Message from Tim

Unshakeable

On Good Friday I was reading Lamentations: it was heavy going. Chapter 2 lays the blame for the intense suffering of Jerusalem squarely at God’s door. Lots of people are wondering whether the coronavirus is an instrument of God’s judgment against the world. When you read through the Bible there is no doubt that war, floods, plagues and (worryingly) economic collapse all feature in God’s arsenal of destruction.

Yet for all that, I am loath to see this virus simply as God’s judgment. It may be instead that God is examining the foundations of our lives to see if they are strong enough to bear the weight of the lifestyle we build upon them. Like a dentist probing a tooth for decay, or an MOT tester hammering at a rusty chassis, God looks to see what we are really made of.

For the past 60 years in the UK we have enjoyed such an extraordinary degree of health and wellbeing that we have almost lost sight of our mortality. Our comfortable way of life has been protected by the NHS and by the financial prosperity of our nation. All that is suddenly threatened by a simple virus, which can be deadly and for which there is no known cure. And we feel vulnerable because our settled way of life is threatened and the future really looks quite scary. And so it may just be that things we have always been able to take for granted suddenly start to look very fragile. Is God our strength and refuge or not (Psalm 46)?

So, when everything around us starts to shake, his is the standard to which we rally (Psalm 60:1-4). Because he is at our right hand, we will not be shaken (Psalm 16:8). Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken (Psalm 125:1).

It’s not easy to trust a God you can’t see, but when everything else gives way, our invisible, intangible Redeemer doesn’t waver for an instant. Jesus said that the key to standing firm is to listen to what he says and put it into practice. (Luke 6:47-49). And the kingdom we receive, the kingdom to which we belong, this is a kingdom that cannot be shaken, that will never give way (Hebrews 12:26-29).

So in a time of unprecedented change and uncertainty let us keep our eyes and our hearts fixed on Christ, the one who is the same yesterday, today and forever.