Loftus Uniting Church

31/10/2026

Healing service at Loftus Church on Wednesday the 4th November. All are welcome to join us for a time of fellowship and sharing to be followed by afternoon tea.

30/10/2026

All Saints Day occurs this Sunday. It marks the end of the church year. It is a time for looking back and celebrating the lives of those people who filled our lives with the love of God. More importantly it fills us with Hope as we look forward to that glorious day when we are able to stand with all other believers before the Throne of God. (See Revelation 7:9-17), as part of the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham. Rather than fleeing fearfully from God, here are people who stand with confidence, joy and praise in his presence. Is that how you feel about today and the future?

John was writing Revelation when the followers of Christ were about to face severe Roman persecution. As a Christian today is that how you feel about the future? As we look around we certainly see a lot of bad things happening and in particular we see them happening to Christians. Should our reaction be to try to hide or shelter ourselves from these things? In Revelation 7 John is showing how we should be standing firm together in worship to God as this is the portent to life after the final judgement. We may face the worst tribulation now with confidence knowing that we will end with the delight of being the children of God, together with the angels. We will be saints sealed by the Holy Spirit.

What is a saint?
“A young boy about nine years old went with his parents to Europe one summer. Part of their tour was visiting the great old cathedrals of the past. As he would visit cathedral after cathedral he saw the massive stained glass portraits of the disciples and of other saints. He was so impressed as he stood in these great empty halls looking through the beautiful stained glass windows. Upon return, when asked by his Sunday School teacher, what about the great churches of Europe did he like the most, and what was his definition of a saint, he thought for a moment and he said, ‘I loved the sense of awesomeness and the hugeness of who God must be. And what is a saint?’ And as his mind went back to those massive beautiful stained glass windows, he said, ‘A saint is a man the light shines through.’”
“People are like stained glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun’s out. When the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is light within.”—Anonymous
Adrian Rogers said, “As the night grows darker, the saints grow brighter.”

Would you recognise a saint if you met one in the street? Do you recognise this person?

Quiz: Who Am I?
I was born on the 16th January 1902 in Tientsin, China.
My parents were missionaries for the London Missionary Society.
My baptismal names were reversed on the way to my baptism when my parents realised my initials would spell a rude word.
My grandfather was a grocer who often got into trouble for singing Moody and Sankey hymns which were considered far too modern and evangelical.
I enrolled at the School for the Sons of Missionaries in London when I was six years old,
My lasting school comment was " I don't think much of lessons, but I can run".
I started a Science degree at Edinburgh University in 1920.
I committed my life to Jesus when I was at university.
I played international Rugby for Scotland but I retired early.
In 1921 I lost the only race I ever lost in Scotland.
I was known as the only athlete to speak to a black athlete at one track meeting.
I always shook hands with all those I was running against.
I would often dig the starting holes for my opponents.
I would give less experienced runners the inside lanes.
I was once pushed over and off the track - but got up, gained the twenty yards I had lost, and still won.
I was selected for the 1924 British Olympic team to race in the 100 meters.
When I discovered that the heats were on Sunday I refused to compete.
I ran the 400 metres which I had not trained for - and won!
I am Eric Liddell (Chariots of Fire)

How did Jesus define saintly behaviour? See Matthew 5:1-12 which we know as the Beatitudes. How would you summarise the Beatitudes it means worshipping God with all your heart, your mind and your soul as you are part of that great vision in Revelation 7. You are not distracted by the things so many desire in this life - money, power, fame, adulation. Rather you honour God in all you do and as a result you are truly blessed.
Revelation 7 reminds me of Julia Ward Howe’s great American Civil War Hymn, written at a time when many were experiencing horrific circumstances, but could see that glorious future that this world and your life is heading towards.

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of this terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.

Though we will experience suffering in the present we know that all our needs will be met in the future as we have a place of safety in our forever home. God himself is going to bless you with the comfort of his presence as a shelter and a shelter forever. He will be close enough to personally dry the tears in your eyes. What a future to look forward to as we look forward to joining all the saints in praising our King!

23/10/2026

Recent events have thrown a dark shadow over our culture. As we recover from the shock of the appalling attack on Helen Haines we are reminded of the two politicians who have been murdered in the United Kingdom or of the riots in France and Italy or the shootings in Bondi. Is it because modern society has lost understanding of what it means to love one another?

In Matthew 22:34-46 Jesus is challenged to summarize his teaching by stating the greatest commandment, with the aim of his opponents being able to criticise his teaching. His answer is to Love God with all you have (heart, mind and soul) and love your neighbour as yourself. Does this sound a little like community leaders, in these current times, enjoining us to behave decently towards each other, to disagree respectfully?

