Living with Differences (Romans 14:1-12)

Things weren’t going great for the congregation of Christian believers in Rome. They were a diverse mix of people from different backgrounds across the spectrum of Roman society, from the very rich and influential to poor slaves. They all came with different points of view and different ways of understanding the world around them. By the power of his Holy Spirit, God had brought these vastly different people into the diverse, complicated, messy and beautiful thing that is Christian community through faith in Jesus.

In chapter 14, the Apostle Paul writes about two issues the early Roman church was facing. One was whether Christians could eat meat or whether they should be vegetarian. The second was whether certain days should be observed as holy days or not. Biblical scholars don’t know the exact circumstances of the disputes. They might have been between some people who wanted to keep Old Testament Jewish rules, or others who were living in the freedom the gospel brings, or others still who were either observing local customs or reacting against a self-indulgent Roman lifestyle.

The result of these disputes, however, was that some members of the Christian congregation thought they were better that others and looked down on them. Others were judging people in the congregation who were not doing what they thought was right. There was conflict and division in the community of believers because of these ‘disputable matters.’

One good thing about not knowing the exact circumstances of the disputes in Rome is that we can apply Paul’s words to our time and place. Two thousand years down the track and things in the Christian church don’t seem to have changed very much. We might not get too upset about dietary rules or holy days, but we still have our disputes. Some of the ‘disputable matters’ being discussed in our church at the present time include styles of worship, the ordination of women, the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, or the upcoming postal vote on same sex marriage, for example. People on both sides of each issue might not like referring to these as ‘disputable matters’ because our minds might already be made up about what is right or wrong in each case. But just the fact that we have different ways of thinking about what is right and wrong in each matter and we are grappling with them as a church means that these are matters under dispute. So even what can be thought of as a ‘disputable matter’ can itself be a ‘disputable matter.’

Paul’s point in Romans 14, however, is that following in the way of Jesus means accepting others who see things differently. This is a radically different position from what our culture teaches us, and even from what comes to us naturally, where we stand our ground, argue our point, and try to prove that we are right and others are wrong. Instead, Paul teaches us that living as Jesus’ disciples means not trying to get our own way or making others agree with our point of view. Instead, following Jesus means accepting each other along with the different opinions we might have. This acceptance means much more than just tolerating, or putting up with others. To accept others as Paul uses the word means receiving others with open arms, welcoming and embracing others, no matter how differently we might see things.

Paul explains further what this acceptance looks like when he writes that we are to ‘aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up’ (v19 NLT). Imagine what this could look like: people of diverse backgrounds with a wide range of opinions on different matters living together in perfect harmony with each other for the benefit of the other. The love we show each other composes a beautiful melody of praise to God as we dedicate ourselves to helping each other grow up together into maturity of faith and love. This becomes part of the picture of Christian community into which God wants to be transforming us by the power of his Spirit through the gospel, as we heard a few weeks ago from Romans 12.

All of this is on the basis of the way God accepts each of us for Jesus’ sake. Paul writes in verse 3 that we can’t look down on others or condemn them because God has already accepted them. Again in Romans 15:7, Paul explicitly states, ‘accept each other just as Christ has accepted you so that God will be given the glory’ (NLT). God has welcomed the people around us with open arms and embraced all of us as members of his family, not because we keep all the right rules or even hold the right theological opinions, but because Jesus has given his life for each of us on the cross and has made us right with the Father through the work of the Holy Spirit in faith. This has been Paul’s argument all the way through the letter to the Romans and really is the main message of the Bible. A clear example is chapter 3 verse 22 where Paul writes:

We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. (NLT)

Because we are made right with God through faith in Jesus, a key part of living this faith out in our relationships and in community with each other is accepting, welcoming and embracing each other, no matter what our different points of view might be in matters that are in dispute. When we extend this grace to each other and show this love for each other, then Jesus tells us that the world will know we are his disciples (John 13:35). It is easy to love the people we like, who think the same way we do and who agree with our points of view. That’s why, for hundreds of years, and especially in our church culture today, it is too easy for individuals or groups to disconnect from church community to do their own thing. This is not the love that Jesus taught. The love of Christ, the love that Paul talks about in Romans 14 and throughout his letters, is a love that accepts people who have different points of view to us, a love that gives us the ability to live in harmony with each other no matter what our differences might be, and a love that works to build each other up in trusting God’s grace and in loving each other.

