Golfers can be quite an amusing lot with some of the names and terms they come up with. For example, they can tee off with a wonderful stroke only to look down and see the ball still on the tee – this is known as an ‘airy’. Or then there’s the helicopter! - Everyone knows what a helicopter is but they actually exist on the golf course too. This usually takes place in the bunker, where after numerous attempts – instead of the ball soaring out to land on the green; it’s the club that is thrown out spinning at similar revolutions to a helicopter’s rotor blades.

This is normally brought about through the sheer frustration of the golfer.

This got me thinking and I came to the conclusion that life can be like a game of golf. We all like to do well, be on par or better as we go through life. Indeed some might be able to drive straight down the fairway of life and even score a hole in one!

But sometimes things in life go wrong and we find ourselves in situations that are beyond our control. After a few years we struggle to get up ‘Cardiac Hill’ (as it’s affectionately known), or we end up in the rough or the bunker of life despondent and feel like we have no strength left and have achieved absolutely nothing. We may even have performed our own version of the helicopter out of sheer frustration!

Without a doubt, there are times, life can be very frustrating.

We may even find ourselves asking – ‘Where’s God in all of this?’

Frustrated – that is the name of this week’s sermon.

36° 47' 49.2" S, 148° 11' 48.3" E

Those are the coordinates for Indi Springs should you ever want to go there. Many people do. Apparently, there’s not much to see, just a bit of swampy ground with a trickle of water seeping from the soil. So, why do people go there? Well, Indi Springs is the source of the Australia’s greatest river, the River Murray, which starts high in the Australian Alps and it’s all downhill from there, all 2,500kms of it, until it reaches the ocean near Goolwa. From that inconspicuous start the Murray brings life to an otherwise barren landscape, sustaining wildlife and agriculture for the length of its course.

Jesus’ journey began with a baptism in the wilderness. Water poured over him. Water: a symbol of life. That day he was just one of many. But, from there he rushed headlong through the country all the way to Jerusalem, bringing healing, renewal and life to those he met. There in Jerusalem he was nailed to a cross. A spear pierced his side and blood and water poured out. It looked like the end, but it was just a beginning. For us too.

~ Pastor John

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