Surely, I can’t be the only one who watched in dismay the utter devastation visited upon Gaza by the Israel Defence Force?
Surely, I can’t be the only one who shakes my head in despair as the drone strikes and missiles continue to rain down on Ukrainian cities?
Surely, I can’t be the only one whose heart fell when religiously motivated terror brought murder to a beach in Sydney?
Surely, I can’t be the only one who thinks, ‘There must be another way?’
Having being warned in a dream not to return to Herod the magi departed for their own country by another way. I wonder, what was that way?
~ Pastor John
Read and listen now to Pastor John's address for the First Sunday after Christmas.
Listen and read now to Pastor John's address from Christmas Day, 2025.
Fear!
One of the most heartbreaking lines in all of Scripture must be Genesis 3:10, ‘The man (Adam) said (to God) “I heard the sound of you walking in the garden, and I was afraid . . . and I hid myself”’.
Fear restricts us. Fear binds us. Fear narrows us. Fear reduces us. Fear dehumanizes us. Fear diminishes us. Fear cuts us off from God.
One of the profoundest aspects of Christmas is that Jesus comes as Immanuel –God with us– in order to drive out fear, so that all people might have life and have it abundantly. Jesus comes to us at Christmas to give to us –to create in us– the opposite of fear: trust.
~ Pastor John
If you’ve never heard of the term non sequitur, don’t let it bother you. It’s a Latin term used in literary contexts and it means a conclusion or statement that does not logically follow from the previous argument or statement. So, for example: My car needs repairs; therefore you should read this book by Friday.
Actually, maybe it is a term you should get to know, because if the Bible is literature then the term fits. And, if the Bible is the Word of God then it might be applied to God. In which case, if a person could be a non sequitur I reckon Jesus would be one.
Confused? Yep, me too.
~Pastor John
Money was tight in the small country congregation but the church really needed painting. The pastor came up with a cunning plan. He bought half the amount of paint needed for the job and thinned it down. He set to work painting. Everything seemed to be going well; he had just about finished when a huge storm rolled through and the rain washed the thinned paint off the church walls. In frustration and desperation the pastor got down on his knees and prayed: “Lord, what do I do now?” A voice came from heaven, ‘Repaint and thin no more”.
~ Pastor John
On July 13 1984, Terry Wallis was involved in a car accident that left him in a coma. For 19 years he remained comatose in a minimally conscious state. Doctors believed his condition was permanent. Then, in 2003, he spontaneously awoke.
Can you imagine how much the world changed in those 19 years? Can you imagine how it must have been to suddenly wake up? And, I wonder, if that was you, what would you like to see when you woke up? Who would you want to have around you after sleeping for 19 years?
One of the first people Terry Wallis saw was his mother. And he recognized her.
~ Pastor John
I went old-school this week and consulted my Oxford English Dictionary (yes, real paper; all 2,152 pages of it). I was curious to know what definitions it had for the word ‘kingdom’. I was pleasantly surprised. Here they are:
kingdom ènoun 1 a country, state or territory ruled by a king or queen. 2 the spiritual reign or authority of God. 3 each of the three traditional divisions (animal, vegetable, and mineral) in which natural objects have conventionally been classified.
Of course, it was the second definition that interested me. So, as I was enjoying just turning the pages instead of clicking a button, I looked up ‘spiritual’. Here’s what was written:
spiritual èadjective. Of, relating to, or affecting the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things.
That made me wonder: if God’s kingdom is a spiritual reign it’s a strange one, ruled as it is by a very human king, hung on a cross, who certainly felt the nails hammered through his wrists. A spiritual rule that happens through a splash of very ordinary physical water on a baby’s head and a scrap of bread and a sip of wine. It’s not what we might expect for a spiritual reign. Then again, God does like to do things differently.
~ Pastor John
I don’t know about you, but if I am going into a new situation, particularly if it means performing publicly, I like to put on my armour. That might mean wearing particular clothes, or preparing mentally by doing some prior research, or giving myself a little pep talk, like, “What’s the worst that could happen?” Sometimes I even pray!
I suspect I’m not alone in this. What’s your armour? Is it the make-up you put on? Perhaps it’s humour? Or perhaps you avoid new situations altogether?
It’s natural for us to want to protect ourselves. Which is why Jesus’ advice to the twelve disciples is particularly challenging. “When you have opportunity to testify about me”, he says (and notice it’s ‘when’ not ‘if’), “leave your armour at home”.
Jesus knows that if his disciples are thinking about their armour then they’re thinking about themselves: protecting themselves, defending themselves, getting out alive. But, that’s not Jesus’ way. Jesus’ way is to think about others. And, Jesus wasn’t asking them to do anything he wasn’t prepared to do himself. So, he stood before the governor of Judea and refused to defend himself. And, he trusted that he too would be given the words to say at the right time. Those words came as he hung on the cross. He cried out, “Father, forgive them.”
And they mocked him for it, but the world hasn’t been the same since.
~ Pastor John