Page 4 - Contact Autumn 2020

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The tears surprised me. But they probably
shouldn’t have.
After weeks of uncertainty, anxiety, talks of
economic doom, infection rates, R numbers,
and a plethora of other things that went in one
ear and out the other, but always seemed to be
simmering just below the surface we tuned in
to watch the streamed Good Friday service.
Are you an observer, taunter, participant or
follower, Norman asked all of us who were
looking, and logging on, for hope. We needed
that in days like this. In the midst of Covid what
would happen to our relationship with Christ?
Would it be strengthened or abandoned? After
Norman concluded the service, we were told
that we were going to see a little snippet of a
video recorded from St Anne’s church beside
the pool of Bethesda when the team went to
Israel earlier in the year. What followed was
footage of the team singing “Man of Sorrows
(Hallelujah, what a Saviour!)”
It ripped through me.
In that moment my heart truly ached and I
felt, like the Psalmist, that I longed to be in the
throng as I remembered my church. (Psalm
42:4) Like the psalmist I was wondering when
could go back in and meet with God (Psalm
42:2). I missed my fellow believers. I missed my
church, our corporate body. As Paul Tripp said
at this year’s ‘Sing! Global’ conference, I missed
hearing other believers singing the gospel into
my ears as we met together. And there they
were, singing to each other of our great
Saviour in Israel. For the first time in weeks
I had heard my church sing together. And I
longed to be there again.
I had to be there again, seeing the faces of
those who struggle like me and who come
before a great saviour in need and exultation;
to sit under the Word of God face to face.
I really believe that being in the presence of the
Word of God being preached brings a different
dynamic and blessing than anywhere else.
Being together in and with our church body
does something in my soul that I cannot
replicate. In a time when families are restricted
from meeting, when issues and frictions
perhaps heightened by enforced isolation,
here is family.
We praise the Lord as the gathered church
where each who likewise believes is a brother,
a sister, a friend; a foretaste of eternity where
we will never stop singing to the slain Lamb of
God. How do you view corporate worship? Is it
a small thing? Is it an insignificant thing? It’s not
that way in the Bible - in the pages of Scripture
it is a glorious thing! How cruel lockdown has
seemed to a lot of us at times; we were not
meant to live our lives in isolation. And how all
the more precious do carers and those who
look after those who cannot come out now
seem to me and many others.
We have tried to get out to as many services as
we can since we have opened up again and as
far as we have been able, we bring the children
with us. They have said to us throughout
lockdown that they have missed church, they
miss GB and Sunday School, and now they are
back they are so happy to be singing songs,
seeing their friends and hearing stories again.
As parents we vowed to bring them up in the
visible fellowship of the church and it is a
responsibility that Christ will hold us to.