Coronavirus has brought death into sharp focus in so many ways. It has been a really painful time and continues to be for many around the world. There have been some dreadful sights in the news of people in intensive care. There are occasions for various medical reasons when people have to make a choice of turning a life support machine off because there is no hope. When that happens, it is immensely difficult and sad for most people. That is compounded by some people not having a faith in Jesus and not knowing of an eternal future that can be theirs.
I wonder if sometimes we try to keep the Church on life support. The body is there, but the signs of life are few. Death has not happened but the fragility and state is such that we are aware that it could happen soon – maybe at any moment. There are some fellowships who are very aware they are on life support – propped up, being given oxygen by helpers around them. Dependent upon so much around them. I am not thinking of the vulnerability that should always be present in the life of the Church as we reflect Christ’s life, but that human vulnerability where we have been trying to keep things going in the way that suits us. Fighting to cling onto life as we understand it. Maybe it would be better to turn the life support machine off. After all death for the Christian and for Christ’s Church is not an end but an entry point into new life. We are made for death because through death comes life.
Here Jesus was talking primarily about his death that was to come, but we recognise that we are given a principle which is important – a principle demonstrated through Jesus. 25 Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life To find life we have to understand death.
That is true of salvation – dying to sin. It is true of a holy life – allowing the sinful life to die
5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.[b] 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. (Colossians 3)
I would venture the same principle is true for the Church. I don’t mean the divine, spiritual life of the Church will die. Jesus says “I will build my Church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it”. I am not talking of the divine spiritual Church of Jesus dying. It won’t. Governments, dictators, persecutors, mockers, atheists, haters – can all throw what they want at it. But within that the Church has to let go of its human, sinful bits in order to enter into the new life that Christ brings.
For some individual fellowships that might mean them coming to an end as I just mentioned, but what I am specifically thinking off is that the rhythm and principle of dying in order to live should be something that we embrace in the life of our churches. Sometimes we cling on to the life that we know and sometimes we make every effort to keep things going – as if we are on that life support machine – alive in a sense but not really in the way we are meant to be.
During this period of lockdown in the midst of Coronavirus when so much of our ordinary regular routine things of church and church life have stopped now is a good time to ask what is it that we allow to die. Maybe there are old ways of doing things that no longer work, maybe worship and preaching has drifted from putting God and the Bible at the centre. Maybe we have not fully embraced our existence as a missional movement designed to make disciples of all nations. Maybe we have been confined in our buildings. Maybe we have allowed finance to dictate our vision rather than vision our finance. Maybe we have not allowed the voice of the little people to be heard in the Governance of our churches.
Our understandable difficulty is that dying involves letting go, loss, and pain. So, our inclination is to shun or fight these things. But that is the wonder of Jesus in the life of the Church. When we embrace death of those things which do not draw us closer to God then it becomes an entry point into the new life, the fulfilled life that Jesus brings. That is true of us as individuals. That is true of us as church.
Might we seize the moment and allow some of those things to slip away that have been holding us back – as individuals, as churches, as a denomination… in order that we might live? Life awaits us.
The Church is for death! In order that we might know life. How far can people see the death and resurrection life of Jesus in the Church?
Fresh Expressions of Church is a movement I am passionate about and want to encourage churches to look at (that in itself might require allowing other things to die to allow us to move into new areas of mission and ministry). I sometimes wonder though if we have invented a particularly unhelpful fresh expression of church. We have Café Church, Messy Church, Sweaty Church! I wonder if we have invented “Zombie Church” and in too many places see churches stumbling around with the semblance of life but lacking the reality of it.
The words of Deuteronomy 30 are relevant, 19 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life….
Colossians 3:1-10
Since, then, you have been raised with
Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the
right hand of God. 2 Set
your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For
you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When
Christ, who is your[a] life, appears, then you
also will appear with him in glory. 5 Put
to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual
immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is
idolatry. 6 Because
of these, the wrath of God is coming.[b] 7 You
used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But
now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage,
malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do
not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with
its practices 10 and
have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the
image of its Creator.
John 12:23-26
23 Jesus
replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very
truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and
dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many
seeds. 25 Anyone
who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this
world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever
serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My
Father will honour the one who serves me.
