Emerge Brighter week 2

Last week - I put out a call for all of us to choose resurrection as we emerge from this pandemic…..

Like a caterpillar emerging from a cocoon as a beautiful butterfly, so God would desire for us as a church and for you as an individual to emerge from the pandemic as a more beautiful representation of him to the world around you. 

That just as Lazarus made a bigger kingdom impact post resurrection, so can we make a bigger post covid impact!

However, one thing we learn from the story of raising Lazarus is that we have a God who is happy to take his time. He is not in a rush, and nor should we be either.

Many of us have a problem with hurry and struggle to have patience. I am one of those people, in fact I would call myself a recovering Hurry addict. I reached a place in my life where I was counting the minutes and the seconds, trying to squeeze out every last drop of productivity.

Yet Jesus was never in a hurry.

And I want to be like Jesus.

In the story of the raising of Lazarus we see that sometimes, our God really does take his time.

v5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days

John tells us two things in this verse:

1.    How much he loves this family

2.    Jesus delayed going to heal Lazarus

In fact as you read the rest of the dialogue, it is clear that Jesus is deliberately letting Lazarus die! Because let’s face it Jesus could have healed him from a distance, instantly, if he had wanted to!

Even when Jesus does finally get to Bethany a few days later, does he head for the tomb? Or maybe to the family that is grieving? Nope. He just takes his time, stops and talks to a some people, leaving the grieving family to have to come and find him!

Sometimes, it’s really rock hard to work out what God is doing.

But Jesus explains his ‘Why?’ Because he had a bigger purpose! v4 it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it

No matter how hard a delay can be, and let’s face it, they can sometimes be bone achingly challenging. And even at times when God allows someone to die, if we allow it, God’s glory can be shown through those tough tough times.

He goes on to say there is good that can come out of every delay and every tough situation….

‘v14 for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe’

If we will allow it, the most heart wrenching of circumstances can, by God’s miraculous grace, help us to believe deeper than ever before. IF we choose to trust.

As we think about emerging brighter, I want to let you know that the God who takes his time is ok with you taking yours.

I want you to know that even though I’m not big on patience, I’ve got time for you to take your time as well.

Some of you will be ‘run out of the covid grave’ kind of people. You’ve already had many different groups of six round in the garden, your holiday is booked, you’re half way through organising a street party, you’ve booked a table in your favourite restaurant and you’ve been practicing hugging. 

Or you might be one of the last to emerge. You still have genuine concerns that it’s opening up too fast. You have concerns about your own health. You are even feeling some significant anxiety about what it will be like to be in a crowd, or to have people round again. Maybe coming back to church meetings will take you some time. Maybe having people round won’t feel right for a while.

Here’s the big thing - it’s fine to take time. If Jesus can take time when it comes to saving one of his best friends….. You can certainly go at your pace - but! And this is key! You’ve got to come out of the Covid tomb. 

He’s calling you out of that tomb. You can run out, or you can sit up, take your time, unlike Lazarus you can unwrap the grave clothes, and wander out.

But – we’ve got to get out.

Delay is ok.

Taking your time is fine.

But staying in the covid tomb is not an option…..

What will the history books say of how the Covid pandemic impacted the UK church?

Will it be the death nell?

Or will it be the new life resurrection moment we had all been waiting for?

And just as importantly, what will your personal history book say of what the pandemic did to your faith?

We can choose death, or we can choose resurrection! That’s the amazing part, we get to choose! Which will you choose?

Over the coming months we are going to be exploring various people and stories in the bible that will inspire us, provoke us and challenge us to emerge brighter. We are starting by spending 4 weeks in the story of the raising of Lazarus, and I’m so excited to be preaching them and sharing them with you here in the blog.

The story of Lazarus speaks deeply into the hearts of all of us. We have all experienced a grave of some sorts and we have all experienced the need for resurrection in some form or another.

When I read the scriptures I like to allow my imagination to wander, to try and fill in some of the gaps from what is often just the bare bones of a story. When I read the story of Lazarus, I wonder if there was any sense that he was waiting for resurrection. We’ve all heard stories of people who have died, met Jesus and been ’sent back.’ I wonder if he had one of those stories.

I also wonder when and how life came back into him. Was it instant? Did he instantly come out when Jesus told him to? Did the life maybe begin to flow back into him as Jesus entered the village of Bethany, and he gradually thawed back to life? Or was it a lightning bolt, at the words of Jesus? Then, did he come out of the tomb straight away? Or was there a wait of a few minutes as his rigormortis left him and he started to bend his limbs again! I know how hard it is to get out of bed when I’ve slept more than my usual 7.5 hours!!

