Spirited Word: Recent Episodes
Adrian Kitson
By God's Word proclaimed, the Holy Spirit works faith in God's grace in Jesus, when and where he pleases.Sermons by Pastor Adrian Kitson, Lutheran Church of Australia.St Petri Lutheran ChurchNuriootpa, Barossa Valley, South Australia.www.stpetri.org.au
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Sunday 02 August 2026
We are back in that magnificent poem of poems as spoken by the prophet Isaiah. In one of the many pictures he paints of both God’s judgement of our sin and God’s beautiful resurrection of whole life, Isaiah issues a call to a free banquet that God has paid for in full for everyone. All we have to do is come, get up, receive the fully satisfying gifts of The Suffering Servant, whom we know as Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus now simply ‘des Iasiah’. That day by the sea on the grassy slopes with thousands looking for food that satisfies, they get it. It is that famous ‘Feeding of the Five Thousand’.
Sounds simple and actually is. Just reach out and take the bread and fish. Just receive…
It would be very simple if it were not for this heart of ours that simply wants to pay our own way. Isaiah is clear. We are not very smart shoppers in the world of a million delights. We work very hard for things that can’t fully satisfy and we pay a lot of hard-earned cash and a great deal of time we think is ours dreaming of what we want next.
Not only do we stay away from receiving God’s gifts but we tend to believe he has no good gifts, or not enough anyway.
But Jesus just does Isaiah today. He gives you a meal voucher at the fanciest restaurant in town and there is no bill to pay now or later when he returns to settle accounts.
All you need to do is get up, seek, listen and receive. Praying you do that and get more than a trolley of things today.
Pastor Adrian
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Sunday 26 July 2026
It is with pleasure that we prepare to receive the Word via Dr Tim Stringer, Principal of Australian Lutheran Collage. May the Word call you, challenge you and comfort you for the journey we share together today.
Dr Tim says…
Last Sunday, we were deep in the territory of weeds and wheat. This week, we hear and read a series of rapid-fire parables that describe what the kingdom of heaven is like.
We might think we can recognise the kingdom, yet it is described in several different, surprising and hidden ways in quick succession across five short
parables. These are laid out before the disciples, and when asked if they understand all these things, they reply, “Yes”, but we don’t hear their tone of voice in the scriptures.
There is a trend on social media at the moment in which an individual is asked to say a phrase in four or five different tones of voice. In the case of the disciples, would the meaning be altered if they used a surprised, tentative, certain, or assertive tone? Any of those might work in this case.
We hope, of course, that they are certain!
Do YOU understand all of these parables? How might you answer Jesus’ question if he directed it to you today? Hopefully, as we rummage through the storehouse of treasures hidden in these parables today, we might discover something new or something old that we might feel impelled to bring out and share with others.
Blessings,
Tim
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Sunday 19 July 2026
Sometimes I wish God would deal with all the injustice of the world. Sometimes I wish the Church could be so much better, especially when Christian people do some really silly and bad things.
What do we do with the frustration we feel about all the suffering and trouble in the world? What does the Lord do for us when the church gets it wrong and we get it wrong?
We are in rapid-fire parable territory this morning. In this little section of Matthew’s gospel there are seven parables in a row. Jesus says every one of them speak of what living with faith in his presence and promises are like for us.
The focus today is number 2 of the seven – this picture of a paddock with both wheat and weeds being planted and growing together. The picture comes with a prohibition for us: “Don't try and pull up the weeds!”. In fact, “Let the weeds grow".
Why on earth would we do that? We don't do that with real weeds. We get rid of them with hard work or hard chemicals!
Apparently, this is not the way in Jesus' way. In pulling up the weeds we may disrupt the wheat. This is not our job. But it is someone's job.
All very mysterious. I wonder how you are navigating growing in Jesus among those who aren't?
Pastor Adrian
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Sunday 12 July 2026
As Christians we believe that the Bible is the sacred writings of God himself, as he inspired his chosen authors to write it down. Therefore we often refer to the Bible as “the Word of God”. But the truth is that only Christians believe this. Non-Christians (or ‘not-yet Christians’) do not see the Bible with faith. They only see a very very big book with a lot of ‘stuff’ in it that is hard for them to understand. And since they have no idea how we got this book, they simply put it in the same category as the Sutras of the Buddhists, the Vedas of the Hindus, the Qu’ran of the Muslims, or the Book of Mormon of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints.
Students of three Year 6 classes in a Lutheran school some years ago reinforced the fact that people with no faith, and very little knowledge, see the Bible as an old book that is unreliable, contradictory, out of date and that it must have changed from the original over time. And they believe this even though they have never read the Bible.
So when I have a chance to engage with sceptics about Jesus, I don’t start with the gospel. I talk about the Bible and why Christians are so sure that it is the Word of God. Because if it is what it claims to be, then everyone should take it very seriously. I talk about the origins of the Bible and its reliability as a historical record. I want them to understand that Christians don’t close their eyes to history or science. It is a book that is worth a closer look. For if they don’t come to see it as God’s revelation to all people of all ages, they won’t accept they are sinful, or that Jesus came to be the Saviour of the world.
The historical story of how the Bible has come to us today is a powerful witness to the God who inspired it. When people at least acknowledge that the Bible has not been altered over the millennia, and that it is no ordinary book, they may begin to take its content and message of salvation more seriously.
As one Year 6 student wrote to me after one presentation, “I will never doubt the Bible again.” My hope is that he now trusts in the clear gospel message of Jesus’ love for him. I pray that the message today will help to encourage and strengthen your faith too.
Pastor Robert Voigt
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Sunday 5 July 2026
We come across those well-known words concerning this internal battle we all know and live as God’s people from Paul in Romans 7.
We do not do the good we want to do and do the very bad we don’t want to do!
There is internal spiritual power at work in our human needs and desires that wage war against our best intentions to live out those good ten commandments and it is frustrating.
Paul ends up crying out in frustration.
What can save us from this ‘body of death’; these internal desires that the evil one leverages against us to bring out the worst in us?
They turn God’s good law into something we want to ignore or hide away from. The very thing God gives to protect us and guide us only ends up accusing and killing us.
Will trying harder bring us hope and joy? Will giving up on God and his good will for us do it? Will singing a sad song lamenting our lack of noble character and our endless weakness do it? Will getting on the dancefloor at the wedding and dancing the dark away do it?
Paul leads us to the end of ourselves so we can begin with the Lord anew.
There is a way to live in the war with hopefulness, meaning and joy. Praying you receive it today.
As you prepare for worship you could ponder these thoughts:
Lord Jesus, I am weary of...
I keep trying to rescue myself by...
I hear you inviting me to...
Pastor Adrian
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Sunday 28 June 2026
Today we celebrate something of a uniquely Lutheran story. On July 24th, 1530 the leaders of that first rapidly growing movement of Catholic churches, newly centred on the gospel of Jesus as the only way to be made new in the grace of God (evangelical/gospel centred churches), got to speak that faith in full public view before the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in the fair city of Augsburg, Germany.
Their 28 part confession of their foundational beliefs, that were drawn straight from the existing catholic and biblical faith became known as the Augsburg Confession, and became the basic and foundational confession of faith for all people in Lutheran communities around the world.
We are part of that confession, and we have Bishop Andrew Brook bringing the Word to us this day.
May the Lord sure up our confession of faith so we bear his name well where he has placed us and God's love comes to life in more people in the community to which we are sent.
Pastor Adrian
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Sunday 21 June 2026
There is no doubt that everyone lives with varying fears. Jesus makes it very clear to his sent followers that fear will always be, even though they know him and have his promises for life beyond all fears. Just because we are Christians, does not mean that we don’t have to deal with all kinds of threats, conflicts, splits, and danger to body, mind and spirit.
It can sound a bit depressing. ‘Taking up this cross’ of faith in this kind of fear and suffering does not sound too positive! Then again, what would you prefer: fake promises of easy street living or honest truthful words about how things really are?
In this word of Jesus about the difficulties we face as his sent people in a hostile world, there is a higher message; a main message. Three times Jesus says it: ‘Do not fear’.
I am not sure what you are facing and fearing at the moment but his word to you is “Do not fear”.
He backs it up with an honest assessment of what we fear, what we face and how he enables us to remain hope-filled and faithful to his call.
May you receive his call and his assurance in anything you fear.
Pastor Adrian
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Sunday 14 June 2026
We call ourselves ‘sent ones’ because that is what we are named in Matthew’s gospel today.
Being named ‘sent ones’ raises that topic of ‘evangelism’ or ‘mission’. If there are two words that seem to create maximum guilt and/or fear in a church-person's heart, they are them!
But, today will be encouraging. We are sent for sure, but with no need of guilt and no fear of results.
For the first and only time in his telling of what he witnessed around Jesus, he names the followers of Jesus now becoming his ‘sent ones.
There is a definite plan here. Jesus, like any teacher has a method of teaching his people that will serve his mission and bring his vision of life to life.
Our text today marks one of those major shifts in training. The disciples are being sent out. Jesus’ mission to call all people to himself takes an expansive step.
And why is Jesus stepping up the training? Compassion. He sees the community as being harassed and scattered and he knows there is so much more for people and he is ready to harvest, ready to gather.
May Jesus gather you and send you as his sent person free from guilt or fear.
Pastor Adrian
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Sunday 7 June 2026
We enter into the long time of learning the Way of Jesus in this time after Pentecost. First cab off the rank today is that moment when Matthew is called to follow Jesus.
It must have been quite a surprise to Matthew, and to the two groups of people witnessing all this.
There would have been people who never thought the mercy of God would get close to someone like this ostracised disliked man, Matthew. He was definitely a sinner with big sins for all to see. Every day he strengthened the oppression of the community under brutal rule of the Empire by taking taxes from the local community and then pocketing some of the tax money for his own life project.
Some of the them would have marvelled at this flagrant mercy extended to such an obviously bad person with such big sins. Others would have been very upset that mercy like this should ever be extended to someone like that.
Jesus does this mercy-act of calling Matthew and then deals with the eyebrow raising it caused – the good and the bad.
To the bad people who are sensing joy that God could be this full of mercy to such a bad person (like they know they are), and to the good people who are deeply offended and angered that someone so bad could be treated as good (like they believe they have earned to be), Jesus reveals the heart of God.
I desire mercy, not sacrifice
Acknowledgement not burnt offerings (Hosea 6:6)
May you know the heart of God for you this morning.
Pastor Adrian
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Sunday 31 May 2026
“To Whom Will You Compare Me? Who Is My Equal?”
That’s the question God asked his people in Isaiah 46. He had cared for them before they were born and had promised to care for them “until your hair is white with age”. And the people had seen God’s power at work countless times in their history. They survived in the land of heathen people only because the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, loved and cared for them, no matter how many times they rebelled against him.
But they constantly turned to gods of stone and wood – to the man-made gods of the nations around them.
WHY?
There are many reasons, but I think one of the main ones is that the Israelites wanted a god they could understand - and manipulate. The gods were made in their own image, and so the character of each idol was similar to their own. These false gods could be bribed and they operated by set, strict rules – all determined by humans of course. And they could be seen, touched and kept close.
Archaeology has found thousands of these idols to prove this point.
By contrast the people could not see God or get close to him. He remained a complete mystery and could not be cajoled or bribed to do anyone’s will. Even though God remained faithful and served the people with grace and justice, they wanted something concrete to hang on to.
Today we still have a mystery about God that only became a little clearer in the New Testament. God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Bible never uses the word TRINITY but it’s the only word we humans can find to even begin to explain God.
But that brings us to the same temptation as the Israelites. We want to see, touch, smell, and know God. We find it so hard to embrace mystery – to accept that God has revealed all we need to know about him in the person of Jesus. “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you?” (John 14:9).
So how might our awesome, mysterious, all-knowing, all-powerful, ever-present, three-Persons-in-One God want us to respond today to his questions above?
Pastor Robert Voigt
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24 May 2026
It is Pentecost Sunday. We remember that first astonishing coming of the Spirit that set in motion a vast global and timeless new creation community, of which we are a part.
This is the victorious King Jesus now ascended to his throne of grace sharing the spoils of his victory. Praise the Lord!
It is not always easy to rejoice in other people’s giftedness. The temptation is to get ahead by being super-competitive, or opt out and miss out on or feel inferior even though you do have your own gifts.
How can we freely accept and enjoy other people’s gifts and not dismiss our own, but thank God for them all? Paul speaks into that today.
We are back in that rather interesting Christian community in Corinth as we hear Paul responding to their questions, and their troubles with the many spiritual gifts they seem to have received. They don’t seem to be doing a good job on handling these gifts. There is that old human problem of comparison, competition and therefore, conflict leading to faction within the Body. Never good.
We will hear some home truths about who we are and who God is and what those gifts he gives actually are – all grace.
We might also ponder how we are going when it comes to feeling inferior or superior in terms of gifts.
Paul is pretty clear that the main thing about any spiritual gift is not so much the gift itself, but what the gift proclaims about the Giver of those gifts.
Pastor Adrian
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We draw to the close of these 50 days of Easter as we witness that rather changing moment of Jesus’ ascension. It is hard for us to know what to do with this account Luke gives us – not just once but twice.
We don’t treat it anything like Christmas or Easter. And yet, it must be pretty important for it to end Luke’s account of Jesus and begin Luke’s account of how the church began in his Book of Acts.
I wonder if we downplay this part of Jesus’ mission because we struggle to make sense of it. Does Jesus go somewhere else or stay right here? How does he stay here? Where is heaven and why are the disciples told to not worry about looking for Jesus in the clouds but head back to their life in the city and wait?
It seems that our culture and maybe our own view of heaven is laced with ancient Greek thought – that heaven is some far off other-worldly place to which Jesus went.
The only way we get to bridge that vast chasm when we die is with our so called ‘eternal soul’. When we die our soul flies away (with Jesus?) and finds its home in some cloudy space…
This is not Luke’s truth. This is not Christian belief through the centuries. This ascension is all about the still human Jesus ascending, but not some far off world of floating souls, but rising to take up his rule here with us!
May you know his presence and his rule in your life and work with us to keep fulfilling his purpose for us to bear witness to him everywhere.
Pastor Adrian
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Sunday 10 May 2026
As this 50 days of Easter celebration winds to its conclusion, it might be easy to think that the best part of the church year and our life together is over and things will become a bit ‘ho-hum’.
How would it have been for those close to Jesus when he started talking very directly and pointedly about his imminent departure via suffering, cross and death! Surely a bit more serious than just worrying about things becoming ‘ho-hum!
