by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in Canberra a few short weeks ago. I believe that the significance of this occasion, already prominent in the nation’s consciousness and that of its citizens, will not fade but rather notably increase over time and become a real marker in our nation’s unfolding story.

Today our focus is on Thanksgiving … Isn’t it a delightful word? Thanksgiving – giving thanks …

Do we truly appreciate and value those factors in our lives we should be thankful for? If we were honest, I suspect the answer would be somewhere between “sometimes” and “not enough”. Sadly, it is common to take too much for granted. The tradition of Thanksgiving as a festival celebrating the season’s harvest and nature’s bounty is less meaningful when we generally no longer keep farming stock or produce our own food. Yet, the wonder and beauty of our natural world and environment – as expressed in the earlier hymn – serves as a useful reminder of what surrounds and sustains us.

Are we adequately grateful for what our parents or children do for us? Just last week at my 15-year-old daughter’s school information evening, a sheet headed “Adolescence – 10 steps for getting along …” was distributed. In the column for “getting along with your adolescent” are included the tips “show your affection with lots of hugs and words of appreciation”, “respect each one’s individuality”, “allow for mistakes – yours and theirs”, “show your trust and confidence in their growing independence” and “appreciate effort and jobs well done”. Pretty much commonsense, really, but how often do we take the time or make the effort to apply these steps? And in the column for “getting along with your parents” the advice includes “learn how to give and take, to compromise”, “keep your parents’ trust; it’s so easy to lose, so hard to win back”, “show your affection; a hug can say a lot more than words”, “share your life with your parents and find out who they are” and “say thank you at least once a day”. It’s clearly designed to be a work in progress!

Similarly, our friendships and community life need nurturing, through mutual respect and appreciation, communication, forgiveness, trust, leading by example, sharing and contributing. It is little surprise, then, that governments at all levels promote and encourage strengthening communities.

The designated text for today comes from the Book of Jeremiah in the Old Testament.

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 that he started his ministry early in life, possibly at less than 20 years of age. During his long ministry he warned God’s people of the catastrophe that was to fall upon the nation because of their idolatry and sin. He lived to see this prediction come true with the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, the destruction of the city and the temple, and the exile to Babylonia of Judah’s king and many of the people. He also foretold the eventual return of the people from exile and the restoration of the nation. Jeremiah was a sensitive man who deeply loved his people, and who hated to have to pronounce judgement upon them. In many passages he spoke with deep emotion about the things he suffered because God had called him to be a prophet.

In Chapter 29, Verses 4-9 (Jeremiah’s letter to the Jews in Babylonia) and I shall include verse 10 it reads as follows:

In reading the text I immediately thought of the forced departure of the Templers from Palestine and their subsequent transfer to a new beginning in this country. Naturally, there were earlier “periods of exile” after the First World War, but then a return to the Holy Land was allowed after a few years. The transportation in the 1940s, whether directly to Australia, to Germany or to Cyprus, marked the end of the Templer settlements in Palestine after a period of almost 80 years.

Then acting Templer President Nikolai Schmidt wrote of a duty to protect our spiritual heritage and to start afresh. Jon Hoffmann, the Regional Head in Germany at the time, referred to a quotation by the Temple Society’s founder. “The combination of spiritual and physical conditions is feasible anywhere in the world and reaches beyond all national boundaries.” Jon Hoffmann expressed the opinion that establishing elsewhere communities similar to those in Palestine would lead to success if undertaken in the same spirit, if each individual participated, not because he expected material gain or comfort, but because he wanted to take part in the task out of an inner conviction, and wanted to work within the community for the idea of God’s kingdom, for the betterment of mankind.

Did those transported consider themselves exiled?

The members of the Temple Society in the Tatura internment camp (Victoria), the tent camp on the sands at Famagusta (Cyprus) and ultimately through the re-establishment of communities here were certainly resilient and resourceful. They built houses and settled down. They planted gardens and ate what was grown in them. They married and had children, who, in turn, also married and had children. I am not too sure of the change in their overall membership numbers. They worked for the good of the cities to which they were sent and, most importantly, the communities which they formed. I and those of my generation are the proud recipients of this work ethic, this continued faith as expressed in community life, this acceptance, patience and trust, and its resultant legacy.

I think I would be on pretty safe ground with each of our six guests of honour by suggesting that their motivation for performing as they have was in the first instance for the Community itself. Put simply, a job needed doing, they recognised that need, they stepped up to the plate; they undertook the tasks to the best of their ability and the Temple Society and its members have benefited enormously.

To them – Erni, Herbert, Hanni, Erika, Manne and Hartmut – and to all contributors to our Templer Community, we say a heartfelt thank-you.

Hymn # 21 – Thank you for giving me the morning (verses 1, 2 and 4-6)

The greatest protection is a loving heart. Protecting yourself, you protect others. Protecting others, you protect yourself.

Let us pray …

We give thanks for places of simplicity and peace. Let us find such a place within ourselves. We give thanks for places of refuge and beauty. Let us find such a place within ourselves. We give thanks for places of nature’s truth and freedom, of joy, inspiration and renewal, places where all creatures may find acceptance and belonging. Let us search for these places: in the world, in ourselves and in others. Let us restore them. Let us strengthen and protect them and let us create them.
May we mend this outer world according to the truth of our inner life and may our souls be shaped and nourished by nature’s eternal wisdom.
 
(Amen)

Let us conclude with the Lord’s Prayer (Sydney version)

Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory,
Forever and ever.

Amen

Closing CD music – track 11 – On My Way Home (Enya)

Return to the top

Country Victoria Service 17- February
Phillip Island Uniting Church.
Elder: Rolf Beilharz

Welcome to this meeting of Country Templers at Phillip Island. I particularly welcome friends of Templers and others who might be at a Templer gathering for the first time. Templers are a community with a non-dogmatic Christianity. Our particular emphasis is the teachings of Jesus, the person who has also been called the Christ, or the anointed one, the Messiah, or God. What Templers strive to do is to live in the way Jesus, the teacher, taught humans to live so that they can live in peace with each other, in biblical words: to live in the Kingdom of God, which we pray should come onto earth as well as being in heaven.

