World Cup Churches: 13. France

Continuing a series of blogs heading round the 32 qualifying countries in the 2022 World Cup - I will pick out one church in each one.  I am not going to choose only churches that are to my liking.  This is an exploration not a recommendation! To see all in the series select the label 'World Cup Churches' below.

'La Porte Ouverte Chrétienne de Mulhouse' is a reminder that France is not quite as Roman Catholic - or, following the Revolution - so secularised as might be assumed.  Unlikely though it may seem, the Open Door Church qualifies - at least by European standards - as a Megachurch, the more so because Mulhouse is not a very big city.

Why choose this church for my France blog?

Partly because it revises some views of France; partly because it briefly became one of the best known churches in Europe.

For anyone familiar with the spiritual geography of France it will come as no surprise that Mulhouse is the site of this type of church.  Mulhouse is deeply connected with the Protestant Reformation and as part of Alsace - and adjacent to Germany (today) and Switzerland - it belongs in a different relationship with Protestantism than most of France (Click here to read about it).

For anyone familiar with Covid-19 (that's all of us isn't it?) this church is also known as a super-spreader.  Until the pandemic, being a super-spreader was somewhat the intention of every church, and certainly every evangelical/Pentecostal megachurch.  Regrettably an enormous church conference week yielded an enormous spread of Covid 19 in its earliest known arrival in France and the church suffered national notoriety for a while.

It did illustrate the strange reality that even apparently innovative churches find it very hard to change direction quickly - a criticism more easily aimed at traditional churches.  By the time of the event the wisdom of cramming singing, coughing people into an airless room for hours was established as unwise.  But canceling a Conference or (as we all later experienced) stopping the singing is an innovation beyond innovators.

Covid taught as all a lot about ourselves.

Psalms in Lent: Psalm 57 Mothers Day Plus

This amazing Psalm begins with the experience that we have all known as the Covid-19 pandemic: disaster barrels through in the manner of a great storm.

For peoples across the world there is nothing new about this, natural disaster, famine, plague, war and ethnic persecution.  For the people of the early/mid 20th century in the UK it came in the form of World Wars.  Yet for people in my generation in the West the coronavirus pandemic has introduced us to the experience this psalm begins in - helplessness in an incoming storm.

The remedy the Psalmist enjoys is the shelter of the wings of God, a motherly picture for Mothering Sunday.

Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me,

    for in you I take refuge.

I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings

    until the disaster has passed. (1)

How cosy is that?

But this Psalm is far from finished.  It unfolds a view of God which is infinitely greater than the mother bird's wings, ending (10,11):

For great is your love, reaching to the heavens;

    your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;

    let your glory be over all the earth.

What kind of God is above the heavens and underneath the storm at the same time?  What kind of God can shelter me personally, but also dwarf everything?

The God of the Universe who is the God of the Cross.

Baptists for a pandemic: 3. Joseph Binney

Augusta, Georgia' figures in the modern media each year.  It's golf course annually hosts one of the four great world Tournaments.  It is known for its pristine beauty - a far cry from a windy links course on the coast of Britain, for example.

Augusta is, for America, an old city.  It sits on the border of South Carolina.  In the mid 1800s it was part of the increasing influence of the Baptists, though also pointedly in their North-South divisions regarding slave ownership.

Pastor Joseph Binney and his wife arrived at its First Baptist Church because they had been unable to stay in Burma (today, Myanmar).  Ill health had cut short their missionary endeavours.  

The safer environs of Augusta did not turn out to be safe however.  In 1854 an epidemic of Yellow Fever arrived in the city.  You can be vaccinated for Yellow Fever today - but there is still no medical cure if the mosquitos win.  

Deaths were reported, and the people of the city fled.  The Binneys left the city but lived nearby, Joseph returning each day to minister to the sick and dying.  The missionary who had been defeated by ill-health, was found in its midst.

Almost inevitably, Joseph eventually caught the fever.  

He survived.

He not only survived, but recovered sufficient strength to leave Augusta - and return to Burma as a missionary!

Here was a man, a family, whose calling was stronger than their challenges.  May we be like them.

