Spirited Word

Send us Fan Mail  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...

Send us Fan Mail 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 Empi...

Send us Fan Mail 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....

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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 li...

Send us Fan Mail 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, t...

Send us Fan Mail 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 temptati...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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 S...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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 thos...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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 resurrect...

Send us Fan Mail 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 h...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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 in...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail  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...

Send us Fan Mail 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...

Send us Fan Mail 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, an...

Send us Fan Mail 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....

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