So how will we treat people who have different opinions to us? Will we look down on them because they don’t do things the way we do, or the way we think they should be done? Will we judge and condemn them because we think that what they are doing is wrong? Or will we accept each other, in the same way that God has accepted us for Jesus’ sake? In the Holy Spirit’s dynamic power, will we welcome and embrace each other in Christ-like love, living in harmony with each other, building each other up in trusting God and in serving each other?

How will we treat the people who think differently to us in the ‘disputable matters’ we face?

More to think about:

• What do you usually do when you meet someone who has different opinions to yourself – do you try to persuade them to see things your way or do you accept their point of view? Can you give an example of when you did that?
• What are some of the ‘disputable matters’ you have come across or are encountering in the church?
• In your experience, have people been accepting of others with different opinions? Or do they argue the point to try to get people to agree with them? Why do you think that has happened?
• If you are facing disagreements in the church, what might happen if you aimed for harmony in the church and tried to build others up (Romans 14:19)? What are some practical steps you could take towards that goal?
• How important is it for you to feel accepted in your church community? How might you be able to give someone else that same sense of being accepted?

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Most people I know live with some amount of debt. For some, the debt might be comparatively small, but for others, the debt is pretty substantial once you add up credit cards, personal loans and a mortgage. A lot of people in our society will spend their entire lives in debt and never know what it is like to live without owing anybody anything.

Maybe that’s why we find grace such a difficult idea. As people who can spend most of our lives paying off our debts, the idea of someone paying our debts for us so we can live a debt-free life seems completely unrealistic. Even if someone was to be generous enough to pay off our debts, it would just mean that we would feel indebted to that person. It can seem that we’ll always be in debt and nothing will ever change that.

I don’t know how literally Paul meant us to take his advice to ‘owe nothing to anyone’ (v8a NLT). In some ways, it makes sense for us to control our degree of debt so it doesn’t overwhelm us. However, Paul seems to have something in mind other than sound financial advice. As he goes on to talk about our ‘continuing debt to love one another’ (v8b NIV), Paul appears to be talking about something other than our bank loans or credit cards.

There was a time when we were all in debt to God. Each and every day, God freely gives us everything we need for life just because he loves us. Our problem, though, is that we tend to use the good things God has given us selfishly, more for our own benefit and pleasure rather than to help and bless others. We misuse or even abuse God’s gifts to us in a whole lot of different ways.

When we do, we owe God. This debt is something we can never hope to repay, because even if I was able to use God’s gifts properly from this moment on for the rest of my life, I would still owe him for the ways I misused them already today.

That’s where God’s grace steps in. God himself pays our debt in the person of Jesus who paid what we owe by giving his life for us on the cross. When Jesus died in our place, he paid in full everything that we owe God in the past, present and future. His sacrifice clears our debt with God so we can now live debt-free with God. It would be amazing enough for someone to step in and pay off my mortgage and other financial loans for me. However, the debt we had with God was so much greater that only the death of Jesus could cancel it. The good news of Jesus is that his death on the cross was payment in full for everything I will ever owe God because of my sin.

This good news is liberating for us! Imagine someone paid off all of your debts – what would you do with the money that you had been using for your repayments, or the time and energy you were using to generate that income? You would be free to use those resources any way you wanted!

