The Bethel - Old Trafford Christadelphian Church

Synopsis to come

Can we tell the difference between sheep and goats? It's not always easy, but a trained shepherd can always tell. Mark explores sheepish and goatly tendencies and encourages us to leave some of our goatiness behind to embrace the submissive, flock-like comfort of being more sheep.

In approaching Jesus to touch his garment, the sick woman is saying more than is revealed in the text. She affirms that Jesus is the Christ, the Son and indeed the Sun of Righteousness with ‘healing in his wings’ (Malachi 4:2). Jesus welcomes her publicly as a daughter and a healed, whole person - her identity is established in him.

Tom takes this opportunity to continue the theme of the weekend he’s been leading about the word of God. Talking about the way we look at the Bible and the power it holds can be challenging, but this can be a good thing. This morning, Tom leads our thoughts towards the living word of God - Jesus. The Bible is not a novel or a reference book - it’s a complex mixture of styles, genres, subjects and thoughts, and to understand it, we need a key - something that will help us unlock it. That key is Jesus.

Jesus called us to be the light of the world, in the same way God wanted the Israelites to be a light for the nations around them. Often we can treat our church experience more like a club. Malcolm calls us to be less like a clubhouse and more like a lighthouse, lighting the way to the message of God and pointing the direction of relationship with our creator.

We need to be honest about how messed up we all are and how we don't have it all together. Creation is messy, living is messy, that's all part of the design - it is intentional, it is God's plan A. And we are all equally messy. None of this mess is something we can buy or behave our way out of. But God makes masterpieces out of the mess, let yourself be formed into one of God's masterpieces.

We think we know something, but it might actually be inaccurate, and likewise in some instances you know more than you realise. This morning, Peter introduces us to a new word: halachaha. In Jewish tradition, this is what is taught as law - all the intricacies of law and laws around laws... But Jesus came along and railed against it - he shows us how to refocus. He says “You’ve heard it said - do this, do this, do this. I say, be like me.”

Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass but learning to dance in the rain. We are surrounded by miracles and we must remember not to take that for granted, regardless of the occasional tough times that come along. John talks us through being open to the wealth of knowledge and wisdom that is available to us in the scriptures and reminds us that in that respect, God's wallet is full, let's spend it.

Charles explored some of the times that God appeared to people and we discover it is often in the form of a human. Charles encouraged us to connect with this humanity that comes through most obviously in Jesus. To find people to be open and honest with, to share our weaknesses and to enable each other to be the embodiment of the characteristics of God and Christ to each other.

The time we spend together at this time of year can often lead to conversations about how we’ve spent the year, the things we wanted to do but didn’t, the things we’ve noticed about others ourselves. For Richard, this festive break he’s been reminded that he’d like to start running again. This thought guides ours this morning, how we are running the race of discipleship and what prompts us, how we prepare, the timing of our prompts and discipline.