How on earth would they cope? How on earth would they know what to do? Who would stick up for them, guide them, show them what to say and do, teach them so much more than they already knew?
In these questions and in this fear, Jesus does two things. He says that life will not go ‘down-hill’ after he goes and that if they just do what they saw him do, they will get through.
Jesus sems to know that everybody needs somebody sometimes and says we have that Someone all the time.
In all we face, we have this Advocate, this assistant, this Spirit of Jesus guiding, empowering, teaching, leading, protecting. We also have clear direction on how to go about it: Love as we have been loved and leave the rest to the Spirit!
Praying that you don’t live like an orphan, thinking you have got to make all this work out and make sense of everything.
Praying that you find great encouragement and strength for all you are facing in this ‘Paraclete’; this Advocate whom you have received in your baptism already.
Pastor Adrian
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Sunday 03 May 2026
Stop Running - Coming to God, not running away.
There is so much that we don’t understand about our relationship with God. For example, I will never fully comprehend the extent of God’s grace. And I’m sure it’s the same with you. We know the Bible tells us that Jesus has paid the full price for our sin (rebellion). We know that since we believe in Jesus as our Saviour we are now in a new relationship with God. In fact we are new creations! But we’re still sinful. We still disobey God. And when we become aware of our sin, we feel guilt and sorrow - which are not bad things. But then we are tempted to wonder if God will go on forgiving us. After all, we find it really hard to go on forgiving others for the same thing every time.
And the moment we doubt God’s mercy and grace is the moment that we turn away from the cross and rely on our good works instead. We think, ‘If we read the Bible more, spend more time praying, get more involved in the work of our congregation, be more loving, be nicer, go to church, we will be more worthy of God’s love and forgiveness.’ But that’s our sinful nature and the Tempter talking.
That is not how God’s plan of salvation works. Even if we have only a mustard-seed size faith, we are safe and secure in the grace of God. We don’t have to run away from God in fear. God calls us his children and that is what we are!! He says we are chosen, holy, authorised to come before his throne of grace every day (priests of the King) - and he calls us his special possession. So we can come to him without fear, knowing that Jesus paid the sacrifice for sin once for all – for all past, present and future sins! And that’s not meant to encourage us to take sin for granted. The story of humanity is one of running away from God – chasing other gods. But now the new life of the Spirit we have in Jesus is to be the motivation to declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Pastor Robert Voigt
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Sunday 26 April 2026
Jesus said he was the Good Shepherd before he was raised. He remains the same now that he is raised. It is Good Shepherd Sunday.
The Shepherd said he would lead his sheep into green pastures and living springs of water in this new creation. Today we catch a glimpse of what that green pasture and living water created in the hearts and minds of those gathered on that first Pentecost day when the church was born.
We catch a glimpse of a wonderful community of Word, prayer, eating and Lord’s Supper and sharing life together at all levels. It seems idyllic, but I am not sure it would have been.
There were people there from all over the world, all with their own stories and cultural differences, language boundaries, political views...
It seems that right from the beginning the church was solidly founded on the everlasting promises of God that Jesus delivered in full and yet, living in quite some chaos as new people join in, new hope springs up, new challenges of practical matters within and threats from outside would come.
The church seems to be solid and yet chaotic. At our best, are we always meant to be both – ‘solid chaos’?
Pastor Adrian
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19 April 2026 - Harvest Thanksgiving
Returning to Jesus and worshipping him is what that one out of ten healed people do the day that Jesus healed them all. We hear of that account today – the healing of the ten lepers.
It is Thanksgiving Sunday. Our lovely display of gifts to be given to others in need shows this.
Jesus healed a lot of people. Many things were said as he did those healing gifts. Today he uses this wonderful gift of healing. He gifts a return to a full life lived among family and friends for ten people healed. This brings something home to us about what his healing power and love can create in us – deep thankfulness and worship.
That is what the guy who came back to Jesus does. He thanks Jesus for the new life and worships him as Saviour. There is no doubt that this is what Jesus’ hopes for in a response from people he has touched, saved, healed and called to be with him.
That is us. We are the ‘one’s’ who came back. We are here giving thanks to Jesus and worshipping him as our Saviour this very day.
I am thankful today. I may not always be thankful, but I am today, both for the new life Jesus gave me long ago and has sustained me in up to this day. I am thankful for where he did this and where he has sustained the purpose and hope and joy of his healing love and life in me – among you! Among his church. And here at St Petri.
I am thankful for this church. I will share some reason for that and hope to inspire you to be thankful and worship Jesus yourself, like the one leper who came back. Because from there comes; generosity of spirit, willingness to pay the price of telling of Jesus in our lives, courage to make changes to look out, reach out, go out and be instruments of God, calling people home to this healing grace of this resurrected Servant King.
Pastor Adrian
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12 April 2026
We often give Thomas a hard time. “Doubting Thomas,” we say - as though he alone missed the memo. But it’s worth noticing: Thomas isn’t alone in doubting. He’s just the only one honest enough to say it out loud. No-one expected the resurrection. No matter how many times Jesus had spoken about his death and his resurrection to follow, no one heard him. They may have heard his words, but none believed them.
The women went there to complete the burial. The disciples were hunkered down without even checking whether Jesus might have possibly spoken truly. Everyone in the accounts is puzzled, mystified, and confused. They remained spiritually blind to what had happened.
Now place Thomas (as the representative of us all) alongside another man in John’s Gospel — the man born blind in John 9. We heard about him only a few weeks back, on March 15th.
Here are two men: one cannot see, the other can. Yet strangely, it’s the blind man who comes to see clearly, and the sighted man who acts as though he’s blind.
The blind man begins in darkness, but when Jesus meets him, his sight unfolds step by step. First, “the man called Jesus,” then “a prophet,” and finally, “Lord”—and he worships. His eyes are opened, but more importantly, so is his faith.
Thomas, on the other hand, begins with sight. He has seen Jesus, walked with him, heard him. But after the cross, his world collapses. Sight isn’t enough. He wants evidence—“Unless I see… unless I touch…” You can almost hear him: “I’m not falling for wishful thinking.” In these actions he’s acting like a blind man, who must touch and feel his way through the world.
And here’s the grace: Jesus meets both men exactly where they are. He doesn’t leave them where they are, but he meets them where they are. So also, with us. Jesus meets us where we are to take us to where he is. He’s not interested in leaving us unchanged.
So also, for the two men: mud, spit and water for one; wounds and words for the other. No scolding. No dismissal. Just his transforming presence. Because in the end, both men arrive at the same place: not merely seeing… but believing.
Perhaps the real question is not whether we see or don’t see - but whether we know that we are seen by Christ.
If we know that, everything changes.
Dr Noel Due
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29 March 2026
We welcome you to this Palm Sunday gathering called and powered by the Spirit of God for encouragement and equipping in Jesus’ kingdom mission. We are glad you are here.
The 40 day journey to the joy of Easter Day continues with an extra shot of good news to help us on our way as we go deeper into that poem of poems – the Book of the prophet Isaiah.
The people in the city that Palm Sunday expressed their pure joy at the arrival of the one they believed to be “The Anointed One”, the “Messiah” (Saviour) long promised by Isaiah seven hundred years before this day, under his name for the same – The Servant.
The joy of the welcome will not last. It never really has. Isaiah tells the story in blunt truth: God’s people have never really welcomed God’s plans, intent, will, or direction for too long in any full way.
Nothing has changed. Within a week, we assume many of the people laying down palms branches and jackets on the road before Jesus on his little donkey, will be shouting “Crucify him’ with one voice to Pilate.
What will change this fickle faith for good?
Not our love or lack of. But, “… my unfailing love for you will not be shaken”, says the Lord. He will show us his unfailing certain permanent love at Holy Week, when the palms fall silent.
Pastor Adrian Kitson
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4 April 2026
We gather over this weekend to celebrate who we are because what God has done for us in this Suffering Servant, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God.
Christians have always known that the crucifixion, death and resurrection is the very heart of our hope and our motivation for living out the love of this Servant.
St Paul famously puts it bluntly: “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” (1 Corinthians 15:13)
But he goes on to say – Jesus has been raised from the dead by the mighty resurrecting power of the Father and because of that, everything has changed and is still changing.
This weekend is not just about feeling sorry for our bad behaviour or being assured that “we will go to heaven when we die”. This celebration confirms that a whole new creation has began that day that death died and God’s new life, based on his goodness and love, not ours, is now here!
This Suffering Servant we have been hearing of from the prophet Isaiah is still serving and suffering with us and says he will continue to lead us on to the final resurrection at the last when suffering will finally cease and death will be a distant memory.
Enjoy the story. Enjoy his presence. Enjoy the love of the Father poured out in the Son by the power of the Spirit as you ponder the suffering and the triumph once again.
Pastor Adrian Kitson
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22 March 2026
We are walking through one of the four Servant Songs in that ‘5th gospel’- the book of Isaiah. We are in chapter 53, and we come across something new that has not been said so far by Isaiah.
Isaiah has been telling us that God has a dilemma. He loves his people, but they are incapable of loving him back. This is not new. From the Garden to Noah to Abraham to Moses to king David and beyond, with kings and without kings, with land and without land, God’s people have constantly failed to live in this life-long covenant relationship of love with the Lord.
At first, in Isaiah, it seems that God is going to attempt to make his people the Servant of the world that they were always meant to be. The Servant seems to be Israel.
But now, in this middle part of Isaiah, something new is announced. The Servant will actually be a person. The Lord is going send a new king. But this king will be totally different to the way kings usually are. His kingship will be marked by serving and his serving of the world and God will be marked by suffering for the world not dominating the world.
And one more new thing: for the first time we hear that this suffering servant will not only suffer. He will rise. I pray you ponder the wonderful Servant Jesus who serves you this day so that his love rises within you.
Pastor Adrian Kitson
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15 March 2026
What does it mean to truly see? This Sunday we explore how the Light of the world opens our eyes - not simply to the world around us, but to Jesus himself.
In John 9, Jesus heals a man who has never seen the light of day. Neuroscience tell us that this was a multiple-layered miracle. Not only did his optical equipment begin to work; but his neurones must have been instantly re-wired so that he could interpret what he saw.
What follows is more than a miracle story. It is a sign. It becomes a searching paradox about sight and blindness - about who truly sees and who does not. And who enables that paradox to be resolved.
The man born blind gradually comes to see more clearly: first a man called Jesus, then a prophet, and finally the Son of Man worthy of worship. Meanwhile, those who are certain they can see become increasingly blind. Their confidence in their own vision prevents them from recognising the Light standing before them. But it is not about ‘them’ and ‘their’ blindness. It is about us and ours. Our confidence in our own abilities, sight, and understanding lead us to unbelief, not faith.
By contrast Jesus does not judge by ‘what his ears hear or his eyes see’. He discerns things truly. He sees through to the heart. He knows what is needed, cutting through all the play-acting of our self-righteous posturing.
This story is framed by two of Jesus’ great sayings: “I am the light of the world” and “I am the good shepherd.” In this encounter we see both truths lived out. Jesus brings light to us who lived in darkness, and like a shepherd he seeks us out. The healed may was rejected, ‘cast out’, from his own family and people, But the Good Shepherd finds him, to bring him home to the Father. So he did for him. So he does for us.
Dr Noel Due
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08/03/2026
There are four songs about this ‘Servant’ in Isaiah. We are in one of them in Chapter 53.
Today's verses are pure gold for the Christian. They are like a golden neon sign beaming out a message of hope when we are at our very worst and when we are trying to be at our very best.
Luther named these verses as describing something central, something foundational to the whole bible and to our whole life. He called this ‘the wonderful exchange’ where the ‘Servant’ takes our sin and gives us his peace; where the Servant takes our disease and gives us his healing.
Trouble is, we find it very hard to allow him to do this! To allow the Servant Jesus to take your sin you need to know you are dead in it. To allow him to take your disease, you need to know you are sick unto death and need him to give you his gifts.
I am praying that you hear the truth about your disease and the gift of his healing; the truth of your idol making heart and the gift of his heart of love for you.
Pastor Adrian
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01/03/2026
We are hearing the Prophet Isaiah as we hear Jesus go to that cross this Lent. Issiah is often called the ‘Fifth Gospel’ since the gospel writers draw so deeply from his poetic, colourful words about the Servant, whom they knew to be Jesus of Nazareth.
We are seeking some depth and colour and new insight into the Jesus we already know by hearing the Prophet who foresaw his world-changing work seven hundred years before Jesus appeared.
Isaiah’s ‘Servant’ is God’s solution to the age-old problem of God loving his people and his people not able to love him back. God wants to keep his life-long covenant of love with his people alive, but his people have a long history of being incapable of responding with love and trust in his covenant promises of new life for all of life and beyond.
God will send his Servant as his new king of a whole new kingdom, a whole new creation. But he will be different. The character of his kingship will be suffering. He will be named the Suffering Servant. His suffering and rejection will be a sacrifice for all those who have rejected him.
This ‘Servant will be the king most people don’t want. He will look as weak as a gum sapling growing in the hot summer sun.
But that little shoot is tough. It pops up in unexpected places and outlast the toughest conditions.
Ponder the Servant in all his seeming weakness. His weakness is our life and hope.
Pastor Adrian Kitson
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22/02/2026
We welcome Pastor Mark Schultz from LCANZ International Mission today. Pastor Mark and I worked together in the fair city of Auckland, New Zealand, some 25 years ago and have been friends ever since. He spent two decades forging a different way for Lutherans to be church in mission in the vast city of Sydney, serving at Lifeway Lutheran Church in Epping and other sites. Pastor Mark will be preaching God’s Word for us and sharing where we are headed.
Diagnostic tools are found on computers and used by mechanics, health professionals, teachers, coaches, and employers. Their purpose is to determine a fault, exclude an illness, gain insight, highlight vulnerabilities, identify causes, aid in self-understanding, monitor situations, restore to original condition, promote well-being, and improve life. They are gifts for our journey.
In our discipleship walk, there is a diagnostic tool we all have at hand that identifies emptiness, exposes vulnerabilities, highlights faults, and gives insight into those deep places of the soul that need restoration so we can experience the new thing God is doing.
More than simply providing diagnostics, it also shows us the solution that propels us forward to fulfil God’s plan, purpose, and mission in the world.
We hope you can join us in God’s workshop and discover the blessing of this diagnostic discipleship tool. We look forward to sharing with you and the people of St Petri.
Pastor Mark Schultz
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It is Transfiguration Day again. It marks the beginning of the Lenten season now close.