Baptists for a pandemic 2. John Bunyan

When Church of England envoy Terry Waite was held captive in Beirut by Hezbollah in the late 1980s he famously received a postcard from well wishers in England.  It bore an image in stained glass of John Bunyan writing in prison.  The meaning was - good can come from confinement.

It is impossible to overestimate the literary and spiritual value of Pilgrim's Progress, a book so skilled that people of any religion and none can enjoy it while deep-thinking Christians can mine it and children can engage easily with its story.  It is inevitably still mentioned in lists of primary English literature.

Yet Bunyan spent about 12 of his 60 years in gaol.  He was primarily known in his day as an Independent/Baptist preacher but his lasting fame belongs to his writing and his writing owes much to his years of lockdown.

Very unwise it is of us to dismiss lockdowns as unproductive.  Had Bunyan been a Baptist Pastor today he would have been out of prison more but, if he had written anything, it probably wouldn't have outlived him.  I feel I know - I've read what today's preachers write . .. 

Baptists for a pandemic: 1. Thomas Grantham

I have been reading about some Baptists who I think are very useful for our pandemic season.

First, and on one level most interestingly, I begin with Thomas Grantham.  That I hadn't heard of him on July 12th will be obvious from my blog of that day.   But that is to my shame.  For Thomas Grantham was very well-known in the 17th century.

It is important to note that what I am about to reveal is not at all unique to Thomas.  He was the most famous advocate of the position because at the time because he was, well, famous.  His book Christianus Primitivus was one of the great early Baptist theologies.

Thomas Grantham represents a marked strand in Baptist history that rejected congregational singing.  As Baptists, more than most, we are bewailing our loss of freedom to sing in the pandemic.  It is peculiar to note that our forefathers were quite strongly opposed to the practice.  One cantor singing a Psalm was the preferred rule.

We imagine Thomas Grantham to be very 'strict', but that turns out to be false.  Thomas Grantham held the view that 'Christ died for all', which was a 'General' Baptist 17th century interpretation, creating an openness and evangelistic edge that many stricter Baptists (and others) rejected.

The next time I complain of a year without congregational singing I will remember that some of the most formative years of Baptist fellowships were decades without congregational singing.  So no excuses for us complaining that we can't go on like this!

God in the Garden 3. Seeing Beyond

When we arrived at our house and to this garden there were one or two potted leftovers from previous residents. 

They were either flowering or livening up toward that happening.  It was nice to have a garden hose (our previous house didn't have an outside tap) to help them on their way.

One pot, however, looked a lost cause . . .

Looking at the single flower at the bottom and no apparent buds anywhere else it appeared a waste of a good pot.  I made a mental note to get a good plant for it the next year.  But i watered it anyway.

And suddenly in July - over about two days - it turned into this,  A riot of flowers that essentially buries the leaves!

This has helped my in pandemic ministry.  It feels alot like the leafy, productless pot.  But the watering goes on; perhaps obedience, perhaps habit, perhaps desperation, perhaps faithfulness.

May the God who made and cares for the flowers, care for all of his work in the hearts of mankind too.

God in the Garden 2. Hidden Problems

It even surprises me.

When we filmed the Easter Morning pandemic recording in the garden there was the awkwardness of a derelict pond motor cupboard, used by a previous resident to create a flowing water feature.  It is clearly many years into its decay.

'Why,' I wondered, 'have I never fixed it?'   

I ventured my best explanation - that in the summer it was hidden, because in truth I could hardly remember thinking about it in days in the garden over the years.

And so it proved to be.  I simply hadn't realised how totally the greenery in the pond left the old cupboard out of sight and out of mind.  Here it is in the summer:

That is why it is never fixed!

As we thought about at Easter, the reason for the coming and sacrifice of Jesus is because sin is never hidden from Him - it required action.  The reason why humankind can be equivocal about, blase towards or disinterested in the great salvation Jesus achieved is because we simply cover up our sinfulness to ourselves and among ourselves.  It doesn't need fixing, so we don't need Jesus.

This strategy fails to take account of the end of the story - where what God sees is the basis of our eternal accountability.

