Cairns Lutheran Parish

Is the church dying? Do we need to pray more, pray harder or have more faith in order for things to improve? Or does the message of Pentecost lead us away from what we bring to the table and point us to a God who is still very much alive and at work amongst His people – the church? Come and explore how God continues to work His 'mighty acts' in and out of the church. Come and see where we fit into God's story!

Why does the Bible talk about Jesus' ascent to the right hand of God? Is the ascension simply something for us to marvel at, or does it run much, much deeper? Today we're looking at the implications of both Jesus' high priesthood and His ascension in our lives.

We share with others those things that are most important to us. What's the most important thing in our life worth sharing with our loved ones? Where does the One who calls us out of the slavery of sin and into new resurrection life fit into our list of most important things, and how can we share this treasure simply with the people around us?

What does it really mean to be a child of God in this world - and what difference does it make anyway? Listen to what God says about you and your calling in the world as we open up 1 Peter.

Why does the Bible depict Jesus as a gardener in John 20:1-18? And why does Mary see Jesus and see a gardener before seeing her saviour? Maybe it goes all the way back to the beginning: to a garden and the giant fall of humankind. What would it mean for us to be restored to the one who planted the garden of Eden and have access once more to Eden? Find out how God has restored us to both the garden and the gardener through the resurrection of Jesus. Recorded at Our Saviour Lutheran Church, Atherton.

Food is a major focus of our lives. It's there when we socialise and even when we turn on our television! On Maundy Thursday we celebrate the meal Jesus instituted for his disciples to eat. Food that does amazing things beyond the best restaurant meal or the most elaborately catered social function. So if the saying is true and we are what we eat, what does that mean for us as we approach Jesus' banquet table?

How do we pick our leaders? What kind of things are on our leadership shopping list? We want our leaders to look the part and promise the things we really want: political strength, higher wages, lower taxes. But they also need to look the part, accessorise and bask in the light of high media exposure. So what was Jesus thinking entering Jerusalem on a donkey? Is this the kind of King we're looking for? Jesus may not look the part, but maybe he's exactly who we really need...

How important is your faith to you? We usually answer that question with powerful words of affirmation. But is that really how it is - or do we pay Jesus more lip service than actual honesty? Come and explore how Jesus breathes His life into you and re-animates you for authentic life that glorifies God in His Kingdom!

We see what we want to see. We make assumptions and blindly go out on a limb thinking we can see the full picture. But we can't. All too often we operate in the darkness without seeing through the eyes of faith. Jesus opened the eyes of the blind man - and not just his physical eyes. Jesus gave the man spiritual sight to see the fullness of who Jesus is in every aspect of life. Jesus opens our eyes as we are washed in the waters of baptism and calls us to look to him as we navigate life with our spiritual eyes wide open and attentive to His voice.

We all have deep needs. If we strip away the petty problems and the superficial issues that bring us stress, the big issues in our life... like death, like our relationship with the God who will one day serve as our eternal Judge, like making it through this evil world with our faith still in tact. Where does help like that come from? For the Israelites' in the wilderness it came from a bronze snake on a pole! Even though they were whining endlessly and ungrateful - God, who sent the snakes, also sent the help! He sent help to deeply flawed people. And he did it on account of His burning and holy love. Jesus answered, "Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit." God looks at us today, not by worldly definitions, but the person He created us to be. And He loves us with a love beyond human reason put into action in sending Jesus to die for us - to be lifted up high on the cross that

We capture moments don't we? Itʼs the moment she said, "I do" or itʼs the moment the doctor said "itʼs a girl/boy!" the moment in time that you captured the first steps of your child, the joy of a graduation, the first relationship, the once in a lifetime family reunion or the perfect holiday photo you took that you loved so much - you just had to blow it up and capture the moment in a frame to remember. If only we could stay in those moments! If only life could just stop so we could continue to hang out there. If only we could stay! Peter, James and John said that same thing, as they stood absolutely gob-smacked and dazzled at what they had just witnessed. They wanted to stay on that mountain with Jesus. But they couldn't! Jesus couldn't stay on that mountain either. The journey was just beginning. And so today I want to journey with you to that mountain with Jesus and those first disciples to see a preview of glory. We may just find ourselves saying, "If we only could stay!"

"An eye for an eye ... payback ... revenge: a dish best served cold." We say it with such a cold joy sometimes. Or maybe as Christians we tone down the language a bit. If we don't say it out loud, we think it. Having an enemy of one kind or another is common to us all. As Christians, we need to get a little more creative than simply biting people back when we feel hurt. More than this, wouldn't it be great to surprise people, catch them off guard, so that we can take a new and fresh approach as disciples and followers of Jesus? To be a disciple is to be creative in tough situations, prayerfully bringing our enemies - on the world scale - and our most intimate relationships to God, asking what they can't ask for themselves – for peace with God and each other. Who knows, perhaps they’ll even end up our friends!

I don't know about you, but I find it very easy to redefine things for myself. It's easy to redefine our situation. We're so good at redefining the parameters to suit ourselves, and it seems that we're not alone because the people in Jesus' day had much the same problem as us. In fact it goes right back to Adam and Eve in the garden and that fruit tree doesn't it, and satan saying "did God really say that you shouldn't eat from that tree... did he really say that" (redefining it). And in Jesus' day it were the religious leaders who had consistently taken the gift of the Law, which is God's commands and instructions for life, and simply missed the point. When we try to redefine God's Word, we move the goal post to where we feel comfortable so that we can feel that we're justified in our behaviour and in everything that we do. But that's not a safe place for us to be living and it's not reality. Jesus never said "take up your cross and be comfortable," but rather "take up your cross and follow me." Sometimes