There is much in Matthew’s telling of the extraordinary events experienced by some rather overwhelmed disciples. One thing I notice this time around that it is a day of vision.
Peter, James and John are privy to a moment of expanded magnificent vision of how things really are when God pull back the curtain on our very limited view of our lives – even just for one stunning moment.
The vison given is about who we are and what we are here for. The vision is for Christians of all time as it was for just those three and even for Jesus himself.
He and they would need this vision of past, present and future love and life in God. They are about to go down that hill to a dark Jerusalem. They will need every memory of this fear and wonder and joy they got to experience before all the intense, hard experienced coming their way.
Vision does that for you. It tells you are God’s loved man or woman. It shows you that you are never alone. But in fact, part of a large global timeless family and it points you to task.
And the only way to receive this vision of light and new light for any darkness is via listening – listening to the Son; the crucified, risen and ruling Son.
I pray you can listen to him today and regain that vision for who you are and what you are here for as you live this journey of light no matter how dark things get.
Pastor Adrian
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08/02/2026
Big questions come along in life. Things happen, things change, transitions come and with them, questions.
Questions like:
• What kind of person do you want me to be, God?
• What kind of things do you want me to do, God?
• What does God want my heart and life and directions to be centred on or shaped by the most?
• How do I know that what I am living is God-pleasing, and right and true?
God’s people were asking these kind of questions after they finally begun to recover their nation, their city, their temple and the whole way of life after the return from Exile.
They seemed to want to factor the Lord into their new life and thought they were doing all the right things he required as they attended to all the expectations of temple worship.
Problem was, they were only scratching the surface of things. They were outwardly observing religious things while daily doing damage by doing unjust things.
They wanted a bigger life and yet, they did not seem to be able to see what the Lord means by a big life and how he provides that life.
We pray you receive God’s word today as both a challenge but also for the purpose of enabling you to live his big life where he has placed you.
Pastor Adrian
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2026-02-01
As Epiphany season draws to a close, we hear of the first happening post-birth even in Jesus’ young life – the day he was presented to the priests at the Jerusalem temple, in accordance with the requirements of God’s Law in the Old Testament.
The day is often named ‘The presentation of Jesus’, for obvious reasons. But there is more than a simple ‘presentation’ going on. It is actually quite a big moment that says a lot about who Jesus is and what he will bring to the world.
The old man Simeon’s words are key. We know these words in song – ‘The Song of Simeon’ which has been sung by millions in liturgy and prayer for millennia.
Simeon takes this baby in his arms and speaks with prophetic voice and a deep peace.
29 ‘… Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. 30 For my eyes have seen your salvation, 31 which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.’ (Luke 2: 29-32)
Praying that Simeon’s song is your song today – a song of deep peace in this boy for your living, your struggle, your challenges, and even your dying.
Take the baby today!
Pastor Adrian
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Sunday 28th Dec
This Advent and Christmas we have been hearing two voices shedding different light on the stunning reality that Christians hold in their hearts – God is in the Manger. Dietrich Bonhoeffer reflects on this good news of which Isaiah speaks hundreds of years before it came to be. They are the voices. Isaiah is the speaker of God’s truth long before it comes to be and Bonhoeffer is a Christian in extreme circumstances in which he would eventually lose his life for his faith in WWII. He writes from Tegel prison in Berlin in 1943-44. In a Nazi military prison cell with no presents to give, no Christmas turkey to eat, and no gathering of faith in which to participate, Bonhoeffer likens the whole Christian life to the season of Advent – a life of waiting with alertness and trust in the coming promises of God.
That gift of Jesus – Saviour – God in that manger is the only thing that counts. Isaiah’s words speak of all those promises in grand style – water in the desert, justice for the poor, celebration in the land, no more crying anymore… The promises are more real than ever now that God has delivered himself into our human hands and cleanses our dirty hands of sin and guilt and shame once and for all. We pray that this God in the manger gives you what Isaiah foretold and Bonhoeffer clung to – hope – hope in our troubled families, relationships, loneliness, grief, marriages, workplaces and wide world. God is in the Manger – light is here in our darkness, hope is here in any despair, joy is here in all circumstances. Merry Christmas and happy New Year!
Pastor Adrian Kitson
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God is in the Manger – light is here in our darkness, hope is here in any despair, joy is here in all circumstances.
Pastor Adrian Kitson
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God is in the Manger – light is here in our darkness, hope is here in any despair, joy is here in all circumstances.
Pastor Adrian Kitson
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God is in the Manger – light is here in our darkness, hope is here in any despair, joy is here in all circumstances.
Pastor Adrian Kitson
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This Advent and Christmas we have been hearing two voices shedding different light on the stunning reality that Christians hold in their hearts – God is in the Manger.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer reflects on this good news of which Isaiah speaks hundreds of years before it came to be. They are the voices.
Isaiah is the speaker of God’s truth long before it comes to be and Bonhoeffer is a Christian in extreme circumstances in which he would eventually lose his life for his faith in WWII. He writes from Tegel prison in Berlin in 1943-44.
In a Nazi military prison cell with no presents to give, no Christmas turkey to eat, and no gathering of faith in which to participate, Bonhoeffer likens the whole Christian life to the season of Advent – a life of waiting with alertness and trust in the coming promises of God. That gift of Jesus – Saviour – God in that manger is the only thing that counts.
Isaiah’s words speak of all those promises in grand style – water in the desert, justice for the poor, celebration in the land, no more crying anymore…
The promises are more real than ever now that God has delivered himself into our human hands and cleanses our dirty hands of sin and guilt and shame once and for all.
We pray that this God in the manger gives you what Isaiah foretold and Bonhoeffer clung to – hope – hope in our troubled families, relationships, loneliness, grief, marriages, work-places and wide world.
God is in the Manger – light is here in our darkness, hope is here in any despair, joy is here in all circumstances.
Merry Christmas and happy New Year!
- Pastor Adrian
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We are hearing two voices to hopefully see and hear God speaking in a way that helps us receive the glory and splendour of what he did in being in that manger.
Isaiah breaks into a glorious and splendid, good news word this morning. In his words that paint many pictures, he will try and break through our normal Christmas expectations to show us the glory and splendour of Jesus.
Like the sun rising for another day, we shall know that in Jesus, we are OK and will be OK, no matter what happens around us.
God’s people really needed to hear these words when they were first spoken seven hundred years before John the Baptist and Jesus appeared.
Their good life was completely destroyed. Home lost, community de-constrcuted, nation taken away and under the thumb of a neighbouring super-power.
Why? Human deafness, blindness, lack of speech concerning the loyalty, power and love of the Lord. Isaiah regularly hits the people with this hard truth.
And then a shaft of light that outshines fear and hopelessness and pride. That is what we shall know today – hope in our despair and for our pride.
May you watch and wait for this hope in where you are facing.
Pastor Adrian Kitson
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We are hearing two voices to help us see something new in this God in the manger this Christmas. We are hearing the prophet Isaiah speak of this world-shifting event of “The Servant” arriving to serve the world in love some seven hundred years prior to it happening.
We are hearing a Lutheran pastor and eventual martyr under national Socialist regime in WWII speak from his two Advents and Christmases in Tegel prison, Berlin, in 1943 and 44.
Today we hear that God is mysterious. Isaiah speaks of wonderful and mysterious images that try and describe just how world-changing and heart-changing this Christmas event really is.
Bonhoeffer speaks of the resistance we have to how God operates. He refuses to be boiled down to just what we can get out of him or how we can figure things out. He works in places that defy our logic and are beyond our ability to understand everything.
And yet, he has appeared in that manger, and we have been changed by this God in the manger.
The Advent call goes out. John the Baptist calls from his wilderness. Get serious. Take the time. Stop simply getting from God or having to figure it all out. God in the manger is here.
Pastor Adrian
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How do we cope with waiting? This week we hear that there is great value in our waiting. It is in waiting that we hear the invitation to let this Jesus in the manger into our lives. Will we let him into our various questions and troubles and needs? If we can and when we do, we can find the joy in believing in Jesus again.
Pastor Adrian
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As the year’s end comes up you might find yourself beginning to think over your year. How has the year gone? How did I do when it comes to our plans, retirement, goals we set, things we did and if we are doing paid work - how is my work going?
Paul speaks into this area of our life in Christ. He speaks of work today.
There seems to have been a bit of a ‘work’ problem in the Christian community in Thessalonica. It does not seem to be an unemployment problem, but a heart problem when it comes to work that was available. For various reasons, a significant number of people in the church were refusing to engage in honest work. As a result, there was trouble in the church. They were doing ‘work’ but very unruly and unhelpful work – ‘the work of busybodies”.
Paul raises up God’s gift of work in an attempt to help people see its high value and its good so that they neither under-work or over-work, but simply enjoy work because it is God’s design and gift for us who benefit from all the work God has done and is still doing for his world, of which we are part.
Praying you find purpose and joy in what you are doing at the moment as you get a ‘bigger picture’ of your plans, your goals, your hopes and your work.
Pastor Adrian
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We come to the Last Sunday of the church year before we switch to that season of waiting and watching for the celebration of the coming of the Saviour.
We hear one of those parables Jesus tells to address a particular issue. In this case, it is the issue of how we Christians deal with the end of the world as we know it – the day that all the world and all the church will finally be fulfilled; or completed. In other words, ‘the end of the world’.
Some around Jesus are thinking that this is it. They are on the way to the city. Things are getting hot in the kitchen. People are challenging Jesus. Jesus is speaking about suffering and dying and rising. Jesus is challenging some. Some don’t like that. Some love it. Could this be it?
I have forgotten how many times I have heard so many people say ‘the world must be coming to an end’ and ‘Jesus must be coming back soon’. We do observe the world in all its trouble, suffering and lack of love and truth and we wonder...
What does the ending do to our living? How do Christians live knowing there is an ending?
Praying you find great comfort in Jesus’ word today and a reason to keep going until the day he completes everything.
Pastor Adrian
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It is strange how the people around Jesus who seemed to have the most trouble receiving his authority over their life were the people who were very religious.
We hear from the Sadducees, who were a group of experts in theology, driven by the law. They try to trap Jesus in their conversation. Jesus responds briefly and clearly, and we get to be re-affirmed in this sure hope of resurrection that we share.
Listen for the hope and allow the One who has authority over you to power your life.
Pastor Adrian
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It is All Saints Day. This is the day to remember and give thanks for who we have lost. It is also a day to remember and give thanks for whose we are and who we are – saints.
Hard to believe that we are saints. Often, we hear that word ‘saint’ and think “that’s not me!”. Saints are good people, extra humble people, people who can pray all the time and be so kind all the time, aren’t they?
That title, ‘saint’ is something you earn, don’t you? You need to display kindness, humility, prayerfulness, intellect, understanding a cut above the rest.
What if none of this was true, except that name ‘saint’? And what if that name, that title, was fully yours despite your lack of kindness, intelligence, understanding, prayer and courage?
Maybe being a saint is not what you earn but what is given to you. Maybe being a saint is not being good but being new, day by day. Maybe the name is not something you earn but a title that is gifted to all of us by a Holy One beyond us who truly knows us?
May you be ‘sainted’ again today!
Pastor Adrian
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“The just shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:17)
Bishop Paul says: Martin Luther’s great reformation discovery was “the big arrow down” of God acting gracious “down” to us. Not humankind climbing a ladder of good works up to God.
For Martin Luther, this good news of the grace of God changed our day-to-day living. Rather than being afraid that God was angry with us and striving to appease God, we were “free” to serve as we have been served. Our daily life was a vacation wherever we were serving.
Christian faith, founded on this word and promise of our gracious God, carries us through life into death, anticipating the fulfilment of the gift of eternal life in the place that the Lord has prepared for us. Luther’s great discovery was “the just” “shall live” “by faith”.
LCANZ Bishop Paul Smith
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There is a lot in a name and no matter what name calling you might hear from others or even what name you may give yourself, God has a name for you. He gives us all names - his names: names like he gave Jacob - true, affirming, future-filled, hopeful.
Pastor Adrian Kitson
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We come across a familiar account of a 1 in 10 chance today. Ten very unwell and isolated people receive way more than they bargained for from Jesus but only one of them really ‘sees’ Jesus and responds wholeheartedly. It is the story of the 10 lepers. Even though it is a miraculous moment, Luke tells it in a way that at first seems fairly ‘standard’ for those around Jesus. They had seen this before.
Person cries out to Jesus for healing a disease. Jesus responds positively.
He tells them to head to the medical and legal people (priests at the temple) to confirm that they are now clean and OK to return to their life with family, work, friends, home…
But there is a new thing… One person really gets what has been given. One person really sees Jesus for who he actually is and he gains much more than mere physical healing.
He is so changed by what he sees that he does a 180 turn and heads back out to the borderland from where he came and does something extraordinary on two counts. He prostrated himself in the dirt at Jesus feet in an act of worship and he just happens to be non-Jewish.
So, we have a total outsider as the only one in this border country who really sees who Jesus is – the new place of worship – not Mt Gerazim in Samaria or even Mt Zion in Jerusalem. The new place of life and hope and healing of the whole person is now a person. Not a place.
Can you see?
Pastor Adrian
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We often take love, kindness, and relationships for granted, letting them lose their joy and passion. The same can happen in our Christian life when faith becomes routine. True growth means striving to be more like Jesus through love, care, and quiet acts of service. While we can’t always live on emotional highs, we must keep nurturing our faith daily, not just on Sundays.
Pastor Robert Voigt
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Every human heart is on a treasure hunt. Some chase wealth, others chase security, others chase recognition or comfort. Paul, in this closing chapter of 1 Timothy, draws our eyes away from false treasures to the true riches found only in Christ.
And this is not just a ‘down in the city’ problem. Here in the Barossa, surrounded by vines, wineries, businesses, and land passed down through generations, there’s no shortage of opportunities to trust wealth, reputation, or property as if they were secure foundations. Whether you’re a retiree living off super and savings, or a family holding land worked for decades, the temptation is the same: “If only I have enough, then I’ll be safe.”
We are reminded that true contentment and eternal riches come not from what we store in the bank or hand on to the kids, but from Christ Himself.
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After several short stints which have seen us journey through the Letter to the Galatians over twelve Sundays, we complete the journey today.
We hear Paul signing off to the people he loves and wants the best. He has tried to convince them to stick to what they first believed about Jesus and not cave in to the old nature within them or the surrounding pagan culture or those wanting them to adopt Jewish ceremony and Law to be assured that they are safe and secure in God’s grace and free to live in those marvellous fruit of the Holy Spirit.
