What’s in a word? Amen. That’s the word I’m talking about. Amen.
What’s in a word?
At the end of each sentence we are used to seeing a mark, or a symbol. Punctuation we call it. Fullstop. Question Mark? Exclamation mark!
Is that what Amen is? A bit of punctuation at the end of the sentence? A mark to tell us the prayer is over?
Amen is an ancient word – thousands of years old – handed down unchanged from ancient Hebrew through to ancient Greek through to modern English and many other languages. Amen. It is an expression of confidence, of faith, of trust, that what is said is true. It is an expression of agreement, of solidarity, of participation. It is a promise of commitment, of assurance, of engagement. It shall be so! Amen.
Notably, Jesus used Amen not at the end of his sentences but at the beginning! Often twice, just to make sure no one was in any doubt.
In fact, Jesus himself is the Amen. Our Amen. And God’s last word to us in the Bible is Amen (Revelation 22:21).
I don’t think that’s just punctuation.
~ Pastor John Strelan
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Penicillin was discovered in 1928 when Alexander Fleming accidently left a petri dish uncovered and noticed that a mould had killed the surrounding bacteria.
The microwave oven was invented by Percy Spencer in 1945 after he noticed the radar equipment he was working on melted a chocolate bar in his pocket.
Way back in 1754 the English author Horace Walpole had already coined a word for such events: serendipity. He formed the word after reading an ancient Persian story known as the Three Princes of Serendip in which the main characters are always making accidental discoveries of things they weren’t intending or looking for. Serendipity, then, is the phenomenon of finding valuable, pleasant, or agreeable things you weren’t actively seeking (such as discovering that ‘Serendip’ was the historical Arabic name for Sri Lanka).
Way, way back in around 33AD Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which someone found”.
Serendipity.
~ Pastor John Strelan
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Some history:
1839 First Lutheran synod founded by Kavel.
1846 Fritzsche splits from Kavel, forms Bethany-Lobethal Synod which becomes Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Australia (ELSA). Kavel heads up Langmeil-Lightpass Synod.
1858 Tanunda-Lightpass Synod splits from Langmeil-Lightpass Synod. Joins with Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Victoria.
1902 Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Australia (Old Basis) splits from Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Australia, joins United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Australia.
1966 Evangelical Lutheran Church of Australia joins with United Evangelical Church in Australia, becomes Lutheran Church of Australia (LCA).
2024 Lutheran Mission Australia splits from Lutheran Church of Australia.
It all sounds a bit Monty Pythonesque, doesn’t it? Lutherans, it seems, know better than Jesus when it comes to tending the garden.
~ Pastor John Strelan
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Earlier this week Pastor Ezra Jin, the leader of one of the largest underground churches in China was released by authorities after spending 266 days in prison. Pastor Jin founded Zion Church in 2007 with 20 members. In 20 years it has grown into a network of 10,000 members across 40 cities. However, many other pastors and other Christians remain imprisoned.
But, despite decades of restrictions, suppression and persecution, the number of Christians in China continues to grow, with numbers currently estimated to be 100 million.
All because a sower went out to sow.
~ Pastor John
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Last Tuesday ‘A Current Affair’ aired a segment that was meant to challenge unrealistic beauty standards. The reporter presenting the program chose not to wear any of the usual make-up a TV presenter would wear. Sadly, but unsurprisingly, she received many on-line responses commenting negatively on her appearance. It seems in this social media driven world anyone with a keyboard thinks they have a God-given right to comment, critique, criticize and condemn. I’m told Lutherans are not immune from this sort of behaviour! It’s all too easy to criticize others, especially anonymously on-line, but I wonder how we would fare if God would critique us? After all, if anyone has a right to do that, it’s God!
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The Law of Inertia, also known as Newton’s First Law of Motion, states that an object at rest will remain at rest and an object in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by an external force. Inertia is the inherent property of any physical object to resist changes to its current state of motion. So, if an object is sitting still, it wants to stay sitting still; if it is already moving it wants to keep moving.
Makes me wonder whether, when it comes to the mission of the church, we have a tendency to overcomplicate things. Perhaps it’s just a matter of showing up?
~ Pastor John Strelan
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When you look in the mirror do you like what you see? I suspect not. I say that purely based on statistics, not because I know you well enough to make that judgment. You see Australians spend over $25 billion dollars on beauty products every year! Then we spend another $25 billion per year on clothes! In fact, Australians buy more clothes per person than anyone else in the world! And, every year, 200,000 tonnes of the clothing we buy ends up in landfill!
And, in the end, despite all the skin products we apply and all the fashion items we adorn ourselves with we too eventually return to dust. So maybe there is something more important than what we see in the mirror? Maybe there’s something more important than what we think of ourselves? Maybe there’s something more important than what others think of us? And maybe that something is more than skin deep?
~ Pastor John Strelan
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John 1:14
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
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Two pairs of glasses:
Weak, suffering, ungodly, sinful, enemies = Despised.
Weak, suffering, ungodly, sinful, enemies = Loved.
Which pair of glasses do you think God wears?
~ Pastor John Strelan
Please note this sermon does not include recorded audio. It is written only. To listen to all other sermons from 2026, click here. If you are unable to access spotify, 2026 sermon recordings can be found here