What did Jesus mean by love? Is it nice warm feelings towards each other? To kindly tolerate others? That is not the view the Church Fathers had. Thomas Aquinas defined love as velle bonum alicui—to will the good of the other. Rather he meant it to actively, structurally, sacrificially orient your will toward the flourishing of another person. Rather than a feeling that comes and goes it is a deliberate choice, under varying circumstances, to seek the good of other people.

Aquinas understood that to achieve this you have to stop focusing on yourself or regarding others as beneath you. You have to make the interior room for the other person to matter as much as you do. In other words you need to possess humility at the centre of your life.

As Zina Jacque argues https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-30/commentary-on-matthew-2234-46-7 This is what the commandment assumes and what we persistently skip. We bypass humility and go straight to love. We then wonder why it doesn’t seem to work? Humility is not a spiritual nicety that lives alongside love. It is the structural foundation without which love, in the full Thomistic sense, cannot be built. We can’t achieve this unless we love the Lord with all we have, meaning that is what we devote all our thoughts, our actions and our resources to. When we do that we can will the good of others

Jesus reinforced this by pointing out how David, Israel’s greatest king, would bow before his own descendant, the Messiah, rather than claiming precedence over him. Note how when the Israelites entered the Promised Land they were encouraged in Exodus 22: 20-26 to practice loving actions in their daily lives by not oppressing aliens, widows or orphans, or exploiting the poor financially or by returning what you have borrowed from others before the end of the promised day. We need to adopt and practice loving actions rather than waiting for the motivation to do so. Isn’t that what chivalrous action was about? Indeed today such action is little practiced and at times strongly rejected. Is this why the appalling actions listed above are becoming common in our current times?

What is Jesus' message for our current times? We need to become people like David, the king who orientated his will toward the greatness of another rather than protecting his own precedence. This is the humility that makes love possible that the Pharisees couldn’t follow: to subordinate themselves to someone they did not expect to be above them. They cannot do it. Not because they don’t know the commandment but because they haven’t done the prior work of humility. The question is do you or I?

Jesus gave them the commandment. Then he gave them the example with his very life.. Love God. Love your neighbor. And remember that you cannot do either without first doing what David did: humbling yourself before the Lord, who is greater than your own lineage, your own tradition, your own very correct answers. Humility is the prerequisite for love to flourish. Is this how you display your love for the Lord as you seek to live for Him? Why not meditate on Philippians 2 as Paul explains this?

1. Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united
with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common
sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion,
2. then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the
same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.
3. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in
humility value others above yourselves,
4. not looking to your own interests but each of you to the
interests of the others.
5. In your relationships with one another, have the same
mindset as Christ Jesus:
6. Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to
his own advantage;
7. rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8. And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9. Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10. that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11. and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
12. Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—
not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence
—continue to work out your salvation with fear and
trembling,
13. for it is God who works in you to will and to
act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

16/10/2026

Do you believe that we need to separate religion from government or everyday life? Isn’t that the modern view? Although it is perhaps changing in Europe with the increase in the Moslem population. Where did the view originate?

In the push back against Jesus in his last week in Jerusalem both groups of his opponents - the Pharisees and the Herodians - joined together in an attempt to trap Jesus with an impossible question. The design was for Jesus to be in trouble whether he said yes or no. (See Matthew 22:15-22).

Jesus asked them to show him a coin and say whose image was on it? So who did it belong to then? “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” Jesus' answer exposed the false assumptions behind their question: in the same way that it exposes those who attempt today to separate “church and state” . There are 2 worlds: the human world and the world (and the universe) that God has made. The human world is a subset of God’s world; it’s not a case of one or the other.

As you live in the human world today do you continue to recognise that you are also living in God’s world? Ultimately the human world will not make sense unless it aligns with God’s world. The wonder is that Jesus came and gave up everything so that by following him we might know the real way, showing the truth to a life beyond measure and beyond time. Who are you serving? Who are you following today and into the future? Is your aim to be an imitator of Christ in all you do and say or do you wish to follow the ways of the world?

We are made in the image of God. Does your life bear that image, or are you mired in the ways of the world? Do you exhibit the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control of His Spirit as it transforms your life as a member of His Kingdom.

09/10/2026

Do you have nightmares about not being invited to a wedding: all the important people are there, but you just can’t get inside? Researchers say this is a common dream, where we are scared of missing out. Imagine if you invited all your friends to a party instead, but no one turns up!