In Romans 13:8 Paul is saying that God doesn’t need our time, energy or money because Jesus has paid our debts for us. Instead of using our freed-up resources in self-indulgent ways, Paul is telling us that God wants us to use our time, energy and money to serve, bless and love the people around us. I have heard it said that God doesn’t need our time, energy or money because all of heaven and earth are already his; however, the people around us need those resources which are freed up when Jesus makes us debt-free with God. There are people who need our financial resources because they have none of their own. There are people who need our energy because theirs are either very low or even non-existent. Sometimes the most valuable thing people need, especially those who are closest to us, is our time. In lives that are often dominated by the busyness that comes with working hard to pay off debts we accumulated to buy things we don’t really need, one of the most precious gifts we can give is time for our families, with friends, with brothers and sisters in Christ who might need a shoulder to lean on, and ear to listen to them, or just to check in with how they’re doing.

Because Jesus has paid our debts to God, we can now live in debt-free ways. I’ll leave it with you to decide how much Paul is talking about finances, but what’s more important is that we can live with a debt-free attitude in every aspect of our lives, no matter how large our mortgage or credit card debt might be. Having a debt-free attitude means living every day and in every situation like we don’t owe anybody anything because everything we have is a gift from a God who loves us and who has given his best to set us free. When we trust this good news, we are liberated to use what God first gives us to serve, bless and love other people. When we live with this focus on others and how we can bless them with God’s gifts to us, we learn how to live in faith and love.

More to think about:

• What would you do tomorrow if someone paid off all your debts for you today? How would you use your time, energy & finances that were freed up because your debts had been paid? Would you use them for yourself? Or for others?
• In your relationship with God, do you tend to think that you owe God, either for wrongs you have done or because of what Jesus has done for you? Why do you think that?
• Why do you think Paul says to ‘owe nothing to anyone’ (v8 NLT)? Do you think he is talking about money? Or something else?
• How would you feel if someone paid all your debts for you – joy? relief? free? How can they describe the Christian life when we believe that Jesus has paid our debts to God for us?
• Paul writes that Christians have a ‘continuing debt to love one another’ (v8b NIV). How might your day be different if you used what God has given you to love the people around you in the freedom that comes from the faith you are debt-free with God?

Transformed Minds (Romans 12:1-8)

Transformers are a popular line of toys and move franchise where giant alien robots disguise themselves as machines to live among us. They blend in as cars, trucks, planes and other machines, but when they are defending the world from other alien attackers, they transform to work for good and defeat evil. Transformers make great toys as you change them from cars or planes, and back again.

When Paul writes to the church in Rome about God transforming them, he is talking about something similar to us being Transformers. He tells Christians to ‘not conform to the pattern of this world’ (NIV). It is easy for us to want to blend in to the way the world thinks and lives by copying the ‘behaviours and customs’ (NLT) of the world in which we live. It can be hard for people to see anything different about us as we adopt the attitudes, morals and values of a world that is essentially self-serving and makes what is good for me as my first priority. Like the Transformers, we can want to blend in so we don’t stand out and people don’t recognise who we really are.

However, Paul tells us that God wants to be transforming us into something different than what the world sees. This text is a pivotal part of Paul’s letter to the Romans. To this point he has been explaining the mercy God shows us in Jesus. Now he states that, based on that mercy, we are called to be different to the world, to stand out as God’s people by offering our bodies to God as living sacrifices that are holy and pleasing to God, as our act of on-going worship. For us to do this, we need to be changed from the inside out as God renews our minds and makes us more and more into people whose lives resemble Jesus.

This transformation isn’t something that we do. Paul uses what is known as a ‘divine passive’ when he writes ‘be transformed’ to show that it is something God does in us by the power of his Holy Spirit. As we engage and wrestle with God’s word, God transforms us by:

• showing us who we can be – all of Scripture, and the New Testament in particular, shows us who God wants to be and the people into which God wants to transform us; Paul gives us a picture of the transformed life of a Christian in the following chapters of Romans
• calling us to repentance and faith in the gospel – this was the basic message of Jesus (see Matthew 4:17, Mark 1:15, Luke 24:47, John 6:29) as he called people to a new relationship with God through faith
• forgiving us and renewing us – forgiveness isn’t just wiping our spiritual slates clean from sin, but it makes us new people as God gives us the righteousness of Jesus to makes us righteous people so we can live righteous lives (Romans 3:22, 4:5)

