Message from Tim

Vacuum packed church

In Jerusalem the flame of faith in Jesus Christ was burning brightly, and people were coming to faith in Christ in such large numbers that the apostles had lost count. At the end of Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost, three thousand people were baptised (Acts 2:41). After the lame beggar was healed, the number of believers rose to about five thousand (Acts 4:4). A couple of chapters later in Luke’s account we read that the number of disciples ‘multiplied greatly’ (Acts 6:7). Addition turned into multiplication and the numbers were growing in a geometric progression. So concerned was Saul that he unleashed a great persecution against the church, but the effect was like pouring water on a chip pan fire: the believers scattered everywhere, and the spread of the gospel became unstoppable (Acts 8:1-4).

For us as Christians, over the next few weeks, it looks as though going to church is not an option. For the time being at least, the feeling is that unnecessary gatherings should be avoided, until such time as sufficient quantities of people have been vaccinated to reduce the level of risk. This, of course, raises the question: how important to our faith is it that we meet together? My standard answer over the decades has been that coming to church is vital to being a Christian – as St. Cyprian said, you can’t have God as your Father unless you have the church as your mother: an unchurched Christian is a contradiction in terms.

But our present experience, of not being able to go to church, does not make us unchurched. Contact with each other by phone, letter, email or social media keeps our fellowship strong, and our faith in God is sustained by our own personal prayer and Bible reading, as well as the weekly services online, on CD or DVD. So, what is missing if we can’t go to church? Perhaps all that is missing is pulling all of us who love Jesus Christ out of our homes and into a building once or twice a week (or for some of us, a lot less frequently than that). But while we cannot ‘go to church’, our calling is to ‘be church’ wherever we find ourselves, living our daily lives as an outpost of God’s kingdom. Church is who we are, not where we go.

To the bemusement of his parents, our 18-month-old grandson was not all that keen on Christmas presents: he resisted taking them out from under the Christmas tree and unwrapping them; he was far happier replacing them, neatly and unopened, back under the tree where he felt they belonged. But just as presents are bought to be taken out of their boxes to be played with or put to good use, it was never God’s intention for us as followers of Jesus to be vacuum-packed into church buildings, as if the more people we could squash in the better. One example of how Coronavirus has let the church out of the bag happened on Christmas Eve in Heron Way, where an impromptu invitation to people to sing carols outdoors in their own gardens probably resulted in my biggest Christmas congregation – ‘socially distanced, of course!’ At the start of 2021 God has taken us all out of the packaging, and wherever he has placed you, that is where he wants you to flourish.

Maybe those first Christians would far rather have been in Jerusalem, but instead God used adversity to tip them out of their comfort zone and send them flooding out into the world. Now witnessing was relatively easy for them: the standard conversation opener, ‘Where are you from?’ would have led naturally into an explanation as to why they had had to leave Jerusalem in a hurry. We have no such natural openings for our opportunities to witness, not least because we are only allowed to meet other people one to one in an open, public space. But don’t forget that you have been made in the image of a God who is nothing if not creative. He has better things in store for you than staying at home in solitary confinement crossing off the days on your calendar until Easter finally arrives. In evil days we are told to redeem the time, to make the most of it (Ephesians 5:16). Let me encourage you to offer these winter weeks to God: dedicate them to him. During this period ask God to show you what he wants to do in you, for you, through you to others.  If you have time on your hands, how can you support those who don’t have time, who are under huge amounts of pressure at work? How can you support those who are finding it difficult to cope? You are a little bit of God’s chip pan fire, burning for him. Jesus bids you shine as the light of the world, so how does he want you to brighten up your small corner for him?