In Matthew 22: 1-14 Jesus tells a rather dark parable. A king invites people to a wedding banquet, but they refuse to come, even after he sends servants to remind them. Then he invites everyone both good and bad, while sending his soldiers to take care of those who weren’t interested.

Clearly this parable relates to the attitude of the chief priests towards Jesus. However it is just as relevant today. Out of his amazing grace and love God sent his son to die for us so we could become banquet guests. But are we prepared to change and put on his wedding clothes and join him in his great banquet? Or do we just want to keep doing things our way? We want it all without changing.

It is sobering to think that there are now more Christians living outside the western world than in it. Indeed third world countries are now sending missionaries to the “educated west”. It seems we are the ones insisting on keeping our own clothes on, seeking to do things our way, putting our hope in our efforts. Unfortunately this means that we are no longer enjoying the banquet, instead as the parable depicts the end result is bleak. Do you have hope in that glorious future you dream of? That God loves us not just as we are but as transformed people, people who are healed and changed. He wants the best for us. He does love murderers, but not as murderers but as people willing to be transformed into people of love. Ultimately, if he’s a good God, he cannot allow that sort of behaviour, and that sort of person, if they don’t change, to remain forever in the party he’s throwing for his son.

Have you ever wondered about the clothes you should be wearing to this party, the clothes the one thrown out of the party didn’t wear? When we become one with Christ our lives are transformed. What does this mean?

Look at Philippians 4:1-9 which encourages us to stand firm in the Lord; How? “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5. Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”

Is that the life you are rejoicing in?

03/10/2026

02/10/2026

How would you describe our current times, as you look at how the media tries to encapsulate what is going on currently with rising interest rates and unemployment and conflicts in different parts of the world? How did Jesus describe the world he lived in as he approached Jerusalem on his way to his crucifixion? What did he say to those in authority? Jesus tells a parable in Matthew 21: 33-46 about renters in a vineyard.

The scene would have been very familiar to the chief priests and Pharisees - his target audience. Read Isaiah 5: 1-7 . What are the similarities? The landowner and vineyard are references to God and Israel. The fence is seen as the law given to Moses, to make Israel a fruit bearing nation - the light of the world. Instead of sweet grapes, standing for honesty and justice, the vine produces wild sour grapes standing for dishonesty and cries for mercy. The warning was that Israel was in for trouble! What was God’s response - to knock down the hedge making the field a wasteland.

Do you see the similarities with Jesus' parable? The master planted a vineyard, put a fence around it and installed a w**e press. He then sent slaves (prophets) to collect his share of the harvest. They were beaten and killed until the master (God) sent his son - who was killed. This is what was waiting for Jesus. Note how Jesus turns to his audience and says what will the owner do when he returns to the vineyard? The response was he will bring them to a wretched end.

Jesus then concludes in a typically Jewish teaching manner by quoting Scripture about the stone that the builders rejected becoming the foundation stone for God’s kingdom.

Is that what we are doing in today’s society? We are turning away from the grace of God's kingdom, tending his vineyard, to pursue our own selfish interests?

To take a real world example of this look at Philippians 3. Paul lists all his achievements as a Pharisee which he now regards as loss compared with knowing Christ and the power of his resurrection.

His response? To press on, in a manner similar to what we see of teams at the moment striving to win premierships, to be called heavenward in Christ Jesus; so that he may transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. That is what he is challenging us to do.

Is that the vineyard that you strive to tend day by day? If so, rejoice in the Lord always!

25/09/2026

What counts more words or actions? Australians like people who walk the talk, to be “fair dinkum”, but views seem to have changed with social media. We seem to look now to “influencers” to tell us what we should think, to see whose views are trustworthy, to know what is the right thing. Journalists are now into ‘fact checking’, but that seems a partisan rather than an objective exercise because they limit the ‘facts’ they will accept or not, depending on their opinion.

This reminds me of the parable Jesus tells in Matthew 21: 23-32. Jesus tells a parable about 2 sons. One promises to do what his father asks, but doesn’t. The other initially says no but then does what he was asked. Have you experienced that as a parent? What does such different behaviour tell you? One son clearly was more interested in doing things for himself, despite what he said, while the other ultimately respected the authority of his father. At the end of the day who or what do you or I follow when making key decisions?

Bob Dylan highlighted this aspect of life in this Grammy award winning song “Gotta serve someone”. Whichever direction we go in we will be serving somebody.