God continues to transform us throughout our lives. It isn’t just a one-off action. The verb Paul uses describes on-going action as God continually works on us to shape us into the people he wants us to be. We shouldn’t be surprised, then, when we or other people get it wrong and fall short of the kind of life that God wants to work in us. Instead, by experiencing grace is critical to God’s transforming work. When we fail to live as the people God calls us to be, as we turn to God as the source of everything that gives life, and as we experience grace through God’s promise of forgiveness and in relationship with each other, the Holy Spirit is at work, refining us, growing us, transforming us into the individuals and the community that he intends us to be. Some call this transformation ‘sanctification’ as God purifies us as his holy people. We can also call this transformation ‘discipleship’.

What kind of person do we want to be? Do we want to be people who conform to the world around us by adopting the behaviours and customs of our culture? Or do we want to be transformed– people whose minds are made new by the power of God’s Spirit through the gospel of Jesus, who offer our bodies as living sacrifices through which God will work in his unfolding plan of redemption? The Transformers in the movie regularly save the world when they take their true form, even though they stand out as being different. When God transforms us, we will be different to the people around us, but we will also be participating in God’s plan to save the world through Jesus.

More to think about:

• Would you prefer to be someone that blends in with other people or are you happy to stand out as someone who’s different? Why do you think you tend to do that?
• In what ways is it easy for us as Christians to conform to the ‘behaviours and customs’ of our society? Why do you think we do that?
• Why do you think it was important for Paul that Christians didn’t conform to their culture, but were transformed into a new person?
• I’ve described this transforming work as something God does in us as a continual process. Why is it important to focus on what God wants to do in us through his word by the power of his Holy Spirit rather than think that we need to do it?
• Read the rest of Paul’s letter to the Romans. What do these chapters tell us about the kind of people & community God wants to transform us into?

Bound for Mercy (Romans 11:1,2a,29-32)

The hot topic of conversation in the various groups I met with last week was the coming postal plebiscite on redefining marriage in Australian law. For some people, this is as issue with a clear-cut, right and wrong answer. For others, though, the question of how to respond as Christians is more complicated for a range of reasons. As I wrestled with Paul’s words in Romans 11, it seems to me that they can help us in our struggle with the question of same sex marriage.

As followers of Jesus, we need to begin any discussion on marriage with what God word. When I perform a wedding on behalf of the Commonwealth Government, the approved service order uses three Bible texts as the Foundation and Purpose of Christian Marriage:

The first is Genesis 1:27 which states that, in the beginning, God created people male and female. Genesis then goes on to state that ‘this explains why a man leave his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one’ (2:24).

The second text used is from Matthew 19. When Jesus was asked about divorce, he referred back to Genesis 1 and 2, and added that ‘since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together’ (Matt 19:6). There can be a strong argument made, then, that God’s intention for marriage is that it is for life.

The third text is Ephesians 5:21-33 where Paul again refers back to the Genesis texts (v31) but describes Christian marriage as a relationship based on mutual submission (v21) and self-sacrificing, Christ-like love (vv 25-30).

I believe that before we start asking if same-sex marriage fulfils God’s purpose for marriage, we need to ask ourselves if our own marriages fulfil God’s purpose for marriage. From these Bible texts, we could argue that God intends marriage to be a reflection of his relationship with humanity as we live in unity through self-sacrificing love for each other. If we are honest with ourselves, how well do we do that?

This is where Romans 11 can help us. Paul has just spent the last 3 chapters of Romans struggling with the question of whether his own people, the Jewish nation, are still included in God’s plan of salvation. In this last section, he writes that God showed mercy to the Gentiles (non-Jewish people) because the Jewish people had rejected his grace to them in Jesus (v30). However, he also states that the Jewish people will share in God’s mercy through the mercy he has shown to the Gentile Christians (v31). His conclusion to the whole discussion of the last three chapters is that ‘God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all’ (v32 NIV).