Now he reminds us of this and then makes it very clear that this Christian gospel life is a team sport! They will need each other to grow in the gospel character and way.
Paul is ever the realist. He knows the human heart. He tackles the problem that all churches and all Christians have – Conceit and envy. Both are lethal to the freedom we share in Jesus’ grace.
In our insecurity and lack of trust in God’s word in Christ, we can easily fall into thinking ourselves to be ‘honourless and without glory’ as we constantly fixate our ears on what other people say and do in the drive to find that glory; that honour and worth. We either become conceited or envious, and neither are necessary for the person of gospel freedom
Praying to receive that good news of life and hope for yourself today so that you can be part of the team that sustains us all.
Pastor Adrian
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How do we cope with that struggle within? Our earthly longings and desires and the internal desire of the Holy Spirit within us to bring the glory, beauty and love of Jesus to our hearts day by day. This tussle with human wayward attitudes and behaviours can be a place where Holy Spirit can grow good fruit!
Pastor Adrian
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Who are the people of God's promise? What is the gift of "living in freedom" and how do we keep being "free"? Pastor Adrian shares some insights as to how we can stand in that freedom for all that we are facing.
Pastor Adrian
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Family is important. I think we all know this and spend a lot of time supporting our family in a lot of different ways. This is good. God has put us in families for our wellbeing and for the good of the world.
Paul takes up his strong encouragement to these Christians in the Galatians churches to resist going down the road of keeping the Jewish Old Testament Law of God to try and earn God’s favour and blessing and return to how they began with him in the good news, that they are free to live in God’s favour and blessing by faith in Jesus, not keeping the Law.
Here he draws the people into an allegory about family that the Jewish ‘gospel +’ protagonists would surely know. He heads back to Sarah and Abraham and that account of Hagar giving birth to Ishmael.
Paul starts out where the protagonists might expect but then does a ‘switcheroo’ with this well-known story to turn the tables on them. Instead of regarding these law-keeping Jewish Christians as being in the family of promise, as they believe they surely are, he ends up telling them that by going back to keeping the law as a way of being sure of their peace and hope with God, they are in fact slaves who are placing themselves outside God’s new family of promise.
For those who simply believe what they hear of Jesus and his crucified and risen love for them, the privilege of being in this vast, timeless family of God (the church) is fully theirs.
Our genes or nationality or behaviour do not determine belonging in God’s family of promise. God’s promise delivered in Jesus determines our belonging in this family of faith.
I pray you can believe this and experience the joy of belonging to this global, timeless family of grace.
Pastor Adrian
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We work hard to achieve and to be very good and strive to perform well and live life under our own steam, maybe trying to earn blessing and hope and identity in our lives. Whilst this can be good, we can also become slaves to this. Pastor Adrian shares a message of gospel freedom. Freedom to be free from people pleasing, having to perform and achieve. Free to enjoy lasting peace and joy in our hearts through our all-loving God and his saving work through Jesus.
Pastor Adrian Kitson
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Did you know that together we're part of a story? It's a baton-race that is being written right now.
And now we are running a leg of that faith relay right here in Nuriootpa. We're here with a purpose. Backed by a great cloud of Christian witnesses and by grace through faith, we can now finish our race with our eyes fixed on Jesus.
Paul Ridley
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Millions, maybe billions, have died for the cause of “freedom”. Every year, we remember those who fought and died for the civil freedom we have today. And rightly so.
There are examples of non-Christians making great sacrifices and doing wonderful acts of service to others. But when we are controlled by the Spirit, our service takes on a unique meaning. Because you are not your own; you were bought at a price, we now see that serving others is actually serving Jesus. And loving and serving one another in our Christian communities is one of the clearest witnesses that we follow the One who gave up everything for us.
Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
Pastor Robert Voigt
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Possessions in themselves are not a problem. Problems come through our attitude and relationship to our possessions. God knows we need many things to get through life. He is our dear Father, and he graciously provides our needs and gifts us with the ability to take care of ourselves and our families. We came into the world with empty hands and we will leave with empty hands. There is nothing we have accumulated in this life that we can take with us. While what we have is good for life here and now, it has no lasting and eternal value.
Our character is formed through our experiences in life. Seeing his presence and activity in our lives and returning to him with thankful hearts. And trusting in him when we cannot understand what is happening to us and around us. Through
these experiences Jesus draws us to himself so that we grow and become more like him.
Pastor Gus Schutz
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I need reminders every day that I am saved by grace through faith in Jesus alone, and that I also exist by grace to live by faith in Christ alone. The Holy Spirit, our Helper and Encourager, has gifted us to live for Jesus, and grows within us the fruit to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
As Christians, we know this. And yet we are still tempted to want the law to tell us what to do. It’s easier to obey a simple, clear law than to have to work out for ourselves what freedom in Christ means for us in our lives. God has called us into community. And we are reminded again today that we are called to follow Jesus, so that, like him, we are free to offer our lives in the service of others.
Pastor Robert Voigt
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We are in familiar territory this morning – in the home of Jesus’ close friends, Mary and Martha. We hear of their different ways of serving their Lord, and we get the sense that Martha struggles with that invisible line we all have close to us: crossing the line from faithful and joyful service to her friends and her Lord, to angry, stressed and grudging service.
There is a lot to do in life. The ever-present pull of that stressful thing called ‘busy’ is always around. But who is the problem when it comes to crossing that line, ‘busy’ itself or you and I who choose to be too ‘busy’?
Jesus names our struggle but then gives us his solution to angry or begrudging service. Mary shows us that solution. Praying you can attend to ‘the one thing needful’ in your life today. He is here!
Russ Hansen
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I wonder how you think you ensure your life is blessed and goes well?
It is very common for people to believe that it is all about doing the right thing, knowing the right things and avoiding the bad things. If you do all that, then you get some blessing and goodness in your life.
Problem is, it does not always go that way. Good people suffer unfair and bad things.
What of the blessing and wellness of you and your life was not founded on your doing all the right things, but on God doing his good and gracious thing in Jesus?
Pastor Adrian
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I wonder how you think you ensure your life is blessed and goes well?
It is very common for people to believe that it is all about doing the right thing, knowing the right things and avoiding the bad things. If you do all that then you get some blessing and goodness in your life.
Problem is, it does not always go that way. Good people suffering unfair and bad things.
What of the blessing and wellness of you and your life was not founded on your doing all the right things but on God doing his good and gracious thing in Jesus?
Hope he blesses you with his gracious favour this weekend.
Pastor Adrian Kitson
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A lot of people know that faith in the grace of God in Jesus is the crucial thing for living this life with sure hope and a bright future even beyond suffering and death.
But it is very easy to leave this life-giving thing on the shelf as we search for other things; deeper things; wiser things…. to sure up our confidence.
But it is very easy to find ourselves right back in keeping rules and expectations of others or ourselves, to find confidence and peace for living.
We will hear that it is never good to leave the gospel behind. It is also true that the gospel never leaves us behind.
Praying that you hear that gospel this weekend and are sured up and fully filled with the hope and peace only Jesus can bring.
Pastor Adrian Kitson
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Comparing ourselves to others is deadly for living freely together.
We can make our own story, our own likes and dislikes and our culture’s divisions and expectations way too much, and the all-encompassing acceptance and love of God in Jesus way too small.
This leads to hypocritical living and divisions that cause much pain and fear.
How would it be if we could be free enough to love enough? How would it be if no matter who we were we were loved and could love?
We will talk about staying free from making comparisons but being to live freely among everyone this weekend.
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It is the Sunday we ponder and celebrate the uniqueness of God and the Christian confession of faith about him. It is Holy Trinity Sunday.
It is a difficult thing to try and ponder how God can be altogether one and yet also altogether three. Even the best illustrations of the three-leaf clover or water ice and steam experiment or a tricycle and etc don’t do this mystery any justice.
Better to just marvel at God and let him be who he has revealed he is.
We do that today as we also reflect on other beliefs about who God is that abound in our culture. There are many beliefs about who God is. We humans search for God but often don’t listen to what he has revealed about himself in the pages of his Word, but rather, make him in our own image.
One of the current images we have of God seems to be a God who is just making sure the world keeps on ticking. He is distant and impersonal. Another one is that God is here to meet our every need whenever we need it. Another one is that God is meant to help all of us unravel our internal issues and gain help and healing on the inside as we navigate life.
Holy Trinity Sunday is a day to marvel at who God says he is and how good he is and how that makes this life worthwhile and full of hope and love.
Pastor Adrian
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Everyone has got problems. We all try to deal with them with some mind of grace.
Sunday was Pentecost Day. It is the day we celebrate how the risen Jesus delivered on his promise to fill us with new life, new hope and give us a sure future in his grace.
But we tend to think that all our problems are outside of us and the only way to fix them is to draw what we can from inside of us.
Not true. Our hope and help and healing come from that rushing wind; those tongues of fire; those words about all the mighty acts of that God has ever done that fill the hearts of thousands of people from all over the known world in that city of Jerusalem on this Day of Pentecost.
Love you to share the wonder and get the help!
Pastor Adrian Kitson
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We have made it to the end of another Easter Season. Does that mean we have come to the end of Jesus? It can seem that Jesus has indeed departed to some other ‘spirit’ place as if he has no place in this place – until the end when ‘we will all go to heaven’ and somehow be with him wherever he is.
If that is the case, what are we meant to be and do now? Are we just waiting around doing nothing in particular, just waiting for our eventual end? And what is Jesus doing – just setting the place up waiting for the guests to arrive one day?
I suspect we all want God to do more in the here and now.
We know our sorrows and pains and regrets. We know the trouble of the world. We know the darkness of evil within and without. In moments of real searching, I suspect you have called out “Where are you God!?”.
I am sure Luke wants to give you confidence when these moments come. I am sure he wants to challenge the common belief that Jesus is now removed or just spiritual; unconcerned with our bodies and our work and our day. Luke tells of this ascension moment not only as an end of Jesus’ ‘earthly ministry’ but the beginning of his still earthly ministry! This ascension moment is like a detonator for faith, hope and love in your life.
Praying that you get fired up for your living this resurrection life once more today.
Pastor Adrian.
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There is a question that seems odd to our ears in the gospel account of Jesus healing a man living with a long-term debilitating disability. This man has been living poolside for 38 years. He has been seeking healing in the intermittent bubbling up of the water at the pool of Bethezda – the ‘house of mercy’. But it does not sound like the place is built on mercy! It sounds more like we are used to – an ‘every person for themselves’, competitive, ‘dog eat dog’ kind of life because no matter how hard he tries, the guy cannot get into that pool when its healing waters bubble up.
But there comes this day when healing will be given by other means – the word of Jesus. And it all begins with this strange question... “Do you want to be healed?”; strange question asked of a man who says he has been trying to find healing for nearly four decades! I wonder what Jesus is seeking from this man. I wonder what he is seeing in this man. I wonder what he is hearing in this man’s heart and what his healing gift really does and means.
Praying that you respond to his heart-question today: “Do you want to be healed?”
Pastor Adrian Kitson
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Human beings love to erect boundaries. In Jesus day, there was a big barrier between Jew and non Jew. Today, we have our own barriers that separate people on social, racial and political lines.
So you can imagine the scene when Peter meets with the leaders, and they have concerns about boundaries. “You mean you went into Gentiles houses. You ate with them. You baptized them!! But they need to become one of us. They need to be circumcised to enter the covenant”.
So Peter told them a story - the story of what God had showed him. He told them the story of a vision of a sheet with all sorts of animals and a voice that says, “Kill and eat”. Peter, a good Jewish man, could not eat an unclean animal. It’s against the Jewish law. It’s a barrier that dare not be crossed. But the voice replied “Do not consider anything unclean that God has declared clean.”
The vision was not really about food at all. It was about people. The Gentiles, who good Jewish people saw as unclean don’t need to go through the Jewish rituals to become God’s people. God includes them, involves them, invites them.
Whenever barriers are broken down; wherever the “other” is embraced in Christ, someone has caught the vision. Grace happens. And it’s an act of God reflecting the will of God.
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It is easy to believe that Christianity is only for the super-spiritual people who can pray a mountain to move or raise the dead and power on through anything in life untouched by the ordinary things of the day.
Big things can happen in this new community where resurrection over even death is entirely a ‘thing’. But, even with that startling claim, the small things still are what counts.
Come and hear about a woman named Tabitha.
Her life shows that this resurrection life of Jesus is a very everyday life – but with a whole lot of hope.
Pastor Adrian
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It is a beautiful scene we survey: A boat full of fish. Breakfast cooked on the coals on the beach with the resurrected Saviour. Not a bad way to start the day!
This is his third appearance since that first Easter morn. It is not down in the city but up here at home. We are back by the sea in Galilee. He is in their place. He has something he needs to do. It centres around Peter.
Peter is still close. But is there unfinished business about his terrible failure? It seems so. Something has to be done to fully deal with the pain and regret of that shameful behaviour that Maundy Thursday night.
The Saviour is here. The smoke and fire and smell of burning coals is here. The last time these things were together for Peter is when he spoke those terrible words:
“I am not his follower. I don’t know the man ...”
What does Jesus do with terrible sinners like this? We shall find out.
In doing so, we might finally trust that even when we cannot love deeply enough or do well enough or be enough, our calling and living and loving can go on.
Come to the beach. Hear the words. Know the resurrection life now yours today. There is plenty of fish!
Pastor Adrian Kitson
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On the sanctuary wall hangs our theme: Set free to live free. But the fact is that no one can appreciate freedom unless they have known slavery – in whatever form that might take. No one can appreciate the incredible gifts they receive every day unless they have experienced want and known times of need. It’s true that we take most of our lives for granted. We don’t think so much of food, clothing, health and most other things as solely gifts from God, but see them as things earned by our hard work and good choices. And we tend to compare what we have with what others have – especially if we don’t think they deserve what they have. And that affects our gratitude.
An atheist once said: “One thing I envy about you Christians is that you have someone to thank.” The text may seem to be a strange one for today – the parable Jesus told about the employer who paid all his workers the same wage regardless of how long they worked. After all, this is the one story that goes against all our instincts. What’s the point of hard work and long hours in ‘the heat of the day’ if ‘johnny-comelatelies’ receive the same reward as us? The answer that Jesus gives highlights the outrageously generous, totally free and unearned grace of God that all believers in Jesus receive. It is only in receiving grace and living in grace that we understand true freedom. And being Set free to live free is what motivates us to say every day: Praise the Lord! Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.
Pastor Robert Voigt
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Welcome to ‘Gather Easter’ – the best ‘Round’ in town!
