Matthew 5 & 1 Corinthians 3 bring challenging words from Jesus and Paul. As humanity, we are all different, have different journeys and yet the central core of the Gospel unites us. The grace and love of God discovered through Jesus enables us each one to grow on our path of redemption.
We are all significant and have our unique views on life and faith and yet despite our differences God is the one who grows the seed of faith within us all. It is not easy to be in community, most of the time we get on well together and sometimes it gets complicated as we try to find our way through our differences. It is important for us to acknowledge and respect each other’s perspectives, even to engage in healthy debate and to recognise that underneath all our arguments, opinions and viewpoints we are all God’s children seeking to become more like Jesus.
We thank God for the saving grace of Jesus, we know that we are loved as God’s children and we struggle trying to live our lives in trust and obedience. The words of Jesus continue to challenge our ideas and actions. There are some commands that we never fully understand as we struggle to live these words of Jesus in our lives. Jesus does encourage us to be like little children with a simple faith in our Heavenly Father. Thank God for that. It is good that our lives can show the reality of trust and obedience in a loving caring God. It is also good that our lives are able to move through the challenges of living together as a diverse community of faith, accepting and loving each other despite our differences. It is God who unites us and enables us to grow together. Rev Malcolm Rawlings