These words can sound offensive to us because we like to think we are free to make our own choices (see John 8:31-36). However, if we take Jesus’ words at face value, there are a couple of things that can help us as we think through the question of same-sex marriage.

The first is that we shouldn’t be surprised when we or others fail to live up to God’s purpose for marriage. If we are bound to disobedience, the we won’t get it right. In any of our relationships, our natural tendency is to think more about what we can get from the other person than showing the self-giving love of Christ. We can’t just focus on one aspect of marriage and forget about God’s bigger plan for marriage to be a life-long commitment through which we model Jesus’ sacrificial love. If we want to fulfil God’s whole intention for marriage, then we will all fail because of our natural, human condition.

It is really easy for us to focus on Paul’s words that we are ‘imprisoned in disobedience’ but that misses the main point of the verse. Paul argues that God does that so he can have mercy on all of us. God’s plan is not to criticise or condemn, to politicize or judge people. Throughout the story of Scripture, God’s intention is always to show mercy to people so that they can know him as the God of mercy. Mercy can be understood as undeserved kindness, treating people better that they deserve, especially those who need it the most but deserve it the least. Paul is saying that this is God’s plan for all people. We see God’s mercy in the way Jesus treated people in the gospel stories and especially in the cross. Jesus’ death and resurrection is the fullest extent of God’s mercy as he takes our rebellion and disobedience on himself, and sets us free from our prisons by dying as a slave in our place. Paul tells us that God’s plan is that every person encounters this mercy so we can know and trust God as the One who is merciful to all.

God has given us government who are called to make good laws and who are responsible to him for the way they govern. As God’s people living in the world, he calls us to play our part in our governing processes. We need to take that responsibility seriously in the faith that God gives us. However, we always need to remember that the fundamental purpose of Christ’s Church is not to impose a rule of law on society, but to bring the message of God’s liberating mercy to our families, our communities, and our nation. If we’re not doing that, then who will?

So I commit the coming plebiscite on the definition of marriage to you, trusting that God’s will be done. Whether the question is clear for you, one way or the other, or if it is a muddy mess and you are finding it hard to discern the best way forward for our nation, I want to ask you to remember one thing: none of us really God’s intentions for our relationships with each other, so, as people who have received mercy for Christ’s sake, how can we best extend God’s mercy to others?

More to think about:

• What does ‘mercy’ mean to you? Can you give an example of a time when you received mercy from someone?
• Paul says that ‘God has imprisoned everyone in disobedience so he could have mercy on everyone’ (Romans 11:32 NLT). In this verse, do you tend to focus more on God imprisoning people? Or is your focus more on God having mercy on everyone? Why do you think you do that? What might it say about how you see God?
• Would you agree that the main purpose of the Christian Church is to extend God’s mercy to people? How does showing mercy to others become an act of faith?
• How might Paul’s words help us as we prepare for the postal plebiscite on redefining the legal understanding of marriage in Australia?
• Who is someone you can show mercy to today? This week?

In Jesus’ Hand (Matthew 14:22-33)

There are at least two ways we can understand the story of Jesus and Peter walking on water.

The first is by asking what this story tells us about what Jesus wants us to do. This is the main way I have heard people talk or preach on this story over the years. It centres on Peter and asks what we need to learn from him. It usually ends up encouraging us to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, to have stronger faith, to not get distracted by the storms going on in our lives, or similar ideas to these. The assumption is that, if only we could focus more on Jesus and have a stronger faith, we would be capable of doing miraculous things, even walk on water.

It is important for us to hear this side of the story. It is easy for us to be like the disciples who sat in the safety and security of the boat, too afraid or cautious to step out when Jesus came to them and called them to himself. There are times in most of our lives when Jesus calls us to something new, either personally or as a community. It’s natural for us to remain where we are and resist moving out from what we know. This story tells us that sometimes Jesus calls us to step out in faith as his followers, and to keep our eyes fixed on him as we step into the unknown.