God in the Garden 1. Life from the Cross

Like Church leaders of all kinds, I spent significant lockdown time broadcasting from the garden.  I'm very blessed, especially in London, to have a garden.

Maundy Thursday - what a long time ago that feels - our family was in lockdown with Covid in the house.  For our online Maundy Communion (watch here) we needed a cross.  As it happened, my wife had made her own from two old garden twigs because she had done her school's online Easter talk.  We used that very stark-looking cross.

When summer came, we sat in the garden in happier circumstances - and one day looked at that cross:

Out of the apparently dead wood was growing a flower.  It is a fantastic picture of the hope that God offers during a dead year, and that he always offers through the cross to the soul who turns his way.

Pandemic Parables 6: Whether or not we're indoors . . .

Jesus also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.” 

This is perhaps the most encouraging of parables for the church in a pandemic.  The list of what can be done in building relationships for the Kingdom is very much shorter.  The possibilities for the winter ahead are filled with uncertainties, and even next summer is tough to plan towards.  Whilst some expressions of Christianity are more content with a low-key private or contemplative approach, Baptist and Evangelical Christians have always viewed life as seizing opportunities and working for them when they are missing.  More like Jesus' Galilean ministry than his earlier Nazareth days of carpentry.

Another parable I cited was about the sower sowing the seed.  It reflected different kinds of soil productivity.  This little parable from Mark's Gospel is about providence.  The farmer must do something - sow the seed - but then cannot really do anything.  Whether locked down (asleep) or up and busy, the soil produces the grain.

This does not entirely reflect modern agriculture - but it brilliantly reflects 2020 church work.  Thank you, Jesus!

Pandemic Parables 5. Accountable to myself

Today I availed myself of the Government's 'Eat Out to Help Out' scheme.  Walking around a sparsely populated city block I say a mainly empty cafe and took up the offer of the half priced lunch.  I would have eaten anyway, which seems to me to point up the ludicrous nature of the scheme - but if you're a tax payer - thanks!!  It was nice.  

My table had a QR code.  This was how I was to register for the NHS Test and Trace scheme.  As a diligent enforcer in our church, I felt i ought to co-operate, even though it was hardly prominent.  But I'm not great with QR codes, so after a few complications on my phone I gave up and enjoyed my sandwiches anyway.  As far as I could tell I was the only person in the Cafe even trying to use the code.

That's how we like it.  An important regulation - qualification - that we can choose to ignore.  In the end, it's my decision.

Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son . . .

“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.

“Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

“For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

My hunch is that, in the minds of very many people Jesus, the Gospel, salvation, being born again,  believing all figure like the Kingdom of Heaven's QR Code.  Maybe we should attend to him/them but in the end, let's wing it - 'after all my great grandad went to Church' (actually mine didn't as far as I know).

The question arises whether God's judgment and final entry into Heaven's Kingdom will operate with the laxity of the cafe I visited - or indeed the Government's own enforcement.  If so, a great deal of sin is going to be part of that kingdom and eternity looks very uninviting for us all.   But as Jesus' parable points out, God's Kingdom will ultimately require the right clothes - it is a Wedding Banquet, not a Cafe.  Being dressed right is the only way in, and the only way to be dressed right is to put on the new clothes the King has provided, Jesus, the Gospel, salvation, being born again,  believing.

Pandemic Parables 4. Working with what you've got

So we can't sing; we can't have refreshments, we can't stay long in church, we can't sit near each other, greet each other, touch each other, share communion bread, baptise, organise events for invitees, visit people in their homes, serve people indoors at a soup kitchen . . .

“Again, here is what the kingdom of heaven will be like. A man was going on a journey. He sent for his slaves and put them in charge of his money. He gave five bags of gold to one. He gave two bags to another. And he gave one bag to the third. The man gave each slave the amount of money he knew the slave could take care of. Then he went on his journey. The slave who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work. He earned five bags more. The one with the two bags of gold earned two more. But the man who had received one bag went and dug a hole in the ground. He hid his master’s money in it.

“After a long time the master of those slaves returned. He wanted to collect all the money they had earned. The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you trusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have earned five more.’