Let’s sing a hymn to start the service. Nr. 121 in the red hymn book, the first 3 verses.
Sing 3 verses of ‘Whatever God ordains is good’.

Today I want to talk about the question ‘What is true?’
The text for today is from Luke, Chapter 6, verses 22 to 34, about taking out the log in your own eye before trying to take out the splinter in someone else’s eye. Normally I would love talking about such teachings of Jesus, but about what is true, the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is much more appropriate. This text was set for New Year’s day, and I’ll borrow it for today’s talk. I’ll read Chapter 3 of Genesis, the first book in the Old Testament.

Read Chapter 3

How do we start a conversation about what is true? You might suggest that we could just collect all statements that are obviously true to us. I’m prepared to say that the following statements are obviously true: We are alive. We live in Australia. We are humans. Humans are different from all other forms of life. We live in houses. We drive cars or travel in buses to get from Melbourne to Phillip Island and today I will talk about what is true.

These obviously true facts are clearly different from much of what people claim in different religions: God exists. There is a heaven to which we will go after death. Hell is a very nasty place, to which people who behaved badly will go after death?

What is it that makes the first lot of true statements different from the second lot?

The first group of statements seem to be accepted by all rational people who speak the same language as we do. Each of us also means the same thing when using the particular words in the statements, e.g. we don’t argue about what a house is, or a car, Phillip Island and so on.

The words in the second group of statements, God, hell, after death, and so on, are open to different interpretations. If people interpret words differently, it is unlikely that they will be able to agree on what is true. For example I might believe in God and see him as masculine, and some of you might think of God as feminine, and other, perhaps wiser, people may think of God as something so much greater than we are, that we cannot even imagine what God is like. If opinions differ in this way then we cannot find a statement where we all agree that God exists and is ‘like this’. The ‘like this (what God is)’ is different for each of the different ways of defining God.

The above suggests that it is going to be difficult to start our conversation by just assembling everything that is obviously true. It will not take long before we will get to statements that are shared by some but not by the others. I suggest our starting point has to be much further back, a much more basic concept. And I believe this basic statement should be: ‘It is people who think’.

Our pets, dogs, cats, horses, and all wild animal species do not have the ability to think about abstract things in the way mankind does. This characteristic, unique to mankind, was recognised long ago. It is the difference that made mankind like God, e.g in our text, the story of Adam and Eve in one of the oldest books in the Bible. The first humans made by the creator, were forbidden to eat from the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil. At that point they were the same as all other animals. Once Eve got tricked by the snake and persuaded Adam, and herself, to eat fruit from this tree, they saw things differently. They worried about being naked, that means revealing their so attractive sexual differences, so much so that they felt they had to make the original pants and skirts from fig leaves when talking with God the creator.

I don’t believe that such an event, with these particular details, ever happened But I do appreciate the story as early humans recognising that mankind is different from all other forms of life. Mankind can define evil as different from good, and this requires an ability to think in abstract concepts, which all other life on earth does not have.

I agree that pets, particularly dogs, are very good at anticipating what their owners are about to do, and they know whether what the dog has just done will cause their owners to pat them or make the owners angry. But these abilities do not involve abstract concepts. You cannot explain the difference between right and wrong to your dog, or play chess with it, not even drafts.

So the starting point for a conversation about what is true is this difference between mankind and all other life. People can think and use abstract concepts in their communication with other humans. This ability has enabled humans to build human culture, which has, as time passed, greatly affected and added to the original nature to which all other species of life, and even we humans, have adapted.

I can now show you why the first group of statements are true. We have given names to the concrete things that we meet every day. Within the same group of people the same thing is called the same name by all the community members who speak the same language. A visitor from another country with a different language will quickly learn the name our community gives to each object. He is learning our language, and, after that, we all can again speak the same language and express our true statements about all the concrete things to which we have given names.

What happens over time? In the 2500 - 3000 or more years since our biblical text was written, humans have learned that many of the definitions of objects, which everyone accepted as obviously true when first used, are actually different and the original concepts were wrong. Some of these wrong concepts are: the earth is not flat, neither is it the centre of the universe around which the sun, the moon and the stars are moving. We can have great sympathy for the earlier humans looking at the world and the heavenly bodies. If a modern child grows up without any schooling from parents or others, it would very likely also think that the old concepts were true, because the sun and stars moving around us on the earth is so obvious from what we see and feel.

And how and why do we here, as individuals, now know that these old, incorrect concepts have been replaced by the following new truths. Our earth is a planet in our solar system, going round the sun in a particular circuit from which we get our four seasons, and revolving around its own axis from which we get night and day? I’ll repeat the question: How do we get to know these new truths?

Each of us knows that the earth and the Universe are like this because someone has told us that it is so. It could be a parent or the author of a book, or our teachers. We trusted the person who told us and assumed that he or she or they were not lying to us. How and why did these other people know?

Because thoughtful individuals thought about why the sun kept repeating the same pattern of day and night and the four seasons. They played with thoughts, probably with pictures in their mind, and probably one individual visualised a larger ball (the sun) around which smaller balls (the planets) were circling. Talking to others or writing the thoughts down for others to read, eventually got these modern concepts into modern schoolbooks, for everyone to read. Those concepts about which there is still no agreement are discussed in scientific articles for other scientists to read and work on and to eventually reach agreement as to what the true concept is and how it works.