It will be important to keep this in mind as we continue our Simple Church and Growing Young conversations in our congregation. These discussions are about discerning if Jesus might be calling us to think differently about church and how we go about his work in the world. It would be easy for us as a congregation to keep doing what we are doing and not step out in a different direction. However, our congregation is facing some challenges and so maybe it is time for us to see Jesus coming to us in the storms around us, and listen to where he might be calling us. We will then need to follow Peter and step out in faith.

This brings us to the second way in which we can understand what Jesus might be saying to us in this story. Often, our experience can be very similar to Peter’s. We can step out in faith, but the realities of life around us and the storms we experience can make us take our eyes off Jesus as we lose our focus and start to sink. It doesn’t matter if the storms are challenges we face as a congregation or more personal struggles. In the end we can all fail to focus on Jesus and start to sink.

The real power in this story is not just in what Jesus wants us to do, but what Jesus wants to do for us. In this story we see Jesus reach out to Peter when he was sinking under the waves. Jesus holds Peter up, keeps him safe, and brings him to a place where he was sheltered from the storm. The good news for us in this story is that Jesus can and will do exactly the same for us.

The cultures in which the Bible were written saw storms and seas as things that they weren’t able to control. They became symbolic of those things that happen in life that are out of our control, that threaten our lives, and can overwhelm us. Most of us will face things like this at one point of our lives or another – things that are out of our control, can threaten us, and can overwhelm us. They can take various forms, but in the end they are those things that can rob us of life and cause us to wonder where God might be.

When we face storms in our lives, this story tells me that Jesus comes to us to meet us in the middle of them, and the storms can’t’ touch him. Just like Peter, Jesus reaches out his hand and holds us up so the storms can’t overwhelm us and it can’t take our life from us. The hand he reaches out to us is the same hand that extended grace to people who needed it. It healed people, made them whole, forgave their sins, made them clean, and even raised the dead to new life. This hand was there are the beginning of creation, placing stars into the most distant corners of space, and putting the smallest sub-atomic particle into motion. This is the same hand that was nailed to a cross for the redemption of all people, and was extended in peace to the witnesses of the resurrection. This hand held Peter about the waves, just as it will hold you above whatever threatens to overwhelm you in your life.

So where are you in this story? If you are with the disciples in the boat, finding a degree of security and stability in the uncertainty in life, then maybe Jesus is calling you to listen to him and step out in faith. If you’re in the middle of a storm, maybe Jesus is coming to you to meet you in that storm, to hold you above the waves and bring you to a place of safety. Either way, whether our lives are plain sailing or one storm after another, Jesus is the one who holds us in his hands and will never let us go.

More to think about:

• Are you a person who likes to take risks or play it safe? If you were in the boat on the lake with the disciples in this story, do you think you would have stayed in the boat or walked out to Jesus like Peter did? Explain why you think you would have done that…
• Why did Peter start to sink? Is that similar to your experiences in life? Can you give an example?
• In what ways might Jesus be calling you to step out of the boat to follow him in your life?
• We all face ‘storms’ in life – things that are out of our control, which make us afraid & can overwhelm us. What ‘storms’ are you facing in your life?
• Instead of trying to keep his head above water, Peter called out to Jesus to save him. In what ways are you trying to keep your head above water in the storms of your life? What might happen if you called out to Jesus & relied on him holding you instead?

Wrestling with God (Genesis 32:22-31)

This story ranks among my top ten favourite Old Testament stories. It is also pretty high on my list of more difficult Old Testament stories to understand…

To give a bit of background: Jacob was the younger twin born to Isaac and Rebekah (Genesis 25:19-26). The last time Jacob saw his older brother, Esau, he had cheated Esau out of his rights as the first-born son and Esau was trying to kill him for it (Gen 27). Jacob escaped and went to work for his Uncle Laban where he married two of his daughters and had eleven sons by them and two of their serving girls. After growing very rich serving Laban, Jacob decided to return to his homeland. This story happened just as Jacob was about to enter into Esau’s territory, where he would come face to face with his brother again after running for his life years earlier.