“His master replied, ‘You have done well, good and faithful slave! You have been faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

“The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you trusted me with two bags of gold. See, I have earned two more.’

“His master replied, ‘You have done well, good and faithful slave! You have been faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

“Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man. You harvest where you have not planted. You gather crops where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid. I went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’

“His master replied, ‘You evil, lazy slave! So you knew that I harvest where I have not planted? You knew that I gather crops where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money in the bank. When I returned, I would have received it back with interest.’

“Then his master commanded the other slaves, ‘Take the bag of gold from him. Give it to the one who has ten bags. Everyone who has will be given more. They will have more than enough. And what about anyone who doesn’t have? Even what they have will be taken away from them. Throw that worthless slave outside. There in the darkness, people will weep and grind their teeth.’

Ah.

So the Kingdom of God is not about what we have or haven't got.  It's about what we do with what we have.

Pandemic Parables 3. What's happened to the seed?

Jesus explains his Parable of the Sower (which we often note is really the parable of the soil - and the seed).

“Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 

When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

Most of us preachers have spoken on this story quite a few times.  But now I see the pandemic here.

It appears in the form of thorns.  

The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.

The worries of this life.  That's a pandemic.  You don't have to catch it to be choked by it spiritually.  The promises of the Word overwhelmed by the latest Government edict, the light of the word lost behind the clouds of despair, the search for a vaccine a deeper longing than the search for a Saviour.  

Though a seemingly gentle, rustic parable there is brutal reality here.  Farming is quite brutally realistic at times.  The pandemic will find people out.  Assumed spiritual growth will be found to be wanting and corners of the spiritual landscape will deny the Lord of the Harvest.

None of this means that the harvest will be disappointing - to the contrary it will be amazing and wonderful.  But will it include me?  And you?

Pandemic Parables 2. Within 2 Metres

Among the best known of all Jesus' parables is that of the Good Samaritan (Luke chapter 10):

“And who is my neighbour?”

 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Robbers attacked him. They stripped off his clothes and beat him. Then they went away, leaving him almost dead. A priest happened to be going down that same road. When he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.  A Levite also came by. When he saw the man, he passed by on the other side too.  But a Samaritan came to the place where the man was. When he saw the man, he felt sorry for him.  He went to him, poured olive oil and wine on his wounds and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey. He brought him to an inn and took care of him.

Very early in the lockdown it occured to me that this parable now illustrates a fundamental Christian problem derived from the pandemic.  This has been reinforced as, with leaders everywhere, I share the agonies of trying to get some sort of meaningful restart to church life.

In this parable social distancing is seen to be the safe course, and the respectable passers by stick, I would imagine, to a good 2 metres.

But the only way to be in the will of God is to get close.  

Now to be clear, this is hardly directly relevant to the church choir standing close, or the greeting hug at the door, or serving communion in a common cup.  It is, however, illustrative of the difficulty of  doing God's will in a pandemic.  

At a stroke it has separated our church - and almost every church - from developing contacts with the lost, the poor and those we meet on the road of life.  We can keep them and ourselves apart and go to our Zoom meeting - but the result is that we are not able to be the neighbours we were told to be.

The pandemic is making it very hard to do God's work.

Pandemic Parables 1. It isn't going to happen . . .

Life has changed a lot in 2020.  I've been thinking about how it changes the way I look at some Parables of Jesus.

Like this one:

Matthew 25:1-13

“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

“At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’

“Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps.  The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’

“‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’

“But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.

“Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’

“But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

This parable speaks into the pandemic's most amazing and controversial issue - preparedness.  Put simply, we (that is the whole world) didn't see it coming.  Look up any example of 'Looking ahead to 2020' on the internet and you will not find a trace of the coronavirus - but plenty about the Olympics and Brexit.  This absence of foresight even applies to this report about China (where the virus was already known to exist late in 2019).

We won't get a practice run for Jesus' Return.  But I think that Covid-19 is a reasonable echo which has quickly (but not in the blink of an eye, 1 Corinthians 15) re-ordered the world without an army or an assembly being able to stop it.

