by Pastor Tim Klein
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And Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come’ (John 2:4).
Read John 2:1–11
How human is that? ‘My hour has not yet come.’
‘Not yet, Mother!’ said Jesus. We do it, too: ‘I am not ready yet. It’s too soon. I’m not prepared to go. Try me again later’, and so on.
But, for Jesus, this is a case of saying one thing and doing another. He might not have been ready in himself as a human being to reveal who he was, yet he did! He served their need – with great blessing.
Why do we sometimes stall and backpedal from both responsibility and opportunity? Are we afraid – scared of what might happen? Are we concerned we might not really have what it takes? Do we find it easier to ‘allow someone else the privilege of serving’? Could it be that we are concerned that once that ability or service is ‘let out of the bag’, we might be saddled with it for the foreseeable future?
If you are a leader in any form, you are likely aware of how difficult it can be to engage volunteers in service. People are reluctant to commit. We are wary of other people having a call on our time and resources. I’m in the middle of seeking a new small team of people to do a 2025 monthly Saturday afternoon bread pickup. It’s not easy. But I’m living in hope. God will move some people to see the need and meet it.
I’m also encouraged by Jesus’ ultimate response to his mum when she simply overrides his reluctance. Next thing you know, her son has performed his first public miracle! She served the need at that time. I have hope and positively expect that there will be enough people to take up the bread run in my retirement next year.
I’m also hopeful more and more people will be willing to take up the call to follow Jesus as he goes about his mission of seeking out and saving lost people!
It’s sins that hold us back from serving. But even Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, despite pleading with his Father to take back the cup of sacrifice he was about to fill, ultimately served us with his life’s blood, and he offers us all this miracle of forgiveness.
He has given us a wonderful example of trusting in the Lord. The outcome is a great blessing. Can we follow his example?
Dear Father, give us the boldness to get out there to follow and serve in the opportunities you place before us. In the name of Christ. Amen.
Tim has served as a pastor for more than 30 years in Australia and New Zealand. Not retired but repurposed on 12 January, this husband of wife Joy, father of three and grandfather of 10 intends to spend more time in the garden, write some songs that have long lingered in his mind and heart and keep up with the activities of his grandchildren and friends. He also has several active beehives that need managing, with some still to be constructed and populated. Tim will continue his voluntary service as a chaplain with SA Police.
by Sal Huckel
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Continue your love to those who know you, your righteousness to the upright in heart (Psalm 36:10).
Read Psalm 36:5–10
Today’s beautiful psalm follows our devotion yesterday, where we looked a little at God’s law, particularly the First Commandment about having no other gods before the Lord. What better way to start our devotion today than a section of Psalm 36 praising God for his faithfulness, righteousness, priceless love, safety and being the fountain of life? If you ever find it hard to get in that place of worshipping God in this way in your own words, head to the Book of Psalms and use the wonderful Scriptures already recorded for this purpose!
This is our God, who must come first in our lives above all. Daily: moment by moment, hour by hour. It’s difficult – we are human! We fail – but he never does. We talk about loving God and loving others – we also have a reminder here to be ‘upright in heart’. We have grace, the forgiveness of sins – and the responsibility to respond with repentance and daily devotion to the Lord.
Thank you that your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep (Psalm 36). Help me to worship and revere your holy name daily, putting you first before all else. In Jesus’ holy name, I pray, Amen.
Sal is married to Pastor Matthew Huckel, and they live in Victoria with their six children, enjoying their ministry with Moorabbin–Dandenong Lutheran Church. Their two eldest children are excited to study at undergraduate and postgraduate levels during term time in Sydney. Theology, music, philosophy, literature and history are passions the family shares and explores together. Sal loves writing, speaking and walking to the beach at every opportunity.
by Sal Huckel
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Produce fruit in keeping with repentance (Matthew 3:8).
Read Matthew 3:1–12
Today’s passage invites us to the banks of the Jordan, where John the Baptist was preparing the way for Jesus’ ministry. His humble lifestyle and calls to repentance were already bringing the people to respond to their sins and be baptised by John in the river. Not surprisingly, also came the conflict with the Pharisees and Sadducees.
John’s reprimand and call to repentance is stark. We might feel that it was well deserved. After all, we do know much about the Pharisees and the Sadducees and their apparent hypocrisy. Paul himself was a Pharisee. While the Pharisees and Sadducees had doctrinal disagreements, they were united in their efforts against Jesus. Here, John’s warning is for them all.
What can we learn here today? We can study the baptism John was bringing, how Jesus’ baptism is the one we need and the meaning it has for us now to be baptised into Jesus’ baptism. We can also ponder what it means to ‘produce fruit in keeping with repentance’. How does that look? What do we need to repent of? We sometimes hear that Jesus simplified the Ten Commandments and that we don’t need to worry about all of those anymore; we are not ‘under the law’. However, Jesus said he did not come to destroy the law or the prophets but to fulfil them (Matthew 5:17).