This is because Easter deals not only with winning and losing a game but also with our living and dying in this life. It is BIG. Work, family, unexpected trouble, surprising joy, occasional worry and despair and fleeting moments of happiness meet us all the time.
But there is this longing too. We’re looking for a new communion; a love that can handle our suffering. This longing for connection and contribution and affirmation and joy that frees us from the fears.
Unlike any other god we might have heard of or sought, instead of asking us to do something, make something, achieve something or be something we just can’t be, Jesus enters our storm and embraces our questions without demanding anything from us.
Welcome to ‘Gather Easter’, a celebration of the man who killed death and lives to give you new life in all of your life.
Pastor Adrian
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The world has taken many turns for the worst these last months. It is easy to worry and fret about what it all means. As Christians we ask why it is that the wicked seem to do so well and the everyday folks have to keep copping it!
Maybe it would be a good idea to switch off the news, the social media news feeds and whatever else contains all those voices of chaos and simply enter this journey with Jesus of his last week where he gets to the bottom of our sin barrel and creates a whole new future of this world.
Isaiah the prophet suggested similar to the people of God locked in a generational exile far from home. He speaks of this mysterious Suffering Servant to these suffering people.
Whoever this Suffering Servant is, he is sure that whatever he suffers, the Lord is with him in it and will one day deal with all suffering at the hands of evil.
The Servant says, ‘I set my face like flint’ and ‘do not hide my face’ from my accusers.
Sounds like Someone we know?
As Jesus descends into the place where darkness temporarily reigns this week, the prophet calls us Christians: Let the one who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the LORD and rely on their God.
Pastor Adrian
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Why are we here? This is one of the fundamental questions of life. People seek purpose in many places - success, pleasure, relationships, or self-fulfilment. But for us as Christians, our purpose is given to us by God, not something we create for ourselves.
Today’s readings help us understand our purpose in the light of God’s actions, His call to not dwell in the past, and His promise of something new ahead. Isaiah 43:16-21 speaks to the people of Israel as they struggle in exile, reminding them that God is the One who makes a way through the wilderness.
Philippians 3:4-14 is Paul’s personal reflection on his journey of faith, abandoning his past achievements for the sake of knowing Christ. Together, these passages point us to God’s answer to our deepest question: We are here because God has called us to know Him, trust in Christ, and press on toward His eternal promises.
Paul Ridley
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As we continue living this earthy faith in Christ we hear this masterful parable and are confronted with how we can easily be lost, even without ever leaving home. The younger sons lostness is focussed and easy to see. He does all the things that a ‘lost’ person would do. He insults his father, weakens his family, binges on substances and sex, blows previous resources others have worked to earn and destroys himself and his high standing by chasing after the wind – short-term gain, plenty of pain, and for no gain!
His dad shines. He reinstates the boy and throws an expensive and public party in his honour. The real character for us who have been in the church ‘home’ for a long time is the older brother. He is apparently lost too, and he has never left home. How can that be? The conversation between this same shining father who also comes to meet this older son seething with anger at this dad, shows us our own hearts and most importantly the Father’s heart for all of us lost ones. The person speaking this parable is the Son of God himself. He is showing us his heart for us today.
Praying that you can feel his embrace and hear his promise, “Everything I have is yours”.
Pastor Adrian
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It is good that you have followed the Spirit’s call to be gathered with God’s people in the presence of Jesus in the grace of the Father. We are pondering living this earthy Christian life of faith in Christ which he has carved out for us by his cross. In the tragedy and injustice of life, people around Jesus ask him why life is like this and what he means in what we suffer.
These questions could be from any one of us when tragedy strikes, or injustice is metered out to us or others for whom we feel solidarity. Who do we blame? Is God involved? Is this punishment for some lost sin or some family curse? Good news is that tragedy and injustice are not punishment and pay back from a vindictive
unfeeling God. On the other hand, God is indeed God. He does have ‘the whole world in his hands’ and he can plant us and rip us up as he wills. Listen to the words about the gardener, landowner and fig tree today.
Praying that you will hear God speaking words of patience, not punishment, a hopeful future not instant death.
Pastor Adrian
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As we live this earthy faith carved out by the cross of Jesus, we hear heart-wrenching words of sadness and regret expressed by the Messiah over his holy city this morning. With the image of a mother-hen wanting to protect her young, Jesus declares this city to be a ‘city of ruins’ that will one day soon end up that very thing, and yet, that there will be another visit to this same city that will bring something more.
This city has a long story of consistent rebellious heart and rejecting behaviour perpetrated. Jesus names that and weeps for it. But the weeping is for something greater.
Jesus weeps for what could have been if the city had been true to its calling from God. This city was never meant to only be a fine city of God’s blessing, but a city of light in a dark world. This city was never established by the Lord to just be rich and healthy and happy. It was always meant to be a city for the world; for a dark world, for a world living in the valley of the shadow of death. And so, the Messiah weeps for his city and for what could have been. But then, of course, he will say and do more; more than anyone in this city ever thought possible.
Our world is in many ways a ‘city of ruins’ with all of its ‘Herod types’ trying to fix problems by silencing the weeping Saviour and controlling life by violence, power,
greed and the like. Often I am a ‘city of ruins’ as I try the same things. But Jesus points to another day when he will enter this same city for the final time – and amazingly, not to destroy it or condemn it and leave it to the foxes, but to lift it up to a whole new life and work. Praying you are lifted up to be reborn for your calling to be God’s city of light among the city of ruins in which you live.
Pastor Adrian
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How good is it that in this country we have the freedom to gather in public worship! We are glad you have joined us to sing and pray and receive God's freedom in Christ. We dive into the first parts of Galatians; Paul's letter concerning the freedom of the gospel we share. It is a dynamite little letter. It explodes with gospel focus and shows up anything that is ‘no gospel at all'. Paul establishes his
authority by mentioning who called him to be this ‘Sent One’ (Apostle) and
then reminds the people of where they live – in the Father's ‘grace and peace'
founded on the resurrected Jesus and his gift of forgiveness. We are already set free to live free!
But then Paul quickly explodes into the issue around which he writes – ‘gospel plus one' teaching which is a ‘different gospel' than the one he taught them, which is really not gospel; not any good news at all for Christians. The Christians back then
struggled with this tendency we all have to believe that our standing before a holy
God is based on the gospel of Jesus – but then ‘plus one'. For the Galatians it
was the gospel + keeping the Old Testament law – food laws, worship/ceremonial law and circumcision law. This may not be our specific ‘+ one'. But I bet we could
think of a few things we add to the gospel as we demand we ourselves and others
must be or do to be a ‘real Christian'.
We begin to unpack these ‘+ one' things and in the process discover the beautiful pure gospel again – and we are free!
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Christians around the world enter this forty-day period of listening, praying, self-denial, and serving. Lent functions as a bit of ‘spring cleaning’ for the soul.
Lent is all about being ready and open in heart and mind to receive the biggest moment in the Christian story – the day death died, at which point a whole new future of hope and light was opened up for a troubled and imperfect world.
The forty days has begun. How might you listen, reflect, pray, deny yourself and serve some people as God gets you ready for his arrival anew in your life?
One thing is for sure, temptations to drop all this, leave it alone or ignore it and ignore him come. It is where we find Jesus out there in that wilderness struggling with the temptation thrown at him when he is alone, isolated, hungry, thirsty and weakened. He is confronted with easy ways out of his life mission.
We ponder temptations that come at us, that always promise to offer an easier life and yet actually end up costing us everything good we have in Christ.
We head into Lent knowing that this Christian faith we are called to live is an Earthy Faith. It is living in the space carved out by Jesus’ cross.
Pastor Adrian
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Every year we locate our spiritual centre around a particular bible passage as a way of ‘dwelling in God’s word’ as we discern his will for our life and mission.
This is because we are convinced that our health and effectiveness and faithfulness as God’s people in his mission is not founded on some
magic program or idea or better technology or any hard work and insight we
do or have. Our present and future faithfulness and joy only come from
one place – God – God’s word. So intentionally listening to his voice in
his Word by his Spirit is our foundation, thus ‘dwelling in a home text' ...
This year something from the letter to the Galatians has risen to the top. It is a
word about freedom. Galatians 5:1: ‘It is for freedom that Christ has set us free’. We have shortened it for the memory: “Set Free to Live Free.”
We will break this open a little this morning in advance of further learning in Galatians in various ways throughout 2025. Our prayer is that in these disruptive times and with this wayward heart of ours, we will still live in freedom – freedom
from the guilt and shame of our own sin, from the pull of the world inviting us to give up freedom and from the evil one who only wants our slavery to self.
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We find ourselves witnessing that marvellous moment high up on a hill somewhere in Judea with Peter, James and John. The glory cloud descends and the two greats; Moses and Elijah appear, representing the Law of God and God’s prophets sharing a holy huddle with the Son of God. It is mesmerising and then it is gone. But not before that audible voice confirms Jesus as the Saviour is heard and the journey to the cross down there on the plains hots up.
Paul reflects on this by remembering that veil Moses had to wear every time he had his holy moments with the Lord high up on that other holy mountain – Mt Sinai.
He says the veil that covers Moses face is no longer needed for those who have received the glorious ministry of the Holy Spirit creating faith in Jesus as the Saviour of their lives. We are free in Jesus to’ glow’ his hope and love. We do this with clear words, simple telling of what we have seen and heard. But the veil still exists. The veil of unbelief and doubt and fear still cover the human heart.
Paul says this is all the more reason why we Christians need to and can ‘glow’ the glorious gospel of Jesus with boldness and clarity in simple words, without veiling it in tricks or deception in any way. May the Holy Spirit reaffirm that Jesus is your Saviour and that you can be full of heart as you glow his good news without any veil.
Pastor Adrian
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It is hard to be confident sometimes. It is hard to be sure of the world’s future, our church’s future, the whole Christian church’s future. It is hard to sure of my own future when it come to my health, aging, my relationships with everyone.
Isaiah is God’s mouthpiece to a people who have lost it all and probably think they have no future at all. They are already in exile in a foreign place. They have lost their community, their lands, their business, farms, worship life, city and temple. They probably feel as though they have lost their God too.
Isaiah is a truth-teller. He says the reason they have found themselves in this difficult place is not the Lord’s fault. It is squarely theirs. They have turned their backs on the covenant relationship with the Lord by failing into religious outward ritual devoid of real heart, corruption and injustice in how they tret the vulnerable in their society, and into moral failure many times over.
What will give them any confidence that they even have a future, given all the turmoil in which they find themselves. This is maybe a good question for us in our current turmoil whatever you turmoil is at the moment.
Isaiah has good wors to say into this kind of place. The Lord delivers right words that encourage the weary each morning, including this one. They are words that awaken me so I am eager to learn from his teaching again.
Praying the Spirit awaken faith in your heart by this Word we hear and sing and pray today so that we trust that our protector and rock-solid sustaining power of hope and love is with you, and us.
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Unity among any people of any group is so fulfilling. Unity in a team makes it so much fun and is so crucial for any ‘success’. How much the more for a fledgling new community of the resurrected Jesus in a hostile world?!
Paul continues recounting his story to try and call the people in the Galatian network back to what he first taught them, - that the gospel of Jesus’ dying and rising for the forgiveness of all sin and new life for the whole world is all they need to be fully fledged, hope-filled people in Christ with a bright future together in him.
They do not need the ‘gospel +’ anything else, like Jewish law; customs, dietary rules, sabbath rules, work rules or circumcision etc… Paul will recount a very big moment in his life and in the life of this first church that would echo on into our day.
It is the account of the day when unity in the gospel won the day. This ‘victory’ was not certain. If those Jerusalem ‘capital A’ apostles had allowed any hint of ‘gospel +’ Jewish law to be the foundation of our new life in Jesus’ new creation, then it would have been ‘all bad’. But they ‘walked the walk’ and here we are: people who have received the same freeing gospel from the same wonderful Saviour. Praying you bask in the unity you share with everyone gathered and those all over the world and even those Jerusalem Apostles.
Pastor Adrian
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God has his plans, but can they ever change? Are we on some unchangeable schedule that is set in concrete that can never be undone and re-shaped?
Seems that in the account of this conversation between Jesus and a gentile woman way out in gentile territory, things are not so set in concrete when it comes to living a life faith in Jesus’ love and authority.
This woman is a mum, and she has a daughter wo is suffering some kind of debilitating disease or demonic oppression that is not good for her.
We hear a conversation between a Jesus looking for some anonymity and respite far away from his home region and a needy mother who is quite persistent even though she seems to get a firm ‘no’ for her initial request for freeing of her daughter.
Jesus does listen and he does seem to allow for his plans to change to meet this need as expressed by this person in great need.
Maybe we are being encouraged to pray because God will listen and change his plan to meet us where we are at – but it may take some time………
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These are changing times for anyone living life as part of a local church. it feels like it is all new and we have to try and figure out the 'silver bullet' that will fix all our problems. Of course, there is no silver bullet, but there are some wise things to consider. One is the need to pivot from a clergy centred/led supported by the people kind of church to a people of God led wit clergy support as we live in the grace of God together.
Problem is that pivoting in this way means getting off the spectator seats, jumping the fence and getting into the game in our work, family, and life in general......
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In the pressure cooker of a rapidly changing world where it seems we are all somehow supposed to now not RECEIVE our identity but MAKE our OWN identity based on our own experiences, values, feelings and thought, what does define you and who chooses you to love?
And what about that Christian thing called 'Baptism'. Did that happen to you in your personal history. if so, so what? What does that say about who you have been created to be rather than what you are supposed to make yourself to be?
God’s Decision for you
Isaiah 43:1-4 and Luke 3:15-22
But now, this is what the Lord says—
he who created you, Jacob,
he who formed you, Israel:
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
I was baptised 58 years ago in the Spring, in a small Roman Catholic church in the eastern suburbs of Perth. I had only the word of parents, siblings and one small photo to show for this great event of God.
I spent about 1/3 of my life so far not really understanding knowing or believing anything much about this miraculous intervention of God. No one taught me about it. No one reminded me about it. The gift was on the shelf gathering dust while I was going nowhere with no awareness of who I had been created to be in Christ...
But, like those Samaritans we heard about, through everyday people of God in this everyday LCA, God made the gift come alive again.
For this other 2/3 of my life I often ponder what my baptism means now. I know it means that I have been adopted into God’s new community of grace and that have been called to play a little part in his expansive mission to gather all the world to himself.
And so, I often wonder what God is really up to with the life he has given me. He seems to only reveal what he has been doing, what he is doing and what he will do in me and around me one little piece at a time. I suppose that’s why we Christians live by faith that comes from God’s Word, rather than by only what we see within and around us.
