Book: Matthew

One of the implications of grace may be that instead of taking swords to the less good and pure, we learn to express the openness of God to the mixed bag of people who are on the journey with us.

We are called to stop defending ourselves and fighting off the intruders in the vineyard, but rather to welcome the spirit-sent opportunities that will demand of us, but will also change us.

God will open the way through the world’s chaos, and it will be grounded on extravagant mercy.

God will wound us if necessary to bring us into the full blessing intended for us.

Perhaps when law and order perpetuate injustice, God is on the side of the scammers and swindlers.

The Church will always contain more than its fair share of maliciousness, pettiness and nastiness, but the temptation to try to weed it out is a temptation to abandon the way of Christ and make things worse.

God calls us to live out the gospel, not just to think about, not just to pray about it, but to live it.  Jesus called us to action, not to change their thinking but to change their lives.

The power of sin over us will not be broken by trying harder, but by pursuing Christ and Christ alone.

When hopes have been extinguished and all is despair, God comes back.

The revelation of what God is on about in Christ will always upend our expectations and disrupt our lives.

The coming Christ will continually confound our expectations, no matter how well informed or righteous they may be.

It is always a shock to realise just who Jesus is and what he’s on about.