Science is that process of imagining possibilities in our minds, and playing with these possibilities to try to find answers to why things are as they are. The essence of science is to postulate what the answer might be and then to think how we could test whether what we have postulated will turn out to be true. The possible answer in our mind is called our hypothesis. We think out what consequences must follow if our hypothesis is true and then we can experiment with each of these consequences to test if the consequences of the hypothesis turn out to be as we predicted.

Here is one example related to the earth being round, not flat, which I remember from the 5th year in primary school, my first full year in the English language. If the earth is flat and you look south from Williamstown or the Westgate bridge across Port Phillip Bay, you should see Dromana and Rosebud which are about 60 kilometers away, or the higher hills of the Mornington peninsula. Do you? I haven’t been up on the highest buildings in Melbourne, but from any lower level I see a bulge of water as well as the hills from the east and the west of the northern part of the bay, but not the other side of the longest part of the bay. This is what one expects if the earth is round, not flat. You have an apparent hill of water between Melbourne and Rosebud.

For people going to school in our time, science has gathered much knowledge, which we can rely on as being true. But, by itself, a new hypothetical explanation does not guarantee truth. Even if the hypothesis has had many of its consequences tested, there is often another consequence that we haven’t yet thought of and tested. When a hypothesis has been found to be true in many of its consequences we can in practice use it as a working hypothesis and accept that it is true. If later some small detail has to be altered, we’ll just add this extra knowledge to the knowledge we already have. If scientists keep in the back of their mind the possibility that new tests might change part of what is known, then we can use the existing scientific knowledge and accept it as true. What about religion? What can we say about the truth of religion?

In recent times, science and religion have moved in different directions. Many modern people reject religion as false, and more and more people are leaving religious communities. Why is this happening? I have a very simple answer, and I hope that I do not offend anyone when I tell you what I think has happened. Please note that I do not claim that what I believe is any more correct than what you believe. But I can only describe how I see what is true.

When our biblical text about Adam and Eve was created it was a working hypothesis which every person at that time believed to be true. The details of the story describe a creator, God, apparently masculine, probably looking much like a human. After all, God had made the human in his image. What we now call science, the everyday knowledge, at that time included God, often a group of Gods, angels and other beings, such as Satan, interacting quite freely with humans, telling the humans what they should do. So the common knowledge of these ancient times did not differentiate between religion and science.

This situation, science and religion being one and the same thing, which encompassed all knowledge, lasted for a long time. It was only in the last 1000 years, and particularly since about 5-600 years ago, that discoveries about the Universe and the solar system no longer fitted into the earlier working hypothesis. The early knowledge of the Bible and other ancient scriptures became holy, probably so that this wisdom, given to man by God or through his messengers, e.g. prophets, should not be altered. In the modern world we seem to treat ancient knowledge in all religions as holy. It was at this point, when new knowledge no longer fitted into the original religious working hypothesis, that the leaders of religion made a very important mistake. Truly religious people like the prophets or Jesus, would probably not have made that mistake, but a growing relationship between political power and religion produced a new situation.

Religion had become part of the earthly power play between the leaders of the different tribes who had become kings, lords and other aristocrats ruling over the masses of the people. In Europe since the time of Charlemagne, about 1000 years ago, the Emperor of the German states and their armies defended the leader of the Christian church, the pope, and the pope anointed new Emperors. Another example form the present time is, the queen of Australia in another role outside Australia is the head of the Anglican church.

In our time, using the church to support wars has not disappeared. In the historic past, religious life was clearly very different from what Jesus had taught people to do. There was continual military strife. Lots of people died. The Christians thought it was a noble thing to drive the infidels, Muslims, out of Jerusalem and this led to the Crusades, and so on and on. The Christian church in its many versions has contributed much unnecessary death and suffering to many, often innocent, people. It may not have been the religious people who caused this evil, but because of the close association between warring royal families and religious leaders, the religious leaders could not really act in opposition to their military protectors. Against this background of political power being associated with religions, religion used its power to suppress the original scientists and their scientific discoveries.

That is the enormous mistake religion made. Scientists were forbidden to spread their new knowledge. Military power prevented the rapid, easy spread of new knowledge. But, as happens generally in history, truth will eventually be recognised. True knowledge, at least in the form of working hypotheses, is growing at an ever-increasing pace. The end result is that most modern churches are now defending creeds, dogmatic statements of what members must believe, expressed in words that are no longer appropriate in the knowledge we now have. This is the reason why many modern people are leaving religion.

To refocus what I have been saying, let’s go back to the story of Adam and Eve. Is this story true?

Not literally! I cannot defend any of the details. But I believe the story truly recognised that mankind, while being an animal, is different from all other animal life. Mankind has something more than all these other species living on this earth have. Modern medicine locates the difference in our brain. Our brain is more developed so that we can think, and play with our thoughts about abstract constructs, whereas other species cannot.

We can also think about what is good and its opposite, evil. Further, we can express values, which support what is good relative to what is bad. Our former President of the Temple Society in the 1930s, Christian Rohrer, said that mankind has a conscience which helps to distinguish between right and wrong. Here we are discussing the new mental ability, which separates us from the rest of life. We have called this our spiritual side. And we can appreciate what all religions seem to have: human spiritual abilities, which, if followed, can lead us to more peace among people, to internal peace within ourselves, and to more happiness.

Curiously, in that part of our knowledge, (spirituality, etc.) which separates us from animals, we are still using old biblical words. We seem to have difficulty naming the new concepts which describe that part of biology in which humans differ from other animals. We should try to find words which help us express religion free from the baggage of old and meaningless concepts.

Just a trivial example: We all recognise a person described as being knowledgeable, wise and having a heart of gold. We know that ‘heart of gold’ means loving, friendly, helpful, trustworthy and so on. But a heart is just a pump, extremely important to our lives as it pumps the blood to all parts of the body. When it stops we die. Can we say what we mean without having to use the word heart with all its many old connotations now known to be wrong? Spirit or spirituality is itself a concept difficult to describe. In terms of my topic, we will continue to have difficulty expressing what we think is true, until we define new words which describe the different aspects of those mental abilities that separate mankind from other animals and get ordinary people to use these words.