Unless we understand God’s law, we cannot properly repent. We may feel the law is less prescriptive and onerous ‘since Jesus’, but if we begin to unpack the Ten Commandments and look at Martin Luther’s explanations – the Small Catechism is very helpful on this – we will see that they go further than we might expect. It’s a misleading idea that ‘Jesus replaced them’. Helpfully, rather like the ways in which it is best to teach children, Luther offers positive instruction to further expand on the negatives.
Start today with commandment number one: ‘You shall have no other gods before me.’ We don’t have to look very far to see the things that compete for our attention, love and trust. How can you fear, love and trust God above all things today? To produce fruit in keeping with repentance, we need to follow through with this.
Father God, help me to more fully understand the law written in our hearts (Romans 2:15) and produce fruit in keeping with repentance. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Sal is married to Pastor Matthew Huckel, and they live in Victoria with their six children, enjoying their ministry with Moorabbin–Dandenong Lutheran Church. Their two eldest children are excited to study at undergraduate and postgraduate levels during term time in Sydney. Theology, music, philosophy, literature and history are passions the family shares and explores together. Sal loves writing, speaking and walking to the beach at every opportunity.
by Sal Huckel
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When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream (Matthew 2:13a).
Read Matthew 2:13–23
I smiled when I read this passage and saw that Joseph had two more dreams instructing him where he should take his family. We usually think of Jacob’s son Joseph as ‘the dreamer’, yet Mary’s husband Joseph seems to come a close second! Jacob’s son Joseph’s own life was saved through his dreams and ability to discern the dreams of others. Mary’s husband Joseph’s dreams saved the life of Jesus, Son of God!
We might wish we had dreams like this to make our decisions easy or give us a ‘hotline’ to God’s plans. However, we must accept that we have all we need in Scripture, and we have the prayers that Jesus taught us to seek the Lord and his will for our lives. We have the promises of Scripture and new life in Christ through our baptism.
Yet still, the Scripture reading for today is full of tragedy and grief with the slaughter of the innocents. Jesus was saved so that we might all be saved – but many children were killed through the orders of Herod. Again, we are reminded of the sin in the world that Jesus came to redeem us from. Ever since the Fall, death and murder have never been very far away. When we are devastated by the news that we read about and think that we must be in End Times, we have much to look over in Scripture to show that people are still doing the evil things they were doing centuries and centuries ago. We have Jesus’ promise of a new heaven and a new earth to look forward to – and today’s reading and faithfulness of one man protecting his family and following the Lord’s instruction is one part of that story.
Lord, thank you for coming into the world to save sinners. Help me to trust you and throw off the sinful nature daily, putting on my baptism clothes and walking in the freedom I have through your death and resurrection. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Sal is married to Pastor Matthew Huckel, and they live in Victoria with their six children, enjoying their ministry with Moorabbin–Dandenong Lutheran Church. Their two eldest children are excited to study at undergraduate and postgraduate levels during term time in Sydney. Theology, music, philosophy, literature and history are passions the family shares and explores together. Sal loves writing, speaking and walking to the beach at every opportunity.
by Sal Huckel
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And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route (Matthew 2:12).
Read Matthew 2:1–12
As birth stories go, the story of the birth of Jesus (as told by Matthew) has less about Mary and Jesus and the familiar aspects of the Nativity and more about the other people involved in the fulfilment of Scripture.
Today, we read about Herod, the wise men and the prophecy that has Herod worried enough to seek out Jesus and kill him. Interestingly, the wise men were Gentiles, likely practising astrology and magic that did not honour the Lord. Nevertheless, they play a part in the fulfilment of Scripture, protecting Jesus from Herod’s plans.
While nothing in Herod’s words would have indicated to the wise men that he had very different plans for going to worship Jesus, they had no problem with being receptive to – and following – the instructions received in a dream to travel a different way.
It is sometimes comforting to think about how the Lord orders our steps – even the steps of others – to ‘work his purpose out’ in our lives. The wise men followed the instructions given to them in their dream, discerning that this was the necessary course of action, ignoring Herod. Through this obedience, Jesus was saved. We know this is not going to be the only brush with Herod’s plans for Jesus’ death. It is not the last time an angel of the Lord will intervene to save him – again, through human obedience to God’s will.
Sometimes, we may find that we have no idea about what God wants us to do – or not do. Particularly where our choices do not clash with Scripture, we can find we have an open choice that perhaps doesn’t matter one way or another. Yet, other times, we find that our instinct is not to listen to a certain person’s advice or take a certain path. However we end up making our decisions, we know that God has a plan and purpose for our lives, and nothing can snatch us out of his hand (John 10:28).
