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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 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

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 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

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 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

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 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

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 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

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 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

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 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

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 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

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. 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 

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 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

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, 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

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. 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

Send us Fan Mail

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Send us Fan Mail