Surely this generation will never live quite so complacently ever again?  But then again, the parable suggests that even those who should be attuned to watching, become drowsy.  Great shocks can speak to unpreparedness, but cannot cure it.

May the Holy Spirit of God reach the drowsy souls before midnight.

Good News in a Pandemic: 7. Warning

STAY HOME

STAY ALERT

KEEP YOUR DISTANCE

WASH YOUR HANDS

DO NOT TRAVEL

SELF-ISOLATE

The last few months have multiplied the warnings.  Even though they're becoming more complicated these days they keep on coming.

It's not that warnings, including Government warnings, are anything new.  There is a whole industry of them, like packets of peanuts with warnings that the packet contains nuts.  It is just that they are now serious news - and well received by most, however unpalatable they appear to be for our comfort zone.

The renaissance of the warning as good news is itself good news.  Through increasingly complacent times the idea that the Bible warns has been offensive almost, that God warns irritating, that the Holy Spirit warns best avoided and the Jesus warned (he did it a lot) just perplexing.

Given that the Bible begins (in a perfect relationship between God and Man) with a warning, and that its last chapter is replete with warnings, we should better understand warning as a positive thing.

What is a pandemic if it is not a general warning to humanity?  The birds don't care, the moon doesn't mind, no angel has caught Covid-19 and nobody who died before last November had it either.  It is a warning to the people of now - to me, to you - that life is finite, material things are temporary, relationships are precious, and attention must be given to our soul's relationship with its Maker before we are brought face-to-face with Him.  That's where the Good News of a Saviour comes in - it was the most important thing after all . . .

Good News in a Pandemic: 6. Ascension Day

Charles Haddon Spurgeon explains why, however sad we may feel, this day (perhaps more than any other) reminds us that we now have reason for great joy!!

Our Lord is risen from the dead; 

Our Jesus is gone up on high; 

The powers of hell are captive led— 

Dragged to the portals of the sky. 

I have known that one thought of our Lord’s exaltation lift me up from the borders of despair, in a dread hour, long since past, when reason almost reeled after great calamities had overtaken me. I recovered my balance and my peace of mind, in a single moment, by the recollection of that one text, “Wherefore God also has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name.”

So long as He lives and reigns, all is well. Men may rave at me as they will, but what does it matter so long as He is exalted?  I want you, dear friends, to feel like that concerning your ascended Lord. Go home [During the pandemic we would amend to Stay Home!], and worship Him, and be filled with great joy.  

Good News in a Pandemic: 5. NHS (etc.)

Someone writing about the National Health Service was wistfully observing that it seems to have become a national religion.

There is no doubt that the NHS is held in high regard by most Britons - even ones who might tolerate the opposite extreme in the USA were they living there.  The pandemic centres everyone on doctors, nurses and paramedics and in the UK they are synonymous with the NHS.

Thus every Thursday we clap our praise to our religion in the form of community thanks for NHS staff (more recently widened to care workers in general). 

Normally applause is reserved for sportspeople, for actors or for speeches.  But when we are sick, or when we fear we might be sick, we suddenly see the value of the doctors and nurses.

"It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick", said Jesus (Luke 5:31).  "I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance."

It is the person who needs a Saviour - who knows they need a Saviour - who praises Jesus the Saviour.

Good News in a Pandemic: 3. Prophecy

Jesus said, "There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places and fearful events and great signs from heaven." (Luke 21:11).

While each of the first three Gospels devotes a chapter's length to Jesus' prophecies of things to come, in the good times that are now past there has been a strong preference to avoid them.  Better by far (it has seemed) to speak and think about the Parable of the Lost Sheep, the healing of the lepers or the welcoming of little children.  The good news is not in those scary prophecies.

However, now we see why Jesus told us about such things.  If our faith is in Jesus we are glad to find that the pestilence which has knocked the 21st century world sideways is perfectly in keeping with our Saviour and our Heavenly Father's plans.