Lord, thank you for the lessons we learn in Scripture. We read of the faith of those who have gone before us and followed your commands. We learn how you include those who do not even know you in your plans. We learn about your faithfulness. May we be encouraged to trust you and not lean on our own understanding. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Sal is married to Pastor Matthew Huckel, and they live in Victoria with their six children, enjoying their ministry with Moorabbin–Dandenong Lutheran Church. Their two eldest children are excited to study at undergraduate and postgraduate levels during term time in Sydney. Theology, music, philosophy, literature and history are passions the family shares and explores together. Sal loves writing, speaking and walking to the beach at every opportunity.
by Sal Huckel
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But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit’ (Matthew 1:20).
Read Matthew 1:18–25
Joseph’s obedience to the Lord in honouring his betrothal to Mary is the final piece of the puzzle that makes up Jesus’ earthly genealogy. It’s the action that causes Jesus to fulfil the prophecy in Scripture and brings Jesus’ birth into the line of David.
We read in Isaiah 7:14: ‘Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel.’
Joseph did not question the instructions given to him by the angel of the Lord, despite the fact it goes against all natural laws we are aware of. It all does, really, doesn’t it?! Angel of the Lord – unusual. Virgin conception – impossible? Yet Joseph responds in faith to the message, and Scripture is fulfilled. We know this is not the only dream that Joseph has and acts on.
While we might think it was easy for Joseph, Mary and the Magi to heed the messengers sent to instruct or warn them about their next steps, we can hardly call it easy when we see what was expected of them or what they were required to believe. Yet, thanks to their faithfulness, the Scriptures were indeed fulfilled, and we have all that followed laid out for us in the New Testament.
If we believe that Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected after three days, how is it any more difficult for us to believe the virgin birth even though we ‘only’ have it written down in Scripture?
Lord, you say that everything is possible for those who believe. I believe! Help me in my unbelief (Mark 9:24)! Thank you for the words of the Apostles’ Creed, which we declare together regularly for good reason. As I speak those words, please help me to continue to believe them, protect and grow my faith, trust in the Scriptures, and teach me to walk in your truth. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Sal is married to Pastor Matthew Huckel, and they live in Victoria with their six children, enjoying their ministry with Moorabbin–Dandenong Lutheran Church. Their two eldest children are excited to study at undergraduate and postgraduate levels during term time in Sydney. Theology, music, philosophy, literature and history are passions the family shares and explores together. Sal loves writing, speaking and walking to the beach at every opportunity.
by Sal Huckel
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This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham (Matthew 1:1).
Read Matthew 1:1–17
Many Lutheran families have a family history book detailing the pioneers who came to Australia to avoid persecution and start their new lives in Australia. Not surprisingly, their families have been curious to research their heritage and keep records. Many are lucky enough to have a book to pull off the shelf thanks to their careful family historians. While I have very little family history of my own to read back on, I’ve had a go from time to time, too.
How many of us have paid that level of detail to the genealogy of Jesus? Perhaps the names and seemingly long lists of difficult-to-pronounce names put us off. We know a few of the main characters but will miss the details unless we read closely. There’s plenty of scandal in there. I’m not sure it’s a family history we would proudly pull out if we owned even a fraction of it ourselves.
However, it’s important to note Jesus’ lineage. We can find it also in Luke chapter 3. If we are studying the Bible daily, and this is the only reading we have for today, we might skip through this list and think, ‘Well, how’s God speaking to me through that? I’ll skip the history lesson and get to the message’. We need to dig deeper. We will realise how important the story of the prostitute Rahab is in Joshua 2:1–21 and how she turned out to be the mother of Boaz, who we then read about in the Book of Ruth. There will be much, much more to discover.
Perhaps our obsession with family history is worth it after all. If we look at the genealogy of Jesus, we will find how the ‘line of David’ actually played out until the time of Christ’s birth. We start to see how these obscure Old Testament accounts are relevant and can read them through a New Testament lens.
Lord, thank you for the privilege of the Scriptures, which are available to me to read daily and learn more about you, my faith heritage and those who you have called to be part of your story. I pray you will continue to teach me through your word, which does not return to you empty but will accomplish what you desire and achieve the purpose for which you sent it (Isaiah 55:11). In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Sal is married to Pastor Matthew Huckel, and they live in Victoria with their six children, enjoying their ministry with Moorabbin–Dandenong Lutheran Church. Their two eldest children are excited to study at undergraduate and postgraduate levels during term time in Sydney. Theology, music, philosophy, literature and history are passions the family shares and explores together. Sal loves writing, speaking and walking to the beach at every opportunity.
by Sal Huckel
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… and the Holy Spirit descended on [Jesus] in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased’ (Luke 3:22).
