Monday, New Year’s Day
2 Corinthians 5.17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”
New beginnings are part of life. The new job, a new relationship, our new role as parent or child as life moves on. Even a new car, kitchen, or cat, changes the way we feel and live our lives. It’s harder for us to change who we are inside, though. Only God the Creator can recreate, make new, transform and change us from the heart outwards. To be in Christ and know Christ in us, is the core experience of Christian faith. Paul calls it new creation; Jesus calls it being born again. It’s what God does.
Tuesday.
Acts 17.19 “Then they took Paul and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean. They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.”
Get used to it. The Gospel is good news and will sound strange to those who have no idea what you’re talking about. Jesus was God’s Son come amongst us as a man. On the cross Jesus bore and carried away the weight of the world’s sin. Jesus confronted hate with love, violence with peace, guilt with forgiveness. The resurrection was both God’s No! to sin and death, and God’s Yes! to new life in Christ. Strange ideas indeed, for a world like ours. Christ is risen! That’s the good news. Live it and speak it.
Wednesday
John 13.34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
The new command isn’t new at all. What’s new is how Jesus demonstrated what it means to love one another. “As I have loved you.” The bar is raised beyond what we can manage without the grace of God, and the power of the Holy Spirit who pours the love of God into hearts made new. Jesus commands us to be like him in the way we love others – self-giving, generous, forgiving, faithful, persistent – “Having loved his own, he loved them to the very end…As I have loved you so you must love…”
Thursday
1 Corinthians 11.25 “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
The new relationship between God and the believer in Jesus, reconciliation through the blood of Jesus, God’s ancient promise to put a new heart into his people – all of this proclaimed, prayed and received in faith as the gracious gift, and forever faithful promise of God. That’s what Holy Communion is, living out the love and mercy of God in a new relationship of covenanted love. Love is a doing word, doing the will of God. “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”
Friday
Matthew 13.57 “Every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.”
Continuing Professional development. Lifelong Learning. Annual appraisals. In the world of work it’s expected that we will extend our skill set, improve our professional performance, and hold on to and learn from important experiences. Jesus is saying that discipleship is no different in its demands that we be the best disciple of the kingdom we can be. Learning what’s new, building on what we already know, growing and maturing as ‘workmen who need not be ashamed.” New Year is a good time to reset our priorities in the light of the Kingdom of God, and the call of Jesus.
Saturday
Mark 2.21 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse.”
The new life in Christ isn’t a patchwork of the old and the new. When we are clothed with Christ we put on a new garment. You can’t mix them. A Christian can’t love and hate, bear a grudge and forgive, be selfish and generous, claim to be truthful while lying, ignore suffering and show the love and compassion of God. You can’t keep your old clothes and patch them up with good intentions. To be new in Christ is to wear the uniform of Jesus’ followers – the new unshrunk cloth of a new life in Christ.
Sunday
Revelation 21.5 “He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
I’m not sure we take those words seriously enough. Everything! New! God will take the whole creation and repristinate it. I know! It sounds like one of those big words a writer uses to impress the readers. But it’s the right word. It means “to restore something to its original state or condition.” God’s promise is to renew the creation that “groans, awaiting its redemption.” To reverse the ravages of sin, restore the brokenness of relationships, to dry the tears of the heartbroken, to end suffering and make possible again the joy and fulfilment of a creation dancing once more to the Creator’s music of love, life and fellowship. How? I’ve no idea! But John was told, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And God knows!
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