Had Jesus only predicted the good times, then we should lose our faith in Him.  Instead we can learn the lesson of the fig tree.  In his words, "When its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves you know that the summer is near.  In the same way, when you see these things, know that [the Master] is near, at the gates." (Matthew 24:33)

Good News in a Pandemic: 2. Science

Science (from the Latin word for. knowledge) has been good news in the pandemic.  Indeed it offers the only plausible way out for the full resumption of life as we knew it.  Or if the coronavirus miraculously disappeared we would rely on science to find the explanation to reassure us.

I have chosen science as my second area of good news because it is usually placed in opposition to, or more likely in superiority to, God.  It is, more truthfully, a gift from God.

Science is good news when we understand its boundaries.

1. The Information Boundary: It informs but does not decide

As the UK tries to leave national lockdown it is always, we are told, led by the science.  But at the daily news conferences it becomes clear that the scientists in the room (two usually), are quick to point out that there are decisions that will have to be made and that these decisions will be political.  

Or to put it another way - they can see the numbers but do not wish to make decisions about the choices on offer.  Indeed, scientists actively disagree with the ones that appear in Downing Street - creating decisions that need to be made between scientists.  

We misuse science when we imply that it has the answers.  It has the information (in varying degrees of certainty).  Could an all-powerful deity have created the first two human beings?  Scientifically he could have and there are other theories too.  What I believe about that is a decision, not a piece of scientific data. Informed, not led, by the science.

2.  The Finite Knowledge Boundary: It is the best we know but not enough

The advances in knowledge have been phenomenal in recent centuries.  Just take the fact you are reading this via the internet, possibly on a phone.

There is a widespread undercurrent of fake news that assumes science explains everything in the world around us.  Only the most arrogant celebrity scientists allow that view because good scientists know that there is much they do not know.

An important piece of good news in this pandemic has been seeing scientists addressing the public honestly, explaining they do not have an answer when the public are desperate for one.  To treat our knowledge as finite is an important humility for humans.  When we sigh a relief after science has helped us through this virus, we will remember for a generation that science does not yet know the next virus, and so on.

3.  The Earthly Boundary:  It is earthly not heavenly

If the plague angel in Revelation 21:9 (remember that angel?) gives a whole new perspective on plagues it is worth reflecting that no science can ever investigate Heaven's perspective.  Science (even cosmology) looks at things from earth and from humans.  Revelation (both the book and the principle) shows us the other side of  things.

Arguably, the other side - the heavenly side - is the only one that ultimately matters, and it is certainly the one that matters most.

Good News in a Pandemic 1. God

There is no shortage of bad news in a pandemic.  As it is over a hundred years since Western societies really had a proper community-battering one we don't know what to think.  Whereas in the busy rush of working, travelling, dealing, chilling, training, coffee-drinking, sport-watching, family visiting and so on there is precious little time to think, we now have time to think.  But think about what?

"Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." Philippians 4:8

Guaranteed to tick all these boxes is . . . God.  Let's think about God.

No, wait, Western societies don't do God any more.  This is a pandemic for the politicians and the scientists.  The odd mention or two for religion - the Pope at Easter, the Jews at Passover and the Muslims now in Ramadan.  But no National Day of Prayer - because collectively we don't believe in God.

And so we miss the good news.  Here's Revelation 21.

5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.”9 Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.

Why is this significant just now?

Verse 9.

An angel points John to the most amazing vision of the people of God, the bride of (Jesus) the lamb.  But this is one of the angels who also had the bowls of the plagues (described with all-too-graphic power in chapter 16).

Looked at through the lens of God plagues are an ordered and holy thing (chapter 15).  They may intrude upon the churches of earth and our patterns of worship but they ultimately speed the Church's finest hour when this earth is over and glory begun.

The Lord travels with us through earthly agonies as our Saviour and Friend - but do not ever mistake his loving presence for weakness, his sharing of our journey for a lack of sovereignty, his passion and compassion for powerlessness.

No, the world's bad news is part of the divine good news.  The very angels under whose watch humanity is brought low, pull the believer away to a sight where human beings in Christ are brought indescribably high by grace alone. 

In the words of Jesus (Luke 21), 'There will be signs . . . on earth dismay . . . when these things begin to happen look up because your redemption draws near!