What intrigues me about this story is that it is cloaked in mystery. The stranger who wrestles with Jacob in the middle of the night is finally revealed to be God himself, which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense and raises more questions: Why was God wrestling with Jacob in the first place? Why didn’t God just overpower Jacob when God is all-powerful and could squash him like a bug? And what does the new name that God gave to Jacob mean when he says that Jacob ‘fought with God and with men and have won’ (v28 NLT)? Jacob didn’t actually win his fight with God – God won by cheating when he threw out Jacob’s hip (v25).

For a number of years, I have thought of this story as an illustration of faith – it doesn’t seem to make much sense but it draws us into a wrestling match with God.

Throughout the Bible, God says things and makes us promises that are difficult for us to understand or seem a long way from what we experience in life. For example, as we have followed the lectionary readings in worship over the last few weeks, we have been hearing promises like these in Paul’s letter to the Romans:

• there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus (v1)
• God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. (v28)
• since God did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? (v32)
• nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. (v39b)

Often in life these words can seem like they are a long way from what we experience day to day. What the story of Jacob wrestling with God says to me is that faith can be like wrestling with God when his promises seem either disconnected or even contradictory to what is happening in our lives. We can suffer from condemnation, both from ourselves and other people; it doesn’t seem like God can bring good out of illness, tragedy, grief or suffering we might be experiencing; we can think that we need to look after ourselves as our first priority because we doubt God’s providing goodness; and there are times when we can wonder where God’s love is because we’re just not feeling it for one reason or another.

We read in Hebrews 11:1 that ‘faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see’ (NIV). That definition points to the reality that there will be a degree of uncertainty or even doubt in faith. Paul says that ‘hope that is seen is no hope at all’ (Romans 8:24b NIV), and so there will be something hidden about what God promises us. In a culture that relies so much on evidence to support what we understand as ‘truth’, anything that is asking us to have faith or hope in what we can’t see will be difficult. That’s why faith is like wrestling with God. We can struggle with his promises when our experiences go against what God is promising.

We need to remember that wrestling with God is a sign of faith, not a lack of faith. By wrestling with God, we get closer to God, not further away. If you have ever seen wrestlers, or people playing Australian Rules, Rugby or other codes of football, you will know that when people are wrestling with each other, they are very close to each other. We might even say that they are intimate with each other. We get closer to God when we struggle with his promises and how they connect with the realities of our lives.

When it seems like what God is saying is contrary to what we experience, it is important that we don’t ignore, withdraw or run away from what God is saying, but that we embrace God’s promises to us in Jesus, and we wrestle with them. That is when we get closer to God. That is often how God makes us stronger in faith. That is how, like Jacob, as members of the New Testament people of Israel, we also will struggle with God and with people and will overcome (32:28 NIV).

More to think about:

• When you read through my list of God’s promises from Romans 8, do you find them easy to believe or hard to believe? Which is the hardest for you to believe? What makes it hard to believe God’s promise to you?
• What do you think about the idea of ‘faith’ as ‘wrestling with God’? Do you tend to find it easy to live like God’s promises are true? Or do you sometimes struggle with God over what he says and promises?
• Wrestlers or other athletes like footballers are physically very close (maybe even ‘intimate’?) when they wrestle with each other. How might wrestling with God help you get closer to him?
• Jacob came out of his wrestling with a new name: Israel, which means ‘you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome’ (Genesis 32:28 NIV). That name promises us that we will also ‘overcome’ when we dare to wrestle with God in faith. How can this promise give you strength or courage in your wrestling with God?
• Sometimes we need help of a brother or sister in our struggles of faith, to wrestle with us. Who can you go to to help you in your wrestling?