Where were you baptised and how do you look upon that event now? Do you see that historical event as a gift of grace or something not too great now? Is your baptism something that happened in your past, or does it still keep shaping your now? Is your baptism something you often ponder, or something a little old and out of the picture now. Does that simple act that we have often seen performed here have much to do with the adult world of you, in all its complexity?
There is great debate about what Jesus knew about his baptism at the Jordan by the hand of John.
- Did he know that it would re-shape his life up to this point?
- Did Jesus know fully that his baptism would signal the beginning of full-on public ministry?
- Did he know that it would mean huge demands on his personal resources and his time?
- Did he know that the baptism he received and the public affirmation that his Father gave for all to hear would make his whole life step up several notches in terms of service to people?
- Did he know that baptism meant responsibility before God and to others and all the demands of living as God’s child in the often demanding, unforgiving, needy and dark world? I am not really sure.
Faith says that Jesus knew plenty and yet he was fully human and immersing himself fully in our time. Whether he knew what his baptism meant for him or whether he only had a rough idea, it was what he needed to live his life.
His baptism was his beginning, his seal of family membership, his identity as a person of God, his foundation for what lay ahead and it was a wonderful
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John 1:6-8,19-28
God entering our human flesh and bones in this Messiah long-promised, chooses a fellow human of the same flesh and bones to point to his move, his presence, his light, his Star of Christmas.
Makes me wonder that if there is no John the Witness, we might miss Jesus the Saviour? If we don’t hear John’s witness, we might miss the bold move of God to truly be ‘Emmanuel’; God with us.
You are not a stand-alone individual needing to do life your way. You are deeply connected to and loved by the God who has come near to you and still does.
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Titus 3:4-7
Christmas actually does things to us because this Saviour-child did things and is still doing things he began back in that shed.
Of course, it is safer to keep Christmas happy and traditional family time. Nothing wrong with family or tradition. But if that is all this celebration is for you who have been on the receiving end of the kindness and love of God, that is short-changing God and this Christ-Child.
So, what is Christmas meant to do for this local Christian community?
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Revelation 21:1-6a
This picture of the 'sheep and the goats' at our end always seems to come across as an angry God finally getting his payback on people.
This is no mere piece of art imagined by a mere human being pondering great mysteries unsure of who God actually is. This is God giving the vision of how it actually is and how it will be.
Even more, this is a vision of the final point in human history told by a real person; a person who claims to be God himself in his own human history and place. He is the baby in the box born for the cross.
Only the skilled Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep in love knows who is who. Only he can draft these animals accurately. Only he really knows them and sees them inside and out.
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What and why this Child? Luke 1:26–38
Mary is not feeling the glow of Christmas lights or the warms and fuzzy vision of a family Christmas lunch! Mary is terrified at the arrival of the news.
But in her fear, she finds a crucial question. What child is this?
And even more: Why this child?
Why lies He in such mean estate,
Where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christians, fear, for sinners here
The silent Word is pleading.
‘The silent Word is pleading”. Is that Christmas for you.
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I Am Legion
Luke 8:26-39
26 They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes,[a] which is across the lake from Galilee. 27 When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torture me!” 29 For Jesus had commanded the impure spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places.
30 Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”
“Legion,” he replied, because many demons had gone into him. 31 And they begged Jesus repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss.
32 A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs, and he gave them permission.33 When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.
34 When those tending the pigs saw what had happened, they ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, 35 and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’ feet, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. 36 Those who had seen it told the people how the demon-possessed man had been cured. 37 Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them,because they were overcome with fear. So he got into the boat and left.
38 The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 “Return home and tell how much God has done for you.” So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him.
I can’t help but think of people I have come across or heard about with huge mental illness challenges when I hear of this Geresene man living outside of town in the graveyard without a thread of clothing, in a constant state of fear and alert, and scars all over his self-harmed body.
What has happened to this man? How did he get like this? What went so wrong and where are his family, his friends?
And what on earth is Jesus doing out here in this danger zone of death. He is a Jew in unclean, unknown Gentile territory on the far side of the sea.
We are watching this happen with the silent disciples. They say and do nothing in this whole account. Maybe they are still shell-shocked after that scary night on the sea they have just experienced – when even the wind and sea obeyed Jesus’ command to be silent. They are silent now…
We don’t even go into town. Instead, we head out to the fringe of thins fringy place. We meet this dangerous man who cannot be chained by chains but is totally chained by the dark side, the demonic, the pain the isolation, the self-harm, the lostness.
“Legion”. His own name does not count anymore. He is ‘Legion”
For people in the ancient Roman world, “Legion” had only one meaning: a unit of approximately six thousand occupying, seemingly all-powerful Roman soldiers. Romans rule. Roman c
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We all want this final affirmation for living now with some clarity, some hope, some meaning some joy. I want to ‘enter in the joy of the Master’ who knows what I am doing and have done and will do, so that in the end he ticks my contribution as good, useful, meaningful, gospel good news in a very ‘un-gospel’ world.
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Press On toward the goal: Into the Water
1 Peter 3:18-22 The flood a symbol of baptism
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. 19 After being made alive,[a] he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits – 20 to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, 21 and this water symbolises baptism that now saves you also – not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience towards God.[b] It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand – with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.
Mark 1:9-15 The baptism, temptation, and preaching of Jesus
9 At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptised by John in the Jordan. 10 Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’
12 At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, 13 and he was in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted[a] by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.
14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 ‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!’
Friends, as we enter another Lent, we begin with water; the water of Noah’s flood and the water of your baptism into Jesus in the water.
Peter speaks about both ‘waters’. He does this to speak God’s grace into your heart as you ponder God’s heart of love for you in the innocent suffering and dying of his Son these forty days.
Peter is speaking to people suffering some kind of “fiery ordeal”. Some say this is something like a mild persecution in their region – being excluded from life in the community because of their faith in Jesus.
I don’t know what kind of ‘fiery ordeal’ you may be facing at the moment. But Peter says this ‘water’ is the cleansing stream that will enable you to get through well.
On the experience of suffering, Peter asks the question: Is it better to suffer for evil or to suffer for good?
Some might say, “Who cares!? I just don’t want to suffer!!” Fair enough. But there is a bit of difference between suffering for something evil you have been engaged with or suffering for doing only good.
If you suffer for evil, you probably deserve it. You are getting your just reward. But if you suffer for good, then you probably don’t deserve it and are not getting what is just.
Peter’s little question might have come from well-known words of one of the famous philosophers lots of people in his communities would have known. From Plato:
“To act unrighteously is worse, in that it
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We Are His Building
John 2:13-22
13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, ‘Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!’ 17 His disciples remembered that it is written: ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’[a]
18 The Jews then responded to him, ‘What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?’
19 Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.’
20 They replied, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?’ 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
What Jesus did this day in the Temple area must have made quite an impression. All four gospel writers recall it.
John tells us that at the time, they did not really know what Jesus was doing. It is only after the resurrection that they recalled that the Scriptures say that ‘zeal for the Lord’s house’ would consume the Messiah and that the temple Jesus was speaking of on this day was not the temple they were standing in but the new temple of his own body.
John tells it differently to the others too. He does not share it as being a trigger for the final lead up to the crucifixion at the end of Jesus ministry like the others. John remembers it being at the very beginning – right after the wine at the wedding in Cana. John is saying something different to the others about this.
When Jesus enters the temple area, nothing is unusual. The whole sacrificial system of animals, birds, grain and exchange of currencies have to be done somewhere. The Jerusalem temple is a huge open market space in the centre of the city.
Why is Jesus zealous enough to personally make a whip-chord, turn over tables of foreign exchange merchants and rattle the cages of those doves!? He does not call the place a ‘den of robbers’ as Matthew, Mark and Luke tell it. This does not seem to be a protest about malpractice or corruption. It seems to be bigger… deeper.
For John, Jesus seems to signalling the dismantling of the whole thing – building, system, practices…..
This temple, this building with all of its associated roles, stories, symbols of religious identity and even national pride is no longer necessary. Jesus is not talking ‘reform’, he is talking complete revolutionary shift. It is being demolished to be replaced by something bigger and better. That is BIG!
Everyone knows that this is God’s building. What could possibly be better?
This building was originally established at the Lord’s direct command - first via Tent of Meeting in the Exodus wilderness, then by Solomon, then rebuilt to part of its former glory by retuned exiles under Nehemiah and Ezra and then finally made great again by Herod for his own political purposes and personal ego. We hear that it has taken Herod 46 years to build so far.
Like security people at the footy, when Jesus disrupts the whole show, the
The Spirit is Working
Acts 7:55-60
55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’
57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ 60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ When he had said this, he fell asleep.
We have been celebrating the greatest moment that changes the world and created a whole new community in the world this season of Easter. And even is what has been a tough vintage, we have been trying to enjoy our Vintage Festival and Thanksgiving celebrations.
But now, without warning, we are confronted with this violent episode of the Stephen, the first person killed for faith in Jesus in those first heady days of that first gospel community.
The whole deadly affair sounds similar to what had happened to Jesus just a short time ago. The great victory over those in power maybe was only short-lived?
How did Stephen arise?
The first gospel community in Jerusalem was made up for Greek speaking and Hebrew speaking people – The Hellenist (Greek language and culture) and the Jewish (Hebrew language and culture) disciples.
Luke tells us that a dispute arose. In the immediate generosity that broke out in this fledgling community, a system of allocating income and food to the more vulnerable people in the new community came to be. Those who had gave to those who did not. A fair percentage of those who were vulnerable were women who had lost their husbands. They had no rights and very few options. Therefore, they often had to live on almost nothing.
The dispute was about seeming favouritism in the daily distribution.
The Greek speaking people complained to the Jewish speaking people about their widows being overlooked in this daily distribution.
Wisely, ‘The Twelve’ – Those 11 eye witnesses of Jesus, plus the one who came into the group to replace Judas (Matthias) took quick action to settle this dispute.
They appoint overseers of this welfare ministry who would make sure the whole thing was done fairly.
One of those seven people appointed as Stephen.
They were all “full of both the Spirit and wisdom” (6:3). But Stephen seems to be recognised in the community as being very gifted. Stephen is the first one named in the group, and the only one to receive specific praise as one “full of faith and the Holy Spirit” (6:5) and “full of grace and power,” doing signs and wonders among the people (6:8).
Stephen is most annoying to those who hold all the power in the city synagogue community because, like Jesus, he speaks in a way that his detractors find impossible to dispute (6:10). This is just how Jesus said it would be in Luke 21:15 as he speaks with The Twelve before they became ‘The Twelve’;
15 For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.
So, bold Stephen speaks in front of the powers that be.
Stephen does not hold back! His sermon is long. It is a lot longer than Jesus’ ‘Twitter’ length responses to those accusing him. It is longer than Peter’s Pentecost Day sermon a little while before this one. This sermon is longer than Paul’s sermons.
Stephen goes throug
The Treasure We Live and Leave
1 Peter 1:3-9
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Peter breaks into praise years after those heady days of the resurrection as he writes to encourage his people.
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
He speaks of a trusted inheritance that reaches back into the present struggle of life to give joy and hope in that struggle.
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us ….. an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
Peter begins with that great event – the Resurrection from death by Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah.
Everything he says and everything good and worth struggling for is founded on that resurrection of Jesus.
I think a lot of people who do any serious thinking about Christianity soon bump into the news of this resurrection. They then realize that because Christian faith is founded on the resurrection, it is an all or nothing faith and life. Accordingly so many choose the ‘nothing’. It is easier and safer.
The close circle of people around Jesus got that truth right up close and personal when the resurrected Jesus appeared and greeted them with the all- encompassing peace of God for their new life with him.
This faith we live is not something you manufacture on your terms. It comes by the grace of God on his terms and for his purposes in your life.
Jesus is a matter of the heart, not just of your thinking or your will.
I reckon a lot of people know this and stay away. They don’t really want a Saviour because that would overtake your heart and that would shape your thinking and your will, your decisions, your choices, your decisions – and that is a direct challenge to your very self and your whole life.
Jesus always knew this. Do you remember that day on the grassy slopes by the Sea of Galilee when he launched into a description of how things would eventually be in this new creation he was here to inaugurate? It is called the ‘Sermon on the Mount.
“You’ve heard it said…… But I say….”.
“You have heard it said (by your parents, your synagogue leaders, your legal people, your priests and your whole community all your life) that that it is an eye for an eye…. But I say, love your enemies,,,,
Jesus is telling t
We seem to have settled for ‘church’ being a building more than a people, where the building is an end in itself and not a tool for different people, where the church we belong to is more a fixed institution than an adaptable movement, only a weekly gathering more than a daily relating, something we ‘attend’ more than a life we ‘do’ together; a spectator sport we watch rather than a sport we actually play.
As a result, the focus is often not so much building community but maintaining a building; keeping the known community going way more than seeking the unknown community around us; living OUR vision rather than the one here, with or without a building.
But, God’s mission still stands:
…. [that] through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, 11 according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Christians always have four things to ponder as they live their faith in the face of an overwhelming non-Christian or even anti-Christian society. They could either;
Go along, Go underground, Give it back, or Give it up.
What if there is a fifth way to live it well?
Jesus' close friends found out just how Jesus can shine. No matter how we might try to hide him or dismiss him, or how much we struggle to live in him, he will always find a way to shine.
Whatever happens in my life, he is in it. Jesus will be heard, and his kingdom will continue to come close to me. Whatever happens to us as a church, he will speak and some people somewhere sometimes will catch a glimpse of his love and his light and his love and be lit up themselves.
Real complaint to God, brings real clarity from God.
Job sees. He sees his own limit, weakness, lack of power and certainty and he sees God’s unlimited goodness, power and commitment to the world. Job sees God as Giver: everything the Lord lists here is gift – gift for life, gift for human life, gift for Job.
In Job’s suffering the sun rises, the clouds form the rain comes the stars shine the wind moves and life is sustained for Job.
Nothing has changed when it comes to the gracious sustaining gifting of God….. Paul says;
Romans 12:3
3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.
We remember Paul and Peter who became big names for the first Christians and all Christians since those first heady days of the Jesus movement in the world.
We live in a righteousness that does not come from achieving, performing, being good or bad, but comes as gift from Jesus' achieving, performing being holy and true- enough for us all.
Any lasting peace, unity, confidence and conviction to speak and do his love by faith comes from his love for me, not my love for me or anyone else’s.