To conclude this service I’ll summarise the topic by telling you why I, a biological scientist by profession, believe that religion remains important in human life. I’ll describe how I see it. But please remember, I do not claim that what I see as true must be how you must see it.

Does God exist and how should we think of God?
This depends on how we define and understand God. In the times when the Old Testament was written, with stories such as our text, no one doubted that God existed and interacted directly with humans, whom he had created. God was part of the working hypothesis, which, 3000 years ago, people in the middle east, who left records for us to read, accepted as true. Very early, Gods were associated with individual tribes or populations. The Israelites had their own God who promised them land and helped them to get rid of the people that lived there. Then God became the single creator of the earth and the Universe. People also came to see God as being all-powerful. But wise Israelites also said one should not make images of God.

I interpret that advice as God being the almighty creator whom we humans cannot fully understand and therefore should not attempt to describe. Every description limits what this force is and can do.
(I feel sorry for the many deeply religious people in America who oppose evolution. They say that their God is almighty and then tell us that he was not able to use the wonderfully effective system called evolution that has allowed all existing life to develop from initially much simpler forms.)

My answer to the question about God:
If God is understood as the force that created the universe, I am happy to accept that such a force exists or did exist. But whether we call this force God or the Big Bang is unimportant. If God is seen to be present in all of life, I would prefer to use other names for describing each aspect of life rather than use the name God as something that pervades everything. I like very much the old Israelite wisdom that I shouldn’t try to describe God.

I believe strongly that what God created, the universe, our solar system and the life on our earth, which includes us humans, should be respected and treated with great care. Jesus taught us the most important commandment, that we should love God with all the power we possess. I believe the same respect should be given to what God created, including the universe and our environment on earth. The second and equal commandment is that we should treat others as we want others to treat us. We don’t have to change our thinking much to include God’s creation in our respectful treatment.

As a scientist, it is clear to me that our generally stable environment is the result of many forces acting harmoniously in such a way that the system as a whole remains stable. Systems in which no harmonies were achieved have disappeared long ago. If humans do not respect the environment and exploit it recklessly they will destabilise existing forces which may lead to serious consequences for the life forms adapted to that environment. I need only mention Climate change, to illustrate what happens when we do not treat our environment with respect and care. I see such findings of modern science as examples of what Jesus and other deep thinkers were trying to tell us long ago. Much of the teachings of Jesus can be translated into modern words and we would benefit greatly if we followed the thrust of his teachings.

Values and Religion
Religion remains important because it tells us how people should treat each other so that they can live in peace and happiness. I translate treating our neighbours as we wish them to treat us as recognising that the needs of the community should be valued higher than our personal needs. If the community improves, the lives of all of us improve. Current western living in market economies assumes that each individual acts rationally to improve him- or herself in the competition that is the essence of markets. Although this is an innocuous statement that sounds like common sense to everyone, it is raw selfishness. It encourages capable people to strive for greater wealth, which must come at the expense of other individuals in the community. It is the direct opposite of treating others as you want them to treat you, or seeing the needs of the community as more important than your selfish needs.

In practice, religion should focus mainly on our life on earth, not on ‘after death’!
Many religious practices are done to ensure that at the end of one’s life one will go to somewhere nice, to heaven or to God. I don’t know what happens to our spiritual self after death. Each of us can visualise what will happen after death, and I have no wish to interfere with what you hope for. But, life for many people on earth right now could be greatly improved. What does religion say about this fact?

In the oldest gospel, that of Mark, Jesus begins his teaching as follows. ‘The time has arrived: the kingdom of God is upon you. Repent and believe the gospel.’ In the gospel of Matthew the beginning of his teaching is told like this (Ch. 4, v. 17). From that day Jesus began to proclaim the message: ‘Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is upon you.’ To me both clearly refer to the present life. The kingdom of God, or of Heaven, as Matthew preferred to write, is here on earth. But on earth it is people who have to achieve it by repenting, i.e. changing their behaviour. From the commandments above it is clear that people must change from selfishness to valuing the needs of the community higher than those of our individual selves.

This is what Templers have achieved in Kirschenhardthof in Germany after the Temple Society had been founded, in Palestine in its settlements and now in Australia and in the community in Germany.
If you compare the peaceful lives in Templer Communities with what we see generally in the western civilisation, it is obvious that valuing the community above individual gain leads to much better and more peaceful and happy lives here on earth. That is why religion remains important, particularly now when so many people directly oppose religion as false and so many people are suffering from inter-tribal wars and terrorism. What matters more than any speculation about the nature of God or the big bang, or what happens after death is that we should get our relationships with other people right and, as well, avoid polluting or destroying our environment. And this is true even for non-religious people, if they want their children to live a good, satisfying life.

Let's now close this service with another hymn, one that may be relevant to the last part of my talk. It is Nr. 16 ‘Brighten the corner where you are’. We’ll sing the 3 verses.
Sing the 3 verses.

Let’s finish our meeting with a prayer. Can you stand please?

We are thankful for the teaching of Jesus that we humans should change ourselves and strive above all else to create the kingdom of God on earth. We realise that the kingdom Jesus was talking about is not a supernatural event that God must give to us. It is the rearranging of behaviour of all of us in our religious or neighborhood community so that the good of the whole community becomes more important than our own personal wishes. In the language of the time when Jesus was teaching this goal is expressed in 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.

Thanks to all that have contributed to this meeting. We hope now to enjoy a lunch in the adjacent room. We thank the Uniting Church community in Phillip Island for allowing us to use their lovely church and its facilities. Our donations today will be passed on to the Uniting Church community.