However he was resurrected the main point of it is this - he was resurrected!! And however you are going to emerge out of the pandemic, the main point is, you need to emerge! You can choose to allow God’s power to help you emerge brighter! Brighter than when you went in to the Covid tomb. Brighter than you’ve been for the last 13 months. Or you can allow the covid grave clothes to cling to you and emerge duller, not brighter. You choose!

The picture we had in preparing for this series was that of the caterpillar entering the cocoon. The social isolation of Covid has been our cocoon. As the time comes for the cocoon to be shed, what will emerge? A beautiful butterfly or a dull brown pupa that never made the transition?

Jesus is standing outside the Covid ‘Cocoon tomb' of each of us. Yes he knows we’ve all had to isolate, he knows the impact that has had on us all and just as he cared about Lazarus family to the point of weeping, he cares about you and yours as well. But he cares enough not to leave us in the tomb. Which means that right now he has ordered that the stone be rolled away and he is calling you out. (And he’s fine if you take your time - more on that next week!)

Lazarus heard the voice of Jesus and came out. Even though he had no idea what was going on. He couldn’t see, he could barely walk and he was wrapped in linen cloth. He didn’t let anything stand in the way of hearing Jesus call to leave the grave behind, and step into new life. 

Will you do the same?

It is my prayer that this Covid pandemic will be a turning point for the church in the UK. I might be 'doing an Abraham’ as it says in Romans 4:18 

'Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed.’ But as Pete Greig so inspired me by saying: ‘I’d rather be proved wrong as an optimist than proven right as a pessimist!'

So, come on Light church, let’s choose to Emerge Brighter back into our calling of loving our city and bringing the kingdom to hurt, lost and broken generation.

I have to admit, I’m a bit of a word nerd. Especially when it comes to the bible. I’m always keen to know how certain original Greek or Hebrew words were interpreted or in what other contexts were they used? ESPECIALLY when different versions of the bible seem to translate things so differently.

As we’ve been hearing and responding to God’s call to us from John 15, my wordy nerdiness has been on full alert. And I believe that within that there is something key that God has to say to each of us that call the Light church our home.

As Rachel unpacked for us, Jesus called on his disciples, to remain/abide in him. For example in John 15:5 ‘I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain/abide in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.’

The Greek word, as Rachel taught us, is menō. This word menō has lots of different uses throughout the New Testament, but mostly it means to stay somewhere, to not leave somewhere, and at times to live somewhere. Here are a few examples:

1. Mark 14:34 ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,’ he said to them. ‘Stay here and keep watch.’ - Stay is the word menō

2. John 4:40 ‘So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days.’ - again the words stay and stayed are the word menō

3. Luke 1:56 ‘Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home.’

4. John 11:6 ‘So when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed where he was two more days’

So you can see why it was translated as both Remain - to stay somewhere, to not leave (no Brexit jokes please!) and also as Abide - which means to live somewhere.

When we think about it in relation to the vine - both are true, we need to remain attached, but we also need to be very knitted in/grafted in. Grafting in, is a horticultural term where one plant is joined to another, such that you can barely tell where the branch stops and the vine begins. A good reflection is to ask, "Is it obvious where I stop and God begins, when I look over my life?"

It was as I was thinking about this that I felt that in this there is a word for some people.

For some of you, as we go through the final months of this pandemic, and at least another month of lockdown, you simply need to make ‘remaining’ or ‘staying put’ your goal. In other words, you simply need to ‘hang on!’ Hang on for dear life, don’t walk away from the Vine, that is Jesus, and also don’t walk away from the church, even if you feel incredibly disconnected, walking away won’t help the situation, staying put, hanging on and remaining is the way to weather the storm.

If all you decide to do is simply SURVIVE - that’s ok. God’s grace is more than sufficient for that, and actually for you that will be what success looks like. Sometimes simply surviving is success. Sometimes getting through a storm still clinging onto the vine, even if you feel you’ve not produced any fruit for ages, is success. Most of you parents of young children really need to hear that, as well as others. And if you’re still connected, his word remains true that those days of fruitfulness will return. SIMPLY……REMAIN!

For others, this time, this space, is actually a call to THRIVE, not simply survive. God has a work to do in you, that this extra time you have, this extra space and quiet that is yours is going to be the training ground for future fruitfulness. Go deeper in prayer, spend more time with Him, read those books, or study your bible in a way you haven’t done before. Your invitation is ABIDE!

There are winter times where the branches simply need to dig deep into the vine to hold on for dear life and not be taken out by the frost. There are spring and summer, where the branch draws deeply on the vine’s nutrients, as it bursts into flower then produces the fruit that follows. Whether you are in Winter and need to survive, or entering into Spring/Summer and it’s time to thrive - both are achieved by remaining and abiding.

So draw near now, and cling on for dear life. He won’t fail you.