Rev Maggie reflects

Reflections during Lockdown No 2 – Waiting

We are all waiting and have been waiting a long time.  We waited after the first reports of a new virus in China, not sure whether it would affect us or not.  When we learnt how quickly it was spreading we waited for it to arrive in England.  Ever since then we have been waiting to discover what would happen next. Now we are waiting in lockdown to discover what life will be like when the lockdown is lifted.

The virus’s arrival in England came during Lent.  As we approached Easter many people likened our waiting to being in a long Holy Saturday as the disciples waited in the locked room, afraid of what would happen next.  And so it has been.  But now that Easter is over, I have come to see this waiting as more like the waiting that the disciples had to do after Easter.  They knew that there was new life but there was more waiting in order to understand what they had to do.  it was not until Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit that the disciples were fully equipped for their own mission, to proclaim new life in Christ.

We still have to wait and we do not know how long the wait will be.  In the meantime as we get on with our lives in these changed and difficult circumstances, we can also work towards new life after lockdown.  We, like the disciples, need this time to work out what that new life should be like.  What is most important to us, as individuals, and as citizens and above all what is our role as Christians?

I have a book which belonged to my father.  It is a collection of sermons and other speeches written by Archbishop William Temple between April 1942 and September 1943.  Its title is “The Church Looks Forward”.  The first sermon was preached on St. George’s Day, 1942 at his enthronement at Canterbury cathedral.  Looking forward then was even more perilous than it is today as the outcome of the war was undecided.  He said: “The world is learning its helplessness apart from God.”  And later “ the primary thing is God’s call to us and our answering dedication ……. Hearts open to the love of God, minds nurtured by the truth of God and wills devoted to the purpose of God.”

We too are learning our helplessness.  Maybe we are also learning ways in which we have strayed from God’s purposes. This waiting time is time we can use to reassess how well our lives are aligned to God’s purposes for all God’s children and for creation.  How does what we do affect others, both in this country and across the world? And how does what we do affect our planet?

O gracious and holy Father,
give us wisdom to perceive you,
diligence to seek you,
patience to wait for you,
eyes to behold you,
a heart to meditate on you,
and a life to proclaim you,
through the power of the Spirit
of Jesus Christ our Lord

St. Benedict (as printed in the church of England Prayers for use during the coronavirus outbreak)