Return top the Top

Sunday 10th February 2008
Bayswater Chapel 15. 15
Elder: Renate Weber

Text: Gen 50: 15-20 “Joseph sees matters in a wider context”
Hymns: 31 Sing oh my heart. Geh aus mein Herz.
80 O God thou faithful god.
93 Prayer of St Francis

Musicians: Sonia Glenk/Tamara Bouzo
Welcome to you all and a special welcome and thank you to Tamara Bouzo who is a new addition to our musicians list. She is also going to play the postlude for us at the end of the service while Sonia Glenk is going to play the hymns for us. How blessed we are to have such talent in our midst.
I will begin with a quote by Arthur James Balfour because I feel it captures all I am going to speak about today.

“The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all men, charity. - Arthur James Balfour

Let us sing a song about summer and celebrating God gifts. We have been experiencing beautiful weather and some welcome rain. So let us sing “Geh aus mein Herz”. Sing oh my heart Hymn 31 (all the verses)
Please feel free to sing in German or English.

Our reading, which is taken from the prescribed list for today comes from Genesis. We have very few readings from the Old Testament included in our prescribed texts. Because of the incredible growth of human knowledge we know that some of the writings are no longer believable or relevant in the 21st Century...
Genesis comes from the Greek meaning “beginnings” and the Book of Genesis tells about the creation of the universe, the origin of mankind, the beginning of sin and suffering and about God’s way of dealing with mankind. It also tells about the early history of the Israelites.
Let me read you the text.
Genesis 50 15-20
“After Jacob died, Joseph's brothers said to each other,
“What if Joseph still hates us and wants to get even with us for all the cruel things we did to him?”
So they sent this message to Joseph:
Before our father died he told us “You did some cruel and terrible things to Joseph but you must ask him to forgive you.
Now we ask you to please forgive the terrible things we did. After all we worship the same God your father worshipped. ”
When Joseph heard this he started crying.
Right then Joseph’s brothers came and bowed down to the ground in front of him and said “We are your slaves,”
But Joseph told them, “Don’t be afraid! I have no right to change what God has decided. You tried to harm me, but God made it turn out for the best, so that we could save all these people as he is now doing.
Don’t be afraid! I will take care of you and your children.” After Joseph said this, his brothers felt much better”

Just to jog our memories, Joseph was the youngest son of Jacob. Jacob stated he loved this son the best and at 17 gave him a special cloak. (“Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat.”) This made his brothers jealous. Joseph also realised he had an important role in life when, in a dream, his wheat sheaf stood up and all his brothers’ sheaves bowed down before his. He also dreamt the Sun, Moon and eleven stars bowed down before him. This made his brothers even more jealous so they threw him down a well, pulled him out again and then sold him to the Egyptians, as one does with a sibling one envies and hates.
Joseph saved his family during the famine and eventually gained most of the land for the king as well as becoming Governor over Egypt. Jacob’s 12 sons would be the 12 tribes of Israel.

I asked my self, why choose this text. What can we learn from it? I think it is interesting on a number of levels. On one level it shows how a good leader looks after the people and on the second level it shows us how forgiving Joseph was. It also shows, quoting Dr Brigitte Hoffmann, “God’s intervention in an impressive way..... Joseph states “You meant me harm, but God meant to bring good out of it. [1]

How hard it is to be a leader. I have just been skimming through a book called “Speeches that Shaped the Modern World” by Alan J Whiticker and in the book’s “Introduction: The Power of Persuasion” the first speech he acknowledges as changing the world are the words from Jesus Christ’s Sermon on the Mount. “Blessed are” [2]
Other famous speeches are: Emmeline Pankhurst- “Freedom or Death”, Adolf Hitler “The Jewish Question, Winston Churchill-“Our finest Hour”, Martin Luther King -“I have a Dream”, Indira Gandi –“True liberation of Women” and Nelson Mandela’s “Release from Prison”

Joseph had all the traits that a great leader needs to make people listen and follow their lead. Leaders need to have the power of persuasion. They need humility as well as strength to do what is right, and they usually have a vision and they need to have confidence in that vision. Not all leaders have all the qualities, but they surely have most of them if they are to succeed. We have been blessed in the Temple Society to have good men and women in roles of leadership: be it as Founders, President, Regional Head, Treasurer, Elder, Business Manager, Community Head or Focus Group leader. Long may that blessing continue!

The second level I mentioned was forgiveness. Would you have been as forgiving as Joseph? We would be an exceptional person if we have never experienced being hurt or hurting some one. It can be in a physical, emotional or social context. It is what we do with that hurt that shapes our lives.
If we hurt some one or we have done something wrong, we must live with our conscience. Self forgiveness is some times very challenging -can you think of an occasion when you have said “I’ll never forgive myself?” We can hurt others with our deeds or words or sometimes by not doing or saying something, we cause hurt. We often hear stories of regret. “If only I’d known, said sorry, been more careful, taken time to listen when they called out for help.” We need to be thoughtful in our daily interactions with others so that we don’t have too many of these regrets. When I was talking to Inky on Wednesday she said her mother’s favorite saying was “Ich gebe mit warmen Hande” I give with warm hands
Then there is the forgiveness we extend to others or them to us. It can be within a family or a community or even one country to another. Do you have a hurt you cannot forgive? How does it make you feel? Do you want to relieve yourself of the pain and anger, anguish and sorrow this causes in you?
I allowed some one to hurt me with their words and actions for over two years. It all came to a head at a wedding we both attended. If looks could kill, I’d have died on the floor of the Church. I felt so hurt, I cried and needed to go home have a cup of tea and gather myself together before I could go on to the reception, where this person was also going to be.
In the time that it took to go home, make the cup of tea and pull myself together I finally realised a number of things. I was allowing this person to hurt me and influence my interaction with others. I was willing to move on, forgive, forget, make a fresh start, but the other person was not on my page. I decided I wasn’t going to stay stuck with them. I acknowledged the hurt, the anger, the unfairness I felt and let it go. I thought about the hurt from the offender’s point of view. I felt I could understand their hurt from their point of view and I decided that I would not allow that person to hurt me again. I have moved on and I hope in the future they will be able to as well.