Read Luke 3:15–17,21,22
A month ago, I had a rare Sunday away from my own congregation and attended the baptism of a friend’s baby and the baptism of a large group of teens and young adults at another church. Neither church was Lutheran, and I felt the disconnect during both services.
Originally an outsider to Lutheran teaching, it took me a long time to understand what Lutherans mean when we discuss remembering our baptism or living out our baptism daily.
As we ponder the difference between John’s baptism (merely the water) and Jesus’ baptism, we must remember what we believe as Lutherans. If it’s a while since you read the Large Catechism on baptism, or if you haven’t read it before, it’s a valuable thing to do to understand how we differ from other theology in the sacrament of baptism. Martin Luther reminds us that the water and word should:
… by no means be separated from each other and parted. For if the word is separated from it, the water is the same as the water that the servant cooks with. It may indeed be called a bath-keeper’s baptism. But when the word is added, as God ordained it, it is a sacrament, and it is called Christ’s baptism.
It is reassuring and encouraging to me as I ponder the fact that I cannot ‘remember’ my own infant baptism and that in the sacrament, I was indeed baptised into Christ’s death and resurrection – despite the lack of any believers to raise me in the faith. While I cannot point to a ‘believer’s baptism’ where I made a declaration of my faith like the young people I witnessed only weeks ago, I have the assurances of Scripture that God did the work in my baptism– and I did not need to. His grace is not dependent on my level of belief or efforts. Further, Luther reminds us to value our baptism as a daily dress (Galatians 3:27 – we are clothed with Christ) and walk in it constantly (Large Catechism). We start to realise what it is to walk in (and wear) our baptism daily.
Father God, you descended on your Son Jesus like a dove and declared your love for him for all to hear. Thank you that I am also baptised into Jesus’ baptism and have received the Holy Spirit. Increase my faith as I remember my baptism daily, and help me to nurture the faith of others in my care as you work in their lives, too. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Sal is married to Pastor Matthew Huckel, and they live in Victoria with their six children, enjoying their ministry with Moorabbin–Dandenong Lutheran Church. Their two eldest children are excited to study at undergraduate and postgraduate levels during term time in Sydney. Theology, music, philosophy, literature and history are passions the family shares and explores together. Sal loves writing, speaking and walking to the beach at every opportunity.
by Pastor Stephen Abraham
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Honour the Lord, you heavenly beings; honour the Lord for his glory and strength. Honour the Lord for the glory of his name. Worship the Lord in the splendour of his holiness (Psalm 29:1,2).
Read Psalm 29
Have you ever looked back on the story of your life and sensed that God was at work? Looking back now on those pivotal moments or difficulties that seem so insurmountable at the time, and now they are signposts that the Sovereign Lord has been steering your destiny?
Our last psalm for this first week of the Epiphany season is Psalm 29 – an enthronement psalm celebrating God’s sovereignty over the world: ‘The Lord reigns as king forever’ (Psalm 29:10b). It is a powerful hymn of praise to God, emphasising his supreme majesty and sovereign power over all creation. But as we read it with the Epiphany season in mind, we suddenly see a glimpse of God’s greater plan at work.
Twice in this psalm, we are reminded of things that happen centuries later in Jesus’ life and ministry. Firstly, we hear of these of the ‘heavenly beings giving honour to God’ in verse one and remember the Nativity with the angelic hosts singing the Great Gloria at Jesus’ birth: ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests’ (Luke 2:14).
Then, we hear the voice of the Lord, commanding all of creation (seven times, indicating perfection). We are reminded of the events of Jesus’ baptism (which we celebrate tomorrow), where we hear the commanding voice of the Lord from the heavens in Luke 3:22b, declaring: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’
God was at work in the life of the psalmist. God was at work preparing the way for the coming of Jesus. And God is at work in your life, too – even if, at times, it feels like a chaotic torrent of painful events pulling you under. Remember the last words of this psalm:
The Lord sits enthroned over the flood;
the Lord is enthroned as king forever.
The Lord gives strength to his people;
the Lord blesses his people with peace!
Heavenly Father, we praise you for your great power and majesty. You rule over all creation, and your voice is mighty in judgement and mercy. Help us to trust in your sovereign care and find comfort in your eternal kingship. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Stephen Abraham is a musician and Lutheran pastor who retired early due to a spinal injury that leaves him largely housebound with chronic pain (documented by Lutheran Media on its Messages of hope YouTube channel and radio program). As his condition allows, Stephen still preaches, takes chapel and serves his local church and school. He also writes and records personal songs, worship songs and Christian meditations, which he shares on his YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/StephenAbrahamMusic