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.

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

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. 

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

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……… 

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......

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

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. 

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?

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.