Hear his love for you that gives you courage to stay the course in whatever you are facing today:
I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. ….18 But not a hair of your head will perish. 19 Stand firm, and you will win life.
There is life that has been won and one day it will be a complete win. Jesus is that complete life, now and then.
And so, we share the Call of Peter and Paul. For Paul it was this:
15 ….. God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles (Galatians 1:15)
Friends, safe passage in the love of Jesus is assured, no matter what.
What do you need when you are under heavy pressure at work, in your relationships, your study, your family? You need someone important to you to tell you have their approval and support no matter what.
Even better when this respected person; the boss, the teacher, the lecturer or your spouse or parent or child says these affirming words.. and even publicly.
Like when the boss comes into the meeting and gives a word of praise and affirmation of how able you are, and how well you are doing your job, in front of everyone. Everyone hears the affirmation. It helps them trust you.
That’s the Father’s intention here. By these words of affirmation said publicly, the Son gains courage from this public affirmation of his calling and the people gain a reason to trust the Saviour.
This is especially clear the way Matthew tells it. He does not put it as other gospel writers put it;
‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’(Luke, Mark)
but
‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’
I suspect we want to know we did something good, we made a positive difference with all we were given. We all want and have wanted all along to breed love and joy in our kids, our families, workplaces, present friends and associates. We know the world needs joy, hope and love.
We all want this final affirmation for living now with some clarity, some hope, some meaning some joy. I want to ‘enter in the joy of the Master’ who knows what I am doing and have done and will do, so that in the end he ticks my contribution as good, useful, meaningful, gospel good news in a very ‘un-gospel’ world.
But when I hear this parable about the end of it all – me and the world, I always find myself feeling pretty uncomfortable. That last guy gets very harsh treatment by the Master! It makes me wonder what sort of God we have if God is like this Master!
Nathaniel was found by the fig tree. He was looking for new hope there. it weas not in the tree. it would be in the man who would give his life on a cursed tree so we be free!
I listened the Luther on this and it made sense…..
The Lord …… compares it (the Christian community - us) to ten virgins. Five are wise, five foolish.
The foolish virgins are those Christians who give the appearance and impression of being godly. They want to be good evangelicals (Lutherans) and are able to say much about these things. They praise the Word and say: “Yes, it is a splendid thing. This is what it means. It cannot possibly be otherwise according to the Scripture, etc.” Paul speaks of these people in 1 Cor. 4:20: “The kingdom of God is not in only talk, but in power.” It consists not in speech, but in life; not in words, but in works. Although they are able to say much about many things, they are in reality unwise virgins who only have the lamps or the vessel, that is, the external equipment, and they behave according to their nature, as Matthew writes (7:22), saying, “Lord, Lord!” The mouth is there, but the heart is far away (Matt. 15:8).
The oil is not in the lamp, that is, faith is not in the heart.
From Martin Luther...
“….it comes to pass when you hear that Jesus Christ, God’s Son, has by his most holy touch consecrated and hallowed all sufferings, even death itself, has blessed the curse, and has glorified shame and enriched poverty so that death is now a door to life, the curse a fount of blessing, and shame the mother of glory. Suffering has been touched and bathed by Christ’s pure and holy flesh and blood and thus have become holy, harmless, and wholesome, blessed, and full of joy for you. There is nothing, not even death, that his passion cannot sweeten. (Luther, LW, Vol. 42, pp. 141-142)
O that so many Lutherans in the Barossa (including me) could hear the sound of that cracking whip-chord and the coins tipping off those tables and the flight of spooked doves! And then be with Jesus sipping wine transformed from water at a wedding, eating fish and bread on the grassy slope be the sea, smelling the strong scent of perfume around that room as she anointed him for his burial, ate more fish on the beach with a risen Jesus doing the cooking, hearing the rapid words of a woman who no one ever saw or wanted to see in the village inviting everyone to come out and ‘meet a man who told me everything I ever did’ (John 4:29).
If they did, they would hear the New Temple say this:
21 ‘Woman,….. believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem…... 23 … a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.’
(John 4:21-24)
Ten young women: five with 'oil', five out of 'oil': five accepted five dismissed. What is the oil!?
Is Jesus is saying that the oil is not our love or faith or patience or anything we can do or manufacture or achieve ourselves? What if instead, the ‘oil’ is a gift; gift to be received that makes us ready, not work to be done that hopefully makes us ready? Then this parable speaks of pure wonderful grace and fires our hearts in thankful faith and solid hope for what is to come because it is not based on me – but founded on Jesus.
There is a song for every occasion. There is s spiritual song for every step of this spiritual journey with Jesus. The Psalms are those songs and this one is a 'banger'!
We come to the end of this little journey in this little letter of First John.
We have heard of the broad sweep of what God has done for the word he loves in the Son he gave for the life he calls us to live. It is very grand in scale and yet practical in the living of it. Faith, love and obedience to what the Apostles reveal of God from what they saw and heard and touched in Jesus of Nazareth is the life to which John calls us.
Today we hear this rather abrupt and very direct little directive in the last sentence of this letter.
21 Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.
I wonder why John ends his letter speaking of idols?
Idols are part of this anti-messiah world that have their pull on our heart strings. John did warn us not to give our hearts to the world because this will destroy love and hope. John has also shown us that God’s heart for us is lavish in scale and that this can make our hearts lavish in love for each other. Idols must be a threat to this love.
We will reflect on idols and John’s remedy for how we guard giving our hearts to them and instead, keep our heart firmly attached to God’s truth in Jesus so we can love.
May you know God’s heart of love for you today so that your heart is full of love for people around you. This love between people is how the world comes to know Jesus’ love and hope.
John has said some world-changing and people-changing things about God future now at work in our present drawing us on to that great day when we shall finally see Jesus as he fully is and find ourselves more like him than we currently know.
To really try and grab your full attention and bring home all of the truth about who Jesus is and what he is doing in this anti-messiah world, this anti-messiah human heart we all share and against the fallen Anti-Messiah himself, John now stages a courtroom scene and calls upon three witnesses to testify to all that he has been proclaiming.
The three witnesses are water, blood and Spirit and they are called to firm you up in his three foundational ways of living in this new era of Jesus: faith, love and obedience.
May you be re-affirmed and re-confirmed in who you are, in how you have come to be who you are and what you are to be and to do in the life of love you have been gifted and called into, by the love of God lavished upon you in Jesus the Son of God in human flesh and blood for the life of the world.
We are still working our way through the words of the Apostle john in his little letter of love to his people under pressure.
Today we get o what many might see as the core message John is wanting to encourage his people with as they live their lives in this new beginning for God’s creation which began the day that death died under the resurrection life of Jesus the Messiah.
Our home text for the year has been
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.
This text is right here today, in its full context. We might need to pause to have a good listen to it because I suspect we mostly mis-hear it. We might hear it as just anther word of demand, or more expectation, or more reason to despair because we know we just cannot fulfil it enough: we struggle to love eve though we know love comes from God!
Rest assured, this word is not more overwhelming expectation or impossible task for you who have been ‘brin of God’ and given his Spirit! This word is doable and needed and we are involved with Jesus in it.
John knows the mis-hearing and moves to allay our fears of punishment to be replaces by the letting love live in our day, in our homes, our families, our work places and community. He says it is essential business for us and for the community in which we have been placed.
May your fears be allayed so you can know love, receive love, and do love so they can see love and maybe finally know the love of God.
We keep on nudging forward in this little letter of the Apostle John to his local church communities. As we do, we also welcome 14 people into membership in our church. Praise the Lord for new people!
John is doing all he can to give us confidence to trust that in all circumstances the Spirit is at work transforming us into the likeness of the Son whom we will one day finally see as he is and truly know ourselves as he knows and loves us.
Today John calls back a wonderful Old Testament account of the prophet Elisha to encourage to trust that whatever happens around us that threatens or weakens our faith, ‘He who is for us is greater than the one who is against us.
John leads us back to faith which says that whatever suffering comes our way, whatever false teaching we may hear or even be attracted to, our weak faith or lack of love is no match for God’s truth and greater love. We can bank on God when it feels like we are surrounded!
One of the skills John passes on today is that of discerning false teaching. There is plenty of it surrounding us and it can be quite hard to pick. John helps us today to listen long and well to get to the truth of what people teach us about ourselves, God and the world and its future.
New or long settled, young or older, may you be drawn to the truth of Jesus today so you can trust that he is ore then anything or anyone that assails you or even your own lack of faith, love and good attitude.
We are travelling at a slow pace ‘smelling the roses’ of this little letter of the Apostle John (1 John). We have heard him announce the breaking on of God’s whole new covenant world of grace in the Resurrection of Jesus that created a whole new community in the world, of which John is an Apostle.
We have heard that this truth of God’s grace creates the coin of faith and love.
John is a realist. He knows that we live in an ‘anti-messiah’ world in which there is plenty of false teaching and false teachers. Today he holds up a marker flag across no-mans-land to which he says, ‘run’.
The marker flag is our sure future that is ours already in part. But one day in full when this battle with this wayward anti-messiah self, this anti-messiah world and the Anti Messiah himself is fully completed and ‘we see him as he is’.
This for John also means, that we will finally see ourselves in all that we have become. We are becoming that person already.
This is hard to believe when there is so much false teaching on life and so much suffering we know of and experience.
Today the Lord will reassure us and hold up that marker flag for us again, and all so that we continue in the call to let love live.
We have embarked upon a slower journey through a little letter in the New Testament of the Bible. It is the letter the Apostle John wrote to his local communities of disciples of the risen Jesus (1John).
Today we hear John speaking of ‘the world’. He actually urges us to ‘not love ‘the world’ or anything in it’.
This may seem a little confusing coming from the Apostle who gave us that most famous bible verse of all bible verses:
“God so LOVED THE WORLD that he gave his only Son so that all may believe and be saved……”.
John means something a little different than we might expect when he speaks of this ‘world’ in which we are called to live out the truth of the gospel by faith and in love.
He is very aware and very realistic about the forces at work in ‘the world’. He urges us to be aware of who we are in Jesus, and what our identity and purpose of living ‘against the flow’ still mean.
May you be given a great anchor point for living in this interesting and often deceptive world and all that is coming at you puling you away from the ‘new world’ of light and life in Jesus the Anointed Saviour of the world.
We have begun a longer, slower journey or diving deeper into a little letter in the New Testament. We are journeying through 1 John.
John has begun his letter by announcing that he has seen God’s future for us and his world in Jesus, and it works! God’s future works because God himself has worked it and he invited is into this future that already begun; this life of close fellowship with the Father and Jesus, the Son, enabled by the Spirit.
Today we hear John delve into this issue of our ability to deceive ourselves when it comes to God’s love and our living of it.
He shows that there is a big difference between knowing love and doing love. It is one thing to know the love of God, it is another to actually do the love of God. This difference comes from this problem we have of tricking ourselves into stuff or out of stuff.
He urges us who live in the new creation of Jesus’ love to let love live and points us to what enables us to love more fully; more consistently, more in the way Jesus’ has and does love us.
May you know that love again today and be directed, challenged and encouraged to simply let that love live in your relationships wherever they are.
As we let love live love will live and this joy of close fellowship with the Father and the Son will enable us and other people yet unknown to thrive in this new creation community founded on Jesus’ love for us.
We have embarked upon a little journey in one book of the bible. We are engaged in taking some time to hear what the Apostle John says in his first letter (1 John).
Our home text for 2023 comes from this little letter.
Let us love one another because love comes from God. (1 John 4:7)
We all know that love is something every person longs for and needs to flourish in living this human life. So, how do we love and what happens when we don’t and how does God love us and when he calls us to love each other, what does he mean? These are the questions to address to the Apostle because he speaks of God’s love all through his letter.
Last week we began hearing that God has a future of love and his love works because he is the one who works his love.
Now John named the ‘elephant in the room. God is love but we struggle to love. In fact, so often we love self, way more than others and this disrupts our fellowship with our God, Father, Son and Spirit and as fellow ‘children of God’.
John will name this besetting problem and show us how to live in this struggle to love today. It will require some honest appraisal of you by God. It is worth the vulnerability, because it leads back to this love for which we all long.
May the light of Christ’s love fill you and encourage you in your loving of others and yourself this day.
We are beginning a little journey these next several weeks. We are openning up that little letter of 1 John from which our home text for 2023 comes.
Let us love each for love comes from God. 1 John 4:7
We have shortened this home text to ‘Let Love Live’. We are doing a week-by-week deep dive into this letter to hear what the Spirit says to each of us and us as a whole Body about Letting Love Live in our lives. Lord knows, we all need more love as does our community.
We are praying that as we engage in listening to what the Spirit says in 1 John, we are renewed in our trust in the Lord and how much each of us are love by him in Jesus. We know that his love drives out all fears and gives renewed sense of how his love is better than life itself and worth giving your life to.
So many of us seem convinced that we will never amount to much and that whatever we do in life has to come from within ourselves because there is no one else calling, inviting, welcoming, offering a new thing and bigger thing to which we can move and flourish.
Enter Matthew’s little telling of the day he found mercy.....
it is easy to glory in the beauty of mother nature, in a great win, a beautiful person, a strong love, but is there really any significance, and 'glory' in our suffering? According to God, there is.
We all experience strong feelings, particularly when life is full of suffering. I guess it all depends on what God kind of God you have as to whether you could tell him everything, and even in the strongest words and highest emotions you have. The prophet Jeremiah does this and invites us to do the same to God of the Bible. There is joy in the prayer of sorrow.
The Shepherd who is also the Lamb who never stops seeking the lost sheep, the black sheep or any other kind of sheep seeks you still.
If you have been unwanted or abandoned by anyone, this one is for you. there are no orphans in God's grace.
Often it is very hard to find a true centre to remain poised and balanced as life comes at us. Easter Day re-centres us again on the central event and person who gives us all the poise and balance we need.
It can seem that God is not at work for our good when tragedy and injustice come at us. In the execution of the first ever martyr for the faith whose name was Stephen, we see that even there the Spirit is working to draw all people into the orbit of Jesus' grace and truth. Maybe God is atr work in your challenges as much as your wins.....
Is absolutely everything forgivable or are there some things that are not? Has even God got limits on what he can forgive. A lot of people seems to believe that there are limits on their forgiveness... and God's.
There a few things that you feel compelled to do - pay that fine, pay your taxes, lose some weight, stop smoking, get organised...... But in God's grand plan to bring all people into his beautiful new creation, we are also compelled to speak and do his bidding.
It is so easy to have a very small and only human view of what a local church actually is and is meant to do. God helps us lift our eyes to see ourselves and our mission from his grand reality.