But you're gonna have to serve somebody
Yes indeed, you're gonna have to serve somebody
Well it may be the Devil
Or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody

NATALIE COLE - Gotta serve somebody (with lyrics)
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DNsHtfg7E3lA&ved=2ahUKEwja8YiYsomXAxU5b_UHHQlwB00QwqsBegQIFBAB&usg=AOvVaw2kDxplbyew9dhO-RdipQBV
Do you recognise the people in the video?

Ultimately this is the question we all face in our lives - whose authority do we follow? Do we wish to be members of His Kingdom or some other? Are we going to spend our lives serving Him and other people or are we planning to just serve ourselves? Are we going to be wise living according to his principles? Are you going to completely hand the reins of your life over to the very God, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who loves, cares for, and watches over each of us individually?

What does Jesus’ life show us? As I look at the reported behaviour of world leaders at the United Nations this week they seem diametrically opposed to the description of Jesus in Philippians 2:1-13. These words are thought to have been written shortly after Jesus’ crucifixion, to capture in poetry who he was. Is that the life you want to live? Is that what you aspire to? A life lived for the love, for the good of others? As Graham Kendrick has put it:

From heaven you came helpless babe
Entered our world, your glory veiled
Not to be served but to serve
And give Your life that we might live
This is our God, The Servant King
He calls us now to follow Him
To bring our lives as a daily offering
Of worship to The Servant King

As you seek to do this each day, which child from the parable do you most resemble? One relying on the grace of God, or one living for themselves?

Who do you serve?

18/09/2026

People often question whether life is fair. Some people seem to have it all while others are forced to suffer. Some people are given a reward even when they haven’t done anything to deserve it. Indeed some deliberately cheat the system. How does that make you feel? Were you an older child who observed your younger siblings getting things you didn’t without even doing the hard yards to earn it? There are loud calls for justice about people not getting the same treatment or the same resources as others. What do you expect in God’s kingdom?

Jesus tells a parable in Matthew 20:1-16 which seems as offensive now as it was then. A group of workers is employed to work in a field. At the end of the day they are paid. They all receive the same amount even though some worked for 12 hours, some 9, some 6, some 3 and some only 1 hour! How can that be right even though they received what was promised, exactly the same amount?

This is a parable about God’s Amazing Grace. God has made us His children, even though we don’t deserve it! Such is his love for us, and Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. We have a choice. We can gratefully accept what he has done for us and lead generous lives in which we seek the best for others. Alternatively we can focus on ourselves, on our rights, on what we believe we deserve, on what the world owes us. Which world are you living in - one focused on yourself and what you believe you are owed or one in which you claim the amazing promise of God’s kingdom even though you don’t deserve it? One in which you can join with John Newton in singing amazing grace, how sweet the sound.

I wonder if due to our current entitled culture we don't get this parable. There is another way to view this parable. If you received work first up, hadn't you been rewarded? Have you won the lottery? What if you needed work, you were prepared to work but there was none available until the last hour of the day? Is it unfair that you received the same amount to support your family given you have been patiently waiting all day? How do you expect to be rewarded in “the renewal of all things?” in the last days?

There have been some interesting studies done by social scientists about how deserving we think we are. Have you seen the results of the surveys about who does the house work around home? Interestingly if you sum the estimates by both partners it exceeds 100%! How well people do at work, at sport or academically depends to a large extent on luck, not just your application or innate ability. For example, older children in an age group perform better in sport throughout life. Why? At a young age their relative maturity gives them an advantage which is reinforced by stronger support and coaching. This provides them with skills that persist through life. How much success at work depends on being at the right place at the right time? Don’t we tend to view this as our natural ability? This is called egocentric bias

The message of this parable is we need to love God not his benefits. Paul states this very well in Philippians 1:21-30. To live is Christ and to die is vain. Live for God not for what you think you will gain personally. Do you look up to God, or around at how you are faring compared to others?

1. Amazing grace (how sweet the sound)
that saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
was blind, but now I see.
2. 'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
and grace my fears relieved;
how precious did that grace appear
the hour I first believed!
3. Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come:
'tis grace has brought me safe thus far,
and grace will lead me home.
4. The Lord has promised good to me,
his word my hope secures;
he will my shield and portion be
as long as life endures.
5. Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
and mortal life shall cease:
I shall possess, within the veil,
a life of joy and peace.
6. The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
the sun forbear to shine;
but God, who called me here below,
will be forever mine.

14/09/2026

Loftus Church Community Library is now stocked and ready for use. Please feel free to take, borrow or swap books from there. Bottom shelf is for children's books and top shelf is for adults. Enjoy.