When I was researching forgiveness I found that there are formula you can learn and practice. There was even a thirty hour on line course with accreditation! When you forgive someone, or say sorry, it can lead to real relief. People who are bitter and stubborn about the wounds they feel, suffer, especially when these attitudes are associated with a need to be recognized as the one who is right.
We also ask God to forgive us. Think about the Lord’s Prayer “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”
We can share our life, our troubles, our joys, our needs and wishes with God. There have been times when I have said to God “Thy will be done.” I didn’t know the right answer so I gave the problem to God to help us with it.
There are also numerous stories of people making one request to God only to get an answer to a totally different question. Some Sundays I go out to dinner with a religious lady who tells us each week she wants to die and she can’t understand why the Lord hasn’t taken her yet. Last week I said to her may be you are asking God the wrong question! He may still have some other purpose in mind for you. She will be 90 in few months! We don’t always get our prayers answered and sometimes we need to be careful what we ask for. * If the there is time read The Little Things
I think this is an appropriate time to sing Hymn 93 “Prayer of St Francis”. Make me a channel of your peace. We will sing all three verses.

The text for today was to be interpreted as “Joseph sees matters in a wider context”
Mankind struggles with God’s plan. Does “she” have a plan? We ask after every tragedy -WHY? But do we give thanks when things turn out well? Probably not often enough!
It made me think of the history and the future of the Temple Society. In the early stages the founders of the Temple Society focused on the Holy land, but they also prepared themselves for the community living they desired by establishing a closed community in Swabia, where the guide line was to be the will of God. [3]. They worked hard physically to till the land as well as furthering their ideas in both oral and written form. Reading about the Templers start in Kirschenhardthof filled me with sadness and disbelief when it stated that Christoph Hoffmann and his wife lost 5 children in the space of 4 years. How must their faith in God have been tested?
The Settlers in Palestine had biblical texts inscribed over their doors. “Bis hierher hat der Herr geholfen” .( God has helped us thus far) or “Befiel dem Herrn deine Wege und hoff auf ihn, er wird es wohl machen. “Give yourself to the Lord trust in him and he will help you “This is Psalm 37: 5
On the tombstones in the Haifa cemetery we can feel the faith of the Templers. Dieter Lange described it well in the Templer Handbook. On Christian Beilharz’s tomb we read “Ich fasse, Vater, deine Hande und halte sie im glauben fest. I grasp your hands Father and hold them in faith”. [4] “The many graves of infants bear testimony to the difficult years full of suffering…. however they bear witness to the unshakeable faith of this generation’ [5].

I think God was looking after us when the Queen Elizabeth sailed into Sydney Harbour with 536 Templers on board. “The settlers did their best to continue with their customary communal life” [6] and most accepted the Australian government’s offer to settle in Australia after the war.
My mum and I talked about how it might have been for her if the Templers had stayed in Palestine. Her life would have been totally different. I feel in the “wider context” the young people who were transported and educated in the Tatura camp made a success of their lives. Many went to university and most achieved well in their chosen fields. Their children have integrated into the Australian community mostly seamlessly. They are doing well, they are healthy, happy, and prosperous, well educated, free from violence and able to live in a democracy and think and do what they feel is right for them and their families.

The Regional Council and the Elders are asking what we need to do to get younger members to join. The TSA is quite “old”. We currently have 554 members. Our youngest member, who recently joined is 18 and we only have 12 members who are under 30, a total of 43 members who are under 40. The largest group of members, totaling 65, is in the 71-75 age groups. We have 32 members who are 91 or older. (What does that say about our past lifestyle?)
Maybe we need to ask what God’s bigger plan is for us. Are we missing something?
We call ourselves “a religious community” but are our young ones looking for a “God experience”, religious guidance? I am not sure they are. Some came to Sunday school, they come to confirmation, they often allow us to marry them and present their children, but how many come to Sunday services?
But it is not all gloom and doom. I think that our younger generation has absorbed our Templer ideals of creating God’s kingdom on Earth by loving God and treating others as they would like to be treated. We don’t threaten with death and destruction if they don’t attend services, if they don’t offer their life to Christ. We also don’t have large TV screens and popular hymns belted out on guitars and drums as some evangelical churches are now doing. What we do well is live by example. We live in harmony with others. Let us encourage our younger generations to be strong individual building blocks in God’s temple, all the blocks don’t have to be the same, they can each be unique! By our actions and commentary in their lives we can reinforce the right way to live. Let us never forget how important and significant that can be.

Let us stand and pray if you are able

Dear God
As we gather today, a community of like minded people, let us reflect on today’s text and apply the relevant parts to our lives. We pray for leaders every where that they make the right decisions for the well being of many. We also pray for our Templer leaders here in Australia and in Germany, may they continue to guide us along the right path.

We ask for forgiveness of the wrongs we have committed, help us to forgive ourselves, learn from our mistakes and be generous in forgiving others for the hurt they have caused.

We also ask for our eyes, ears and hearts to be opened to the plans you have for us as individuals, as families and as a community. May we be given the wisdom to know when the message comes from you!

Let us 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 conclude with another Hymn Number 80 “O God thou faithful God”. Although it was published in 1693, I like what it asks and I feel it is a relevant way to end today’s service. Sonia will play it first to remind us of the tune.

Thank you to all who have worked today to enhance the service -the flower arrangers, our two musicians, Sonia and Tamara and you the congregation for coming! There is Coffee and cake in the hall and I remind the Elders that we will have an Elders’ meeting after coffee in the classroom. The donations today should go to the “Notkasse” (Emergency fund) to assist any Templers in need. I don’t know how often it is used or by whom, it is a very confidential process, but please know it is available to you should you need it. If you have ideas of how to involve your children in the Temple Society please feel free to make suggestions to any of the Elders or Regional Council members today or by phone or email in the future.

