What a year it has been!  When we started the year 2020 we had no way of knowing what was to be ahead for us, and even as we begin to contemplate reclaiming some of our lives and returning to some of the things that we used to do, we still have no real way of knowing exactly what the future is going to hold for us.

Uncertainty is something that we live with all the time.  This is certainly true of the church. There are many uncertainties about our future; what things we are going to be able to continue to do, what things we need to leave behind, and what will emerge as we rebuild and reform ourselves.

But then we have a very good precedent for this very kind of thing.  When we think about the disciples after the crucifixion of Jesus, they must’ve felt very much as we have been feeling; lost, bewildered, in need of help to understand, fearful, worried.  They had seen their Lord crucified and laid in a tomb, all their hopes and dreams seemingly coming to nothing.

But we know the story doesn’t end there.  We know that God had a different plan.  Out of all the difficulty, out of all the pain, out of all the uncertainty God brought about a new future for those first disciples and for us.  The resurrection of Jesus changed everything. Once they had got over their initial shock and had begun to piece the bits of the puzzle together, they realise that God was doing a new thing.  Long ago the prophet Isaiah had spoken about this very thing, that God would do something new “Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43. vs 18-19)

God promised a new thing then, and he indeed did a new thing in Jesus when he was raised from the dead and a new world order began.  I believe that God is doing a new thing now.  We may not entirely understand what that is yet or how much it might ask us to think about doing things differently, but just like the disciples who eventually made sense of the death and resurrection of Jesus and what that meant for the whole human race, we will one day see things clearly. What we have to do in the meantime, is to keep trusting in our faithful God who loves us so much that he was prepared to give his very self for us.  

Wishing you every blessing this Easter

Tim