Maybe it is good to not figure out what Christmas is meant to mean but to receive what Christmas does for you?
Jesus seemed to meet all their expectation of hat the world needed but then he didn't. Peter, the "Rock' was bold and beautiful, but then at time reduced to dust by Jesus. And yet, there was always a rebuild - a return to a solid trustworthy way to be.
It is hard to know what crowd you belong to or whether you belong with anyone at all. Jesus knows about crowds and who belong where.
Is God a judgmental person who is just waiting to cut you down and are bad things that happen to you punishment...... Or not?
You future has the power to shape your now, for better or worse - depending on what you future is. What is Jesus' vision of your future and can it really shape your now?
What does God do with all of our bad news in the world and in ourselves? Could there be good news in a sad song sung in such bad times? if Jesus is truly both the Suffering One and the Sovereign One, his sad song for the city might just be good news for you.
Giving, praying and fasting are the shape of a gift-filled life in Jesus.
So, what do you do with your money?
Lent might not be your thing. but it has been and still is a good thing for lots of people. Maybe it can be something really good for you?
Grace that shakes you is called prophetic grace. Jesus speaks a few 'home truths' to us his home town crowd. You have to choose what kind of life you want to live and what kind of church you want to be part of......
How to truly live is dependent on what you eat - not food wise, but heart wise by the listening ear and the doing of what you hear from the voice of the bread of life itself.
Jesus is more than anyone or anything. John is impressing this upon us in this famous chapter 6 of his gospel. Whether we are problem fixers or law keepers Jesus is more than our fixing and more than our rules.
Jesus is a better thing than sliced bread! If that is true, then what more are you wanting and why?
We search and seek and long for many things money can't buy. Jesus is all of it and more.
John 6 Series.
Freedom is on the agenda. We all want to be free. But what is it....or....who is it that brings freedom and what does it look like?
Conversations in the basics of the Christian Faith from Luther's Small Catechism to help young people live it full and free.
APOSTLE'S CREED
Third Part
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
or: Christian; 'catholic' here means 'universal'
What this means for us
I believe that on my own I can never come to Jesus Christ my Lord, or believe in him, no matter how hard I try. But the Holy Spirit has called me to Jesus, made me holy, and kept me in the Christian faith.
In the same way the Holy Spirit creates the Christian church all over the world.
The Spirit calls people to Jesus, brings them together into the church, leads them to know and trust Jesus, makes them holy, and keeps them with Jesus in the Christian faith.
In the Christian church the Spirit keeps on forgiving all my sins and the sins of everyone who believes in Jesus.
At the end of time the Spirit will raise me to life, together with all who have died, and will give me and all others who believe in Christ eternal life.
This is certainly true.
Conversations in the basics of the Christian Faith from Luther's Small Catechism to help young people live it full and free.
APOSTLE'S CREED
Second Part
And (I believe) in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried. He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from thence he will come to judge the living and the dead.
What this means for us
I believe that Jesus Christ is my Lord, he is truly God - he has always been the Son of the Father. He is also a real human being, the Virgin Mary's son.
Jesus rescued me when I was lost and sentenced to death. He set me free from all my sins, from death, and from the power of the devil. It cost him more than gold or silver; it cost him his life. Even though he was holy and innocent, he suffered and died for me.
Jesus did this so that I can belong to him, and he can rule over me as my king. I can live under him and serve him innocent and happy forever. Just s e was raised to life, and lives and rules forever.
This is certainly true.
Conversations in the basics of the Christian Faith from Luther's Small Catechism to help young people live it full and free.
APOSTLES' CREED
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty, from thence he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Amen. or: Christian: 'catholic' here means 'universal'
First Part
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.
What this means for us
I believe that God has created me and everything that exists. God has given me my body and soul, my mind and senses, and all my abilities, and still takes care of them.
God also gives me everything I need from day to day - things life food, clothes, home and family, work and money.
God protects me from danger and keeps me safe when I am in trouble.
God does all this only because he is my kind and loving Father: I certainly do not deserve it. All I can do is
Conversations in the basics of the Christian Faith from Luther's Small Catechism to help young people live it full and free.
Tenth Commandment
Do not want anyone else's husband or wife, servants, animals, or possessions.
What this means for us
We should honour and love God, and so we should not try to take away from other people their marriage partner, or anyone who is close to them. Instead, we should encourage people to be faithful and loyal.
What God says about all these commandments
God says:
I am the Lord your God, and I demand all your love. If you reject me, I will punish your families for three or four generations. But if you love me and obey my laws, I will be kind to your families for thousands of generations. (Exodus 20:5,6 CEV)
What this means for us
God threatens to punish everyone who disobeys the commandments. So we should be afraid of God's anger and not go against what he says. But God promises to be kind and merciful to everyone who obeys the commandments. So we should love and trust God and be happy to do what he says.
If there will in the end be nothing standing of our own, then it seems wise to stand with the only thing that will be standing - The Living Word - Jesus.
Conversations in the basics of the Christian Faith from Luther's Small Catechism to help young people live it full and free.
Ninth Commandment
Do not want anyone else's house.
What this means for us
We should honour and love God, and so we should not try to cheat people out of their property, or try to get things by pretending we have a right to them. Instead, we should help people keep what belongs to them.
Conversations in the basics of the Christian Faith from Luther's Small Catechism to help young people live it full and free.
Eighth Commandment
Do not tell lies about anyone.
What this means for us
We should honour and love God, and so we should not tell lies about other people, give their secrets away, talk about them behind their back, or damage their reputation in any way. Instead, we should speak up for them, say only good things about them, and explain their actions in the kindest way.
We hear the very last words of David pin-pointing THE thing that makes us, gives us life and assures us of our future beyond the grave. it is not David's words or ours, but God's.
Conversations in the basics of the Christian Faith from Luther's Small Catechism to help young people live it full and free.
Seventh Commandment
Do not steal.
What this means for us
We should honour and love God and so we should not take other people's money or possessions or get them in a dishonest way. Instead, we should help people to keep and improve what they have.
Conversations in the basics of the Christian Faith from Luther's Small Catechism to help young people live it full and free.
Sixth Commandment
Do not be unfaithful in marriage.
What this means for us
We should honour and love God and so in regard to sex we should speak and act in ways that are pure. If we are married we should love and respect our partner.
Conversations in the basics of the Christian Faith from Luther's Small Catechism to help young people live it full and free.
Fifth Commandment
Do not murder.
What this means for us
We should honour and love God, and so we should not do anything to hurt or injure other people. Instead, we should give them help whenever they need it.
Conversations in the basics of the Christian Faith from Luther's Small Catechism to help young people live it full and free.
Fourth Commandment
Respect your father and your mother.
What this means for us
We should honour and love God, and so we should not look down on our parents and others in authority or make them angry. Instead, we should respect and love them, and help and obey them.
Conversations in the basics of the Christian Faith from Luther's Small Catechism to help young people live it full and free.
Third Commandment
Remember God's special day and keep it holy.
What this means for us
We should honour and love God, and so we should not despise God's word or refuse to hear it. Instead, we should recognise that God's word is holy and be glad to hear and learn it.
Quest: Intensive Learning for a Life of Faith
Conversations in the basics of the Christian Faith from Luther's Small Catechism to help young people live it full and free.
Second Commandment
Do not misuse the name of the lord our God.
What this means for us
We should honour and love God, and so we should not use God's name to curse someone, tell lies under oath, do witchcraft, or deceive anyone. Instead, we should use God's name to ask for help in any trouble, and to praise and thank God.
Jab and God 'have it out' for 40 odd chapters in a long conversation that comes from Job's suffering. God challenges Job. Job eventually trusts God and learns to trust God enough to pray for his friends. This is a needed journey........
Quest: Intensive Learning for a Life of Faith
Conversations in the basics of the Christian Faith from Luther's Small Catechism to help young people live it full and free.
TEN COMMANDMENTS
I am the Lord your God.
Do not have any god except me.
Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God.
Remember God's special day and keep it holy.
Respect your father and your mother.
Do not murder.
Do not be unfaithful in marriage.
Do not steal.
Do not tell lies about anyone.
Do not want anyone else's house.
Do not want anyone else's husband, or wife, servants, animals or possessions.
First Commandment
I am the Lord your God.
Do not have any god except me.
What this means for us
We should honour, love and trust God more than anything else.
Everyone needs a good mentor in the important parts of life - parenting, marriage, work...... Also living in God's grace..... Mary is called to mentor the others in what she saw and heard. We are too......
Often we are a bit 'fireless' - sort of snuffed out by what is going on in us and around us. The fire of live comes from the Spirit of life and he is always willing and able to fire you up!
It is a question we all ask when we are feeling dead inside. Ezekiel thinks they can......
A lot of people will say they know Jesus. Some will say they don't and don't want know Jesus. The people that know him the most seem to display trusting him the least. is this a pointed word for church people?
There is always more, with Jesus......
Conversations in the basics of the Christian Faith from Luther's Small Catechism to help young people live it full and free.
Living in peace in any relationship of any kind is not something that just magically happens for us this side of heaven.
We all know this from our own experience, let alone God’s Word on our human condition. We still have a heart that is naturally opposed to him and cannot find him – a heart in need of resurrection every day!
Being a person that makes for peace with Jesus’ peace in our heart takes commitment and courage along with trust in his peace.
It is hard not to panic and just want a return to peaceful relationship NOW! Peace takes time most of the time. There is a need for great patience and no panic.
The thought of conflict between people being not only a matter of right but or doing right is quite foreign to our culture. You don’t hear of people doing things to do right but to get what they believe to their rights.
That anyone who has been wronged would simply give up their moral and legal right to exact their fair share of compensation for the wrong done against them for some greater good is very difficult for our legal system, our peer group, and sometime our families to deal with. When you are wronged you should expect compensation. When someone threatens your rights, you have the right to fight them.
The thought of someone intentionally paying for right, rather than defending their rights is a rare jewel indeed.
Navigating conflict back to peace PART II
Getting the log out of your own eye.......
The truth hurts, but unresolved conflict hurts more.
Navigating conflict to Peace Part I
We dislike conflict. It makes us uncomfortable. It can shatter our confidence. It can really hurt. We usually run away from it. On the other hand, if pushed enough, we can go on the attack. Fight r flight are unhelpful responses we need to get beyond to live out the gospel we proclaim.
The bottom line is that in Jesus, the Servant King, there is another way to approach conflict. There is a helpful and fruitful way of coping with difficulties in relationships.
It is easy to be very confused about who you are and to know what makes you who you are as well as what you are all about in life. There are plenty of voices pulling you this way and that in the search for identity and purpose.
Living in the new creation community of Jesus - what it looks like...
What do you do when you are mostly misunderstood by someone; misjudged to be a weak person, your work to be unimportant, your contribution to be of minimal value in the community? Do you come out swinging or escape into the shadows?
In this last part of this second letter to the Corinthians it is clear that the Corinthians have considered Paul to be weak and of minimal value to them. Some have misjudged him, misunderstood him and miscalculated his value to Jesus’ new creation kingdom coming.
In so doing they show that they have missed God’s new creation. They have gone back to the old – judging everything on performance, strength, winning, beauty and power…..
Living life in the new creation of God's grace - what it looks like......
They say ‘money talks’. But I can tell you, talking about money in the church is hard. On the one hand we need money because mission cost money. On the other, we are really turned off the whole guilt tripping or high-pressure selling techniques that we sometime see from Christian organisations.
Paul talks about money in the new creation community here in his letter.
Living in the new kingdom of God's grace - what it looks like....
When new things happen to you, new ways of living with them are needed from you.
You need new eyes to let this new scene teach you and shape the future.
How the new life in God's grace works Part I
There are a lot of things that can knock the ‘heart’ out of you; make you lose heart, lose confidence, lose conviction, lose hope and lose love for your now and tomorrow. With no real ‘heart in it’, your work, your study, your family, your church, your plans for your future seem futile or fearful.
This man Paul knows the depths of this loss of heart. He will show us God’s heart when we lose heart. He finds it and shares it from the bottom of his barrel. He will show us how we Christians in a community are called to go about not losing heart – why we don’t need to, despite how deep the bottom of the barrel is.
What living in the new kingdom of God's grace looks like - Part II
Can you hear Paul?
“You really want to know why I am uninterested in looking good, smelling good, being good, being seen to be good, speaking with charisma and eloquence, performing powerful miracles, having endless light chit-chat about unimportant things; why I am blunt, awkward, seemingly strange, indecisive, not easy to understand? It is because he loved me, and I know he loves you”.
The New is Here Easter series captures those first stunning moment of the church coming to be and calls us back to the newness of Jesus' presence and promises for living now.
The New is Here Easter series captures those first stunning moment of the church coming to be and calls us back to the newness of Jesus' presence and promises for living now.
The New is Here Easter series captures those first stunning moment of the church coming to be and calls us back to the newness of Jesus' presence and promises for living now.
The New is Here Easter series captures those first stunning moment of the church coming to be and calls us back to the newness of Jesus' presence and promises for living now.
You might feel tired, old, lonely or despondent about living. But the New life of God is here now.
Those old Ten Commandments: are they just rules for keeping or something much more? Might they be rules for living in relationship?
“Can anything good ever come from the local Christian church?”
The Teacher is from the wrong places, but he finds you before you find him and as you look in the wrong places he never does.
Doing life alone on your own terms often comes up short. What f we had a constant crowd support for the crucial things in life?
In a communal God we live in ultimate community no matter how isolated or disconnected we feel.
The Good Friday Jesus finds you, no matter what. With him, no one gets left behind, no matter what the wounds, the heartache or pressure you are under.
COVID is Resetting the Word but who will rekindle me? There is resurrection and life on offer. Holy Spirit, rekindle me.....
The tunes we are dancing to in this tough 2020 and how we dance to a life-giving tune in it all.
Restricted time is causing us to pause. But will we miss Jesus again as many have before?
Where is a woman's value and worth - fashion, weight, look, partner, children, business? Surprisingly, ancient wise words from Proverbs speaks good news about where everyone's value and worth really lay.
It was the question Terrence Floyd asked those bent on looting and destruction in Minneapolis this week. It is a good question for us all to ask each other as church.
We are lifted into that grand vision of God given to the Apostle John in the last book of the Bible; the Book of the Revelation. This hope is spoken to give us hope now, not just later. We pray that the Spirit of the Risen Christ will breath his future hope into you for your now.
Encouragement for the often painful, complex road of marriage, divorce and re-marriage.
We long to find 'normal' while the Spirit calls us to ask not what is normal, but what is next!