Return to the top

Sydney Saal 10 February
Elder, Ingrid Turner
 
Text: Genesis Ch 50; v 15-20

Welcome to our special day here at Meadowbank. We are so pleased to have Helmut and Lorraine Glenk up from Melbourne to launch their beautiful Book Shattered Dreams at Kilimanjaro. Welcome also to those who are visiting us for the first time, or for the first time in a long time. Today will be a special day in so many ways.
After the my sermon we will learn in the book launch about a little known part of our Templer History in German Africa from Helmut; we will have lunch and catch up with each other and pour over Helmut’s lovely book, then after lunch we will see DVD explaining Templer’s history from an Israeli perspective; but first is Saal “on Forgiveness in Darwin’s world.” I hope you will find it interesting, thought provoking and enjoyable. Any constructive feedback is welcome!
Now, settle back, as we let our minds travel far from the hussle and bustle of the day. Get ready for a treat – From the Movie “Shine”; Vivaldi’s exquisite “Nulla in Mundo Pax Sincera”.

Intro to Saal
This Tuesday is Darwin’s Birthday. In the second half of the Saal we will celebrate the man and look at his work and life, but to start with I will explore today’s text, Genesis Ch 50, v15-20. I would like to acknowledge my key references for this sermon Christine Ruff’s Saal from 2003 given on the same text and this month’s leading TR article by Dr Rolf Beilharz as being key references.
Today’s text is rather small and it comes at the end of the famous Joseph story, and epic saga, that inspired the “Musical Joseph and his Technicolour Dream- coat”.

Joseph Power point
This month’s passage refers to the second time that Joseph forgives his brothers. This happens later when that is after their father Jacob dies. The brothers now fear that Joseph has no reason not to take out revenge on them. “ It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil which we did to him.” But Joseph reaffirms his forgiveness, “ You mean evil against me, but God meant it for Good.’

Commentary on the Story
What a story! A story of betrayal and forgiveness, it took place over decades, what and epic saga! A saga of jealousy, favoritism, remorse, forgiveness and faith.
It is an unusual story in the Old Testament. Usually, the stories are about a powerful demanding God, laying down laws, demanding they be followed, punishing the evil wrong doers with plagues, death by stoning etc, rewarding the followers of his laws and commands with land, fertile withes and bountiful food.
But here so early in the Old Testament we have the first idea of love and forgiveness of bad deeds. No stoning for lying no damming of attempted murders and kidnappers; But, forgiveness and even love of the evil brothers. Joseph even takes the evil brothers in and cares for them and their families.
Now this is still the Old Testament and the reason Joseph gives for his enlightened loving actions is that the brothers themselves were not in control of their actions, that God had made them do their horrible deeds for ultimate good. But still there is forgiveness.

It is only later in the New Testament that Jesus teaches the idea of turning the other cheek and forgiving your enemy. Only then is god’s will that of peace and harmony. But, still in our text of the month, we do have the first inkling of the power of forgiveness
Forgiveness is the Joseph story
The effect of forgiveness in the story is very positive. Families are unified, reunited, people including women children and old Jacob, are saved from starving to death, they are given food and life. Love rules and happiness abounds and so the Jewish people are started.

But what if Joseph had not forgiven his brothers?
1. His father, brothers and their innocent families would have suffered and died of starvation.
2. If there were any survivors, they in turn would hold huge anger against Joseph and Egypt for not helping them when they were in need. In their hearts, sorrow would sit next to anger and soon they would seek revenge through violence and other acts of sabotage.
3. There a cycle of violence, as an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is carried on and on.

Can you see the difference, Forgiveness versus revenge?

On the world stage what are some examples where nations or groups of people are not forgiven and what are the consequences? And what of those nations who have used forgiveness as a basis on which to rebuild.
• Germany post WWI, huge war debts are laid on the German people, leading to starvation, a devastating financial situation, and a defeated, down trodden people, thirsting for relief and a country in political turmoil, as they struggled to rebuild, a leader like Hitler becomes acceptable.
• Israel/ and Palestine, now embroiled in a cycle of violence,
• Now in Africa there is a multitude of racial wars, the latest in Kenya. Alarming outbursts of extreme violence. The ethnic cleansing in Zimbabwe, which in turn has brought country to its knees, and the human suffering incomprehensible. In Zimbabwe there was no concerted act of forgiveness and reconciliation.
• While in South Africa there was the Truth and Reconciliation Commission”. The Commission acknowledged the brutal, racial hatred crimes under apartheid and was formed to uncover the truth about past abuse, using amnesty as a way to do this, and it did not punish past crimes. While the Commission was not universally found successful, the commission did lead to a more smooth transition from Apartheid to modern day Black Majority rule. South Africa is by no way a totally perfect, but it did avoid the massive cycle of violence seen in other nations.
• Here in Australia, from the mid 1800’s to well into the 1960’s and early 70’s we had the stolen generation. Many aboriginal and Torres Straight Island children were removed forcibly from their families by authorities and churches, not because of poor care, but on the basis of colour. According to the” Bringing them home Report” many of those aboriginal kids experienced physical, sexual and emotional abuse in their foster families and institutions. The traumatic effect has led to the breakdown of families and communities and the unbelievable poor state of our countrymen. Next week our government will apologise to the stolen generation, what will the outcome be? Will it start a turning point in the relationship between black and white Australia, will it start to heal the wounds?