New & Old Treasures (Matthew 13:52)

I’ve known people over the years who are always looking for something new. Whether it’s clothes, technology, music or motorcycles, but they pretty much live by the motto, ‘Out with the old; in with the new.’

There have also been people I’ve known who reject anything new and hang on to what’s old as much as they can. The old is familiar, safe and comfortable, so they don’t see any reason to change from the old ways they know and love.

If we think about a spectrum with a desire for the new at the one end and hanging on to the old at the other, where do you think Jesus would be?

I’ve heard people argue that Jesus was all about the new. He came to teach us a new way of relating to God and living as God’s people that was very different from the religious people of his time and place. Where the old ways were about the rule of law and threats of punishment, people like to point to Jesus teaching a new way of grace, love and peace. They can argue that the parables of Matthew 13 are an example of Jesus rejecting the old, law-based ways of religion, and initiating a new relational way of knowing God.

When we get to the end of this series of Jesus’ parable, though, we find that Jesus was not in favour of rejecting the old in pursuing the new, but neither was he ignoring the new in order to hang on to the old. Instead, in verse 52 we hear Jesus say that people who have been schooled in the old ways who are then discipled in Jesus’ new teachings about the Kingdom of God have both new and old treasures.

For Jesus, what’s important is not whether it is old or new. What’s important to Jesus is the treasure itself.

The treasure he is talking about is the Kingdom of God. Jesus has already described the Kingdom as a treasure that a person would sell everything they have to possess in verse 44. This Kingdom is so valuable to us because it gifts us with ‘righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit’ (Romans 14:17 NIV). We receive this Kingdom through the presence of Jesus, because he brings the Kingdom to us through the gospel (see Matthew 4:17).

We can find this good news in the Old Testament when we read it through the lens of the gospel of Jesus, and so he doesn’t get rid of the old. Instead we can re-interpret the old ways in the light of Christ to find the ‘righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit’ there as well. Ultimately, whether the ways are old or new, what matters is Jesus and the coming of his Kingdom through the gospel, because he is the one that gives us life and brings us into a new relationship with God as his children.

This is really important for us to hear as a congregation. We are currently talking about simplifying what we do around a strong discipling focus, as well as re-thinking our ministry to young people by working through the material contained in Growing Young. Some people might see these conversations as an opportunity to discard some of the ‘old ways’ of doing church to embrace new approaches or practices. Others might be afraid that we intend to discard the old ways, and so hang on to them more tightly.

It is critical that we hear what Jesus is saying: what’s important is not whether our treasure is old or new. What’s important is the treasure itself – Jesus and the coming of God’s Kingdom through the gospel.

This treasure is what will gift all people, both old and young, with the grace and love of God. This treasure is what will give us purpose and direction as we seek to communicate God’s goodness to our young and older people alike. This treasure is what will create faith, hope and love in people’s hearts and transform us into the people God is calling us to be. This treasure will grow us as Jesus’ disciples and equip us to participate in his mission in the world. This treasure – the good news of Jesus and the coming of his Kingdom – will give us everything we need for our future in this world and in the next.

Whether we prefer old or new ways of thinking or practice, what matters is the Treasure himself – Jesus Christ and the Kingdom he brings through the gospel. When we treasure him, we find the riches of God’s righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. As we grow with these riches in our life, God’s Treasure spills out from us into the lives of the people around us.

More to think about:

• Generally, do you tend to prefer things that are new or old? Why is that?
• What about in your church – do you prefer old traditions or new innovations? Can you explain why they are important to you?
• Where do you imagine Jesus sitting in the spectrum between the old & new? Closer to one end or the other? In the middle? Can you explain why you think that way
• What might be the ‘new’ treasures Jesus says the homeowner (NLT) in his parable brings out of the storeroom? What might the ‘new’ treasures might be?
• If you were to focus on the ‘Treasure’ of Christ & the coming of his Kingdom in your congregation, instead of whether the ‘treasure’ is old or new, how might things be different?