The thing about forgiveness on a personal level is that it is so hard to do! It can be so hard to channel our racing angry thoughts in the direction of forgiveness. It can be so hard to forgive the young driver that just zoomed in and took our parking spot, or the wife who, and dumps you with the kids and the house work on your day off to write a sermon that she said she would have finished days ago and who then keeps you up until all hours to do the computer support. Sometimes we need to let a little time pass before we attempt to forgive people. Forgiveness means controlling our feelings of anger and swallowing our pride. Just think how hard would it have been to be Joseph, swallowing the years of sadness, pain and anger? But generally forgiveness is the better choice. It is the most mature and loving of the options and therefore the way Jesus suggested we could live. We do have the skills to do this. In the short term revenge feels good, but later you can feel like a bit of a dope, or worse it has lead to an escalation in violence or broken relationships, “That really was awful, you are a real idiot you know I always thought you were a lazy idiot”.
Forgiveness feels better and lasts longer. On a personal level, forgiveness is part of the loving way of life needed to build harmonious lives and communities, which we know as the kingdom of heaven on earth. Such communities need people to live in peace and harmony.
Now don’t get me wrong, you can forgive someone, but many actions still deserve some type of punishment, for instance grievous acts like rape and murder; acts of poor behaviour especially where there is so repentance or apology. Forgiveness also doesn’t exclude one from being assertive and stating how the other person’s actions affected you, and to discuss how the problem can be avoided in the future. But it means putting the agro behind us and concentrating on the constructive things that we can do.
Forgiveness is our test, to love and forgive unconditionally, as we believe God loves and forgives us. And in turn we often need to turn the personal God, through our inner-selves and ask for him to hold our hand and lead us as we follow the tough yet best path, the path of forgiveness.
We will now sing Hymn 99 “So Nimm Denn Meine Haende – Take Thou My Hand and Lead Me”, versus 1 – 3.

A Darwin Celebration of Darwin on his Birthday
Now I was reading the Pitt St. Uniting Church’s web site and saw that they were celebrating Darwin’s B’day on Tuesday (he was born on the 12 th Feb 1809 in their service, and I thought what a great idea! To start with I thought it would merely be a second half to my Saal, not related to the theme of Forgiveness, but then if by magic, I saw that from a Christian perspective, Darwin’s theories had a very big effect on the concept of God and forgiveness.
But first Let’s meet Mr Darwin and learn a little more about him and his enlightening theory that now about 180 years later underpins most of our understanding of our natural world. By knowing more about our world, we know more about God and his universe.

Darwin Power Point
Darwin helped us see our wonderful world in a powerful new way. It is important to note that through Darwin’s theory we have learnt more about the vast diversity of our natural world.
Please join in singing “What a Wonderful World” with Louis Armstrong.

Christian Perspective
Darwin’s Theory of evolution and natural selection had large implications for the Christian Church, and many Church leaders either reject it or try not to focus on it. I think this is amazing in the modern age, where all other Science developed using the same academic processes are accepted. Darwin’s theory of Evolution is so powerful and simple. It allows us to better understand the huge variety of life. In turn it we can celebrate the awesome variety life that exists on this planet.
But as Spong says in chapter 20 of his book, “the Sins of Scripture: The idea of the creation must now be seen as an incorrect an even unhelpful myth. Creation must now be seen as an unfinished process. God didn’t sit back on the seventh day and admire all the creatures that he created, life is evolving all the time. The world was not created for the benefit of humans. We humans live on one of untold numbers of unique planets in our universe.

Let’s put this in perspective with a little, all be it slightly disrespectful, l Monty Python

• The idea of original sin and fall from grace as God threw Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden, didn’t ever occur. So there was never any original sin, there is no guilt to be born, no sacrifice needed, nor repentance forgiveness required. This has been an integral part of the Templer understanding. We recognise that this is a theological construct, an unhealthy ground to build our lives and self-esteem on, Max Frisch once said that whoever wants to accept another person must first be able to accept and love himself.

• Jesus therefore did not die on the cross as a sacrificial lamb to redeem or have our sins redeemed. As Brigitte Hoffmann put it “This idea conflicts with what Jesus himself taught, he actually fought to overcome the idea of atonement. Redemption comes not through Jesus’ death, but through what he taught us.” The I in the “I am the way the truth the light” is Jesus’ teachings, not Jesus the person.

• We are humans, we need the power to take the next step towards the kingdom of God. The evil things we do to each other show that we have not evolved well enough to create a better society or a better way of living. Spong puts it this way “Jesus’s teachings can enable a higher state of humanity. Not a sinful Humanity, but one that is so whole and complete that it is God infused”, what we Templers refer to as “the Kingdom God”

• Spong goes on further : “Therefore Jesus can only be a human, a product of the human gene pool, not as J Robinson said about 50 yrs ago, “a cookoo inserted into the nest of humanity”. Jesus was so radically human and free so whole and complete that the power of life, the universal force or God becomes visible and operative in him and through him.

Prayer by Christine Ruff
Dear God
Thank you for giving each one of us the gift of forgiveness
Help us to use this gift wisely and To recognise that everyone deserves to be forgiven

Help us to remember that forgiveness is the best answer
and help us to be strong enough to forgive when we would rather not
or when it is the harder thing to do

Only by forgiving will we create a world of tolerance, unity and love
The sort of world that we all want to live in

We also respect the processes that have formed our universe,
For they have led to such a huge variety of diversity.

We are grateful that through the work of Charles Darwin we are have a more enlightened understanding of our world and that we no longer have the guilt of original sin around our hearts. Now we can value ourselves and our neighbours, while working towards a more loving, peaceful, sharing world, as we strive towards the kingdom of heaven.
Our father..

To end this Saal we will watch the ABC’s Wildlife Rhapsody to celebrate Australia’s magnificent wildlife, for Darwin’s birthday. It is the romantic section, especially suitable because on Wednesday we have the apology to the Stolen Generation and on Thursday it is Valentines Day, so there is a lot of love in the air.

Return to the top